Dungeon Crawler Carl (Matt Dinniman)

One minute, Carl is trying to coax his ex-girlfriend's cat (Princess Donut) out of a tree in the middle of a freezing night. The next, he finds himself one of Earth's few survivors as he is shepherded into a dungeon and told to fight for his life. Apparently, the apocalypse will be televised to an intergalactic audience, and Carl and Donut must find a way to survive by gaining new skills, leveling up, and finding a stairway to the next level of the dungeon before the current one collapses. If they can make it to level 18, they may just survive . . . but this game might be rigged.

This book—the first in a Literary Role-Playing Game (LitRPG) series—is all the rage, and I wanted to see why. I enjoyed it; its absurdist humor and clear parallels to video game RPGs were fun (but beware profanity, vulgarity, and violence). There is also an overarching element of mystery involving those responsible for Earth's collapse and their motives/goals which was captivating and stays unresolved as the book ends. Speaking of—it ends somewhat abruptly, making it clear that the series is not a sequence of self-contained tales but one long story arc. With book eight due out this year and no end in sight, I am questioning if I want to invest in reading the rest of the series. But I do want to know what happens next . . . so I'll keep going for now.

Rating: B+

The Clay Pot Conspiracy (Dave Harvey)

In The Clay Pot Conspiracy, Pastor Dave Harvey argues that for those in ministry, "leadership was never about exactling out strengths. God's plan was always to deliver his strength through our weakness." He delivers an equation:

Our Weakness + God's Power = Resilient Ministry

and then discusses what he calls 'seven wonders' that collectively show this to be true:

1. Store Treasure in Clay (see 2 Corinthians 4:7)
• Our "weakness reveals our inadequacy," and reveals that "it's about God's power, not ours. It's about God's grace, not our grit." "The perfection of Christ is greater than the cracks in your pot."
2. Make Death Produce Life (see 2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
• "Paul's vision of leadership was to carry death in your body so that God can display the life of Jesus." "What if the heart of leadership is more about becoming living displays of broken vitality?" What if God is "silencing one brand of confidence to cultivate another"?
• "Your burdens and pain are not obstacles to resilience. They're the means of producing it."
3. Let Repentance Stoke Resilience
• We always need to repent. When we see more of Christ, we see more of our sin—and it never ends. "The biggest threat to leadership resilience is our unrelenting battle against indwelling sin."
• "Sin always subverts God's good things with the promise that vice will deliver a greater delight." "Sin cons, then consumes. It deceives, then devours." We fight and fail and keep fighting. Ultimately, "our brokenness moves us toward humility and dependence, not moral perfection."
4. Learn Love When the Church Wounds You
• "We are limited and fallible—flawed shepherds leading imperfect sheep." "To truly love the church, we must come to terms with her imperfections." People will hurt us (and we them). Our love will be "misunderstood or unrequited. Or . . . our own wins [will] blunt the impact or intent of our friendship or service." "The church will disappoint you in ways that attack your faith to love and serve her." "Yet even when she acts ugly, she is still Christ's bride. You must see her, not simply by how she fails but in light of who she is becoming."
5. Remember God Uses Enemies to Enlarge Your Soul (see Psalm 56)
• "Leadership is a call to come under assault." "God will use our enemies to uncover our idols. He will use foes to build our faith." "God will help you embody what you have said to others about grace and love."
6. Build Strong Teams Through Weak Leaders
• We tend to focus on the wrong things when building teams. Instead, we should "aim for HEALTHY practices:"
• Honor others
• Encourage more than you want to be encouraged
• Acknowledge weaknesses more than parading strength
• Look to the interests of others
• Talk less, and listen more
• Help the weak
• Yearn for Christ
7. Run Together to Finish Well
• "God made us relational, and he made ministry a shared endeeavor." Like Christian in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, we are "never a stunning specimen of determined law-keeping." We are prone to wander and stumble . . . and yet we are never running the race alone. The Lord puts people in our lives to help us, and empowers us with His spirit. We will finish the race well, but we will not do it alone. We must run together. 

This book's content was outstanding; the delivery was okay. It would have benefitted from more exploration and examples. Some things were powerful mentioned in passing but could have been moreso if more deeply probed. Nevertheless, check this one out. 

Rating: A-

Daredevil: Truth/Dare

Continuing from last time . . .

Things are returning to normal in Hell's Kitchen. Well, normal for Hell's Kitchen . . . the mob war has been quieted as Kingpin manipulates things to his liking. Matt seeks a way to save the residents from losing their homes as he wrestles with his past demons. Ultimately, he decides to turn himself in . . . Daredevil is going to jail. Who will protect the people now?

An excellent story continues . . . this one felt a bit like important backstory as the tale builds to a crescendo.

Rating: A-

Project Hail Mary

The Sun is being eaten. Earth has just decades before it cools to the point of mass extinction. The world launches a one-way interstellar spacecraft to study the one known star unaffected by this phenomenon . . . and send the results back to save the world.

Scientist Ryland Grace wakes up on-board the spacecraft with no idea how he got there. He's alone . . . and Earth's only hope. Or is he? When he encounters an alien craft near the unaffected star, hope is born. But it will require sacrifice.

This movie is outstanding. It's an amazing blend of story, mystery, suspense, humor, effects, and message. It is at its core a powerful look at the need for others and self-sacrifice. Highly recommended.

Rating: A

X-men Origins: Wolverine

Logan (aka Wolverine) was heavily featured in the first three X-men films from 2000-06. This 2009 film looks at his backstory. 

Logan his brother Victor are different. with claws and regeneration abilities, they seem nigh-immortal and destined for unending battles, fighting in the Civil War up to present day. And Colonel Stryker has taken notice. 

Stryker recruits them for his strike force, and they live as mercenaries fighting around the globe—until Logan has had enough. He abandons the team and seeks a new life.

With peace, a girlfriend, and job as a lumberjack in the Canadian Rockies, Logan enjoys solitude for a few years . . . until he learns that someone has been hunting down his old team. He will be forced to confront his past—and face his future—with everything on the line.

---------

I wanted to like this movie, and there were elements that satisfied (like the action, some of the twists, and seeing Gambit make his big-screen debut). But ultimately, I think this movie suffered from trying to do too much. Was the focus on Wolverine? His relationship with his brother? His enmity towards Stryker? The rise of Deadpool? The origin of the X-men? Or just being a simple action-laced spectacle? The answer is yes and no to all of those. 

Stepping back to look at the X-men franchise, it gets confusing. Wolverine has a trilogy of his own (2009-2017), which is interlaced with (and yet separate from) the other films. Ultimately, this movie was subsequently retconned with the X-men:First Class series (2011-19), especially Days of Future Past. See my overview page for the X-men films and links to each. It is best enjoyed as an action-filled romp that held promise but tried to deliver on too many fronts and was since superceded by better tales.

Rating: B-

The Last Manager (John W. Miller)

The Last Manager is a biography about Earl Weaver, the legendary and controversial manager of the Baltimore Orioles from 1968-82 and 85-86. It covers his childhood in St. Louis, minor-league career,  brief foray into the big leagues, years spent at the O's helm, and life after retirement. 

Weaver was a spitfire. He yelled at Umps. He kicked dirt on home plate. He screamed at this players (but never held a grudge). He cussed, smoked, drank, and threatened. Ultimately, he rallied and united his players through hatred—of him.

Weaver was also a visionary. He was years ahead of his time in using data to make decisions. He preached approaches now widely used throughout the sport. He was respected and successful, winning four pennants and one World Series and coaching Hall-of-Famers including Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, and Cal Ripken Jr.

This book was a fun read, presenting a complex portrait of a man both revered and disdained by friends and foes alike. I wish it was longer. I'd recommend it for baseball fans and middle-aged Orioles fans in particular, whose memories of the players and times mentioned will increase their enjoyment.

Rating: A-

Venom

When journalist Eddie Brock tries to expose Life Foundation owner Carlton Drake as a criminal, he loses everything—his job, his reputation, his relationship. But he will soon gain something much more . . .

Carlton Drake's company has found alien life, and is secretly studying the specimens on Earth. These symbiotes cannot survive on their own; they need a suitable host. And one just got away . . .

As a symbiote bonds with Brock, he discovers his tremendous new powers even as he learns the terrible truth: this is an invasion force. Is there anything he can do to stop them? And will his parasite—who calls himself Venom—let him?

----

I finally got around to watching this 2018 film today. It was . . . okay. 

- Tom Hardy stole the show . . . he must have had a lot of fun playing this character. He does a great job wrestling with his new-found "dual nature."

- It was different than the typical superhero flick, as this is about an antihero. You're not sure whether you're rooting for or against Venom.

- The plot had its good points but suffered from uneven development. It starts off nicely, but without warning or much explanation, Venom's goals and motivation shift mid-movie. Then a bunch of other stuff happens that was poorly explored.

- I wasn't clear on what the message was. Maybe it is about co-dependency and how we need each other. Or maybe it's that everyone is a loser, so do what you can to look out for yourself.

- It was scary and gross in places. 

Overall, the potential for something amazing was there—a superhero movie off the beaten track—but it didn't quite deliver.

Rating: C