Lucas Blogs About Books

Don't let Leslie Nielson fool you, this isn't a parody. Some people like to complain about the inevitable changes that occur when a story is adapted from one medium to another. But let's be honest, sometimes, the less faithful an adaptation is, the more memorable it is. So, in this series I'll be taking a look at adaptations where creators took one look at the source material and said, "FUCK THAT NOISE!" to see how that turned out. Today's Oddaptation: The Tempest (1610-ish) by William Shakespeare into Forbidden Planet  (1956) dir. Fred M. Wilcox, screenplay by Cyril Hume, story by Irving Block, and Allen Adler Shakespeare . . . IN SPAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!!!!!! The Original: Okay, let's do this! Alonso is the King of Naples, and 12 years ago he helped his best bud, Antonio, usurp Antonio's brother Prospero as the Duke of Milan. But we don't know that yet. All we know is that they're sailing back to Italy from Alonso's daugher...

I'm still trying to work out the exact mechanics of this collision. Fun cover though. Okay, time to put Hypothetical Reader back in its box for a moment. That's right, plain old essay format review time. Now, I know that pervious instances of this format were both books that I thought were quite good, but I'll be honest: while I enjoyed reading Stupid Love Comedy , it is, in fact, only okay. Let's talk about why. So, Stupid Love Comedy is a Shōjo manga by Syusyusyu Sakurai (disclaimer, I haven't read all that much in the Shōjo genre, so it's possible that people who are fans of that genre may enjoy this more than I did) concerning the relationship between Osamu Hasegawa, a manga editor, and Suzu Sakura, a mangaka. See, Hasegawa used to be an editor at San Cruz,  a Shōnen magazine, who has been reassigned to Shōjo magazine  Daisy  to work with one of their promising new talents. Well, her debut was promising. As it turns out, Sakura-sensei (in addito...

Well, it may be my least favorite of the three, but I do think Mockingjay has the best cover. My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth this feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick synopses (I'll try and keep them spoiler-free, but, you know, most of these are past the statute of limitations on spoilers) of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week: The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins Background Info: I mean, you've probably heard of the Hunger Games trilogy or at least the tetralogy of films based on it (they were fairly popular, Jennifer Lawrence played the lead and they even got famous and well-regarded actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and others to play the grown-ups). But if you're completely unaware, the books take place at some unspecified future date when the North American continent is ruled by the repressive government o...

Hmm, my bias towards science fiction might be showing. Isn't there a more literary term you could use for this like "theme." Maybe, but that would limit our discourse, Hypothetical Reader. I'll pretend you didn't say that and we'll just move on. Cool! So, when you say Ideas can be a load-bearing element, are you referring to philosophical novels? You mean like Crime and Punishment , Notes From Underground , The Idiot , Demons , or The Brothers Karamazov ? Well, I mean, people besides Dostoevsky have written philosophical novels, but sure. Yeah, but I went on a big Dostoevsky kick after I read Crime and Punishment  as the summer reading for AP English. Also, the other example that most people would be familiar with is Ayn Rand, and I never had an Ayn Rand phase. Lucky you! I know, right? Anyway, you've probably guessed that we're going to start out by talking about Crime and Punishment ! So, you've read C&P , right? As f...

This book cover is doubly dishonest: 1) it implies that these works are Tolkien originals rather than translations, and B) it implies a totally awesome scene in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight must join forces to fight a more powerful foe (no such scene exists). Some people like to complain about the inevitable changes that occur when a story is adapted from one medium to another. But let's be honest, sometimes, the less faithful an adaptation is, the more memorable it is. So, in this series I'll be taking a look at adaptations where creators took one look at the source material and said, "FUCK THAT NOISE!" to see how that turned out. Today's Oddaptation: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  (13XX) by ‾\_(ツ)_/‾, trans. J.R.R. Tolkien into Adventure Time, "Seventeen" (season 10, episode 5) (2017) dir. Cole Sanchez, written and storyboarded by Seo Kim and Somvilay Xayaphone Oddapta-tions, c'mon grab yer friends! We'll blog 'bout ...

Huh, it's like a textbook about everything for grown-ups who aren't enrolled in a class. So, what's this book's deal? You remember those books from when you were a kid that explain how things work? Of course. So, this book is kinda like that but for grown-ups. It's sort of a wide-ranging guide to the basics of science, technology, art, and philosophy (various philosophical schools are pithily described by their attitudes toward high fives). Oh, and it's also a work of science-fiction. So it's non-fiction and science fiction? Yeah. The subtitle is "A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler." The author,  Ryan North , has an introductory note explaining that he found the text embedded in Pre-Cambrian rock, and that it appears to have been written by one Ryan North, a technical writer from a different timestream. The text itself claims to be a repair manual for an FC3000™rental time machine. Only the thing is, when you open up the s...

wow. much professional. very photo-editing. My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth this feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick synopses (I'll try and keep them spoiler-free, but, you know, most of these are past the statute of limitations on spoilers) of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week: The X-Wing Ennealogy by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston Background info: All right, so I'm definitely not doing individual entries for each of the books in the series. Because, you know, I'm not a masochist. Also, it's been awhile since I read them, so I mostly just remember the series' broad strokes. But what I will do is lump them together into the smaller series they form. So let's just establish what you'll need to know before picking up book one. So, it's been about two and a half years since Return of the Jedi . Following the death of Emperor Palpatine, the...