A Discourse in Steel (A Tale of Egil and Nix) Excerpt

In what promises to be a dark, irreverent and fun follow up to his 2012 sword and sorcery novel The Hammer and the Blade, author Paul S. Kemp will soon be releasing A Discourse in Steel.  This novel will continue the adventures of Egil and Nix set in Kemp's own fantasy world.

Here is a taste of the excerpt that Kemp released for May as a teaser.  The first taste is free, after that you gotta buy the book.

Nix took a length of thin, strong rope from his satchel of needful things – he always carried several lengths of the best line he could buy – and bound the man’s hands and ankles. Then he went back up to the bar, half-filled a tankard with ale, returned to the cellar and threw it in the man’s face. The man sputtered and blinked awake. He had small eyes, too close together, a large nose and a narrow chin specked with a day’s growth of whiskers.

He eyed Nix, Egil, the cellar, swallowed hard. Nix could see thoughts moving behind his eyes.

“Yeah, you’re in a bit of it,” Nix said. “I’ve been there.”

“It was just a burn job,” the man said, his voice nasally. “I do it, I get paid, and I don’t know nothing more than that.”

Egil harrumphed and Nix tsked.

“Burn jobs don’t call for barring doors, now do they?”

The man colored but his expression remained defiant.

A symbol hung from a leather lanyard around the man’s neck. Nix grabbed it, yanked it off, and eyed the charm: a stiletto with a coin balanced on the tip. Aster’s symbol. Nix shared a knowing look with Egil.

“This here’s a guild boy, Egil.”

“Fakkin’ sneak priests and fools,” Egil said.

“I don’t know nothing about a guild,” the man said.

Nix tossed the charm at the man and hit him in his overlarge nose. “Not too smart, are you?”

To read the rest of the excerpt visit Paulskemp.com 

Do you like Game of Thrones?

This blog is focused on Star Wars and will always be primarily Star Wars focused, but above and beyond Star Wars, I am a fan of good storytelling in it's various forms. To that end you will have noticed me review some none Star Wars content, primarily Science Fiction and Fantasy novels.   

Well like much of the rest of the world I have jumped on the Game of Thrones bandwagon.  I just picked up and powered through Seasons One and Two on Blu-ray and I am hooked.  

To help ease the pain and fill the void that the departure of The Clone Wars has left in my blogging life, I am going to start regular coverage of Season Three of Game of Thrones with a review of each episode.  Hopefully you like my Thrones coverage as much as you do my Star Wars coverage.  

Winter is coming, I better go find a Tauntaun to hide in.  

Watch Now: Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome Episodes 1 & 2

Machinima has the first two short episodes of the Battlestar Galactica Prequel, BSG: Blood and Chrome up on their website and Youtube now.

The series features a wet behind the ears Bill Adama, callsign "Husker" and is set in the tenth year of the First Cylon War.

You can watch the two episodes below.

Episode 1:



Episode 2: 



Trailer: 





SOURCE: Machinima.com

Star Wars vs. Star Trek Infographic from HARK

Our friends at HARK.com have a little infographic that sets the two great scifi franchises head to head, in a battle for galactic dominance.





I'll spoil it for you, Star Wars wins. Of course when it comes to the power of the Force versus cold Vulcan logic the battle was never in doubt.


SOURCE: HARK

Review: Prometheus (Spoilers)

A funny thing happened on the way to the Alien franchise...director Ridley Scott has delivered an interesting character study dropped in the middle of a summer SciFi flick.

If like me the last films you saw in the theater where The Avengers and Battleship then it is a bit of a disorienting experience in viewing Prometheus.

The first hint that this is not going to be your average SciFi movie is the rather delicate musical score.

At it's core Prometheus is a philosophical meditation on human nature and it draws on both our strengths and our flaws.

Prometheus is far from a perfect film, and will certainly not appeal to all audiences.  It felt like most of the film's action sequences where already shown in various trailers and previews, so keep in mind going in that while there is action it is really not the focus of the film.

The general plot of the Prometheus is that in the not so distant future scientists discover a series of archeological paintings/carvings that have common symbolism and provide an interstellar road map.

A rich loon (Peter Wayland) decides to fund a massive expedition to these coordinates in search of the creators of humanity with a largely uniformed crew.

Upon reaching the habitable moon they find ruins and remains and then all heck breaks loose.

The "main" character of the film is Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, but the most important character in the film is Michael Fassbender's David.  David is a rather interesting robot to put it mildly.

My biggest problem with the film was the way that key items where introduced into the film. There are a number of times that we are introduces to something that will play a large role later in the films and almost every time it feels to obvious. I'm looking at you surgical table.

The other thing that really had me shaking my head was Dr. Shaws ability to run, jump, and fight for her life seconds after having a Caesarean section procedure performed on her.  I am sorry but even doped up on super awesome future pain killers that seemed like an impossible feat for a human being.

Prometheus explores human emotions and impulses by using both human and non-human characters in a bit of an echo chamber of actions and reactions.

We have the humans, David, the Architects and the proto-aliens.

The proto-aliens are the easiest to understand and assess. They provide an illustration of the most basic biological imperative, the urge to survive. They where a biological weapon designed that was to effective and once the genie was out of the bottle there was no way to put it back in. A bit like the development of nuclear weapons, if only the weapons where self-aware.

The proto-aliens' "evil" is really just a matter of perspective.

The ability to reason and the ability to choose self-sacrifice over self-preservation is a profound human strength and is illustrated at to important points in the film. It is a good contrast to the proto-alien's behavior.

The Architects behavior is very human, but present us with a species that can truly play God. Interestingly the film begins with the rather noble act of self-sacrifice by an Architect in order to disperse the DNA building blocks for humanities creation.

The desire to create is natural, but it appears the Architects either disapproved of their human creations or simply neglected that creation and it spread beyond the scope they intended for it. The desire to eradicate humanity may simply have been the way to sterilize the lab environment after the experiment was over. It sets up a rather interesting look at how human's view other life forms on our planet as being of a lower order and how casually we create, experiment on and destroy those other creatures.

The Architects also apparently have the war like tendencies of humans, if the alien virus was designed as a biological weapon then clearly they had someone to fight, could have been each other or another species.

The Architects also suffered from the rather human flaw of being unable to anticipate or control the results o their action. In the end are we destined as a species to be the architects of our own destruction?

I rather enjoyed the irony of both the humans and proto-aliens both attempting to kill the lone surviving Architect at the installation.

The humans are a rather mixed bagged of characters.

We see illustrations of how the natural instinct towards curiosity can led to disaster. The curiosity and ability to create David has some rather unfortunate ramifications for certain crew members and ultimately for the human characters in the Alien films. That curiosity and need to know also leads to the planet where the humans walk into a situation they do not comprehend and do not react to until it is to late.

On a more micro level the curiosity leads directly to the snake charmer death that befalls Millburn.

The emotion of fear plays a large role in the film. The fear of death and the questions we face when considering our own mortality seem to be the key motivation for the funding of the expedition.

Faith is displayed at different times in different ways, from faith in a higher power or afterlife to a misplaced faith in our own abilities.

The desire for revenge is a very human if ugly quality. The end reveals another quality that results from the ability to reason, sometimes the desire to harm others is more important then self preservation. At the end is Dr. Shaw anything other then a intergalactic suicide bomber? Is she any better than the Architects she seeks to destroy?

Charlize Theron's character Meredith Vickers may have a pretty healthy case of patricidal tendencies, but she illustrates unbridled ambition and covetousness well. Though I wonder if the film's pacing and story telling would have been better served (tighter) with her and her father's role diminished greatly.

The most interesting character to think about is David. He is not the evil robot that we see in Battlestar Galactica's Cylons, nor is he the rather benign Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data.

The biggest unexplained question about David in the film is how much his actions are defined by his programming and how much was his own initiative. Perhaps this is left open as an allusion to the nature versus nurture debate in human behavioral psychology.

Why does David infect Charlie Holloway? Was he ordered to by Wayland, or was he simply curious to see the effects of his experiment?

Did David view himself as a higher order of life form than his flawed human creators? Did he view Holloway and Shaw the same way we view lab rats?

In a debate between morality and immorality, is David simply amoral? The easier answer would be yes, but there are enough slights that David suffers at the hands of his creators that it would not be unreasonable of he desired their destruction, even on a subconscious or in his case sub-routine level.

As a film I don't think Prometheus answers some of the larger questions and themes it addresses, but I don't think it is trying to. To me it is an attempt to in an entertaining way point out these themes from a variety of perspectives and expect you to ponder the film after you leave the theater.

Review: Battleship

Hi, My name is Peter and I have a confession.  I actually enjoyed the movie, Battleship.

This review may shatter any pop culture credibility that I have, but I can't help it, I had fun at this movie.

This felt like the typical summer movie.  After the first 20 minutes or so of the movie it was non-stop action.  It felt in tone and content a lot like Roland Emmerich's 1996 film, Independence Day and I think that is the best way to describe Battleship, Independence Day in the water.  

Battleship was written by the team of Erich and Jon Hoeber (Red, Whiteout, Montana) and directed by actor/writer/director Peter Berg (Hancock, The Kingdom, Friday Night Lights).

Now one of the good things about not paying attention to the hype leading up to this movie was the fact that I was oblivious to the fact that Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights and John Carter) was the main character.  I simply did not recognize him with short hair in the trailer.  So when a drunk Riggins showed up to open the film in a bar and attempted to pick up a hot chick, I was grinning.  As an aside, if you haven't watched the TV series Friday Night Lights, go watch it, it is a very well done series.   But while I am on the subject of Friday Night Lights, another former cast member Jesse Plemons (who played Landry Clarke) has a major co-staring role in the film.  If you ever wonder what Landry and Riggins did during FNL: The College Years, apparently they join the Navy and fight space aliens.  

The biggest criticism of the film will be shoehorning the concept of a rather basic board game into a sci-fi popcorn movie.  In all honesty the film would probably have been better off simply without the Battleship branding on it.  Of course Hasbro has designs on selling a ton of new board games in addition to money from the film.  That being said, while I groaned about how they incorporated the game into the film, it fit into the story as they constructed it.

What Battleship did well was  provide fun and humor.  Most of the dialogue was quick exchanges of one liners and surprisingly enough the "love story" portion of the film was basically there for a little drama but mostly for laughs.  This isn't your typical love story dropped in the middle of an action flick.

The soundtrack to Battleship is a full rock and roll all the way.  Good music laced into the movie is always a plus and helps up the adrenaline in the extended action scenes.  

Do not expect accuracy to real life military situations, I think at one point the USS Missouri executed a move last scene in Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.  

I really enjoyed the alien and alien technology in Battleship.  The alien ships where very interesting in the way they moved and the aliens themselves where an interesting flesh-toned humanoid with a porcupine goatee.  

Two of the things that will make patriots smile is the respect the film showed to veterans both the current generation's wounded warriors and the older generations veterans.  One of the co-stars of the film Lt. Col.Mick Canales, played by actual Col Gregory Gadson a veteran who lost both legs to an IED in Iraq in 2007.  Gadson has some of the best (if cheesy) lines in the film and shows that even with his handicap he can still kick butt. 

The film also co-stars Rihanna as Petty Officer Cora 'Weps' Raikes, Liam Neeson as Admiral Shane, Tadanobu Asano as Captain Yugi Nagata, John Tui as Chief Petty Officer Walter 'The Beast' Lynch, and Brooklyn Decker as Sam Shane.  Neeson is used sparingly but effectively.  Rihanna was pretty good, though it always seemed like she was running somewhere, and John Tui came off as a just a cool dude.  Brooklyn Decker is easy on the eyes and her performance wasn't actually pretty good.

I am a bit surprised after watching the film that it was released now instead of around the July 4th weekend, as it seems that it would have been the perfect popcorn patriotism that is a hit in the theaters around our Independence Day holiday.  

All in all not the best film this summer, no threat to Avengers box office, but I see this being a blu-ray guilty pleasure on the level of ID4 and Armageddon.  

Disassembling The Avengers

Nick Furry sums up what a new generation of moviegoers will be saying for a long long time, "I still believe in heroes."  

Avengers directed by Joss Whedon and written by Whedon and Zak Penn is a magnificent triumph in fun.

The film focuses on the established cast of heroes that has appeared in the well orchestrated series of lead up films, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

In addition to Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America, the Avengers team is filled out by Black Widow ( Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

By now unless you were living under a rock or collapsed secret S.H.I.E.L.D. installation then you have heard how good a job the cast and crew did with this film. Avengers ranks right up there is the recent Batman films and X-Men: First Class in terms of quality and in my opinion surpasses these other comic book based films.

As awesome as the movie was, there was some interesting choices in terms how characters were used and which supporting characters were used.  Let's take a character by character look at the film.

Iron Man/Tony Stark:

Robert Downey Jr. is one of the best actors of his generation and inhabits the character of Tony Stark perfectly.  In this film Downey had the lion share of best one-liners filled with sarcastic pop-culture references.  But we also got a very interesting character progression as Stark's selfish tendencies are tempered by Pepper Potts and his growth as a team player.

Tony Stark: "Your work is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Hulk/Bruce Banner:

I am a hug Edward Norton fan, but I actually preferred the way that Mark Ruffalo portrayed Bruce Banner in this film.  Its was an interesting and sedate performance for a character that contrasts very strongly with the "Other Guy."  In his angry form, the Hulk stole the movie with the best action and one of the funniest and most comic book panel like scenes between Hulk and Thor.

Tony Stark: [to Thor] No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing.

Thor:

The Norse god has the benefit of having the most impressive visual superpowers, lightning bolts, big weapon, flying all work well in the superhero genre.  On the whole though, even though this film featured Thor's brother Loki, Thor felt much more like a supporting character then one of the leads of this ensemble cast.  I did enjoy the Loki-Thor scene before the forest fight amongst the heroes.

Steve Rogers: Ma'am, there's only one God, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't look like that. 

Captain America/Steve Rogers:

The boyscout of the Marvel universe served as a good contrast to the more modern and cynical attitudes of most of the cast.  The loss of faith scene where Cap learns that S.H.I.E.L.D. is keeping some secrets was a nice moment that helped push Cap closer to his fellow Avengers and less beholden to the chain of command.  I kind of miss the WWII era Cap outfit though as they went with the more traditional comic looking costume in this one.  Cap's shield was used really effectively, especially as the ricochet shot while they were fighting in the streets of NYC.

Tony Stark: [to Captain America] You might have missed a couple things, y'know, doing time as a Capsicle.

Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff:

Is a lot of Scarlett Johansson ever a bad thing? No not really, but there seems to be a lot of unanswered questions with this character.  For non-comic readers, I think we needed more back story to understand who she was and what her "abilities" are and how they were developed.  Fighting space aliens with a couple pistols doesn't seem to lend itself to a high probability of survival.

There was also the rather weird shell-shocked/traumatized performance that Johansson gave once the Hulk was unleashed.  It seems like there was a back story here that we were missing to make that performance make sense.

Hawkeye/Clint Barton:  

Hawkeye worked as the turncoat good guy, you don't want to really do that with one of the core four, but it seemed like overall, Hawkeye probably got more screen time then necessary.  I thought Renner's performance was solid, but the character itself doesn't do much for me.

Nick Furry:

Jackson was best in small doses in the film and while he had his moments, I thought he was better in the small doses we saw of the character in the other Marvel films cameo scenes and post-credit scenes.


Thor: He's my brother 
Natasha Romanoff: He killed 80 people in 2 days 
Thor: ...He's adopted 


Loki:

Tom Hiddleston plays a very good villain and I had lots of fun watching Loki go all General Zod on the theatre crowd.

Supporting Cast:  

Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Prof Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård),  and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) were the most prominent supporting characters, unless you count a picture of Padme.

Of these I thought Selvig was a useful character, didn't get in the way and served a good purpose.  Potts was played very well in her very brief scenes lending some humanity and likability to Tony Stark.

Phil Coulson is probably my favorite character in the recent Marvel films, I just enjoyed the heck out Gregg's performances. Predictably Coulson got the full Whedon treatment, damn you Joss!

The only character that really bothered me in the entire film was Agent Hill.  I am sorry but she felt like a Red Shirt, I didn't care about the character, half expected her to be blown to pieces and was mildly shocked at how much screen time she received.

In addition to the interesting characters the visuals in this film were over the top fun.  While the Chitauri were an interesting villain in the way they fought on their flying chariots, I feel like most modern sci-fi/fantasy/Superhero films often give alien bad guys similar looks.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier was awesome and the use of weapons and special effects that tied in elements of the earlier films makes a nice visual cohesiveness to the franchises.

The biggest laugh of the film was a close tie between the earlier Hulk/Thor scene and the amazing Hulk/Loki scene.


Loki: [Hulk and Loki fighting. Everything stops] I am a God! I am not going to be bullied by a... 
The Hulk: [Hulk grabs him by the legs and throws him around] Puny God! 


Overall, Avengers is a must see movie and the perfect kind of escapist story telling that works best on the big screen.   I look forward to more.

Review: Evil Dark by Justin Gustainis

One of Angry Robot Books' most recent releases is Evil Dark by Justin Gustainis.  Evil Dark is the second book in a series of novels starring Detective Sergeant Stan Markowski and his vampire partner Detective Karl Renfer.

This book could be subtitled Law & Order: OCU (Occult Crime Unit).  If you are a fan of police procedural stories and also enjoy horror, this is an interesting mixture of the two genres.

Publisher's Summary:

“My name’s Markowski. I carry a badge. Also a crucifix, some wooden stakes, big vial of holy water and a 9mm Beretta loaded with silver bullets.”
A series of seemingly motiveless murders of supernatural creatures points to a vigilante targeting the supe community of Scranton.
Markowski wouldn’t normally have much of a problem with that, but his daughter may be next on the killer’s list…

The main plot involves the investigation into a mystery surrounding a series of demonic snuff films.  Markowski must work with and interact both normal human criminals, cops and civilians but also Supes.  Markowski's world is populated by the full range of supernatural beings, vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, trolls, etc. It is curious to see how these different groups of supernatural beings have adapted to living in the real world.

Detective Markowski has to juggle his personal life that features a vampire daughter and a number of interesting female potential love interests, all of whom could be in danger from the villains i the story.

What Gustainis does really well is integrating the Supes into the gritty reality of Scranton.  What he failed at to this reader was in some of his characterization, particularly of the female characters.  At times it felt like the female characters where doing and saying what a teenage boy would want them to do and say and not what they should actually end up doing.  This issue was most glaring at the books end, but I'd be interested to hear if others had the same issues that I do after reading.

While I did have some issues with Gustainis' characterizations, overall I found it to be a very fun novel.  Evil Dark feels like one of those old pulp magazine stories, set your expectations accordingly and enjoy the ride.

For more on the book visit: Angry Robot Books and to purchase the book you can visit Amazon.com 

Review: The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp

“You see?” the priest said, kicking one of the pieces of the creature across the sand-dusted floor. “Moments, Nix.  Life and death are experienced in the moments.” 

The Hammer and the Blade is written by author Paul S. Kemp, this introductory tale of the adventurers of ill gotten plunder, Egil of Ebenor and Nix the Quick is a fast paced ride full of disturbing detail, gluttonous gore and fantastic fun.

Kemp has a knack for finding those grey areas in life, expanding and inhabiting them in his novels.  His characters aren't your squeaky clean heroes or your mustache twirling villains.  Both the protagonists and antagonists are hodgepodges of strengths and flaws, emotions such as fear and anger drive their actions, serving as catalysts for their choices and revealing their character.

Egil and Nix may not be your traditional heroes, but these two men, as close as brothers serve to check the excesses of the other's personality, independently it would be easy to imagine both falling into a debased existence of little utility to anyone.  The banter between this duo keeps the novel from veering off into complete darkness and helps the reader piece together the personalities of Egil and Nix.

The Hammer and the Blade is full of sorcerers, demons, and beasts both human and non-human.  A caution to younger readers or parents looking to pick up the book, there is some content in the novel of a more mature nature, and those sensitive to sexual violence should be prepared going in for some rather dastardly acts.

As with any of Kemp's books, the main characters are put through the wringer both physically and emotionally and it is a little surprising that they make it past the first few chapters.  One of the things that I also enjoyed in this novel was the way some of the supporting characters, whom where nominally villains interacted with Egil and Nix.  The ending was both fulfilling and disturbing and I hope we get to revisit the adventures of Egil and Nix in the near future.

The Hammer and the BIade made me reflect upon the issue of morality.   In recent years thanks to my wife, I have found my way to a faith that I had not previously experienced but had long yearned for.  Raised as the only child of divorced parents, my father a lapsed Catholic and mother a lapsed Presbyterian, I was not raised in faith.  I have long enjoyed reading and learning, so I have studied a variety of faiths, belief systems and moral codes.  Yet for whatever reason, I had never been able to get past the intellectual analysis of those beliefs to the place where faith resides.  This left me with an interesting quandary, how does one develop one's moral compass without the obvious touchstones of religion?  Without a doubt, much of what we learn as right and wrong is passed down from our parents, but which of these lessons do we accept and internalize and which of these do we reject?  How do we adjust our moral compass when confronted with novel situations and problems?

There may not be any simple answer to these questions, the human condition is complex and ever changing.  Each day we are presented with moments of choice, some trivial and some momentous.  It is in these choices that we define who we are and the path that we choose to take.  In any moment, each one of us can be a hero or a villain.

It is in these moments of choice that Kemp's characterization shines and that his characters define themselves.  You may have a character like Egil who is the sole priest of the Momentary God, while he has belief system it is one that he has crafted himself, or in Nix you have a man who has no problem robbing a grave, but rises up to defend the honor of a prostitute.  Perhaps a real hero isn't the one that makes the noble choice, but one that has the strength to make an evil choice to spare another and the ability to live with that choice.  That every choice has consequences is a lesson well learned by both Egil and Nix, in The Hammer and the Blade.

To read an excerpt of The Hammer and the Blade visit Paul S. Kemp's website and for more information on the book, visit the publisher Angry Robot Books.

The Hammer and the Blade will be released on June 26, 2012 and you can pre-order it now on Amazon.com.

A Fundraiser by Author Jim C. Hines for Sexual Assault Awareness Month

In a departure from our usual silliness, let me bring to your attention a real cool giveaway being organized by fantasy author Jim C. Hines to benefit Rape Crisis Centers.

The sad fact of our society and the world is that rape is far to common of a crime.  If you haven't been a victim of this crime or known someone who has been a victim then it may be hard to understand just how profound an impact this horrific crime can have on some-one's life.  Rape is a violation that victims will never be able to forget and must live with the rest of their lives.  As horrible is the crime is however, it is important to remember that there is hope and healing is possible.  To the parents out there, please raise your boys right, to the men out there please act like real men, protect and honor women do not hurt them.

April is sexual assault awareness month, so please take time, donate if you can or help in one of the many ways large or small that you can to help reduce sexual assaults in this country and to help victims of sexual assault find healing and justice.

Below is the complete post regarding the giveaway hosted by author Jim C. Hines from his website.

"Fundraising for Rape Crisis Centers 

April is sexual assault awareness month. 

This is something that’s very important to me. I’ve written a fair amount about rape over the years, but a lot of it comes down to:
Rape is a horribly common crime. 

As a society, we tend to punish victims while excusing or defending many perpetrators of rape
While the individual rapist is always responsible for his (or her) crimes, there are cultural/societal reasons rape continues at such a frequent rate
Survivors of rape deserve support, no matter what. 

For several years, I’ve run a fundraiser and given out signed books to encourage people to donate to rape crisis centers. In the past, I’ve given out autographed books to people who donate, but this year I wanted to go even bigger. So I’ve talked to some author friends, and the net result is that you could win a lot more books this year, depending on how much money we raise. 

I’ll post a running total here throughout the month. The more money we raise, the more prizes I’ll throw into the pot. Right now, we’re covered through $3000 with a total of seventeen incredible, autographed books. If we raise more money, then I’ll just have to round up more authors and prizes. 

TOTAL RAISED AS OF 4/11/2012: $473 

The prizes so far and the amount we have to raise to add them to the giveaway are as follows:
$0 - An ARC of Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines
$250 - Blue Magic, by Alyx Dellamonica
$500 - The Unexpected Miss Bennet, by Patrice Sarath
$750 - A book from Anton Strout (an ARC of Alchemystic or, if the ARCs aren’t ready, a copy of Dead to Me)
$1000 - Of Blood and Honey & And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht
$1250 - A Magic of Twilight (hardcover) from S.L. Farrell
$1500 - Range of Ghosts, by Elizabeth Bear
$1750 - The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea, by Martha Wells
$2000 - Hardcovers of Twilight’s Dawn and Bridge of Dreams, by Anne Bishop
$2500 - With Fate Conspire & an ARC of A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan
$3000 - The Vineart Trilogy (hardcover) by Laura Anne Gilman
$3500 - ??? 

Thanks so much to all of the authors who offered books! 

The rules:
You can donate to your local rape crisis center, or if you prefer, to an organization like RAINN. Most places will take donations online.
To enter, send an e-mail to endrape@jimchines.com.
Let me know how much you donated so I can update the total. You can donate any amount, from $1 to $10,000 or more.
If you donate at least $50, please include some sort of documentation (e-mail or electronic receipt, something like that).
Make sure to include your mailing address!
Now, Michigan law prohibits unlicensed raffles, meaning I can’t require donations to enter. Therefore, if you can’t donate anything at all, you can still e-mail me to enter the giveaway. But for those who can, please try to give at least a few bucks. 

Winners will be selected at random on May 1. If there are particular books you’d like, please mention them in your e-mail, in order of priority. But I can’t guarantee anything. I’m planning to pick winners and prizes like so: 

Randomly draw winner #1. If they asked for a specific book, that’s what they win. Otherwise, they get the first one on the list (Libriomancer). 

Randomly draw winner #2. If they asked for a specific book and it’s available, that’s what they win. Otherwise, they get whatever’s next on the list.
And so on and so forth, until all the prizes have homes.
I hope that’s clear. If anyone has questions, please let me know.
Finally, I’d very much appreciate it if people could spread the word about the fundraiser and giveaway."

LINK to Jim C. Hines' Website

For more information on rape victim resources and sexual assault please visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

Review: Dead Harvest by Chris F. Holm

Dead Harvest by Chris F. Holm will grab your attention and drag you from the heights of Heaven to the depths of Hell in this divine little tale.

Publisher's Description:

Meet Sam Thornton. He collects souls.Sam’s job is to collect the souls of the damned, and ensure they are dispatched to the appropriate destination. But when he’s sent to collect the soul of a young woman he believes to be innocent of the horrific crime that’s doomed her to Hell, he says something no Collector has ever said before.“No.”

Holm deftly weaves loads and loads of religious imagery and mythology into an urban thriller that features a chorus of morally tainted characters grappling with free will and the consequences of actions both natural and supernatural.

The story revolves around Soul Collector Sam Thornton and his would be collected soul, Kate.  Sam is just another demonic button pusher, until something strange happens when he attempts to collect Kate's soul.  Sam begins to doubt the veracity of his orders to collect Kate and when the implications of her collection dawn on him, his mission changes quickly instead of her executioner he becomes her protector.  Sam soon finds that there are those in both heaven and hell that are after him, with more enemies then they have answers Sam and Kate are forced to make some strange alliances and some very risky actions in an attempt to survive.

Holm does a tremendous job filling out his cast of supporting characters on both sides of the heavenly divide. Fans of religious imagery and fictional works set against religion, will really enjoy this book. The way Holm approaches demonic possession gives the book added suspense, and the rules and world building that he does is much like you would commonly find in a vampire novel.  Holm details his characters abilities and characteristics in a way that give them an internal logic that works.

For Star Wars fans, if you enjoyed Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived by Paul S. Kemp, you should like this novel and will finds some interesting similarities between Sam and the character of Zeerid (Z-Man) Korr.

Dead Harvest proves the point that a hero isn't someone pure of soul, but someone who would sacrifice his soul for what is right.  Dead Harvest gets Lightsaber Rattling's full-hearted endorsement and the good news is that the subtitle, "The Collector Book One" tells us there will be more where this came from.

You can read a sample of Dead Harvest courtesy of Angry Robot Books below:

Open publication - Free publishing

Review copy of Dead Harvest provided by Angry Robot Books.

Review: Carpathia by Matt Forbeck

Author's Note:  In an attempt to broaden my horizons a bit past the Star Wars Expanded Universe I will be on occasion be reading and reviewing non-Star Wars books on this site.  Many of these books will be provided by the publisher Angry Robot Books in the form of digital ARCs.   This is one such book.  Hopefully these reviews will be helpful in your non-Star Wars reading.  

In the interest of full admissions, I must confess I am hardly the biggest fan of the genre of horror.   In the interest in expanding my typically myopic literary experiences, the first of these books that I will be reading from Angry Robot is Matt Forbeck's new work of historical horror fiction, Carpathia.

Carpathia is a fictionalized account of the the April 14th, 1912 crash of the RMS Titanic into an iceberg and the April 15th sinking of the ship.  Carpathia tells the tale of the cruise liner RMS Carpathia, the vessel, crew and passengers that came to the aid of the survivors of the Titanic disaster.

Thanks to James Cameron's hugely successful feature film Titanic, the story of the sinking of the massive vessel is well known to fans, but thankfully unlike Cameron's story there is most definitely no Leonardo DiCaprio.  In fact this book is just like Titantic and Twilight combined, if both had been cool and not totally lame.

Author Matt Forbeck

Carpathia focuses it's story around a trio of anchor characters, Quin Harker, Abe Holmwood, and Lucy Seward.  Quin is lawyer, Abe is an aristocrat, and  Lucy is a self-described "suffragette."  The relationships between these three characters make period piece accessible to the modern reader.  We may not totally relate to the world in which Quin, Abe and Lucy live in, but we can relate to the characters themselves and Lucy in particular has a very modern feel to her characterization and for those that love a strong heroine, she certainly fits the bill. I think Quin will be relatable to most readers, but Abe is a little harder to relate too, there is a certain laissez-faire attitude present in Abe that I found curious.  I think the reader is to interpret Abe's attitudes in the book to his social status as well as other factors, but I found his characterization just slightly off note.

We follow Quin, Abe and Lucy through an adventure that takes them from the worst night of their life to an even more harrowing voyage.  Along the way we have a very good mix of actual historical characters from the Titanic crash with some new invented characters.  Forbeck does an impressive job weaving these actual historical figures seamlessly into his novel.

Forbeck has a terrific way of taking the modern mythology that has developed around Vampires and taking that myth back to it's roots and then spinning it off in a wonderful new direction.  The balance of gore, suspense, and action is well balances and the carnage doesn't feel over the top in a way that would turn off the more casual horror fan.

This is a book that is simply screaming to be made into a movie, and as much as a enjoyed the book I think it would play even better on the silver screen.  In fact I would go so far to say, that there is no way that this book doesn't become a movie.

Forbeck certainly delivers a well constructed and fun tale that makes me look forward to reading his next novel.

For more information on Angry Robot Books or Matt Forbeck please visit their resepective websites:  http://angryrobotbooks.com/ and http://www.forbeck.com/

Review: Red Tails

From Executive Producer George Lucas and Director Anthony Hemingway, Red Tails is a labor of love, years in the making.  With a budget of approximately $58 million and Mr. Lucas ponying up approximately another $35 million do distribute the film, you know this is a story that Lucas desperately wanted to tell.

What we get on the screen is a tale that has two focuses, the individual battles that the fighter pilots of Red Squadron fight versus their German ("Jerry") opponents in the sky, and the battles they wage within themselves, against each other, and against the colossus of racism that made the Army Air Corps a very difficult place for these men to live and fight.

I cannot say enough about the aerial combat depicted in this film, ILM nailed it out of the park.  Even without a story I would pay money to simply see these scenes on the big screen.

While I enjoyed the film a great deal, there are some issues with story and dialogue that I feel missed the mark.  Red Tails focused more on the personal story of the pilots then the war itself, but it felt to me like we could have used more of a build up for the main German antagonist, the Ace pilot known to the Red Tails simply as "Pretty Boy."  Pretty Boy's ultimate fate was as satisfying as it should have been with more build up for his character as the villain of the story.

The sub-plot involving Ray "Junior" Gannon being captured and imprisoned in a German POW camp and the story of his escape seemed superfluous to the story and that character's loss and return could have been told in a more efficient way for the overall story.

The sub-plot involving Marty 'Easy' Julian, who dealing with a domineering father with high expectations as well as the stress of being the flight leader fights his own personal battle with alcoholism, gave the character additional depth.  The problem with this sub-plot is that it didn't seem to go anywhere, there is some hint that the alcohol is impairing his judgement, but the issue isn't really brought to the front and feels like they brought it up without a real storytelling payoff for it.

The biggest criticism of the film will likely be for the dialogue.  There are some rather bad lines in the film that made this viewer cringe at times.  The other issue with the dialogue is that there is a good deal of profanity which will be a factor to consider when deciding if you should take your kids to see it.

On the whole Red Tails is a very entertaining film, I particularly enjoyed the performance of Terrance Howard as Colonel A.J. Bullard and David Oyelowo as Joe 'Lightning' Little.  To me this film had the feel of the old WWII propaganda films, if you view the movie in this genre some of the story and dialogue concerns are consistent with this style of film. It is a movie that will play well taping into the patriotic zeal across this country regardless of race.  It is a film that is the embodiment of that memorable line by Martin Luther King Jr., "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  One thing is for sure, the members of Red Squadron certainly had character in abundance.

See it and enjoy it, and don't forget to watch out for the Jerrys.

For more information and a behind the scenes look at the film, visit the official Red Tails website.

Diary of a first time PC builder #4: Trial and Error

One of the things that I have discovered as I began attempting to assemble my PC, is that while things are suppose to be compatible that doesn't always mean they will fit.

In addition to this trial of error in assembly there was that moment of anxiety as I installed the CPU into the socket hoping that I didn't and worrying that I did accidentally bend any of the pins.  The zero force instillation model is really cool, but for the first time builder the anxiety over this crucial stage in the building process was extremely high.

One of the first issues I ran into in my build had to do with the motherboard and the case.  My case was a Thermaltake V3 Black Edition, both side panels of this mid-tower case are removable.  The side panel below the motherboard when removed exposes and open window in the cases construction that allows for the insertion of a CPU fan bracket.  The bracket is necessary to hold CPU coolers in place.  The problem that ran into was that the cut out in the case and the CPU Cooler bracket holes on the motherboard did not line up properly, they were about half an inch off and the bracket would not fit to the bottom of the motherboard within the case.  Unfortunately this meant that I had to return the sweet CPU cooler I ordered and I ended up simply using Intel's CPU fan (which is reportedly rather poor in performance) that came with my I3 processor.

Another issue that I ran into was in terms of attempting to install the PC case fans that I received as Christmas presents.  On the case there are a number of places that you can install optional intake and exhaust fans.  The case comes with one pre-installed rear exhaust fan.  I received a few Thermaltake Thunderblade 120x120x25 mm LED fans to install in the case as Christmas gifts.  Well a funny thing happened on the way to installing these fans.  On the top of the PC case there are spots for two exhaust fans.  Well the Thunderblade fans will not fit in these spots because the Digi Power design takes up too much space above the motherboard.  The other spot will not fit the fan because the clips that hold the memory in place block the fan from being able to slide into place just enough to prevent it from being screwed in without worrying about damaging the memory channels and clips.

Well I struck out on that side of the case.  No problem right?  I still can install one of the fans in the front of the case and one on the bottom to act as intake fans right?  Well sort of.  After fiddling around with the front cover of the case off, I did manage to find the attachment spots for the front intake fan and got that hooked up and it is working nicely and looks good.  The bottom intake fan is another story.  My power supply takes up too much room and covers up some of the screw holes where the bottom intake fan would attach.  So I am left with one extra case fan I haven't been able to install.  The bright side is I guess I have a spare if one of the currently installed ones breaks down.

But I still wanted to try to find a fan to fit in the top of the case.  Logic being that it would help prevent dust getting in the top of the PC and would help cool down the computer seeing as how I am using the under performing Intel CPU cooler.  So after some Internet researching I found the Scythe Slip Stream 120 mm Slim Case Fan which is only 12 mm think as opposed to the standard 25mm thickness.  I was able to install this fan in the front most of the top case fans slots and it is working like a charm.

One of the more disappointing things that I discovered was that the new TP-Link 300 Mbps High Gain Wireless N USB Adapter was giving very sub-par performance.  Paired with my Belkin 300N router, I was only getting between 46-54 Mbps transfer rate between the two.  So I pulled the old Airlink AWLH6090 wireless adapter out of our old PC.  At first I was able to get a solid 130 Mbps but then the next day I was back down to the 54Mbps speed.  After talking to TWC to make sure my Internet was performing normally and calling Belkin's massively unhelpful overseas tech support (who wanted to charge me $100 to let someone remotely update software and drivers on my PC, like I'm going to do that), I discovered that the problem was in the wireless card driver software.  The as soon as I roll back the driver I get to the 130 Mbps rate, but guess what because Windows 7 automatically updates drivers, I had to keep rolling back the driver until I figured out how to go in and turn of the automatic updates.  Now I just need to make sure that when I update the software I uncheck the recommended driver update for the wireless card.  The bad news is that Airlink has discontinued this model so I am not likely to get any new functional drivers for it.

The take away from this experience is that you cannot be sure if your components will actually work together until you get your hands on them.  My advice to any other PC builders would be to make sure that whatever the source of your components select a supplier that has a good return policy in case of incompatible or defective components.

It was a ton of fun working on this project and I still have some tweeking that I plan on doing down the road.  I would like to add a Blu-ray disc burner/reader in addition to the DVD writer that I have installed, I plan on upgrading the video card in a few months, I would like to add a PCI card with more USB3 ports down the road, and of course I will keep my eye on the SSD market once the cost/size ratio gets to a spot I like I will probably grab one of those.

I have already posted the CPU-Z data, but what did I end up under the Window's Experience score?

Overall I am very happy with the PC's performance so far.  That is it for now back to your regularly scheduled Star Wars programming.

Diary of a first time PC builder #3: It's Alive!

Well I got the PC up and running.  After some trial and error which I will detail in the next post on this subject.

Let's take a look via CPU-Z what we are working with now.

Review: War Horse

I had high expectations going into Steven Spielberg's latest film, "War Horse."  Unfortunately while the movie had some good scenes and was very impressively shot to focus on the Horse as a character, what ended up on the screen was a bloated two hours and 26 minutes, and lacked for the pacing necessary to sustain such a long film.

I enjoyed the acting in the film, it was very well done.  Of course the landlord's son reminded me of every time The Simpsons showed Mr. Burns as a soldier. The German artillery horse handler reminded me a bit of the Rancor Keeper from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

There were some curious choices in the film, particularly showing the execution of two characters when the death of other characters is done off-screen.

There are a number of tremendous shots, two of the most powerful are the shot of the carnage of the first battlefield and later on the mass grave of horses.

There is a rather odd chase scene involving the horse and a tank, which came off as silly to me.  This tank is going after the Germans and instead of chasing the fleeing German troops it is going to chase around a lone rider-less horse? Really ?

The World War I trench warfare was well done and even included some humor.

The cinematography in the final scene came off as over the top and inconsistent with the rest of the film.

In the end, War Horse feels like two movies squeezed together, the story of the humans surrounding the Horse and the story of the Horse.  This would have been a much better film if it was leaner and more focuses in the first hour to hour and a half.  Someone should have locked Spielberg int he editor's room until this film was trimmed to closer to two hours.

For more on War Horse, visit the official site for the movie.

Diary of a first time PC System Builder: #2 Foraging for Components

After deciding that I was going to construct a desktop computer, I kept two goals in mind.  One I wanted to build a solid system that with some upgrades would be a machine that I could use for a few years without feeling like I was using an antique.  The other goal was to keep the cost of the project reasonable, that meant shopping on a budget.


Component purchase #1:

Thermaltake V4 Black Edition: SECC/Plastic ATX mid Tower Computer Case

Thoughts:  Our current desktop has a Thermaltake case which is solid construction, found this case as one of Amazon's daily deals for under $40 bucks.  Happy with the build quality and astetics. 

Component purchase #2:

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit OEM)

Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0 GB/S 3.5" Internal HD

G.Skill Sniper 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB)

Newegg's Black Friday sale yielded some goodies.  The Windows 7 is a system builder disc which means it's only for one computer.  Not a big deal to me and saved me some money on the OS.  For my purposes a SSD seemed like overkill and the mixed reviews on some SSDs made me nervous enough to stay with a traditional HDD.  I don't store a lot of downloaded content, for example music, so HDD size wasn't a huge concern to me.  If I find 500 GB restrictive I will add a second HDD at a later date.  Case has slots for extra HDDs.   G.Skill memory was also on sale.  I will likely purchase 2 more sticks to bring the  system up to 16GB. 

Component purchase #3:

ASRock P67 Extreme4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/S USB3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

The motherboard was the hardest decision in the process so far.  Decided to go with an Intel board/CPU over AMD.  This board got pretty solid reviews, though there are some reports of it being buggy.  I got a deal on Newegg as an open box for under $100.  Fingers crossed that everything works on the board otherwise it will be RMA time. 

Component purchase #4:

Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz 1155 65W

I wanted a solid processor and I wasn't interested in getting into overclocking at this point.  Between performance and cost I decided to go with this high end i3 instead of the more expensive i5 and i7 chips.  But I may upgrade down the road. 

Component purchase #5:

Cooler Master Intel Core i5 compatible GeminII S RR-CCH-PBU1-GP 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler

This is one sharp looking CPU cooler.  Great reviews, double checked Cooler Master's website to ensure compatibility and I am excited to get this component on sale as well. 

The Next Steps:


The actual build will not take place until after Christmas.  I am still waiting to see what secondary components I am getting from various family members as gifts, I asked for a wireless adapter, additional memory, additional Thermaltake case fans for the case, etc.  The biggest remaining component purchases are an optical drive and a video card.  Right now I am in the comparison shopping and waiting for a bargain stage on these.  Right now I am leaning towards a GeForce 430 video card and a Lite-On Blu-ray burner.

I plan to cannibalize our current desktop for it's @2 year old 600W power supply.  Unless I find a great deal on a new reliable power supply.  I have had no issues with our current power supply.

Diary of a first time PC System Builder: #1 Ghosts of PCs Past

Regular readers of this site will know that I am a pretty big Star Wars geek.  But I am also a long time computer enthusiast.  I hardly would consider myself an expert in computer hardware and certainly not in computer programming, but I am a very experienced novice user. 

A bit of history.  I am a child of the 1980’s.  My family owned their own pharmacy, I still remember when my Mom brought home an old used PC from the business that became the first computer in our house.  It rocked the old 5.25” floppy disks and I played the heck out of that thing.  “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?” and “Math Blaster” where on heavy rotation in that thing.  Of course I also remember using a program at the pharmacy to print out information for a 1^st grade report. 

I also remember being at a friend’s house the first time I really saw the Internet in operation, they had Prodigy and it was stunning to see live  updates from the Olympics appear on their computer.  The younger generation has no idea what it was like connecting to the Internet back in the day.  It is stunning to see how far the technology has come just in my life time. 

Of course we also were rocking the Apple IIE, as early as 6^th grade I remember having a computer lab class. Let’s be frank, we were still rocking the Apple IIEs among other obsolete PCs at my High School, so when we got a new PC at home it was pretty exciting. 

Mom brought home a new Gateway 2000.  That bad boy clocked in at a stunning Pentium powered 100 MHZ.   I lugged that Gateway off to college, where I met the dreaded blue screen of death for the first time.  After a fitting period of mourning, the decision was made to purchase a new computer.  I was at college so you can understand the direction I went with my next PC.  Or should I say, not a PC at all.  I bought into the idea of the more stable, less vulnerable to virus and hipper computer, I went with an Apple.  We get the first model iBook G3 after they switched from the Clamshell to the more traditional laptop design. 

The iBook served me pretty well in college, aside for some document format issues different professors using different programs and the PC/Apple compatibility issues that I ran into as a new Apple user.  This little computer began what later began a pattern of love and hate that I have with laptops.  You see I am not the most gentle or careful person when it comes to my laptops. 

Shoved in my back pack with lots of big books, dropped from my bed during late night last minute paper typing sessions, and typing about as gently as a inebriated gorilla resulted in some heavy wear and tear on the iBook.  The first thing to go were some of the keys.  Ultimately after about 3 years and countless drops, the power socket and power cord got bent.  One fateful day there were some sparks.  Lets just say things didn’t end well for my poor Apple. 

 After the iBook was interred, I made the decision to be boring and rejoin the hordes of PC owners.  My next computer was an HP laptop.  You will forgive my lack of memory as to the  model, but to make a long story short.  Too much typing on the couch and dropping of the computer led to another power port issue and eventually the computer would no longer get power when plugged in.  That is two laptops down due to my clumsiness so far. 

That brings us just about to now.  Currently we have two PCs in the house.  The one I acquired first was my HP Pavillion dv6000 with its AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 (Tyler processor) and its NVIDA GeForce 7150M/nForce630 graffics card.  I upgraded the RAM from the factory 2 x 1GB DDR2 to 2 x 2GB  DDR2 Patriot Memory.  The dv6000 is running Windows Vista, which I don’t really like. Without turning all the fancy Vista graphics off, the PC runs like a snail.   I may be a slow learner but I did learn from my previous laptop issues and was much more careful with my care for the HP.  But sure enough once I was out of the warranty period things started to go wrong.  The first thing to go was the DVD-RW drive.  After that it was the sound card that went.  On top of that I had to send the battery back to HP as part of their battery recall.  So armed with a headset with built in sound card and an exterior optical drive I have a serviceable but aging laptop that has some performance issues.  It tends to freeze up when I have too much going on and gives off an extreme amount of heat even with a laptop cooler fan underneath it. 

The second PC that we own was part of the dowry that my darling wife brought into our marital home.  To make a long story short, there were these two shall we say different characters that worked with my wife.  These two guys were roommates and they both built their own PC’s.  Well these guys decided to move from San Diego and they needed some traveling cash so they sold their PCs to my wife an another co-worker.  The PC my wife’s co-worker purchased died not long after it was purchased.  On my wife’s computer the power supply blew up and lots of lovely smoke billowed out of the computer.  Before we were married my wife dealt with this PC herself and took it to Fry’s (an electronics retailer and repair store) to look at it, assess and effect repairs.  Well the Fry’s guy sold her a new power supply for it, got it running, but the thing still didn’t work right. 

This is when I step in with my limited computer hardware experience.  I tear into this thing.  The some of cable from the motherboard to the front of the case are fried and basically reduced to ash.  The on board sound is gone.  I clean out the burned wires, got it up and running with a new sound card and for about a year the PC was working pretty good.  Then it starts crashing.  Now I have seen the blue screen of death, but an entirely different blue screen started appearing and the PC began getting stuck in a boot cycle where windows wouldn’t load.  Multiple BIOS updates and re-installations of Windows later, we have a fairly stable computer that I don’t trust to last too much longer. 

This is where my love of gadgets and technology starts to give me the itch to get a new computer.  It wasn’t until I started doing my comparison shopping that the idea of building a PC started to interest me.  I originally was looking at laptops.  I am not a heavy PC gamer, so my desires  in looking for a laptop where pretty simple. Fast processor, lots of memory, a Blu-ray drive, HDMI output, high definition screen resolution, and preferably USB 3.0.  I wanted a laptop that I wouldn’t have to think about wanting to upgrade for a few years.  The desire for the Blu-ray drive limited my options.  I wanted to have a PC where I could watch movies on if I was traveling and as a back-up in case or Blu-ray player stopped working or if we were visiting someone without a Blu-ray player we could play our movies on their TVs. 

I wasn’t too impressed with the cost of models/configurations that had the features that I was looking for.  Then the more I thought about it the more I began to think about how rough I was with my laptops and how it may be better for me to go with a desktop.  I do most of my website work and typing at the desktop now, and my old laptop is serviceable enough in a pinch that I really warmed up to the idea of a desktop. To me the advantage of of desktop over a laptop is the ability to get higher performance for comparable price and the ability to modify and upgrade the desktop more easily.  So the more I thought about it, the more the idea of a desktop held some real appeal. 

Now I am a person of varied interest, believe it or not Star Wars isn’t my only interest and Star Wars fandom isn’t my only hobby.  As long as I can remember I was fascinated by technology.  I don’t think my Mom has yet forgiven me for the time I took apart my Casio keyboard because I wanted to see how it worked on the inside.  Let’s just say that the keyboard didn’t go back together very well and it never played music again.  But even though I was fascinated by technology, I never really got into studying it, or focused on engineering like some of my friends.  Even though I never got too deep into the nuts and bolts of technology, the idea of building a computer was something that I remember thinking about way back in High School, but not something that I considered because I thought it was well beyond my knowledge and abilities at the time.  I read some PC magazines and went through a phase were I was watching lots of Tech TV, I have always loved tech but usually more on the consumer level then on the more nuts and bolts level. 

Fast forward to present day and I find myself wanting a fun project and a new computer and this convergence results in my desire for the first time in my life to wade from the kiddy side of the geek pool into slightly deeper water.  Check back soon for the next installment where I describe what kind of PC I want to build and how I went about initial component selection.