Would you rather work for Thanos, Darth Vader, or Voldemort…?
THE DAILY QUESTION
This is a tough one- But I find myself choosing Darth Vader. Partly because I know at the end he at least held onto some humanity. Although, Thanos is a close second.
Would you rather be a part of the Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles?
THE DAILY QUESTION
I have to go with Ninja Turtles! I grew up a huge fan of the show. While the Power Rangers are cool- it’s a situation of what my childhood embraced more of.
I Dont have a stronger reasoning other than that!
Welcome to episode 30! Today on the show we have author Kerry Nietz! Kerry and I sit down to chat about Genre Mashups!
Kerry is an award winning author of Hard Science fiction and Amish Vampires in Space! You can check out Kerry and his work at https://www.nietz.com
Would you rather be a Stormtrooper in Star Wars or a Red Shirt in Star Trek…?
The DAILY QUESTION
This is a tough one to answer. A Stormtrooper rarely hits their target (according to some), but a Red Shirt always seems to die. However, Red Shirts aren’t known for missing shots, just getting killed all the time.
Yet, as a Stormtrooper I’m serving a corrupt, fascist empire. As a Red Shirt I’m serving a democratic Federation. Yet logic would tell me to choose Stormtrooper and quickly defect as the survival rate might be higher. But then I would most likely live life on the run.
My answer would be: Redshirt. I would probably be able to borrow or steal someone’s colored shirt that is different, and possibly survive, or avoid the away mission all together.
My introduction to Fantasy was the Belgariad by David Eddings and The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. It may surprise some that I’ve never been into Tolkien much. I’ve enjoyed the films, but I’ve never made much progress reading his work. I skipped right over Tolkien, and anytime I would try to go back and dive into his stories, I struggled to get into his voice. I would get about fifty pages in and stop. It was probably a bad idea to make my first time reading Tolkien be The Silmarillion. But I set a goal to try and get into his work this year. So here I am.
My approach to reading Tolkien was to come at it from a student’s perspective, as if I’m studying the history of Fantasy.
One thing I didn’t realize, getting into this was that “The Silmarillion” is only a portion of the book. There are two Prologues, Ainulindalë, then the Valaquenta, and then you finally make it to the Quenta Silmarillion, which winds up being the bulk of the book. This story is “an account of the Elder Days or the First Age of the World.” I’ve learned that The Lord of the Rings takes place at the end of the Third Age, (I honestly didn’t know this) so basically this is the genesis story of how that land came to be. (I can hear a million Tolkien fans quietly laughing at my lack of knowledge.)
So far, I’m enjoying it. Although several podcasts and commentaries have helped. It makes me appreciate Tolkien a bit more, and gives me the desire to dive into more of his works. I’m only on Chapter Nine, but the story is unfolding fantastically.
In a few weeks, I’ll be recording a podcast with a friend of the Show, David Wright, for Geeky Dad’s Talk About Geeky Things. We will not be able to cover everything there is to discuss during that one episode. So, I’ll blog a few of my thoughts occasionally. Like I said, this is my first time reading Tolkien, and I’m enjoying it so far.
