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Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. Anyone Here read it yet? (Spoilers Warning) Not Much to Spoil it sucks

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I am waiting for my reserved copy at my library.

I hope it returns to the pre new jedi order star wars EU magic i recall from the Bantam days, before star wars had to be realsitic and dark and all the characters despite the films trio have to die.

I want escapist fantasy out of star wars.  If i want reality i can turn on the six o'clock news and watch the Iraq war footage or the troubles in the gaza strip.

The thing that was great about star wars is it came out in the very jaded seventies following on the heels of the vietnam war and people got to experience fun and adventure for 2 hours and forgot about the worlds troubles and their own.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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Isn't that the one about Luke and Wedge traveling across a volcanic planet in order to throw a magical ring into a pit of lava? I think I may have read that one.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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FWIW, the few reviews this has gotten on Amazon are all very good. I just don't know if I can jump in to the the EU scene again. It's probably been 10 years since I read a SW novel.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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Erikstormtrooper said:

It's probably been 10 years since I read a SW novel.

Yeah, same for me here. I guess the "decent book / lousy book" ratio scared me off... and the thoughts "I think even I could make up a better story" didn't help either.

 

I saw the original theatrical release of the Old Trilogy on the big screen and I'm proud of it...
How did I accomplish that (considering my age) is my secret...
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The book started out well enough but then as i got further into it it became apparent to me it was laughably bad, certainly worse than even the legacy novels.  The villain come from the russ manning newspaper strip.  Blackhole.  This is as laughably bad as Lumiya being brought back into canon in the legacy novels at least as the EU goes.

The storyline is as bad as some of the Marvel Star Wars comics were originally.  But this is worse it shows an incredible lack of imagination, and it feels rushed.  As a fan of Matt Stovers other star wars novels i am incredibly dissapointed, this was typical work for hire stuff well below his standards.

On top of that the stupid prequel tie ins and mentions in the book were incredibly annoying, and also that the villain escapes and lived in the end of the book to be the next villain in the fate of the jedi series, which is almost inevitable.

 

There were a couple of amusing points like the holo novel mentioned "Luke Skywalker and the Jedi's Revenge" an obvious reference to the original title for Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Jedi.  As well as Brian Daleys Han Solo's Revenge.  Stover Dedicated the book to Brian Daley who is dead of course, and the living author Alan Dean Foster who Wrote Both Star Wars From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

In Other words they are not even remotely trying anymore.  Star Wars as a franchise is now nothing more than a  cash cow.  The future of star wars is dead as a doornail, unless the original theatrical versions of the movies are put back on the pedestal they belong on and the prequels and special editions, and bad tie in merchandise moved to the trash bin.  Star Wars as it is now is a fucking joke, a self parody like Indiana Jones IV.  Anything that was good about it or magical is gone.  I Still am holding out that last shred of hope that del rey can redeem themselves with the first of the new books by Aaron Allston.  But my expectations are pretty much in the shitter for anything Star Wars since 1999.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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C3PX said:

Isn't that the one about Luke and Wedge traveling across a volcanic planet in order to throw a magical ring into a pit of lava? I think I may have read that one.

LOL LOL LOL

And didn't Luca$ claim this was the story all along?  He then goes on to say that yes, Tolkein did something similar first but he couldn't do the story right, though, because the "technology wasn't advanced enough at the time".

:)

 

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You can't be serious in saying that that was a serious idea.

If so, let's be glad that never happened. Sounds pretty mediocre to me.

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Not sure what you are refering to helmet dork. Are you referring to Skyjedi's comments on the real novel, "Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor"? Or my joke about how similar "Shadows of Mindor" is to "Shadow of Mordor" (hence the Lord of the Rings reference)?

 

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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C3PX said:

Not sure what you are refering to helmet dork. Are you referring to Skyjedi's comments on the real novel, "Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor"? Or my joke about how similar "Shadows of Mindor" is to "Shadow of Mordor" (hence the Lord of the Rings reference)?

 

 

 About the idea of Lucas wanting to do this in a Star Wars story.

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I wonder if ESHBG was talking about that youtube video " Lord of the rings by George Lucas"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv4Potdpjhw

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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I have always heard people call the first Star Wars movie "Lord of the Rings in space" for as long as I can remember. It is almost the same basic story, though in an extremely abridged form; the reluctant hero leaving home, mentored by an old wizard who is separated from him pre-maturely, leaving him alone and uncertain, finding himself way over his head, and saving the world from an object of great evil and certain doom, nearly failing at the last minute but succeeding thanks to an old friend saving the day.

Not sure, but I think George has talked about being inspired in part by LOTR before.

 

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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C3PX said:

 

Not sure, but I think George has talked about being inspired in part by LOTR before.

 

 

I even heard that's where the idea for Willow came from. Lucas couldn't get the films rights to LOTR, so he made Willow instead.

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Yeah, that's right. I remember hearing that too.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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its a shame that with all the new star wars books and comics coming out they have almost completly abanoned the time period of the classic movies.I mean,all were getting are a few young readers books and comics digests aimed at young readers.I read shadows of mindor and felt let down,very hard to follow plot,and it promised to be so much more.

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I really dug on the first half of this book. I have no background into who Blackhole, Shadowspawn, or Cronal are (although I did catch the shoutout to Kadann, the Prophet of the Darkside from the old Jedi Prince novels). Shadowspawn seemed a neat villain with an interesting angle.

But then it just got to confusing. I got really bored really quick with Cronal, and Luke, and THE DARK. Too much just seemed to be going on, and the peculiar framing story from the first chapter kept bugging me. I was impatient to get to the part it refferred to. I was also frustrated by all of the scenes of rock melting. I got it. The rock melts. If it was a movie, that would have been the most overused special effect. I didn't mind the PT refrences at all.

Then there was the non-ending. That ticked me of. I had high hopes for this story, since Stover's Ep. 3 novelisation was ballstothewall the best Star Wars novel I'd read in years and made me like Ep. 3 the movie even more. I'd give this a resounding 'meh.'