book review

Pokemon, Nameless, and Mandalorian | Rapid Reviews (Spoilers)

JoeRover Rapid Reviews, Reviews , , , , , , , , ,

The following are my opinion and do not reflect the opinion of any organization or person. May contain spoilers!

Pokemon Sword/Shield (Game Freak, Nintendo Switch): From the little bit that I’ve seen of the games, through YouTubers like Stampy Cat and GhostRobo, it looks like the other versions of Pokemon. It seems to keep the same mechanic of battle and catch Pokemon. I do like that they added sneaking. It’s nice to see that there is a way to lower your wild Pokemon encounters than by using repel after repel. I haven’t seen a gym challenge yet, but I do like the idea; and from what I’ve gathered it sounds like the gyms have some kind of mission that you need to complete first. I also enjoyed that the player’s rival, Hop, seems to have more of a part than just “smell ya later.” He actually hangs out with the player for a little bit. They (the developers, players–I’m not sure where the tale began) said that the opening/tutorial was shorter, but it looked to be just as long too me. Finally, I have to say Yamper is cute. I think it might be my second favorite Pokemon; I still like Growlithe more–though they get bonus points for the “amp” Poke-pun.

In the Heart of the Fire by Dean Koontz (Nameless series): Pretty much everything you’d want from the first book in a series. You get introduced to the main character; you get a feel for the world; and you understand the character’s goals. The story has lots of suspense and action. The writing grabs you and you can imagine yourself in the world. Also since the character has no name, you can put yourself into the shoes of the character a little bit easier. I do have a problem with how OP Nameless is. He has this nearly all-powerful organization helping him. They can hack into anything, and they can plan for any problem. Nameless himself seems very capable. I didn’t feel worried that Nameless could be hurt. He can be injured, and he can be surprised; but it just seems like everything falls into place thanks to the planning of the organization. I’m glad the books are short; I can finish one in a short period of time and move on to something else. The shortness also adds to the sense of a deadline; it keeps the book moving forward. Finally, I liked that the whole series was released at once so I can “binge read” them. I think with the stories being so short, if Koontz released them one at time, I might have not been interested. FYI, you can get a discount on the entire collection on Amazon (not sponsored, not an affiliated link).

The Mandalorian (Chapter 3: The Sin, Disney+): I really enjoyed how well the production team showed more of the Mandalorian’s character, and the lives of the surviving Mandalorians, without telling. Within only a few seconds of a scene, you could tell who was the leader, what the Mandalorian culture is, and the personality of the main Mandalorian. The episode also did a great job with their battle scenes. Both the ranged/gunfight and the hand-to-hand stealth fight were done well; I enjoyed how they balanced it out–it wasn’t all fist fights or all blaster battles. The crew seems to be able to jump between the two well. I also enjoyed the hints at possible other plots or conflicts, such as one villain stating that the metal is easy to come by but not a crafter. I wondered if the villain knew that the Mandalorians were in hiding; I half expected the metal to be bugged. When young Mandalorian was about to be killed by a droid in his flashback, I hopped that Original Yoda would have shown up to rescue him, showing why he might care for the baby Yoda. Finally, I enjoyed how they make the Mandalorian tough but kind. He isn’t gruff and likable like Wolverine. You can tell Mandalorian had it rough and he’s been affected by it, but you can see his kindness and how he wants to protect his people. He wants to honor their culture, i.e. he is the culture and history of Mandalore–which is probably why he hasn’t been given a name yet.

Do you have any shows, books, movies, etc you’d like to see a review on? Tell me in the comments.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.

Join in the adventure as Joe and company deal with everything from waking up in the morning to stopping an alien invasion in the Christmas themed eBook Gift of the Minion. Releases Dec. 3. Preorder for $0.99, regular price $2.99.

Let’s Read #4

JoeRover Let's Read, Superman: Dawnbreaker , , , , , , , ,

Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Peña–Chapters 8-16. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum.

In these chapters the suspense and action really take over.

When Lana and Clark sneak onto some property, they get chased. It was interesting reading this part because I knew Clark wouldn’t get hurt, but I still felt the fear and worry. It shows how good of a writer Peña is.

Peña also does a great job of making you feel Clark’s panic attacks. During these chapters, he discovers new powers or discovers how strong they are. Each time he panics, you get a picture of how he feels different and isolated from everyone.

Finally, I could feel the increase in tension as the date of the voting nears. There are more protests and more violence. You really get this feeling of a semi-calm before a storm. It feels like it won’t be long before there is mass chaos.

So, what do you think? How do you think Clark will stop the violence? Will the people vote for or against the stop-and-search law that is targeting minorities? How do you think the vote outcome with affect Clark’s viewpoint of his hometown? How will this affect his journey on becoming Superman? Tell me your theories in the comments.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.

Let’s Read #3

JoeRover Let's Read, Superman: Dawnbreaker , , , , , , , , ,

Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Peña–Chapters 8-12. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum.

I’ve really been enjoying how Peña balances the action with slower moments. For instance, there is the part where Clark stops some thieves then he has a brief emotional moment with his father then he’s relaxing at a party with friends. There are very few, if any, boring moments. The moments that would normally be boring are also interesting because you see more of the mystery or more of Clark’s character.

Speaking of mystery, I enjoy how the investigation part of the mystery feels like a real investigation story. For a moment, it seemed almost like I had stopped reading a fantasy/superhero story and started reading a mystery/crime novel.

I did have to sigh and roll my eyes when Clark’s super-hearing gave out just as someone was going to say something important. But, I did like how it showed that he didn’t have full control over his powers and that they could give out on him–it added some suspense.

It was also nice to see the plot of the missing people start to take the spotlight. So far, it has just been hinted at or treated as a B Plot. I like how there seems to be a connection between someone buying up farmland and the missing persons, but it still makes you wonder if they really aren’t connected–maybe there are two villains in town.

So, what do you think? Why do you think people are missing? Why does it seem to be only immigrants? Is it all connected to Clark and that he’s an alien or is that just to throw us off and the real reason is a twist? My working theory is that someone knows an alien landed in Smallville so they are rounding up any strangers to try and find the alien. Tell me your theories in the comments.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.

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Recommended #15

JoeRover Recommended , , , , ,

Some more recommendations you might enjoy. The following are my opinion and do not reflect any organization or person.

Blogs Posts

All Your Fears (review of the book All Your Fears by Peter Hodgson) by Literary Titan

Photo Of The Day! by simpledimple from Giggles & Tales

Strange Subtraction by Edmark M. Law from Learn Fun Facts

A 90’s Teen Reflects on ‘Titantic’ by Adina Bernstein from MovieBabble

In a Nutshell #49 by sandyjwhite from Out of My Write Mind

Where’s the riot?

JoeRover Reviews , , , , , , , , , ,

All reviews are my personal opinion and do not reflect the views of any person or organization.

Here be Spoilers. Enter at your own risk.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Space Riot by Pat Shand has our spacefaring heroes taking a shipment of medicine to a plant people planet (try saying that three times fast) who are suffering from a plague. Once the Guardians arrive at the star system, they find it to be blocked by a force field. They need to get permission to pass. After some creepy feelings and subtle threats, they are allowed to leave. Once on the plant planet, they soon find that the plague was not a plague but an invasion. The Guardians are soon on the run from an at least two planet strong army.

The use of having each chapter told by a different character is nothing new, but what I enjoyed is that they sounded like that character. The Star-Lord chapters sounded as if Star-Lord was speaking, that he’d written that chapter.

I found the Drax chapters a little harder to find his voice. The Drax chapters sounded more like the author speaking than Drax. But to be fair, Drax has a different short of character. He doesn’t really have the internal dialogue like the others and he’s more literal. I did notice that once Drax began to have a personal conflict, involving a crush on someone (and I mean a love-crush not a smash-crush like Drax thought “having a crush” meant), the Drax chapters did seem to change.

When I saw that each chapter would be “narrated” by a different Guardian, I hoped that there would be a Groot chapter. I wondered how Shand would do that. Would it be six pages of “I am Groot”? I was surprised to see that not only was there a Groot chapter but it delve into the mind of Groot. You get to see how he feels about not being able to communicate with anyone other than Rocket. You get to see a version of Groot that is quite smart. Some stories show Groot as being stupid or naïve; this Groot is wiser and observant.

I also enjoyed how the individual chapters allowed the reader to see more of the characters’ motives and backgrounds. You learn a lot about why the characters act the way they do.

Shand’s description of the Thandrid was excellent. I got a clear image of what they looked like. Maybe too clear. I kept getting an image of a insect that looked similar to a xenomorph from the Alien movies. But this might’ve been on purpose because of how the Thandrid invade. Much like the xenomorphs, the Thandrid burst out from their host’s body (except it’s the head instead of the chest).

I was surprised and not surprised when the first head-bursting happened. Since I had the xenomorph image in my head (no pun intended), I was not surprised to see it happen. In other words, the clues had been there since the beginning. I didn’t feel like this was some cheap scare that came out of nowhere. Nonetheless, it still shocked me because I wasn’t waiting for it, and the description of the baby Thandrid crawling around creeped me out. It wasn’t like a mystery book where you solve the murder in the first chapter and then are waiting till the end to have your guess confirmed.

My main problem with the book is I kept asking, “Where’s the riot?” The book was called Space Riot and yet there was no riot. There was war and fighting and explosions, but not much of a riot. I guess you could call it a riot because the Incarnadinians, the other planet marked for invasion, and the Guardians rebelled against the Thandrid. Also, all the people of the system were held prisoner by the force field, so it was more like the rebel “prisoners” were rioting against the Thandrid “guards.” The war was very one sided. The Thandrid had the numbers and the technology, so it was more of a riot. But the riot idea really came into play when the Guardians and rebels crashed into the Thandrid prison allowing all the prisoners to escape. It then turned into a literal riot and they attacked the Thandrid.

I have to give Space Riot a 4.6 out of 5. The writing was excellent, the book was short enough that I could finish it in a timely manner but still long enough that I felt like I got my money’s worth, and the book kept making me want to continue. It wasn’t boring at all. It seemed like we were always moving forward. Sometimes the forward motion was a little slower but we were still moving forward. But, it didn’t have the same…silliness of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. It seemed like these Guardians were ones that had more experience or were more mature. They still had the same characteristics, but just different.

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