New ‘Mercy Kill’ Mini Excerpt
A young human woman in clothes styled to resemble a starfighter pilot’s jumpsuit and jacket but made of crinkly gold cloth, her hair a more striking and unnatural red than Face’s, bumped into Face, made a vague noise of apology, and hurried past, continuing onward toward the exit.
Voort scowled at Face. “I saw that.”
“Of course you did.”
“What did she slip you?”
Face reached into a suit coat pocket and drew out a datapad. It was small, its once-gleaming surface scratched and dull. “This. It’s wired to overheat and ignite in about three minutes.”
“Well, then, don’t hold it in your mouth.”
Mercy Kill is due to hit bookshelves on August 7th.
More Bad News for ‘The Old Republic’ Publisher Electronic Arts
While not directly related to The Old Republic, this bit of analysis by Games Industry is anything but good news for the floundering MMO. The stock trend for publisher Electronic Arts is not going in a good direction.
Electronic Arts’ stock has lost almost 40 per cent of its value since the start of this calendar year – and in fact, since the middle of last holiday season (around November 2011) the company’s stock has been in a steady decline which has now wiped close to 50 per cent off EA’s valuation. It’s not a decline as sharp as THQ’s, but it represents a much larger loss of value – THQ’s market capitalisation is only around $50 million, whereas even after this enormous loss of value, EA is still capitalised at around $4 billion.
Games Business put together a rather telling graph comparing EA’s performance to the NASDAQ index and another pair of publishers. It’s not pretty.
While Electronic Arts isn’t alone in the downward trend (Hello, Take Two Interactive), it’s not keeping up with one of its chief competitors in Activision-Blizzard. Worse, it’s not keeping pace with the NASDAQ composite index. But here’s the scary thing, see where the downward trend begins for EA? That’s right about when The Old Republic debuted, the most expensive undertaking in EA history. How much of TOR’s stumbles have fueled EA’s trouble isn’t fully known, but it certainly has contributed.
X-Wing Retrospective Part 3: The Krytos Trap
Quite honestly, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed The Krytos Trap.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve always known this book is quality. I just had it in my head for a long time that of this four-book arc, Wedge’s Gamble was my favorite of the bunch. That changed about two years ago when I went back and re-read through a bunch of my favorite Expanded Universe novels from the Bantam Spectra era. It had been a little while since I’d read through the X-Wing books* and my memory was a little fuzzy. Suffice to say, the third entry in the X-Wing series was significantly better than the already positive memory I had in my head.
*College. Instead I got to read fine literature like “Cybersecurity Ethics.”
(Head to the jump to continue reading)
Replace the Catsuit: Art Entry from Blizz
Reader Blizz sent in a piece of artwork (and functional diagram!) for our Replace Mara’s Catsuit Contest. I have to say, I’m really digging this entry.
I’ll let Blizz describe it for you:
You want practicality? I offer an outfit that I tried to keep compatible with novel descriptions, Star Wars paraphernalia, and basic Stormtrooper and Jedi equipment.
I kept some elements of her “canon” appearance. The belt and knee pads, for instance. I did away with the shoulder harness. Why, oh why, is Mara always portrayed with a shoulder harness with no holsters? What is the point? What does it do?
Anyway, I think this fits a balance of traveling light but being prepared. Thank you for your consideration.
Ink on paper.
Digitally colored using GIMP
Thanks for sending this in!
For more information about the contest and to view the other entries, head to the contest page.
Celebration VI Begs You To Stay To The Bitter End
Don’t look now, but the Celebration VI staff have announced … an announcement.
Mark your calendars now, and don’t miss the Closing Ceremonies at Celebration VI.
If you’re planning on going to Star Wars Celebration, there’s something really special planned on Sunday afternoon, August 26th that you definitely won’t want to miss! Make your plans now to stay at the biggest Star Wars Party in the galaxy, and see what’s in store for the Closing Ceremonies!
This special event is planned for Sunday, August 26th, from 2:30-3:30PM on the Celebration Stage (Chapin Theater). See you there!
Certainly this will end well, promises of something “really special.” It’s not like fans would ever over-speculate as to what that something special might be and wind up disappointed when it doesn’t live up to the delusions of grandeur that had in their heads. So you know what, I’m just going to set the bar at some absurd level right now.
Something special = a Star Wars reboot helmed by a geek dream team of Joss Whedon and Christopher Nolan. With J.J. Abrams serving as executive lensflare producer.
Take a look, it’s in a book
I grew up reading, and one of my favorite television shows was, naturally, about reading–I watched Reading Rainbow for at least fifteen of its twenty-six year run, and remember certain books with a definite fondness–The Day Jimmy’s Boa Constrictor Ate the Wash, and one I became reacquainted with this weekend: When I was Young in the Mountains.
So for all of us who grew up reading (and who then recognized LeVar Burton when we saw him on Star Trek), fear not. Our children will not be deprived of Reading Rainbow, as Burton has been working since the end of Reading Rainbow in 2006 to create an app. At midnight, June 20th, the Reading Rainbow app will be available for the iPad.
Why am I posting this here? Well, because to my mind, reading has been pretty integral to being a geek.
And then there’s the part where a Reading Rainbow app is just cool.
Karen Miller Discusses Being a Female Star Wars Writer
As a fandom, we’ve had plenty of reminders that there’s often a stark gender divide in Star Wars. Emily and I have sounded off on the topic in the past. It can be tough for female fans, but it’s just as tough (if not worse) for writers. Expanded Universe author Karen Miller sat down with Tor’s Liz Bourke to talk about that and other topics today.
The Star Wars fan audience, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly male. At least as far as I can tell. The vast majority of writers who do the tie-in novels are also male. There is a definite predominance of male voices and male POVs in Star Wars novels. And that makes a huge difference in the reception of the material.
Everything I write is grounded in character. Everything. It’s the people that make a story for me. So my Star Wars work is as much a character study or exploration as it is an action adventure romp. For some readers, that was brilliant. For others, it wasn’t. For a lot of Star Wars fans—the guys in particular—the story is about fighting and space battles and stuff like that. For them, that’s the whole point. For them, the intricacies of psychological investigation are boring and unwelcome. And I completely accept that. But it’s not what floats my starship—and I felt strongly that I can’t be the only one who is in love with the story because of the characters, not despite them. Or who wants to take a breath and spend some time with them as human beings, who wants to explore what makes them tick, the relationships between them, the strengths and fragilities they contain and share.
She is onto something there. It’s a big reason that things like Fate of the Jedi sell well while more intimate books in the same universe struggle to keep pace, despite the fact the former books aren’t as critically well received as the latter. Another key quote from this interview:
Looking at this, thinking about it, there’s a temptation to castigate the fandom as being unwelcoming to female writers and, by extension, female fans. And to an extent, I think that is the case, which breaks my heart. Some of the vitriol and virtual violence flung at Karen Traviss, for example, is horrific. Absolutely, there is a segment of the male fanbase that resents any incursion by a woman. But since that’s true on a wider societal scale, really, all that proves is that fandom is a microcosm of society.
Let’s just get the Traviss thing out of the way first. The only issue I take with this entire interview is that Miller misses the mark on why there was fan backlash towards Traviss. It was largely to do with Traviss’ professionalism towards fans and her employer, but in fairness to Miller, I have no doubts that there were a minority of fans that did take issue with her gender.
But the macro point Miller is making is spot-on. As a fandom, Star Wars hasn’t felt very welcoming towards female fans and authors. The mere suggestion that the EU creative staff needs to do a better job crafting and utilizing its female characters incited an over-the-top defensive firestorm from fans and necessitated a bunch of followup retorts to illustrate that, yes, there is a problem with how female fans, writers, and characters are treated (see the links above).*
*Required reading: John Scalzi’s post entitled “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting“
What’s the takeaway here? I don’t know. When in doubt I usually go with the philosophers Bill and Ted. Just be excellent to each other, okay? If what Miller said gets a knee-jerk, negative reaction from you, take a minute to analyze why that is. Nothing she’s said here is particularly inflammatory. They’re issues that we, as a fandom, need to discuss and take seriously.
Transporters, yea or nay?
Any geek who has ever been on a multi-hour road trip has at some point banged their head against the headrest and asked “Why hasn’t someone invented teleporters yet?”
I stumbled across a nice little article on Yahoo, linked from LiveScience that, while dashing our hopes for teleportation any time soon, has some pretty cool information on the quantum information teleportation that scientists can currently do, and theorizes that Star Trek-type transporting may be a matter of wormholes in the future. (The explanation of why we can’t use teleporters could be a plausible retcon explanation of why Star Wars is missing this piece of technology?)
Trope Tuesday: Ascended Extra
Status: Ascended
Welcome to another edition of Trope Tuesday, where we dive headfirst into the land of wasted productivity and tab explosions: TV Tropes. This week, we’re investigated a trope called The Ascended Extra.
A minor character who is given a greatly expanded role in the later part of the series, a new adaptation of a story, or in the Expanded Universe. It is usually safer to do this with an otherwise obscure character without much depth, since the likelihood of creating plot contradictions is lower. On the other hand, the character may or may not be allowed to have a huge effect on the plot depending on how much the writer is trying to follow source material. Can lead to some bizarre incongruities in planning (e.g. Overtook the Manga, Restricted Expanded Universe). Sometimes the minor character becomes an Ascended Extra just so the writers can immediately turn them into a Sacrificial Lion.
This naturally occurs as a series goes on for long periods of time and useful for filler, technically not requiring you invent someone whole cloth. Be warned however that this character might be more liked by the fandom than the writers, who may have no compunction with getting rid of them when convenient.
This also happens somewhat regularly in Fan Fiction. Stories about a minor character who is given his own subplot (or prequel, sequel, or AU) seem to be ‘training wheels’ for writers who don’t quite trust themselves with original fiction yet and are re-using the setting, but basically making up new characters.
Happens a lot in fan fiction, eh? Let me tell you about the 600 pages of writing I’ve devoted to this character …
But yes, the Ascended Extra is a trope that is absolutely vital to things like the Expanded Universe. Occasionally you need a familiar tie-in to the source material in the films, but squeezing Luke, Han, and Leia into yet another novel doesn’t quite fit the story. This is where authors might look for a minor character from the movies that they can bring to the forefront. You’ll see varying degrees of success. Sometimes the guy who says “stand by” when the Death Star is about to fire gets the Ascended Extra status, leading fans to scratch their heads in confusion and ask “Why?” Other times, however, the minor character becomes a key component of the Expanded Universe.
You’re probably aware that we’re doing a summer retrospective of the X-Wing books. This trope was practically built for it, folks. Take Wedge Antilles (you know, fighter pilot, survived three movies) and put him at the forefront of a nine-book series. Sounds like a terrible idea, right? Wrong. When the Ascended Extra trope is executed well and with the right character, an author can craft something that truly resonates with readers. There’s a reason Wedge Antilles, Hobbie Klivian, and Wes Janson are fan favorites in the Expanded Universe. It’s a combination of the familiar and new, characters that tie into established material but have enough room to be fleshed out they almost feel new to the universe.