What do you LIKE about the EU? — Page 25

Teaser excerpt from Zahn's forthcoming novel scoundrels:

One shot was all Falsta got. An instant later his blaster was pointed harmlessly at the ceiling, frozen in place by Chewbacca’s iron grip around both the weapon and the hand holding it.

That should have been the end of it. Falsta should have conceded defeat, surrendered his blaster, and walked out of the cantina, a little humiliated but still alive.

But Falsta had never been the type to concede anything. Even as he blinked furiously at the ale still running down into his eyes, his left hand jabbed like a knife inside his jacket and emerged with a small hold-out blaster.

He was in the process of lining up the weapon when Han shot him under the table. Falsta fell forward, his right arm still raised in Chewbacca’s grip, his hold-out blaster clattering across the tabletop before it came to a halt. Chewbacca held that pose another moment, then lowered Falsta’s arm to the table, deftly removing the blaster from the dead man’s hand as he did so.

For a half dozen seconds Han didn’t move, gripping his blaster under the table, his eyes darting around the cantina. The place had gone quiet, with practically every eye now focused on him. As far as he could tell no one had drawn a weapon, but most of the patrons at the nearest tables had their hands on or near their holsters.

Chewbacca rumbled a warning. “You all saw it,” Han called, though he doubted more than a few of them actually had. “He shot first.”

Yuk, yuk.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Or "Huyck, Huyck" if you want a more Star Warsy effect =P

 Boo.

:P

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's really a pity you decided to skip Outbound Flight, because it is much more a prequel to Zahn's work than a Lucasian prequel story; it's about the origins of Thrawn and it's a great story. Sure it has Anakin and Obi-Wan in it but they're not major characters and when they're there, they're very well written, nothing like in Lucas' prequels.

Wow, I'm honoured that you took my advice. I'm sure you won't regret it :-)

I love the proof!

Top Tier: 

I cherish the Thrawn Trilogy and personally consider it as the "de facto" Sequel Trilogy.  I also love the "Dark Empire" Trilogy and generally consider that something like "Episodes X-XII", or like an alternate sequel trilogy. Most of the Marvel and "Classic" daily comics also are almost constantly in my EU thoughts.  

Second Tier:

Splinter of the Mind's Eye (It's very great, but Vader's dialogue is pretty lame: "Girl-Woman")...It's greatest strength, and greatest flaw, is it's 1970s "Pre-ESB" continuity limitations, which renders it both charming and retroactively strange.  The Han Solo books by Brian Daley are very adventurous and very fun, and I consider them perfectly part of canon and extremely enjoyable, yet sometimes they feel a bit atypical from Star Wars in general.  Most of what I read from the pre-PT EU falls under the Second Tier, IMO.  Of the PT and after era, I like the Dark Horse comics, and the Legacy series (despite its Prequelizations...which I tend to ignore...). Basically, these are very enjoyable books yet they are flawed with odd characterizations of beloved characters (everyone seems to get Luke slightly off...he's either a dumb-witted, wide-eyed formboy, or a godly Kenobi on steroids) or have elements that, to me, are somewhat "fishy" for what I would personally consider canon and all.  For example, I highly enjoyed "Shadows of the Empire" and loved Xixor and all that, BUT it was noticeably lame to bring in a "Han-clone" (accept it Dash fans! haha) and for the unique time in which it was set, it failed to deliver the one HUGE thing I always wondered about in between ESB and ROTJ...as in...how did Luke finally become a full Jedi in that time span, since he definitely didn't see Yoda again before his death in ROTJ and he didn't seem to have seen Kenobi's ghost (according to the book)...what did he do to become a Jedi?!? Who made him one? Furthermore...I hated how they passed off Luke's clothing in ROTJ as simply something either Lando or Dash gave him once they went to Coruscant.  Come on...we all know that was supposed to have been the Jedi warrior garb from their heyday... Things like these get odd, and there are way too many Post-ROTJ books from the 90s.  Wow! 

Third Tier:

The "Legacy of the Force", "Fate of the Jedi" 9 part book series, and all.  I hate to say it, but I enjoyed a good deal of "LOTF", mostly because I imagined the whole thing as a series of "made for TV" movies and since they brought back Lumiya and were atleast entertaining.  The death of Mara-Jade, the re-hashing of...the entire film saga, the "here and there" prequelisms, and Karen Travis....knocked that series down quite a bit.  Nonetheless, when I did read them all, I was almost always entertained.  FOTJ...I haven't read much of that, and I wonder if its any better (although my bet is on worse).  Also, the "cream of the cream of the crop" (yes not a typo)...I mean the ultimate BEST of the PT books come out here, and, in my mind, the best of those are two works that come AFTER ROTS, which are "The Rise of Darth Vader" (or whatever that book was called) and the recent graphic novel "Darth Vader and the Lost Command".  The former was very good (but it still had prequel shit in there) and the second had a very interesting similar "Vader in the beginning" setting, despite the strange animation and prequelisms from here to eternity.  

Complete and Utter Trash: 

The "Clone Wars" new TV series movie novelization and other similar books.  Karen Travis's books outside of the (only slightly) palatable one's she did for LOTF.  Almost any Prequel era book.  Even ones I once enjoyed, like "Labyrinth of Evil" and "Dark Rendezvous" are unbearable to me now with how much I completely detest the Prequels now.  Kids and Junior novels are in the same boat.  "The Glove of Darth Vader"/"Jedi Prince" had some unique drawings and are so "retro" (relatively speaking) and so NON-prequelized I will give them a slight pass! 

I had two of those books and enjoyed them. People that are fans of isolated stories akin to the nature of the original Star Wars might enjoy it. They're exactly what they are: a galaxy. Well, I mean, they were very good at world building. Sure, they ran into the main characters of the OT on occasion - shrinking the story a little bit - but more often than not, the isolated tales of those kids brought a us big, sprawling world to explore along with them.

I also enjoyed the kids' series Jedi Apprentice. They fleshed out Qui-Gon significantly, which really helps me think of him as more than just a wasted character.

darth_ender said:

What do I like about the EU?  I like that the EU has really tried to pull Europe together to avoid the nationalistic strife that has plagued them with war for centuries.  Unfortunately they are having monetary difficulties that seem to be dragging down the world economy, but their intentions were in the right....oh, wait....wrong room!

lol. I always thought both EUs had the same "good intentions"/positive elements to mixed results factor.  The European Union gets a huge A+ for banding together the previously nearly-perpetually war-torn Europe and attempting to effect continental peace and economic unity.  The Expanded Universe gets a huge A+ for adding extra stories to an amazing film trilogy for obsessive and Star Wars hungry super-fans like us.  However, the European Union has had terrible ramifications on the global economy and have failed to completely fiscally unite the region (UK not adopting the Euro; the relative "failure" of the currency itself), and the Expanded Universe has had a plethora of total duds and misfires which take the series in a totally strange if not undesirable direction...and prequelization has plagued it as of late. 

Anyway...I really want to read the Lando books.  Can never find them (not even in used "thrift" book stores). 

I've always dreamed about the Thrawn Trilogy being made into films. To be honest though, even though generally I'm not a big fan of CGI, today a film like this would be like 90% CGI anyway, so I'd love to see it made with the original cast using performance capture, Beowulf style but better CGI. They'd have to do something about Carrie Fisher's voice though :-D

Oh and Bryce Dallas Howard would make an excellent Mara.

looks like some these clone wars shows are coming out on youtube.

saw one that was fun - obi-wan goes undercover and infiltrates a prison.

need to find one in better resolution quality.  coming up to the end of the month - this is where I can use up my remaining 50 gig bandiwth capacity :P

Anchorhead said:

 je ne saia quoi. 

 

 bwaaaaaaaahahahahahahhahaa...haven't heard that one in a LONG time.  i think it was replaced 15 years ago with "it factor"

i dunno 'bout bryce.  she looks too much like her dad!