A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller

A New Dawn was the first novel written to be part of the new Star Wars canon, with input from the Lucasfilm Story Group. Its title serves as a nod to the new beginning that the franchise is embarking on, as well as a twist to the familiar title A New Hope. Primarily it is the story of Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla from the TV series Star Wars: Rebels, taking place six years before that show and showing how they met.

This book takes place on and around the Inner Rim planet of Gorse and its habitable moon, Cynda. As a tidal-locked planet, Gorse has one half continually facing the sun and inhospitably hot, the other side covered in cities that experience perpetual humid night. Kanan, a former Jedi who was born with the name Caleb Dume, is now working as a freight pilot in a mining company called Moonglow. Kanan catches a Clone Wars veteran named Skelly in the act of setting a sabotage explosion, with the goal of sending a message to the Empire about the dangers of the operation. The Empire has been gathering an important mineral called thorillide and tasks the cyborg Count Vidian with increasing the speed of production.

Hera, discontented with the Empire's ruthless actions, has come to the Gorse system to find a friend of hers, a Sullustan named Kaluna who assists the Empire with surveillance. Until saving people from Skelly's sabotage, Kanan had been very careful to conceal his Force-assisted abilities ever since the Emperor issued Order 66. Hera, Kanan, Kaluna, and Skelly cross paths, and once they figure out Vidian's nefarious, self-serving plan for the mining planet and moon, they make every attempt to thwart him. Captain Rae Sloane is also introduced in this story, an Imperial officer given temporary control of the Star Destroyer Ultimatum who doesn't exactly help the rebels, but has the common goal of stopping Vidian.

I enjoyed this book for its strong characters, snappy dialogue, and exciting action. That is to say, everything a Star Wars story ideally should have. I really appreciated how streamlined the book was; Miller doesn't try to shoehorn in extraneous characters or needless subplots. Fans of "Rebels" will get a look at Kanan's backstory, but precious little is revealed about Hera besides what her actions in the book say about her. It is hinted that the two share a mutual attraction, but there's not much time for love when the fate of a whole moon is at stake. What we do see is how well they work together and we come to understand why they mutually decided that Kanan should stay aboard Hera's ship the Ghost. I would like to see another story of how they first encountered Sabine and Zeb before the crew finds themselves on Lothal, but maybe this is being saved for future episodes of the show to explore.

For much more about this book and information about how it was written, directly from the author, check out this page. Caution, spoilers aplenty.

Never Go Back by Lee Child

Back in 2012, a movie called Jack Reacher came to theaters without a lot of hoopla. A few years later, star Tom Cruise teamed up again with its director Christopher McQuarrie for the fifth entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and it was based on my enjoyment of Rogue Nation that I went back and watched Reacher. I didn't have high expectations because on the surface it looked like a rote thriller, but I was pleasantly surprised by the main character, the tight plotting, and the action set pieces that had been praised by critics. Jack Reacher was based on Lee Child's book One Shot. This month, the movie's sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is coming out so I decided to read the book that it's based on.

According to Wikipedia, this novel concludes a storyline that Child began with 2010's 61 Hours and continued in Worth Dying For and A Wanted Man, however Never Go Back stands alone and doesn't require knowledge of the preceding books. Former Military detective Jack Reacher has traveled to Northeastern Virginia to the base of the 110th MP, where he used to be the Commanding Officer. His goal is to meet the current CO Susan Turner because he liked the sound of her voice on the phone. Yes, that's his sole motivation at the start of the story, but somehow it makes sense character-wise. He finds that Turner has been imprisoned and replaced, and in two affidavits, Reacher himself is accused of a 16-year-old homicide and of having fathered a 14-year-old girl. In essence, the past is coming back to haunt a man who has always tried to move forward.

Reacher finds a way to break out of the jail cells with Turner, and the two cleverly escape the base and the District of Columbia together. They make their way from Virginia to West Virginia to Pittsburgh, stopping at diners and hotels on the way. Something that struck me as odd about Lee Child's writing is that he specifically describes the roads that his characters travel turn-by-turn, clearly showing he did research about the cities depicted, but we shouldn't need to visualize a map to understand the plot. Also, when Reacher and Turner enter West Virginia, that state's residents are personifications of stereotypes. And the method by which they acquire money and a vehicle for their travels is a convenience that borders on ridiculous. They just happen to come across a burning meth lab with its "cook" already dead and his cash and keys easy to find.

That being said, I found this book a compulsive read. Every chapter ends with a plot twist and both main characters remain likable and intelligent in their handling of difficult decision-making. Turner is never a damsel in distress and displays just as much competence and gusto as Reacher. To get back to the plot, they choose to fly from Pittsburgh Airport to Long Beach, California. (In that chapter, there's a comment speculating that perhaps there are so many flights between the two cities because of films increasingly being shot in Pittsburgh; I think this is a reference to the location shooting for the first Jack Reacher movie.) LA is their goal location because Reacher's alleged daughter is said to be living on the streets there. Along the journey they piece together who has framed them for the respective crimes, and fight off some relentless pursuers  I can't help wondering how effectively the movie sequel will depict the nation-trotting aspect of the story since apparently it was entirely filmed in New Orleans.

This isn't the kind of book that I would usually seek out, but I enjoyed it enough that I look forward
to seeing the movie adaptation and perhaps read a few more in the series. Since Lee Child has written more than 20 Jack Reacher novels as well as several short stories, the film series could potentially go on for decades. And since some of those stories are prequels, the studio could easily cast a younger actor when Tom Cruise is done. Maybe even someone who is tall and burly like Reacher is described in the books, who knows.

To find out more about Lee Child and the Jack Reacher books, check out leechild.com.

Kiss Me Like a Stranger by Gene Wilder

When Gene Wilder died in August at the age of 83, the world lost a great entertainer. He's of course best known for playing Willy Wonka and Dr. Frederick Frankenstein but his legacy covers much more ground than his starring roles. His 2005 autobiography Kiss Me Like a Stranger covers his incredible life, his career, and his many loves.

Through much of his adult life, Wilder had visits with a therapist called Margie, and several chapters of the book are framed as stories that he is telling her in treatment. He wrote mostly in chronological order but sometimes a memory was triggered that had to be covered first. He suffered the death of his mother at a fairly early age, and some sexual and physical abuse at a military school; these are explained in a matter-of-fact way but clearly had lasting repercussions. He had insecurities being intimate with women in his teens and twenties, and later he had multiple marriages fail. As a young man he was troubled by an overwhelming urge to pray for forgiveness several times a day, for a sin he wasn't aware he'd committed. He named this affliction his "Demon," and eventually he worked past his feelings of guilt with Margie's help.

He was born as Jerome Silberman and chose the stage name Gene as a tribute to his mother Jeanne, though he didn't consciously realize the similarity until Margie pointed it out. The surname Wilder came from playwright Thornton Wilder. The young Jerry Silberman became interested in acting when he saw his older sister Corinne in a play and was trained by the same teacher; enjoying himself, he continued to study the craft. His first screen role came about when the director had seen him on Broadway, and after a few TV movies, he snagged a small part in Bonnie and Clyde. Mel Brooks talked to Wilder about the role of Leo Bloom in The Producers years before it actually got made. He made his directing debut with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother and of course worked with Brooks again in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. You may or may not know that the first scene featuring Willy Wonka, in which the chocolate pioneer fakes a fall, was Wilder's idea and he wouldn't have done the movie without it.

During the making of Blazing Saddles, Wilder met Richard Pryor who co-wrote the film and was originally set to star, though was replaced by Cleavon Little in the lead. Wilder and Pryor went on to collaborate on several more outstanding comedies such as Stir Crazy, Silver Streak, and See No Evil, Hear no Evil. Wilder greatly enjoyed the chemistry he had with Pryor on-screen, but admitted to finding him difficult in real life, Pryor's drug use making him erratic.

Outside of his film work, in this book Wilder was very candid about his personal life. He was married to a woman named Mary Mercier for five years before they divorced. Then there was Mary Jo (known as Jo) who had a daughter named Katie from a previous marriage, whom Wilder adopted. Unfortunately Gene and Katie became estranged after he and Jo separated. The most famous of Wilder's spouses was SNL's Gilda Radner, whom he met on a movie called Hanky Panky. Wilder was by her side when she suffered depression and bulimia, and when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and underwent chemo treatments. This section of the book is absolutely heartbreaking. The cancer support group known as Gilda's Club was partly founded by Wilder, who himself went through a bout of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which subsided.

It was after Radner's death that Wilder married Karen Boyer, whom he met when she coached him on how to act deaf in See no Evil, Hear no Evil. This was at a time in his life when he never thought he'd find love again, and he was still married to Karen at the time of his death from Alzheimer's.

Just like in his films, Wilder found a balance between humor and pathos in this book. His roles were mostly comic but with an undertone of darkness. In his writing he clearly expressed his regrets as well as the pride he took in his work and provides lighthearted anecdotes right alongside the tragic moments. He left a worthwhile legacy and will be missed by moviegoers worldwide.

End of Watch by Stephen King

This is the third and final book in the saga of retired Detective Kermit William Hodges. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back and check out my reviews of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers. Yay self-promotion! Or even read the books, they're good.

About seven years have passed since Brady Hartsfield maliciously ran over people waiting for a job fair with a stolen Mercedes. For most of that time he's been in the traumatic brain injury wing of Kiner Memorial Hospital due to getting walloped by Hodges' partner Holly Gibney at the scene of his subsequent attempt at mass murder. Now the presumably brain-dead Brady seems to be inducing a number of suicides, and the same defunct video game system is found near each victim.

Soon after the first suicide is discovered, Bill Hodges, now in his late 60s, gets diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. Now he's facing a supernatural killer at the same time as being faced with his own mortality. Jerome's sister Barbara almost gets herself run over while using a Zappit. A particular demo screen on the handheld game consoles has a hypnotizing effect on the player, which is a surefire metaphor for how our mobile devices suck us in. Brady has found a way to modify the game's qualities so that someone's mind becomes vulnerable enough for him to invade it, so he's able to control a body that isn't paralyzed like his own.

This series had not used supernatural elements up to now, but the mind control is brought up gradually. The first few times the reader encounters the characters that Brady is controlling such as Dr. Felix Babineau and Al "Library Al" Brooks, they just seem to be oddly loyal to him or brainwashed. But soon they start acting or speaking like the maniac we got to know uncomfortably well in Mr. Mercedes. This is a testament to King's storytelling prowess; any time a situation is joined in media res and doesn't completely make sense, just keep reading and it will be clearly explained later. Sometimes, his dedication to clarity feels overbearing, like when he recaps events from the previous two books thoroughly enough that one wouldn't have had to read them. Or when he takes half a page to have Holly or Jerome explain a bit of modern technology that would be obvious to the younger set, but I'm sure this would be helpful to the readers who are closer to Hodges' age.

I thought this was a very satisfying conclusion to the series. It left me imagining a TV series that could cover the entire storyline of Hodges and his partners. Although the track record of King TV adaptations lately, namely Under the Dome and 11.22.63 have been less than stellar, I think some kind of take on Mr Mercedes and its sequels could work out well. Any Stephen King fan would be happy with the way the books turned out.

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B. J. Novak

One More Thing is a collection of short stories by that guy who played Ryan on The Office. At least that's how some of you will know him. He also wrote fifteen episodes of the show and this book proves that he's just as funny and insightful a writer on the page as he is for the screen.

All of Novak's stories have a twist that takes them outside the realm of reality. He explores the problem with Heaven being paradise for all its residents, explains the origin of that train-based math problem that everybody knows, and in the final story takes a jab at the publishing industry itself. A recurring element is the sarcastic "Discussion Questions" that appear at the end of a few of the pieces, presenting disturbing queries such as "Do you think Johnny Depp should have driven his motorcycle off the mountain highway to his death? Why or why not?" Sometimes it feels like Novak is mocking  the whole idea of a short story collection, including with the book's subtitle. You would not want to read this book out of order because there are a few recurring elements and characters, which I didn't expect.

Some of these are very short stories, often less than a page or a few lines. With these, he makes his point and moves on.

I highly recommend listening to the audio version of One More Thing, mostly read by Novak, with help from his celebrity friends Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Katy Perry, and more. The various narrators add variety and immersion to the experience. There's one story called "Closure," as voiced by Novak and Kaling, that one could imagine the broken-up couple being Ryan and Kelly from The Office if they had different names. Except that is, when it takes a turn that is too off the wall and dark to be on the NBC sitcom. Another story features a young girl with a desire to go to Niagara Falls "because a couple from a television show she watched got married there" which is a clear reference to Jim and Pam's wedding. But overall, the author doesn't ride the coattails of his well-known series too much.

B. J. Novak has blazed his own path with this collection, which some readers will call "weird" but I call hilarious and original. Sometimes you can determine exactly what question he asked himself that inspired a story, but other times you wonder where he comes up with this stuff. In either case, he takes things in directions I didn't see coming. I look forward to seeing what else he has up his sleeve in the future.

For more about the author and this book, visit bjnovak.com.