joysweeper

Still love the Thrawn Trilogy.

If this isn't my favorite portrayal of Luke, he's damn close. Wanting to do what's right, always struggling to turn that sentiment into reality, all empathy and fragility and bigheartedness but when he stand up he stands up...  argh.

I liked him in Stover's novel too, don't get me wrong.  But that Luke was a Stover creature.  Still striving to do the right thing, but weary and kind of tired and not at all inexperienced and optimistic like Zahn's version.  I can accept Stover's Luke as an older man, but at the age he is in that novel...

Eh, that's the style.

I just reread Death Star for the... I think third time.

Still a good book.  I like the many-slices-of-life style.  These authors - I don't care for them apart.  Perry wrote Shadows of the Empire, which while entertaining and with its good parts, I thought had a serious fixation on a villain who wasn't nearly as cool as he wanted us to think, and Darth Vader was really not as monstrous as he should be.  Actually, in comparison he barely came off as villainous at all.  Reaves, meanwhile, wrote Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and the Coruscant Nights Trilogy, neither of which struck me as terribly compelling.  And I didn't like most of the characters in either.

But together?  They've also written the Medstar Duology, which I really enjoyed.  It's incredibly detail-heavy and also involved a many-slices-of-life style, with a huge cast, though there was more of a sense that there was an actual antagonist in that one, and not just at the end.  Really promotes the idea that this is a lived-in universe, with a lot of strange things that the inhabitants take for granted.

One character carries over from the duology to Death Star, that being Kornell "Uli" Divini.  He was nineteen then, a surgical prodigy, and by this point he's been ground down and wore out over the past twenty years, never allowed to leave the service.  He's much more bitter about his circumstances, yet he's very professional with his patients and always willing to do his best on them.  Also, it seems like he's harbored a secret fascination with Bariss Offee, and he wrestles with it, and sees her in Princess Leia.  I love him.

The book is driven entirely by its characters.  Not just Uli - we have Celot Ratua Dil, a Zelosian smuggler sent to the prison planet Despayre(now there's a name); Teela Karz, a Mirilian architect also sent to Despayre as a political prisoner; Villian Dance, a Corellian pilot always looking to improve himself; Memah Roothes, a Twi'lek bartender; Rodo, her bouncer; Atour Riten, an old archivist; Tenn Graneet, the head gunner; Nova Stihl, a Force-Sensitive guard who teaches self-defense; Admiral Motti; Grand Moff Tarkin; and Darth Vader.

Those are the viewpoint charries, anyway.  I suppose it can be confusing if you can't keep everyone straight.

Rereading "Wraith Squadron" for the umpteenth time.  It's awesome.

Seriously, even though I don't have much dislike for Stackpole, Allston is just a vastly better writer.  The pace seems faster, more things are shown rather than told, there are no damn redshirts, and everyone is interesting!

Allston!Wedge Antilles is more irritable than Stackpole!Wedge.  It's interesting.
( Youtube spam )

I've been thinking about Tycho Celchu for a while, so why not?  Here they are, my Thoughts On Tycho.

( Thoughts on a Character )

 Not the most organized thoughts, huh?  I was sure I had more on the subject.  Eh, mostly posts like these are for me anyway.

Sorry for more delay.  Now comes the conclusion.  I will take this last opportunity to say: Read the books!  They are awesome!  This is but a pale imitation!

Cel: "You sound as if you admired him, sir."
Wedge: "Admired him? Sure I did. He was a different sort of enemy."
Cel: "Different from the Yuuzhan Vong, you mean, sir?"
Wedge: "Different from the Vong, the Emperor, any other Grand Admiral--from anyone," Wedge replied.
Cel: "What do you suppose Thrawn would make of the Yuuzhan Vong, sir?"
Wedge: "Ground Vong, probably--if he had a few examples of their art." - NJO: The Final Prophecy

( Is this the end, or the beginning? )
So that's done.  Does anyone have Dark Empire?  Takes place a year after this.  It's supposed to be not very good, but I've never seen it, and I want to see Darkside!Luke.  And if anyone wants to post from Union, if you don't do it I will.  Eventually.

Sorry about the delay, gentlebeings. I was working on my NaNo. So here's the first half of The Last Command. It's illustrated by Biukovic. While his art may not be as pretty or realistic as the art for Dark Force Rising, he's much better at rendering emotions and personality. This is f-locked for minor and rather pointless nudity, but it's SFW.( We'll remind the Rebellion what war is all about. )
Next week: the conclusion.

"I have no qualms about accepting a useful idea merely because it wasn't my own."

―Thrawn

Here's the other half of Dark Force Rising.  First part was here.  You can probably tell that this time I have the book in hand.
( Will you hear me? Or will you choose death? )

I just love this book.

joysweeper (joysweeper) wrote, @ 2009-10-17 15:27:00

The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire
Five years after Endor and the death of the Emperor, the Empire was in bad shape. There had been successors who had ruled the Empire, or tried to. Pestage, the Tribune, Ysanne Isard. Under them it splintered, warlords like Teradoc and Zsinj splitting off on their own to fight them and the New Republic. The Empire just kept losing people and worlds, rarely if ever winning any important battles.

"I am Grand Admiral Thrawn. I have been away, but now I have returned. I know some of what has occurred. You will fill in the details of the rest when I come aboard. Rejoice, Captain, for the Empire will rise again." - A Grand Admiral Returns

(  We haven't been defeated, merely slowed down a bit. )
Next up is Dark Force Rising.

I reread The Thrawn Trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn Duology recently.

( Gush )
I'm forgetting something...  Oh, right.  It was sixty-six years from the Wright brothers to Apollo Eleven.  It's been forty years since Apollo Eleven.  This song gives me goosebumps.

Dragons.

There's a site called obamicon.me which lets you take pictures and get them in dark blue, red, light blue, and yellowish, like that Obama poster.  I've been messing with it.

 

... There was another pic there, but it doesn't want to copypaste.  Fine.  (WTF, Firefox spellcheck?  "Doesn't" isn't a word?  Neither are "isn't" or "spellcheck"?  I'll grant you copypaste and WTF, but seriously.)

The dragon's at level thirty, so I have a second one.

 

Terry Pratchett, I've found, is a really good writer.  So thanks TVTropes for plugging him until I had to try.  (First taste was free from the local library.)  I read Nation, and... wow.  Wow.  I also love a lot of the Discworld books.  The Guard ones in particular, but I seriously liked "The Truth" and the ones with Moist von Lipwig.  Apparently my passion is for detailed world-building, characters that I like, and strange and interesting cultures.

And this is where I can go to watch Avatar again.  I love that finale.