Summer Movies 2013

[_D_]

What about series that never seem to end like the Neverwinter Nights Drizzt R.A. Salvatore books? Or the endless Star Wars novels, etc.? Those I just never pick up. Well, Martin still has a couple books to go but the last 2 were massive tomes not for the faint of heart. But that's the way I like to read now anyway, so it doesn't bother me at all...

[llj]

I didn't mind the Salvatore books as much because it's not like all the Drizzt books were part of one series. He would write story arcs consisting of 3-4 books and then end it, and start a completely new Drizzt adventure in another 3 books.

The Wheel of Time was one big narrative that just got more and more convoluted. I think at one point the story was juggling about 30 major characters. And minor characters numbered almost into the hundreds. I honestly can't say I didn't at least foresee the possibility that Jordan would die before he wrapped the series up, and sure enough, he did.

Martin is a pretty big guy too, judging from photos of him I've seen. You'd better hope he also doesn't keel over before he finishes the series.

[greg]

What about series that never seem to end like the Neverwinter Nights Drizzt R.A. Salvatore books? Or the endless Star Wars novels, etc.? Those I just never pick up.

With the Star Wars novels, you can pick and choose which ones you want to bother with. Some of these books were excellent, such as Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy and Michael Stackpole's X-Wing series. Some of them were only so-so, such as Dave Wolverton's The Courtship of Princess Leia. The book took the whole "princess" thing way too literally, and it had Leia falling out of love with Han for fickle reasons. This is the guy she risked her life to rescue from Jabba the Hutt, and once they have some time and distance between the two, she doesn't know for sure if she still lives him or not. At the same time though, the book had some interesting concepts, such as Force-using "witches" riding atop rancor monsters, but the author also gave Luke super Jesus powers like levitation and healing, and it was terrible to read. Some other books I won't even bother to read, such as Vonda McMcIntyre's The Crystal Star (which was actually a failed Star Trek: Deep Space 9 script that was recycled and re-written with Star Wars characters swapped in), and Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambley is said to be a real turd too. But the nice thing about reading these books (at least the well-written ones) is that they spark a love for the Star Wars galaxy, and reignites my love for when The Force was mystical and Jedi were mysterious. They were written prior to Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. These books barely touch on what the Clone Wars would have involved, not treading far into the past, but basically expanding upon the story that was set forth in the original trilogy. These books are fun to read and they make me nostalgic for when Star Wars was at its best.

Even just reading the Zahn Heir to the Empire trilogy novels alone, those are about 500 or so pages, and since there are three novels, reading all three of those books come to be the same number of pages as one Wheel of Time book. These various Star Wars books are mostly self-contained, and only passively referencing one another for continuity's sake. So, you can pick and choose. Wheel of Time just goes on and on in one endless narrative. From what I assume, you can't just pick up a book in the middle of the series and expect to know what's going on.

In other news, the guy I was going to watch Iron Man 3 with has decided to wait until it comes to DVD. The other guy went ahead and saw it (I was sick that weekend). He said he liked it, but it wasn't too excited about it. Spoony One says "it was fun, but it sucks." Much of the distress is about the portrayal of the Mandarin character. The Mandarin is another "Ming the Merciless" type of character, a portrayal of a sinister Chinese man probably left over from the "yellow scare" days. All I know of him is his appearance in the X-Men comics, the only Marvel comic I've really followed (Transformers and G.I. Joe don't count). So he has these magic rings, gee, NINE MAGIC RINGS and thus he calls himself the Lord of the Rings, and he even starts paraphrasing "Nine rings to rule them all..." and stuff like that. With a villain like that, I'm not sure how close to the comics they would want to stick to without offending Asian viewers or something, or go the other route and end up with a Castle of Fu Manchu style portrayal by Christopher Lee.

So, I'll keep an open mind and hope to go see it. I may not get to see it for a while at this point, though. My weekends are going to be fairly busy from here on out, especially since my wife was just telling me last night that she'd like to go on a day trip to Tokyo, especially to visit Tokyo Character Street in the basement level of Tokyo Station.

[Heero]

Even just reading the Zahn Heir to the Empire trilogy novels alone, those are about 500 or so pages, and since there are three novels, reading all three of those books come to be the same number of pages as one Wheel of Time book.

Just because I am a fan of the series and want to be fair to it, the LONGEST of the Wheel of Time books ("The Shadow Rising", which ironically is easily my favorite) is "only" 1000 pages. The "average" is probably around 800. They are hefty books for certain, but they're NOT 1500 pages apiece, not even close. Since printing can also factor into pages, the average word count is less than an additional 20% of the longest Harry Potter book.

[davemerrill]

I started to read the first Zahn Star Wars book, and got to the part about four pages in where Luke Skywalker was describing how Lando Calrissian had introduced him to an interesting new drink called "hot chocolate", and at that point I threw the book across the room.

[greg]

Just because I am a fan of the series and want to be fair to it, the LONGEST of the Wheel of Time books ("The Shadow Rising", which ironically is easily my favorite) is "only" 1000 pages. The "average" is probably around 800. They are hefty books for certain, but they're NOT 1500 pages apiece, not even close.

Ah, ok, pardon me. I was going off my memories from my college days, and that was 15 years ago. I seem to remember they were over 1,000 pages each. (I believe War And Peace is about 1,500 pages, but I'm too lazy to check.)

I started to read the first Zahn Star Wars book, and got to the part about four pages in where Luke Skywalker was describing how Lando Calrissian had introduced him to an interesting new drink called "hot chocolate", and at that point I threw the book across the room.

Ha! Yes, I believe that was probably the dumbest part of the book. I distinctly remembered that part when I first read the book in the early '90s, and how it really ruined the suspension of disbelief. I also remember back in the early '90s when ignorant doorknobs were saying that the then-upcoming Star Wars movies were going to be based off the Zahn trilogy. I remember also sayinging at the time, "No way, the new movies are going to be even BETTER! Just imagine!"

They shoulda gone with the Zahn books...

[_D_]

According to leaks from online sources, Disney has no plans to go with the Zahn books so all this back story and new characters will not exist. Canon will come from the movies and TV series and that's it. Only thing I would like to see is Ahsoka Tano's future self. The final episodes of Clone Wars gives the reveal as to why she is not in the movies but they could easily pick up on her years after the events of the original trilogy. Time will tell I suppose...

[greg]

According to leaks from online sources, Disney has no plans to go with the Zahn books so all this back story and new characters will not exist. Canon will come from the movies and TV series and that's it. Only thing I would like to see is Ahsoka Tano's future self. The final episodes of Clone Wars gives the reveal as to why she is not in the movies but they could easily pick up on her years after the events of the original trilogy. Time will tell I suppose...

Well, she gets decapitated, right? If you watch the supplemental material on the DVD for Episode III, she'd been captured and that General what's-his-name-lizard-cyborg-guy kills her with a lightsaber. The old Clone Wars cartoon had her and a few other Jedi trying to rescue Palpatine from that guy, and he killed them all and captured her.

No, they wouldn't be clever enough to use Zahn's Heir to the Empire book trilogy. Despite that "hot chocolate" reference, those books were fantastic and did a far better job capturing what a real Star Wars trilogy should look and feel like than the prequels. Plus, Hamil, Fisher, and Ford are much older to play their parts as they were supposed to be in the Zahn books, which was 6 years or so after ROTJ.

Are they even going to be in these new movies? They would do well to not even include the continuity of the prequels in these movies, unless it's just a very vague reference like a space ship or something. The second they mention Gungans, Midichlorians, virgin births, or any of that crap, I bet a whole lot of people will just walk out of the theaters.

[greg]

The guys I respect a lot, RedLetterMedia, gave Iron Man 3 a great review.

[Path]

I saw Iron Man 3 over the weekend. It was fun, though I admit I'm not the world's biggest Iron Man fan. Nice special effects.