Tag Archives: SWEU

Expanded Universe Convention Swag Roundup

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To those of you going to all of the major conventions this year, I am both jealous of you and insanely curious as to how you can afford it. If you are that lucky, you’ll be able to pick up some rather nifty swag from the lovely folks with Star Wars Books. First up, how about some Scoundrels bookmarks?

These bookmarks will be available at SDCC, NYCC, and Celebration VI, but there’s a catch. Only Han, Lando, and Chewie’s bookmarks will be at all three. If you’re at SDCC, you can pick up the Winter bookmark. NYCC goers can snag Bink Kitik, while Celebration VI attendees can get Kell Tainer and Zerba Cher’dak.

Attendees at all three conventions will also be able to pick up an 84-page book of excerpts containing bits from all of Del Rey’s 2012 Star Wars books. Also available, an X-Wing: Mercy Kill iron-on patch.

If your’e at any one of these conventions, keep your eyes out for Del Rey’s convention handouts!

X-Wing Retrospective Part 4: The Bacta War

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 So, now we’ve reached the end of the initial run of the X-Wing series.  The Bacta War is the capstone to Mike Stackpole’s work on start of the series and it represents, to me, some of the highest points of all four books.  The tone of these books is different than the books in the past have been and for very good reason.

After we were left with the end of The Krytos Trap, many of us were on edge, disbelieving what happened and completely ove awed by the possibilities.  Please be aware, once you cross this jump, you are deep into spoiler territory.

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Trope Tuesday: Hurricane of Puns

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Don’t even start, you two.

It’s Tuesday, which means that we’re not even halfway through the work week. Now isn’t that a depressing thought? To alleviate some of your despair, we bring you another edition of Trope Tuesday, a weekly sojourn into the literary devices and themes that make entertainment fun (and gives us an excuse to use alliteration in a recurring segment, also fun). This week, we’re examining the Hurricane of Puns.

A sudden, protracted volley of puns. Approach this technique with caution, as viewer nausea (or a lynch mob) may be a side-effect.

In a Sitcom, a Hurricane Of Puns often appears after one or two characters have done something embarrassing and decide to not talk about it. Naturally, every conversation they have is rife with unintentional puns and Freudian Slips that go unnoticed by others but drive them to sheer panic.

On the other hand, sometimes these storms approach from the opposite direction… One person cracks a pun, another feels the urge to one-up it, and so it goes until the ammunition is exhausted and the puns fall silent.

Rarely, someone will just rattle off a string of puns for the hell of it.

Puns are a dangerous form of comedy, and it takes a good hand to make them into something that won’t incite a mass groan of disapproval. Doing this repeatedly is even riskier, as it requires an amazing level of ability to play straight on most television aimed at mature viewers.

Normally, I hate puns. That’s a product of having grown up with friends that loved them. I hate puns because even the most innocent of conversations would give my friends a cue to drop them. You’re having a conversation about, say, The Avengers and they’ll suddenly say “Well I hope this movie is Loki.” And then they stare at you, grinning like an idiot, expecting you to be amused by their latest “clever” turn of phrase when all you really want to do is bludgeon them to within an inch of their life for dropping the eighteenth pun in the last ten minutes worth of conversation.

But I digress

I hate puns because they’re often used excessively by people and are extraordinarily forced in conversation. Now, when it’s used well, a pun can be great. Let’s look at an exchange from one of my favorite Expanded Universe novels, Starfighters of Adumar. In this scene, the band of heroes are talking to a documentary filmmaker with a camera made out of a droid’s head:

Janson grinned at her. “Some days make you just want to beat your heads against a wall, don’t they?”

Hobbie said, “Maybe not. The young lady might not have her heads on straight, after all.”

Tycho said, “Still, I think she ought to get her heads examined.”

Wedge looked at them, appalled.

Oh Wedge. I feel your pain.

 

Choices of One Now Available in Paperback

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If you’ve been holding out on Timothy Zahn’s Choices of One because you have an obsessive need for bookshelf symmetry or you’re engaging in a fruitless blanket protest against hardcover sales, good news! The sequel to Allegiance is now available in paperback format. With a shiny new cover.

If you haven’t read it yet, go pick up a copy. Or, you know, try to win one from us.

Thirteenth Batch of ‘EG to Warfare’ Endnotes: Isard and Wedge Antilles

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Jason Fry is back with another batch of Essential Guide to Warfare endnotes, and this week he’s looking at two characters that play in heavily to our summer X-Wing series retrospective. First off, let’s take a look a Ysanne Isard.

War Portrait: Ysanne Isard: Paul Urquhart writes: “The idea that there was a Lusankya facility before there was an Super Star Destroyer hidden there is new; the phrase ‘dagger and fist’ is designed to suggest a less subtle and more violent form of deadliness than the traditional ‘cloak and dagger,’ one in which an opponent is disoriented and defeated through a simultaneous attack by two separate, overt, and dangerous threats — Isard is the dagger, her brute squad are the fist. ‘Brute squad’ itself is a Princess Bride homage. Armand’s fall from power is covered in the novella ‘Interlude at Darkknell’ (collected in Tales From the New Republic), but its position in continuity is complicated because it’s one of several contradictory stories built around the Rebels learning about the Death Star, so the context is simply alluded to obliquely in the reference to the ‘new-generation Imperial projects.’ I also took a moment to clarify Isard’s relationship with the Ubiqtorate (though Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor also suggests that at least one of them was also overseeing her); her role in organizing the reconquest of Coruscant in 10 ABY hopefully fits well with her activities.

“The idea of Isard being imprisoned on Lusankya at the end is a homage to a very old fan theory, though one that resurfaces with some regularity. It’s not intended to be canonical reality, but it was hard to resist the image.”

Isard’s one of my favorite Expanded Universe villains, simply for her sheer crazy. On the other end of the good/evil spectrum, Fry looks into one of the EU’s most notable Ascended Extras, Wedge Antilles.

War Portrait: Wedge Antilles: Wedge is such a familiar Expanded Universe figure that I didn’t want to spend pages rehashing him, and none of my attempts to capture his character through another character’s words seemed to work. In the end, I went for something short and I think a little sad, an account that hopefully adds depth to a well-known character. By the way, I like Wedge’s pale-blue R5 unit in Jason Palmer’s painting. If memory serves I chose the color. Does that mean Hasbro will send me one gratis? Or at least make the parts for him available at Tatooine Traders?

For more about the fragmented Empire, Warlord Zsinj, and other bits of EU goodness, head over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr to see the latest batch of notes.

EUC Interviews Scott Biel, Proves We’re Not Crazy

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MUCH better.

It’s always nice to get a bit of vindication. As you might know, we’re running a contest that tasks you with replacing that gorram-awful leather catsuit artists are CONSTANTLY portraying Mara Jade in (seriously go check it out, we’ve already gotten some awesome submissions). Just yesterday, EUCantina posted an interview they conducted with Random House art director Scott Biel. One of the questions posed was quite relevant to what we’ve been up lately.

EUC: Mara Jade Skywalker is generally depicted wearing a catsuit. Why do you think that particular outfit is popular? If you could design a cover with a different outfit, what would Mara Jade wear instead?

SB: I’m not sure if it’s necessarily popular, but I feel it’s depicted like that because it’s become her de facto costume (similar to superhero costumes). On the paperback cover for Choices of One, Daryl Mandryk took the initiative and redesigned it in his illustration. By adding some armor and making the suit more functional it becomes a more practical interpretation.

(emphasis added)

See? SEE!? That catsuit is utterly impractical! Combat armor? That makes way more sense, and props to Scott and Daryl Mandryk for going ahead and portraying Mara that way.

To read the rest of the interview, head on over to EUC.

New ‘Mercy Kill’ Mini Excerpt

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Star Wars Books released another mini-excerpt from Aaron Allston’s upcoming X-Wing: Mercy Kill just a few moments ago. This one features old fan favorites Face and Piggy.

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 Retrospective Part 3: The Krytos Trap

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Quite honestly, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed The Krytos Trap.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve always known this book is quality. I just had it in my head for a long time that of this four-book arc, Wedge’s Gamble was my favorite of the bunch. That changed about two years ago when I went back and re-read through a bunch of my favorite Expanded Universe novels from the Bantam Spectra era. It had been a little while since I’d read through the X-Wing books* and my memory was a little fuzzy. Suffice to say, the third entry in the X-Wing series was significantly better than the already positive memory I had in my head.

*College. Instead I got to read fine literature like “Cybersecurity Ethics.”

(Head to the jump to continue reading)

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Replace the Catsuit: Art Entry from Blizz

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Reader Blizz sent in a piece of artwork (and functional diagram!) for our Replace Mara’s Catsuit Contest. I have to say, I’m really digging this entry.

I’ll let Blizz describe it for you:

You want practicality? I offer an outfit that I tried to keep compatible with novel descriptions, Star Wars paraphernalia, and basic Stormtrooper and Jedi equipment.

I kept some elements of her “canon” appearance. The belt and knee pads, for instance. I did away with the shoulder harness. Why, oh why, is Mara always portrayed with a shoulder harness with no holsters? What is the point? What does it do?

Anyway, I think this fits a balance of traveling light but being prepared. Thank you for your consideration.

Ink on paper.
Digitally colored using GIMP

Thanks for sending this in!

For more information about the contest and to view the other entries, head to the contest page.

Karen Miller Discusses Being a Female Star Wars Writer

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As a fandom, we’ve had plenty of reminders that there’s often a stark gender divide in Star Wars. Emily and I have sounded off on the topic in the past. It can be tough for female fans, but it’s just as tough (if not worse) for writers. Expanded Universe author Karen Miller sat down with Tor’s Liz Bourke to talk about that and other topics today.

The Star Wars fan audience, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly male. At least as far as I can tell. The vast majority of writers who do the tie-in novels are also male. There is a definite predominance of male voices and male POVs in Star Wars novels. And that makes a huge difference in the reception of the material.

Everything I write is grounded in character. Everything. It’s the people that make a story for me. So my Star Wars work is as much a character study or exploration as it is an action adventure romp. For some readers, that was brilliant. For others, it wasn’t. For a lot of Star Wars fans—the guys in particular—the story is about fighting and space battles and stuff like that. For them, that’s the whole point. For them, the intricacies of psychological investigation are boring and unwelcome. And I completely accept that. But it’s not what floats my starship—and I felt strongly that I can’t be the only one who is in love with the story because of the characters, not despite them. Or who wants to take a breath and spend some time with them as human beings, who wants to explore what makes them tick, the relationships between them, the strengths and fragilities they contain and share.

She is onto something there. It’s a big reason that things like Fate of the Jedi sell well while more intimate books in the same universe struggle to keep pace, despite the fact the former books aren’t as critically well received as the latter. Another key quote from this interview:

Looking at this, thinking about it, there’s a temptation to castigate the fandom as being unwelcoming to female writers and, by extension, female fans. And to an extent, I think that is the case, which breaks my heart. Some of the vitriol and virtual violence flung at Karen Traviss, for example, is horrific. Absolutely, there is a segment of the male fanbase that resents any incursion by a woman. But since that’s true on a wider societal scale, really, all that proves is that fandom is a microcosm of society.

Let’s just get the Traviss thing out of the way first. The only issue I take with this entire interview is that Miller misses the mark on why there was fan backlash towards Traviss. It was largely to do with Traviss’ professionalism towards fans and her employer, but in fairness to Miller, I have no doubts that there were a minority of fans that did take issue with her gender.

But the macro point Miller is making is spot-on. As a fandom, Star Wars hasn’t felt very welcoming towards female fans and authors. The mere suggestion that the EU creative staff needs to do a better job crafting and utilizing its female characters incited an over-the-top defensive firestorm from fans and necessitated a bunch of followup retorts to illustrate that, yes, there is a problem with how female fans, writers, and characters are treated (see the links above).*

*Required reading: John Scalzi’s post entitled “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting“

What’s the takeaway here? I don’t know. When in doubt I usually go with the philosophers Bill and Ted. Just be excellent to each other, okay?  If what Miller said gets a knee-jerk, negative reaction from you, take a minute to analyze why that is. Nothing she’s said here is particularly inflammatory. They’re issues that we, as a fandom, need to discuss and take seriously.