Review: Passenger

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You know how sometimes you’ll pick up a book you only know a tiny bit about but expect to be enjoyable? And then you start reading the book and realize that it’s so much more than you expected and that you’re having too much fun to put the book down? That’s how Passenger by Alexandra Bracken was for me. I’m always down for a fun, time travel story back to Colonial times (blame it on Felicity being my favorite American Girl growing up) but this gave us time travel through a lot of time periods and a pair of throughly enjoyable protagonists.

But let us backtrack for a moment. Passenger is about a violin prodigy named Etta Spencer who gets thrown not only backwards in time but also into a family conflict that spans thousands of years. Whether she likes it or not, she’s now on the hunt across the ages for a very powerful object with only days to find it and her only help is from a man named Nicholas Carter who may or may not be on her side.

Etta’s realistic attitude towards being trust into this mess is refreshing. She’s not immediately an expert at whatever time she finds herself in and her initial reaction to finding herself on a ship in Colonial times immediately after experiencing a tragedy is refreshingly honest. Her friendship with Nicholas evolves naturally as does their romance. (Speaking of which, there are no love triangles here!) Nicholas is another well-rounded character.  He too feels out of place but for reasons that are most definitely framed within his time period. Bracken doesn’t brush all the prejudices against Nicholas under the rug but rather uses them to influence what sort of person he is.

Another thing that makes this book so fun is that I never knew where (or when) Etta and Nicholas might find themselves next. The story isn’t restricted to just the Western World and actually peaked my interest in these other areas of history.

Fair warning! Passenger ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and, if you get as caught up in the story as I did, you’ll likely lament that Wayfarer isn’t in your hands yet. And if that’s not a sign of a good book, I don’t know what is.

Review: The Force Awakens Novelization

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star-wars-force-awakens-official-posterA novelization can be a tricky thing. After all, it’s not creating its own story but adapting someone else’s (which is a whole ’nother battle than coming up with a plot.) The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster not only has to face that complicated task but also gets to follow in the wake of the best Star Wars novelization ever. Released in ebook on December 18th and in hardcover on January 5th, The Force Awakens is an enjoyable but not groundbreaking read.

First and foremost, the novel is definitely no substitute for watching the film and there are certainly aspects lost in translation. The charm of John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Isaac just doesn’t make it on to the page all of the time. In all fairness, capturing that much charisma would have been a near impossible task for almost any writer. Foster’s also not one of those writers who writes amazing starfighter battles and thus what were exhilarating moments on the screen come off as a bit dry on the page especially without a John Williams soundtrack to back them up.

What this book does do a good job of is help expand upon the new galactic status quo. It fills in some of the gaps that the movie did not, like giving us Lor San Tekka’s name for one along with some tantalizing hints about his past. Additionally, Foster gives us more Leia, something that’s always a positive. Perhaps most interestingly, the book shows readers how Poe escaped—something well suited for inclusion in the novel where it can’t impede the dramatic effect of the X-wings’ arrival.

Perhaps more than anyone, Kylo Ren benefits from the transition to the page. Not only are his speech patterns more elegant (think Vader’s slaughter on Mustafar in the Revenge of the Sith novel) but readers also get into his head at some of the key character moments, potentially shedding a brand new light on some of his actions and reactions. Han Solo and Rey are two other characters that readers really benefit from getting inside of their heads. The fast-formed bond was one of the highlights of the film and it’s almost sweet to see Han’s side of it before they go into Maz’s cantina. Follow that up with an incredibly sweet moment between Rey and Chewie at the end that mirrors a more bittersweet one from the start and you’ve got some great character bits in here. It’s in the character moments where the novelization does its best.

As a note, the hardcover does include eight pages of color photos from the film—a little bonus for those who waited for the hardcover that wasn’t printed until after the film was released.

Is The Force Awakens novelization an essential read for any Star Wars fan? No, but it is still fun and can provide fans with more of the galaxy far far away.

Thank you to Del Rey for providing us with a copy of the book for review purposes.

Tosche Station Radio #138: 2015 in Review

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We take a look back at the year that was 2015 in the latest Tosche Station Radio!

Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight What’s New on the Blog. The Force Awakens think pieces getting you down? Bria wrote up a drinking game. Think diversity doesn’t belong in Star Wars? Bria explains why the First Order would like a word. Bria also took us down the dark path of watching all seven Star Wars films in a row. Nanci and Brian were also up for many hours December 17-18. Nanci summarized the fantastic TFA opening night event at Disney World. Nanci reviewed Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka. Saf wrote about The Force Awakens and boys with big hearts, Finn and Poe. In non TFA news, Bria reviewed Darth Vader #14. We started our 2015 superlatives! Finally, we all saw and reacted to The Force Awakens. Things will never be the same.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci’s been busy reading and Brian is neck deep in video games.

Bigg’s Bull$&!@ is pretty much all TFA and all the money it’s been making. Spoilers: It’s a lot.

This week on Camie’s Concerns, we take a look back at pop culture and Star Wars in 2015 and look ahead to what’s coming in 2016.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and your support on Patreon!

Our 2015 Star Wars Superlatives

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2015 was a banner year for Star Wars. From Celebration to Comic Con, from Lords of the Sith to Aftermath, from Rebels to The Force Awakens, 2015 had something to appeal to every Star Wars fan. A bunch of us were lucky enough to travel to Anaheim back in April for Celebration, an event that jump-started an already furious fandom. And what better way to end the year than with an all-new Star Wars movie? It doesn’t get much better than that.

Since it’s the end of the year and we’re a website on the internet, we’re obligated to present a list of things we liked best about 2015. We’re pretty sure our list would be “The Force Awakens” a bunch of times, so we decided to mix it up a bit and offer our favorites in different categories, such as books, comics, games, and Rebels episodes. After the jump, we present our 2015 Star Wars Superlatives.

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Our 2015 Superlatives – Movies Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite movies of 2015.

Nanci – I went back and forth on my favorite movie of the year (other than The Force Awakens, of course), but in the end I had to choose Mad Max: Fury Road. (My other option was The Martian.) What can I say? This movie is so shiny and chrome. I didn’t catch this in the theatre (along with being lax in reading books, I was very lax in going to the movies this year), but I really wish I had. I was glued to this story from the first scene, and couldn’t take my eyes off it while watching it at home. Usually I’ll be watching a movie or TV show while surfing the internet, but Fury Road captured my entire attention. Imperator Furiosa is such an amazing character, and I was not expecting Nicholas Hoult to make my cry.

Saf – This is hard, because though I adored Mad Max: Fury Road and think it’s a cinematic masterpiece, Mockingjay Part 2 is the film I’ve gone to see the most (other than TFA, obviously) and will continue to watch a lot once it’s out on Blu-ray. The Hunger Games basically owns what life I have outside of Star Wars already, so I think Mockingjay wins out for me.

Bria – By far and away, my favorites this year were Ex Machina for completely blowing my mind and Man from UNCLE for being so gosh darn delightful.  I can’t pick between them because I loved them both for completely different reasons.

Brian – Easy choice for me, The Martian. In what was a thoroughly amazing year for science fiction in the cinema, this one stood out. The hopeful tones, the brilliant one liners, the funny to balance the dread. Wonderful return to form for Ridley Scott.

Our 2015 Superlatives – TV Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite TV shows of 2015.

Nanci – I know I sound like a broken record, but I don’t watch a lot of serialized TV shows. I still haven’t watched The Man in the High Castle, or Jessica Jones, or Daredevil, or…take your pick. (I did finally see some episodes of Supergirl and loved them, but I need to catch up.) Anyway. The one show I did watch religiously was unfortunately one of the shortest–Agent Carter. I love Peggy. I love Jarvis. I even love to hate Howard. Everything about this show spoke to me on a spiritual level. Yes, there’s lots of room for improvement–the diversity on the show is lacking, and will hopefully improve in Season 2. But Peggy is such a well-rounded character, and we need more women like her on television. I’m so glad Agent Carter is coming back for a second season next month. Like Peggy, we all know her value.

Saf – I watch a lot of things, but at the same time feel like I watch nothing. My favourites would be Brooklyn Nine-Nine for its humour and characterization; iZombie because everyone is super cute and it’s just super fun; The 100 because, damn, that story is so good and there are also queer ladies; and How to Get Away With Murder because that is one heck of a twisting drama story with a lot of really interesting characters.

Bria – Oh yeesh.  I watch too many darn shows.  Agents of SHIELD continues to thrill me to no end and Marvel certainly didn’t slack with Daredevil or Jessica Jones.  As far as new shows go, Quantico turned out to be oddly addictive and the fight scenes in Into the Badlands were rad as hell.  The dark horse though was definitely Fresh Off the Boat.  It’s funny without making Chinese people the butt of the joke.  Actually, more than a few times, I would watch an episode and then call my mom and go “Oh hey Mom so Jessica did this in the episode tonight and it was so you!”

Brian – Pretty much echoing what Nanci said. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV either, but what I did watch was great. Peggy Carter was the highlight of the year for me for all the reasons Nanci said. I also got into Supergirl and Man in the High Castle. While I’m not caught up, I love both of those shows tonally and can’t wait to see more of them.

Our 2015 Superlatives – Books Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite books of 2015.

Nanci – My reading tends to go in cycles; some years I read a lot, and sometimes I only finish a handful of books per year. This year, most of my reading was focused on Star Wars, especially after September 4. My to-read list seems never ending, especially with Kindle sales, and I’ve resolved to read more in 2016. That said, there were a couple of books I read this year that really stood out.

  • Liesmith, by Alis Franklin – a queer urban fantasy set in Australia that tells a modern version of Norse mythology, focusing on Loki in particular. I’m not a huge fan of Loki, but I loved this story and especially the characters. Sigmund is an utter delight.
  • Under the Empyrean Sky, by Chuck Wendig – this is the novel that convinced Del Rey to hire him to write a Star Wars book, and I can definitely see why. Wendig has described it as John Steinbeck meets Star Wars. It’s the story of a young man named Cael who lives in the Heartland, which is ruled by the Empyrean, a totalitarian regime that floats overhead in flotillas in the sky. I really enjoyed the setting–cornpunk is definitely a different genre for me–and Wendig’s prose is a breeze to get through.

Saf – Boy, I’ve been so overwhelmed with Star Wars books this year that I’ve barely read outside of them, except for a few others. There were two I absolutely adored, both by my two favourite authors since high school.

  • Tigerman, by Nick Harkaway – a British sergeant is sent to the island of Mancreu, a place that is slowly ticking down to an apocalyptic event. It’s filled with Harkaway’s throwaway line worldbuilding and typical flare, and builds up a lovely, but sad story about a man who just needs a long, long rest.
  • The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness – in a world where young heroes save the world on the regular, the rest of the kids at their schools just want to survive their normal, drama-filled teen lives. Ness always tends to have two things in his stories: LGBT people, and a lot of feelings. The Rest of Us actually helped me get through some rough things in my life, just because Ness really seems to understand how young people think when writing his YA fiction, and I adore him for it.

Bria: THANK GOD FOR GOODREADS.  Look, I read a lot this year and can’t remember everything but there were some standouts. I’d also like to mention both Passenger by Alexandra Bracken and Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel which are both due out in 2016.  I was lucky enough to advanced copies of both and they were both AWESOME.

  • The Bloodbound by Erin Lindsey hit all of the right notes for me that a Tamora Pierce book does while having its own vibe.  Lindsey created a neat fantasy world that simultaneously plays by the rules and break them.
  • Finishing School Series by Gail Carriger is about a finishing school for young ladies who are also assassins in a steampunk fantasy version of England.  Is it ridiculous?  Yes.  Is it delightful? Absolutely.
  • Lightless by CA Higgins was just plain neat.  It gave me Leviathan Wakes vibes at times.  I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this science fiction book with its very contained cast at first but once it really kicked into another gear in the second half, I was completely enthralled.

Brian: Like Nanci, much of my reading was focused on Star Wars this year, especially with the Journey to TFA stuff taking up all of my post-September reading time. That said, I did have some time to read a couple books outside of the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

  • Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig. Nanci and I read this about the same time, and like her I really enjoyed this book. I thought I had burned out on post-apocalyptic YA, but this was really a fresh take on the genre. Set in what was once the heartland of the USA, Wendig self-describes this book as cornpunk. Read it and you’ll see why. I actually picked up this book because I wanted to get used to the third-person present writing style Wendig would be utilizing in Aftermath. Let’s say I got a whole lot more than just a style choice primer. This was an excellent read and one I’d encourage everyone to pick up.

Review: Chewbacca #5

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The solo adventures of everyone’s favorite wookiee wrap up this week with Chewbacca #5 by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto.  The series conclusion does a lovely job of wrapping up the small scale story that Duggan and Noto have been telling for the last few weeks.

When last we saw Chewie and Zarro, they’d been captured and sent up to the Imperial Star Destroyer via the same ship upon which they’d hidden a bomb-filled droid!  It’s a tricky situation to say the least but, luckily, our heroes figure a way out of it.

One of the neatest things about this book is how well both Duggan and Noto have been able to portray Chewie’s point of view and what he’s trying to say despite only using the usual wookiee roars.  (Still not sure if those were incredibly fun or just a pain for letterer Joe Caramagna…)  It’s a huge part of what has made this fun little story work.  The other part, of course, was Zarro because who doesn’t love getting to see a kid run circles around the Imps and the local bad guys?

Chewbacca #5 was a great finale to what has been a fun series that’s worth your time and money when the trade comes out in a few months especially if you’re a big fan of Chewie.

Looking? Found someone you have I would say, hmm?

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thumbnail_21381“Where’s Luke?” That was the question on everyone’s lips during the lead up to The Force Awakens. We all wanted to know why Luke wasn’t on the poster or the trailers. What has he been up to the past 30 years?

A few seconds into the movie, during the first line of the opening crawl, we (sort of) got our answer. Not to mention a hell of a lot more questions.

We also got a new cast of characters who, for a couple of hours at least, made me forget about the search for Luke Skywalker.

(Spoilers under the cut.)

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Our 2015 Superlatives – Comics Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite comics of 2015.

Shoshana: There were a lot of comics I really enjoyed this year, many of which are aimed at younger audiences. As far as continuing traditionally published comics go, Lumberjanes continues to be one of the most fun and diverse adventure comics around and Ms. Marvel is still as great as ever. There were a lot of great new comics, too, with the magical girl series Zodiac Starforce really standing out with its fun writing and art and memorable characters. Other new comics I had a blast with this year include Squirrel Girl, a very fun and wonderfully silly comic following the exploits of a superhero who can talk to squirrels and who absolutely beat Doctor Doom in her first appearance, Jem and the Holograms, the comic reimagining of the 1980s cartoon, and Raven: Pirate Princess, a spin-off of the also wonderful comic Princeless that follows Raven, a lesbian pirate princess seeking to build a crew and reclaim the fleet that her brothers stole from her.

On the webcomics front, this year I discovered the joy of Band Vs Band, about the two very different lead singers of two very different bands, neither of whom seems to have quite figured out that they’re totally into each other, and the wonderful pain of Witchy, following a young witch who tries to hide her long hair in a magical kingdom where hair length equals magical power and too much power equals a potential threat to authorities.

Bria: I could talk about Ms. Marvel or Saga (which are both fantastic) but those are on everyone’s best of lists.  So instead, let me just put in some applause of Sam Humphries’ Planet Hulk which featured GLADIATOR CAPTAIN AMERICA RIDING A T-REX and also the newly started Doctor Strange by Jason Aaron.  I’m also mourning the loss of the fantastic Elektra which lasted only a dozen or so issues.  2015 was the year when I finally got to start reading Gillen and McKelvie’s Wicked + Divine and it blew me away.  Also on the indie front, Monstress and Invisible Republic rock my socks more than I could possibly say.