Resistance Review: Live Fire

It’s Griff who speaks the line that sums up the theme of this week’s episode. When Freya makes the comment that she, “didn’t know Imperial Pilots were so concerned about one other,” he answers plainly:

“We weren’t; that’s why we lost.”

“Live Fire” was all about teamwork; it was about team building, trusting your own better nature and that of your colleagues, and learning that we’re all stronger together than any one of us could be all on our own. Continue reading

Review: Spark of the Resistance

The Rise of Skywalker is coming which means our Journey has begun. (Get it? Get it?) Last week, Lucasfilm kicked off their publishing program with Spark of the Resistance by Justina Ireland, a middle grade novel from Disney Lucasfilm Press. Rey, Rose, and Poe are on their way back from a supply mission when they receive a distress call and decide to investigate. Soon, they find themselves pulled into a fight back against the First Order as our heroes race to stop them before they can find a weapon that could spell disaster for the Resistance.

Oh yeah. And also, there are green murder rabbits. Continue reading

Review: Vader Immortal, Episode II

More than anything else, Vader Immortal: Episode II is a lesson in the dangers of episodic content.

Being one of the relatively few Star Wars fans who can afford to play the Vader Immortal saga has been a bit of a roller coaster: if you look back to my review of Episode I when it first came out, my mind was blown. Two months later, when discussing the experience on Book Wars Pod (shameless plug), I had a lot of nagging issues with the story and the gameplay. With all that said, Wednesday’s surprise release of Episode II made me really excited to recapture the feelings of awe I had when going through the introductory chapter for the first time. Continue reading

The Choice is Yours If You’re Willing to Choose

Let’s go ahead and say this right off the bat: ‘Cool motive, still murder’ is the world’s biggest truth. I am not in any way, shape, or form excusing the truly horrible actions of some of my favorite characters. Bad things are still and always will be bad. However, how people find themselves on a darker path and what they choose to do about it is inherently fascinating and worth some further musings. This? Would be that musing.

For a long time now, I’ve thought a lot about the paths and lives of some of my favorite male characters in Star Wars. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about Del Meeko, Kylo Ren, and Armitage Hux who have all, at one point or another, found themselves on the bad guy side in a galaxy far, far away. One made a choice to be better, one fell to the dark side, and one never knew any other way in life. Their paths are uniquely their own, informed by their experiences, the worlds they were born into, and their choices. Continue reading

Go/No-Go: Black Spire

nasa-mission-control-3Welcome back to Go/No-Go, Tosche Station’s regular feature where we offer our spoiler-free opinion as to whether or not you should spend your hard-earned money on a book, film, or other entertainment. Today on the launch pad: Star Wars: Black Spire. In Delilah S. Dawson’s latest Star Wars book, we’re headed off to the spires of Batuu so those of us who don’t live near Disney can experience a little part of Galaxy’s Edge from afar but how did we like the book? To mission control for the verdict! Continue reading

Review: Star Wars: Myths & Fables

From the minute one picks up a copy, it is immediately obvious that Star Wars: Myths & Fables is not like other Star Wars books. Written by George Mann with illustrations by Grant Griffin, Myths & Fables collects nine brand new stories set in the galaxy far, far away, some of which feature familiar faces and others which star completely new characters. Throughout the book though runs an inherent sense of the galaxy and the sort of stories that bring all of us together. Myths and fables are, after all, universal. Continue reading

Review: A Crash of Fate

Although Star Wars has plenty of well-known romances, it could always use another love story. Thankfully, Lucasfilm is giving us exactly that this summer with one of its Galaxy’s Edge tie-ins A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Córdova. Out today, the novel tells the story of Izzy Garsea and Jules Rakab, two childhood friends who are brought back together thirteen years later for one wild day on Batuu that neither of them ever saw coming. To get out of the fine mess they’ve found themselves in, they’re going to have to trust each other and hope luck’s on their side… and just maybe also see if love’s around the corner too. Continue reading

Review: Thrawn: Treason

“It’s treason then…”

Well. Sort of.

Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn is the latest installment in what we’ve all been doing a disservice in calling the new Thrawn Trilogy instead of Thrawn series. (And to be clear, I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else.) At Celebration Chicago, Zahn said the Thrawn books were not originally conceived as a trilogy. We got more books about Thrawn because they were continuously so well received. The point I’m trying to make here is don’t go into Treason expecting any sort of grand closure. This is just another week in these characters’ lives. And that’s ultimately somewhat frustrating but also okay. Continue reading

Review: Alphabet Squadron

You are not ready for Alphabet Squadron. No really: you’re not.

More than likely, you have an image in your mind for what you think Alexander Freed’s latest Star Wars book may be like. Maybe you think it’s going to be like the X-Wing books from Legends or maybe you’ve read his other Star Wars books and know how weighty they can be. You think you’re ready for this book but you’re not… and that’s not even remotely a bad thing. Continue reading

Review: Dooku: Jedi Lost

Something Star Wars, something new! It’s always a good day when we get to experience a new story set in the Star Wars universe and Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott is something likely familiar to fans of a certain science fiction franchise across the pond but brand new to Star Wars. It’s an audio drama with a full cast in addition to all the excellent production value we’ve come to expect from Random House Audio. Jedi Lost takes us through much of the life of Dooku before we ever meet him, pulling back the curtain on one of the most charismatic and enigmatic characters in the galaxy far, far away.

Set at some point during the Clone Wars, Asajj Ventress has been given a mission by her master Count Dooku: find his sister Jenza. To help, he gives her some of the correspondence that had passed between the siblings dating all of the way back to Dooku’s time as an initiate at the Jedi Temple. Ventress being Ventress though, she pokes around and finds out more than the Sith Lord probably would have preferred and gains a deeper understanding of Dooku than perhaps anyone left living. Continue reading