Book Wars Pod, Episode 8: Luke and Leia Are Sisters


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We’re wrapping up our discussion of BLOODLINE by Claudia Gray: how the book develops Leia’s character, plus some listener questions!

We’re also talking about “SCORCHED,” a short story about Greer by Delilah S. Dawson.

This podcast is NOT spoiler-free!

Book Wars Pod explores the Star Wars universe through the franchise’s non-screen media: the canon novels, comics, and video games. Check out our guide to past episodes, and subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and wherever else you cast your pods. You can also subscribe to the Tosche Station Radio Mega Feed on iTunes or Google Play for more great shows from our podcast network.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr for episode updates! Hosted by Kristen Sereci, Chris Sedor, and Kate Sedor. Art by Joe Butera. Music by Podington Bear.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by your support on Patreon!

Holonet Blast #18

Hello again, friends! By the time you are reading this I will be playing a new video game. This has nothing to do with anything, I’m just really excited to start Zero Horizon Dawn. Ready to feel emotions now? On to the news!

This week we had a few confirmations regarding Operation: Blue Milk stories. On Wednesday, author Cavan Scott announced in his newsletter that his story in A Certain Point of View is from the point of view of Obi-Wan Kenobi. More specifically, it is called “Time of Death” and focus on Obi-Wan’s….time of death. “You know how they say your life flashes in front of your eyes when you die? Well, now imagine what would be like for a Jedi.” Yikes, my emotions.

It was also confirmed that Nnedi Okorafor’s story is about the Dianoga (why is this story not in my eyeballs right this moment, it will be so fantastic, Okorafor writing the Dianoga is everything I’ve ever needed in life) and Meg Cabot’s story will focus on Aunt Beru and oh, look, my emotions hurt again.

Speaking of emotions hurting, Dave Filoni. Oh, Dave Filoni. On Thursday he tweeted a piece of art and a snippet of dialogue of Ahsoka meeting the Bendu before the season 2 finale of Rebels. In the words of Darth Bria the Wise regarding this, “Not news news: Dave Filoni hates your emotions.”

And finally, in some clarification news, the Forces of Destiny episodes (which finished premiering this morning) will be a TV special in the fall. Lucasfilm’s Tracy Cannobbio also clarified earlier that the episodes will be airing on the Disney Channel two at a time starting yesterday through July 30th. So if you want to see them on TV, watch the Disney Channel during prime time on Sunday night.

Of Dice and Droids Episode XI: Don’t Stop Me Now

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THE END OF ALL THINGS

EPISODE XI: DON’T STOP ME NOW

The Cast:

  • Tom the GM
  • Kiera Lex played by Rocky
  • Dia Barron played by Nanci
  • Lane Zorvan played by Brian

This podcast has been brought to you in part by your support on Patreon. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes/Google Play to hear all of the adventures! You can also subscribe to the Tosche Station Radio master podcast feed  (iTunes/Google Play) for even more great Star Wars  and geek culture content. 

Tosche Station Book Club #12: Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor

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This month on the Tosche Station Book Club, Nanci is joined by Diana to discuss Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor.

The next month pick is Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and your support on Patreon!  If you like what you hear, you can subscribe to the Tosche Station Book Club on iTunes or you can subscribe to the Tosche Station Radio Megafeed for all of our great Star Wars and geek culture content. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Knights of the Old Replay: Malachor V

Everything ties back to Malachor V. (No but actually… almost literally everything in this game.) This was one of the planets where the addition of the restored material was most evident and most appreciated. The planet’s always felt so… abrupt. You’re dumped on its surface by yourself and while the restored content still does that, it does ease you in a little with the Exile hearing the thoughts of her companions that lead them all to Malachor.

In a way, it makes you feel a little more like the Exile. The game’s told us how she forms bonds with others and grows strong from those bonds. Being painfully separated from other party members feels like a deliberate choice by the game creators. Or maybe I’m just a sucker who loves my crew. You can’t get back on the Ebon Hawk and none of your crew is anywhere to be seen so you have no choice but to fight your way into the depths of Malachor V where Sion and Kreia are waiting. Continue reading

Review: Star Wars #33

As far as self-contained stories go, Star Wars #33 is actually a really nice one even taking into account a painfully awkward looking panel of Luke Skywalker. The mission is supposed to be a routine one and it is until the Empire catches them and now Luke and Leia are stranded on an island on a planet within a nebula.

This issue was surprisingly more poignant than expected. At one point, Leia and Luke talk about how they’re both orphans in the galaxy now because of the Empire but they’re not alone. It’s within those same few pages where Leia mentions how sometimes, when she looks up at the stars, Alderaan is still there. As a reader, that bit felt particularly painful. One can only imagine how Leia must feel weeks, months, years after her entire planet was destroyed only to occasionally look up and still see it in the sky above.

Jason Aaron’s writing for this entire issue really is spot on. It’s a nice insight into both of the twins and really follows up on the friendship between them. Most people wouldn’t be able to handle being stranded like that for so many weeks. Plus? The level up in badass skills for Leia certainly doesn’t hurt.

In the wake of the less than great Yoda arc and the far more enjoyable Screaming Citadel story, Star Wars #33 serves as both a good place for new readers to jump on and as a nice way for existing readers to readapt to the usual feel of the series.

Star Wars #33: Jason Aaron/Writer, Salvador Larroca/Artist, Edgar Delgado/Colorist, Clayton Cowles/Letterer, Jordan D. White/Editor, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor

Review: Rogue One #4

First things first: shout out to Phil Noto for yet another drop dead gorgeous cover. It’s a damn shame that Noto/Marvel doesn’t sell prints of these.

Much like the issues before it, Rogue One #4 does a great job of telling the film’s story without doing so verbatim. The key lines that everyone’s remembers are there but it’s not like you’re reading an illustrated version of the script. Also like the issues before it, this one has two lovely little added scenes that weren’t in the film. One features a conversation between K-2SO and Bodhi where he tells the droid that they’re the same because they were both Imperial but then Cassian and Galen reprogrammed them to help the Rebellion. The second is a brief one for Mon Mothma and Jyn. Mon Mothma, by the way, is a character who seems to routinely benefit from these adaptations. She’s becoming more and more of a fleshed out character beyond the woman we first saw before the Battle of Endor. On the downside, poor Chirrut and Baze do get the short end of the stick in this particular issue.

On the art front, Rachelle Rosenberg’s more muted coloring for the flashback panels on the first few pages is particularly effective and helps the memories really pop. There’s also a particularly lovely backlit shot of Jyn and Cassian towards the end of the issue that really stands out. The artist change ups over the book have felt a little strange at times but Rosenberg’s colors have been a nice consistency.

Rogue One #4 continues to be a great adaptation that will likely read even better in trade form.

Rogue One #4: Writer/Jody Houser, Artist/Emilio Laiso, Colorist/Rachelle Rosenberg, Letterer/Clayton Cowles, Editor/Heather Antos, Supervising Editor/Jordan D. White.

Book Wars Pod, Episode 7: Close Kiss-on-the-Mouth Brother Friend


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We continue our discussion of BLOODLINE by Claudia Gray: DADDY TALK, chosen versus inherited family, and the will of the Force.

This episode covers chapters 24 to the end and is NOT spoiler-free!

This episode is dedicated to the late, great Boba Pett. He was a beloved hamster, our official mascot, and forever a Star Wars fan.

Book Wars Pod explores the Star Wars universe through the franchise’s non-screen media: the canon novels, comics, and video games. Check out our guide to past episodes, and subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and wherever else you cast your pods. You can also subscribe to the Tosche Station Radio Mega Feed on iTunes or Google Play for more great shows from our podcast network.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr for episode updates! Hosted by Kristen Sereci, Chris Sedor, and Kate Sedor. Art by Joe Butera. Music by Podington Bear.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by your support on Patreon!

Knights of the Old Replay: Battle of Telos

YEP ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BAD HAPPENS AT ALL ON DANTOOINE.

First things first though. HK-47 is sadistic as heck and tortures one of the HK-50 droids to learn the location of the droid factory on Telos. He’ll be dealing with it sooner or later. (Apparently not sooner because the game makes you wait for it a little.)

It’s back to Dantooine and the Jedi Enclave which looks considerably nicer than it did the last time you visited and Masters Vrook, Kavar, and Zez-Kai Ell are all waiting for you. The more you talk to them, the more messed up everything gets especially as it intercuts with Kreia’s own commentary from a courtyard slightly further away. Turns out that the Jedi Council didn’t cut you off from the Force and that you did that yourself as a sort of survival/coping mechanism after everything that happened at Malachor because the screams of everyone dying were just too much to handle. While you always did form bonds with others and inspire them to follow you rather easily, the Masters are convinced that you’re actually just some sort of black hole in the Force now and feed off of other Force Sensitives and grow stronger the more people you kill and the more you convince to follow you. It’s really messed up. Continue reading

Holonet Blast #17

It was a much quieter week on the news front than last week but that’s uhhh good right? Right.

What’s really important right now is that we look at this beautiful SDCC Convention Exclusive version of Inferno Squad by Christie Golden. It’s the same book but with a pretty new cover, endpapers, and the squad logo stamped onto the cover. They’ll also all be signed by the author.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be making grabby hands in the convention’s general direction for the next few weeks. I have an Inferno Squad problem and I don’t care who knows it.

Oh and there were some other SDCC Star Wars exclusives announced including items from Her Universe, Bioworld, ANOVOS, and more. But this is the best one.

Speaking of SDCC, Star Wars won’t have a Hall H panel but they will be present at D23. Expect a behind-the-scenes sort of video instead of a full trailer. (Thanks TFA for giving us a great model to guess by!)

Starting today at 10am Pacific Time, you can watch the new Forces of Destiny series on YouTube. They’ll be releasing a new episode every day until they all air on DisneyXD on Sunday, July 10th. (One day will have double episodes.)

Star Wars also recently announced that Star Wars Rebels Season 3 will be available on Blu-Ray and DVD on August 29th. Our own Matthew Bowers has been doing the Dance of Joy ever since he read the features list and it included five episode commentaries.

And finally, we’d like to extend our congratulations to Rogue One and Star Wars Rebels for their wins at the Saturn Awards!