Review: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray

Posted on by

lost starsLost Stars, the young adult entry in the Journey to the Force Awakens, reads like fanfic.

For many people, the phrases “young adult” and “fanfic” give Lost Stars two strikes before even turning to the first page. There’s a big stigma out there against YA fiction, because, and let’s not be blunt here, teenage girls read it. That’s not to say YA is all great — it can be melodramatic and poorly written — but the same is true of adult books, is it not?

Then there’s the fanfic comparison. Many people like to criticize Expanded Universe books they dislike by calling them “glorified fanfiction.” To me, though, fanfic is not an insult. Fanfic represents a land of opportunities in Star Wars literature. You can write about whoever you want, doing whatever you want, whenever you want. You can stick to canon or split into an alternate timeline. There are no rules. So you could, for example, create your own original characters and have them live through key events of the Galactic Civil War.

Lost Stars takes that common fanfic premise to the extreme, and that’s a good thing. Continue reading →

Go/No-Go: Aftermath

Posted on by

nasa-mission-control-3Welcome back to Go/No-Go, Tosche Station’s regular feature where we offer our spoiler-free opinion as to whether or not you should spend your hard-earned money on a book, film, or other entertainment. Today on the launch pad: Star Wars: Aftermath.  It’s our first book set after Episode VI in the new canon and is the tentpole of the Journey to the Force Awakens. No, it’s not Heir to the Empire, but the start of something entirely new. Is it worth your time? Does it live up to the hype? Should we stick to Legends instead? To mission control for the verdict!

Continue reading →

Dragon Con 2015 Recap

Posted on by

Just one week ago, Dragon Con 2015 was wrapping up and Brian, Nanci, and Bria were on their ways back to their respective homes. We posted a whopping twelve panel recordings, ten of which at least one member of Tosche Station participated in. We also got to meet awesome people like Chuck Wendig and Vanessa Marshall, and hang out with the awesome Star Wars fan community.

Nanci will be writing a post soon about her experience moderating the Aftermath panel. For now, here’s a breakdown of all our coverage from the convention itself.

Continue reading →

Review: Moving Target

Posted on by

There’s very little I love more in this world than a well-written Leia Organa story and Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry have definitely delivered with their contribution to the Journey to the Force Awakens: Moving Targets. It’s a middle grade book which means the writing style is a bit more simplistic but that certainly doesn’t take away from the impact of the story nor from how much I enjoyed reading it.

Worrying reports have reached the Rebel Alliance of the construction of a second Death Star… something that absolutely no one wants to see in the hands of the Emperor. The Rebel Alliance must strike back but they’ll need time. Princess Leia volunteers to lead a decoy mission and serve as a distraction… a moving target if you will.

Continue reading →

Review: Aftermath’s Prose

Posted on by

AftermathI usually hate reading present tense prose, at least in professional fiction.  It’s always lent itself to fanfiction in my mind for some reason, so when I read the first excerpts of Aftermath when they were released, I wasn’t impressed.

Boy, was I wrong.

I read Aftermath in between feedings and diaper changes of our new little Jedi-in-training, and every time I set the book down, I looked forward to picking it back up again, and had the book come out before Little Jedi’s arrival, I probably would have read it all in one sitting.

Many of you know that I am, by trade and training, a professor of literature.  So while the rest of our staff has reviewed Aftermath based on its content, I want to focus on the style and why it works so well for this novel.

Continue reading →

REVIEW: Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season One Blu-ray set

Posted on by

The announcement of Star Wars: Rebels was met with mixed reactions from fans. Some folks resented Rebels right off the bat for the crime of not being season seven of The Clone Wars. Others, like myself, were simply tired of the pre-A New Hope era, and wanted Lucasfilm to move the story along, show us some post-Return of the Jedi action.

I think it’s safe to say that fans worried about a dip in quality following the Disney acquisition were pleasantly surprised by Rebels. But now, with season two just a month away and the first season finally out on DVD and Blu-ray, is an excellent chance to look back at season one as a whole. Does the show hold up on a second viewing, not only on an episode-by-episode basis, but as a complete work? And is the new Blu-ray set worthy of the show and a good investment, going into season two?

Let’s find out together, friends!

Continue reading →

The Persecution Complex of Bring Back Legends Rears its Ugly Head at Dragon Con

Posted on by

I’ll be honest, I was more than happy to just write off Bring Back Legends as a mostly annoying but ultimately ineffectual movement. That all changed this past weekend when Bring Back Legends/Continue Legends or whatever they’re calling themselves took it upon themselves to turn Dragon Con 2015 into a platform for their fanboy entitlement. Not unlike how Gamer Gate thinks they own gaming, or Sad Puppies thinks they own science fiction, BBL is acting like they own Star Wars fandom and will do whatever it takes to make their voices heard. 

Things began to look curious midnight on Force Friday, when in short order the Amazon page for Aftermath began to be flooded with one-star reviews of the book. There were three primary complaints: the inclusion of LGBT characters, the prose style, and griping about Legends. As for the prose style complaints, it’s odd that so many people had seemingly read the book in less than an hour, especially considering that Del Rey sent out perhaps less than 20 advance review copies. Certainly, some stores broke street dates, but not enough to account for the massive influx of reviews that seemed to complain about the exact same thing (as Chuck Wendig, Michael Patrick Hicks, and Jim C. Hines noted). At absolute best, it’s a bizarre coincidence. At worst, it’s an organized campaign designed to, as Wendig so brilliant put it, weaponize nostalgia for Legends and hurt folks as a result.

Okay, quite a bit more than annoying, but the negative reviews actually help the Amazon algorithms prioritize Aftermath, so I guess it’s more amusing in a dark way than anything else. Once again I’m ready to shrug off Bring Back Legends and the one-star Amazon review campaign.

Then the rest of Dragon Con happened.

Continue reading →

Review: The Weapon of a Jedi by Jason Fry

Posted on by

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Nanci.

When Nanci was 11 years old, she saw Star Wars for the first time. And promptly fell in love with Luke Skywalker. She loved everything about him: his farm boy earnestness, his hot-shot piloting, his skills with a lightsaber. She loved that he was brash and courageous and kind and loyal and optimistic even in the face of certain death. She loved everything about him — yes, even the “Tosche Station” line.

(Yes, she did choose the name for this podcast and blog.)

People told her that one day, she’d grow up and stop loving Luke so much. That Luke was a character for kids to look up to, while Han is the character adults loved.

That never happened. Nanci stayed firmly on “Team Luke” despite all arguments to the contrary. (His relationship with Mara Jade helped solidify her lifelong devotion.)

But even so, things started going sour.

The Expanded Universe lost its luster. Luke stopped being the character Nanci believed him to be. Even amazing one-offs, like Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, weren’t enough to make Nanci happy.

She still loved Luke, even if he’d lost his way in the Expanded Universe.

Then the reboot happened.

(Spoilers for the book and some rumors about TFA under the cut.)

Continue reading →

Review: Darth Vader #9

Posted on by

Not content with all the new Star Wars material we got on Force Friday? Good because Marvel has plenty more to share. Out today is Shattered Empire #1 (which we’ll be reviewing once it’s collected in November) and Darth Vader #9. Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca return to the adventures of Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra, and the two lovable murderbots.

Vader is still under the thumb of Admiral Tagge after his failure at Yavin 4 and must work with Thanoth instead of devoting himself to his own side project. Thankfully, he has (for now) an ally and useful tool in the form of the one and only Aphra who is running down some leads for him at a very expensive rate…

And then Kieron Gillen dropped the f*$&ing microphone. Thus ends the review. Dear Marvel: Give me issue #10 right now.  Please.

(No seriously. That’s all this review is going to say. Go buy Darth Vader #9 either at your local comic store or through a digital shop right now. Trust me.)