A Contest for The Big Book of Spam
I’ve just announced a new contest over at The Big Book of Spam, and if you’re into Twitter at all, you might want to check it out. I’m giving away a few free, signed copies of Volume One: Subject Lines next week!
Reading: Millennium Falcon
Or does it?
See, this is how they get me. The book tells the story of Han Solo’s legendary ship and it includes prequel-era history (the book spans more than 60 years). Apparently, in the way that everything that ever happened to anyone in the Star Wars universe is somehow tied to the Skywalker and Solo families, the Falcon had a role in Episode III, during the Battle of Coruscant.
I was less than thrilled with the previous attempts to tie the prequel era to later books. The Rogue Planet novel set up events for the New Jedi Order series, which was completely unnecessary. I was openly disdainful of the Outbound Flight novel’s story, which I thought was fantastic until Kenobi and Skywalker showed up.
Open message to LucasArts or LucasBooks or whatever LucasThing is making these decisions: you don’t have to tie every single event in the universe to the Skywalkers or the Solos. It’s a big galaxy, after all. You don’t need to stick Anakin Skywalker into every prequel-era story and you don’t need to squeeze the Falcon into the prequel movies just to try to sell a book. It comes across as forced and unrealistic. I know, I know, realism and Star Wars don’t exactly mix - but you know what I mean.
Is Star Wars Over?
It is for me - at least for the Prequel Era stuff. Now, I’m 33 years old. I grew up on Star Wars, and thanks to the novels of the 1990’s and 2000’s, I’ve enjoyed a lot of stories set in the galaxy far, far away. In fact, there are a few novels that I consider superior to even the original trilogy - Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy comes to mind, as does the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson and most of the books in the very long New Jedi Order series. These novels stand up well against the original movie trilogy.
I’m a big fan of the original movie trilogy, so it should be no surprise that I find the prequel trilogy lacking in a lot of ways. Star Wars fans tend to go one way or the other. I don’t think the prequels are completely worthless; there are redeeming qualities in all three flicks.
The Big Book of Spam
A wonderful tome has just been published - a book that will change the world.
A book that will unite nations.
A book that will cure ills.
A book that will rule the earth.
You know how Batman’s arch-enemy the Joker makes people laugh so hard that it kills them? It’s like that.
It’s a book about spam email. I wrote it. Go check it out.
The Cult of Apple!
So, I’m reading Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!), and I had to mention this. In chapter 4, Colbert talks about various religions of the world. He sets up each section much like I set up most of my opinions here, with a graphic in the upper-left corner with text flowing around it. For each religion, he inserts a relevant graphic, usually the symbol of the religion. At the end, he talks about various "crazy" cults and the graphic he uses is the Apple Computer logo.
Priceless.
I haven’t finished the book yet, so this isn’t a formal review or anything, but I’m really enjoying it so far. Definitely worth checking out!
I love my MacBook Pro.
The Big Book of Spam
Hate spam? I don’t. I love spam. I love spam so much that I’m writing a book about it! Yep, my latest book project is The Big Book of Spam, and you can read more about it at the official site, www.thebigbookofspam.com - oh, and you can contribute! Forward any spam you get to bbos@thebigbookofspam.com. Look! I’m not even protecting the address behind a script or anything! It’s wide open! Use that address to fill in web forms that you know to belong to spammers. Spam me, baby!
For more information, please visit the official site. I’d rather not get any porn, thanks, but most other kinds of spam are welcome. Porn spam simply won’t work for the book as I won’t be able to publish it! Well… not in normal bookstores, anyway.
I’m working on the book as we speak, and I expect it to be ready for purhase in early 2008.
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