I love all the X-Wing books. I especially love the Wraith Squadron trilogy by Aaron Allston. While Corran Horn remains one of my favorite Expanded Universe characters, I have a deep and abiding love for Garik “Face” Loran. (This will not come as a shock to people who regularly listen to the podcast.) However, there is so much more to this series than this one exceptional character. Allston took the wonderful setup given to him by Michael Stackpole and ran with it, but wasn’t afraid to put his signature touches on the trilogy. To that end, fans of the Expanded Universe received a plot worthy of Star Wars and engaging characters who jump off the page and keep bringing you back for more.
Tag Archives: Aaron Allston
Newest ‘Mercy Kill’ Mini-Excerpt Features Myri Antilles
“Myri, I thought you were making your living gambling. Nice and safe on the Errant Venture. Making a fortune, from what I heard.”
She nodded, her attention on her rifle.
“So? Why this?”
She smiled. “You must be so proud.”
“What? Of whom?”
“That’s what they tell me. Mostly about Daddy. ‘Wedge Antilles’s daughter? You must be so proud.’ And I am. Some people know about Mom’s career. ‘You must be so proud.’ And I am. Some people know about my sister’s record in the last war. ‘You must be so proud.’ Yes, yes, I am. But maybe it’s time for someone to be proud of what I do. Maybe even me.”
I suspect I’m going to like Myri a great deal. Mercy Kill is due out on August 7th. You should go buy it. Or preorder it.
Third ‘Mercy Kill’ Mini-Excerpt Features The Loran Family
Face’s approach was so silent that neither noticed until he was almost at the table. Both turned to look at him and, seeing the expression on his face, fell silent.
He turned to Dia. “I promise I will never make you so mad that you borrow an X-wing, take it up, and use it to burn me to a cinder.”
“Smart of you.” She gestured at the third chair. “Whose turn is it to cook?”
“Yours.”
“We’ll order something.”
He sat and turned to his daughter. “And you, young lady . . . Beware of older military officers who chase you when you’re a teenager. They’ll just dump you when you turn thirty.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Dad, I hate it when you bring work home.”
Mercy Kill will hit bookshelves on August 7th.
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.
X-Wing eBook Bundle Pricing and Date Announced
Earlier today, Roqoo Depot noticed that the X-Wing series eBook bundle finally got a date and price. You’ll be able to buy the original nine-book series on July 30th for $56.99, or about $6.33 per book. That’s a little more than a $1.50 discount each.
I’ll definitely be placing a pre-order for this, but I’d also echo what Dunc said over at Club Jade. An X-Wing trade paperback reissue would be pretty shiny and I do hope we see that one day. That said, if you’re considering getting into the X-Wing books for the first time or you’re looking to re-read them, the eBook bundle looks to be a pretty solid deal.
Second ‘Mercy Kill’ Excerpt Features More Myri Antilles
Then she noticed that Trey had stopped talking. Instead, he was leaning forward, his forehead pressed against a heavy-duty, locking transparisteel cabinet.
Myri moved until she could see his face. “Four? You suddenly look like you want to cry.”
“I do.” He stepped back from the cabinet and shone his glow rod on its contents.The cabinet had two shelves, themselves transparisteel. On the top shelf were two silvery bowl-like stands, and in each rested a globe larger than a balled human fist—a globe with dials and a depressible button.
Myri stared at them for a moment, then clamped her hand over her mouth to suppress a gasp. “Thermal detonators.”
“Two of them.” Trey’s voice was almost rapturous. “I have to steal these.”
Expect more excerpts throughout the week.
Star Wars Books Begins ‘Mercy Kill’ Mini-Excerpts
He crawled southward, keeping well below the trench lip above.
Myri followed, occasionally peeking up above the rim to see her surroundings. “My father was on the Death Star Trench Run. You know, the famous one. Me, I get the General’s Basement Trench Crawl.”
X-Wing: Mercy Kill is due out August 7th and is the first novel in the series to be published in thirteen years.
Win A Copy of ‘Time Traveled Tales’
Good news: Authors like Janine Spendlove, Mike Stackpole, Aaron Allston, Tim Zahn, and Bryan Young teamed up to put together a nifty anthology of short stories centered around time travel!
Bad news: The anthology was limited to a 500 quantity run and was exclusive to the Origins Game Convention, so you can’t buy it.
Good news (for one lucky person): I went and bought an extra copy to give away!
How can you claim it? Simple! Follow our Twitter account and retweet this message. We’ll select a winner at random.
Win a copy of Time Traveled Tales featuring @MikeStackpole @aaronallston @swankmotron & @JanineSpendlove! Just follow us & RT this tweet
— Tosche Station(@Tosche_Station) June 14, 2012
Tosche Station Radio #19: Snark-to-Snark Combat With Aaron Allston
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.
The X-Wing Retrospective: A Tosche Station Summer Series
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.