Book Review: Millennium Falcon

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon by James Luceno.

 

A much-anticipated novel about the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, this book did not live up to it's expectations in my opinion.  Star Wars fans love the Millennium Falcon, and this book gives us the history of the ship in an interesting story-telling method from two different main points-of-view going forward in time from an early owner and going back in time from the current owner, and the story lines meet at the end.

 

But first, the book opens with the initial construction of the ship causing mayhem on the production line and suffering damage that plagues the ship through it's long life and from owner to owner.  Then we start to follow the ship briefly from owner to owner until we get to a couple of low-end agents for some pro-Republic group shortly before Order 66 goes out in the final days of the Old Republic.  Dispatched on a mission, it is these agents that had hoped to one day own the ship for themselves, but instead are ordered to fly it to another agent and turn it over in a mission to restore honor to the Republic. And that is the start of the mystery that drives this particular story line. 

 

Finally, three or four chapters in, we finally to the current owner of the Falcon - Han Solo, hero of the Rebellion. His grand-daughter Allana convinces him and Leia to take her on an adventure to discover the history of the ship.  For some reason, Han has never found the time in some 40 years of ownership to actually discover anything about the history of his ship.  Wars and such always kept getting in his way.  Off they go to track down the previous owners of the Falcon, starting with Lando Calrissian and working backwards until they cross paths with one of the previous mentioned agents who has been tracking the Falcons owners since he had flown the ship some 60 years ago. Through the story, we learn of the different names the Falcon had been called, different modifications she had, who put in the hologame table and why, and even learn the origin of the name Millennium Falcon (which also was a let down).

 

As I mentioned, this was a much-anticipated book, because Star Wars fans love the Millennium Falcon.  It didn't pay off, and I don't like to report that because I usually enjoy James Luceno's Star Wars novels.  The Falcon was just a background element driving the plot and taking the characters from place to place.  Except for the opening where we see a problem during the production of the ship, she really doesn't have any character at all.  The ship should have had more character in the story, maybe even have some scenes actually told from the point-of-view of the ship. This book should have elevated the status of the Falcon from fan-favorite to something more.  Instead, the Millennium Falcon becomes just another ship in a galaxy full of ships.

 

Then there's the story featuring the agent from the Old Republic era.  It's supposed to be a mystery/treasure hunt. The ending of that is just a plain let down.  I'll tell you now - they don't find anything!  Well, they do - but it's a pointless find that does nothing for the story.  If they were really searching for something to "restore honor to the Republic", they should have found a lost nugget of Jedi lore that is crucial to Luke's New Jedi Order, or a hidden history of Palpatine with evidence of his manipulations, or something with significance to the current era or even the Legacy era.  Instead they find a fake piece of Republic Senate decoration.

 

As for the other Star Wars characters: Luke and the new Jedi, Daala and the Galactic Alliance, the Mandalorians...  They're only mentioned in passing.  The main story here focuses on Han, Leia, and Allana from the current era.  We only get glimpses into what is going on around the galaxy with other characters and the normal galactic politics that drive most Star Wars novels.  These glimpses hint at what's to come in future novels.

 

I'm sure those will be better books.

 

 

 

 

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Book Review: Dragon Champion

I recently finished reading Dragon Champion, by E. E. Knight.
This is an excellent book!

The main character is a dragon. And the story is told from his point of view from hatching, through his formative years (which are quite entertaining), and up into his adulthood - or drakehood as it's called in the book.

The books is subtitled Book One of the Age of Fire. I guess that means there will be more books set in this same world. Good, I can't wait! This book ends with a happy ending and it could be a perfectly good standalone novel - but if the author, E. E. Knight, can make future installments as good as this, I'll read them!

I'm going to look up some E. E. Knights earlier works too. My local library doesn't have them, so I may have to actually purchase one to see if it's as good, and worth buying more.


Note: This review was originally published on my family blog. And I have since read the next two books in the series. Which are just as good - if not better. I've also started reading E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth series and am enjoying that as well. I follow the author on his LiveJournal; you should too!

Book Review: Iron Dragons

Wow. That pretty much sums up my reaction to reading this book.

Derek P. Gilbert's first published novel is nothing short of excellent. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be this good... and I'm tempted to say it's even better than the two novels I've read by his wife.

Iron Dragons is a "fantasy" novel in that it's set in a medieval-type world with dragons, inns along the road, and plenty of ale to knock out the itinerant dragon-slayer. Throw a crazy ragamuffin dog, a priest that's either incredibly brave or incredibly thoughtless, a stable-hand that is quite the man of the world, and another interesting* character or two, and you've got an excellent read. There's action, humor, character development, excellent world-building. And the writing-style is excellent.

Go buy this book. Now.

*I can't explain additional interesting characters or plot twists, as it would so spoil the fun!


Note: This review was originally published on my family blog.

Book Review: The Evidence

(Not, as it looks on the library shelf due a poorly placed sticker, "Evidence Boy"...)

"The Evidence, Mars Hill Classified book 1" by Austin Boyd is a Christian "science fiction" novel. More correctly, it's an action/adventure book with SF elements - namely, space stations, the space shuttle, space probes, and possible aliens.

I tried really hard not to like this novel. The author puts his "authors note" at the beginning of the book instead of at the end, and mentions that he used his vast military and space-guy experience to write the book, in addition to using real people he knows as characters - mentioning one specifically by name. Turn the page to start the book and there's that character! Gah! I wanted to put it down right then, but I gave it chance.

I'm glad I did. The book has action, international intrigue (interplanetary intrigue?), family life between the main character and his wife and kids and even his parents, and a solid Christian character that doesn't overtly try to convert everyone he encounters. He does drop comments about his faith and the suggestion that they should look into it to most everyone if he gets the chance.

I'm interested to see where the author takes the story in the sequel, how he ties up the loose ends. Will they really be aliens? Will they be fallen angels (or their accomplices) in disguise trying to deceive the masses? What's the real reason the terrorists took out space command at the beginning of the book and how is it related to the alien plotline?

I was going to mention a few of the minor things that kind of bugged me, but they are so minor that I can only remember one right now - so it's not really worth even mentioning, as it really didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

All in all, a pretty good book.



Note: This review was originally posted on my personal blog.

Book Review: RIFTS-Sonic Boom

I've been wanting to read this trilogy since I first heard about it back in, what? `99?
But no local booksellers carried it, and I procrastinated actually ordering it. Ever.

I finally convinced my local library to order it.

The first book, RIFTS: Sonic Boom, came in just a few days after I suggested it. The other two are still on order.

This book is set in the world of RIFTS, a Palladium Books Role Playing Game. The story is pretty good. Interestingly, what I would consider the "bad guys" of the RPG are the main protagonists here. Showing that, even though the "Coalition" as a whole is the "bad guy", there are still people within that are perfectly normal and just trying to make a living in the world into which they were born.

As I said, the story is pretty good. Lot's of mecha combat, some magic combat, lots more mecha combat. Plus plenty of character interaction and back-story on some of the characters to make us care about them and make them more than just cardboard cutout military grunts.
However, the editing of the book is horrific. It's been said that Palladium Books suffers in-general from poor editing, but this is just plain bad.

In addition to misspelled words, there are entire words missing - maybe entire phrases. Words are capitalized that shouldn't be (someone was using a search and replace function and wasn't paying attention). Sometimes a paragraph will start with a space, a comma, and then the rest of the sentence. Characters names are left out sometimes where it's obvious they were supposed to be placed (almost as if the author wrote the book, leaving blank spaces for characters he had yet to name and intended to go back and edit them in, but missed some places), and the same thing sometimes happens with items also: "Dave used the to dig a trench" (to make up an example).

Scene transitions and character points-of-view transitions are frequently executed poorly within larger scenes, making it difficult to follow the action sometimes. In fact, in a few places it seems as if a paragraph or two of action was left completely out. I expect a few minor editing mistakes in any novel I read, but this is a poor presentation for a good product.

These books were not, I believe, released in main-stream booksellers, but were limited to specialty shops (hobby/RPG stores, maybe comic shops), and direct order from the company. I think the author assumes the reader is familiar with the mecha, weapons, devices, locations, and general world-setting of the RIFTS megaverse. The author does not spend much time describing many of these things, just calling them by name (NG-V10, UAR-1, X-1000, SkyKing). Sometimes the basic description doesn't even come until after the thing has been mentioned several times.

This isn't a bad thing if you're familiar with the setting, but someone picking this book up because it has cool cover-art (it really doesn't) might be at a loss. And the cover-art; it depicts a Coalition trooper (what most of the main characters are) wearing battle armor, backed against a wall, large rifle in each hand, one discharging. The art is quite cartoony, and seems slightly out of proportion, almost squished.

If you can make it past those (huge) shortfalls, the story more than makes up for them.

Oh... I wanted to mention my favorite character: "Kro Mar" the young dragon. This guy so wants to be a big bad, or even just a competent dragon with a hoard of cool things in his lair. But he always gets in way way over his head, or just make silly mistakes. It's quite entertaining. His plot-line is left for the sequel to wrap up. I hope it does so in a satisfying way.

Note: This review was originally posted on my personal blog.

Tonopah by Christopher A. Lane

I first read Eden's Gate by this author a few years ago and thought it was pretty good. I saw Tonopah on the bookshelf at my local Christian book store and thought about purchasing it several times over the years, but never got to it. Recently, it came up on PaperbackSwap, and I grabbed it.

In the book, a high school teacher with delusions of being an archaeologist takes some of her students on a day-long dig in the Tonopah Range in the Nevada desert - Precariously close to an old nuclear test site, which just happens to be being used currently for.... well now, that would give away the ending wouldn't it.

The teacher and her students find things buried they shouldn't and a small group of military men stationed on the range become involved with her and the chase is on. Throw in some bungling thugs, car bombs, the FBI, conspiracy theories, and creation science vs. evolution and you've got an interesting read.

I was a little disappointed with the outcome of the story. I was hoping for something more involving the creation/evolution part of the story - but that was really just a plot device to kick start the action of a pretty normal action story.

From the Publisher
She found the fossils out in the
sun-baked Tonopah desert, along with more trouble than she'd ever dreamed of . .
. . If Melissa Lewis had known that she and her three high school students were
trespassing in a restricted military zone, they'd have left before they ever
stumbled across the fossilized bones. As a creationist in paleontology, Melissa
suspects she's onto something incredible. What she doesn't know is that she's
under surveillance by U.S. Marines. And that's just for openers. Her discovery
has also placed her in the cross-hairs of hired killers. And it's about to sweep
her into a deadly vortex of top-level government scandal, FBI investigations,
high-tech military maneuvers, and nuclear testing. Through it all, one thing
becomes abundantly clear. Someone will do anything to gain possession of
Melissa's fossils. Between Melissa and a hit man's bullet stands only her faith
. . . and one courageous marine. But can he protect her from circumstances
deadlier than the brutal Nevada desert? From the best-selling author of
Appearance of Evil and Eden's Gate comes Tonopah: gut-twisting action woven with
insights into the origins of the world and the relationship between personal
choice and eternal destiny.

Author Biography:
Christopher A. Lane is the author of Eden's Gate and the best-selling Appearance
of Evil, as well as several children's books, one of which was awarded the Gold
Medallion. He and his wife own Alpha-Omega Productions, which provides media
reviews to subscribers. They live in Colorado Springs with their
children.

(NOTE: This review was originally published on my family blog on 1/31/07).

Rogue Angel: Destiny by Alex Archer

I first saw Rogue Angel on an endcap at Barnes & Noble and thought it looked interesting (good cover: hot chick with a sword), and the back cover made it sound interesting. I went home and looked it up, and found it was part of an ongoing series. I picked up the first volume off of PaperBackSwap, and I will get the other volumes soon!

The main character, Annja Creed (pronounced Anya?), is one of those Dirk Pitt-type characters that can, and has, done it all. She's a young, attractive, somewhat experienced archaeologist - has studied martial arts and can hold her own in a brawl, can free-climb a rock face, knows how to use guns, etc.

She also has an unusually strong fear of fire, which hints at some history of the character.

If you combined Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series and Sara Pezzini from WitchBlade, you'd get Annja Creed. Great combination of action, the supernatural (or at least some hints of it), and a little history.

This is purely fluff reading - and I give it a high rating because it's just so enjoyable.

The "author" has a blog for the series, but it hasn't been updated in months. Alex Archer is apparently a pseudonym used by two guys co-authoring the series.

From the Publisher
An ancient order tied to the Vatican . . . A blood fortune buried in the caves of France . . . A conspiracy of power, greed and darkest evil . . .

Archaeologist and explorer Annja Creed's fascination with the myths and mysteries of the past leads her to a crypt in the caves of France, where the terrifying legend of the Beast of Gevaudin hints at the unimaginable. What she discovers is shattering: an artifact that will seal her destiny: a brotherhood of monks willing to murder to
protect their secret; and a powerful black-market occultist desperate to put his
own claim to centuries-old blood money. Annja embarks on a high-tension race
across Europe and history itself, intent on linking the unholy treachery of the
ages with the staggering revelations of the present. But she must survive the
shadow figures determined to silence her threat to their existence.

(NOTE: this review was originally posted on my family blog on 1/31/07)

The Ahriman Gate

The Ahriman Gate: Some Gates Should Not Be Opened by Tom and Nita Horn.

I've been hearing about and wanting to read The Ahriman Gate for more than a year. I heard about in the "Christian Conspiracy/UFOlogy" circles where I seem to remember it being highly recommended.

It's about an ex-Marine, Joe Ryback, seeking vengeance for the murder of his father at the hands of a group of people inside the U.S. government. That group, using technology from a crashed UFO, is trying to bring about the Biblical end-times so Satan will have control of the United States and a group of nations working with her - and inevitably - control of the world.

Joe, of course, is not strong enough by himself. Along the way he gets help from a hermit and the hermit's dog Tater. Joe's youngest sister gets involved over her head, a Biblical professor at a local college gets involved investigated Joe's claims of giants being gengineered at a local military installation - the college professor thinks the giants are really Biblical Nephilim. A computer hacker running an alternative news website helps out; and a high-ranking military man comes to the aid of Joe and his friends - even though he has goals of his own.

The story culminates with the crashed UFO being reactivated and Lucifer's fallen angels about to wage armegeddon with the angels of God, all while Joe is trying save his sister and outrun the Nephilim and their keeper who want to bring the AntiChrist into the world.

It's an average Christian Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi novel. It does do a good job of summing up the basic concepts and theories bandied about in the aforementioned "Christian Conspiracy/UFOlogy" circles.

If you're interested in more of theories by this author, he's been interviewed several times on PID Radio.

(NOTE: This review was originally posted at my family blog on 2/5/07.)

Submitting Review Materials to Sporadic Book Reviews

If you have something you'd like me to consider for review, send an email to SBRbooks AT gmail DOT com for a mailing address.

NOTE: I reserve the right to not review everything submitted. But I will list all items received in a blog post.

I read much more than what I review on this blog: Science Fiction, Action/Adventure, Suspense, Paranormal/Supernatural, Military/Spy fiction, Fantasy, Christian Fiction, media tie-in fiction, even some YA stuff in the same genres.

Also, just because the title says "book" doesn't mean I won't review other material. I may very well review comic books, movies, DVDs, TV shows, etc. in upcoming osts.

(I got the idea for this page from SFSignal's Submissions page.)