vendredi, juillet 01, 2005 Episode 8: Penultimate Chapter Children of the JediBarbara Hambly should be shot for writing such a crappy novel, complete with a rather bizarre romance. I really wanted to like Callista after hearing so much about how she broke Luke's heart, but the whole focus-on-love in this issue (Han-Leia, Luke-Callista, Cray-Nichos) was (paraphrasing dear Ade) a little too Mills and Boons. Plus the story was full of really strange things and beings - Children of the Jedi and Hambly's other SW's outing, Planet of Twilight, has me convinced that she likes creepy bugs, what with the drochs in Planet of Twilight and the kretch in Children of the Jedi ... ew. Upping the 'ew' factor was spectre-copulation: what is up with that?! I should have read this before Survivor's Quest.     Survivor's Quest Luke and Mara married-but-before-the-kid adventure! The Chiss! Echoes of Grand Admiral Thrawn, BEST VILLIAN EVER! Darth Vader's stormtroopers! Booster Terrick's BRIGHT RED STAR DESTROYER! Painted and re-fitted by Gerneral Bel Iblis! Supplied secretly by Talon Karrde! Written by the one, the only, Timothy Zahn! In the everlasting words of Gershwin: who could ask for anything more? And did I mention the BRIGHT RED STAR DESTROYER? Why I'm totally enamoured of the BRIGHT RED STAR DESTROYER is not just because it's a BRIGHT RED STAR DESTROYER, but because it picks up a very thin, very amusing, very throwaway line that Michael A. Stackpole had in I, Jedi - something about Booster seeing a similarly-hued Corellian freighter, and desperately wanting to repaint the Errant Venture in the exact same shade of red. Apart from my glee at the BRIGHT RED STAR DESTROYER, the rest of the story was very pretty - of course I'm reading it for the Luke-Mara adventure, and it was nice to see than Zahn is totally in control of this relationship, managing to weave the husband-wife dynamics into the story neatly - sometimes a little too neatly, I think. No arguments? Or rather, two-second arguments where Mara wins most of the time? On the other hand, that might actually be more reflective of real-life than I know. Hur. All I know after reading Survivor's Quest is that Zahn should be kidnapped by Luke-Mara fans and forced to write about the times between oh, I don't know, The Last Command and Survivor's Quest. I, Jedi I would like to state for the record that the title is of course, a total complete rip-off from Asimov's I, Robot, which recently spawned a not-quite-accurate (but what's new?) movie featuring the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and if Michael A. Stackpole thinks that his writing should be compared with Issac "Foundation/Robot" Asimov, he's got another thing coming. But apart from the naming faux-pas, this book was deliciously long and good to read. The ONLY Star Wars novel to be written in the first person - hence the "I, Jedi" title - it's a four-hour read, instead of the usual three-hours that the regular novels take me. Overlapping the slightly verbose Jedi Academy series, this novel traces the progress of one Rogue-Nine pilot Corran Horn through his journey to becoming a Jedi, which is a good alternate perspective from boring old Luke, or even Leia perspectives. Horn's a pilot, his wife is kidnapped, he needs to train to be a Jedi to take up the gauntlet, he abandons being a Jedi since Luke's Jedi Academy is so plain boring, tells that to Luke in his face (!), goes off, infiltrates the organisation holding his wife, picks up a Caamasi servant, gets totally turned on and propositioned by an ex-Moff/current Admiral, merges his CorSec and Jedi personalities and makes himself a funky extendable lightsaber (which shorts out anyway, because that's what funky things do), meets up with Luke and saves his wife. Taa-daa! Oh, and he manages to discuss having a relationship with Mara Jade within the book too. Which is just nasty since he's married, and Jade would kick his ass at lightsaber practice anyway. Tatooine Ghost Tatooine Ghost is a Han-Leia adventure. Perhaps I came to the book very rather low expectations (after all, it was written by the guy who killed off one of Luke's nephews, effectively negating Chewbacca's sacrifice in Vector Prime), but it surprised me by being not only well-written, but well-integrated into the plots and characters of Episodes I and II. Dealing with Leia's reactions to her father's personality before he became Darth Vader, Troy Denning managed to bridge the uneasy distance between The Truce at Bakura (where Leia is met with a Force apparition that is Anakin Skywalker, asking for forgiveness which she resolutely refuses to give him) by giving Leia a chance to see Anakin's old friends, and view an old holo-diary of her grandmother, Shmi Skywalker. His portrayal of Leia and Han was pretty much spot-on too, hitting that sweet-spot between newlyweds and before the jaded political punching-bag air that Leia sometimes carries around sets in. My only gripe with this novel is that it does not seem to have an anti-climax epilogue to it: it exits right at the peak of the excitement. They're out of danger and totally hauling ass back to Coruscant, data chip destroyed/melted, but this is one situation where the saying "quit while you're ahead" does NOT apply. Bring us down, Captain! Oh man... I just re-read this post before posting, and I sound so...something. But congratulate me! (That is, if anyone out there is still reading this after bothering to sift through two page-down clicks of me ramble on and on about Star Wars...) I only have ONE more book that I want to read (I have resolved to avoid the New Jedi Order series until maybe... next year?) before I can end this rather bizarre chapter in my life, where I've read almost a book a day for the month of June. I'll make a nice Amazon.com collage of all the books when I'm done being a Star Wars uber-nerd. I need a new hobby. "Reading" just doesn't cut it after Primary 4 autograph books. [Episode 8: Penultimate Chapter] |
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