This is one beat to hell book

Gotta admire how libraries will hold on to books longer than they probably should.

Not a bad book, by the way. There's plenty of cheese here and there, but so far it's better than the lackluster Fortune's Pawn. I picked it up because I'm planning on buying Andromeda's Fall later this year, so I figured I may as well dip into the series proper.

Just finished Fortune's Pawn

I'll write a longer post about it later, but as it stands, it was average at best. The romance bits of the plot between the main character, Devi, and Rupert, the ship's cook dragged the story down and the ending was meh. I'd probably rate it a 5 or 6 out of 10.

2015 in reading and plans for 2016

I meant to do this sooner, but hey, better late than never. 2015 was a pretty good year for me in terms of reading (and given the way Grim Reaper was cutting through beloved celebrities like Leonard Nimoy, it was the only good thing about that year!). I managed to pack away twelve books which in of itself is great, but it was pretty dismal on the sci-fi front, as only four of the twelve were science fiction:

Four books and half of them were Star Trek. I wasn't joking when I said Treklit is my crack. Anyways, I was tempted to count This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams, since I found it in the SFF section of the local library, but I think it was only shelved there because the rest of the Dagmar Shaw series does veer into sci-fi territory, while this one doesn't. I was also tempted to count Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro because it features human cloning, but otherwise lacks any other elements of science fiction.

And that makes 100,000 hits

Thanks, everybody!

The twelve actors who might play a young Han Solo + one who should

The Guardian (and several other websites) has an article out about the dozen young actors shortlisted to be Han Solo in one of the myriad of Star Wars spin-offs. Let's go now to Disapproving Otter for my take on this.

Well put, Disapproving Otter. Anyways, I had to google all of the names because I'm not a teenage girl and I wasn't familiar with any of them, except for Dave Franco and Logan Lerman's. The problem is that almost all of these guys look like wimps! I'm not talking about some hyper-masculine macho "alpha male/beta-male" bullshit that parts of the internet go on and on about. I mean they look about as intimidating as Haley Joel-Osment. I grok that they'll be playing a younger version of the scruffy looking nerf-herder, but they should cast someone who at least looks like they've met puberty. The only ones on that list that don't look like they're still in high school are Franco, Scott Eastwood, and Jack Reynor.

So who do I think should be cast? Anthony Ingruber. Honestly, I never even heard of the guy until today, but he's certainly a better choice than most of the others.

He even has a passing resemblance to Harrison Ford and speaking of which, he even co-starred in a movie last year with our favorite scoundrel, playing a younger version of Ford's character.

And yet, this guy isn't even in the running to play Han? Hollywood logic: Don't cast the guy who played a younger version of Han Solo in a movie about a young Han Solo.

U.S. Postal Service is releasing Star Trek stamps this year!

(via Space.com)

No idea if they're out now or what, because even the USPS website is mum on it. I'll go to the local post office tomorrow or Monday to check.

Like Tears in Rain: Happy Birthday, Roy Batty

According to Blade Runner, Roy Batty was "born" on January 8, 2016, so of course I'm going to post his famous "Tears in Rain" speech, because it is so good.



A person's memories, their entire life experience ceasing to exist when they die is actually a horrifying realization and is an inevitability for us all and that's what makes the monologue so haunting and timeless.