Book Look: Star Wars: Thrawn Novel by Timothy Zahn

In short, it's not my favorite Star Wars novel. It's probably my least favorite, simply because I'm not super fond of the military tactics, on either side of the Galactic Conflict.

There is one character who plays the political game - Arhinda Pryce of Lothal, who I quite liked as someone competent but stuck in a backwater (relatable) who gets the chance of a lifetime.

One of the biggest 'mysteries' of the series is 'Who is Blackswan', and for some reason, no one ever puts two and two together with the other character who has a swan-related name. You can kind of see why Thrawn didn't get it, as the Chiss don't naturally speak Basic, but even the humans don't? No one knew the etymology? Maybe not.

It doesn't make me want to read the next books in the series.

Book Look: Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds by Darren Shan

I am a big Darren Shan fan. The Irish horror author has touched on just about everything in the past 15 years - werewolves, demons, vampires, zombies, child trauma, murder, racism - You know. For kids!

(Er, 'middle grade').

This is his first [Character Title] and the [Noun (Preposition) Noun ] series, as most of his series' book titles are far more random in their styling. Even the other two books in the series follow this format with their titles.

And yes, all 3 books were released at once! Not to worry, they're fairly short.

It reminds me very strongly of Steven Universe + Artemis Fowl, or that it should be an indie game where the world isn't too explained, and you have to figure it out slowly.

#9: Trolls: World Tour

Honestly, the first Trolls is underrated on almost every level, except in your local preschool.

It looks beautiful, the music is pretty damn good (Despite about 50% of her movies being musicals, I feel Anna Kendrick as a singer is woefully underrated), and the moral is not one you really see in a kid's movie: "Your happiness depends on you."

With "Onward" being oddly underwhelming, and most animated movies being somewhat in limbo, I wonder what the Oscar race will look like this year.

"Soul" will probably be pushed to November, as I have it on somewhat good authority that "Raya and The Last Dragon" is a bit behind.

But, "Trolls: World Tour". Now we have more musical genre trolls. In a move that would make Millar's Batman proud*, the enemy is a Rock and Roll troll named Barb...whom I love.

This one tried to shove in morals that are just different enough to make this feel unfocused, although I could see what they were attempting to accomplish.

It's a large mash of both "You're not always right", "Stop trying to homogenize us," and "Colonialism is bad, even when we do it.". Even the troll kingdom voiced by black people are like "Hey, you tried to colonize US.". There's even a dance number. Imagine trying to explain the colonization of the Americas to white America with a song. If it was Taylor Swift, they'd listen. Finally.

 *I am vaguely aware of the Batman run where he hated rock and roll.