Reading Roundup Wrapup: April 2015

Pick of the month: Return to Tomorrow by Preston Neal Jones. What a month! Recently I've struggled to pick a book because nothing has been head-and-shoulders above the rest; this month, I read two books that could have won any other month. Both Jones's oral history of the making of the original Star Trek film and the complete short sf of Cordwainer Smith were clear winners in my book. But Return to Tomorrow ended up edging the other book out-- a fascinating treasure trove of production trivia, over 600 pages of facts guaranteed to make you bore your loved ones the next time you watch the movie and pause it to explain that every shot in the wormhole sequence had to be recorded four times. No wonder they went over-budget! And their slowed down voices weren't an effect; in ADR looping, they talked slowly to match the slowed down footage!

All books read:
1. Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams
2. Ways of Seeing by John Berger, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox, Michael Dibb, Richard Hollis
3. The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith edited by James A. Mann
4. Doctor Who: The Third Doctor: The Spear of Destiny by Marcus Sedgwick
5. The New Adventures: Twilight of the Gods by Mark Clapham and Jon de Burgh Miller
6. Return to Tomorrow: The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture: An Oral History by Preston Neal Jones

A light month, but not for lack of reading; both The Rediscovery of Man and Return to Tomorrow, which I alternated between, were whompers!

All books acquired:
1. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: Manga, Volume Two by Toshiki Kudo
2. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Manga, Volume Two by Shin-ichi Hiromoto
3. Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
4. Miracleman, Book Three: Olympus by The Original Writer with Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan
5. Orion Omnibus by Walter Simsonson with Eric Stephenson, Howard Chaykin, Jeph Loeb, Kevin McCarthy, Mark Millar, and Scott Beatty

This completes my collection of Star Wars manga, and thus my collection of Star Wars comics published by Dark Horse (ones that I want to own, anyway). I look forward to seeing what Marvel do with the license when the collections begin publication. Any publisher that commissions a Lando series is all right by me!