Tag: Book Review

Examining Transformers: The Art of Prime

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Transformers: Art of Prime Book Cover

No fan of the recently finished Transformers series will want to be without Transformers: Art of Prime. This coffee table book is lavishly filled with production art and sketches. Any would-be animator will be thrilled to study how the Transformers Prime series was put together. Notes on which order the parts in a ‘bots transformation sequence should flow is just one feature this book shows off. And artists can learn how to draw the characters — human and mech — from this book. Interviews with directors like David Hartman and Jose Lopez fill out the rest of the book.

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How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero: An Analysis and Book Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The last four novels in the How to Train Your Dragon series may well form a tetralogy. Although the last volume is not being penned yet, the second to last volume, How to Betray a Dragon’s Hero is proving to be the turning point of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III’s final adventure.

Cressida Cowell has crafted a fun and exciting world that ranks right up there with Harry Potter. When nothing new will be coming for the magical realm anytime soon, readers can enjoy the fascinating world of dragons that this author has crafted.

From book one to number eleven, readers get introduced to a wide menagerie of beasts. But for the story, everyone knows Hiccup will be King. He says so in the first volume. But to see how he became king, that’s part of the ride readers will enjoy discovering in his journey to become a respected leader.

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The Fantasy and Freedom Found with The Flight of Dragons

Peter Dickinson’s The Flight of Dragons looks at the mythical origins of the creature and postulates how they may have evolved based on real life science.

The Flight of Dragons Book Cover
This book is available for those who know where to look.

Not since 30 years ago has there been a worthy look at the nomenclature of dragons. Author Peter Dickinson and illustrator Wayne Anderson crafted the brilliant The Flight of Dragons. It’s a book that’s sadly forgotten. This unique tome and movie based on it looks at the mythical origins of the creature and postulates how they may have evolved based on real life science.

Literary observation and historical research fills the pages. The read is like that of a textbook. Dickinson draws upon centuries of research from clerics to theologians to explore the habitat and biology of a dragon. In what he gleams from various novelists, especially from Tolkien to McCaffrey, the ideas presented here read like something Charles Darwin would write.

Some readers might liken this work to that of On the Origin of Species. The prose is sometimes difficult to read, and whats presented is nothing like the Book of Dragons, as penned by a youthful Hiccup in the animated series How to Train Your Dragon. In the novels, Fishlegs is responsible for chronicling what they discover. His version gives stats and descriptions alongside illustrations. In Dickinson’s version, the drawings are phenomenally detailed. It’s doubtful that Hiccup will ever dissect a beast just to explain how the digestion system works.

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Shakespeare & Star Wars Doth Not Necessarily Mix & Sequel News

With better dialogue in this film, maybe the Shakespearean treatment Verily A New Hope will not be as bad.

Verily A New HopeJust how easy is it to rewrite Star Wars into a Shakespearean play? To read the dialogue in iambic pentameter is one thing but to hear it is another. Until Disney (and George Lucas) authorizes Adam Long, one of the founding members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, to release a DVD of his stage production of Star Wars Shortened, fans will have to make do with Ian Doescher’s take of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily A New Hope.Verily A New Hope At least the performance is super fun to watch and the other an undistinguished read.

The idea of getting Luke, Obi-Wan or Vader speaking in old Elizabethan English is more of a novelty than compelling reading. Most of the dialogue is required to stay in canon within the screenplay Lucas wrote for A New Hope. When possible, Doescher makes use of a few lines better known from Shakespere’s other plays and includes them in his book. Bits of familiar dialogue from the tragedy Hamlet and the romance Romeo & Juliet will be recognized.

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Transformers Exodus and Exile Examined (with 3rd Book News)

From the first book titled Rebellion to the last, Reconnaissance, publisher Del Ray has changed the formula around by not offering a teasinFg title like “Transformers: Extinction.”

transformers exodusFans of either Transformers Prime the animated series or the Fall/War of Cybertron games are well advised to read the book Transformers: Exodus: The Official History of the War for Cybertron. Written by Alex Irvine, he does a remarkable job in penning the lead up to one of cartoondom’s greatest wars of all time. As most fans know, the conflict is largely centered on a battle of wills between Autobot leader Optimus Prime and Decepticon dictator Megatron.

But for the leader of the Decepticons, there is more to him than meets the eye. He was a nameless factory worker who quite literally fought his way to the top. Domination is all he knew as he fought in the gladiatorial pits of Kaon. Despite his limited dealings with higher Cybertronian society as a whole, he believed they were corrupt. He wanted to do away with the caste system that was eroding the robotic civilization. He took on the name of Megatronus and preached that equity should exist. That is, no social or occupational ranking system is required to determine one’s way of life. Freedom should exist for everyone. Orion Pax agreed with this up-and-coming orator about what needs to be done, but somewhere along the way, a rift between them would form and a war would erupt.

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