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Wait, what was I doing again?
....
....
Oh, right. Reading.
Hmm...
I've read a lot of the Star Wars novels. Major exceptions- most of the New Jedi Order, most of the books for children(ugh), the "Young Jedi Knights" stuff.
I don't read the children's books or the YJK because both are made for younger audiences. Nothing wrong with that, but everything is, well, oversimplified. Bad guys are Completely Evil. Good guys have Completely Good Intent, yet do utterly, impossibly stupid things.
Like Tenel Ka. She's the daughter of... of the Hapan Consortium prince and a witch from Dathomir. Nothing wrong with that... but when she builds her lightsaber- and that happens unsettlingly early, very casually- she's careless about it. She literally thinks that since she can kill people without a lightsaber, it isn't important, it's the warrior which matters.
Which is true, sure. But that doesn't warrant carelessness. It shouldn't, anyway.
Anyway, it shorts out, Jacen lops her arm off, she refuses to get a prosthetic. I read her reasoning, over and over again, and it still upsets me. How exactly is having one arm an advantage? Sure, Tenel is reminded of her hubris. Sure, she can learn from the experience. But how is it an advantage to have one arm as opposed to two?
It may make sense to someone else. But not me. I think I chipped an incisor, grinding.
The reason for not reading the NJO is because I was tenative about getting into that series. Frankly... well... the Vong are overpowered. And it seems that each and every post-Endor novel's enemies are either Imperials or All New Menaces That Nobody Knew About.
And since each and evey one of them is touted as being bigger and stronger than the ones before, it gets a bit tacky. Not to mention the little fact that, in a way, this takes the drama out of the OT. Takes away that, that desperate fire. Because once you've conquered your own darkness... well, it's as if it was trivialized.
Plus, by that point, the main characters are, well... kind of old. Yes, I know that in the Star Wars universe humans have been clocked as living up to 300 years(Courtship of Princess Leia). But still. They killed off Mon Mothma and Addy Ackbar... bleh.
But at the moment, I am not attempting to read that saga. Right now, page 269 of "X-Wing: Solo Command".
More rambling- both this and its immediate prequel, "X-Wing: Iron Fist", are on loan from the library. Usually that's fine. But always, just before I can pick up anything from the X-Wing line, SOMEBODY checks it out, it or another critical component in the series that I have to read first, before me and takes _months_ to finish. I hate that. I read fast, and have difficulty with people who don't.
Anyway. There are nine books in the X-Wing Series. The first four are by Michael Stackpole, then three by Aaron Allston, then one Stackpole, then one Allston.
Stackpole is good with the techhie details, and I like Lieutenant Horn. But at times I have difficulty reading his books, they are just a bit heavy. Allston's are easier to read, and he's funny. Little things.
"Pretty. What do we blow up first?"
That kind of thing. Out of context, it's not much. But this guy's good.
Anyways, I like these books. Wraith Squadron is almost unbelievably quirky- a band of misfit commando-pilots, really. If I go into detail, there will be no stopping me.
One of the lines in there somewhere involves the concept that "stormies!" is a cry made by bar patrons who have detected stormtroopers. For some reason this amuses me... I'm just going to go out and shout "STORMIES!" at some point. See what people do...
....
....
Oh, right. Reading.
Hmm...
I've read a lot of the Star Wars novels. Major exceptions- most of the New Jedi Order, most of the books for children(ugh), the "Young Jedi Knights" stuff.
I don't read the children's books or the YJK because both are made for younger audiences. Nothing wrong with that, but everything is, well, oversimplified. Bad guys are Completely Evil. Good guys have Completely Good Intent, yet do utterly, impossibly stupid things.
Like Tenel Ka. She's the daughter of... of the Hapan Consortium prince and a witch from Dathomir. Nothing wrong with that... but when she builds her lightsaber- and that happens unsettlingly early, very casually- she's careless about it. She literally thinks that since she can kill people without a lightsaber, it isn't important, it's the warrior which matters.
Which is true, sure. But that doesn't warrant carelessness. It shouldn't, anyway.
Anyway, it shorts out, Jacen lops her arm off, she refuses to get a prosthetic. I read her reasoning, over and over again, and it still upsets me. How exactly is having one arm an advantage? Sure, Tenel is reminded of her hubris. Sure, she can learn from the experience. But how is it an advantage to have one arm as opposed to two?
It may make sense to someone else. But not me. I think I chipped an incisor, grinding.
The reason for not reading the NJO is because I was tenative about getting into that series. Frankly... well... the Vong are overpowered. And it seems that each and every post-Endor novel's enemies are either Imperials or All New Menaces That Nobody Knew About.
And since each and evey one of them is touted as being bigger and stronger than the ones before, it gets a bit tacky. Not to mention the little fact that, in a way, this takes the drama out of the OT. Takes away that, that desperate fire. Because once you've conquered your own darkness... well, it's as if it was trivialized.
Plus, by that point, the main characters are, well... kind of old. Yes, I know that in the Star Wars universe humans have been clocked as living up to 300 years(Courtship of Princess Leia). But still. They killed off Mon Mothma and Addy Ackbar... bleh.
But at the moment, I am not attempting to read that saga. Right now, page 269 of "X-Wing: Solo Command".
More rambling- both this and its immediate prequel, "X-Wing: Iron Fist", are on loan from the library. Usually that's fine. But always, just before I can pick up anything from the X-Wing line, SOMEBODY checks it out, it or another critical component in the series that I have to read first, before me and takes _months_ to finish. I hate that. I read fast, and have difficulty with people who don't.
Anyway. There are nine books in the X-Wing Series. The first four are by Michael Stackpole, then three by Aaron Allston, then one Stackpole, then one Allston.
Stackpole is good with the techhie details, and I like Lieutenant Horn. But at times I have difficulty reading his books, they are just a bit heavy. Allston's are easier to read, and he's funny. Little things.
"Pretty. What do we blow up first?"
That kind of thing. Out of context, it's not much. But this guy's good.
Anyways, I like these books. Wraith Squadron is almost unbelievably quirky- a band of misfit commando-pilots, really. If I go into detail, there will be no stopping me.
One of the lines in there somewhere involves the concept that "stormies!" is a cry made by bar patrons who have detected stormtroopers. For some reason this amuses me... I'm just going to go out and shout "STORMIES!" at some point. See what people do...
