Tag Archives: Star Wars

Review: Most Wanted

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If you’re like me, you walked out of Solo: A Star Wars Story wanting to know everything you possibly could about Qi’ra and read dozens of stories about her. Thankfully, Most Wanted by Rae Carson came out the same day as the film and I was eager to dive into it especially since I’m a far of Carson’s Fire and Thorns trilogy. Even better? Most Wanted definitely did not disappoint.

Most Wanted introduces us to both Han and Qi’ra not more than a year before Solo begins with Lady Proxima pitting the two of them against each other to determine who will be the next Head Child of the White Worms. Given that the promotion comes with extra rations (including real food!) and other “privileges,” both of them really want it. Badly. When a deal goes very wrong, Han and Qi’ra realize that the only chance they have of salvaging either of their hopes of becoming Head is to work together and find themselves on a crazy adventure that neither of them could have ever forseen. Continue reading →

Review: The Mighty Chewbacca and the Forest of Fear

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What’s a wookiee to do when the daughter of the Emperor’s advisor has taken his partner hostage and will only free him if said wookiee goes on a dangerous assignment for her? Complete the mission, of course! The Mighty Chewbacca and the Forest of Fear by Tom Angleberger is a middle grade book that teams up everyone’s favorite wookiee with a young woman who’s trying to help her people and the galaxy’s snarkiest KX security droid.

Angleberger has a delightfully wry yet fun style of writing, providing direct commentary on the story as the narrator. Writing Chewbacca can be a challenge since his words are traditionally not translated directly but given vague meaning. Angleberger finds a way to make it fun and feel logical. The narration is really what makes the book veer more towards special and away from “this is fine” and I actually found myself laughing out loud once or twice.

Star Wars, as of late, has seemed to have fun pairing Chewie up on his solo missions with a spunky and relatively young girl to be a foil. That girl also usually has her own agenda that just happens to somewhat line up with Chewie’s own mission but they end up doing good and becoming friends at the end. It could have very easily been tedious this time around but Angleberger found a way to keep it interesting. When in doubt, toss in the K-2SO wrench apparently. (I love that droid so much, I really do.)

The Mighty Chewbacca and the Forest of Fear is a book that kids in the middle grade age range will likely find delightful but may be less appreciated by the older ones/teenagers. It’s a fun little adventure with Chewie that could be an amusing divertissement for adults or a great journey for kids.

Thank you to Disney Lucasfilm Press for providing a copy of the book for review purposes.

A Solo Report from a Q&A with Joonas Suotamo

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When given the opportunity to attend an early screening of a Star Wars film, you say yes and then ask for the details later. Luckily enough, the early screening of Solo I attended on Monday night had a bonus for us: a Q&A after the film with Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo. If you’re ever given a chance to attend a panel with him, I highly recommend it. Suotamo is passionate about his role in a very earnest way that leaves you completely charmed. It’s hard not to become a fan of him. I mean… how can you not love someone who delivers all of his lines on set in Wookiee English even though it’ll be dubbed over?

This brief summary of the Q&A will involve spoilers for Solo. Continue reading →

Review: What Is A Wookiee?

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We have an emerging reader in my house, which means our Star Wars bookshelf has gotten a recent injection of titles designed for the preschool set. From time to time, I’ll be popping in with words about how my little guy is enjoying the parts of Star Wars designed for enjoyment by the franchise’s youngest fans. I’m happy to report that the age-appropriate offerings are plentiful and entertaining. A current favorite is the DK Readers Level 1 book What is a Wookiee.

We were a little surprised that the book isn’t a tell-all about Wookiee culture as we’d thought. It is, instead, a primer on many of the creatures we meet in a galaxy far, far away, with spotlights on individual characters the kids may encounter in the Star Wars films. The book is from the point of view of C-3PO, who takes readers through this catalog of creatures and droids with just enough of his own editorializing baked in for the adults in the room to recognize him. The pages on what characteristics differentiate aliens from droids, and how to tell the difference turned out to be a conversation starter in our house.  Continue reading →

Review: Choose Your Destiny: A Han & Chewie Adventure

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I had absolutely no idea what I’m doing when it comes to a choose your own adventure book but you know what? That’s actually pretty in-character for Han Solo so I’m going to say it works. Star Wars: Choose Your Destiny: A Han & Chewie Adventure by Cavan Scott with illustrations by Elsa Charretier is precisely what it says on the label and hey to top it off, it’s actually rather fun.

As I said before, I’m not exactly a connoisseur when it comes to choose your own adventure books so this was a brand new venture for me. Turns out that I’m not actually all that great at picking the right option: I led Han and Chewie straight into their journey’s premature end at least five times if not more. That’s actually part of what makes this fun because the right choice isn’t always immediately evident. Sometimes, this is because Han has two equally hair-brained ideas such as telling someone that he’s Jabba the Hutt when he’s in a less than ideal situation. (Honestly, it’s actually somewhat impressive how many people in the galaxy don’t know what a hutt looks like…) I only went through the book once but there are apparently twenty different outcomes (although I suspect that I found about a quarter of those given how many times I unsuccessfully guided our favorite smugglers.) This could easily keep someone entertained for a few hours if they wanted to try and find all the different endings.

The bottom line? If you like these sorts of books, you’ll enjoy Choose Your Destiny: A Han & Chewie Adventure. If you’ve never tried a choose your own adventure book, this could well worth giving a try. It’ll keep you (or kids in particular) entertained for a little while and let you have fun flying the Falcon alongside Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Thank you to Disney-Lucasfilm Press for providing a copy of the book for review purposes.

TSR #189: Oh Snap

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This week on TSR: Dungeons and/or Dragons, a buzzfeed quiz, Star Wars Day came and went, and oh snap! Infinity War.

TSR is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net. If you like what you hear, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes and Google Play. For more great shows from us, you can also subscribe to the Tosche Station Network mega feed on iTunes and Google Play. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci is the founder of Tosche-Station.net. You can find her on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants.

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Review: Last Shot

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What do you get when you take Daniel José Older, toss him into the Star Wars universe, and let him play with two of the most famous scoundrels in the galaxy? A goddamn delight. You get a goddamn delight. Okay, fine: it’s actually called Last Shot but that doesn’t mean it’s not also a delight. Set two years after the Battle of Jakku, Last Shot follows Han and Lando on a mission with an eclectic team as choices they made over a decade before rear their ugly heads to bite them in the rear. What could possibly go wrong?

While the idea of a novel told over three different time periods may leave some readers a little wary, Older quickly sets us as ease. Right from the start, Last Shot is engaging and difficult to put down. Han and Lando’s in-the-past story lines weave in and out of the current day tale, all building together until you can’t imagine reading about the main adventure without knowing about the journeys that Han and Sana and Lando and L3 went on before. Continue reading →

Review: Doctor Aphra #18

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Hey Aphra? I hope you understand how lucky you are to be alive right now because holy crap, you should’ve died at least six times in this issue alone. Okay, maybe not six but a lot. At least twice.

One of the coolest things about this particular arc (and with so much going on, there’ve been a lot) is the combination of Aphra and Hera; two women who could not be more different. Even if they were on the same side of things, I highly doubt you would ever see them getting a drink together but wow are they fun to throw together. I particular enjoyed Aphra having a scientific interest in the abominations created by the Tarkin Initiative while Hera is horrified on moral grounds. My second favorite was Hera’s remark that “It’s lonely being you, isn’t it?” because WOW did she figure Aphra out fast.

This issue is making me think a lot about Aphra and what kind of person she is. The easy answer is that she’s not a good one but it’s always more complicated than that. Simultaneously, Aphra does what’s in her best interest and almost gets herself killed a lot. She’ll do the terrible thing but try and find a way around it. And she’ll flirt with an Imperial officer even though she knows it can’t end well. Aphra, you are a delightful and complicated mess and I love you more with every issue.

As Aphra’s allies dwindle, in part because of her own actions, her chances of surviving this arc are decreasingly rapidly… as are the chances for her allies. Seriously, I need that next issue now. Please?

Doctor Aphra #18: Kieron Gillen and Si Spurrier/Writers, Emilio Laiso/Artist, Rachelle Rosenberg/Colors, Joe Caramagna/Letterer, Heather Antos/Assistant Editor, Jordan D. White/Editor