Category Archives: Books

Review: Kenobi (Spoiler Free)

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KenobiCoverKenobi by John Jackson Miller is just plain awesome.  Miller has exceeded expectations and written the pitch perfect story about Obi-Wan Kenobi as he adjusts to life as a hermit in the desert after the devastating events on Mustafar.  It’s a book that will make you laugh, it’s a book that will make you tear up at times, it’s a book that will surprise you, and it’s a book that you’ll find adding to your pile of yearly rereads.

Picking up immediately when Obi-Wan Kenobi lands on Tatooine, Kenobi tells the tale of a Jedi who must learn how to live a quiet life in hiding after decades of being a hero.  Despite his best efforts, Ben finds himself soon entangled in the events of a small community and the conflict between them and the Sand People even though he only wants to stay out of sight and protect the infant Luke Skywalker.

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The Monolithic Jedi

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Awhile back, I wrote a post on EUCantina about the prequelization of the post-Return of the Jedi era of the Expanded Universe. The article’s basic point was that in the early days of the EU, the authors had no official knowledge about the Jedi Order in the Old Republic. None of us did–all we had was our imaginations. We didn’t know that Jedi lived in a Temple on Coruscant, were taken from their families as babies, and trained from the time they were children. As such, Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy was full of adults from many different worlds, of different ages, and varying careers. Some of them even came from families of Jedi. Tionne was a historian, Corran was a pilot and a cop, Mara was a smuggler, Kirana Ti was a warrior, Streen was a hermit, etc. etc. No matter what your opinion of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, I have to give credit to Kevin J. Anderson for creating a diverse group of Jedi, personality and background wise (although in retrospect there could have been more non-humans and people of color). Even in other eras, like the Tales of the Jedi comics, being a Jedi seemed to be more “what you did” and less “who you were.”

Then the prequels came out, and everything changed.

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Dear Star Wars Books: Thank You For the Women

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About a year and a half ago, I wrote a blog post for EUCantina in which I analyzed the roles of women in the Expanded Universe, specifically in the post-Return of the Jedi era. The article was inspired by the cancellation of “Mandorla”, the Alex Irvine novel about Nomi Sunrider, from the Tales of the Jedi comics. I’d been wanting a book about Nomi for awhile, and was really disappointed to see it cancelled. And the disappointment stung on more than just a level of “I was really looking forward to that book.”

And then my brain began to turn. As far as I can recall, “Mandorla” was the only novel in recent memory to be focused on a female protagonist. We’ve had “Han” novels, “Bane” novels, “Revan” novels; where are the “Jaina” and “Padme” and “Leia” novels? Why cancel a novel that had a chance to expand on a strong female lead?

The article was generally well received, with a few exceptions, mostly from people claiming that the EU was already filled with lots of female characters. While that may have been true, the point of the article remained:

“But Star Wars has many female leads,” you might say. To which I reply: “but none are allowed to lead.”

The original article has since been lost to the internet ether, but I had my own draft copy elsewhere. With San Diego Comic Con happening and in anticipation of the Star Wars Books panel, I recently skimmed the article with the intention of reposting it here on Tosche Station for posterity’s sake. But as I kept reading, I realized something: in less than 18 months, Del Rey and LucasBooks has addressed nearly all of my major complaints in the article. And I knew I’d be remiss if I didn’t revisit the article and say THANK YOU.

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SWEU News From Comic Con!

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The intrepid James Floyd from Club Jade is at Comic Con this weekend, and he oh so generously livetweeted both SWEU panels.

From the Dark Horse panel, notable announcements included a new arc of Dark Times, the introduction of a new villain into Dawn of the Jedi, an Ewoks comic set in the arrival of the Empire era, Tom Taylor working on a secret project, and an upcoming Vader and clone story. For more, see Club Jade’s Storify feed from the event.

James also attended the Del Rey panel. Right at the beginning, moderator Leland Chee stated that the SWEU is in transition as a result of the Disney buyout and Episode VII. Therefore they’re unlikely to announce a new title…but we can dream, right?

Kenobi began as a graphic novel, but got so long it became a novel. Jen Heddle praised the novel, and John Jackson Miller compared Obi-Wan to a well-known superhero, saying he has to learn to be Clark Kent as opposed to Superman. Frank Parisi also praised the upcoming Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells, and Heddle added that there’s a good focus on the Big Three.

J.W. Rinzler, author of The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, said the book took two years to write and extensive digging into the archives. In a really cool feature, the enhanced e-book will have 30 minutes of audio and 30 minutes of video. Some clips were shown during the panel.

Other items of note:

  • There will be a Death Star Tech Manual.
  • Darth Maul: Lockdown will tie into Darth Plagueis. Apparently Sidious and Plagueis have different plans for Maul in this prison version of Oz and Scarface.
  • Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown, coming in August, will tell the story of middle school by a new character writing and doodling.
  • As to the future of the EU, it’s still in flux, but even before, Lucasbooks and Del Rey did their own EU without concern for films and television. Whether it’s used in those mediums is up to the writers and directors.
  • Regarding The Clone Wars, Chee said the possibility of tying up loose ends is a possibility. As to making a definitive timeline of the era, that’s not happening any time soon.

Notable announcements include the cover reveal to Empire and Rebellion: Honor Among Thieves, the Han-centric novel by James S.A. Corey, published March 4, 2014. Heddle compared the novel to Brian Daley’s Han Solo Adventures.

Han Solo Cover

A notable exception: no mention of Christie Golden’s Sword of the Jedi trilogy, scheduled for release next year. Is this good or bad news? We shall see…

Club Jade collected all of James’ tweets on another Storify, which you can find here. Thanks to James for his great reporting!

Go/No-go – Overdraft: The Orion Offensive

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overdraft-the-orion-offensive-john-jackson-millerThis week saw the release of the eighth and final installment of Overdraft: The Orion Offensive, a Kindle Serial by prolific Star Wars author John Jackson Miller. The Orion Offensive is Miller’s first novel set in an original universe and my first introduction to him as an author. I was already excited for his upcoming novel Kenobi, and after reading The Orion Offensive, I can’t wait for more original stories from him. More specific thoughts after the cut.

 

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Upcoming Star Wars Author Facebook Chats

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The Official Star Wars Books Facebook page announced that they will be hosting two live chats with Star Wars authors next week.

Tuesday, 5/21 3pm EST – Please join us for a chat with Star Wars comics veteran John Ostrander, who penned the prequel short-story to INTO THE VOID (featured in Star Wars Insider Magazine #141).

Wednesday, 5/22 4pm EST – Please join us for a chat with first time Star Wars author Tim Lebbon, author of the just released INTO THE VOID. Tim will be joining us from across the pond in the UK.

Be sure to check them out especially if you have any questions about the newly released Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void or the related comic penned by Ostrander.

Harry Potter Turns 15, Gets Shiny New Paperback Covers

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Fifteen? Really? I mean. Wow, those years kind of flew by.

As Harry Potter hits its fifteenth birthday, Entertainment Weekly reports that Scholastic plans to celebrate by re-releasing the series in trade paperback form. A bit of a welcome surprise, however, is all new cover artwork for the novels.

The new artwork will be illustrated by Kabu Kibuishi, the artist behind the Amulet graphic novels.

I do have a fondness for the original covers, but I must say this updated look is quite nice in my eye.

A Memoir of Light

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The Wheel of Time.  I know, with that one title, some of you are completely uninterested in this post now.  Please, bear with me, this is not what you think.  After I finished A Memory of Light this week, I was thinking about the story and how I would write a review of this book.  I was trying to consider how much I could talk about it.  I was concerned about spoiling elements of past books.  I was worried about the overall length of the book.

Mostly, though, I worried that I am not up to the task of writing this review.  I am not a book critic, I play one on the internet.  I write about genre fiction contained in a fairly narrow field.  This book is something that you could easily label as being literature.  Emily would jump on me about that statement.  Really, all books should be considered some form of literature, even if you don’t think it adds anything to the culture.  To me, though, this is a book that talks about a lot, and one of the things that this book in particular added to the series’ themes, the human condition.

That’s as much as I’m going to say about the plot of this, the last book of the Wheel of Time.

What I am going to talk about is my experience with this series.

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Free Science Fiction Novel of the Day: On Basilisk Station – Honor Harrington Book One

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It’s always nice to see a good science fiction novel become available for free. Even for a limited time. Today you can get your hands on an e-copy of On Basilisk Station, the first book in David Weber’s Honor Harrington series.

INTRODUCING
HONOR HARRINGTON

Having made him look a fool, she’s been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her.

Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship’s humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station.

The aborigines of the system’s only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens.

Parliament isn’t sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called “Republic” of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn’t work to police the entire star system.

But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They’ve made her mad.

You can pick up the book from Amazon or directly from the publisher’s website. As a note, Expanded Universe author Timothy Zahn has recently teamed up with Weber to write a Honor Harrington spinoff trilogy.

On Long Books, Short Books, and Impatience: Why I Refuse to Read Doorstoppers

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When I was younger, I used to love getting my hands on long books. A long book was always better than a short book, because there was more story to tell. And as a practical matter, long books were always worth the money, especially if it was a hardcover. Short books just couldn’t be as interesting; not only that, they were a waste of money. Why should I spend my hard-earned cash on a 200-page book when I could spend the same amount of money on a 500- or 1000- page tome?

(Ignore the fact that storing and carrying around doorstoppers could get old pretty quickly. Thankfully, with the advent of e-readers, I can carry around the entire Harry Potter series without breaking my back.)

As I’ve gotten older, however, I’ve stopped caring how long books are. Actually, that’s not true. Continue reading →