Welcome to my scifi/fantasy blog! This post has been a long time coming. My youth was rife with science fiction and fantasy; I grew up watching Star Wars, Back to the Future, Star Trek, Willow, Jurassic Park, The Princess Bride, Thundercats, and Masters of the Universe; reading Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms, the Belgariad, Ravenloft, The Shannara Chronicles, and Anne McCaffrey novels; and looking at Silver Surfer, X-men, Infinity War, Avengers, and Age of Apocalypse comics. Regardless, I had lost much of my love for science fiction and fantasy since those days. Three events happened recently that have renewed my love in science fiction and fantasy. First, in September 2013, Dan Farr Productions announced the first ever Salt Lake Comic Con. One of my coworkers suggested we take our classes from the high school and, with the permission of our staff, we decided to go. I had never been to a Con and I admit that I didn't know what to expect. We went and took pictures with cosplayers, went to panels, and learned a lot about the author and director industry. Seeing so many people embrace their fandoms was so much fun and Salt Lake Comic Con inspired me to embrace the things I loved so much in my youth that I had forsaken. Second, last year I began teaching the Science Fiction and Fantasy class at the Northern Utah high school I've worked at for the last 11 years. I fully embraced the class and started reading and researching novels that my students will thoroughly enjoy in both genres. After much reading, researching, as well as deliberating, I chose two scifi novels, Lost Stars by Claudia Gray and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, and two fantasy novels, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir and The Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas. All four novels are spectacular and I would recommend them to everybody. My students loved them. Summer reading, anyone? Finally, possibly the most influential event was Disney's purchase of the Star Wars franchise in October 2012. George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion dollars after Robert Iger, a chief executive at Lucasfilm, negotiated the sale with Lucas after Lucas believed it was time to retire and give over the franchise to somebody else. That sale and the subsequent announcement that Disney was going to finish the long-awaited Episodes 7, 8, and 9 (which Lucas himself had planned on doing eventually) unleashed my fanhood. I had always loved the Star Wars franchise more than any other and, after releasing The Clone Wars animated Series, The Force Awakens, Rogue One, Star Wars Rebels, and related novels such as Lost Stars and Bloodline, my love of Star Wars returned in full force (especially with such likeable characters such as Rey, Hera Syndulla, K2SO, Quinlan Vos, Chirrut Imwe, Jyn Erso, Sabine Wren, Kendy, and Kaanan Jarus). Things have definitely changed in the Science Fiction and Fantasy world since I came back. Movies such as Star Wars, Pirates of the Carribean, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and reboots of the Star Trek franchise have come out. JK Rowling's series, in particular, has made it cool to be a nerd. Conventions for film, literature, and television are more mainstream. YA literature is more well-written and engaging today. We are in the Golden Age of Science Fiction and Fantasy. This blog, I hope, will continually discuss various topics related to upcoming films, events, and news related to science fiction and fantasy. May the Force be with You.
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AuthorThree-time Spartan Beast. Utah Jazz fan. Cougar. Aggie. Pioneer. Colt. Teacher. Auror. Earthbender. Ranger. Jedi. Hero of the Lance. Guardian of the Galaxy. Archives
December 2017
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