Category Archives: Books

Review: Winner Lose All

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Scoundrels is coming and because we were all good little girls and boys, Del Ray and Timothy Zahn teamed up to give us a short digital exclusive story that serves as a sort of prequel to the forthcoming novel as an early Christmas present.

As the title might indicate, Winner Lose All takes place around a sabacc tournament and stars none other than the king of gamblers himself, Lando Calrissian.  Lando just wants to win the tournament and get rich.  Obviously, because this is Lando, things don’t go his way and he finds himself involved in a scheme he hadn’t planned on once he encounters the Kitik twins and learns that the grand prize could very well be a fake.  Things end up spiraling out of control as they quickly realize how convoluted the scam is and it’s going to take a master scheme and a fair bit of luck for them to wind up on top.

Winner Lose All is a fun and entertaining read and exactly the sort of thing I hope we see more of with these e-stories.  It tells a good story and lets you get to know all of the characters and also plays in a corner of the Star Wars universe that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.  Zahn does a good job with each of the characters, not letting just one overwhelm the story.  The plot also has enough twists and turns without becoming ridiculous and keeps the reader engaged and wanting to know what happens.

Above all, the story serves its purpose well: to serve as a prequel and to introduce readers to some of the new characters who will be appearing in Scoundrels.  In just fifty pages, I already found myself getting attached to Tavia and Bink Kitik, the twin ghost thieves who have differing levels of approval for their business.   They may share the same face but they definitely have their own distinct personalities and don’t fall into the any tiring twin tropes.  Zahn also introduces the twins’ partner in crime, Zerba Cher’dak who will also be appearing in the forthcoming Scoundrels.  He’s definitely not someone you’d want to play against at sabacc though because he is just that good at cheating.

Bottom line is that I suggest you all go get this because not only is it a fun read but it’ll help tide you over these last two weeks until we can all finally read Scoundrels.

Random Penguin

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Official news came down the pipeline today that the rumors are true: Random House and Penguin are merging in a massive business deal that will create the largest publishing company in the world. Why is this Star Wars news? Well, as Dunc over at Club Jade pointed out, both Random House and Penguin both have imprints in DelRey and DK that print Star Wars material.

But don’t get too excited yet. This deal is still subject to regulatory approval, and that may be a problem. Dunc and I have both posited that this could be a case for anti-trust investigations. Why? Right now, in the UK, Random House and Penguin make up 27% of book sales. Forbes speculates that in the US, that number jumps to about 40% of trade book sales. Globally, according to the Huffington Post, the two would make up 26% of world wide book sales. I would note that none of these numbers specifically address the academic publishing arms of these companies either; Pearson (owner of Penguin) has a massive education publishing arm, and combining with Random House could end up with a larger share of the textbook market as well, and any college student taking a look at textbooks in their college bookstore knows what kind of problem that might be.

It is important that in all of these articles, the words “subject to regulatory approval” or “anti-trust approval” come up. The fact that both Random House and Penguin are European-based companies could complicate matters. And for those of us who are aspiring authors, this new conglomeration could be good or bad (see the Forbes article linked above.) In any case, this smacks of desperation on the sides of the publishers in the face of ebooks (especially after the Department of Justice came down on the agency pricing model). But don’t look away yet. The Huffington Post also reports that NewsCorp is looking to add to HarperCollins, so more big publisher mergers may be on the horizon.

Original Novels by Timothy Zahn now Available on Ebook Format

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Fans of Timothy Zahn’s Expanded Universe entries can check out his original works in ebook format thanks to Open Road Media.

Timothy Zahn is best known for reviving the Star Wars Expanded Universe with his bestselling Thrawn Trilogy novels. But Zahn is also the author of many original works, including the Blackcollar Series, Spinneret, and A Coming of Age, now available as ebooks.

To celebrate the release, we have created a mini-documentary on Timothy Zahn. You can find the video on YouTube here.

Additional novels include: Deadman Switch, The Backlash Mission, Triplet, and Warhorse. For more about these new releases and to see the brand new covers, visit his Author Page.

  • The Blackcollar Series is a military science fiction series about a group of superhuman combatants.
  • A Coming of Age is a thoughtful tribute to what it means to come of age, face your fears, and even save the world. Readers of Dune, A Wrinkle in Time, Ender’s Game, and The Chronicles of Narnia will be delighted to discover another tale that records the difficult yet crucial passage into adulthood.
  • Spinneret poses a scientific puzzle whose answer could threaten humanity¹s salvation, or destruction.

Both Nanci and I have greatly enjoyed Zahn’s original works. In addition to these new Ebook releases, you may want to also check out The Icarus Hunt, which for my money is Zahn’s best work.

‘Five by Five’ Now Available

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If you’re a fan of military science fiction, you’ll want to hop on over to Amazon or Barnes and Noble to buy yourself an e-copy of Five by Five, a collection of short stories featuring notable Expanded Universe authors Kevin J. Anderson, Michael Stackpole, and Aaron Allston.

Allston has a bit more about the book written on his blog as well as links to other sellers.

Book Review: ‘The Mark of Athena’ by Rick Riordan

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In case you hadn’t already noticed, we at Tosche Station are big fans of young adult literature even if we’re hardly the target age demographic.  Everyone should be able to enjoy those books.  Sticking an age label on a book shouldn’t stop older readers from enjoying them too.  Today, I’d like to extend that argument and say that the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan are absolutely not just for kids because wow can anyone enjoy that story.

The basic premise of the series is simple: what if one of your parents was actually a Greek God?  Our hero, Percy Jackson, is the son of Poseidon and wow did that cause some problems for him in the first series.  Of course, you can’t have ancient gods and mythology without some prophecy so you can absolutely bet that our heroes are always going to have to try and save the world because of one.  (Spoiler Alert: Percy Jackson never gets a break from this sort of thing.)

Tuesday saw the release of the third book in the second series about Percy Jackson and company: Mark of Athena.  The previous two books in the Heroes of Olympus series saw our group of heroes divided between Camp Half Blood (the Greek demigods) and Camp Jupiter (the Roman demigods) and both camps happily existing without acknowledging the other.  But now, because of a prophecy and meddling of Hera, young heroes from both camps have to team up to save not only one of their friends but also the world.  And they have to do it fast.

Mark of Athena not only reunites our heroes but tells an awesome story.   I was originally worried that the book would struggle with having such a comparatively large cast (the previous books had three main heroes, this one had seven) but my fears were unfounded.  Riordan manages the larger cast well, sending different pairs or trios off to face each new obstacle or task.  This allows not only for the two groups of heroes to get to know each other but also for Riordan to explore the different dynamics between the heroes.

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“Scoundrels” Release Date Moved to January 1st

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Del Ray has moved the publication date for Star Wars: Scoundrels but not in the way we wanted.  According to Timothy Zahn’s Facebook page, Scoundrels will now be published a week later on January 1st, 2013.

A bit of news: The pub date for Star Wars: Scoundrels has been postponed a week until January 1, 2013. (The delay has apparently been applied to all of RH’s December 26 releases, so it’s not like Scoundrels has been singled out.) No reasons have been given, at least not to me.

While it’s still close enough to be a belated Christmas present, it’s a shame that the publishers didn’t choose to bump the release date ahead by a week instead of back.

‘Revan’ Now Available in Paperback

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The Old Republic: Revan by Drew Karpyshyn went on sale today in paperback form for those of you that are looking for the book in a trimmer form factor. You can get your copy for $7.99 from your local bookstore online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior—the man called Revan has been all of these. He left Coruscant a Jedi, on a mission to defeat the Mandalorians. He returned a Sith disciple, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was the loss of his memories. All that’s left are nightmares—and deep, abiding fear. What happened beyond the Outer Rim that Revan can’t quite remember or entirely forget? One thing he’s certain of: Something dark is plotting to destroy the very existence of the Republic. With no idea how to identify the threat, let alone stop it, Revan may be doomed to fail. For he’s never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.

Timothy Zahn Discusses his Favorite Reading Moments on the Star Wars Blog

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Expanded Universe author Timothy Zahn is the latest contributor to the all-new Star Wars  blog. Keeping in spirit with the upcoming Star Wars Reads day, Zahn recounts some of his favorite reading moments in his first blog post:

When I was growing up, the library in Lombard, Illinois, was located inside a mansion donated by the original residents, Colonel and Helen Plum. Instead of the long stacks of modern libraries, this one literally had separate rooms—of all different sizes—as well as unexpected nooks and cubbies along the way where the books were shelved. Hunting down fresh reading material was as much a physical exploration as it was a literary one.

To read the rest, head over to the Official Blog.

Book Review: ‘War of the Seasons: The Human’ by Janine Spendlove

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Confession: I love young adult literature.

That wasn’t always the case. For a long time I wouldn’t even consider a book that had so much of a whiff of young adult associated with it. I’d use some rather broad brushstrokes to justify not reading those books. They’re not complex enough, they’re poorly written. At one point a friend pointed out to me that my complaints about young adult fiction could really be applied to any form of literature. What matters is the context and execution. More importantly, if you skip out on young adult fiction, you run the risk of missing out on some excellent novels.

Take, for example, War of the Seasons: The Human by Janine Spendlove.

What I really appreciate about this book is that it’s very accessible to readers who perhaps aren’t the biggest fantasy fans out there. I certainly don’t go out of my way to read books in this genre with the last fantasy novel I read being The Wise Man’s Fear. Spendlove succeeds by not falling into the trap of bludgeoning readers over the head with her universe’s lore and mythology. This is largely a function of telling the tale exclusively through Story’s eyes. As she learns more about Ailionora little by little, so do you. This sort of gradual world-building keeps the prose from getting too dense, which is a problem I’ve had with fantasy in the past.

Speaking of Story, I absolutely adore her. She’s mature for her age, but not unreasonably so. Someone who has gone through what Story has in her life will inevitably be forced to grow up faster than they want to and Spendlove’s choice to portray Story in that light was a smart one. There’s also some spunk to her personality*  which immediately endeared her to me.

*I could also go on at length about how much I love that she’s a spelunker, but then I’d just ramble about outdoors-y things that would bore everyone to tears.   

If there is a complaint to be had, it’s that the pacing is a touch slow at the beginning. For me (and this is an entirely subjective thing), it took a bit of time to really get into the novel. Of course, once I was hooked in I couldn’t put it down. If you do pick this book up, keep that in mind. Once I was far enough in to know Story better, I couldn’t put it down.

Down to its core, War of the Seasons: The Human is a fun, engaging, and surprisingly deep novel. I didn’t think I would be picking up a book that would investigate how one deals with the loss of loved ones, what the damage is, and just what goes into the recovery process. As a fantasy novel, it’s incredibly accessible to any reader and it crafts a unique world that I can’t wait to return to.  Most importantly, this book is a character-driven tale that features a great cast and a fantastic protagonist.

And to think, I would have missed all of this if I’d kept up with my silly refusal to read young adult novels.

War of the Seasons: The Human earns a 4/5

Note: War of the Seasons: The Half-Blood is now available for purchase as well.

Brian’s ‘X-Wing: Mercy Kill’ Review

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I admit it. I have never been this nervous about an Expanded Universe novel. By know I suspect you’re all aware that the X-Wing books hold a special place in my heart. I’ve long appreciated the kinds of stories that series told and the types of characters used within them.  I hoped that this book would be a return to those kinds of novels. Thankfully, after reading it I firmly believe Aaron Allston succeeded on that front and succeeded in ways I couldn’t have imagined before picking the book up.

Mercy Kill is a unique book in its construction and tone, one that legitimately can be called a spy thriller. Imagine taking the feel of Mission Impossible and the lore of the Star Wars universe and combining the two. The result is a book that’s easily the most fun I’ve had with an Expanded Universe novel in thirteen years.  The plot revolves around finding evidence of treachery by one of the Galactic Alliance’s most powerful military figures. To find that proof, Face Loran has to rebuild Wraith Squadron and send them off on an adventure.

I could go on at length about how much I enjoyed the twists and turns, but to do so would be to completely spoil a large chunk of what makes this book work. Instead, I feel it’s more important to dive into the characters of this tale. Aaron Allston has long been known for his work at crafting characters and allowing them to dictate the story rather than shoehorning characters into plot. Mercy Kill is no different. They are the backbone of this novel and the primary reason it’s so effective as an Expanded Universe story.

The characters (and potential spoilers) loom below the cut!

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