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Post by Falconer on Aug 10, 2018 10:43:47 GMT -6
Everyone— I decided I’ll do a book club (or readthroughs or retrospectives or whatever you want to call them). It’ll cover everything written (in the 90s) by Zahn, Stackpole, and Allston, in publication order, and from time to time we’ll take a break to read the older (70s) Daley novels. These are the books I’m into, so, that’s what I’m going to do! We’ll move fairly quickly, for the sake of holding interest. Probably one week for shorter books, two weeks for longer books. We’ll start on Monday with Heir to the Empire. Hope you can read along with me!
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Post by boot on Aug 10, 2018 11:06:14 GMT -6
If people are interested in Audiobook, I will say that the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary version is a top notch production. The narrator, Marc Thompson, is the best when it comes to original trilogy Star Wars stuff. He's got Luke's and Han's voices down to just about perfect. The books have some of John Williams' score plus sound effects. It's a fantastic listen. Highly recommended. STAR WARS HEIR TO THE EMPIRE 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITIONAnother thing that I'm interested in is the Behind The Scenes piece that Timothy Zahn did where he gives us a look at the writing of the books. I wasn't sure I wanted this until I listened to the sample. Now, it's on my que--the next time I buy Star Wars stuff.... STAR WARS BEHIND THE SCENES - THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE IS BORN
One part that I am really interested in listening to is a section where Zahn discusses the influence of WEG's D6 game on his writing. SAMPLE - THIS IS FREE ON AUDIBLE. JUST DOWNLOAD AND CHECK IT OUT.
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Post by finarvyn on Aug 11, 2018 6:30:06 GMT -6
Falconer, my hope is that you would do one thread on each book instead of a single stream-of-consciousness thread as you go. That way, if someone reads a book after you do they might be able to toss in comments, etc.
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Post by Falconer on Aug 11, 2018 7:25:57 GMT -6
Of course!
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Post by Falconer on Aug 12, 2018 18:20:43 GMT -6
The Marc Thompson unabridged audio production is excellent!
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Post by rafael on Aug 15, 2018 15:14:16 GMT -6
This Sith is in on this.
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Post by Falconer on Aug 22, 2018 21:23:25 GMT -6
Okay, I’ll get to this real soon. I’m very excited to do this but it has been a harrowing couple of weeks including a very major tragedy that occurred in my community.
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Book Club
Aug 22, 2018 22:42:34 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Starbeard on Aug 22, 2018 22:42:34 GMT -6
Sorry to hear about things on your end. Let us know when you're ready to kick things off, I'd be interested in joining in.
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Post by Starbeard on Nov 5, 2018 17:02:46 GMT -6
I just picked up Heir to the Empire and enjoyed the first couple of chapters. Is this book club still a prospect?
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Post by Starbeard on Nov 14, 2018 10:21:29 GMT -6
I've been getting through Heir to the Empire much more quickly than I guessed I would. I'm nearly three quarters of the way through now.
Overall, I really like it. Zahn's writing style doesn't really leap out at me, but it doesn't grate either. It's just neutral. Clearly for Zahn the story itself is more important than the way it's told, which is just fine.
I've never actually read any stories involving the star cast of EU characters (Talon Karrde, Mara Jade, Thrawn), and so I was sort surprised to see them all show up right away at the very start of the EU. My EU reading in the 90s was scattered and limited, and so I was always under the impression that the EU books started more or less directly after RotJ and moved in haphazard chronological fashion along the timeline, introducing the new EU characters and events one at a time—but here, the Thrawn trilogy already hits the ground running 5 years later, with a whole cast of characters and plenty of backstory already formulated.
Thrawn and Karrde are very good characters. I enjoy each of their chapters. As for Mara, I'm not feeling her too much at the moment, she seems written with a heavy hammer and usually just brings down the quality of the whole scene she's in. Hopefully she'll grow on me in future stories.
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Post by boot on Nov 14, 2018 18:41:20 GMT -6
Of course, Heir to the Empire is the first EU book. Before it, only Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the three Lando books, and the three Han Solo books existed outside of the three movie novelizations. Heir has really grown on me over the years. I think the second book sags a bit under the weight of the story. It feels a bit stretched out and padded. But, overall, Zahn's trilogy is top notch. It's one of the few Star Wars books that really captures the feel of the original trilogy. You should check out this AFTER you finish Heir: It may increase your appreciation of Zahn's work. Behind The ScenesHere is a free sample that you can download and check out: Freebie
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Post by Starbeard on Nov 15, 2018 13:18:35 GMT -6
Just finished it, and loved it. I'm still on the fence about Mara, and I'm not sure I'm buying her backstory just yet, but she was definitely much more interesting in the forest scenes with Luke, where Zahn could take the time to develop her a bit.
Thanks for the audio link, I'll definitely check it out. It should give me something to mull over for the next couple of weeks before I can get a copy of the next book.
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Post by Starbeard on Jul 8, 2019 16:58:47 GMT -6
I'm now officially done with the Thrawn Trilogy. It was a good ride.
Negative points out of the way first: I found the writing style more grating in the second two books, though not consistently. Mara got a lot better, but the relationship between Thrawn and Pellaeon got a little boring and repetitive. I think his character writing was weakest with Leia, she too often seemed to be the one giving big explanatory monologues, her voice didn't really seem to carry over for me. One thing in particular that got old was how, especially in the last book, Zahn relied way too much on describing how the characters "Turn the corner…
To find something they didn't quite expect. Not by a long shot."
I just thought he used that particular writing device to add emphasis too often for it to be effective.
Now the good stuff: Mara was pretty darn cool after all. Except for Leia in the second and third books, his writing for the characters we all know and love is spot on and really convincing. His space battles are great, and read just like scenes from the movies.
I also really liked Pellaeon. I thought having Thrawn's story told through him in second person was a great move, borrowed straight from the relationship between Watson and Holmes. It gave the Empire a bit more authenticity, and kept Thrawn and his infallible deductions enigmatic.
Finally, I loved Lando, and the slight running joke of him always getting caught in the middle of trouble when he doesn't have his blaster around.
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Post by boot on Jul 8, 2019 18:36:27 GMT -6
The Behind The Scenes CLICK HERE stuff is a pretty neat listen and increased my appreciation of Zahn's effort. He really strived to get it "right". The sequel to that trilogy is a Hand of Thrawn duology... Book 1 Specter of the PastBook 2 Visions of the FutureWhere the trilogy you just read starts the EU, this duology is the ending. Thrawn also wrote a book about the Outbound Flight Project (called Outbound Flight)
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Post by Starbeard on Jul 20, 2019 18:22:03 GMT -6
Thanks for the link, I'm looking forward to diving into the behind the scenes stuff.
Late nights staying up with the baby have put me on another roll, I've just finished The Truce at Bakura. The comparison makes me like Zahn's Thrawn books even more. Bakura isn't bad, just not what I'm looking for in a Star Wars novel. The characters say all the right things (again, except Leia; it seems she's the hardest character of the classic cast to really pin down, maybe because her style of dialogue changes so much between movies?), but it just doesn't feel as natural as the way Zahn does it. The Force isn't any fun or awe-inspiring either, it's all just a bunch people brushing each other's Force-senses and swooning over how emotional it all is.
Again, not bad, there were definitely some good and exciting parts, but overall it just wasn't my cup of tea. It does hit all the right notes if you're into a certain type of novel, though. Back in the day, almost all the people I knew who were avid Star Wars readers were women who also read huge amounts of historical and urban fantasy adventure/romances, and now I can see why there was that overlap. The writing style of Truce at Bakura reads almost like it was calculated to fit right into that target audience.
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