DWD's Reviews

Published in May of 2018 by Macmillan Audio. Duration: 6 hours, 58 minutes. Read by Holter Graham. Unabridged. A.D. Jameson is a student of cinema - not just science fiction and fantasy movies, but of cinema in general. I used the word "student" in the previous sentence carefully because he is not just a fan of movies, he studies the directors, the movements and the ideas behind the movies. Photo by DWD But, he is also a proud geek - a fan of sci-fi and fantasy literature and movies. Like me, he was really into those genres in middle and high school, moved away from them for a while during and after college and then came back to them in a big way when the Star Wars "Special Edition" movies were released. My own children do not believe me, but there was once a time when the mere sight of a Star Wars t-shirt or bumper sticker was worthy of comment. Now, they are everywhere. My family probably owns more than 20 Star Wars -related t-shirts alone. A.D. Jameson...

A Review of the Audiobook Published in November of 2016 by Penguin Audio Read by Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd Duration: 5 hours, 10 minutes Unabridged Published just a few weeks before her death, Carrie Fisher's The Princess Diarist continues in her well-known tradition of tell-all books. This is my first Carrie Fisher book. If you have not read a book of hers before, be prepared for a frank and open discussion of just about anything that pops into her head. Every family has that older relative who means well but makes comments in front of the children that you just know will necessitate a subsequent discussion ("Why did Uncle Bob say...?). Carrie Fisher served that role in the world of Hollywood for many years. The first half of the book is mostly devoted to the making of the original Star Wars movie, now known as Episode IV . There were a lot of factoids I had already heard or read before, but it was enjoyable listening to Carrie Fisher literally tell them again...

A pleasant enough read but Paolini seriously needs to send an apology to George Lucas... I enjoyed the book but I kept on thinking that I've read this book before. No, I'm not talking about the obvious debt Paolini owes the Tolkein and also to the "Dragonriders of Pern" series. I'm talking Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope or plain old Star Wars to all of us old-timers. Both feature an orphaned teenage farmboy, left with his uncle under mysterious circumstances that no one wants to discuss. The uncle dies when dangerous outsiders come looking for the boy. Luke Skywalker has the Force. Eragon has magic. Both Luke and Eragon are watched over by strange older men who eventually provide them with their first weapon (the very weapon that wiped out a set of good knights in the name of an evil emperor), taught them magic (the Force) and how to fight. The older man dies. Eragon frees a girl from a castle with the help of that wanted-by-the-law Ro...

Published in 2010 by DK Publishing DK Publishing continues a trend of producing lavish coffee table books filled with page after page of montages of full color images. In this case, the topic is the Star Wars phenomenon. Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle is a very large coffee table book - one inch thick, 10 inches wide and nearly a foot high. This book could just as easily have been called "George Lucas Year by Year." Star Wars dominates Lucas's career like the Eiffel Tower dominates the Paris skyline. Perhaps, even more so. Boba Fett and George Lucas As the title states, the book is a visual timeline of George Lucas, the Star Wars franchise and the people and companies involved in its production and promotion. We see early handwritten notes about "Journal of the Whills" - one of the first drafts of Star Wars Episode IV . Later on, we see further updates, including the introduction of a character named Luke Starkiller who, of course, became ...