Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Book Review: Aftermath: Star Wars: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 


Aftermath is the first of a trilogy of novels that are set after Return of the Jedi as the Rebels attempt to mop up what is left of the Empire. I honestly do not mind the story. Things that tend to upset some of the fans, such as having openly LGBT characters, do not matter to me one way or the other. What hurts the trilogy, especially the first book, is the lack of inclusion of the legacy characters. Leia and Han make a brief appearance in the book, but Luke is mentioned in passing, and really, the only character from the original trilogy that has a large role at all is Wedge Antilles, who was a pivotal but totally ancillary character in the original trilogy.

The book starts out on the outer rim planet Akiva, on which Wedge stumbles upon a meeting of remaining Imperial bigwigs. He is captured by Admiral Rae Sloane, who was introduced in the first canon novel released after the Disney takeover of Lucasfilm, A New Dawn. The main characters on the rebel side in this book are Norra Wexley, her teenage son Temmin "Snap" Wexley (who was played by Greg Grumberg in the sequel trilogy), Temmin's rebuilt B1 battle droid Mister Bones, a Zabrak bounty hunter Jas Emari, and an Imperial turncoat named Sinjir Rath Velus. The ragtag crew also discovers the Imperial gathering, finds out that Wedge is captured, and attempts to free him.

Overall, the story is fine. There are a lot of good action sequences, but they get broken up by Interlude chapters, which discuss things that are going on, like other planets, and introduce new characters (for example, the character Cobb Vanth, who would appear in live-action in The Mandalorian series). Personally, I think the first stories set after Return of the Jedi should have leaned on Luke, Leia, and/or Han and introduced new characters alongside the legacy characters. I also would have cut down on the interludes throughout the book, doing just one or two, maybe as a prologue and an epilogue. That would have allowed the main story to flow better. I certainly cannot say that everyone will like the book. Reactions to it seem to be all over the place. I am fairly lukewarm to it. I do not think it is the best of the canon novels by any stretch, but it is not as bad as some make it out to be.

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