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Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation is a riveting industry expose. Author Blake J. Harris tells the story of the late 80s/early 90s videogame renaissance, and the battle for market dominance between elder statesman Nintendo and impertinent upstart Sega. Harris hinges the narrative on Sega of America’s CEO, Tom Kalinske. Kalinkske himself is a disgraced businessman, once the driving force behind Barbie’s can-do attitude at Mattel. He is recruited to SoA by then-president of Sega Enterprises, Hayao Nakayama. The goal: revitalize Sega in the American market, and beat Nintendo at its own game.

Harris does a terrific job of building tension and character. Even though I knew how the story ended, I found myself rooting for Sega (a fact my husband, a retrogamer and devout Nintendo fanboy, finds difficult to reconcile). I wanted them to sell those million units, as they’re pulling all-nighters and coming up with brilliant marketing strategies seemingly from scratch. I wanted so badly for SoJ’s farm team to win.

We hear from Nintendo’s side as well, but their viewpoint is not as developed as that of SoA. If SoA is the underdog farm team, Nintendo is- what, the Russians? The better-financed team from the other side of the tracks? Maybe this sports analogy is badly developed. At any rate, Kalinske and his team of Bad News Bears find themselves with two foils: in addition to Nintendo, they struggle with their Japanese counterpart. The tension is terrific.

I really enjoyed this book. After I read chapters at a time, my husband would quiz me on trivia I gleaned, and it was nice to chat with him about our common knowledge. For me, those interactions enhanced the experience of reading the book. The story itself is compelling.

I have a few quibbles. The foreword, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is vapid. Don’t even bother reading it, unless you’d like to recreate the last time you watched two dudes talking aimlessly about videogames they played as a kid (I get that all too often in my real life; also, these two dudes have since optioned the book for movie rights). Second, Harris’s attempts to recreate key scenes of dialogue reads a little cringe-worthy. Let’s hope Rogen and Goldberg finesse the lines for the film. Harris also has a habit of projecting warm, fuzzy, soft-focus feelings onto the women in the story (and there are but a few, but that is more an indictment of the industry than of Harris’s storytelling), at one point insinuating that a marketing strategist’s professional efforts resulted in her miscarriage (ew). Only Kalinske, as the story’s protagonist, receives such scrutiny of his personal life.

Console Wars is definitely an enjoyable read, even if one is not necessarily immersed in gaming.

This review has been cross-posted to the Cannonball Read, where I am reviewing books as I attempt to read 52 in a year!

I was a freshman in college when I started reading comics, and as someone who’d cut her teeth on Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Bill Willingham’s Fables struck a sweet spot I was previously unaware I’d had. Fables, the literal characters and enchanted objects from fairytale and legend alike, have been displaced by an otherwise unnamed Adversary. Chased into our world, they occupy a block in Manhattan, and hide their existence from the “Mundies” using a variety of means, but mostly magic.

Fables manages to take the truly outlandish and otherworldly, and translate it to the bureaucratic and banal. I mean that in the best way. Fabletown is draped in more red tape than one woman can handle. Fables: Legends in Exile, the first trade paperback of the comic series, follows Snow White and Bigby Wolf through a murder investigation. Snow is the beleaguered assistant to Major King Cole, handling the heavy-lifting while he takes care of the gladhanding. Bigby Wolf, pardoned from his crimes against other Fables after the diaspora, is the sheriff, investigating the murder of Snow’s sister, Rose Red. Whodunnit? Rose’s boyfriend, Jack the Giantkiller? Or her fiance, Bluebeard?

The characters themselves come off as charicatures here, which of course they are. Willingham is exploring what the audience knows of Snow White, our expectation of her versus who she is now in the Mundane reality. What is a displaced princess with a rogue sister to do? Bigby serves as a fun contrast to Snow; he is every inch the hardboiled detective, grizzled and gruff with a spotty past. It’s fun to watch how various Fables react to him.

Legends in Exile is a fun mixture of noir and fantasy. The art is laden with easter eggs (what’s that in the background? The vorpal sword? Snicker-snack, and all that?). And if you decide to seek out the individual issues, James Jean’s covers are breathtaking. I’m pretty sure that Jean’s covers are why I picked up the book initially. It’s worth noting, though, that even though the subject matter stems from childhood fairytales, the story is not for children. Willingham’s Fables are decidedly adult in their appetites (yes, even Pinocchio, though not explicitly).

If you are into: fantasy/fairytale tropes and noir mysteries. Fables: Legends in Exile is a fun (though not sticky) read.

This review has been cross-posted to the Cannonball Read, where I am reviewing books as I attempt to read 52 in a year!

Please spare me your lack of surprise that I’ve finished Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter’s book chronicling the gestation of the eponymous musical, before having finished the book said musical was based on, Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton. They are both big thick tomes spanning years (arguable decades), but while Chernow’s prose is delightful and accessible, his book does not consist of rap lyrics, easily digestible footnotes, and beautiful photos.

Like Cannonballer ellesfena , I bought the book because I am an obsessive Midwestern fan, and I’ll take any glimpse of the Richard Rodgers Theatre I can get. The photos were one of the main draws for me; they are lovely and evocative, giving hints of the drama of the live stage. The book is beautifully designed too, with deckle-edged pages that contribute to the sense that the book’s designer was attempting to recreate a Hamilton-era pamphlet.

While the photos are worth the price of admission, McCarter’s essays are sentimental, and serious, and self-conscious of the musical’s place in history. Doesn’t that sentence sound big? “Place in history.” One of the things I appreciated about the book was that it offers an egalitarian view of the cast and crew, offering perspectives on the creative process beyond Miranda, who already has an established platform, and is already pretty widely published. Perhaps because of Miranda’s accessibility, I found myself wishing for more of a Rap Genius experience. As a hungry Hamilton fan, the footnotes were not as packed as I’d hoped. What I did take away was a deep yearning to hear Leslie Odom, Jr. sing “It’s Quiet Uptown.” In that sense, my appetite for the show has been further kindled, and the book’s purpose is accomplished.

This review has been cross-posted to the Cannonball Read, where I am reviewing books as I attempt to read 52 in a year!

The Book Thief reminded me of long-lost, beloved books from my childhood. If you need any more of a recommendation than that, you are obviously not my people, but I will continue. We meet Liesel (the titular character) through the eyes of a personified Death, who follows her escapades closely through its own routine of retrieving the souls of the recently deceased (of which there are many, as Liesel is living in Germany during the Third Reich). First of all, I love it when an author makes good use of personification. I’m drawn to this kind of characterization. Having Death as a narrator makes for some interesting storytelling, as Death is able to see backwards and forwards in any narrative. We get glimpses of each character’s future, while still having to follow along to see how each of those futures is achieved. I had to fight the inclination to look up spoilers along the way (I haven’t seen the movie yet either), as I wanted to be there, in the moment, as each of these lives unfolded. And when each transitional moment hit, it was beautiful.

Afterwards, while reading reviews, I was surprised to learn that the book was considered YA. It doesn’t read like a YA novel to me. It is about young people (Liesel is 9 at the beginning of the book), but its language and concerns and approach vary widely from what I consider typically YA. I think this book can speak to anyone. One quibble I have (and it’s not a big one) is the use of German profanity while still using the English translation almost immediately afterward. I don’t mind multilingual books, but that gave me a strong whiff of when movies set in non-English speaking countries have their characters speak heavily accented English. I don’t care for that. Maybe you won’t mind it. Obviously, it didn’t turn me off the book entirely. I love The Book Thief, and wholeheartedly recommend it.

This review has been posted at the Cannonball Read, where I am attempting to read and review 52 books in 2016. Read along with me!

I’m a writer and teacher based in the St. Louis Metro-East. I earned my B.A. in English Language & Literature from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and blog at Brasel Night at the Movies.

Feel free to contact me for more information about my services and rates.

E-mail me: tera.brasel@gmail.com

Tel: (618) 334-0319