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What do you LIKE about the EU? — Page 29

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I thought Zahn did just fine with the character growth, especially with Han. He introduced him struggling to take on his new role as a diplomat and husband, trying to reconcile his now "adult" responsibilities with the devil-may-care smuggler persona of the past. Leia was written a bit weaker but she still has grown a lot as a character, where we see her actually acting as a politician while trying to learn about the Force and her new responsibilities as a mother. These are very different characters than who we left off with in the OT--yet it's perfectly believable that in 5 years after ROTJ, those characters would grow up to become these people. I wouldn't say there is as much of an "arc" like in the OT, but it's pretty unfair to say that Zahn didn't handle character growth and character change--he did it better than any other EU writer I have come across.

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For Christmas, I got the Thrawn Trilogy. I started reading it tonight. It seems like a pretty fun book series.

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Looks like Scoundrels has now been released. Anyone planning to buy a copy right away, or are you waiting for the paperback release? I'd love to jump right in ASAP, but sadly I just won't have enough spare time to devote to pleasure reading for a few months at least.

Every 27th customer will get a ball-peen hammer, free!

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I started reading it yesterday.  Review in a week or so.

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Akwat Kbrana said:

Looks like Scoundrels has now been released. Anyone planning to buy a copy right away, or are you waiting for the paperback release? I'd love to jump right in ASAP, but sadly I just won't have enough spare time to devote to pleasure reading for a few months at least.

Local library doesn't have it yet. Might kick down on Audible for the audiobook if I end up driving across the state this month.

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I... er*... got the audiobook and started listening to it today.

 

 

 

*Denotes embarrasment at getting the audiobook instead of reading it, not that I got it illegaly.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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What are you talking about, embarrassment? I love audio books (only if they're unabridged mind you). I practically stopped reading any other way. Audio books are awesome; You can read with your eyes closed. You can turn dull work like shoveling or rotoscoping from a bottomless pit of terrible boredom into a fun time well spent. Audio books really help when I'm doing roto work - hours and hours spent shifting dots around on a computer - very easy work that doesn't require a lot of focus most of the time but is horribly tedious - but having an audio book on makes it great. I only regret that as far as I know there are no unabridged Zahn Star Wars audio books other than the Thrawn trilogy. Am I wrong?

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Harmy said:

What are you talking about, embarrassment? I love audio books (only if they're unabridged mind you). I practically stopped reading any other way. Audio books are awesome; 

Audiobooks rock. 

I think they account for probably 3/4 of my book intake these days. Commutes and yardwork are significantly less lame now. 

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TheBoost said:

Commutes and yardwork are significantly less lame now. 

Exactly!

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Audiobooks are great, and do help me get through the books I'd like to read, but not badly enough to prioritize my time in a way that would actually let me read them... and they make me actually enjoy my ~1.5 hours in the car each day. 

But they're not the same as actually reading the darn thing.

In the case of the Thursday Next books (highly recommended) the first three are very well read by the reader and probably actually make the audio version superior to the print one.  However, they change readers in book 4 and it all goes to heck.

RE: Scoundrels.  The reader does a wide range of voices for the characters and I'm not sure it's enhancing my enjoyment of the book.  Sometimes, after a line reading by the reader, I reinterpret the line in my head and decide that I would have been more impressed had the line been read a different way. 

Also RE: Scoundrels- There's a prequel reference AND a special edition reference in chapter 2.  Minus 1 star. 

I think most know that this book "takes place" betwixt ANH and ESB and that it also features Lando... which sort of casts long shadows on their meet-up in ESB.  Also, I was under the impression from the start of ESB that Han had stuck with the Rebels from Yavin to Hoth, so this sort of flies in the face of that too.

But it's sort of fun.  I think the real payoffs will come later, so I'll be patient for those... I guess it's a good companion piece to Splinter of the Mind's Eye where you can see what Han got up to whilst Luke and Leia and Vader had a romantic weekend without him, in the world where ESB was never made.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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 (Edited)

I'm not finished with it, so no review just yet.  However, I thought I'd jump in on two of your points. Unless I'm thinking of the wrong one, the Prequel reference could also be a reference to a single line from the 1977 film.

I thought the SE reference was a clever wink to fans who have struggled with that particular change. I've never seen the SEs, but I knew immediately what Zahn was doing.

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It's funny to me how so many people like audiobooks. I personally just can't "read" that way; the performances all become background noise if I don't close my eyes and concentrate on the dialogue real hard, which sucks all fun out of the endeavour.

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I haven't read a star wars comic since the original marvel series.  Any suggestions on some to catch up on?

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Now would be a good time to jump into the just started new Star Wars series.

The Tales comics provide a nice variety. Empire was pretty good until it started to focus on the main film characters and was renamed Rebellion.

Agent of the Empire has proven to be pretty entertaining so far.

The above list (except Tales) is all set during the OT. If you're not adverse to exploring outside of that then...

I would highly recommend the Republic series starting with issue #19 when John Ostrander and Jan Duursema started working on the title. Yes this is set during the prequel era but it's far from the hands of Lucas and the Quinlan Vos arc throughout is fantastic.

Would highly recommend working through that before venturing into Legacy which John and Jan helmed together. Some of the dialog is corny but it's a pretty solid series overall.

Knights of the Old Republic was a great series as well.

But my number one must read suggestion would be Dark Times. It was the follow up series to Republic and is set between ROTS and ANH. The inspiration behind it was Obi-wan's line, "Before the dark times, before the Empire..." And believe me, the title does live up to its name. The writing by Randy Stradley and the art by Doug Wheatley is top notch. I honestly regard them as this generation's Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson.

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Tobar said:

...

But my number one must read suggestion would be Dark Times. It was the follow up series to Republic and is set between ROTS and ANH. The inspiration behind it was Obi-wan's line, "Before the dark times, before the Empire..." And believe me, the title does live up to its name. The writing by Randy Stradley and the art by Doug Wheatley is top notch. I honestly regard them as this generation's Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll start with that one.  There's so much Star Wars material out there it's kind of hard to know where to start.  It's like standing at the bottom of a mountain and trying to figure out how to climb it.

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Tobar said:

But my number one must read suggestion would be Dark Times.... The writing by Randy Stradley and the art by Doug Wheatley is top notch. I honestly regard them as this generation's Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson.

Wow.  That is high praise indeed, coming from you.  May have to give that a look.

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Getting annoyed. My local library system still hasn't made "Scoundrels" available... and I haven't been able to... um... locate the audiobook.

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Anchorhead said:

Tobar said:

But my number one must read suggestion would be Dark Times.... The writing by Randy Stradley and the art by Doug Wheatley is top notch. I honestly regard them as this generation's Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson.

Wow.  That is high praise indeed, coming from you.  May have to give that a look.

Just be forewarned the first couple issues have some prequely bits thrown in there. My favorite arc so far has been Blue Harvest. That's when they rearranged some things so that Wheatley could be the sole artist and found a fantastic colorist as well.

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Regarding my way overdue Scoundrels review (and lack of forum activity lately); 

We've started the process of moving, e g. looking at land, house plans, existing homes, specific locations in a general area, etc.  We're moving four hours away, so the majority of my time off the past few months has been spent on the road from Friday mornings to Sunday evenings.

Plus, I was recently in Colorado on business for a while and wasn't really able to get back into it like I thought I would be able to.

My point (finally);  I'm having a hard time staying focused on the book.  I've had to backtrack a few times, so I've lost the story.  We're nearly settled on the core of the move, with only some particulars to iron out.  Once things settle, I'm just going to start over.

I'm digging the story so far, but it's getting too layered for the amount of distraction at the moment.  I don't want to force it and come away feeling stressed over it.  Review when I get back to it.

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Anchorhead said:

Plus, I was recently in Colorado on business for a while and wasn't really able to get back into it like I thought I would be able to.

 You were in Colorado and didn't stop by?  I had potatoes that needed peeling.  :(

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Brooks said:

I haven't read a star wars comic since the original marvel series.  Any suggestions on some to catch up on?

 

Check out the Tag and Binks series too, it aint supposed to be canon but it's cartoony tone and art style was funny enough to make me read them all in one sitting. It basically places two dimwits in the center of all the major action of the OT (and later the PT) whether disguised as stormtroopers or red guard and twists some of the plot in a fun way to make it look like these two were, sometimes accidently, the cause of some of the major events in the movies. The comedic parody-like tone reminded me a lot of the tone in the Lego Star Wars games which is what made those games so awesome. 

Dark Empire is very well done too. 

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xhonzi said:

 You were in Colorado and didn't stop by?  I had potatoes that needed peeling.  :(

Clearly there's a reference that went over my head. If you live anywhere near Dove Creek, I'll look you up next time I'm out there.

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Aint nothin' near Dove Creek.  :)

 

Clearly there's a reference that went over my head.

Frink peeled potatoes in my kitchen.

True story.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Twisty said:

Dark Empire is very well done too. 

 I like to think of Dark Empire as a poorly told telling of a good story.  So I would call it 'has potential' and 'there's a good story in there somewhere' rather than 'well done'.

Unless we mean 'well done' in the steaksense, by which is meant 'way overdone'.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!