The Once and Future Franchises – Comparative Opinions Episode 55

Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! In the wake of the bad reviews for both Valerian and The Dark Tower, hosts Holly and David talk about franchises (and adaptations) that have succeeded – like Harry Potter – and ones that overstayed their welcome or didn’t even get going. They speculate a bit on some franchises and adaptations in the works, and then go through some of the titles they would like to see adapted.

Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday!

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Music is by Scott Gratton: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Gratton/Intros_and_Outros

Best of 2013

With the onset of the new year and the end of the old David and I decided that we were going to spend some time reflecting on 2013. There were some great things that happened in 2013. We saw some great movies, read some great books, and played some amazing games. David and I decided we wanted to share some of our best of 2013. Now these are all things that we experienced for the first time in 2013, this does not necessarily mean that they came out in 2013, but that is because with books and comics we are not always the best about keeping up with current trends. David will be sharing his opinion tomorrow, but here is my best of 2013.

Recommended Reading: Scott Westerfeld

An author that I discovered some years back is Scott Westerfeld. I do not even remember how I first found the initial book I read by him. I think it might have been completely by chance while at a Barnes and Noble and I ran across a table with books for young adults and found Uglies. Obviously I decided to buy it and I fell in love with the book. Of course it was the first part of a trilogy and it does not end in a way that really gives you closure. It ends in a way that makes you want to read more. So I got the rest of the series.

Then I discovered a few more books that Westerfeld has written and I have loved every one. He has written more for young adults, but the couple of books he wrote for adults (that I know of) were really good. So here are the Scott Westerfeld series that I have read and recommend.

Let’s “Eureka-ize” Our Education System

If you’re anything like me, you watch shows like Eureka on the Syfy channel and Big Bang Theory on NBC and think – some of this stuff is way over my head. Particle physics, string theory, artificial intelligence… those things are for geniuses, which definitely excludes me. But watching a recent Ted Talk made me think maybe we don’t give ourselves and our kids enough credit. Maybe a place like Eureka could actually exist if we let it.