Book Review: Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit by Robb Pearlman

 

 

As someone who has attended several comic conventions during the last few years, I felt as if this book was a pretty good description of the environment one lives while attending one. Of course there are the panels, the celebrity photo-ops and autographs, the exhibitors stands to get your attention but the experience of meeting other fellow geek fans is truly important.

I enjoyed reading this book and how the author exceeded at portraying accurately how this experience is for most of us, but at the same time, using knowledge and the learning given by a plethora of pop culture properties we are familiar with. It felt truly organic having four different characters, a Vulcan, a Wookiee, a Hobbit and an Elder - or four different individuals dressed as - interacting with the author from a first-person narrative and providing their wisdom and knowledge.

When attending a con, it's common to act as the character you're dressed with. You're no longer John, an accountant from Kansas or Laura, a teacher from Illinois, you're embodied by your cosplay and that's a really nice experience. To have these four people engaging in such enriching conversation covering different topics with the author felt as if one as the reader was sitting aside them, listening to them.

And regardless the discourse that might exist in all types of fandom, I appreciated that the author acknowledge the different point of views from fans without focusing too much on it. Generally speaking, the perspective of this book is focusing on the positives rather than the negative side of the fandom. On how a person attending on its own can find themselves as part of a larger community and find kindred spirits to hang out with. And this book meets its purpose: on bringing a nice perspective on attending a con and enjoying the experience, not only the activities per se, but the people you get to meet when you go to one. 

Having this book released after a year and a half of pandemic is quite cathartic - I had tickets to attend Ace Comic Con in March 2020 in Boston and was so ready to go but pandemic happened, so it brings back memories of why is a really nice experience, attending a con. Even though con activity has restarted at a certain extent, it is not back yet to pre-pandemic levels - for reasons like delta variant -  but hopefully it will be a time when things might improve, so this book is quite helpful to remember and value that person-to-person con experience as something worth having. 

Live Like a Vulcan, Love Like a Wookiee, Laugh Like a Hobbit will be released on October 5th, 2021 both in physical and digital formats. Thank you NetGalley and Robb Pearlman for the ARC!