What do you LIKE about the EU? — Page 14

Vehicle mass would be an issue in a gravity environment, as well as zero G.   Here are the two pages of Death Star addressing it.

darth_ender said:

The term "weight" is misused, as weight, by definition, is how hard gravity pulls on something. 

That's all me, man.  I read mass, understand mass, but then used the word weight in my post. 

I had to jump ship.  I made it through 15 chapters before I had to say goodbye to the Prequel references.  I was fine for a few chapters with an occasional name-check, but after a mention of Grievus, Mustafar, a couple of mentions of Gunguns, and a few other things I know are Prequel, I was quickly losing interest.

The final straw was last night, near the end of chapter 15.  When one of the main characters gets a promotion to work on the Death Star while it's being constructed, he asks his commander - "No poodoo, sir?". 

I reread the line, stopped, pondered whether or not to continue with a book I was already losing interest in, removed my book marker, closed the book, got out of bed, walked into the other room, and pulled Heir To The Empire off of the shelf. Two chapters in, It's much more what I was looking for.  It's also written with a little more serious feel.  

Regarding the prequel references;  My issue is two-fold.

1.  The novel had a feeling of everything must be viewed from a Prequel point of view.  The references seemed forced and were completely unrelated to the story.  Either by direction from Lucas, who does get peripherally involved with EU - or - maybe Reeves and Perry are just big fans of the Prequels and wanted both sets of films to be one big happy family.  The cynic in me says marketing (Lucas).  Maybe it was both.

2. I'm a linear guy.  Events that took place in 1977 came before events that took place in 2000 - even in a film franchise.  Having a prequel story is fine, but I won't ever rearrange my feeling of actual time to accommodate it.  For me, the story of the construction of the Death Star should be told from the 1977 point of view.  There is plenty of story there without having to pander to the prequel fan base or serving the franchise marketing machine.

While not a deal-breaker, I was also wearing out on the silly references. Just because it takes place in another universe, not every single thing has to reflect that.  It has a few too many instances of metaphors that mean nothing to the reader, which to me negates the point of even having a metaphoric reference in the first place.  "The commander knew so & so was slower than an ovalangk during murjonen season" or "Val woke up hungry for some esssontan meat and gghrewq eggs".  Honest to God, it was like reading a damn Ikea catalog.  Please.

I should have listened to my dog.  True story; Just after I bought the book and before I started reading it, he pulled it out of my bag while I was at work one day and chewed a big chunk out of a corner of the back, tore up the last 20 pages or so, messed up the spine, and tore the cover.  I was just going to struggle with that last chapter if I got that far.  Turns out it won't be an issue.

Bingowings said:

What if you had read the book in 1978.........Gungan......all those references........."Poodoo" .............."Unlearned what you have learned"

Besides - Gary Kurtz and Marcia wouldn't have let George get away with such shitty ideas in the 70s, nor would Alan Dean Foster have ghost-written that shit for him.

;-)

I have to say, sometimes I'm surprised at just how far out of the loop I've fallen.

xhonzi said:

I think/hope you'll enjoy Zahn's EU.

So far, I'm digging it.  Some of that may be the real life passage of time as I catch up with my heroes all these years later. 

It's the very same reason I really like the fourth Indiana Jones movie.  Indy isn't the same 40-year-old rogue we met in Raiders - and I'm not the same 18-year-old high school kid I was back then.

In Heir, Luke isn't the same innocent farm boy he was in 1977 - and I'm not the innocent 15-year-old kid I was back then.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter where Luke is up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, sitting outside looking out at the city, and pondering the journey & the future.  Something that I do regularly myself. That chapter set the hook for me.

Just like Indy in Kingdom, Luke is taxed with a much heavier life at this point in the story.  Because the very same thing is true for me in the real world, the story connects with me on a level that it can't for young people.  You can't guess the passage of time, nor can you pretend it.  In fact, you can't even really imagine it properly.  You have to actually pass through it to feel it.

Zahn's style comes across as much deeper and more serious. Which is what I was looking for.