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I'll go to bat a bit for Black Fleet Crisis. I think, especially during the Bantam era, it stands out as being one of the only works that actually tries to advance the characters beyond the ending of ROTJ. Han isn't just being a smuggler. Luke (at least at the start) decides to take a break from being a Jedi to interrogate exactly what that means. Leia has to actually deal with running a democratic galactic government. Chewie remembers he has a family. Plus, the Empire isn't the villain, the classic movie ships don't even appear, there aren't Dark Jedi running around, and there are team-ups you don't see elsewhere, like Lando and the droids. Obviously there are some missteps like the mother plotline, and it probably would have worked better as three standalone books set at the same time, but I appreciate it for trying to do something different than the vast majority of books at the time, even if it didn't quite stick the landing.
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Jan 19, 2022 15:31
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Chairman Capone posted:I appreciate it for trying to do something different than the vast majority of books at the time, even if it didn't quite stick the landing. Oh, make no mistake, I actually appreciate the idea of having a non-Imperial villain for a change; and I'm definitely more interested in the Yevetha plotline now that the New Republic is gearing up to fight rather than just having chapter after chapter of Leia making futile attempts to try and please them. My major complaint is more that, in this book that's part two of the Black Fleet Crisis, only the last third is actually about the Black Fleet Crisis.
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Jan 19, 2022 20:01
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The Black Fleet Crisis feels incredibly 90s to me, not in a good or bad way, it's just very of the time. Big united 'end of history' state tries to cope with random aggro warlords doing genocides.
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Jan 19, 2022 20:37
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Most the 90s EU is in that “End of History” mold, at least the stuff set after ROTJ. NJO was conceived during the late 90s but even the earlier books in there seemed to fit with the pessimistic post-9/11 world.
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Jan 19, 2022 21:47
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When you look at it through that lens the Yuuzhan Vong really are an enemy out of nowhere that nobody expected who irrationally hate your very way of life alright.
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Jan 19, 2022 23:00
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Doesn’t the main bad guy in Black Fleet Crisis get put in a pod and dropped into hyperspace with no chance of getting out of hyperspace (unless he hits a gravity well I guess)?. Or am I thinking of something else? Because I always thought that was pretty hardcore.
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Jan 19, 2022 23:06
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Xenomrph posted:Doesn’t the main bad guy in Black Fleet Crisis get put in a pod and dropped into hyperspace with no chance of getting out of hyperspace (unless he hits a gravity well I guess)?. Or am I thinking of something else? Because I always thought that was pretty hardcore.
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Jan 19, 2022 23:16
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Arc Hammer posted:I remember the TV ad with Mark Hamill doing voice-over for the New Jedi Order books. i forgot how loving bleak New Jedi Order was for like the first half. it was 40k level bleak. General Battuta posted:The Black Fleet Crisis feels incredibly 90s to me, not in a good or bad way, it's just very of the time. Big united 'end of history' state tries to cope with random aggro warlords doing genocides. yeah. i noticed that too, alot of the post empire books feel like that. random fuckheads with either a fleet or genocide. then 9/11 hits and well time for the religious monsters from outside our frame of reference until they get more nuanced near the end. then it kinda spins its wheels for a decade until disney puts it out of its misery.
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Jan 21, 2022 13:33
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I started on the Adventures comics this week and was surprised to notice this guy: Turns out he is wearing a vonduun crab on his head, so that's a thing that sneakily came back.
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Jan 21, 2022 14:11
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Finished I, Jedi the over day. Appreciated that as the book went on Corran Horn ran into a few characters who pointed out he was making mistakes, really appreciated how Luke Skywalker came back and absolutely put him to shame (at least in combat). Found the Invid section interesting. Also, the Caamassi are really cool, now I can understand why so many people in the Hand of Thrawn dulogy are so upset when they get close to possibly finding out how their homeworld got destroyed. Now onto Visions of the Future, then Survivor's Quest. I've got the following on my reading list after that. The Zahn novel about Jorus C'baoth's expedition (can't remember off the top of my head) Shatterpoint Revenge of the Sith Novelization Luke & Shadows of Mindor After all that, I may try out the New Jedi Order. Maybe. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jan 21, 2022 |
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Jan 21, 2022 18:06
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Now onto Visions of the Future, then Survivor's Quest. I've got the following on my reading list after that. Outbound Fight is the name. These are all really good Star Wars books. Although I never read Shadows of Mindor.
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Jan 22, 2022 21:59
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Ditto those are all good. I think this isn't a widespread opinion, but I think Outbound Flight is the best-written Zahn novel. Shadows of Mindor is I think Stover's bottom for me, but I also want to make clear that that still makes it a really good book and absolutely worth reading. Stover's bottom is still top of the Star Wars book quality scale.
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Jan 22, 2022 23:17
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Thanks for those name clarifications. Currently working on Visions of the Future. Really like all the parts except for the Operation Vengeance/Wedge+Corran on Bothawui, those were boring as heck, maybe there's a big payoff for that stuff. I do like how Zahn has been going through and trying to fix all the dumb stuff that happened (Mara Jade/Lando, Luke's dumbness in the Jedi Academy trilogy). Also, I like that Lando was acknowledging that him and Han are just getting too old for this stuff. If Luke was 18 in ANH, and 22 in ROTJ, and this is 15 years after ROTJ, he's 37 at this point. Han and Lando must be getting close to mid-40s or even near 50.
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Jan 27, 2022 14:14
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:If Luke was 18 in ANH, and 22 in ROTJ, and this is 15 years after ROTJ, he's 37 at this point. Han and Lando must be getting close to mid-40s or even near 50. In Legends, 60 famously became the new 40
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Jan 27, 2022 15:40
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I finished The Fallen Star and I’m not sure what to think of it. On the one hand, I love Claudia Gray’s writing style, and the book flowed from one chapter to another. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. On the other hand, it seems kinda strange to destroy starlight beacon already. I never felt attached to it because we haven’t really seen it do anything, or be a part of the story, since it only came online at the end of the first book. Also, while I enjoy Marchion’s little schemes, it would be nice to flesh him out a little. It’s been three books and I still have no idea what he’s doing or why, besides just being a bad guy. Still very much enjoying the High Republic, but I almost wish they would slow down the pacing, and take some time to flesh out the setting. Or just give me a FFG High Republic setting book.
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Jan 27, 2022 16:05
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Bothuwui
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Jan 27, 2022 17:47
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Nerd question. Ships in Star Wars have been able to travel between solar systems sans hyperdrive since Empire Strikes Back. Legends EU said they managed the trip from the Anoat System to Bespin using a very slow backup hyperdrive. But in Episode 1 they have to go to Tatooine from Naboo thanks to the leaky hyperdrive, and Mando was able to travel between Tatooine, the ice planet and the water planet entirely on sublight engines. In Episode 8 they jumped to the middle of nowhere and ended up burning out their fuel reserves traveling to a single planet. Latest episode of Boba fett had a starfighter rocket away to the edge of the solar system entirely on a sublight drive that was so fast people thought it was a hyperspace jump at first. Is interstellar sublight travel the equivalent of slamming the afterburner and killing your gas mileage in the process? I know star wars ships travel at the speed of plot but it is neat when they come up with new ways to add a hiccup to travel plans. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Jan 27, 2022 21:15
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Arc Hammer posted:star wars ships travel at the speed of plot This is all it really is. There’s no real thought into it other than “this will be so awesome on screen!” (see: light skipping, jumping to light speed inside an atmosphere, and the aforementioned latest speed boost). And it is awesome. Until you start to think about it for even a moment. Then it’s dumb but awesome.
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Jan 27, 2022 22:47
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VaultAggie posted:I finished The Fallen Star and I’m not sure what to think of it. On the one hand, I love Claudia Gray’s writing style, and the book flowed from one chapter to another. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. I think the pacing is a consequence of the High Republic being in a multi-media format. Each of the novels needs to be focused on the Big Event so the accompanying comics, young reader books, audio dramas, etc can orbit it.
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Jan 28, 2022 08:14
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gonna make a slightly unusual recommendation here that i hope folks don't reject at face value so i was bumping around on ff.net and found a story that is shockingly good, called Interregnum quote:One year after "The Last Command," the New Republic attempts to recapture planets lost during Thrawn's campaign. On Coruscant, Leia Organa Solo and Talon Karrde negotiate the official creation of the Smugglers' Alliance, a coalition of Fringe groups who align with the New Republic. There Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade reunite, while subtle foes plot in the shadows... so this is essentially an unofficial bantam book written in the style of zahn and stackpole, set immediately after the thrawn trilogy. and...well, it nails it, honestly. it feels like zahn and stackpole sat down in 2005 and decided to co-write a sequel to their joint body of work while completely ignoring most of the rest of the bantam EU. as far as i can tell, the following things are canon for this story: 1. the original trilogy 2. thrawn stuff 3. rogue/wraith squadron stuff 4. shadows of the empire 5. courtship, because it's foundational to the han/leia relationship 6. the prequels, in the sense that the clone wars are no longer a vaguely defined jumbled mess, there's a more definite idea of what the republic was like before the empire, etc. and that's it. aspects of other books and media show up where they make sense, but often changed to fit into the style of the zahn/stackpole/allston take on star wars. i'm sure if you want you could imagine that truce at bakura, bounty hunter wars, and some of the other b-list bantams set before 10 ABY are also canon here, but they aren't relevant. most notably, and most happily, this story's timeline overlaps with the jedi academy trilogy by noted author kevin janderson, banishing it from this mortal realm forever in favor of something that fits with the books which came before the author is currently writing a sequel which is partially finished. haven't read it yet tho. i really can't recommend this enough if you miss the peak of the bantam era. i didn't know how much i missed these characters and the overall vibe until this story blindsided me with it. Jazerus fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 09:55
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So is the author creating their own canon where there is no Jedi Academy, or do they make an abbreviated or more non-sensical version of it? As bad as the Jedi Academy trilogy was, I feel the concept of Luke re-starting the Jedi with a new Academy is pretty important to his story. I'm sure it could be handled way, way better, but it shouldn't be completely obliterated. Just interested in how the author handles it. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 15:11
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:So is the author creating their own canon where there is no Jedi Academy, or do they make an abbreviated or more non-sensical version of it? As bad as the Jedi Academy trilogy was, I feel the concept of Luke re-starting the Jedi with a new Academy is pretty important to his story. I'm sure it could be handled way, way better, but it shouldn't be completely obliterated. If it's set immediately after the Thrawn Trilogy, I think he doesn't really need to address the Jedi Academy since it's before it in the timeline. (This reminds me of a weird point that came up in Last Jedi discourse, that TLJ Luke was wiser than EU Luke because he decided not to just immediately start a new Jedi Order... despite the fact that EU Luke also took about the same time to begin.) Back in the mid-00s there was a really well known fan novelization of Dark Empire, which took things like the Thrawn Trilogy and prequels (this was pre-The Clone Wars) into account. I can't remember it, but the PDF was available online for a while, it was proper novel length.
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Jan 28, 2022 15:22
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Chairman Capone posted:If it's set immediately after the Thrawn Trilogy, I think he doesn't really need to address the Jedi Academy since it's before it in the timeline. (This reminds me of a weird point that came up in Last Jedi discourse, that TLJ Luke was wiser than EU Luke because he decided not to just immediately start a new Jedi Order... despite the fact that EU Luke also took about the same time to begin.) Disney missed a huge opportunity for merchandising by having Luke's Jedi Academy fail. Imagine Disneyland having a "Jedi Academy" portion of its park where patrons could "learn" Jedi skills/build their own lightsaber, meet some of his students, etc. Instead they decided to have him try and kill it off-screen. Wonder if any execs are kicking themselves over that decision. quote:Back in the mid-00s there was a really well known fan novelization of Dark Empire, which took things like the Thrawn Trilogy and prequels (this was pre-The Clone Wars) into account. I can't remember it, but the PDF was available online for a while, it was proper novel length. If anyone can find it that I'd like to read it. I enjoy Dark Empire a lot, flaws and all, there's a core of a good idea there, but I feel a lot of its ideas (Luke turning to the Dark Side, the Emperor's strategies) were either not completely realized or stretched out too much by having the sequel. It'd be neat to see a re-tread that streamlined a lot and got it to fit into the EU canon better. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 16:33
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Disney missed a huge opportunity for merchandising by having Luke's Jedi Academy fail. Imagine Disneyland having a "Jedi Academy" portion of its park where patrons could "learn" Jedi skills/build their own lightsaber, meet some of his students, etc. Instead they decided to have him try and kill it off-screen. Wonder if any execs are kicking themselves over that decision.
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Jan 28, 2022 17:13
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Arquinsiel posted:It's been a thing since 2012 at least, and you can find funny videos of kids deciding to join the dark side instead all over the internet. Well color me surprised. Then again I've never gone to Disneyland so makes sense I wouldn't know what I'm talking about. Reading Visions of the Future. Got to the part where Mara is finally meeting the leader of The Hand of Thrawn/Empire of the Hand, feels like they are telegraphing the Yuuzhan Vong invasion real hard, but I thought they were created or planned years after Visions came out?
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Jan 28, 2022 17:34
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Disney missed a huge opportunity for merchandising by having Luke's Jedi Academy fail. Imagine Disneyland having a "Jedi Academy" portion of its park where patrons could "learn" Jedi skills/build their own lightsaber, meet some of his students, etc. Instead they decided to have him try and kill it off-screen. Wonder if any execs are kicking themselves over that decision. Back in the run-up to The Force Awakens, there was a mobile game called Star Wars: Uprising, which was set just after ROTJ, and I remember there was a minor character who appeared who was a padawan of Luke's. Then after the movie came out, that character suddenly was removed. Oops! Crazy Joe Wilson posted:If anyone can find it that I'd like to read it. I enjoy Dark Empire a lot, flaws and all, there's a core of a good idea there, but I feel a lot of its ideas (Luke turning to the Dark Side, the Emperor's strategies) were either not completely realized or stretched out too much by having the sequel. It'd be neat to see a re-tread that streamlined a lot and got it to fit into the EU canon better. Looking it up, it's called The Test of Wills, and was written by an author named Publius in December 2005. It definitely made a big splash on TheForce.Net's Literature board for a while, back when I used to post there. Publius' website has gone offline, but looking around someone made the PDF available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwK-WpnKI3w4U1FxTzZxMzNXbmM/view?resourcekey=0-CN5-r3sKkwWD_-tvIKYQUA
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Jan 28, 2022 17:45
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Reading Visions of the Future. Got to the part where Mara is finally meeting the leader of The Hand of Thrawn/Empire of the Hand, feels like they are telegraphing the Yuuzhan Vong invasion real hard, but I thought they were created or planned years after Visions came out?
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Jan 28, 2022 18:21
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Zahn has since invented a bunch different dangerous aliens from the far reaches of the galaxy. I wish they’d let him wrap up Hand of Judgement.
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Jan 28, 2022 18:37
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Chairman Capone posted:Back in the run-up to The Force Awakens, there was a mobile game called Star Wars: Uprising, which was set just after ROTJ, and I remember there was a minor character who appeared who was a padawan of Luke's. Then after the movie came out, that character suddenly was removed. Oops! Publius is also the author of one of the most conceptually interesting SW fanworks , The New Order in Power, a polisci textbook written in-universe style that attempts to provide an overall picture of the Empire orgchart. It's extensively sourced and footnoted, but it does bear its author's style, heavy on the greco-roman influences. I can try to find it if anyone wants.
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Jan 28, 2022 18:38
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ecureuilmatrix posted:Publius is also the author of one of the most conceptually interesting SW fanworks , The New Order in Power, a polisci textbook written in-universe style that attempts to provide an overall picture of the Empire orgchart. It's extensively sourced and footnoted, but it does bear its author's style, heavy on the greco-roman influences.
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Jan 28, 2022 18:40
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:So is the author creating their own canon where there is no Jedi Academy, or do they make an abbreviated or more non-sensical version of it? As bad as the Jedi Academy trilogy was, I feel the concept of Luke re-starting the Jedi with a new Academy is pretty important to his story. I'm sure it could be handled way, way better, but it shouldn't be completely obliterated. some aspects of the jedi academy trilogy appear in the book, such as luke pondering the purpose of the jedi and getting his first recruit, etc. but are ultimately very different because characters from the zahn/stackpole works are present and change how the events play out. i would estimate that the core aspect of the jedi academy trilogy (the jedi academy) progresses about as much in this book as in the first half of jedi search, but it isn't the focus yet. i am guessing that the sequel is going to tread more directly on the toes of jedi academy by portraying luke founding the praxeum and all that poo poo. luke starting an academy isn't being obliterated, just all of the bad poo poo around it anyway spoilers aside i think it's odd that you assume it's abbreviated or non-sensical. i'm complimenting the story because it improves this section of EU canon, not because it makes it worse. Jazerus fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 19:31
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Jazerus posted:some aspects of the jedi academy trilogy appear in the book, such as luke pondering the purpose of the jedi and getting his first recruit, etc. but are ultimately very different because characters from the zahn/stackpole works are present and change how the events play out. i would estimate that the core aspect of the jedi academy trilogy (the jedi academy) progresses about as much in this book as in the first half of jedi search, but it isn't the focus yet. i am guessing that the sequel is going to tread more directly on the toes of jedi academy by portraying luke founding the praxeum and all that poo poo. luke starting an academy isn't being obliterated, just all of the bad poo poo around it Sorry, poor choice of words, I was just wondering if they re-doing the Academy but better, or if they were just ignoring it and having Luke go a different way. Sounds like they're doing the former.
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Jan 28, 2022 19:37
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ecureuilmatrix posted:Publius is also the author of one of the most conceptually interesting SW fanworks , The New Order in Power, a polisci textbook written in-universe style that attempts to provide an overall picture of the Empire orgchart. It's extensively sourced and footnoted, but it does bear its author's style, heavy on the greco-roman influences. If you can find it, I'd love to read it.
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Jan 28, 2022 20:25
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Oh huh. Phase II of the High Republic is set 150 years before Phase I.
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Jan 28, 2022 23:20
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OhFunny posted:Oh huh. Phase II of the High Republic is set 150 years before Phase I. Well that’s…unexpected. Oh hell, Phase III will be a sequel trilogy, won’t it? It’s a mirror of the trilogy of trilogies of movies. You could say it’s…like poetry.
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Jan 29, 2022 00:19
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thrawn527 posted:Well that’s…unexpected. I do expect that's the plan. Although it'd feel odd narratively if Phase III jumps like 50 years forward instead of directly picking up where Fallen Star left off. It already feels like the brakes got slammed on the current conflict to lay out the backstory.
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Jan 29, 2022 07:15
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Chairman Capone posted:If it's set immediately after the Thrawn Trilogy, I think he doesn't really need to address the Jedi Academy since it's before it in the timeline. (This reminds me of a weird point that came up in Last Jedi discourse, that TLJ Luke was wiser than EU Luke because he decided not to just immediately start a new Jedi Order... despite the fact that EU Luke also took about the same time to begin.) while i have various issues with the sequels and such, i do like TLJ idea of sorta Doomer Luke because he tried and for a while it worked well and then it all went to poo poo because he had a lapse caused poo poo to implode and then he said gently caress it and wandered off to die. Lord Hydronium posted:Vision of the Future came out in 1998, about a year before Vector Prime. Bantam and Dark Horse were planning their own invasion storyline before the book license was handed off to Del Rey, so there's some foreshadowing in some of those later stories. This is why Nom Anor appears in Crimson Empire II, for example; it was setup for the original invasion storyline, and he ended up getting folded into the NJO since he basically served the same purpose. as problematic as the Vong are, I like the idea of something "from beyond the galaxy" kicking the door down and loving poo poo up with no care to established factions. its why i like the tyrranids in 40k. OhFunny posted:Oh huh. Phase II of the High Republic is set 150 years before Phase I. huh, i wonder why. did they ever explain the space worm hole pirates?
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Jan 31, 2022 05:15
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Dapper_Swindler posted:huh, i wonder why. did they ever explain the space worm hole pirates?
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Jan 31, 2022 12:50
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Arquinsiel posted:Presumably this is what's happening in phase 2. We got a lot of hints as to why they are doing things across the various books, but it's been tough to work out why the Republic doesn't put a bit of effort into hunting them down. Have you read The Fallen Star and comics? That's pretty much been the ongoing Avar plot for the last half of phase 1. But basically Ro has been playing the Republic and portraying the Nihil as on their last legs as he tosses several of the factions to the wolves to do that. So the Republic has been getting the wrong idea about their strength and leadership structure.
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Feb 1, 2022 19:04
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Goddamn it she killed Pellaeon too?! Is there nothing Karen Traviss holds dear other than goddamn Mandolorians? gently caress man Legacy of the Force sucks. And there's still one book more to go! Honestly it doesn't start out too bad, there is one good,kinda sad Boba Fett story in here and I found The process of Jacen turning to be the most interesting part. But now that he's an actual Sith Lord he does all kinds of stupid poo poo would just get him stabbed in the back before Jaina even gets a chance to do it herself. I like how it's taken him 8 books out of 9 to actually come out and name himself Darth in public when he picked the name 3 books ago The Shame Boy fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Feb 2, 2022 |
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