In continuing trying new things for our reviews, this week I’ve decided to try livetweeting and compiling those tweets into a review of this week’s episode of Rebels: Idiot’s Array.
Tag Archives: Review
Review: Cloak by Timothy Zahn
It’s no secret that Timothy Zahn is one of my favorite authors. So when I got the chance to review his latest offering, Cloak, I jumped at the opportunity even though the plot didn’t check off my usual boxes of “outer space” or “Star Wars.” Overall, I found Cloak to be an enjoyable read and recommend it for fans of military and political thrillers.
Review: Star Wars Rebels: Empire Day
And with that, those who were worried that Rebels wouldn’t have the gravitas of The Clone Wars found themselves with one less thing to worry about.
“Empire Day” begins with Hera, Sabine, and Zeb making their way into an alley of a somewhat remote outpost on Lothal. As they disappear, Sabine stops and gazes out into the distance, where she sees Ezra and Kanan training.
Review: Star Wars Rebels: Out of Darkness
It should come as no surprise that all of us at Tosche Station have been clamoring for more Hera and Sabine centric episodes. We’ve learned a lot about Kanan and Ezra, had an episode that featured Zeb prominently, and even Chopper seems to get more screen time than Sabine. This week it seems that Dave Filoni and company have heard our requests, because we have an episode all about Hera and Sabine! Even more, we learn more about Sabine’s backstory, and it made me like her character even more than I already did. Spoilers under the cut!
Review: Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion
Today’s the day! Star Wars Rebels officially premieres today and unsurprisingly, we here at Tosche Station have opinions about the first episode, Spark of Rebellion. Earlier this week, we gave our brief, spoiler-free thoughts on the show and now it’s time for a much longer spoiler filled review. We’re doing things a little bit differently this time though so read on for our roundtable review and discussion of the pilot! Continue reading
Review: The Haynes Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual
Let’s just get this out of the way. The Haynes Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual by Ryder Windham, Chris Reif, and Chris Trevas continues right where the Millennium Falcon manual left off. Suffice to say, if you enjoyed that book, you’re going to enjoy this one just as much.
The text is a fun in-universe affair. It should be said that this book isn’t exactly the sort of oil-stained Haynes manual your father kept in the garage to do self-repairs on the old Datsun pickup truck that he just refuses to get rid of. This is less of a book of diagrams and more of a history text and reference book. You’re not going to find out how to repair a deactivated tractor beam (though there is a nifty labeled diagram), but you will learn a great deal about the key minds behind the Death Star and just what all those little details on the surface of the station are.
Some of the neater sections are memos and letters from characters in the Star Wars universe discussing the Death Star. In particular are the Personal Data Journal Entries from Grand Moff Tarkin that discuss various key elements of the battle station. You gain insight into his mindset and why he wanted specific things. More interesting, they detail why his specific needs for the Death Star wound up being its downfall.
There’s a host of new artwork within the pages of this reference book. Personally one of my favorite illustrations was the Death Star cross section early on in the book. It really gives scale on just how massive that superlaser was. Throughout there are a multitude of cutaways, diagrams, and new illustrations that shed a lot of light on just how the Death Star operated and functioned.
The end of the book looks briefly into the second Death Star. Once again, the art is incredible. I would gladly pay for a print of the comparison chart showing the size differences between a Star Destroyer, a Super Star Destroyer, the first Death Star, and the Second Death Star. For that matter, there’s a lot of art in this book I’d love to get as a print. The Death Star Cutaway in particular would look great in any geeky office or bedroom.
At 122 pages, there’s a whole lot to sink your teeth into. It’s the perfect size and the perfect material to make a great geeky coffee table reader. For a casual fan, there’s all sorts of neat trivia that will keep anyone’s attention. For a fleet junkie, the book is a huge wealth of knowledge that you’ll come back to scan again and again. The Haynes Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual is a fun and brilliant read. Go pick it up.
Review: Star Wars #2 by Brian Wood
Star Wars #1 by Brian Wood was somewhat of a lackluster first issue in my book, but how does the second issue fare?
The review and spoilers loom under the cut!
The Clone Wars Review: The Soft War
5×03: The Soft War
Directed by: Kyle Dunlevy
Written by: Chris Collins
Fortune cookie: Struggles often begin and end with the truth.
Review: Operation Montauk by Bryan Young
Bryan Young’s most recent novel, Operation: Montauk, is a mash-up of dinosaurs, Nazis, and time travel. That’s putting it simply, of course, but if any of those three themes don’t catch your attention…well, what’s wrong with you?
In the vein of the original Star Wars, the story starts out in medias res. Jack Mallory, an American soldier fighting in World War II, is on a mission to travel back in time and kill Hitler before the war can begin. His mission goes awry and he wakes in a tropical jungle, being attacked by monstrous creatures—dinosaurs, he realizes they are. The rest of his team is killed and he escapes, assisted by Richmond, an industrial-age inventor, and Veronica, a technician from Mallory’s future. They bring him to Fort Robinson, the stronghold for several other stranded time travelers. Once there, Mallory and the others speculate why they were dumped millions of years in the past, while Mallory concerns himself with how to get back to his proper time and complete his mission.
Operation: Montauk is a short, fast read, with exciting action sequences and interesting characters. Throughout the novel, you learn more about the inhabitants of Fort Robinson, and one of my only complaints about this story is that I wanted more. I wanted to learn more about them, to learn how they all came to be stranded in prehistoric times. Albert the chimp is an especially fun addition to the cast. Veronica and Valentine were both interesting female characters, and I wanted more of them. I would gladly read a novel headlined by either character. In addition, Richmond was always intriguing, the wise old man of the cast. In contrast, I didn’t find Mallory’s character quite as compelling, but his mission and what he later encounters in the jungle are interesting.
I really enjoyed this novel’s take on time travel. So many times, time travel can get muddied or bogged down in false science, or just not make sense. By keeping the story confined to the dinosaur-laden past, and positing a theory as to why the time travelers have shipwrecked there, Bryan Young deftly sidesteps those potential problems. Smartly, the story doesn’t necessarily concern itself with the hows or whys of time travel, but rather what the characters do to save themselves from impending doom, which is much more interesting.
My other complaint about the novel, besides wanting more about the characters, is the ending. Once again, I want more! But I have a sneaking suspicion that’s exactly what Young intended with his choice of ending…
Overall, Operation: Montauk is a fun read and I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
The Avengers Have Finally Assembled!
(In England, anyway.)
The following review, while spoiler-free, has explicit spoilers for Thor as well as potential implied ones for Iron Man 2 and Captain America. That said, if you’re reading this review and haven’t seen those yet, go watch them and then come back here.
The thing about The Avengers—or Avengers Assemble, which only about ten people actually call it—is that it was pretty much guaranteed to be at least decently good. Obviously, until it came out, there was no gauge of exactly how good it was, but like macaroni and cheese or chocolate, for it to actually be bad, something would need to have gone pretty spectacularly wrong.
(And it’s not, strictly speaking, a sequel to anything, so I’m going to avoiding pointing out that, often, things do go spectacularly wrong for sequels.)