Booklist on Transformers: Exodus

It's pretty rare for licensed fiction to get reviewed in the trades, but Booklist took a look at the Transformers: Exodus, and seemed to like what they saw:

Transformers: Exodus is precisely the origin story that the franchise needed. It’s entertaining, filled with the sort of epic battles Transformers lend themselves to, and keeps the reader breathless with anticipation even though we already know how it ends. Megatronus was a gladiator, until he got his name and started thinking about the way Cybertron’s caste system diminished the “bots’” potential. Orion Pax was a data-worker—-a librarian, really—-under the master archivist. The Archivist is more than he seems, and provides a great deal of context for the history of Cybertron, and a few key deus-ex-machina twists. Orion Pax, now known as Optimus Prime, is an honest character, who never asks for the greatness that is forced upon him; Megatron, on the other hand, is an egomaniacal tyrant. But in the framework of a political revolution and the civil war that overthrows a system that had practically calcified, there are terrible fights, friendships made and broken, and the beginnings of a genuine epic; above all, it’s fun to read.

Why Soccer Is Theatrical, in a Mathematical Nutshell

Size of NFL field: 48000 square feet.
Number of players: 22.
Number of guys with whistles: 7.
Formations: Players largely concentrated in one part of field.
Probability of something illegal happening: high.
Official eyeballs per player: 0.636
Official eyeballs per acre: 14/(48000/43560)=14/1.102=12.705

Official Eyeball Coverage Quotient; 0.636*12.705=8.080

Avg. size of FIFA regulation field: 81000 square feet.
Number of players: 22.
Number of guys with whistles: 1.*
Formations: None. Players all over the field at all times.
Probability of something illegal happening: high.
Official eyeballs per player: 0.273
Official eyeballs per acre: 2/(81000/43560)=2/1.859=1.076

Official Eyeball Coverage Quotient: 0.273*1.067=0.294

8.080/0.294=27.484

So it's 27.5 times as likely that a ref will see a foul on a football field as on a soccer field. If you were a player, you'd try to get that ref's attention too. Then there's the question of how widely spread the players are...difficult to quantify, but another factor that would increase the differential.

*3 if you count linesmen, who occasionally call fouls but are mostly there to flag offsides and out of bounds; when and if they wave their flags to make calls, the ref can wave them off and allow play to continue. But even if we grant 3 "refs" in soccer, the difference is still nearly a factor of 10.

June 12 Cannot Come Soon Enough