Holiday Binge Watching

The day job shuts down from Christmas to the first Monday after the New Year, giving me time to catch up on things like reading and television. It's not that I don't do these things year round, but I save a few things that I think might be worth some extra attention for when I can focus a bit more. This year, one of those shows was Andor, the Star Wars series that serves as a prequel to Rogue One.

There was a two and a half year gap between the first and second seasons, so I watched both and wasn't sorry. One thing that makes Andor's writing the best in the franchise is the details. Every scene, if not every line of dialogue, contributes to plot, character development, or both. Tony Gilroy, the show's creator, has referred to the two seasons as individual novels, and his assertion holds.

Rogue One is the story of how the Rebellion stole the plans that made the destruction of the Death Star in the movie formerly known as Star Wars possible. It's an entertaining film with stunning visuals and impressive effects, even if you, like me, feel that the digital recreations of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher were distracting and unnecessary.

While Andor is the prequel to the prequel, it stands on its own. This is at least partially because Disney took the unusual step of allowing it to. Rogue One had to have A Star Wars Story slapped on its title. You know, just in case the pictures of X-Wings, Imperial Cruisers, and the Death Star, and silhouette of Darth Vader on the poster weren't enough of a hint. Sometimes I think Hollywood Execs all think we're as dumb as they are.

But the prequel series has none of this. It's smart, and it assumes you are, too. It's about life under the Empire and how some people resist it while others attempt to thrive within its confines. How did the Empire build that thing? And how did a bunch of teenagers figure out how to blow it up? What does it take to succeed in a fascist state? What happens when you fail?

I'm going to be honest. I'm burnt out on Jedi. I've written before about how exciting it was to be a young teen when the movie formerly known as Star Wars came out and how I desperately wanted to learn more about that world. But now we've seen nine movies about the same dysfunctional family, with a villain that's more often found standing in the background cackling than actually doing anything. Even the sequel trilogy, which initially appeared to be a welcome story about outsiders, pulled back and decided to make the protagonist not just a creation of Darth Cacklepants but an adopted Skywalker. (Which, depending on who you believe, is redundant.)

Star Wars is at its best when it looks past the same handful of characters and shows us the rest of its world. Give me more of that kid force dancing with a broom at the end of The Last Jedi. Tell me what they drink in those wretched hives of scum and villainy. Give me a show about happened to Cloud City after Lando turned back after his initial heel turn. You might see these stories in the novels or the comics, but you sure don't in the films. The studio started to with Solo and Rogue One, but fumbled the ball when they felt the need to squeeze in too many winks and Easter eggs. Even the Mandalorian couldn't resist turning into the Jedi reunion hour in its last season.

But Andor breaks the mold. It's a deep dive into the rebellion that eventually overthrows the Empire. Check it out if you haven't yet.

Amazon's Book Leases

Book leases? Is that something new? No.

Nearly every month in 2025 featured a new call to boycott Amazon. There's a litany of reasons, and I agree with most of them, even if I think a boycott is unrealistic.

Amazon sticks it to authors, vendors, employees, and consumers. I avoid buying from them whenever possible. It's not easy. I've even purchased items directly from vendors only to have my merchandise show up in an Amazon box. I’ve have made my books available "wide" from day one and make sure that readers know they can buy them almost anywhere online.

When you "buy" a book on a Kindle, you're agreeing to a lease. You can only read it on Amazon's apps and they can change the book or even take it away whenever they please. Mark my words: it's only a matter of time before books disappear from people's collections because of a contract dispute with a publisher, similar to what Sony tried a couple of years ago with video.

That said, I understand why my sales on Amazon outnumber all other venues by more than five to one. Buying stuff, especially ebooks, on Amazon is easy. People call their e-readers "Kindles", regardless of whether they have one of Amazon's crippled tablets or a superior product like Boox, Bigme, or Tolino, that has access to Android app stores so you can read anything you wish.

So rather than tell you to stop buying books from Amazon, I've made buying books directly from me as easy as possible. I've moved my personal store over to Curios. They make buying a book and transferring it to your e-reader just as seamless as Amazon, and you can also buy books (and other digital media) from a growing list of independent creators.

When you buy direct:

• Authors get a larger percentage of the sale. Amazon's royalty structure is nothing short of abusive. They also pay three months in arrears, control how we can set our prices, and bias their search listings toward the authors that participate in Kindle Unlimited, which requires an exclusive deal.

• Authors know who you are. None of the online bookstores provide us with names or contact info for readers. (You might prefer it that way and that's fine, too. But Amazon sure knows who you are.) Indie authors rely on repeat readers, and the first step to achieving that is knowing who they are.

• You weaken the tech company's monopoly on what we can read, hear, and see. This is getting worse as the same people who think it's okay to steal art to feed their crappy AI buy or steal everything in sight.

Stepping off the soapbox now.

New Year, New Deals

The Great War of the Worlds bundle is on sale for the first two weeks of the year! From today until the 17th, you can get all three books for $7.99! Check out the special here!

Looking for some more free reads to start out the New Year?

Check out these giveaways here! This one has thrillers, sci-fi, and horror!