Star Wars

Yeah, I find Anderson to be a pretty weak writer - you’re esp. right about Mara; I also don’t like how all his villains are idiots. I enjoy I, Jedi a lot more.

Looking forward to your thoughts on Bakura!

~Herald Alberich, what did you think of The Courtship of Princess Leia?

Edited by Galadriel on Jan 17th 2023 at 4:14:54 AM

Not great, on the whole. I think I called it "mediocre" a few pages ago and I stand by that. I found that it gets better in the last third or so, though, once all the contrived setup and poorly-written character bits are out of the way and we get to the meat of the action.

For all that Aaron Allston tried to rejuvenate Zsinj and Han's characters in Solo Command, especially by leaning into how much the campaign against Zsinj was wearying and depressing for Han, to go from that straight into Han's frankly juvenile characterization in Courtship is jarring. After the straight-up kidnapping of Leia which everyone acknowledges is terrible (side note: Gun of Command? Where's that technology in any other book?), he initially tries to win her over by cooking dinner? Badly? He should be smarter and know Leia better than that. Leia acts petty and without her usual gravitas (but to be fair, kidnapped). Isolder isn't much better.

The problematic Lady Land societies of both Dathomir and Hapes are glossed over.

Again, once that's done it turns out Dave Wolverton could write some good action scenes. (And he was also the famous David Farland, so he ought to.) Luke being nearly killed by a Force-induced brain aneurysm is a horrifyingly plausible use of the dark side. The whole Battle of Singing Mountain is a whirlwind ride through what a bunch of Force-sensitives on both sides can do to each other. (I am a little sad that General Melvar goes out like a chump after seeing Allston's version of the character.) Seeing all the characters get over themselves and work together is satisfying. Han's attempted Heroic Sacrifice and successful triumph over Zsinj are decently plausible reasons for Leia to forgive him and fall for him again.

And even the final punchline makes C-3PO's annoying "King Han Solo" subplot mostly worthwhile.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Jan 17th 2023 at 1:59:54 PM

Yeah, I’d agree with most of that. It’s not a good book but it has its moments.

Courtship falls into the Legends catagory I call 'bad, but enjoyable, and introduces things that become used way better later.'

Like, this is where the Witches of Dathomir come from. This book. And look where they go, both in Legends and in Canon.

I imagine the Jedi Academy Trilogy falls into that category. Anything else in particular you’re thinking of?

Dark Empire is a big one, but also the Junior Jedi Knights books. I love that a ton of the NJO is reliant on 6 kiddie books almost no one read.

I don't know how it is in Legends, but in current canon don't the Witches just end up going to extermination? Like, a couple of individuals survive, but as a society they basically go extinct at the end of the Clone Wars.

Edited by Theriocephalus on Jan 18th 2023 at 8:13:16 AM

They've already started adding survivors.

There's one in Fallen Order.

Speaking of, I'd love to see that explored more in a book, since it seems the best place for that sort of deeper lore examination. Merrin uses Nightsister magic, but isn't associated with most of the malevolent "steeped in the dark side" concepts of the others, which would imply Nightsister magic isn't inherently dark-side affiliated, and maybe even that it has sides in the same way the Jedi / Sith dichotomy does.

I'd be down for a book with Merrin or another heroic Nightsister character that explores what the light looks like for that brand of force mysticism.

Plus, like, hell, a light-side necromancer^note Merrin's magic seems focused on drawing on the protective spirits of ancestors to guard from malevolent invaders, which would sidestep the usual "selfish perversion of life" tropes necromancy usually has in The 'Verse in the Star Wars universe? Sounds crazy. Sign me up.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 18th 2023 at 9:02:55 AM

One thing I noticed about the Nightsisters' magic is that it's represented by the same colour as life energy (whenever it was actually shown in animated content).

For example, there was an arc in Clone Wars where Mace and Jar-Jar had to deal with a Dark Side cult attempting to steal the life energy of the Force-sensitive leaders of a a religious order - and said energy was green.

That implies to me that fundamentally, the Nightsisters' magic might be more accurately described as life magic, so to speak.

It's not necessarily good or evil, but because the Nightsisters lived on a planet that was shrouded in the Dark Side, their use of it became, well, twisted.

That would be going back to its roots, since in Courtship the Nightsisters are just the dark-side-using subset of the Witches of Dathomir. They all use the same spells and rituals to access the Force, but those who use it for evil/selfishness/aggression/etc develop facial blemishes and are banished, either to atone and return or to join the Nightsisters.

Hello, new guy here.

I should note that canon anthology book the clone wars: stories of Light and dark did confirm that nightsisters are just one of several clans of witches of Dathomir in canon as well.

While we don’t know much to make concetrate statement, I do like idea that in canon magick of dathomirian witches dosen’t separate into dark and Light side (or at least is lot more trivial) like it seems most force belief sistems do.

It'd be cool if someone took a crack at making a horror yarn in the star wars universe. The OT especially is heavily influenced in part by hokey gothic horror imagery yet nobody writing Star Wars has yet really leaned into that

I admit I have an idea of horror story that are two sith aprentices trying to enter the tomb of a ancient sith lord who was expert in ilusions and entering the mind of people.

There was apparently Galaxy of Fear, though since those were for children I imagine that they're about as scary as Goosebumps books.

That's about right, from what I remember. The kids might encounter a carnivorous planet but they'd escape it with Han Solo and a space skateboard.

High republic book fallen star has some horror elements with the Nameless slowly picking jedi one by one and none of them having idea what is going on. Not straight up horror, but definetely in that direction.

Would Abeloth count as a horror character?

Cosmic Horror which is kind of horror so, yes.

While I know good deal of Star Wars works with horror elements, only book that i could explicidly call horror, except Galaxy of fear, is Dark Legends anthology.

Death Troopers probably counts too.

Death Troopers was one of those things where you can see the author fighting against the constraints of IP. Horror could work super well in Star Wars, but modern zombie style horror not at all. Star Wars is kind of inherently really pulpy and hokey so I think a good Horror focused Star Wars story would be more like Temple of Doom or Clash of The Titans. Like a mostly adventure story with Horror bits

I’m not a horror fan of any stripe, and Death Troopers is the one SW book I couldn’t finish. It was just uncomfortable and I realized I didn’t need to spend any more of my reading time on it. I tried again with the audiobook, which generally take less time, and put it down even more quickly.

I did get through the audiobook of Maul: Lockdown by the same author.

Speaking of audiobooks, I just finished the new recording of The Krytos Trap, and The Bacta War is in my queue. It really is a shame they've suspended doing audiobooks for the Essential Legends Collection because Marc Thompson's narration elevates these already excellent books. If there's one thing Stackpole is notorious for, it's Beige Prose, and Thompson (the best of Del Rey's usual stable of Star Wars narrators, IMO) injects more emotion into the words than I'd ever given them credit for. It actually clarifies what the previously dry prose is trying to convey in many cases.

Has the High Republic delved into horror?

Nameless and Drengir (Animalistic Abominations that can turn force sensitives in a stone and Botanical abominations that can mind control people) definitely have horror vibes. Fallen star definetely has thing vibes and while I haven’t yet read it Into the Darkness also sounds pretty horror-i with Drengir.