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Funny you say that because the second wave of The High Republic just started. They're set 200 years before Episode 1 and they're pretty awesome so far.
Edited by Kostya on Jul 1st 2021 at 6:58:53 AM
That all you got?
Yes, I've seen that around, though I haven't read them myself.
That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.
As Kostya said, they're good. They definitely know how to write for a big universe like this. The first book is the grand Space Opera with Loads And Loads Of Characters, while most of the subsequent books focus on small groups that were mentioned in that first book. It's nicely interconnected without it feeling absolutely mandatory that you have to read everything.
Unfortunately, our literature fandom on this site is tiny, so there's not much discussion on them.
All things considered, this is probably the best place to discuss them. Other forums are.... contentious to say the least.
I agree completely, which is why it's frustrating that we don't have much of a literature fandom. Where am I supposed to go to discuss this series? Reddit?
I’d love to chat about new Star Wars, but I haven’t read them yet. I wanted to read through (the good or significant parts of) Legends one more time first, and combined with my other reading priorities it’s taking me years.
I'll be listening to the first one in a bit, but a lot of my reading list is determined by what I can find in the Overdrive library because my money is limited.
I have been real stupid lately and purchased GBA and DS Star Wars games though, so my priorities kind of suck.
Protip: see if there are other libraries you can get cards for and add them to your Overdrive account, even if you never plan to visit in person. I got a State Library of Ohio card and gained access to a bunch of Star Wars (and other) audiobooks that aren’t in the central Ohio library consortium’s collection.
The Libby app (which uses Overdrive) recently updated to make it much easier to see a title’s availability across multiple libraries.
Edited by HeraldAlberich on Jul 3rd 2021 at 5:12:55 AM
There are, in fact, libraries I can add, if I feel like paying $120 a year because that's how much it costs for a non resident. Which is money I don't really have.
Well, ouch, no indeed. My apologies. I get an bit excited about the opportunities Overdrive presents for cost-effective books and audiobooks, as I’ve experienced them. Clearly that varies.
Believe me I've looked several times. I'm a Texas resident and I found one library besides my own district that allows a non resident to be a member for free. There just aren't a lot that are available to me, or even to out of state residents anywhere.
No state-wide library or anything? Darn, I’m sorry. I’m pretty sure that even my city library (Columbus) only requires Ohio residency rather than anything more specific.
So, I hadn’t heard that this was a thing until the cover art for Path of Destruction changed in Libby, but Del Ray is re-releasing some of (what they consider) the most important Legends novels as trade paperbacks with new cover art, as the Essential Legends Collection. Round 2:
- Dark Force Rising and The Last Command
- Rule of Two
- Rogue Squadron
More exciting for me is that Shatterpoint and Rogue Squadron are also getting unabridged audiobooks, where they only had pretty heavily abridged versions before. (Most of the ’90s books’ recordings are capped at three hours, to fit on two double-sided cassettes. Later books are sized for 4 or 5 CDs.) Rogue Squadron gets Marc Thompson, who does most of the best SW narration, and Shatterpoint has Sullivan Jones, whom I’m not familiar with but who is presumably a good fit for Mace Windu and the other Korunnai characters.
Wookieepedia cites an industry website to claim that Darth Plagueis will be in a later round. I might actually pick that one up instead of just relying on the library, since I’ve never gotten around to it before but I like Luceno’s other work.
Edited by HeraldAlberich on Jul 4th 2021 at 10:37:12 AM
Damn I wish I didn't have the Darth Bane trilogy. I can't justify buying it again but those covers are amazing.
Doctor of Doctorates
Plagueis is definitely worth checking out, it's absolutely fantastic even of non canonical any more
I agree, plaeguis is a must read, it manage to make the chararter very intersting, in fact I can see plaeguis being sort of adapted for animation stand point.
I absolutely intend to, the question is whether I’ll spend money on it. Since I forgot to include it in my chronological review of Legends, and given that according to our page it’s essentially Broad Strokes to new canon, I’ll probably read it just before starting the new books in publication order.
I just finished one of those 3-hour abridged audiobooks, Iron Fist of the X-Wing Series. It’s a shame how much needs to be chopped out; entire scenes are excised and sometimes awkwardly summarized later. But the audio format sometimes allows for clever decisions anyway. For example, when Runt sets up an impromptu formal dance for Wraith Squadron as a morale-boosting exercise, the first number is “classic dance music from Alderaan”—and the audiobook plays a slow version of the medal ceremony music from A New Hope, thus implying that in-universe, Leia picked that music deliberately for the ceremony. An Alderaanian march to celebrate the destruction of the thing that killed her world. (Much like how Solo plays an uptempo Imperial March in a recruiting ad.) Headcanon accepted.
I've just finished Light of the Jedi, it's very good. It's probably the perfect book for someone new to Star Wars novels, really.
The prose is right on the line of being too informal and simplistic, but never crosses that line. It's much more modern than anything from the old EU but it works incredibly well for the story being told.
It's a marriage of tone and style that is rare to see in any medium. Here the Jedi are written as basically superheroes while their villains are more viscerally evil than what we usually see but in a realistic way-they're not omnicidal maniacs or humorless tyrants, they're more like mobsters who aren't motivated by a fanatical religion or any sort of ideology, really. The Nihil almost remind me of The Sopranos in the way they marry a group of horrible brutally violent people with, at times, a sense of dark humor.
It's also rare to see villain underdogs, at least in a case where the Worf Effect is not in effect.
Edited by ArthurEld on Nov 3rd 2021 at 5:12:01 AM
Next set of Essential Legends Collection covers are posted. Releasing April 5. https://mobile.twitter.com/DelReyStarWars/status/1455899276270256137
Edited by HeraldAlberich on Nov 3rd 2021 at 8:10:12 AM
Good to see they’re keeping the X-Wing books in print!
That all you got?
Yeah, we need more books about starfighter pilots.
That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.
, Agreed. It took me a bit to realize why that cover art seemed so appropriate—the background color is taken from the color of the Star Wars logo on the original release. Clever.
I’m also happy to see Kenobi getting some love, even if (as I suspect) it’s mostly to hype the upcoming Disney+ series. I wrote the tvtropes page for the book as my first work page and put more time and effort in than I’m ever likely to do again.
Edited by HeraldAlberich on Nov 4th 2021 at 1:11:53 PM
Doctor of Doctorates
Kenobi is one of my favourite EU books, Canon status be damned. I'm curious to see if it has any influence on the new series at all - not in terms of plot but it did get a pretty good "Space Western" feel before the Mandalorian made that cool.
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."
That all you got?
Darth Plagueis was also very good. A good mix of politics and philosophical conversation while not making action the biggest part of it, along with giving us good insight into the Sith.
That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.
They might get into it more if this series of books they're currently doing does well. Although if they did it's likely they'd end up using new characters and such.