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Year End Book Report: The Best Books I Read in 2011

Posted in books, comic books with tags Book Report, books, comic, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Year End Books on February 7, 2012 by Paxton

Here we are, I finally begin my year end round up articles. In February. Sorry about that. I wanted to do it earlier but I wanted to give myself a little bit more time to finish off some movies and books that are eligible for this list. But, apologies aside, my lists are here.

As you know, back in 2009 I started keeping a book log with everything I read. It makes looking at this list easier. I keep it in a Google Spreadsheet so I can access it from any computer.

Here it is.

You can click the image to view it or just click here. So I perused this list and made my selections. Below are the best books I read last year (not including re-reads).

Unlike last year, I’ve split this list into books and comics/trade paperbacks. I read enough of both of them to create their own lists and it was hard to weed out stuff just because it was a comic in order to make room for a book. So, last year I only read three books that were actually released during the 2011 calendar year. Did they make the list? Read on to find out.

So without further ado, here are my favorite books I read in 2011.

Heroes of Olympus series – Rick Riordan – This is the sequel series to Riordan’s Percy Jackson series which made my inaugural best of list in 2009. It is currently up to book 2. Son of Neptune is one of the three books that was released in 2011 that I read. I loved the first book in this series, The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune is almost as good. Riordan has created a fascinating world and I long to return to it when book 3 comes out. And despite what Riodan had said earlier, Percy Jackson is all over this series. Especially Son of Neptune.

The Magicians – Lev Grossman – Wow, this book is really good. It’s billed as sort of a Harry Potter in high school, and I see the parallels, but this story is tonally a 180 from Harry Potter. From the friendships to even how magic is actually executed, it’s just completely different. And great. This book is great. I look forward to checking out the sequel, The Magician King. I’ll probably check out a few of Grossman’s other books, too.

Star Wars: Darth Bane trilogy – Drew Karpyshyn – This series was recommended to me years ago by my friend Dr Mike, but I was reluctant to read it because it was about a bunch of Star Wars characters I didn’t know in a time period I knew nothing about. Boy was I wrong. It’s amazing. This series needs to be the template for all the Star Wars books that want to focus on a specific character. Interesting origins, cool bits of Sith history. It’s just great. If you read Star Wars (or science fiction) at all, read this series.

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My preparations for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D

Posted in books, movies, Star Wars with tags books, Movie Novelizations, movies, Star Wars on February 3, 2012 by Paxton

Star Wars Episode I in 3D comes out on February 10 which is a week from today. Being a Star Wars guy, I’m really excited to see the movie again on the big screen.

I was just the other day reading my 10th anniversary review of Star Wars: Episode I. Hard to believe that was nearly 3 years ago. While I think the movie runs a little long, there are scenes and moments in it that are awesome. Darth Maul, obviously, is a BAD ASS. Darth Sidious/Palpatine is great. Qui Gon Jinn is awesome. Ewan as Obi-Wan, podracing, the final 3-way lightsaber battle and John Williams’ score (and most notably Duel of the Fates). All awesome. Not awesome? Jake Lloyd. This kid has been vilified for this movie, and I feel bad for him. I do. But his performance is terrible. And Jar Jar. What can you say about f**king Jar Jar other than he sucks ass?

Regardless, I am excited to see this again in theaters and in 3D. Plus I’m almost positive they’ve replaced that fugly looking Yoda puppet with full CGI. I saw clips of the scenes at that Star Wars Concert that toured the country two years ago. That is exciting.

So, in preparation, I’ve been reading up on some of the Episode I ancillary material to round out my experience with this movie. I know Episode I has been a bit maligned, but honestly, I think it’s better than Episode II: Attack of the Clones which is mostly terrible (except for, again, the final 3-way lightsaber battle).

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading to enhance my readiness for Episode I in 3D.

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno – This book was released in January. I borrowed it from my friend Dr Mike and read it this past week. I just finished it on Tuesday. It’s amazing. Epic and sprawling, the plot of this book spans many years beginning 30+ years before The Phantom Menace and ending just after the events of the movie. It’s a “behind the scenes” book. The book is obstensibly about Darth Plagueis (Palpatine’s Sith Master), but it’s every bit Palpatine/Darth Sideous’ book as well. You see Plagueis come up as an apprentice, kill his master, obtain Palpatine as an apprentice, then begin the Grand Plan to bring down the Republic and decimate the Jedi Order. This book is mostly, like I said, behind the scenes, but it’s amazing how it tries to reconcile plot lines from the movies, TV shows, comics and other novels. Truly worth the read. This book makes the convoluted Trade Federation subplot in Episode I almost make sense. I have a feeling this book is going on my year end “best books” list and it’s only February.

Star Wars Episode I Journal: Darth Maul by Jude Watson – This came out the year after Episode I. It was during the early days when we knew nothing about Darth Maul. This was the first time he was revealed to be a Zabrak from Iridonia. I loved Maul so back in the day I bought up everything I could about him. This is a light, fluff read. Less than 100 pages. It’s essentially written as Maul’s journal during the events of The Phantom Menace. It’s a behind the scenes book similar to Plagueis but you don’t get as much information. It’s mainly Maul waiting around to do stuff. Cool but a bit light in detail.

Star Wars: Darth Maul – This was a comic series from 2000. It’s a fantastic story that takes place a few months before The Phantom Menace. It depicts Maul’s first real assignment from Darth Sidious. Essentially Darth Maul vs Black Sun. And it’s awesome.

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Reading and reviewing the original Wizard of Oz books

Posted in books, movies, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, books, Oz books readthru, reviews, Wizard of Oz on January 31, 2012 by Paxton

So, I’m a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz. I’ve been watching the movie since I was a kid. I’ve seen it countless times and I even own the soundtrack release from 1995 which included extended versions of many of the songs as well as a missing song (The Jitterbug) recorded but not included in the movie.

Around 2001 I checked out from the library the original Oz novel (above) by L Frank Baum and read it. And loved it. I even watched Dreamer of Oz, the TV movie starring John Ritter as L Frank Baum. Then, sometime around 2005-2006 I received the annotated edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (see below). It’s a gorgeous hardbound book with all the original illustrations as well as a 100 page biography of L Frank Baum as well as very meticulous notations throughout the text of the story bringing into focus the impact this book had on society.

A year later I made the resolution that I was going to read all of the original Baum Oz novels. There are 14 of them. I even acquired the first three books from Paperbackswap.com in a bundled collection by Books of Wonder (also in the photo above). However, that goal was somewhat forgotten and I haven’t done anything about it. Until now.

I mentioned on the Nerd Lunch podcast recently (twice already) that in 2012, I’m picking this resolution back up and I’m going to finish the Oz novels. And to keep myself accountable, I’m going to blog about it. So a new feature is being created called Following the Yellow Brick Road which will chart my progress with each book. I’ll do reviews of each book as well as any ancillary material appropriate to that book. For instance, for the first three books there are Marvel comic adaptations as well as the original 1939 movie and the 1985 sequel, Return to Oz (which is an amalgam of books 2 and 3). I may throw in quick mini-reviews of that stuff as well.

So, in 2012, join the Cavalcade of Awesome through the Kansas twister into the enchanted land of Oz. I’m thoroughly looking forward to it.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 7: Does it live up to the hype?

Posted in books, comic books, movies, podcast, TV shows with tags books, comic books, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, TV shows on October 18, 2011 by Paxton

Welcome your faces to Episode 7 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast. This week we are joined by Robert from the blog To The Escape Hatch. Our topic is “Does It Live Up to the Hype?”

We each took a TV show or movie that has been recommended/hyped up to us over the years that we never got around to watching and…we watched it. Some of the things we watch include Braveheart, Mad Men and The Wire. Do they live up to the hype? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen

Posted in books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Book Report, books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, reviews, vampires on October 14, 2011 by Paxton

Today is the final day of Dracula book week. Yesterday I looked at Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel. Today, I take a look at a semi-sequel to that novel. Fred Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape.

If this seems familiar, I reviewed a similar Saberhagen book back in 2009 called The Frankenstein Papers. My theme that year was, obviously, Frankenstein and I had just read Mary Shelley’s book. It seemed like fun to read a sequel to such a seminal work in horror literature. Saberhagen’s book told Mary Shelley’s story from a different point of view. Most notably, the monster’s.

Well, after deciding that I was going to try, again, to read Stoker’s Dracula, I wanted to read another book that did the same thing. Well, as the fates would have it, Saberhagen did the same thing with Dracula. He wrote this book which looks at the events in Dracula from the Count’s point of view. And it’s all narrated by the Count himself. Saberhagen’s Dracula would become fairly popular and would spawn a series of books featuring the title character. The second book even features Dracula facing off with Sherlock Holmes. So, needless to say, I thought this sounded very interesting so I read it.

(Via Robert Adragna)

This story is actually very interesting. Like I said, the conceit is similar to The Frankenstein Papers. The events in Bram Stoker’s novel are told from the perspective of Dracula himself. Saberhagen’s Dracula is much more refined than Stoker’s. He paints the group of vampire hunters in Stoker’s tale as a group of misguided bufoons. Especially Van Helsing who comes off as a bully or a thug. Many of Van Helsing’s actions in the original novel are called into question by Saberhagen’s Count, especially his decision not to tell anyone about Dracula being a vampire until it was too late. It was actually very entertaining reading passages of the book I had trouble following in Stoker’s novel told in a more clearly defined way in Saberhagen’s book. It made my understanding of the original more complete. Even more so than the Cliff’s Notes I purchased (Yes, I purchased the Cliff Notes for Dracula).

So, I can recommend this book. I don’t even think you need to read the original Stoker novel because this just goes over the same territory and does it more clearly. Reading it may help for you to get the experience of seeing the events from Dracula’s eyes as opposed to the original novel, but I just don’t hate you enough to tell you to read Stoker’s novel.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.