Saturday, February 10, 2018

Month 27: Trump in Space

Month 27 of 260 (10.38 percent)
Size of list: 85,470 pages (9.8 percent above start)
Pages read: 13,956 (16.33 percent)
H-list: 3,729/23,114 (16.13 percent)
N-list: 5,482/36,694 (14.94 percent)
O-list: 4,745/25,662 (16.33 percent)
Finished: Foundation and Empire, Life Debt
Starting: The Eyes of the Overworld, The Fires of Heaven

Life Debt is the second of the flagship trilogy of the new post-Return of the Jedi continuity. This one featured more of the classic characters — Leia and Han play a major role in this story, merging the classic characters with the new ones created by Chuck Wendig in the first volume, Aftermath. The first half of this book was pretty good; the second half was really good, after a twist is revealed. Wendig's writing still doesn't have the same tone I associate with Star Wars novels, which is to say he's neither Zahn nor Stackpole. 

The second Foundation book, which is not Second Foundation but Foundation and Empire (and oh how that drives me crazy), is almost as good as the first. Unlike the first, it's a single story about a single set of characters. I've seen people saying "Trump is the Mule," and I think I understand how — he's the individual that political science or psychohistory can't predict and thus can't guard against. Anyway, the book is about the Foundation and Empire both under attack by a force they can't predict, and both falling; at the end, the only hope is the Second Foundation, which I expect the third book will be about.

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