The Empire Strikes Back
The Empire Strikes Back: Things that were quite good
- THANK YOU, George, for that great gift to modern culture: “I thought these things smelled bad… on the outside…”
- Han Solo
- The Han/Luke friendship. DAW.
- Han and Leia tension.
- James: I’m surprised by how early in the film this occurs.
- James: the music makes the film.
- Imperial walkers.
- Luke says, in the middle of a FOREST, “It’s like something out of a dream!” Wow, George. Subtle.
- “Wars not make one great.” Preach, George.
- The revelation that the emperor knows who Luke is is definitely more poignant thanks to the prequels.
- And Yoda’s hovel is more poignant too.
- This entire set of movies should be subtitled: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
- Han.
- Lando!
- I’d forgotten just how echoes/foreshadowings there were in the prequels, with words and actions and scenes. It makes me forgive them a little bit more.
What were you thinking, George?
- Unconvinced by the new bits of the snow critter.
- THAT KISS GEORGE EW MY BRAIN.
- You’re continuing the assumption that cities <=> civilisation in Luke’s little comment about Dagobah, George. I know he’s still a whiny little kids, but nonetheless – unhelpful.
- You retconned Boba Fett’s VOICE, George.
- Vader goes through underlings at a rate of knots. Bad vision of leadership there.
Abaddon’s Gate: Redux
(Some spoilers below for Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War. READ THEM.)
The last line of Caliban’s War was an absolute killer, because I read it when it was first published which meant that the next book was about a year away and GOODNESS ME it was a cliffhanger. So I preordered this as soon as I could and happily, it arrived about a week before I went on holidays. I very carefully put it on a shelf where it wasn’t tempting me to read it… and then this week, on holidays, I cracked it open and devoured it in one day. And it was worth the wait. Oh yes. Thank you, James Corey.*
Naw. Cute. PastMe did not feel the need to reread the other two, clearly. Continue reading →
Galactic Suburbia: The Martian
In which Tansy and Alex talk tragic potatoes, Lord of the Rings jokes, deep space parkour and the retirement plans of Sean Bean, among other topics that become inevitable as we delve into the recent Ridley Scott directed, Matt Damon + Science = OTP movie, The Martian, based on the novel by Andy Weir.
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ETA: my source was wrong about the LOTR joke! SAD 😡
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Caliban’s War: Redux
This review will contain spoilers for Leviathan’s Wake, the first in this series. As with that book, I’ve just reread this one, so this is the REDUX…
Zeroes
This book was provided to me by the publisher at no cost.
I wanted to adore this book. I really enjoyed it, but I didn’t adore it. I’m trying to work through why…
Some general comments and then spoilers will be flagged.
The premise is one of superheroes, where the heroes are adolescents and most of them don’t feel, or want to be, heroic. Their ‘powers’ aren’t obvious (no one is turning green) and sometimes they don’t seem particularly useful, either. At some point in the past they’ve discovered each other and tried to work together, to see whether and how they might become a team… but then it turned sour, and they haven’t really worked together for a year. But when one of them is caught up with the police (his own fault, really), he asks for help and things go from there. Up, and down, and twisty-windy. The plot revolves around accidentally stolen drug money, a bank robbery gone very wrong, people in the wrong place and a bunch of teenagers trying to fix things and occasionally messing up.
We get chapters from each of the Zeroes, although not always alternating; the story begins from the perspective of Ethan (Scam), then Kelsie gets the fourth chapter and then gradually the others are introduced. This structure is exactly as useful as it seems, with multiple perspectives on events and people and ideas. It was an aspect I really liked, but it also contributed to one of the reasons I didn’t adore the book (I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters; more on that below). The characters are nicely varied: girls and boys, different ethnic backgrounds, one blind, families of different structures (those that we see anyway). They definitely have different personalities, which are not entirely tied to their ‘powers’ – which is great. There is some connection (Kelsie can work a crowd and loves going out dancing, for instance), but the question of cause and consequence isn’t tied down.
I liked that the action takes place over just a week; there’s no interest here in dragging a story out. It’s fast-paced over all, as it needs to be when there’s scary underworld types involved and things need to get fixed pronto. There are a few adults around – more parents are mentioned and briefly involved than you might expect in a teens-save-the-world story – but they don’t get in the way of said teens getting into a lot of trouble. The story is set in Cambria, which it turns out is really a name for a town in the US; I don’t know whether it’s intended to be set in the real town or not, but at any rate it’s a dinky little town rather than NY or Chicago, say, which I think is an interesting choice. It lets the characters develop their powers before having to deal with The Big Smoke, I guess (bets on that happening in a later novel?). There’s little real world building – it’s the America of today, and the city itself plays little part in the story, so there’s no need to make it really come alive.
Now, SPOILERS.
Leviathan Wakes: redux
I have the fourth book in the Expanse series waiting to be read… but I haven’t read the other three in a long time, and then only once each. So, yes, I am re-reading. And I’m now going to do a Le Guin and REDUX my review of Leviathan Wakes.
New Galactic Suburbia!
Feedback episode! Thanks so much for all your emails, tweets and voicemails. You can listen to us via iTunes or at Galactic Suburbia.
What Culture Have we Consumed?
Tansy: Andre Norton Sargasso of Space; I am Princess X, Cherie Priest; The Wicked & The Divine, by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie; Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.
Alex: Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie; Newt’s Emerald, Garth Nix; Zeroes, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deb Biancotti.
You can Skype us to leave a short message about any of our topics or episodes, to be included in a future show.
03 90164171 (within Australia) +613 90164171 (from overseas)
Otherwise, please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!
Patchwerk
I received this book from the publisher at no cost.
This is a really hard story to talk about without major spoilers. So initially, let me know: the premise is quite clever – man makes machine that may well interfere with the very fabric of reality – and there are some nice points of world building. There’s a point at which you may well wonder whether your version of the text has somehow been corrupted (I did), but it’s actually the story itself, as you discover when you keep going (… unless your copy actually is corrupted…). However, I had some issues, mostly in the characters which I’ll mention in the spoilers section; partly it was in the prose itself, which at times just felt clunky.
A New Hope
And now we get to the original series. Which is… interesting.
A New Hope: things that were quite good
- James: “listen to that analogue sound. Beryllium bells!”
- Ah, the childhood reminiscences. For a very long time, I thought the trumpets for 20th Century Fox were actually for Star Wars.
- That opening, with those starships? SWOON.
- At least you didn’t retcon the voices of the stormtroopers.
- Feisty Leia!
- You managed to convey so much emotion from a rolling rubbish bin and a few beeps. Bravo, George.
- The prequels made me feel far empathy for Owen and Boru than I had previously experienced (this may also be due to Age).
- I am totally fine with the idea of Ewan McGregor growing up to be Alec Guinness.
- Most of the additions to Mos Eisley are basically ok.
- The cantina song. Which was nearly our wedding processional.
- Han Solo!
- Who totally always shot first.
- And is responsible for a lot of ladies (and not a few fellas, I would guess) having their first ‘scoundrels are swoon-worthy’ moment.
- Alec Guinness.
- Darth Vader v Obi-wan is surprisingly more poignant coming right off the back of the prequels.
- Han Solo.
What were you thinking, George?
- You FRIDGED Owen and Boru, George. That was callous.
- Even though the additions to Mos Eisley are mostly ok, I still don’t know why you bothered. Seriously. Leave well enough alone, George.
- Stormtroopers are really bad shots.
- Luke is So. Whiny. “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” said every self-absorbed adolescent ever.
- Which I get, there has to be some development, but does he have to be SO mopey?
- The throne room scene. So cheesy. So very cheesy. Grins for everyone! Teeth out in the hope of a sequel!
Revenge of the Sith
We actually did watch this a couple of days after Episode 1 and Episode 2, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to write about it at the time.
Movie whose name I couldn’t initially remember: things that weren’t too bad:
- The opening fight scene is quite nice.
- Christopher Lee. Again.
- Anakin’s robotic arm is nicely styled.
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Samuel L Jackson fighting with a light sabre.
- Ewan McGregor is way better in this film.
- You gave General Grievous four light sabres. That was a stroke of genius.
- Ian McDiarmaid is scenery-chewing good, for most of the film.
- Yoda’s suffering as the Jedi are killed. True pathos – and in a puppet. Very nice.
- A Wookie army!
- Jimmy Smits!
- Your classics is showing, George, moving from republic to empire.
- I finally realised that Anakin’s costume journey parallels Luke’s (ooh, spoilers). That’s quite a nice touch.
- Anakin and Obi-wan fighting is really pretty cool.
- The parallel of the twins being born with Vader being born is obvious, but still kinda cool.
- James Earl Jones.
- Jimmy Smits.
What were you thinking, George?
- In the opening credits you say there are heroes on both sides. Why are you confusing the young people with this even-handed post-modern crap?
- Your droid general sounds like he has emphysema. Or possibly TB. If he was in an 19th-century dress and sounded like that, you’d know there was a death scene coming up. DROIDS DON’T COUGH, GEORGE.
- ETA: Thanks to Grant I’ve discovered that Grievous is actually a cyborg, who coughs because Windu shot him. In the Clone Wars cartoon. Which just transfers my annoyance: nice little plot point for those in the know, but for the rest of us it’s just confuses. Bad, George; bad.
- Why wouldn’t a queen let a female senator continue to act in a role she’s clearly been good at just because she has a baby? No, seriously George, why is this a problem?
- Tell me, George, how exactly is destroying the Sith going to bring balance to the Force? Balance implies, well, balance – stuff on both sides. Without the Sith doesn’t that mean it’s going to be all one-sided? I’m not saying I like the Dark Side, but balance is not the word you’re looking for here.
- Anakin’s petulance moves his well-founded angst and concern for his mother away from Macbeth or Hamlet and more towards many ten-year-olds I know (and, let’s be honest, Luke in Episode 4).
- Ian McDiarmaid’s make-up after being beaten up is really, really bad.
- Anakin goes Total Evil way too quickly.
- You reduced Padme to weeping and fretting. From elected queen to senator to weeping and wailing. This is not an adequate plot arc, GEORGE. Very disappointing.
- Also Anakin treats Padme as property. I understand he’s evil but that’s still not cool.
- “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” Do you even see what you did there, George?
- I wrote “No respect for traffic patterns” in my notes. I don’t remember what I meant, but still, TRAFFIC PATTERNS, George.
But finally, my biggest gripe, George, is that you did not include Han Solo anywhere in these prequels. You included Boba Fett for heaven’s sake, and Chewbacca, and ANTILLES, but no Han. No moment in a bar where a grizzled man claps a hand to a young boy’s shoulder and says “this is my nephew, I’m teaching him about smuggling”? Why, George? Why?
Randomly Yours, Alex 