Star Wars: Crucible

This book marks the end of an era.  This is almost certainly the furthest ahead in the timeline Star Wars publishing will go before Episode VII comes out.  As someone who is pretty invested in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the concept of Episode VII destroying all of the canon that I have come to love (warts and all) worries me.

Before Episode VII was announced, this book was intended to be a passing of the torch novel.  Luke, Han, and Leia (and Lando!) would fight one last big fight and then at least move a little into the background.  However, when Episode VII was announced Troy Denning actually rewrote the end of the novel so that it was less blatant who the characters were passing the torch to.

Denning obviously felt that he needed more than just the characters advanced age to retire them.  I won't spoil which, if any, of the characters survive the book but basically every single character takes a beating.  Jedi healing trances are pushed almost beyond belief and while there is not that high of a body count, there is a very high injury count.

The book is almost a direct sequel to the last Fate of the Jedi book and it starts in a galaxy that is sort of in a unique position in Star Wars.  There are many Sith throughout, the Jedi are not a part of the government at all, and there are multiple other independent states but still only one big government.  It is a shame that this political situation is (probably) about to get plowed under by the new movie.

There have been some complaints that the villains of this book do not make for a fitting last hurrah for the big three, and maybe that is true.  However, considering all that they have faced, it would be hard to do something so galaxy shatteringly intense that hasn't already been done.  However, these antagonists are different than the vast majority of previous antagonists and that makes them interesting.

Overall, I would give this book a 87%.

Star Wars: Deceived

I read Deceived immediately after I finished Revan.  While they are both part of the same series (the Old Republic) they take place 300 years apart and are very different reads.  Revan's goal was to fill in all the plot holes left open by the gaps between the various games while Deceived's goal was very different.  One of the first promotions for The Old Republic was (a very pretty) cinematic trailer called "Deceived".  This can be watched here for those who are interested.  Deceived was designed to attract people who's interest was piqued by that trailer.  It is essentially the back story and the aftermath of the events depicted in that trailer.

If that seems like a strange basis for a book, it is.  There were parts of the book where the author clearly was watching the trailer and simply writing down what it showed.  However, this somewhat strangeness was made up for with Kemp's no holds barred action scenes.  The book takes a little while to ramp all the way up but once it reaches its top speed it hangs out there for a good while.

Like many of Kemp's books, this is short.  Not because anything is missing simply because Kemp's writing style is such that he just slams everything into the reader and is done.  This is not a complaint, just a comment on style.  There are a couple of extremely memorable scenes though and the book is definitely a fun read.

Overall, I would give this book an 80%.

Star Wars: Revan

Revan was written for the gamers.  It is great at what it does, but that would not really appeal to a normal audience.  This book connects together the two Knights of the Old Republic video games and the new The Old Republic game.  The titular character is the protagonist of the first KOTOR game who disappeared before the start of the second one.  Many fans were somewhat miffed by the jarring transition between the two KOTOR games and have been waiting for something like this for a long time.  However, I am glad that they waited because this allowed them to tie together all three games very neatly and in a sensible way.  However, as you may have gathered, this book would not be the same if you had not played these games.

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Karpyshyn makes a noble effort to keep the reader in the know even if they haven't played the games, but there is so much depth missing if you have not played them.  Honestly, the author did a masterful job at tying together a large number of plot threads from the three different games and all that work will go unappreciated if you have played none of them (for the record I have played one of them completely and half of each of the other two). 

The story goes in a different direction than most Star Wars stories as, instead of rehashing the story of a game, it instead acts as a lead in to one.  This means that it ends a degree of cliffhanger that is uncommon for a novel without an intended sequel. The story is wrapped up, but many plot threads are left dangling because they are continued and wrapped up by The Old Republic.  I have to say that this book did rekindle my interest in the game (which was guttering) so it did accomplish one of its intended goals.  It was also an enjoyable read, but I feel that the domain knowledge hurdle might be a little high for those who have not played the game.

Overall, I would give this book an 80%.

Star Wars: X-Wing: Mercy Kill

The X-Wing series has been a series long beloved by Star Wars book fans.  Unlike many of the other stories, it barely features anyone from the movies and almost no use of the Force.  Before this most recent addition, the books came out over the course of three years over two different authors.  However, for more than a decade, the series laid fallow, until now...

Mercy Kill is the 10th book in a series where the 9th book came out in 1999.  It also serves as kind of an epilogue to a different 9 book series.  In other words, this book has a lot of history behind it.  Surprisingly, it doesn't really feel that way.  Despite being what is basically the 10th book in two separate series, it manages to stand on its own surprisingly well.  This book manages to require very little domain knowledge while avoiding the pitfall of explaining a bunch of previous plot points in a manner that is blatantly just filling new readers in.

Like many Aaron Allston books, this story, while being serious, has a multitude of humorous parts.  Some, especially those worked into the elaborate and stressful climax, provide such a perfect break, that they can have the reader howling with laughter. 

My biggest complaint with this book is that the title is not very accurate.  There is almost no space action in this book.  Almost everything occurs on foot.  There is not really a problem with this, I just feel that a book that has X-Wing in the title should have a little more action having to do with, well,  X-Wings.

The villain was physically not introduced until relatively late in the story but the author does a good job of making him seem like a bad guy without making him a caricature.  Just some of the little things he does really make it clear that the guy is not a paragon of virtue.

Overall, this book is surprisingly accessible and unsurprisingly funny.  I would give it a 91%.

Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories

The Lost Tribe of the Sith stories were released as free eBooks to promote Del Rey's publishing of other Star Wars works.  They were written by John Jackson Miller who is a history nerd and tries to weave all of the history knowledge bottled up in his head into science fiction, making for quite the enjoyable tale.  If you can ever hear him talk about what influenced him to write basically any plot point, it is sure to be interesting and probably have some grounding in world history.

The eBooks became quite popular and so Del Rey decided to publish them together in a collection as well as with a novella that followed after the last story and wrapped up the open ending of the last story.  The novella takes up about 3/8ths of the book, while the other 8 short stories take up the rest. 

The stories cover over 2000 years, so the reader can really watch the society evolve and change over time.  There are basically three trilogies with the novella making up the third part of the last trilogy.  The basic premise is that this group (tribe) of Sith crash lands on an unknown (lost) planet and must support themselves without killing each other, a tall order for Sith.

Each of the stories has a pretty clear protagonist and it is sort of interesting to think that the guy that you are rooting for could easily have been the villain in a variety of other tales.  Also, seeing a large group of ego-centric people try to get along is pretty humorous.

An issue with this is that (if you haven't done the math) not all of the characters get the same amount of screen time.  The final part in the time line takes up about half of the book.  While I didn't have a problem with this, I could easily see how someone could be miffed that they were stuck with characters they didn't like as much as those the author introduced 1000 years ago.

No one from the movies shows up in this story and it requires no real knowledge of the Star Wars universe to enjoy.  The book presents a unique perspective on Star Wars and while the marooned on an alien planet is sort of a sci-fi trope, I can't think of another story that follows the growth of the marooned civilization like this one does.

Overall, I would give this collection a 82%.

Star Wars: Scourge

Scourge is sort of a unique Star Wars book, it contains basically no characters from any of the movies.  However, unlike most Star Wars books, it is kind of a mystery, trying to figure out who the actual villain is.  It has some really fun action scenes and some unique characters.  It really doesn't feel like most tie in novels, mostly because it just expands the overall universe.

The main character is something that you don't see very often in Star Wars, a Jedi lacking in self-confidence.  Then when he is thrown together with other characters, some of whom are from stereotypes not often portrayed as protagonists, they really mesh and it makes for a good story.

The only downside is that it is very short.  It really doesn't take long to finish.  While I cannot point to any specific part of the book that I wish was fleshed out, it just seemed like it could have taken up a little more shelf space.  It was like those amusement park rides that are fun but over far too soon.

Overall, I would give this book a 79%.

Star Wars Reads Day

This post is one of the few posts that are not book reviews.  Today is Star Wars Reads Day.  This is a collaboration by everyone who publishes Star Wars books (Del Rey and Scholastic to name just a couple) to have a national day that celebrates both Star Wars and reading.  Since those two are both things that are near and dear to my heart, I have decided to write up this short post about them.

You might be thinking, "But wait, Star Wars is a movie, how can you read about it?"  While I do love the Star Wars movies, there is a whole universe beyond that in the form of novels, comic books, video games, and other multimedia items.  Unlike many franchises, all of these coexist together and tell one cohesive story  (at least much better than can be expected for something that has been going on for 35+ years under many different publishers and even more authors) streching across millenia of Star Wars "history".  This is a awesome boon for someone like me who has a hard time letting characters go.  I will follow a character basically as long as an author will let me.

While I will freely admit there are many bad books out there with franchise names emblazoned on their covers, there are many good Star Wars books.  I am obviously biased because it is something I like so much, but there is a real sense of connectedness to this universe.  Every book ties in to other books, it is really like reading a history of some undiscovered culture in novel form.  To me the movies are just a fraction of this larger universe.

Some of my personal favorites from this universe:

Revenge of the Sith by Mattew Stover:  This doesn't quite count because it is a novellization of a movie but it is different than almost any other movie novelization and due to the fact that it ties so closely to that movie makes it a great jumping off point for someone getting started in the series.  Here is the books version of the opening crawl and possibly one of my favorite introductions to any book ever: http://web.archive.org/web/20080529033558/http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/release/publishing/f20050330/indexp3.html (It goes the whole page, not just the little bit in italics).


X-Wing: Rouge Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole (and the rest of the X-Wing books):  This is a book set after all the movies about some of the background characters, specifically the pilots.  Despite getting a dance party with ewoks, the war is far from over and this book and series detail some missions and show Star Wars from a different perspective than most of the movies because The Force plays a very small role in these books.  They are much more of the science fiction of Star Wars and much less of the fantasy.  Also, they can be side splittingly funny in parts.

Hard Contact by Karen Traviss: This is about a team of clone commandos behind enemy lines with some jedi action too.  Karen Traviss earned praise from fans (including those in the military) for her gritty and apparently realistic portrayal of what it was actually like to be fighting a war and being a soldier.

Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn (and the rest of the Bane Trilogy): This book takes place a millenia before the movies and features a Sith as the main character. This makes for some really interesting story telling because it is hard to tell who to root for. It too is sort of a unique take on the saga. Showcasing some interesting ideas that are never really explored in the movies.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover: While this is also by Mr. Stover, this is a completely different story.  Its title and style are more meant to evoke the Star Wars novels of the 80s than the modern day ones.  It is a fun story, very serious but with lots of cool hero moments that really evoke the spirit of the movies.

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (and the rest of the Thrawn Trilogy): This is a classic.  It was the first adult star wars novel after a long hiatus.  People were not sure there was even going to be a market for Star Wars books but it sold like crazy when it came out.  It takes place a while after the movies but it is a great jumping in point because that is where many people jumped in.  The antagonist, the aforementioned Thrawn, is a really interesting villian.  (This also ranked 88 on NPRs top 100 Sci-fi and fantasy books)

There are also many other Star Wars books out there, these are only a token few (and some of my favorites).  In the coming months I will be putting reviews of Star Wars books up as I read them.