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Tosche Station Radio #19: Snark-to-Snark Combat With Aaron Allston

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On this week’s episode of Tosche Station Radio, Nanci and Brian sit down to interview the Expanded Universe’s most prolific author, Aaron Allston!

Kicking off the show, the hosts discuss what’s new on the blog, Shane kicked off our summer X-Wing retrospective with his retro review of Rogue Squadron. Brian was at Origins and posted a whole bunch of coverage from panels featuring Mike Stackpole, Aaron Allston, and Tim Zahn. Nanci posted the first of her new column series that aims to offer geeky (and snarky) advice about love, life, and fandom.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci says she recorded an episode of Star Wars Beyond the Films about women in Star Wars. Look for that to go live soon. She also went to see Snow White and the Huntsmen. Verdict? An overwhelming “meh.” The third round of Star Wars Weekends took place and Nanci was once again on hand, meeting author Jason Fry and Erich from Del Rey. Brian, as mentioned, was at Origins over the weekend, but he’s holding off on talking about that until next week.

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Concord Blue Devils Play ‘Across the Stars’

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This was my featured fanwork pick on the latest podcast, but I enjoyed this so much I’m just linking to it straight on the blog.

The Concord Blue Devils are part of Drum Corps International, a collection of the world’s top tier corps style marching bands. Yes, I was a band nerd, sue me. What’s cool about this recording? Take one of my all-time favorite film score pieces and have a group of 100 or so brass musicians play the ever-loving daylights out of it. The result is pin-your-ears-back music glory.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, music is one of those things I geek out over.

Star Wars: 1313 Won’t Let You be a Jedi

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Gaming blog Kotaku had a chance to sit down with Lucasarts to talk about their upcoming new franchise in the Star Wars videogame realm. One of the tidbits dropped? You won’t get the chance to play as a Jedi.

“It’s not that I think that that’s overdone,” says Robillard. “But the criminal underworld of 1313is a little more grounded and that has to live in the mechanics of the game. Having mechanics that are limited by human ability makes things more relatable, then we can put all the cool stuff you can do into the gadgets and weapons.”

“You still get to do all of these amazing things because of the environment the game takes place in and because of the gear you have,” he continues. “But at the core you still have these vulnerabilities that are a bit more relatable, so you won’t have the demigod complex of a Jedi.” If you fall in 1313, Robillard sums up, you know you’re going to be in trouble.

You know what? I’m perfectly okay with this. If you’ve ever listened to the podcast (such as our latest! With Aaron Allston! Shameless plug!), you know one of my big things I really want to see from Star Wars is a bit more of a focus put on non-Force sensitive characters. It’s a big, grand universe. Show that to us every now and then!

The X-Wing Retrospective: A Tosche Station Summer Series

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Last week,  Shane posted the first of what will be a summer series of retro reviews and discussions looking back at the X-Wing novels by Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston. You should read it, especially if you haven’t read the books yet and are on the fence about diving into them. A few weeks before that, Nanci and I overviewed the series on the podcast. You should listen to that as well. We also interviewed both Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston.

You might ask why we’re doing this. The books were published well over a decade ago and countless words have been spent discussing their merits. Unfortunately, despite the praise that have been heaped on the books over the years, they remain perhaps the most misunderstood novels in the entire Expanded Universe. I can’t count the number of misperceptions I run into when talking about them with even savvy EU fans.

  • It’s only dogfights and lightfights.
  • There are no interesting characters.
  • Nothing important happens.
  • There are no Jedi.

Statements like these are held as facts to many fans, despite the fact that there’s not much truth to them. The X-Wing novels are some of the highest quality books in all of the EU, but lots fans haven’t read them because they are, admittedly, different. Luke and Leia are only seen in passing cameos. Han doesn’t have a large role until the middle of the series. The Jedi aren’t the primary focus. The Galaxy isn’t about to be ripped apart by the bi-weekly apocalypse of doom. For new Expanded Universe fans, that can be a tough sell, but glossing over these books would be a mistake.

So we’re going to be spending the summer convincing those of you on the fence (and those of you who have never even considered it) to read these books before the long-awaited tenth novel hits bookshelves in August. Part of this is selfish. We want Mercy Kill to sell well because if it does, we’ll get more books in a franchise we love dearly. More than that, though, we believe that the Expanded Universe needs more quality books like the ones found in this series. Grand adventures that get back to the root of what makes Star Wars so special.

Are we going to make a sizable impact on the sales numbers of X-Wing novels? Hell, no. But if we can get at least a few people to pick up and enjoy these books, we’ll be happy. So what are you waiting for? Go get the first book.

Science Fiction Legend Ray Bradbury Dies

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Ray Bradbury, author of influential works such as Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man, passed away this morning at 91. Bradbury was a speculative fiction genius and visionary. Numerous short stories and books he created managed to find their way to television and the silver screen over the years.

In honor of his life and career, I’ll be heading home today to read a few passages from my favorite book he wrote, The Martian Chronicles.

Catching Up with Celebration VI Guests

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We got a little bit behind relaying Celebration VI news while I was off at Origins, so let’s get up to speed!

Threepio himself, Anthony Daniels, was confirmed for the Star Wars convention late last week. Daniels has been a headliner at every Celebration to date. Also joining him will be Jake Lloyd, who played young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, and . Others who are now slated to join CVI as guests:

Kenny Baker: Credited in all six Star Wars features as the plucky astromech R2-D2, Kenny Baker also made appearances as Paploo the Ewok in Return of the Jedi and in uncredited roles in Lucasfilm’s Willow and Labyrinth.

Amy Allen: Amy Allen portrayed Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Secura in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, her character famously perishing at the hands of clone troopers acting on Order 66. Allen also appears as a Senatorial aide in the post-2001 edit of The Phantom Menace.

Chris Malcom: Actor Christopher Malcom portrayed snowspeeder pilot Zev Senesca (Rogue Two) in The Empire Strikes Back, the Rebel responsible for locating the missing Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in the frozen Hoth landscape.

Bonnie Piesse: A young Beru Whitesun Lars (Aunt Beru) was played by Bonnie Piesse in both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Garrick Hagon: Hagon played Rebel X-wing pilot Biggs Darklighter in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, but had also been filmed in several cut scenes as best friend to Luke Skywalker on Tatooine.

So we’ve got Zev, Biggs, and Dack at Celebration. I wonder if they’ll have a Dead Rogues Gallery set up for them?

Tosche Station Radio Interviewing Aaron Allston

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Have a question for the Expanded Universe’s most prolific author? Send us a tweet, leave a Facebook message, or drop a comment in this post! We’ll be interviewing Aaron Allston on Wednesday, June 6th.

While we can’t promise we’ll have time to get to everyone’s questions, Nanci and I will do our best to get to as many as possible.

Trope Tuesday: Proud Warrior Race Guy

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Warrior enough for you?

It’s Tuesday, which means countless individuals will spend their lunch breaks racing to the nearest restaurant to purchase tacos for consumption. It also means we’re going to use alliteration as an excuse to dive headfirst into TV Tropes to talk about an amusing literary theme or device that makes entertainment fun. This week, we’re looking at the Proud Warrior Race Guy.

A specific subtrope of Blood Knight, the Proud Warrior Race Guy seeks battle and bloodshed because his culture teaches that doing so is the greatest source of personal honor and glory. This Proud Warrior Race will often be based on one of several real world cultures who are perceived to have acted this way, such as the Samurai, Spartans, Vikings, and Mongols. They are often a Martyrdom Culture. The Proud Warrior Race Guy is almost always a hero. If evil, he will probably be the Worthy Opponent.

“Proud”, in this case, meaning “Psychotically Violent”. Critiques of this position will be met with: “You donotunderstand“. May occasionally overlap with the Always Chaotic Evil race, though the two are usually differentiated by the Proud Warrior having a strict Code-of-Honor, while the Chaotic Evil race has no real rules and does cowardly or underhanded things. If the Code-of-Honor is too alien for humans to understand, or too xenophobic to allow cooperation, then the heroes will treat the two groups as the same. The better sort of Code of Honor will enforce Would Not Shoot a Civilian, although often because civilians are dismissed as too weak and cowardly to be good fighters, and so they get passed over in the search for worthy enemies.

Sound familiar? In the setting of the Expanded Universe, you’ve got the Mandalorians and the Yuuzhan Vong. The Echani from Knights of the Old Republic also fits the bill. I’m sure you can name a dozen examples from other science fiction franchises that features a character or a race of characters that fall under this description. This is a trope you have to be careful with. Go overboard and it comes off as campy. Unless your intention is to come off as campy, then by all means, go overboard.

There’s actually a novel that’s devoted to deconstructing this trope, Starfighters of Adumar by Aaron Allston.

Wedge: “Circular thinking. I’m honorable because I kill the enemy, and I kill the enemy for the honor. There’s nothing there, Cheriss. Here’s the truth: I kill the enemy so someone, somewhere — probably someone I’ve never met and never will meet – will be happy. […] I told you how I lost my parents. Nothing I ever do can make up for that loss. But if I put myself in the way of people just as bad as the ones who killed my family, if I burn them down, then someone else they would have hurt gets to stay happy. That’s the only honorable thing about my profession. It’s not the killing. It’s making the galaxy a little better.”

Now, I dare Wedge to say that to Worf.

Star Wars: 1313 Gameplay Footage

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As promised, Lucasarts revealed some in-game video from their new franchise at E3 this week.

A bit of an Uncharted adventure feel combined with Gears of War style cover mechanics. No release date has been issued yet, but no doubt we’ll be hearing more about the game in the coming weeks.

Origins Day Four Recap: Q&A With Mike Stackpole

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The last day at Origins was a brief one, mostly due to the fact that the convention wraps up a little after mid-day. In all, the whole affair was an enjoyable experience (after I figured out how their bizarre event ticketing system worked). While it seems a little odd to attend a game convention to talk to notable Expanded Universe authors, Origins turned out to be a fantastic place to discuss Star Wars with both notable figures and fans.

But beyond the games and the panels, it was a great chance to hang out with some cool people. I had the chance to chat things up with Tracy and the rest of the Club Jade folks as well Rachael from Galactic Drift. Hanging out with two good friends of mine (and using that as an excuse to see The Avengers for a seventh time) was a blast. I’m pretty sure I’ll be back next year. We’ll see if we can get Shane, Emily, and Nanci up here as well.

But enough rambling. Before heading off to the airport, I sat in on a Q&A with Mike Stackpole. Highlights below the jump!

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