Lucas Blogs About Books

That's right, there's no real post this week, but I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving (or just a Happy Regular Thursday should you not celebrate Thanksgiving). In any case, I'm thankful for my parents who always encouraged me to read (well, them and Levar Burton ). Oh, and for any non-hypothetical readers of this blog (I know that there are at least a few of you).

Too bad I don't have a van to airbrush this on. So, what's this book's dea — again? C'mon, Hypothetical Reader, this is the penultimate volume of my favorite comic book. Can we drop the "Hypothetical Reader hates Squirrel Girl" routine. I am only as you write me. Oh, right. Anyway, it's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 11 – Call Your Squirrelfriend  written by Ryan North, drawn by Derek Charm, and colored by Rico Renzi. Wanna talk about it? Fine. So, this volume starts off with a single issue story where Kang the Conqueror (a time-traveller who uses time travel and his 41st century technology to defeat his enemies) confronting Old Lady Squirrel Girl in a dystopian future. See, he's lured her into a building that he rigged to collapse on her forty years ago; only it doesn't collapse because the present day Squirrel Girl noticed the problem and fixed it in an earlier timeline. However, when Kang confronts her he's pertu...

Lions and orphans and freaks, oh my! Happy 13th of the month, readers (both hypothetical and otherwise)! You know what that means: it's time for me to revisit another entry in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events! Sticking with that intro? Yes. All right. SPOILERS  ahoy! So, after an outing that you declared the series' best , I guess this has a pretty high bar to clear. I guess so. This is only the second book in which the protagonists find themselves on the run . Was that really necessary? Not really, but I like that song. Anyway, the halfway point seems to have been a pretty good place to change up the formula, so let's see if Lemony Snicket can keep up that momentum in . . . Book the Ninth: The Carnivorous Carnival So, what do you remember about this one going in? Can I plead the fifth? Given that this isn't a courtroom or congressional hearing and you're not under oath . . . no? All right. So, the Baudelaires have st...

Huh, I didn't realize that a book could be a libra. So, what's this book's deal? It's the conclusion to the Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly. We've discussed the two previous entries on this very blog. Oh, right. I'll get around to reading those one day. All, right, but we'll definitely be discussing SPOILERS  for the previous books, so don't say I didn't warn you. I will not. All right, so this book begins about five years after the end of Armistice . The One State Party (or Ospies) have been removed from power and the provisional government is preparing for the first election since the transition of power and the front runners are Opal Saeger, a populist organizer who worked within the Catwalk resistance group whose terrorist attacks helped oust the OSP, and Emmeline Frye, an industrialist with a firm understanding of policy and optics but also a clear bent towards cronyism and underhanded deal-making. Wait! What abou...

I had some travel delays today, the post that was supposed to go up today (Monday) will instead go up tomorrow (Tuesday). However, if you're reading this on Tuesday, then please disregard the previous sentence and enjoy the new post.

At least they got the human-to-dragon scale right. Hey! Remember a couple weeks ago when I talked about how much the old Hallmark/Sci-Fi Channel miniseries based on Earthsea ? Well, now I'm gonna talk about how Studio Ghibli donked up their Earthsea adaptation! SPOILERS , of course. The Farthest Shore (1972) & Tehanu  (1990) by Ursula K. Le Guin (with a little bit of Tales of Earthsea  (2001) & The Other Wind  (2001) thrown in for good measure) into Tales of Earthsea ( ゲド戦記 or  Gedo Senki ) dir. Gorō Miyazaki, written by Gorō Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa What gives? Studio Ghibli and Ursula K. Le Guin seem like two great tastes that should taste great together. Heck, if Teto (Nausicaa's pet fox-squirrel) isn't inspired by Ged's pet otak , I'll eat my hat (Please note: I will not eat my hat). The Original: All right, let's get this show on the road. The film borrows a good deal more from The Farthest Shore than Tehanu , so I'll focus a little ...