Episode 39 - All Roads Lead to Qualm Pie

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It’s all action aboard the tranquillity for Chapter 27 of The Way The Stars Fall: Rebirth.

As they approach the wormhole, the Rokarii fleet from a few chapters ago flies out to meet them. Don’t think about the logistics of that, because they make no sense. We then have a big old spaceship fight with broadsides, ruse cruises and yet another commando raid to rescue Tona. Spoiler, Jack gets impaled on her claws. But ooh, who is this mysterious figure with a bomb who turns up for the cliff-hanger?

Still you can just feel the author trying to pull the string together in an action climax that doesn’t really pay off. As ever, we attempt to improve upon our poor source material by talking about why Nerds say ‘Gods’ rather than ‘God’, why 19th century ships had guns on their broadsides (And why this is kinda retarded for space ships), cuckoo clocks on the bridge of the Tranquillity, the pitfalls of having a wood burning stove in space and the logistics of adding a porch to your spaceship.

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Episode 38 – Unnecessary Maths

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The last chapter blew chunks, and chapter 26 isn’t any better. A short chapter that is still far too long considering literally nothing of interest happens.

We’re back on the tranquillity with jack and Hollister, and we get to enjoy Logistics the Musical as they talk about repairs, food and ammunition while slowly flying towards a wormhole. Oh joy.

You can practically see the author just wrapping things up as quickly as possible and get to the final action scene, to the degree I wonder why he even bothered writing this chapter at all. I guess he liked the sound of having 30 chapters. So, in want of actual content to discuss, enjoy your two bookends developing a leather chair based system of ageing spaceships, a discussion of deepest Chucklevision lore and briefly get dangerously close to politics when we discuss Mark Zuckerberg’s day out to the Supreme Court.

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Episode 37 – Farmer Tona and the Jack Hunter Harvest

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Welp, that didn’t last long. After being comparatively positive about chapter 24, chapter 25 turned out to be an abortion even by the usual standards of this book.

We spend the whole chapter with the Rokarii, where Tona and Queen Vilxena discuss their retarded plans to conquer the universe and milk jack for DNA, then Tona leads the fleet through the wormhole and that’s… it?

Seriously, this chapter is really short, it feels like the author is getting as bored as we are and trying to wrap this shitshow up as quickly as possible. Even with our digressions about alien fleshlights, more Romans, five minutes of us laughing at the concept of Tona yelling at a rotating hologram of Jack and the mechanics of downloading things directly to and from your brain, this episode still only just breaks 45 minutes. A fact I’m sure you are all very glad of.

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Episode 36 - Uncharacteristic Competence

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This time on Two Absolute Bookends we get a chapter of literally nothing, albeit nothing written better that any of the action we’ve had recently.

Tiberius returns back to the Imperator for a chat after everything went wrong in his attempt to capture the Tranquillity and fight the Rokarii at the same time. However, being a bro, the Imperator decides to give him another shot, and sends him back out to track down and capture the Tranquillity once and for all. That’s it. Though, we both agree, despite literally nothing happening, this chapter was actually almost written well in parts, so don’t say we can't praise the book when promise is shown.

Of course, in such a short chapter, we manage to get distracted as per usual and discuss the history of Manservants and thereby Peter’s infatuation with PG Wodehouse and the idealised version of the early 20th century he set his books in, the noble ancient Roman tradition of the haruspex and the relative merits of Scrappy Doo as a cartoon character. And who could forget the Globgogabgalab...

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Episode 35 - Remembering Talia

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This time on Two Absolute Bookends we get some action as Tiberius and his fleet finally interact with jack and the Rokarii in the past... Just roll with it. Needless to say, as this is TWTSF, everyone is retarded.

The tranquillity is in a bad way from the pursuing Rokarii (though there wasn’t even mention of an active pursuit when we were last with them), about to be intercepted by a second fleet, when Tiberius jumps through the hole and really fucks his day up. They are both shocked to find out that somehow they are both the evil twin, upon which Tiberius resolves to blast them apart. Quite how he intends to capture them is the ship is destroyed is anyone’s guess. Long story short, jack escapes by making a sun, then goes back to save Tiberius’s fleet for stupid reasons, then they both escape back to the present and go their separate ways.

Even in this action packed chapter, your Bookend buddies still manage to talk about the (cultural) death of Mike Myers, Hitler’s paining career and the potential epilepsy of Julius Caesar. So join us, as we muse on if a Rokarii Hollister can chuckle, Louis get’s triggered by the concept of the author referring to anything in the pre-book past of the characters, the potential Homosexual experimentation in the sex dungeons of Talia and the mind splitting retardation of the time travel rules the book uses.

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Episode 34 - Beetle Craft, Beetle Craft, Beetle Craft

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Back again with a little less down time to welcome in the New Year, your bookends this week join Captain Tiberius of the turmoil, where after like 10 chapters we finally have Tiberius’s story intersect with Jack and the Tranquillity again.

The chapter is bloody boring, Tiberius arrives in the system with the wormhole, blows up a Rokarii vessel and then goes through the wormhole. And if that sounds in any way exciting, then I’ve raised your expectations far too high. Also, in my humble opinion the author lays on the despicableness of Tiberius on far too heavy to take seriously – there’s being evil, then there’s being stupid.

Don’t you worry though, while the subject matter may be boring, your Bookends still find plenty of fun stuff to talk about in the various problems of motivation, science, sense and chronology as they try and work out how anything Tiberius does this chapter makes sense. And when that fails Peter spends ten minutes giving a lecture on naval warfare for dummies, offers a chimney based method for saving the planet and, for some reason, Nazi’s get brought up again. I wish I knew why this keeps happening. We’re just bad people I guess.

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Episode 33 – G.I. Jake

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It’s been a long long time Bookend Friends. Not only did we have eight episodes of sonic high school madness, but we had Peter being an absolute useless piece of shit when it came to editing for most of November and December, but here we are, just in time for new years, back in the ITF Tranquillity where we belong with Jack Hunter, Tona, Hollister and all the rest of the gang.

After a critical look, we’ve come to realise that nothing important happens this chapter at all, it’s all a big shaggy dog story where Jack tries to save the Alien version of Tona, and fails, then they decide they need to escape back into the present. There are insane military manoeuvres, sexual violence and more, but the only thing that actually matters is when we find out the Rokarii think Jack is the perfect human specimen and wants to harvest his DNA. I shit you not. This is where the plot is now.

Your Bookends have a mixture of relief to be back in the familiar after months of sonic high school, and abject bafflement at how the plot is developing. It’s not every story where you can discuss Alien Cuckoldry, Arrested Development and 60’s Batman and Robin without going off topic, but god bless The Way the Stars Fall for existing. The marines being unwilling to retreat from certain death does almost give Peter an aneurysm though, so swings and roundabouts.

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