Dina Anastasio

This is book 2 of 4 in a series of junior novelizations of episodes of the Fox show Space: Above and Beyond that aired in 1995. Despite only being on air for one season I really enjoyed the show. I was a more realistic near-future take on a typical alien invasion story that had well fleshed-out characters. The over-arching story had interesting layers with the In-Vitro and A.I. both shaping the world this story takes place in during the A.I. Wars before the main story even takes place, and the enemy we will come to know as the Chigs will be a mysterious threat that we are challenged to unlock.

Dark Side of the Sun is the third episode which details Shane's past with the A.I. and how she is forced to overcome her crippling trauma to save her squad when a mission goes south fast. It's good to see Shane's character arc transform from trauma-survivor to bad-ass through the story, but I felt everything else was just an obvious vehicle to deliver that story. Regardless, it's a good read, especially for fans of the show.… (mer)

This is book 4 of 4 in a series of junior novelizations of episodes of the Fox show Space: Above and Beyond that aired in 1995. Despite only being on air for one season I really enjoyed the show. I was a more realistic near-future take on a typical alien invasion story that had well fleshed-out characters. The over-arching story had interesting layers with the In-Vitro and A.I. both shaping the world this story takes place in during the A.I. Wars before the main story even takes place, and the enemy we will come to know as the Chigs will be a mysterious threat that we are challenged to unlock.

The Enemy is the seventh episode of the show and details the groups mission to resupply a strange planet where humans have been at war with the Chigs since the very first days, but very few seem to come out alive. As soon as they land, they start to see why even if they don't understand it. The Enemy feels like a throwback to a Star Trek episode dealing with fear and/or mind control on the human mind. It was an okay story, but missed opportunities to really dive into characters' backstories or to play with what was real or not.… (mer)

I've been enjoying this series more since the last few volumes started to focus on animals. This one shows the interesting things they can make, from spider webs to nests to bee hives. Too bad beavers didn't make the cut; I love those industrious little guys!

Publishing trivia side note:

I purchased this entire series secondhand earlier this year from several different sources. After they showed up in their various packages and I opened them I was disappointed to find that this series was published in three different sizes. The books I've reviewed up till now -- volumes 1-12 -- have all been 7" x 7", but this one expands to 8" x 8", and the next two I own come in at a whopping 9" x 9". So instead of sitting nicely on my bookshelf as a perfect complete set, it sort of grows an awkward tail. I wonder which size provided the best sales for the publisher and why they felt the need to change it up so much? And are there more size variants out there? The contents of each size are the same, by the way, with none of them adding special content . . . just 15 or 32 square inches of paper.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... )… (mer)