Star Wars Novels/Graphic Novels

[stonebender]

I thought the Empire as Space Nazis thing was always a bit cheesy.  Or at least when taken too far.  That evil commander dude in The Force Awakens comes to mind.  His look felt to me like it stemmed from a design mentality akin to having Han Solo wear a cowboy hat and spurs in ANH, and by the time they got to his spastic rally speech I thought I was watching a new Space Balls movie. 

[Darth Richard II]

Maia I think its possible you just don't like Star Wars

[Werthead]

The "third way" or "grey side of the Force" idea was something Stover did a good job with, but its ultimate best exploration was in Knights of Old Republic II, which is where Chris Avellone completely nailed the idea really well.

[C.T. Phipps]

13 minutes ago, Werthead said:

The "third way" or "grey side of the Force" idea was something Stover did a good job with, but its ultimate best exploration was in Knights of Old Republic II, which is where Chris Avellone completely nailed the idea really well.

I had a different interpretation of that which Chris Avellone disliked as he tried to write about the necessity of doing GoodTM without a Godlike Parent Figure (The Force), especially one who had a split personality, looking over your shoulder. The point of the Exile being that they follow the Light Side of the Force without the Force.

Which, to me, really says more about Avellone than it does Star Wars.

Then again, every game Chris Avellone makes is Planescape: Torment.

[C.T. Phipps]

2 hours ago, stonebender said:

I thought the Empire as Space Nazis thing was always a bit cheesy.  Or at least when taken too far.  That evil commander dude in The Force Awakens comes to mind.  His look felt to me like it stemmed from a design mentality akin to having Han Solo wear a cowboy hat and spurs in ANH, and by the time they got to his spastic rally speech I thought I was watching a new Space Balls movie. 

See? For me, that's fun.

I'm all about the Empire being replaced with Space Hydra.

[Darth Richard II]

Hail Hydra!

[First of My Name]

9 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Yeah but they fucked Vergere to shit when it was retconned that 

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She was a secret Sith the whole time.

 

Yeah, whoever came up with that should have been fired on the spot.

6 hours ago, Maia said:

So, you agree that "Traitor" is the pinnacle of NJO? Also, I found Luceno's "Tarkin" to be pretty boring, which, given the subject matter, is quite a feat. Not that his earlier SW books can't be (much) better, of course. After all,  Zahn really regressed between the Thrawn trilogy and "Outbound Flight", IMHO.

 

Are there any that you would characterize as good, period? I still find it odd that far from being able to capitalize on having a rich  pre-existing settings in which to craft entertaining and intriguing stories, the tie-in writers in general seem to gravitate to really limited and perfunctory stuff. Seriously, from my sampling of fan-fics (not a lot of and not SW), there are quite a few with better characterization, scope, ideas, etc. than what I have so far encountered in professional tie-ins, which is quite disappointing.

Anyway, on to :

Also:

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The conceit that the main couple was born on the Empire Day and entered into adult responsibilities a couple of weeks before the start of the episode IV must have seemed very tongue-in-cheek and clever, but it really hamstrung the psychological narrative in addition to the above. The protagonists have never experienced "business as usual", seemingly constructive aspects of Imperial service. If Gray had given them a year of chasing pirates and such, their evolution  would have been far more meaningful and  natural. Imperial pilots graduating at 18 would have explained much, too ;).

Thane being rebellious by nature and as a result of abusive upbringing really cheapened his eventual defection, IMHO. But at least he got to actively do stuff, use his military training to actually fight  on-screen, etc.

While the "Lower Decks" /  Forrest Gump schtick seems neat, it robbed Ciena's service narrative of any coherence and agency. I guess that the author was too afraid to make her "evil", so she ended up incredibly passive and didn't have an opportunity to _do_ anything until the very end. She never even shot at a rebel with intent to hit. Whatever she did as a ship captain was never shown. So, "war criminal" in the end seemed melodramatically overblown and unearned.

Also, her mother's conviction and local magistrate disdainfully ignoring one of the few up-and-coming Imperial officers from Jelucan felt fake as hell. If it was a political charge, sure, I could see Ciena not being able to help, but even then she should have at least been able to go through the process of trying to do something. We could have even got a tiny bit of characterization of the mother, if she had been compassionate towards prisoners toiling in the mine or something and got accused of sedition as a result. But as it was - nope. If serving an evil empire doesn't give people and their families even a bit of status and protection, who would do it? 

Finally, she could _feel_ the evilness of Vader and the Emperor, just by seeing how scary and ugly they looked? Give me a break. Is she supposed to be Force-sensitive?

I did like what was done with Nash Windrider (the Alderaanian officer), though. Too bad that he didn't get a PoV.

 

 

Traitor is my favorite of the NJO books I've read, yeah. And TUF is far from boring. I do agree that some of Zahn's later stuff doesn't really do the trick. And there are definitely SW books I would call good, period.

Honestly, if you dislike it that much, why do you keep reading so much of the tie-in fiction? You clearly don't enjoy these stories as much as the rest seems to. And most SW stories follow a formula (which can be a bad thing and a good thing) that you don't really seem to enjoy. Based on your reviews so far I'd advise you to let the EU be.

 

[Darth Richard II]

Have you tried the X Wing books?

[Darth Richard II]

Oh and I never meant to imply there was anythign wrong with 70 year old mara jade, just that the type of people who liked to wish cast kept casting like 20 year olds.

[stonebender]

Hmm, as far "good, period" Star Wars, my picks would be anything by Stover, Greg Bear's Rogue Planet, and Karen Traviss's Triple Zero.  Oh, and Jeter's Bounty Hunter trilogy.  Maybe Hambly's Planet of Twilight as well for its weirdness.  For me all of those had hooks beyond what I came to expect as standard Star Wars. 

[Darth Richard II]

gaargh, I'd rather have no Star Wars novels at all then read planet of twilight again. And Jeter's trilogy was so bad it was taken out of canon before it was even finished being published.

 

[stonebender]

Nah, Balancesheet is the best Star Wars character.  Can't take greatness out of canon. 

[Joe Pesci]

Started on Catalyst today, only 3 chapters in but seems like it's going to be pretty good. I've always liked most of Luceno's SW work.

[TheRevanchist]

Read these days Bloodline and Ahsoka.

Bloodline events take place between the events of the original trilogy and the new one. Its story is totally based on Leia, and how she left the Republic's senate, to found the Rebellion.

Ahsoka - as the name suggests - is a book about Ahsoka, which tries to tie her story between The Clone Wars and Rebels. However, it is set just a single year after she left the order, so I guess we will have other Ahsoka's books.

Both books were okay, but not spectacular. Read them if you want some Star Wars, but don't expect anything special.

[Spaßvogel]

I just finished Catalyst, the Rogue One prequel.  It starts when the Clone Wars begins and ends a few years before Rogue One is set.  The main characters are Galen Erso, his wife Lyra Erso, Orson Krennic, and to a lesser degree Tarkin and a smuggler named Has Orbitt.  Luceno wrote the new canon novel "Tarkin" so it wasn't surprising to me that he ended up a major character, and the plot meshed nicely with the events in that book.

There weren't a ton of reveals for the meta-plots of the new canon, but as a lot of people have speculated for years, the Death Star's primary weapon was made possible by utilizing giant Kyber Crystals.  (The use of which was Galen Erso's primary scientific study at the time the war started.

One interesting part for fan's of the Brandon Tartovsky early Clone Wars cartoons, Luceno seems to have brought the Battle of Hypori into the new canon.  That was the cartoon where the five or six jedi were beaten by Grievous.  That whole cartoon had been removed from Canon when the new Clone Wars cartoon started.  I remember an action figure for Fordo had to be renamed ARC Trooper Commander at the request of Lucasfilm because Fordo had been removed from canon.  Kind of interesting that they've brought it back in.  (Of course, they've found a way to shoe-horn in Thrawn, so I suppose anything's possible)

[C.T. Phipps]

A bizarre fact is that it's actually the lesser characters who have found themselves into the Star Wars canon fastest. Armand Isard, Admiral Screed, and a bunch of RPG-only characters like Ars Danger are causally mentioned. James Luceno also managed to canonize Darth Plagueis in all but the most specifics with his TARKIN novel.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is an easy Imperial to recanonize as he's a guy who is good for hunting Rebels.

I just read the first two volumes of the Darth Vader comic and I have to say I'm utterly in love Doctor Aphra.

Brilliant, brilliant creation.

[Darth Richard II]

Oh the Darth Vader comic is fucking amaze balls.

[Calibandar]

I saw the 4th trade is coming out next week, is that what you've been reading?

Or are you reading the weekly issues? It seems intriguing but I am especially interested in how they end it.

[C.T. Phipps]

On 11/30/2016 at 7:31 AM, Calibandar said:

I saw the 4th trade is coming out next week, is that what you've been reading?

Or are you reading the weekly issues? It seems intriguing but I am especially interested in how they end it.

I'm only now catching up to 3# so I am in good company. I'll probably switch to issues after.

Edit:

Finished! Awesome ending!

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2016/12/star-wars-darth-vader-vol-1-vader-review.html

[Joe Pesci]

Anyone start on Empire's End yet?