INDIANA JONES and the LAST CRUSADE

Scholastic Inc.

Written by Ryder Windham
Based on the story by
George Lucas and Menno Meyjes
and the screenplay by Jeffrey Boam

Copyright © 2008 by Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.


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The Scholastic novelization to the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has Indiana searching for the legendary Holy Grail in order for him to find his missing academic professor father. Along the way Indiana encounters Nazis who are also looking for the sacred Holy Grail.

As this is a Scholastic book, the adaptation of this book is geared for kids. The adaptation is a straight-forward novelization of the movie and not a religious book, even if there are religious elements in the book. There are pictures of the movie compiled in the middle of the book with 1940's thrill captions for the pictures to get the feeling of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Because I had seen the movie, it was nice to picture the movie in my head as I was reading the book.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language


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STAR TREK - INCEPTION

Pocket Books
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Written by S.D. Perry & Brittra Dennison

Copyright © 2010 by CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In STAR TREK - Inception, written by S.D. Perry & Brittra Dennison, Dr. Carol Marcus assembles a terraforming project on Mars and brings on botanist Leila Kalomi onto her team. The project gets sabotaged by extreme environmentalists trying to protect rocky Mars natural climate. Kirk and Spock help Carol and Leila search for a way to control the sabotage.

It seemed a natural subject for Carol Marcus and Leila Kalomi to be paired up in a novel. Their relationships with Kirk and Spock are so similar, and the women themselves are so similar, that it makes perfect sense - although Leila's relationship with Spock is not as mature as Carol's relationship with Kirk. Unfortunately, neither of the women's relationships works out. While the initial intentions of the environmentalists are admirable, the sabotage of the project has dire consequences to Mars.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

STAR WARS - THE LAST COMMAND

Bantam Spectra

Written by Timothy Zahn

Copyright 1993 by Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

In The Last Command, Volume 3 of a Three-Book Cycle of Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, Coruscant, the home capital world of the New Republic, is under bombardment by cloaked asteroids from space being delivered by Grand Admiral Thrawn's fleet. Meanwhile, smuggler entrepreneaur Talon Karrde tries to build a partnership of smugglers to go up against the Empire. Luke and Mara go up against an insane Dark Jedi named C'boath in C'boath's secret fortified cloning facility who is determined to make Luke and Mara as his apprentices as well as shaping Leia's unborn Jedi twins into his own image.

After searching for, and locating, the lost Katana fleet of warships in the last book Dark Force Rising - the Katana fleet is hardly mentioned at all in The Last Command, which was a disappointment to me, when you consider how powerful the Katana fleet would have made the Republic if the Republic were the ones who had found the Katana fleet instead of the Empire. This is a shame as I was expecting that the fleet of warships would be utilized against the Republic in massive space battles, especially under the strategic command of Thrawn. While they may have been out of date, a fleet of warships is still pretty powerful and it was sad for me not to see them utilized. It is curious at how I was not sure which way Mara Jade would side with, as Mara used to be known as the Emperor's Hand. Insane Dark Jedi C'baoth was a very frustrating and formidable foe that I had looked forward to C'baoth being beaten.

Pancho
All people smile in the same langauge.

ANGEL - haunted

SIMON PULSE

Written by Jeff Mariotte

Copyright 2002 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

In haunted, written by Jeff Mariotte, wanna-be actress Cordelia becomes a contestant on a reality TV series in a haunted house. When Cordelia gets a vision in the middle of the show, she sends a message through the cameras and the webcams to Angel, and Angel Investigations, to search for the girl in Cordelia's vision. Meanwhile, the hauntings in the reality series haunted house become dangerously real in the contestant eliminations - and the TV series is no longer a game.

This book reminds me of the TV series Ghost Hunters, as the characters experience the various paranormal events in the haunted house - while the webcams send the character's images through the net. You also feel for the girl victim of Cordelia's vision as the girl's identity is slowly taken away from her as a result of the lawyers from Wolfram & Hart and their demonic partners.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

AREA 51 - THE TRUTH

Dell Publishing

Written by Robert Doherty

Copyright 2003 by Robert Doherty

Through the Area 51 series, witten by Robert Doherty, it has been discovered that all of the world's secret unexplained mysteries - were as a result of alien interference, similar to the TV series Dark Skies. Now everything comes to a head as the aliens get control of a space satellite system which is linked into all the nuclear missile codes - and the aliens are about to blow up the Earth.

In the process, Area 51 commander Mike Turcotte must search for his abducted former lady love - Lisa Duncan, who is not quite human and more mature than she appears to be, to help him stop the aliens that have been controlling Earth's population for several millennium. Ever since Lisa was brought back to life, and discovered to be not totally human in a previous novel - all of Lisa's characterization has been removed from this book and I, as the reader, had lost all empathy for her. This was sad for me as Lisa has become just a body in the book and not a person. Even when they do give Lisa back her charactization, I did not have quite the same empathy for her. The final face-to-face showdown with the enemy alien leader is not as satisfying as I would have liked to have seen. The showdown is almost anti-climatic as it was not much of a showdown. It was also a little disconcerting to me to find out "the truth" about the human race, but "the truth" did makes sense in the context of the series.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine - Mission Gamma

An Original Publication of POCKET BOOKS

Written by David R. George III

Copyright 2002 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of Paramount Pictures.


The Dominion War is over. The U.S.S. Defiant from Deep Space Nine is sent out on a deep space exploratory mission into the Gamma Quadrant. Meanwhile, the planet Bajor is on the verge of joining the Federation.

The first book of a four book series Mission Gama, Twilight is supposed to represent an optimistic future for both exploration of the Gamma Quadrant and for the prosperity of Bajor. However, the Defiant's mission to the Gamma Quadrant goes wrong when a First Contact becomes devastated by energy waves from another planet's star system. Back at Deep Space 9, Colonel Kira feels like she is being heavily scrutinized by Admiral Akaar for her command style of Deep Space 9. As much as the Bajorans want to join the Federation, things will change - and not everyone on Bajor is excited about the change to their home.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.