i can't find any star wars audio anywhere. I guess i could check Amazon. Is it really that cool to listen to the audio? The books were enough for me
Well, it's great for multi-tasking - like when I'm doing some mind-numbing work on the edit, shuffling dots around for hours, I can listen to it and the time passes by nicely. I also have quite a good visual imagination and since when I'm listening, the visual part of the brain isn't occupied, I can vividly imagine those events as if I was watching a movie, so that's pretty cool :-)
I definitely prefer the narrator to do straightforward reading rather than change voices and stuff. And I hate when they add sound effects and music, which in the SW audio books is unfortunately quite common. Luckily the Thrawn Trilogy unabridged audio books fall into the first category - I have them digitized from audio cassettes, so I'm not sure if they ever came out in any other format.
All this talk about The Thrawn Trilogy has gotten me to dig those books out of storage.
Reading FTW!
Since they're like poetry, what with the rhyming and all, I find that I only need to watch three out of the six films.
I wonder, Anchorhead (assuming you still read this thread) what you thought about the Hand of Thrawn books in the end. And did you read any of the other Zahn's STAR WARS books?
Harmy said:
I wonder, Anchorhead (assuming you still read this thread) what you thought about the Hand of Thrawn books in the end. And did you read any of the other Zahn's STAR WARS books?
Because I'm EU-only at this point, yes I follow this thread regularly. I started Spectre Of The Past a few days ago and I'm really digging it. Vision Of The Future will follow. After that, I'll go in order of release for the Zahn books. However, I will be skipping one of them that is somewhat Prequelesque but I can't think of the name of it right now.
Oh, man, if you mean the Outbound flight, that would be a huge mistake to skip it IMO, because it's pretty awesome and the only thing it has in common with the prequels is that it's the same time period. And it has Thrawn in it!
WhatsMyName said:
DavidBrennan said:
Another favorite bit of EU are the first two books in the 'Coruscant Nights' trilogy. The series gets noticeably worse with each book, but the first one is GREAT, the second is solid, but the third is horrible.I agree. i thought it was somewhat of a cool tie in with the characters' father from the Darth Maul Novel. Shadow Hunter i believe it was.
You're right: it was 'Shadow Hunter'.
RE: The sound effects and impersonation of voices rather than just straight-reading of books. I try to not use audio books too much because I feel like they're lazy or something. But, when I do listen to them, I have to say that I think the Star Wars books do a REALLY good job integrating a modest theater-like atmosphere with effects and music, etc. For instance, the abridged 'Shadow of the Empire' is enhanced and made to feel like a movie with this, even though it SEEMS like it'd just make it silly and childish.
To me it does make it silly and childish. To me an audio book should be an equivalent of reading the book yourself, only using your ears, not your eyes. I almost never listen to abridged audio books either.
Harmy said:
Oh, man, if you mean the Outbound flight, that would be a huge mistake to skip it IMO, because it's pretty awesome and the only thing it has in common with the prequels is that it's the same time period. And it has Thrawn in it!
I don't know why I thought that was the one I'd skip. It may be because it has Anakin. I'm just not a fan of any of the Lucas Prequel Story. I might save it for last or maybe toss it into my suitcase so it's there for a future long flight. After all, Zahn has become my go-to. Might as well trust him on this one too.
I really don't remember it having Anakin in it. But then it's been ages since I've read it - I'm going to re-read it soon. It's the story of what happened to the Outbound Flight mentioned in the Thrawn trilogy - the expedition to the unknown regions the real C'Baoth went on.
But you probably should read it after Survivor's Quest anyway, since that's the way it was written. I think there's another fairly new Zahn SW book I've not read yet, so I'm not sure where that should go on the reading timeline - but just like with the films, I usually tend to read the books in the order in which they were published.
EDIT: Sorry, right, now I remember, it does have Anakin - but I don't think it's too Lucas prequelly - at the time I read it, I already didn't like the prequels, so I don't think I would have liked it so much if it was too much like the prequels.
After all, Zahn was able to brilliantly continue Return of the Jedi, so why not the Phantom Menace ;-)
After reading Wookieepedia, as I've long given up on actually reading most EU, I can confirm the presence of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine/Sidious & the Prequel Jedi Council, but they mostly get written out pretty quickly, with the exception of Sidious. The book also serves as a backstory to The New Jedi Order EU books, as well as a backstory to Thrawn. YMMV
I always give the Wookieepedia page a look and check out characters, locations, etc. Since I skip the summaries due to spoiler potential, I don't know the extent of the characters' involvement in a story.
The only exception is if they're a mention only, which Wookieepedia points out. I'll go with a mention only in all cases except Padme. Any Padme = no reading. If Anakin is a small role and well written (which sounds like it's the case from Zahn), I'll try it.
That's interesting - do you have any intuitions about what Luke's mother would be like?
(I presume that's why you would stay away from prequel depictions of said character.)
"Star Wars films are basically silent movies. And they're designed as silent movies, therefore the music carries a -- has a very large role in carrying the story, more than it would in a normal movie." -GL
"NOO! NOOOOOO!!" - Darth Vader
She was very beautiful. Kind, but sad.
^Ah, but Anchorhead doesn't consider ROTJ canon =P
American Hominid said:
That's interesting - do you have any intuitions about what Luke's mother would be like?
(I presume that's why you would stay away from prequel depictions of said character.)
With God as as my witness, I give absolutely zero thought to Luke's mother. Not now, not ever. My dislike of the Lucas version is due to how completely empty the character, the portrayal, and the story of her are.
Making matters worse are how much I dislike Portman. I've only seen her in two films, but I find her to be average at best. I also dislike her personally. She comes across in interviews as arrogant and self important.
DuracellEnergizer said:
^Ah, but Anchorhead doesn't consider ROTJ canon =P
I'm fine with most of the skeleton of the story, but it was so poorly executed that two viewings were enough. It's occasionally referenced in Zahn's work, so I've made peace with it.
I hope I'm not repeating myself, but IMO there is a significant decline in quality in Zahn's post-Vision of the Future works. Survivor's Quest was still pretty good, but Outbound Flight and Allegiance were poor.
I think Zahn's strength is in portraying our heroes in the post-Return of the Jedi years, although he never really completely solves the Han Has Nothing To Do After Empire Strikes Back syndrome (HHNTDAESBS)
He also falls too much in love with his own creations (I rolled my eyes at how perfect Thrawn and Jade are portrayed in later works).
Of course these days he has to write with all the other terrible EU in mind. And the Prequel nonsense of course.
“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord
I have a feeling I'm NOT going to like:
“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord
in a time before the polarization of the light and dark sides of the Force
what.
Let's go back further. I want to see the dawn of life in the Star Wars universe.theprequelsrule said:
I have a feeling I'm <span style="text-decoration: underline;">NOT</span> going to like:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Dawn_of_the_Jedi
Star Wars Revisited Wordpress
Star Wars Visual Comparisons WordPress
doubleofive said:
Let's go back further. I want to see the dawn of life in the Star Wars universe.theprequelsrule said:
I have a feeling I'm NOT going to like:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Dawn_of_the_Jedi
IIRC correctly there was to be a novel (fortunately canceled) that explained how humans got to the Star Wars galaxy. They would have portrayed humans fleeing from Earth (!) from sentient machines in the 22nd century. They get sent backwards in time and simultaneously flung across the universe to another galaxy - the Star Wars Galaxy.
IIRC correctly it also would have tied in THX 1138 with the Star Wars universe!
“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord
That's terrible. And a rip-off of Battlestar Galatica.theprequelsrule said:
IIRC correctly there was to be a novel (fortunately canceled) that explained how humans got to the Star Wars galaxy. They would have portrayed humans fleeing from Earth (!) from sentient machines in the 22nd century. They get sent backwards in time and simultaneously flung across the universe to another galaxy - the Star Wars Galaxy.
IIRC correctly it also would have tied in THX 1138 with the Star Wars universe!
Star Wars Revisited Wordpress
Star Wars Visual Comparisons WordPress
doubleofive said:
That's terrible. And a rip-off of Battlestar Galatica.theprequelsrule said:
IIRC correctly there was to be a novel (fortunately canceled) that explained how humans got to the Star Wars galaxy. They would have portrayed humans fleeing from Earth (!) from sentient machines in the 22nd century. They get sent backwards in time and simultaneously flung across the universe to another galaxy - the Star Wars Galaxy.
IIRC correctly it also would have tied in THX 1138 with the Star Wars universe!
I would say it rips off Dune and Battlestar Galactica equally. I forgot to mention how the Earthlings learn about the force, and how the first one of them to use the force gets dubbed "The Skywalker".
A dark part of my soul kind of wants this novel written just to see how bad it actually would be in execution.
“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord
Here's some actual chapters from that unfinished book.
http://www.sfwriter.com/alienout.htm
I don't consider this story canon, but I do like some of the ideas in it (namely humans from the SW Galaxy originating from Earth and the ties to the THX 1138 and Willow universes).