Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy

From time to time, I stumble upon a science-fiction novel that hooks me, and Hard Luck Hank: Screw The Galaxy, by Steven Campbell, is one of those novels.

The story that is told is about a community on a space station on the frontier of space in a galaxy populated by what we would call "humans" by looking at them, but who call themselves Colmarians.

The author has setup a website for the novel over at belvaille.com. There is also a movie synopsis/trailer about the novel you can watch (it has some minor spoilers in it).

So, as readers of this blog know, I am always on the lookout for entertainment media that isn't dark and depressing -- and that is exactly what I found in Hard Luck Hank.

The story is kind of a hard one to describe, it takes place in a well-worn sci-fi universe that has that lived-in feel like Star Wars and Mass Effect. The basics of the story are that we follow Hank around as the main/point-of-view character as he walks us through his daily life, as it is happening. Hank is a mutant, as are most of the Colmarians in the galaxy. Hank is a level 4 mutant, though, where most others are barely level 1. Hank's mutation is an insane healing ability, and a huge amount of natural toughness. What that translates into is the ability to take a bullet to the head and not die (it does hurt him, though), walk away from a huge crate being dropped on him, and live through being shot with all manner of cannons, lightning and most other forms of non-tank/battleship fire.

Hank is not a complicated guy. He lives on a space station stranded on the edge of controlled-space that has largely been abandoned. Those who are left are more or less criminals and people with a reason to be hiding away from most of society. He works as more or less an enforcer/negotiator. Because he can't simply be easily killed, when he shows up to mediate between two fighting gangs, they more or less have to listen and find a way to work things out, because if they don't Hank can and will just kill them if they provoke him. A typical day for him is eating a lot, bouncing between the gang bosses on the station, and doing odd jobs for the station's Adjunct Overwatch, (the top military official there, more or less like a Lieutenant-Commander from an Intelligence branch of the Navy) Garm -- who also happens to be running her own businesses on the side.

Hank's world is about to get turned upside down, though. Soon to visit the station (in no particular order) are going to be: insanely powerful (and murderous) androids, a hot blue-skinned woman, insanely powerful mutants, the military, insanely powerful aliens, and a pet many-ton robot from a resident scientist that suddenly gets a puppy complex.

Hard Luck Hank is a good read, it is a lot of fun, it moves along at a good pace, the characters are interesting and believable. Hank is a good guy, and you can understand that he doesn't do anything maliciously, even when he is forced to do something bad. The universe is rich and varied, and the author scatters some interesting nuggets of history into the story that I would love to see him explore in a sequel.

Read it, you'll be glad you did :)

Star Wars: Wraith Squadron

I started to read the Star Wars: X-Wing novels when I ran out of ongoing Star Wars novels to read. At that point I believe they we either just wrapping up the New Jedi Order series, or hadn't started it yet (it's been a few years ^_-). Anyway, I wasn't really expecting much from the X-Wing novels, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out how good they were. Michael A. Stackpole does a good job writing them as action/adventure stories, and he vastly expands the character of Wedge Antilles, and a few others. Start with Rogue Squadron at book number one, and read them all, they are all good books.

However, I didn't fall in love with the series until I read Wraith Squadron, the 5th book in the series. Wraith Squadron was written by Aaron Allston, and it turns out, he's funny! At first I was bummed Stackpole wasn't continuing with the series, but after the first few chapers of Wraith Squadron, I was hooked. I have never laughed as hard as I did with Allston's books, as I have with any of the other Star Wars authors to date. The banter between some of the characters is downright hilarious in many cases, and even in dangerous/hostile situations, the "mood" of the book was always flippant and funny, which was a nice change of pace from how serious some of the Star Wars books can be. I heartily recommend the X-Wing books in general, and the ones written by Aaron Allston in specific. Those ones are: Iron Fist, Solo Command, Isard's Revenge, Starfighters of Adumar &  Mercy Kill, which is a recent entry into the series published just this last August in 2012 by Allston. I hope it leads to a new set of books in the series :)

As with all of the Star Wars books, there can be drama and darkness in them. However, Allston's books tend to avoid most of that stuff (one of the reasons I love him), occasionally there will be the threat of something happening, but nothing ever does. You can read his Star Wars books safe in knowing that nothing horrifying happens. Yes, characters can and do die, and that is sad, but that isn't the kind of stuff I am trying to avoid with these reviews. I am just trying to help people avoid the truly dark stuff out there, not PG/PG-13 levels of violence.  Enjoy the books, and let me know how you liked them! :)

Reviews of books that aren't dark and depressing.

I have a tremendous aversion to dark and depressing stuff. I think most people as they get older and see real-life death and devastation and come to understand how very different it is when the long-term effects are forced to be felt (unlike how it is presented in modern "entertainment") are no longer able to view that stuff as "entertainment" any more, whether is comes in the form of books, magazines, movies, TV shows, video games, or the internet -- I tend to avoid it.

This blog is going to contain reviews and discussion of novels which avoid heavy drama, depression, human misery and the like to "entertain" (by that I mean: rape, torture, horror, graphic/extreme violence, etc. not PG-13 violence). I don't like that kind of stuff, and I think that kind of stuff is damaging not just to the human mind, but to the society that revels in it. This blog will make the effort to show people the content out there that isn't trying to make human misery into entertainment. I will also link you to that content whenever it is appropriate. Anything I link to, I recommend.

This blog is going to be about novels set in the Star Trek/Star Wars/Mass Effect universes. It will be about novels written by Jack Campbell (of the Lost Fleet Series), it will be about novels written by the likes of: Michael A. Stackpole, Karen Traviss, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., J.R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, R.A. Salvatore, Ed Greenwood, Christie Golden, Elaine Cunningham, Patrick Rothfuss, and Piers Anthony. No, not everything every author I've liked in the past will get recommended. And yes, I am well aware of the fact that quite a few authors and series I just named have touched on dark & depressing things, or a section of something they wrote is dark, while the majority isn't. Those works either won't get recommended, or will be recommended with extreme caveats.

I will also cover comics & manga when I can, things like: Penny Arcade, The Oatmeal, Questionable Content, Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyo, El Hazard, etc. Anything which has come out in book form, and isn't only on the internet (for now, I may expand that later).

This blog is going to be about stuff that I wish I could find easier to help point me to the next thing I would love to read, in the hopes that it will help someone else find something great to help brighten their day. And, of course, if any of you have any suggestions, let me know, and I will check them out.


Let's get started, shall we? :)