And now, we rejoin our frustrated columnist to bring you this correction and further review of Barbara Hambly’s Children of the Jedi.
Category Archives: Star Wars
Star Wars Weekends Guests!
On last week’s podcast, we reported on the Celebrity Hosts for this year’s upcoming Star Wars Weekends – James Arnold Taylor and Ashley Eckstein. On Friday, Disney announced the nearly full roster of guests. Hooray!
Weekend I (May 18 – 20)
- Ray Park – (Darth Maul – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
- Jerome Blake (Rune Haako/Mas Amedda – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
- Dee Bradley Baker (voice of Clone Captain Rex and Clone Commander Cody – Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Weekend II (May 25- 27)
- Andy Secombe (Watto – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
- Ray Park (Darth Maul – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
- Tom Kane (voice of Yoda – Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Weekend III (June 1 -3)
- Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
- Silas Carson (Nute Gunray/Ki-Adi-Mundi – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
- (Star Wars: The Clone Wars voice talent – currently TBD)
Weekend IV (June 8- 10)
- Michonne Bourriague (Aurra Sing – Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace)
- Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett – Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi)
- Daniel Logan (Boba Fett – Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones)
- Nika Futterman (voice of Asajj Ventress – Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
It’ll be interesting to see the two Bobas together during Weekend 4, and I’m really looking forward to Nika Futterman’s appearance. Asajj Ventress is one of my favorite characters on The Clone Wars and I don’t think she’s done an event like this before. And I’m looking forward to seeing what Jake Lloyd has been up to, especially with The Phantom Menace 3D release this past February.
Personally, I’m hoping that the additional guest for Week 3 is Matt Lanter, for obvious reasons.
If Star Wars had been a Cheesy 80s TV Series
As my Netflix queue will confirm, I have a thing for cheesy 80s television. Star Wars as an 80s action/drama? Sign me up. Also? Cheesy 80s Firefly. Get on that, Joss Whedon.
Children of the Jedi Part I: An Introduction to Snark
Greetings, readers! For those of you just joining us here at the blog, this is part of an ongoing series in which I am reading ,or in some cases re-reading, Star Wars novels from yestery
ear. I’m going to be starting rather early on in the Bantam-Spectra era and slowly working my way forward. Now, in some cases that will actually mean chronologically but in other it will mean that I’m just reading them as I get to them.
I also want to tell you that I will be reading most of these for the first time while in other cases they’ll be books I haven’t read in fifteen or so years. It’s needless to say that I may miss some things or note things that will eventually be resolved. If that’s the case, I’ll generally try to note it. In most cases, I’ll end up being right. Expect lots of exasperation and rage.
This brings us to the first of many posts in the series, the name of the series might be a bit fluid for a while until I come up with something that I’m happier with, but we’ll just have to see. For now, you pick, either “EU Growing Pains” or simply “Some books have it coming.”
Brian recently posted his roadmap to the EU, suggesting his own recommendations to get started on the path. You will also notice that many of these really aren’t on that list. There’s a good reason.
The first thing on the docket from this humble author will be Children of the Jedi.
Part I
Denning Talks Fate of the Jedi with Fans
Over at Star Wars Books, Troy Denning conducted a Q&A session with fans via Facebook. Just what do fans want to know from the author that seems to have become the face of the Post-New Jedi Order EU? Why, what his dream project would be, of course.
I’ve been blessed with so many dream SW projects already that I feel guilty talking about another one . . . but I WOULD like to write the story of Yoda coming of age
Denning also dished on the creative process involved with writing Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse, his latest entry in the Expanded Universe and the conclusion of the nine-book megaseries.
One of our goals for Apocalypse was to open up a whole new boatload of story telling possibilities for the EU. I feel like we accomplished that, and there are about a hundred different SW stories I’d love to tell that are hinted at the end of Apocalypse.
While I understand the goal and what they were trying to accomplish, I couldn’t help but feel that this approach made Apocalypse too open-ended for it’s own good.
For more answers to fan questions, head on over to Club Jade for a transcript with some commentary.
Review – Star Wars: Essential Guide to Warfare
I’m a fleet junkie.
Sure, the lightsaber duels, the Jedi versus Sith battles, and political games were neat, but that wasn’t my favorite part of the Star Wars mythos growing up. It was the blaster fights. The showdowns between X-Wings and TIE Fighters. The sight of the Death Star looming in the distance. Military warfare in this universe has always held a special place in my heart, which is why Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart’s Essential Guide to Warfare was one of my most anticipated Expanded Universe titles of 2012*.
*Which isn’t to say that there’s nothing about the Jedi and Sith in this book. There are a great many words were written about them.
It’s worth pointing out that the creative staff could have simply compiled abridged Wookieepedia-type articles, slapped some new artwork on it and I would have been moderately happy. What we lucky readers got instead was a product that cleared that bar by a staggering margin. While I was mostly looking forward to the new artwork in the book (and that is more than enough to justify a purchase), it was the written content that pushed EG to Warfare over the top and elevated it to must-buy territory for casual to hardcore Star Wars fans alike.
SW Books Releases Scoundrels Excerpt
To celebrate their 30,000th Like on Facebook, Star Wars Books thanked fans by releasing an excerpt from Timothy Zahn’s highly anticipated upcoming novel, Scoundrels. Head on over to the official SWB page to see how Han and Chewie deal with a cantina dustup.
Star Wars: Scoundrels is due out on December 26th.
Review – Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse
(Originally written 3/13/12, updated 4/4/12)
The long-awaited Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse finally is on bookshelves, wrapping up the nine-book tale and marking the end of the megaseries approach in the Expanded Universe. Does it stack up with the rest of the series? Is it a satisfying conclusion?
Be forewarned, spoilers loom below the cut.
Brian’s Introductory Roadmap to the Post-RotJ Expanded Universe
Meet Mara Jade. She’ll be very important in the EU.
I think we all recall how we felt the first time we saw the credits roll at the end of Return of the Jedi. It starts with a moment of satisfaction and content as the credits roll. Then, almost without fail, a moment of dread. It’s over! But I’m not ready for it to be over! What do Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie do next? There has to be more, right? (Ed. note 11/2/12: Ahahahahahahahahah)
Mercifully, there is: the Expanded Universe.
Perhaps you’ve hit up the Internet and have done some preliminary research into the EU, thinking you’ll pick up one of these books to satisfy your hunger for more Star Wars. It seems like a great idea at first, right up until you discover that there are scores upon scores of books, comics, and games featuring different characters and eras. Where do you start?
To preface, this is intended to be a roadmap to becoming familiar with the post-Return of the Jedi EU. This isn’t an official Tosche Station reading guide, just my own suggestions* on what novels will best help a new reader build up the needed knowledge of universe, plots, and characters to understand and appreciate the current state of the Expanded Universe. It is possible to get every bit of information needed from Wookieepedia, but if you’re anything like me, it’s simply more fun and enjoyable to develop this knowledge by reading the novels over reading a dry wiki-style overview.
*But a big, big thank you to my friend Bria for helping me compile this list
Seventeen books comprise this list and are broken into five distinct phases. While that sounds like a lot, it’s a mere drop in the giant Expanded Universe bucket. Some of these novels are optional depending on your preferences and are marked as such.
To the cut!
Review – Fate of the Jedi: Conviction
A funny and rather unexpected thing happened while trudging through the latest entry in a series of Star Wars Expanded Universe novels that haven’t exactly jumped out and grabbed my attention. Somewhere in the middle of reading through Aaron Allston’s Conviction (the seventh entry in the much maligned Fate of the Jedi series), I realized I was feeling a strange sensation. I was having fun with this book. Now, that’s not entirely unusual, I wouldn’t be an EU reader if I didn’t manage to derive some kind of fun from every novel I pick up.
No, I was having a lot of fun with this.