Remember and honor those who never came home. Those who gave all so that others might live.
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I watched the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda and I loved it.
I went to a before 2pm matinee on Friday at the last theatre in town when there were three theatres in 2020, and there weren’t many people. Part of that is due to how things have changed when it comes to people going to theatres. Part of that is it was 2pm on a Friday. I beat the rush by a some hours.
I saw it in 3D and the 3D effects were good. Not the most amazing 3D I’ve seen, but also not the most obnoxious. The 3D seemed more subtle than many movies. It looked good.
I would also say that the obvious 3D characters (obvious because they were not human) actually had very good effects. What looked like puppets were practical effects and did it well. And there seemed to be weight behind the 3D characters. Like they were actually hitting things in real life while filming that were CGed over. I did not notice any point where the CG seemed divorced from real life by that weightless feel it can easily have.
In short, I would say that all of the effects were well done.
The movie itself, if you are worried about not having seen the Mandalorian series, don’t be. You don’t need to have seen any of it to understand what is happening. I might suggest you go see it, because it is good TV. But you don’t have to. I might STRONGLY suggest you see season 1, or maybe season 2, because it is just GOOD TV, but once again, you don’t have to. If you have seen the Star Wars trilogy, you can go watch the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda. If you have seen PREVIEWS of the Mandalorian series, you’re good. If you’ve gone on youtube and watched a 10-minute video synopsis of the series, you’ll be golden. This is just like the original Star Wars movies in that it is very light on lore and very heavy on character action. Walk in and have fun.
As for the story. I was there. Somebody decided to make a Star Wars movie again, and they made a Star Wars movie. I loved it. If you liked the Star Wars trilogy, I think you’ll like it. If you liked Mandalorian season 1 and 2, that is the audience they were shooting for. I think you will love it.
If you don’t like Star Wars, I really don’t understand your basic world view so I can’t say anything about it.
I will not spoil the movie further.
I watched the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda and I loved it.
Small decisions. World-altering consequences.
That’s the premise behind For Want of a Rivet, an anthology of eleven alternate history military stories that asks one deceptively simple question: what if a single invention, tactical choice, or quiet act of courage had gone differently?
The stories span a century of conflict and a dozen theaters of war. A Royal Navy pilot spots the German fleet and changes the shape of World War One. Air privateers carrying Letters of Marque dogfight over the Western Front while a brash young balloon-buster rewrites the record books. A Japanese naval officer quietly suppresses a breakthrough antenna technology that will shape the Pacific war. German engineers develop a submarine that makes the Atlantic a killing ground. British scientists discover how to bend the enemy’s own guidance beams back against them, and a stage magician helps make the resulting deception invisible. An all-Black paratrooper battalion that was supposed to be fighting wildfires instead drops into the Battle of the Bulge. A French Foreign Legion scout finds a Roman tunnel under the most heavily defended line in Italy. A Polish tank crew fights to hold the cork in the bottle as Operation Unthinkable opens. A SOE agent moves through occupied France on a prosthetic leg — and the rivet that keeps it silent may decide the war. Britain and Germany forge an uneasy alliance against Soviet France. Japan defends the Imperial Palace to the last man.
These are stories about the human cost of invention, the weight of small advantages, and the soldiers, spies, and engineers who never made the official record.
Eleven contributors. One question. For want of a rivet, the war was lost — or won.
The Marine Raiders were the best of the best of the best. An elite Marine unit assembled to do the things no one else could do. They were one of many attempts to create a special forces unit before the modern special forces, and like all of the others, they were retired in time. Disbanded and absorbed back into their parent force. The Marines. But when the son of the President of the United States walks up to former Marine Raiders and tells them he has a mission for the Marine Raiders, any man worth his salt answers that call. History does not record that the Marine Raiders performed one more mission in 1945, against a threat that never deployed, on a train that no longer existed, heading to a submarine that never set sail for America. But the threats were real. Everything was there. What if all of them came together in one point in time and space? What if the “Last Ride on the Asia Express” really happened? Should you ever meet Captain William Carter in person, maybe you could ask him. Maybe he would smile. Maybe.
You can read “Last Ride on the Asia Express” in “The Big Ones,” an anthology of alternate tales of World War II by Raconteur Press.
Even as House of Sand with Captain William Carter has been accepted for the Sand and Storm anthology, I am working on the Battle of Cypress Swamp for Raconteur’s Wyrd War 3 anthology. It is a story I have wanted to tell for years. I originally intended to do the Battle of San Juan Hill, but my meuse kept going back to the Cypress Swamp, so I gave my meuse the reins and I’m happy with my progress. The story is done. I just have to tune it up to publishing level. And while I’m writing that one, I’m thinking about a dogfight story with Captain Jack Hart. I’ve got the base starting scene done, and think I’ve got a good handle on the rest. Then I’ve got to brainstorm my magical cold war story. I’ve got an idea. I just have to see how it survives being thrown against the wall.
Forge of War on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
Angel Strike on Amazon
Angel War on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon