Tosche Station Radio #19: Snark-to-Snark Combat With Aaron Allston

Posted on by

Logo

Play in new window | Download
On this week’s episode of Tosche Station Radio, Nanci and Brian sit down to interview the Expanded Universe’s most prolific author, Aaron Allston!

Kicking off the show, the hosts discuss what’s new on the blog, Shane kicked off our summer X-Wing retrospective with his retro review of Rogue Squadron. Brian was at Origins and posted a whole bunch of coverage from panels featuring Mike Stackpole, Aaron Allston, and Tim Zahn. Nanci posted the first of her new column series that aims to offer geeky (and snarky) advice about love, life, and fandom.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci says she recorded an episode of Star Wars Beyond the Films about women in Star Wars. Look for that to go live soon. She also went to see Snow White and the Huntsmen. Verdict? An overwhelming “meh.” The third round of Star Wars Weekends took place and Nanci was once again on hand, meeting author Jason Fry and Erich from Del Rey. Brian, as mentioned, was at Origins over the weekend, but he’s holding off on talking about that until next week.

Continue reading →

Concord Blue Devils Play ‘Across the Stars’

Posted on by

This was my featured fanwork pick on the latest podcast, but I enjoyed this so much I’m just linking to it straight on the blog.

The Concord Blue Devils are part of Drum Corps International, a collection of the world’s top tier corps style marching bands. Yes, I was a band nerd, sue me. What’s cool about this recording? Take one of my all-time favorite film score pieces and have a group of 100 or so brass musicians play the ever-loving daylights out of it. The result is pin-your-ears-back music glory.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, music is one of those things I geek out over.

Star Wars: 1313 Won’t Let You be a Jedi

Posted on by

Gaming blog Kotaku had a chance to sit down with Lucasarts to talk about their upcoming new franchise in the Star Wars videogame realm. One of the tidbits dropped? You won’t get the chance to play as a Jedi.

“It’s not that I think that that’s overdone,” says Robillard. “But the criminal underworld of 1313is a little more grounded and that has to live in the mechanics of the game. Having mechanics that are limited by human ability makes things more relatable, then we can put all the cool stuff you can do into the gadgets and weapons.”

“You still get to do all of these amazing things because of the environment the game takes place in and because of the gear you have,” he continues. “But at the core you still have these vulnerabilities that are a bit more relatable, so you won’t have the demigod complex of a Jedi.” If you fall in 1313, Robillard sums up, you know you’re going to be in trouble.

You know what? I’m perfectly okay with this. If you’ve ever listened to the podcast (such as our latest! With Aaron Allston! Shameless plug!), you know one of my big things I really want to see from Star Wars is a bit more of a focus put on non-Force sensitive characters. It’s a big, grand universe. Show that to us every now and then!

The X-Wing Retrospective: A Tosche Station Summer Series

Posted on by

Last week,  Shane posted the first of what will be a summer series of retro reviews and discussions looking back at the X-Wing novels by Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston. You should read it, especially if you haven’t read the books yet and are on the fence about diving into them. A few weeks before that, Nanci and I overviewed the series on the podcast. You should listen to that as well. We also interviewed both Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston.

You might ask why we’re doing this. The books were published well over a decade ago and countless words have been spent discussing their merits. Unfortunately, despite the praise that have been heaped on the books over the years, they remain perhaps the most misunderstood novels in the entire Expanded Universe. I can’t count the number of misperceptions I run into when talking about them with even savvy EU fans.

  • It’s only dogfights and lightfights.
  • There are no interesting characters.
  • Nothing important happens.
  • There are no Jedi.

Statements like these are held as facts to many fans, despite the fact that there’s not much truth to them. The X-Wing novels are some of the highest quality books in all of the EU, but lots fans haven’t read them because they are, admittedly, different. Luke and Leia are only seen in passing cameos. Han doesn’t have a large role until the middle of the series. The Jedi aren’t the primary focus. The Galaxy isn’t about to be ripped apart by the bi-weekly apocalypse of doom. For new Expanded Universe fans, that can be a tough sell, but glossing over these books would be a mistake.

So we’re going to be spending the summer convincing those of you on the fence (and those of you who have never even considered it) to read these books before the long-awaited tenth novel hits bookshelves in August. Part of this is selfish. We want Mercy Kill to sell well because if it does, we’ll get more books in a franchise we love dearly. More than that, though, we believe that the Expanded Universe needs more quality books like the ones found in this series. Grand adventures that get back to the root of what makes Star Wars so special.

Are we going to make a sizable impact on the sales numbers of X-Wing novels? Hell, no. But if we can get at least a few people to pick up and enjoy these books, we’ll be happy. So what are you waiting for? Go get the first book.

Science Fiction Legend Ray Bradbury Dies

Posted on by

Ray Bradbury, author of influential works such as Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man, passed away this morning at 91. Bradbury was a speculative fiction genius and visionary. Numerous short stories and books he created managed to find their way to television and the silver screen over the years.

In honor of his life and career, I’ll be heading home today to read a few passages from my favorite book he wrote, The Martian Chronicles.

Catching Up with Celebration VI Guests

Posted on by

We got a little bit behind relaying Celebration VI news while I was off at Origins, so let’s get up to speed!

Threepio himself, Anthony Daniels, was confirmed for the Star Wars convention late last week. Daniels has been a headliner at every Celebration to date. Also joining him will be Jake Lloyd, who played young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, and . Others who are now slated to join CVI as guests:

Kenny Baker: Credited in all six Star Wars features as the plucky astromech R2-D2, Kenny Baker also made appearances as Paploo the Ewok in Return of the Jedi and in uncredited roles in Lucasfilm’s Willow and Labyrinth.

Amy Allen: Amy Allen portrayed Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Secura in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, her character famously perishing at the hands of clone troopers acting on Order 66. Allen also appears as a Senatorial aide in the post-2001 edit of The Phantom Menace.

Chris Malcom: Actor Christopher Malcom portrayed snowspeeder pilot Zev Senesca (Rogue Two) in The Empire Strikes Back, the Rebel responsible for locating the missing Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in the frozen Hoth landscape.

Bonnie Piesse: A young Beru Whitesun Lars (Aunt Beru) was played by Bonnie Piesse in both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Garrick Hagon: Hagon played Rebel X-wing pilot Biggs Darklighter in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, but had also been filmed in several cut scenes as best friend to Luke Skywalker on Tatooine.

So we’ve got Zev, Biggs, and Dack at Celebration. I wonder if they’ll have a Dead Rogues Gallery set up for them?

Dear Nanci for June 6, 2012

Posted on by

Welcome to the first-ever installment of Dear Nanci, an advice column about love, life, and fandom! Today we address how to meet a special geek, what to do once you have one, how to find time in your busy day for geeky pursuits, and what TV to watch. Onward! (Also, if any of you artist/design types would like to make a banner to use for this column – please do so! We’ll love you forever!)

Continue reading →

SW:TOR goes partially free to play

Posted on by

EA just announced at E3 that SW:TOR would be free to play from levels 1-15.

Will this help BioWare pick up all the subscribers it’s lost? World of Warcraft went free to play from levels 1-20 last year, but I don’t think it’s helped Blizzard make up the subscriber loss it suffered after everyone finished the Cataclysm end-game content. Seems to me that SW:TOR needs to spend more time developing new modules and content instead.

Tosche Station Radio Interviewing Aaron Allston

Posted on by

Have a question for the Expanded Universe’s most prolific author? Send us a tweet, leave a Facebook message, or drop a comment in this post! We’ll be interviewing Aaron Allston on Wednesday, June 6th.

While we can’t promise we’ll have time to get to everyone’s questions, Nanci and I will do our best to get to as many as possible.

Just a touch of E3 coverage

Posted on by

As some of you may know, the largest gaming conference in the world is taking place right now in LA, The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or just E3.  I’m just going to try to hit the high points of what’s been going on as best I can, although I haven’t been as plugged in as I have been in the past.

The biggest things that people have been looking forward to in the whole expo have been the new hardware from the ‘Big 3,’ Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.  Last year, Nintendo announced a new console system called the ‘Wii U,’ and this year they’ve given us more of the details of the system.  Microsoft has shown a new addition the X-Box 360 that will probably add some serious life to the system, called Smart Glass.  Sony is yet to have their day at the convention, but the buzz is that they will be introducing a new console, although I haven’t heard anything more.  (Edit) Sony’s press conference was last night, they debuted God of War Ascension, a few secenes from The Last of Us and a new project from the maker’s of Heavy Rain.  I hadn’t heard anything about this from any of the sources I’ve been reading or watching and had to actively look for any of this with the exception of God of War, and that didn’t seem to be drawing a lot of buzz.

Check out the rest after the jump

Continue reading →