Does anyone else here read the Star Wars NOVELS? Right now, I’m re-reading all of mine.
I’m re-reading the X-Wing series, and right now I’m up to Book 5, Wraith Squadron. (I read this one a while ago, and I have Book 6, Iron Fist, but I never got around to reading it).
Any thoughts?
I have to say, I think I would definitely swoon over “Face” Loran, scar or no scar.
I pretty much know what happens after this-at least some of the plots. However, perhaps someone can answer a question for me, at least:
Do you think Stackpole named the infamous prison “Lusankya” after the Soviet prison of the same name?
Stackpole is the only decent Star Wars author. Also, the only decent Battletech author. And it’d be an amazing coincidence if a prison named Lusankya just happened to be a historical Soviet prison, too.
I just started the New Jedi Order series, which I’m enjoying to the extent that I’m pretending it’s NOT a Star Wars series. It’s a neat war story, and I’m enjoying the exploits of the Solo kids…on the other hand, it seems so…so…UN-Star Wars with these Yuuzhan Vong people, who we’ve never heard of before and exist outside the Force.
I read a lot of the SW comic collections from Dark Horse, BTW. (Seems the Del Rey novels have general jurisdiction over the post-Jedi era, while the comics get everything pre-Episode IV. Wonder if the gosh-awful Dark Empire series had anything to do with it…) I love Star Wars Tales, and the only thing that annoys me is that it’s a quarterly…
Timothy Zahn, Mike Stackpole, Steve Perry, and Kris Rusch are the only readable SW authors, in that order. Period. Zahn’s five novels are the only ones I would recommend to non-SW buffs. I appreciate Stackpole’s willingness to off his characters, thought. It’s not plausible for Rogue Squadron fighters to survive many missions, and he does a great job dealing with that.
Kevin J. Anderson, however, apparently slept through the movies. In one book (Darksaber?) Chewbacca, the loyal, life-debt-having Wookie, runs from fight, leaving Han in the lurch. Jesus, man. I thought you were a fan.
I love the Stackpole X-Wing books, although the other author – Allston? what’s his name? sometimes annoys me. I think his X-wing books try a little to hard to be cute and quirky, although I confess that once in a while, the jokes do have me laughing. That Ewok bit got old, fast.
Although to Allston’s credit, one of my favorite SW EU civilizations is the planet in Starfighters of Adumar, which I think is an excellent depiction of a culture that is more technologically advanced than ours, but less than the Republic. He seemed to hit the right points about the rebels’ (except they’re not rebels anymore, because this takes after ROTJ, so what are they? Republicans?) reactions to things that seemed primitive compared to their own society.
DEFINITELY including Zahn. I just forced my way through the Heir to the Empire series.
I knew Rukh would kill Thrawn as soon as they were introduced!
and:
Luuke Skywalker the clone!?! Made from the hand he lost in the fight with Vader at Cloud City?!? That went spinning off into a gas giant??!? Criminey!
I want my time back! Transparent plotting, grade school politics.
There were a few good characters introduced, but Zahn did so little with them it was aggravating.
X-Wing is good; Stackpole is better than Allston, but both are worlds ahead of Zahn. Enjoyable characters, reasonable plot twists, interesting problem solving.
I’m not quite sure how to do those spoiler boxes, so…
Spoiler (Kinda)
No, Wedge doesn’t find out the ewoks are extinct; when his squadron goes undercover to fly with the Imperial 181st as mercenaries, since he is so recognizable as a pilot, they rig him up in a black flight-suit and put an ewok doll on his lap, with special prosthetics so it looks like the ewok is flying. Pretty funny, if you ask me. I’ve read the entire series except #2, Wedge’s Gamble, I think. The one where they take Coruscant. Oh well. I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
Chocobo, spoiler boxes are done like the rest of the coding.
<spoiler>text</spoiler>, replacing the <> with . An easy way to see how someone’s done some coding is to hit the “quote” button at the bottom of their post - it’ll show it as it was done.
I’m putting this in a spoiler box, since it’s a response to galen’s comment that was in a spoiler box (if I can follow the instructions for the coding) …
[spoiler] Yeah, the evil Luuke thing is goofy as all get out, but it’s not really Zahn’s fault. It already happened in another EU storyline, so he dealt with it as best he could. I was always somewhat impressed that he hardly mentions it at all.**
While Rouge squadron is on Courscant before it falls (Wedge’s Gamble), Wedge, Pash and Iella go to the Imperial museum and there is an exhibit that shows all of the creatures that are extinct because of the rebellion. Among these creatures is an ewok that was made to look even cuter.
Unless the ewoks were wiped out in another novel that I don’t know about, the ewoks being extinct was just Imperial Propaganda.
Actually, I like Allston-being that Face is probably one of my favorite characters (well, along with Mara Jade).
I just don’t like how they threw him together with Dia-for some reason, I just don’t see it. (And even Allston says they probably broke up later on, because their paths were pretty different).
Sure enough, lionel’s right about the exhibit with Ewoks… though I’d take anything in an Imperial museum with a shaker full of salt.
Not a page later, the holographic Vader tells of how the Emperor headed to the half-completed “Imperial Planetary Ore Extractor” at Endor for “offering these Rebels his forgiveness and a hand in friendship.”
It’s a neat war story, and I’m enjoying the exploits of the Solo kids…on the other hand, it seems so…so…UN-Star Wars with these Yuuzhan Vong people, who we’ve never heard of before and exist outside the Force.