A little while ago, my Tosche Station Radio co-host Nanci and myself did a guest spot with the Star Wars Book Report. If memory serves, we talked about fan fiction, fun at conventions, and our thoughts on the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe.Hop on over there to listen to us go off-the-rails on someone else’s podcast!
A Brief History of Terrible Star Wars Games
With the outrage over Dancing Han Solo*, one would think there has never been a bad Star Wars game to grace the market. Lucasfilm has sold out for a quick buck, you say. Oh you silly fans. If that’s the measure for selling out (whatever that means), Lucasfilm sold out years ago. Star Wars has a long and storied history of shoddy video game tie-ins pushed out the door to make some scratch.
*I don’t care what any of you say, Dancing!Han is the best thing to happen to the fandom in the last decade.
Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire: Death by Colons was a horrible mashup of bad full-motion video, clunky game mechanics, on-the-rails dullness, and difficulty curves designed by a sadist. If the horrid acting didn’t make you cringe to the point of turning it off, the bizarre spikes in difficulty at random moments would make you rage quit. Rebel Assault II hearkens back to a day when every game developer on the planet thought that unskilled actors and a green screen were the key to creating a big hit. Rather than, you know, actual gameplay value.
Win A Copy of the Essential Guide to Warfare
To celebrate the official launch of Tosche Station, we’re giving away two copies of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare. How can you claim one for yourself? Simple!
Opportunity the First: Follow the Tosche Station Twitter account and retweet this message
Opportunity the Second: Give us a Like on Facebook.
We will randomly select one winner from each pool to receive a copy, so enter in both places to increase your odds of winning a book that I really enjoyed.
The contest will run through Thursday with a winner announced Friday. Good luck!
Karen Miller ‘Star Wars Insider’ Short Story Features Antilles Spawn
Hit it, @DelReyStarWars
Read Karen Miller’s Myri Antilles short story that will appear in SW Insider 135 last night. Fun read, really dug it. #SWEU@Darth_Duff
— StarWarsBooks (@DelReyStarWars) April 12, 2012
That high-pitched sound your dog just picked up on was probably me. Between this short story and Mercy Kill, it’s going to be a good year for the Antilles sisters in EU literature.
J.K. Rowling’s New Adult Novel Gets Title and Synopsis
I think she sold a few copies of that.
J.K. Rowling, author of a somewhat popular series of young adult book, has announced the title of her first adult novel: The Casual Vacancy.
When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
The “blackly comic” novel is due out later this year according to Rowling’s publisher Little Brown.
Via the Wall Street Journal blog
Fate of the Jedi Retrospective – Part II
Part II of our Fate of the Jedi review looks into new characters, the authors, loose ends, and gives a score for the series as a whole. Be sure to read the first part here.
To the jump!
The Star Wars Art of Benjamin Carré
Sometimes you just stumble across something awesome. While looking at Kotaku.com last night I came across a piece of incredible Star Wars art. The post included a link to the artist’s deviantart account and I decided to check it out. I was taken completely off guard by the quality of this guy’s work. After a bit of poking around, I found out that he had done some of the covers for Dark Horse Comics KOTOR series and figured out who he was. His name is Benjamin Carré and his Deviant ID is orincar.
Now I’m linking you to this. Because it AWESOME. Check this out!
Tosche Station Radio #12: Fandom Nod
Fan creations are the on the minds of the hosts this week.
Before getting into the show, Nanci and Brian announce that the Tosche Station blog is having a giveaway contest to celebrate going live. You can win one of two copies of the Essential Guide to Warfare! Details here, enter in both places to double your odds. Be sure to also check out the news, reviews, and columns at the new site.
In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci went and saw Titanic in 3D and said it’s the best post-conversion 3D film out there. Of course, Brian’s a little more excited about the Prometheus trailer that showed before the movie started. Nanci is also (re)reading The Seasons of Passage and heartily recommends it. She also wrote a guest post over at Club Jade talking about fan fiction, a topic we’ll be visiting in today’s episode. In preparation for the Avengers next month, Brian has begun his Marvel films re-watch. More importantly, baseball season is back and he can geek out over advanced statistics! But something that will actually interest most listeners, Brian’s also posted the first part of his Fate of the Jedi series review over at the blog.
Facebook Chat With Jason Fry, Paul Urquhart, and Erich Schoeneweiss
Yesterday the writers behind the Essential Guide to Warfare stopped by Star Wars Books official Facebook page to answer questions from fans. Among the hard hitting questions: was there a classic Disney influence on the book?
Johann Mitzscherlich: It may seem obviously, but is the name “Skere Kaan” (where you first introduced his forename) to the tiger Shere Khan from The Jungle Book.
Jason Fry: Yep, Skere Kaan is a Jungle Book nod. That was Paul. Made me smile.
I’m always game for clever little nods to things outside of the Star Wars universe. Reading over a Han Solo profile, I spotted an Animal House reference. Austin over at EUCantina noticed a Kent Brockman reference in the book.
For a lengthy recap of the chat, head on over to Club Jade.
Children of the Jedi Part III
I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with what Luke and company have been doing so far in this book but there’s a whole other half to this. Leia and Han, and the story seems to be largely from the perspective of Leia, are off trying to find where the titular young’uns were, and maybe still are.
More after the jump. Continue reading