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. 

Sunday, June 2, 2024

Book Review: Star Wars: Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

 


Last Shot is one of the canon Star Wars novels published in 2018. It was written by Daniel Jose Older and focuses mainly on Han and Lando. The book is set in three different time periods. The "present" is in the time after Return of the Jedi, between the Aftermath series of novels and the Bloodlines novel, when Han and Leia are new parents, and the Empire has been defeated, but before the threat of the First Order is known. Then it jumps back 10 years before that between the events of the Solo movie and A New Hope, and then 5 years before that. The story essentially involves a gangster from Han and Lando's past who threatens their present with a scheme he has been working on for decades.

Overall, the book is okay but not great. The best part for me was learning about Han's fear of being a father (and, to some extent, a husband). While we do not get a ton in this book about his relationship with Ben (who is still just a toddler in the novel), it hints at what possibly went wrong in their relationship and will hopefully be fleshed out in subsequent novels. It also gives some insight into Han and Lando's post-Return of the Jedi relationship and how Lando's betrayal of Han during the events of The Empire Strikes Back affected it.

The main story of the novel is okay but nothing spectacular. Outside of what I mentioned above, the best part of everything else in the novel was the Ewok slicer and the Anti-Jar Jar Binks Gungan, who had a great line that was something along the lines of "stop with that Meesa stuff." Otherwise, the plot is really about uncovering and attempting to stop a threat to the galaxy that did not involve the Empire or its remnants in any way. Chances are, if you collect the canon novels, you will have purchased this regardless of any positive or negative reviews. I think it is middle of the pack regarding the canon novels. It's as good as anything in the Aftermath series, but not as good as Dark Disciple, A New Dawn, Battlefront II, or even the main storyline adjacent novels, such as Leia, Ahsoka, or Lost Stars (in my opinion). That is totally subjective, however.

The Hardcover version of the book is about 370 pages. While it is not really a novel I would read multiple times, it is decent enough to do so at least once. It reads fairly quickly and somewhat bridges the gap between the original and sequel trilogies.

No comments: