J's Pages

This tale is set in the future, after the ecological damage of humanity has almost wiped us out. Earth is enjoying a resurrection as a now peaceful humanity is working to restore the planet's ecology. There have been many technological innovations, including a device that allows people to view the past. Many of the mysteries of history have been cleared up and many lost cultural works have been recovered. The lives of many people who had been left out of the history books are discovered and humanity is now in closer touch with its past than it ever has been before. Then one day, a pair of time viewers discover that an Arawak woman they are observing can see them! This discovery opens up the possibility that they can actually affect the past and raises the question, "Is it better to continue to heal a damaged planet or to go back and prevent the damage in the first place?" Mr. Card does an excellent job of telling the tale, as well as the complementary story of the man whom the Pastwatch crew have identified as pivotal to history, Christopher Columbus.

check it out
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Labels: CheckItOut, OrsonScottCard

// posted by John @ 5:24 PM 0 Comments

by Alan Dean Foster

Ah, nostalgia! A few months back I showed the kids Star Wars and now my eldest has petitioned her aunt to read all the Star Wars; books she has on hand. That includes this volume, which I picked up and reread myself. Splinter was, I think, the first novel to be spun off of Star Wars, published in 1978. I picked up a copy back then and while it was enjoyable enough to read, it didn't make me a hard core fan. It truly was waiting room material. Rereading it 28 years later hasn't changed my opinion. Like any franchise novel, it takes some main characters--in this case Luke, Leia and Darth Vader-- adds a few characters of the author's creation and spins off a new adventure. The only notable thing about the book is that it was written before any of the other movies had come out and there is no hint of any of the plot twists that were revealed in the subsequent films. Quite the opposite in fact. There's a number of times when Luke moons over Leia. That's creepy.... 

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Labels: StarWars, WaitingRoomMaterial

// posted by John @ 9:08 PM 0 Comments