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What book are you reading at the moment?
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Jordan
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Mar 23, 2013 07:13AM
I also bought the Essential Reader's companion first day, and I use it to remind myself what happened in earlier books which I haven't read for nearly ten years. Actually just finished reading through the New Jedi Order summaries to help with context for Dark Nest. And the behind the scenes info about alternate story ideas, etc. was fascinating!
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@Jeff The Reader's Companion is comprehensive, but it can't ever replace the books because . I think its better for people who may be interested in a particular series but don't wish to read the previous books to get the background context. With the guide, one can get the essential information of all that happened before the series and spend more time enjoying the series itself. Plus, most books can't be fully addressed in a couple of pages.
I read Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi without reading The New Jedi Order. I didn't have the companion, however I looked up a summary for each NJO book online.
I read the Sw books in a rather haphazard way , basically I read whatever books I could get my hands on , but this did not diminish my enjoyment in any way.
Mod
Jeff wrote: "Same here. I think it's kind of interesting to see how the web comes together."Indeed. I have pretty much finished all the books in this series i felt I enjoyed it a lot more this way rather than reading them one after the other.
Though there were some series such as the Thrawn series that i wished I had read earlier.
Still each to his own.
Allegiance & Choices of One are next up for me because, Zahn. Then I'll probably go back to Legacy Era for Riptide & Mercy Kill.
Allegiance is a good one; very interesting introduction to a somewhat ironic group, in that they are stormtroopers fighting for justice. Still, it makes for an intriguing read.
Mod
Yeah, I enjoyed that aspect of the Hand of Judgement duology. Many of the good guys are Imperial characters, but you get to see Imperials working to protect lives and preserve order. Its not just the stormtroopers: Mara Jade is hunting down corruption, even if she is doing it in palpatine's name. Even Thrawn in Choices is trying to defend innocent lives. Kudos to Zahn for adding dimension to the "evil Galactic Empire."
Jeff wrote: "Stormtroopers always fight for justice and order. All of you are just brainwashed by these rebel scum terrorists. Many of the truths we hold most dear depend greatly on our own point of view..."But since the stormtroopers are just humans; they too can be corrupted whereas the clones were more likely to follow orders to their death. How many stormtroopers were keen to hesitate in the first charge of a hopeless battle? I wonder how much we could learn if we could actually interrogate the mind of a stormtrooper. Would we find brainwashing of loyalty to the Emperor or would we discover random thoughts like "I like pizza"?
Jeff wrote: "Stormtroopers always fight for justice and order. All of you are just brainwashed by these rebel scum terrorists. Many of the truths we hold most dear depend greatly on our own point of view..."Well Stormtroopers have committed more atrocities than any of the so called rebel terrorists. Remember Alderaan!
The stormtroopers didn't destroy alderaan, Tarkin did. If you read the Death Star novel, even several of the other Imperials involved had second thoughts after they realized the death star would actually be used.Besides, most stormtroopers are just soldiers doing their job and following orders. Up until Alderraan, most of them probably thought they were fighting on the right side supporting liberty and justice.
James wrote: "The stormtroopers didn't destroy alderaan, Tarkin did. If you read the Death Star novel, even several of the other Imperials involved had second thoughts after they realized the death star would a..."I did read that novel and yes there were a few people that had misgivings but aside from the protagonists not a single one of them did anything about it. I was just following orders is not an excuse.
Besides there are several other instances of stromtroopers and Imperials in general committing horrific acts during the rebellion.
Mod
Its a big galaxy you cant cover up everything this is true for the Empire and for the Rebellion. The Empire failed to hunt down all the Jedi and suppress their teachings for example. So if the rebels had committed the same level of crimes as the Imperials, said crimes being well documented and indeed even being bragged about by many Imperial officers, it would have come out by now.
Mod
Greetings all, new to the group. I just finished Darth Plagueis. Disliked it. It was slow and plodding for far too much and the author seems to really like to use words that I actually had to look up several times.I flew through Rogue Planet (taking intermittent breaks from Darth Plagueis). It was an interesting read, not bad...
Now I'm reading Outbound Flight. Simply loving it! Master C'baoth is as refreshing a character as my favourite; Qui-Gon Jinn!
Outbound Flight is one of my favourite Star Wars books.
Mod
I enjoyed learning more and rounding out Palpatine's story. It was just the way James Luceno wrote it. It seemed very long winded and like he just enjoyed using obscure words and sentence structures. I majored in English and English Lit. In University. The reader shouldn't have to read sentences over and over trying to understand it, nor keep a dictionary/thesaurus nearby in modern literature.However, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. :-/
Mod
That is quite possible. I realized I felt the same way about Cloak of Deception, which he also wrote. Although, to a lesser degree. Probably because Qui-Gon Jinn was in it and being my favourite, made me a bit biased. LOL
I just finished reading Revan. I didn't really care for it. I'm not a big fan of the Old Republic era so that didn't help. From what I understand from the Essential Readers guide, this book is basically a sequel to the Knights of the Old Republic game. Having not played the game, it was obvious from the start of the book that all the action/backstory had occurred somewhere else. It was a little annoying with the first half of the book constantly referring back to the "official" events of the game. I actually felt like Scourge was a more central character than Revan was despite the title of the book.There were some other things I didn't care about the book. First, this book is set to take place over 3000 years before Star Wars: A New Hope yet things don't seem to have changed much. Coruscant is still described as it is in the movie era novels. Apparently, even 3000 years earlier, Coruscant was still the republic capital and a planet wide city. You'd think things might have changed over the course of a few millenia. Also, the sith are still being led by an Emperor and called Imperials with imperial guards wearing red uniforms just like in the movies. I just felt that taking place 3000 years earlier, so much would not be the same as it was in the movies.
Mod
As for Coruscant being the galactic center of power, I think it goes back quite a bit further than those. When you look at the names of the sections of the galactic map--the Core, Colonies or the Expansion Regions--give us some explanation that its been the Center while the Republic was still expanding. Which would be long before these books would have come out.
As for the Sith Empire in TOR resembling the Galactic Empire in OT, I think we have to look at it from within the universe. When we do that, it'd be the other way around. Palpatine would want to connect with the glory days of the Sith Empire, along with all the bells, whistles and Red Guards.
Just my two cents.
I enjoyed Revan. I haven't played KOTOR, so I used wookieepedia and my set of Star Wars Encyclopaedias to fill in details.
Not having played KOTOR, I'm hesitant to get into the Old Republic novels. Which sucks, cause I hear good things about them. Just finished reading the KOTOR comics though, so maybe I'll give it a try.After reading Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, of course...
I've played KOTOR 1 and 2. Should I read the Old Republic books? Or do I have to play The Old Republic?
Mod
Plus, if you ever get confused by a certain reference, then there is always Wookieepedia to help us through (although Wookieepedia may not be the most reliable source)
I just finished Outbound Flight and The Force Unleashed, I plan to move on to Spectre of the Past and The Force Unleashed II. I read the Thrawn Trilogy last year and immediately wanted to move to the Hand of Thrawn books, but almost immediately there were allusions to past events I didn't know about, so I ended up going back and reading a few books to fill in the blanks, as well as a few others that were unrelated. Now after Outbound Flight I'm ready for more Thrawn. Oh yeah I'm reading Mist Encounter because it was after the end of Outbound Flight in the kindle edition.
Just got through with Scoundrels. Up next will be X-Wing: Mercy Kill or The Last Jedi.
Jody wrote: "Just got through with Scoundrels. Up next will be X-Wing: Mercy Kill or The Last Jedi."What did you think of Scoundrels? Zahn seems to be losing his touch, according to the response for Choices of One.
Robert wrote: "Jody wrote: "Just got through with Scoundrels. Up next will be X-Wing: Mercy Kill or The Last Jedi."What did you think of Scoundrels? Zahn seems to be losing his touch, according to the response..."
It was definitely a different type of Zahn Star Wars book - and actually a different type of Star Wars book. I think where it differed from Zahn's other Star Wars book is in scale. Zahn's other books took place on such a large scale - the guy created the basic foundation for the entire EU. Scoundrels is much smaller in scope. Its basically a heist story along the lines of Ocean's Eleven. I missed a lot of Zahn's creations - Thrawn, Palleon, Mara, etc. Like I said, it is much different from anything in the SW Universe. So different that at times it wouldn't feel connected to the rest of the SW universe if it were for some familiar characters. If you changed the names of those characters, you would never know it was in the SW universe and it wouldn't change the basic plot that much.
That being said, I enjoyed seeing the already familiar characters (Han, Chewie, Lando, etc) again. He does a pretty good job with voicing Han (although not as good as AC Crispin in the Han Solo Trilogy) and a superb job with Lando. The new characters were interesting enough, and there is nice little twist at the end. Overall I enjoyed the book.
I'm looking forward to reading Scoundrels. It's 1 of the 3 books I bought last week. The other 2 being X-Wing: Mercy Kill and Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories.I just finished Outbound Flight, which I enjoyed immensely. I would love to find out what happened to the characters after the end.
I've just started Lost Tribe of the Sith. I'll let everyone know my thoughts in my review. :-)
I am trying to read Scoundrels but it is just not doing it for me. I love Zahn's other SW books I just can't seem to get in to this one. I guess I just need a weekend with nothing else going on to just sit down and finish it.I also made it through the Fate of the Jedi books and I'm looking forward to the Crucible.
I have also seen the Lost Tribe of the Sith popping up around here quite a bit so maybe I will take a look at that next.
Mod
Riptide is one of my favourite books of all time.
Derrick wrote: "Started Annihilation last night. Enjoying it much more than I thought I would, based on the other Old Republic books I've read..."I can't wait to start Annihilation. I enjoyed Revan, but Annihilation seems much more interesting.
Mod
I just finished listening to the abridged audio book for Rogue Squadron, which is one of my favourite Star Wars books of all time, and while I enjoyed the sound effects and music I thought it was criminal they cut it down to 2.5 hours. Missed out on so much of the great character stuff I loved so much in the book.
Mod
Mod
I don't understand how abridged audio books work... but that's just me. xD
I mean I get the concept, but I don't like it.
Yeah, I couldn't resist revisiting some of my favourite books, which I haven't read in probably fifteen years. In theory, being able to enjoy the book in a couple hours, rather than 10 or 12 hours, seems nice, but if I hadn't already read and enjoyed the full novel I certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the audiobook as much.
I agree as well. I tried out a few audio books but its just not for me.
Mod
I used the abridged audio book format to finish Planet of Twilight, which I couldn't force myself to continue reading. I think Audible has unabridged Star Wars books my friend burned one to like 13 CDs, which hold 70 minutes of audio each, IIRC.
The Expanded Universe
Books mentioned in this topic
Tarkin (other topics)The Last Jedi (other topics)
Dark Tide I: Onslaught (other topics)
Fatal Alliance (other topics)
Star Wars: Rogue Planet (other topics)
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