Category: Book Reviews
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Book Review: ‘The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III, 1999-2005’
Movies are an illusion. Cinema is the art of the moving image; the moving image isn’t more truthful than are cave paintings, or hieroglyphics, or the Sistine Chapel. What the artist finds is the truth behind the “truth.” Art portrays the aspirations of the society in which it is made.- George Lucas, The Star Wars…
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Book Review: ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Topps Trading Card Series – Volume Two’
On April 16, 2016, Abrams ComicsArt, an imprint of Abrams Books, published Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Topps Trading Cards – Volume Two. Edited by Gary Gerani, this follow-up to Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Cards tells the story of how Gerani and his team of artists and designers created three “basic” cards series, as…
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Book Review: ‘Sand & Steel: The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France’
A Plethora of D-Day Books I have an obsession with D-Day. Don’t ask me why. I couldn’t begin to give you a rational answer. As a first-generation American citizen born to two immigrants from Colombia, I don’t have any personal connection to the Second World War. Yes, Colombia joined the Allies (then called the United…
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Book Review: ‘Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (Volume I of the Pacific War Trilogy)
On November 14, 2011, W.W. Norton & Company published Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, the first volume of Ian W. Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy. In twelve chapters and an epilogue which take up 493 pages of narrative, Toll covers the first six months of the Pacific War that pitted the Japanese…
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Coming Soon to a Blog Near You…This Blog, to Be Exact
I don’t know if I ever mentioned this outside my About the Author page, but once upon a time (from December of 2003 to February of 2014), I wrote reviews at the now-defunct consumer review-writing website Epinions. I wrote over 1,000 reviews (I don’t recall how many now) across a wide spectrum of categories; Books,…
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Odds & Ends for July 24, 2020
Odds and Ends: July 24, 2020 Hi, there, Constant Reader. I hope you are safe, healthy, and practicing safe social distancing on this penultimate Friday of July 2020. As I sit down to write this in my little corner of Florida, it’s almost 2 PM Eastern (not that it matters, since I can’t publish this…
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Book Review: ‘The Last Battle’
All art, no matter what the medium might be, is a product of the times in which it is created. A 1950s-era novel like Elliott Arnold’s Flight from Ashiya, for instance, will resonate with readers or movie buffs who remember director Michael Anderson’s 1964 adaptation, but it will still reflect the concerns and issues of…
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Book Review: Marvel Comics ‘Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope’ (Remastered 2015 Edition)
Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope Based on a screenplay by George Lucas Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas Artist: Howard Chaykin Consulting Editor (1977): Archie Goodwin Cover Artist (2015): Adi Granov The original comic adaptation of the greatest space-fantasy film of all is remastered for the modern age! Weeks before George Lucas’ first Star Wars…
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Audiobook Review: ‘William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Collection’
On February 14, 2017, Random House Audio released William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Collection, a 15-CD box set featuring the three audiobook editions of author Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Trilogy. It consists of dramatic readings of Doescher’s first three books in the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series: Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, The…
