Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Barb Wire

 

Barb Wire is a post-apocalyptic action movie from 1996 starring Pamela Anderson and Temuera Morrison. If you keep in mind that this was a movie to capitalize on Pamela Anderson's popularity (primarily based on her looks when she was in her physical prime on Baywatch and making pretty regular appearances in Playboy), and do not expect an award-winning movie (except maybe a Razzie), you will not be let down. It is a standard post-apocalyptic movie (set during the "second civil war") where the good guys are not all that good, the bad guys are not all bad, and the really bad guys are everyone's enemies.

Anderson plays the owner of a club in the last free city in the country. She is also a bounty hunter and dealer in anything, legal or otherwise. The plot is pretty basic, and the writing and acting are nothing special. Clint Howard plays larger than a cameo role in a film not directed by Ron Howard, which tells you all you need to know about it. The appeal of the movie is really Anderson in various stages of undress throughout the movie and the amusement of her trying to act like a badass throughout (complete with a big fight scene at the end).

The blu-ray is a standard transfer. Given that the movie is nearly 30 years old (as of this writing) and was not a big-budget blockbuster, it did not get an excellent restoration and HD transfer. There are no extras or special features. Just the movie itself. If you were in high school or college in the mid to late 1990s at the height of Pamela Anderson's career, it is a nostalgic, so bad it's good movie.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

 

El Camino is a 2019 movie that serves as an alternate series finale of Breaking Bad. The movie was written and directed by BB creator Vince Gilligan and stars Aaron Paul, Jesse Plemmons, Charles Baker, Matt Jones, and Scott MacArthur. It shows events from Jesse's point of view. It picks up with Jesse driving off after being freed from the Nazi compound (which was the last we saw of him in the series finale to BB). Then, the story is told partly through flashbacks, showing his imprisonment and (mostly) interactions with Todd (played by the returning Jesse Plemmons) and partly in the present, as Jesse tries to get out of New Mexico. Not only do we get cameos from Breaking Bad characters with Krystin Ritter, the aforementioned Jesse Plemmons, Jonathan Banks, Robert Forrester, and yes, even Bryan Cranston making a cameo, but we also get the return of Skinny Pete and Badger. We also get the definitive word on Walter White's ultimate fate.

The Blu-Ray set is a two-disc set containing one Blu-Ray disc and a DVD in a steelbook case. There are about an hour's worth of extras, including a making-of feature, a gag reel, and deleted scenes. Plus, there is a commentary track on the film and storyboard sequences. A good amount for what is included, making the blu-ray a good pick-up over just streaming. And the A/V quality is excellent. Ultimately, it offers a satisfying alternate finale for the series, keeping true to what came before yet still telling an original story. It does take a bit of suspension of disbelief as all the people are older in real life but are playing the same characters at the same time the series aired. Aaron Paul looks similar to what he did, but Jesse Plemmons looks a lot older and has gained a lot of weight since BB went off the air. It is a great story, and the minor continuity issues are not a big deal. I definitely recommend it to any BB fan.

Workout Review: Muscle Burns Fat (MBF)

 

MBF is a three-week workout from BODI/BeachBody. It was released in the summer of 2020 during the height of the pandemic. Since it is a newer program, it is only available on the streaming app and not on DVD as BeachBody's early programs were.  Knowing that the programs take a while to film and edit, I am unsure if the format was because of the pandemic or just fortuitous, but the trainer, Megan Davies, leads the workout from a set, and the cast members work out at home and connect via Zoom. So, you see the cast members in small boxes around the main box that displays what Megan is doing. 

The program is a cardio and muscle endurance-based workout. Three days a week, you do a resistance-focused workout: Monday is a lower-body workout, Wednesday is a lower-body workout, and Friday is a total-body resistance workout. Tuesday and Thursday are core circuit workouts in which you alternate between cardio and abdominal work. Saturday is a hybrid workout in which you use dumbells for part of it and do bodyweight exercises for part of it. Sunday is a recovery routine with stretching and yoga exercises. So, you need a selection of dumbells and a cordless jump rope. Those are jump rope handles with about a foot of cord and a foam ball on the ends of the cords. So you can simulate jumping rope without worrying about tripping over the rope. 

As I said above, this workout is mostly about muscle endurance and cardio. Once the workouts start, there is no rest between sets or blocks of exercises (between blocks, you usually use the cordless jump rope to do a cardion recovery), aside from the time it takes to transition from exercise to exercise. So, on the resistance days, you will very likely use a lot lighter weight for many exercises than you are used to. The M, W, and F workouts follow a format in which you do two unbalanced blocks and two balanced blocks. In the unbalanced blocks, you do two exercises holding weight in one hand, then you do a combo of both exercises back to back, then switch to the other side. In the two balanced blocks, you hold weight in each hand. The T and Th workouts alternate between core and cardio. In the last four minutes of those workouts, you do as many rounds of four cardio exercises as possible. On Saturday, you do three every-minute-on-the-minute blocks. Two of them last five minutes, and one lasts ten minutes. The two five-minute blocks require you to do a certain number of reps of the same exercise. In the ten-minute block, you alternate between two exercises. How much rest you get between sets depends on how fast you do them, but Megan stops everyone at 40 seconds, so you get at least 20 seconds of rest before the next minute starts.

Overall, the program is good but challenging. Even if you are in good shape, this will be a challenging program. Because there are no built-in rest breaks, all the workouts are short (26-39 minutes, depending on the workout). It can be a bit hard to follow what is happening since there are multiple boxes on the screen, and it can be distracting to listen to all of the cast members talking over each other in the background. There is a modifier that does modified versions of the various exercises, and she is usually on a split screen with Megan at the beginning of each exercise so you can see the modified version of the moves without trying to find the box with the modifier in it on the screen as you are working out. I am not sure that it would be a workout program that I return to over and over, but it is definitely worth trying at least once because even if you are in good shape, it will give you body a shock, which will definitely help if you have plateaued. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Black Lightning Season 2

 

The 16-episode second season of Black Lightning aired during the 2018/2019 TV season. It picks up shortly after the events of the season one finale and the attack on the school by Tobias and Painkiller. The second season starts with the fallout from that, expands the ASA storyline and experiments on metahumans, and continues Jefferson's crusade to take down Tobias. Much of the season is also dedicated to Jennifer's transition into lightning. She is basically a battery that, where Jefferson absorbs energy, she generates it. Many episodes in the middle of the season revolve around her balancing being a rebellious teenager and coming into her powers.

For those not familiar with the characters, the show is set in the city of Freeland, which is a majority-black city that is struggling with gang violence from a gang called The 100, which is headed by a former corrupt politician named Tobias Whale, who has powers of his own. Jefferson Pierce (played by Cress Williams) is a former Olympic athlete and is now the principal at Freeland High School. His oldest daughter, Anissa (played by Nafessa Williams), is a medical student, part-time teacher, and social activist. She is also the superhero known as Thunder, possessing invulnerability and super strength for as long as she can hold her breath. Jefferson's youngest daughter, Jennifer (played by China Anne McClain), inherited a version of Jefferson's powers. Lynn (played by Christine Adams), Jefferson's ex-wife, is an expert in metahuman medicine. They are joined by Jefferson's version of Alfred, named Gambi (played by James Remar), who helps Black Lightning and Thunder fight crime in the city.

The show definitely has a different feel from the other superhero shows on the CW, and it is the only one that is not directly tied in with the other shows like Arrow, Flash, and Supergirl. That is primarily because those shows are filmed in Vancouver, while Black Lightning is filmed in Atlanta. Supergirl was named dropped in Season One of Black Lightning, so it is tied into the Arrowverse tangentially, but we don't know if it is set on Earth 38 or one of the other Earth's that was established in the multiverse. Each of the episodes is titled "Book of ____________," and each book has individual chapters. Each time the storyline shifts to a new main focus, the book title changes. The season ends on a cliffhanger of a looming threat to Freeland that sets up at least a part of the storyline of season three.

The show also has a political bent (while not referencing any real politicians), playing off of real-world themes like the Black Lives Matter protests, the rash of white people calling the police on black people that happen to be nearby, as even plays off things like the Tuskegee experiments. That said, it has a very diverse mix of characters; some good guys are white, some bad guys are black, and it is much more nuanced than just one group is good, and one group is bad.

The Blu-Ray set is a three-disc MOD set. The episodes are spread over the three discs, and unlike most MOD sets, this includes a couple of extras. One is a featurette on the character of Tobias, and one is a cheesy featurette about filming the series in Georgia. There are no commentary tracks, cast interviews, or the like. Overall, if you liked season one of the show, you will probably like the second season. I cannot say that everyone who is a fan of the other Arrowverse shows will automatically like Black Lightning, especially if you love that the other shows are more closely tied together. But if you are a fan of superhero shows, it is definitely worth checking out.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/Chalean Extreme Day 1

I decided to go back to one of my older workouts as my "main" workout for the next few months: Chalean Extreme. Today was day 1, so I did 645 cardio in the morning and Burn Circuit 1 from CE in the evening. The cardio workout was fine. I selected more intense/higher-impact exercises since CE does not have a HIIT component on Day 1. The Burn Circuit 1 workout was challenging but doable. I had to drop the weight I used on one of the exercises because I forgot it required lifting weights to my shoulders for 10-12 reps. Other than that, my initial weight selection was good. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Embrace of the Vampire (1995)

 

Embrace of the Vampire was a mid-1990s schlocky B-level movie starring Alyssa Milano, Martin Kemp, Charlotte Lewis, and Jennifer Tilly. Its main claim to fame was Alyssa Milano taking on one of the roles that broke her out of the good-girl child star mold she had been in since her days on Whose The Boss and in the movie Commando. This is one of the first, if not the first, roles where Milano, who was in her early twenties at the time, went topless. She was also drinking, smoking, and making out with Charlotte Lewis. The actual storyline is nothing to write home about, Milano's character Charlotte, who is a freshman in college, is being stalked by a vampire (played by Martin Kemp) who is trying to seduce her so he can avoid eternal sleep (the vampire version of dying apparently). It is a pretty stupid plot, and the writing (and, as a result, the acting) was not all that great. But, it is one of those movies that you get knowing what it is, and you watch it to see Milano (especially if you are old enough to have had a crush on her during the 1980s) playing a bad girl role, which she does an awesome job at. She is really the best part of the movie.

For those who get the blu-ray, it is not the best transfer. I do not own the DVD version of the movies, but other reviewers have said that the blu-ray is not any big step up in quality. And there are no extras, just the movie itself. So, if you have the DVD, there is really no reason to upgrade. If you are looking for a B-level thriller and/or want to see Milano in what was probably her sexiest role, then this is worth it. Otherwise, you are not missing much if you skip this one.

DVD/Movie Review: Sin City

 

Sin City is a movie from 2005 that is an adaptation of a very dark and violent graphic novel by Frank Miller. It was mostly directed by Robert Rodriguez, but a portion was also directed by Quentin Tarantino and a portion by Frank Miller. It stars Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen, Alexis Bledel, Jamie King, Benicio del Toro, Elija Wood, Carla Gugino, Nick Stahl, Josh Hartnett, Powers Boothe, Devon Aoki, and Brittany Murphy. It tells essentially three separate stories that overlap and intersect occasionally with each other. It starts out with Bruce Willis, one of the city's honest cops saving a young girl (who later in the movie grows up and is played by Jessica Alba) who has been kidnapped by the son (Stahl) of a corrupt senator (Boothe), then shifts to the story of a brute played by Micky Rourke who is on a revenge mission against the killer of his "true love," a hooker played by Jamie King. Then, there is a story about the boyfriend (Owen) of a bartender ( Murphy) who is being harassed by a corrupt cop (del Toro) taking out said cop.

The original DVD release was very bare-bones. The only extra is a short behind-the-scenes featurette. The movie, like the graphic novel, is very violent, with beatings, dismemberings, and everything in between, but manages not to show a lot of blood by showing the blood basically as bright white against the black and white that the movie is (mostly) filmed in. There is also some nudity, mostly from Carla Gugino and Jamie King, but also have characters in various states of undress or skimpy outfits (including Alba, Rosario Dawson, and Devon Aoki), and a lot of swearing. Basically, this is something you are going to watch if you are in the mood for an action movie and you do not mind very violent action movies. It is definitely not in the vein of the superhero comic book adaptations that Marvel and DC have put out since this was released. It is much more in the vein of Kill Bill and Watchman. Chances are, if you like those, you will like this. But, if you hate movies like those, you probably are not going to be into this one either.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 20

For day 20 I did 645 cardio in the morning and the final power ignite workout of MBF in the evening. I had zero energy for the evening workout, so I was half-assing it through a lot of the workout. The push-up block is still the bane of my existence since I still despise push-ups. But, I did what I could and did get two workouts in so I did not feel as bad about not going all out in the second one.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 19

Day 19 was 645 cardio in the morning and MBF's full-body burn workout in the evening. Full body burn was another challenging workout, even using light weight. The weights I used in this one ranged from 8 lbs to 12 lbs. After doing two rounds of MBF I think the best approach for increasing weight throughout the program is doing week 1 with an absurdly light weight, like 5 lbs, or every exercise. Then, in week two, bump up to 10 lbs and in week three, jump to 12 or 15 lbs. Because you get no breaks once the workout starts, it is damn near impossible to use 25+ lb weights because you do a lot of reps, and many times, the exercises are paired so that one exercise requires a much smaller weight than the other if you had time between sets to switch out your weights. But, because you go from one exercise to the next with no rest, you have to cater to the exercise that requires a smaller amount of weight.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 18

Day 18 was the last core circuit workout of MBF, and, of course, I did 645 cardio in the morning. In the AMRAP block of the MBF workout, I was able to complete almost three more rounds than I did last week, so I felt good about that. 

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 17

Day 17 was 645 cardio and upper body burn in MBF. The upper body burn workout was very challenging. The workouts definitely did not get any easier for me in this round.  I stuck with using 10-12 lbs for the entire workout, and that was plenty.

DVD/TV Series Review: The Astronaut Wives Club

 

The Astronaut Wives Club is a 10-episode miniseries that tells the story of the early days of the United States space program, mainly through the eyes/experiences of the wives of the Mercury Seven astronauts. The Female leads include Yvonne Strahovski, Odette Annable, JoAnna Garcia, Dominique McElligott, Erin Cummings, Zoe Boyle, and Asure Parsons. The series also starred Aaron McCusker, Joel Johnstone, Wilson Bethel, Bret Harrison, Desmond Harrington, and Luke Kirby. The story spans from the beginning of the space program in the 1950s through to the Apollo missions in the 1960s, with the last major mission dramatized in the show being the Apollo 13 mission. It also detailed major events that occurred during that time period including the Cuban Missile Crisis, both Kennedy Assassinations, and the Civil Rights movement. Much of the focus of the show was on the need for the wives to keep up appearances of having perfect lives, all while dealing with the stress of their husbands blasting off into space and having numerous affairs while they were on the ground.

For those who get the DVD set, it is a pretty standard MOD release. It does have English captions, but there are no extras or special features of any kind. Just the 10 episodes spread across two discs, with 5 episodes on each disc. Overall, the series is well-written and very well-acted. For anyone still around who was alive during that time period and old enough to remember what was going on in the space race, it provides a lot of background material for what really went on (although it does not try to be a straight-up documentary). But, even for those who were not born until the tail end of the space race in the 1970s or in the 1980s but are still interested in the topic, even though we did not live through it, it is still a very enjoyable series. Definitely worth checking out.

Book Review: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu

 

This really serves as a dual-function book. First, and probably most importantly (at least for Disney), it serves as a guidebook for its Galaxy's Edge theme parks at Disneyland and Disneyworld, which use the planet Batuu as their setting. Second, it gives some context to some of the newer canon novels set in Batuu.

The hardcover version of the book is just under 150 pages and can easily be read in a few hours. It mostly talks about people and attractions that you can see in the theme park and dribbles in a bit of Star Wars history here and there as well. It does not read like a novel at all and does not really even need to be read cover-to-cover. My one real issue with the book is that the print can get fairly small, and some of the pages are colored, and the print can blend in with the page color, making it very hard to read for people with bad eyesight and/or who are colorblind. Aside from that, it is not something that I would call a must-read by any means, but if you are a hardcore Star Wars fan, especially one who plans on visiting one of the parks, it is something you can easily get through in a day or so.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 16

 Day 16 was 645 cardio in the morning and core circuit in the evening. During the core circuit workout I was able to do the same amount of rounds in the AMRAP portion as I did last week, but could not make it to six full rounds. My energy level was not great during the workout, though, but I did get through it.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 15

Day 15 was the start of the final week of MBF. I did the 645 cardio workout in the morning, and the lower-body burn MBF workout in the evening. I again kept the weights I was using light. In block two I did try bumping the amount of weight up a bit, but did have to drop it back down after the first set of each exercise. So, it is still very hard using lighter weights.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 14

Day 14 was the dynamic recovery workout in MBF and the cardio workout from 645. This week I did the two of them back-to-back. I did the 645 workout first, immediately followed by the MBF workout. The MBF workout definitely challenges my range of motion, especially toward the end. It absolutely helps to use the 645 workout as a warmup.  

Book Review: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

 

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is a book from 2017 written by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The book explains some of the "big" concepts in astrophysics and astronomy without the mathematical detail and equations that you would find in a textbook. If you have some background in any of the sciences, but specifically astronomy and physics, the book will be easier to understand. It is basically a book on theoretical astrophysics, explaining the theory behind things like the big bang, dark matter, and dark energy without the math. Tyson also explains how we have been detecting planets around other stars, and why any technologically advanced alien civilization would have a hard time finding Earth and determining that a technologically advanced civilization exists on it if they are using the same methods of planet detection we are. 

The book is relatively short, around 200 pages, at least if you compare it to any college-level textbook. I found it to be a pretty quick and easy read, but to be fair, I have dozens of books on astronomy that I have been reading since I was a pre-teen, and I have a degree in electrical engineering, so the subject matter did not bog me down or go over my head. The book is rigorous enough that it may be hard to follow if you do not have at least a familiarity with astronomy. I do not think you need that level of education and experience with the subject in order to understand and enjoy the book, but it will definitely be an easier read for some people and harder for others.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Colette

 

Colette is a 2018 drama starring Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Elanor Tomlinson, Ray Panthaki, Denise Gough, and Fiona Shaw. The movie is based on the real-life of a bisexual French writer, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, focusing on her life in the early 1900s. Colette, played by Keira Knightley, wrote a series of popular stories as a ghostwriter for her husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars (played by Dominic West), who had stories penned by a factory of writers, all published under his name, Willy. 

The Blu-Ray's A/V quality is very good. The bonus features are limited and include deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, and a stills gallery. It really tells a very early women's liberation story as Colette fought for recognition of her work (and later for the right and authorship credit) which were popular books that told the story of her life. The acting and writing are great. While Knightly and West are clearly the leads and do most of the heavy lifting in terms of carrying the movie, the entire cast, including the supporting actors, do a great job. It tells a story of women's rights, with a bit of sexual revolution, ostracism based on both gender and sexuality, as well as how infidelity was looked at during that era.
 If you are a fan of period pieces and/or biopics, it is definitely worth checking out.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 13

 On day 13, I did the power ignite workout from MBF but did not do 645 cardio. This one again has the three EMOM rounds, the first two being five minutes long and the third being ten minutes. In the ten-minute block, we do plank jacks as the cardio exercise and weighted chops as the resistance exercise. The second block with the push-ups is still the hardest block for me to get through.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 12

 Day 12 was 645 cardio in the morning and Full Body Burn from MBF in the evening. The full-body burn workout was a challenge, even using light weights. This is definitely not a workout that most people are going to be able to do using 25 lb-plus weights. 10-20 lbs is plenty for the vast majority of the exercises, and I even use 5 or 8 lbs for some exercises.

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 11

Day 11 was 645 cardio in the morning and MBF's core circuit in the evening. I could do the same amount of rounds (6.5) in the four-minute AMRAP portion as I did in week 1, but I could not get the 7 rounds that I did in week 2 the first time I did MBF. 

DVD/Movie Review: The Sixth Sense

 

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment in the main roles and Olivia Williams in the main supporting role. Donnie Wahlberg has a brief but pivotal appearance at the beginning of the movie, and Mischa Barton (who would later go on to star in the hit series The OC) has a small role toward the end of the movie. It was actually Shyamalan's and was a very surprising hit and ended up being his breakout hit. It also saw a shift in Willis' career from action hero to taking on more dramatic roles. In it, Willis stars as a child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe, who is attempting to help a young, troubled boy named Cole (played by Haley Joel Osment). He is the only child of a single mother (played by Toni Collette ), who is trying to figure out how to help her son. I will not go into too much detail for the handful of people who may not have seen it by now, but if you are aware of Shyamalan's other movies, there are twists in this one that you may or may not see coming. In fact, it was probably this movie that led him to get overzealous with the plot twists in his subsequent movies, which got more and more silly over the course of time (at least for a while).

The DVD extras include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as trailers and TV spots. A good amount of material. The picture quality of the DVD (at least the initial release) is okay, but not great, even when upscaled playing on a 4k TV with a 4K blu-ray. But, given the initial run of the DVD is now over twenty-years-old, that is not surprising. Overall, the movie is excellent. It is a blend of a drama and jump-scare thriller (not really a horror movie per-se). It is well written and very well acted, all the actors, especially Osment being so young, doing a wonderful job in their roles. It is definitely the best of Shyamalan's movies that I have seen (I have not seen some of the more recent movies like Split and Glass yet), and it is definitely worth checking out.

DVD/Movie Review: Mischief

 

Mischief is a coming-of-age teen comedy from 1985 directed by Mel Damski and starring Kelly Preston, Chris Nash, Doug McKeon, Jamie Gertz, Catherine Mary Stuart, and Terry O'Quinn. It is one of the many teen comedies from the 1980s, such as Fast Times, Porky's, Private School, etc., and had similar themes to those movies. It is set in 1950s small-town Ohio. Doug McKeon plays Jonathan, the local nerdy kid, and virgin trying to get with the hot girl,  Marilyn, played by Kelly Preston. Chris Nash plays Gene, the rebelling teen who moves to the town, clashes with almost every authority figure, and befriends Jonathan.  

The DVD has long been out of print, so you will have to pay more to get it unless you really luck out. There are no extras, just the movie itself, which starts playing as the disc loads. It would be nice if it were re-released with a commentary track or something like that, but given that it was not the most popular movie of the genre, that is unlikely. While I would not say the movie is as good as Fast Times, or the original Porky's, it is probably as good as any of the Porky's sequels. Most likely, it will be a nostalgic blast from the past for people who grew up in the 1980s and remember seeing it on cable. It is a decent movie, but it is not a great movie by any means. It is a pretty formulaic coming-of-age story, but it does have a pretty good 1950s soundtrack. And, of course, the movie also has the very famous Kelly Preston full-frontal nude scene. It is probably a movie that could not be made today (at least not in the same way), given some of the themes. Although the awkward teen courting and sex is certainly something that is timeless regardless of the era. So, it is not a must-see, but it is worth watching, especially if you watched it when you were young.

Book Review: Star Wars: Temptation of the Force

 

Temptation of the Force is a canon Star Wars novel by Tessa Gratton, published in 2024. It is set during Phase III of the High Republic, after the Starlight Beacon's destruction and the Occlusion Zone's creation by the Nihil with their Stormwall. There are several threads to the story that all intertwine. One involves two Jedi in love, Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann, who are reunited after Avar's escape from the Occlusion Zone. The second is an incursion by several Jedi into the Occlusion Zone to try and liberate Naboo from the Nihil while trying to avoid The Nameless/Levelers, the creatures with the power to kill any force-sensitive being. The third is a new threat from something called The Blight, which has the power to kill everything in the galaxy except for the most dangerous being (at the time, anyway), Marchion Ro. 

The hardcover version of the book is 425 pages and reads fairly quickly. Some of the story is a bit sappy, but overall it is a good blend of action and suspense. Yoda is included in the storyline, but the book does not fill the plot hole that was left after the Phase II novels. Namely, that the Levelers were used against the Jedi by the Path of the Open Hand 150 years prior, Yoda knew about them, and the current Jedi still seem to know little to nothing about them. Although, in this book that does start to change somewhat. My other sticking point with this book is that the character of Vernestra is more like her character in The Acolyte TV series (which is set years later when she is older) and less like she was in the books that introduced her when she was more willing to skirt or bend rules.  Even though we know that the Jedi and the Republic will eventually defeat the Nihil, this book does not foreshadow how that will happen. Ultimately, while I would not say this is one of the must-read canon novels if you are invested in the High Republic storyline of the Jedi against the Nihil, it does advance that a lot and is worth reading.

Book Review: Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron

 

Alphabet Squadron is a canon Star Wars novel written by Alexander Freed and published in 2019. It is the start of a new (at least) trilogy of novels about a fighter squadron of the New Republic. This novel is set just after Return of the Jedi. It includes a mish-mash of different characters, some of whom are Imperial defectors, who are sent on missions to see if they can work together as a unit. There is a lot of character development, but the main issue I had was that I did not find myself all that invested in the characters. While characters like Luke, Leia, and The Emperor are referenced a lot, there is really only one recognizable character in the book, Hera Syndulla, who is only recognizable to those who have read all the novels or have seen the Rebels TV series, which, at the time the book was written, was the only appearance she had made in canon. Of course, the character has been included in the live-action Ahsoka series since that time.

The hardcover version of the book is just over 400 pages long. I found it read slower for me than many Star Wars novels, mostly because there were so many new, unfamiliar characters.  It would have helped a lot to have a character like Wedge as the leader or at least a trainer of the squadron and have the character actually interact with Leia instead of just name-dropping her. That said, there are some good parts to it like the ex-Imperials coming to grips with the fact that they lost the war and some of them asking themselves if they were ever on the right side. Hopefully, now that much of the setup is out of the way, the subsequent novels will be stronger entries in the canon, but this is definitely not one that I would call a must-read.