The first draft of my first ever sequel has wrapped. Jack Dashing, the planetary romantic and hero of Adventure Constant returns to free an entire city from the clutches of tyranny in Adventure Rising. He will once the book ages a bit and goes through two or three rounds of editing.
Meanwhile, I’ve been busy with holiday preparations including some high-intensity Warhammer 40k preparation. Did you know they released yet another edition of the rules? Crazy, right? I just found out when I ran by the local nerdery to pick up some Christmas presents. The prep isn’t for me, it’s for my son who figures a decent game with lots of opponents beats a great game played solo. He can get away with that, as he is hip-deep in his college days, when time is in long supply. We busy family men have no time for anything but painting and late night rules tinkering.
Over Thanksgiving, I didn’t manage to find Howardian cinema, so ratcheted my expectations way down and tried Valerian instead. That is one fun movie with a few really neat ideas let down by the wooden performance of the leads and the bizarre decision to kick off the action with the hero begging his partner for a little affection. Talk about off-putting. Equally frustrating was casual way Sergeant Laureline repeatedly disobeyed Captain Valerian’s orders with no repercussions beyond a slight sigh from their superiors. That relationship made no sense and turned what could have been a fun romp into an empty shell of a movie. The three minute pause in the story to fulfill Rhianna’s demands for more screen time didn’t help either.
Honestly, I kind of want to see a prequel featuring the adventures of the busload of soldiers that helped the two leads early on in the movie. Those guys had more personality than the leads.
I didn’t even mind the predictable plot nor the usual Hollywood boilerplating. At a theme park, as I climb into one of the cars, I know where the roller coaster is going to end, but that doesn’t mean the loops and curves and sudden drops aren’t still a lot of fun. Add in a better central relationship – like the one Luc Besson used in Fifth Element – and this could easily have been a film worth repeated watching. As it is, it was just a pleasant and forgettable way to kill a couple of hours.
Not nearly as much fun as Tales of the Once and Future King. A Superversive Press title, this might be my favorite collection of the year. And when you consider that puts it up against Paragons and MAGA2020, that is really saying something. Look for a detailed review at Castalia House sometime in the next few weeks.
Hey, did I mention that I had a story published recently in a superhero anthology called Paragons? If you’re a fan of the genre, check it out. If my name isn’t enough, maybe you’ll like this: Kai Wai Cheah has a great story in it with strong undertones of a Christopher Nolan superhero film. It also includes stories by Jon Del Arroz, Declan Finn, and longtime superhero author Steve Beaulieu.