Star Wars Books Thread

[Reverend]

Not necessarily. There's enough soldier worship in American culture to really sell that angle in a protagonist whose intentions and/or cause are not necessarily honorable. It's extremely hard to do and most game developers try to avoid putting themselves in that situation (let's count the number of first person shooters set in the Vietnam War ) but it's not impossible. As in films and novels of the same type, it really just requires the protagonist mostly owning the fact that they're probably fighting for the wrong side and may or may not be even be a good person, but then adopts a "fuck it, I wanna LIVE!" approach and fights on anyway. The story becomes less about morality or empires or some broader mission and a lot more about "Holy crap, there's a million people trying to kill me and how the hell am I gonna get out of this one?!"

What you're describing is generally only suited to telling the story of a foot soldier (basically, Finn's story.)
Iden Versio is elite special forces, which means she's already hip-deep in moral ambiguity from the off-set.

I'm not saying they won't go that route, but it doesn't seem like much of a character arc given the starting point.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

What you're describing is generally only suited to telling the story of a foot soldier (basically, Finn's story.)
Iden Versio is elite special forces, which means she's already hip-deep in moral ambiguity from the off-set.

I'm not saying they won't go that route, but it doesn't seem like much of a character arc given the starting point.

Depends on how much of the material in the books is actually based on/relevant to the game development. In my experience, that isn't always something you can count on.

Besides, the scope of the character arc really depends on where that arc ENDS. If it ends with survival and joining the First Order then it's a pretty flat and pointless one. If, on the other hand, it ends up with the protagonist and most of the main characters dying heroic and/or ironic deaths on the battlefield in service of what they refuse to believe is a lost cause, that can set you up for a bit of a satisfying downer ending too. After all, if you can imagine that this isn't totally unusual for imperial officers, then you have gotten into the heads of all the thousands of storm troopers and grey shirts that got blasted all through the Star Wars franchise. Those storm troopers and pilots aren't so faceless anymore; they're not beautiful or compelling characters either, but at least now you know who you're killing (by the TRUCKLOAD) and what they're all about.

 

[Ithekro]

The novel appears to take place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The game's story with starts during Return of the Jedi and goes from there.

Iden Versio is suppose to be a hard core pro-Imperial loyalist from a planet that is pro-Imperial because it would be like a utopia for the New Order. Everything is orderly, lawful, secure. The coming of the Empire, as far as they are concerned, ended the chaos of the Clone Wars and the weakness and corruption that was the Republic. Palpatine was a great leader as far as she was concerned. Where it goes from there....I don't know.

 

[JD]

I am to see how they approach giving us heroic Imperials in book and game, it seems like something that could be a challenge given the way they tend to be portrayed.
I think Claudia Gray managed to make it work in Lost Stars because we had we had Thane there to also give us the Rebel perspective as a counter to Ciena's Imperial one.

 

[Reverend]

I am to see how they approach giving us heroic Imperials in book and game, it seems like something that could be a challenge given the way they tend to be portrayed.
I think Claudia Gray managed to make it work in Lost Stars because we had we had Thane there to also give us the Rebel perspective as a counter to Ciena's Imperial one.

Thrawn and Pellaeon were always the gold standard when it came to relatable, if not exactly sympathetic Imperials. Unfortunately, with a bare handful of exceptions, a lot of the old EU writers weren't very good at this sort of thing, so there tended to be a lot of one dimensional moustache twirlers.

Indeed, aside from those two the only memorable Imperial villains prior to the Disney buyout was probably Ysanne Isard. As enjoyable as Stackpole's stories were, I often felt that her being such a straight-up evil villain was sadly one of the few weak links in the 'X-Wing' books.

(Note: I don't generally count Mara Jade, since she was never really a villain and was introduced as someone trying to put her Imperial past behind her.)

 

[Tuskin38]

Isard's father is canon thanks to Tarkin, I wonder if some form of Ysanne will come back.

 

[Reverend]

Isard's father is canon thanks to Tarkin, I wonder if some form of Ysanne will come back.

Seems likely, sooner or later. I half expected her to be the season 4 villain for 'Rebels' on the assumption that Thrawn would be gone, but it appears he's sticking around for the time being, so probably not.
She might be a good candidate for 'Forces of Destiny' if it ever broadens it's scope beyond these little two minute shorts, or even the Freemaker Adventures. A comic book or novel appearance wouldn't be out of the question either, nor whatever show is going to replace 'Rebels' (depending on the setting of course.)

 

[Turtletrekker]

Keiron Gillen will be writing an acknowledgement of the events of Rogue One when he takes over the main Star Wars book for Marvel. Luke, Leia and Han will visit the ruins at Jedha and learn of the heroics of Jyn, Cassian and the rest.

"Luke took a million to one shot [blowing up the Death Star], but he didn't realize in a very real way how many people died to let him take that shot. And that's a really inspiring thing. That's going to drive him harder than ever. We basically get a 'Rogue One-Star Wars' intersection, because I really just want to see Luke respond to discovering people like Jyn, discovering the people who led to him being able to take a shot at the Death Star. Luke is desperately seeking the Force and of course it's one of the holiest cities in the universe, and it's been blown up. The key image is Luke standing in the hole where the Death Star blew it."

 

[kirk55555]

Keiron Gillen will be writing an acknowledgement of the events of Rogue One when he takes over the main Star Wars book for Marvel. Luke, Leia and Han will visit the ruins at Jedha and learn of the heroics of Jyn, Cassian and the rest.

That's pretty cool. It also makes sense, since I'm sure the Rebellion would treat Jyn and her friends as heroes to be remembered after what they did so having the main three heroes learn about them feels like something that would naturally happen and not some shoehorned connection.

 

[Skywalker]

Inferno Squad was excellent. I wasn't very impressed with Christie Golden's two Legends offerings, but I really enjoyed both this and Dark Disciple.

 

[JD]

That's pretty cool. It also makes sense, since I'm sure the Rebellion would treat Jyn and her friends as heroes to be remembered after what they did so having the main three heroes learn about them feels like something that would naturally happen and not some shoehorned connection.

Yeah, this does sound good.

 

[Tuskin38]

That comic about K2 and Cassian is out now. I haven't picked it up yet.

 

[Skywalker]

I read Cassian & K-2SO...

Spoiler

It was okay, but either it needed to be a double-length issue or they should have made this a three- or five-part miniseries. Everything moved way too quickly. (Who knew it could be so easy to reprogram an Imperial war droid?) And Cassian was a little too light-hearted. I didn't get the same sense of a soldier weighed down by the burden of the terrible things he's done for the Rebellion that I got in Rogue One. And because of the length, we never really got a sense of how K-2SO felt about all of this, or about no longer being under Imperial control.

The most interesting thing about this was the new species it introduced, which communicates via scent. And even then they still look way too humanoid.

 

[The Wormhole]

Inferno Squad is an enjoyable novel, even if it's a bit predictable. Granted, in one case, the author's dedication at the very beginning hints at one character's fate, but I also found the identity of the mysterious Mentor very easy to figure out. Still, the Inferno Squad themselves were a fun and interesting group of characters which made for an otherwise enjoyable novel.

 

[Reverend]

Inferno Squad is an enjoyable novel, even if it's a bit predictable. Granted, in one case, the author's dedication at the very beginning hints at one character's fate, but I also found the identity of the mysterious Mentor very easy to figure out. Still, the Inferno Squad themselves were a fun and interesting group of characters which made for an otherwise enjoyable novel.

I'm enjoying it so far. Nothing spectacular, but a solid story told from an interesting perspective and in a way it works as a neat companion piece to 'Rebel Rising'. Indeed, it almost feels like the fourth book in a series; from Catalyst, to Rebel Rising, the Rogue One adaptation to Inferno Squad.

Haven't gotten to the reveal of The Mentor yet, but I'm in absolutely no doubt who it is. Judging by how many blatant hints there are, I get the impression the author wants the audience (at least the part of the audience familiar with the character) to know way ahead of time who he is. Presumably to build a sense of anticipation, but I think it also helps to get a sense of how much he's changed since we saw him last.

 

[JD]

We're going to be getting a second Rogue One comic book adaptation, this one is a graphic novel coming from IDW. The big point point of difference for this one is that it is done in the art is done in the style of Disney animation.
Unless there's more of a big selling point to this one, if I decide to go for a RO comic book adaptation, it'll be the Marvel one.

 

[WebLurker]

We're going to be getting a second Rogue One comic book adaptation, this one is a graphic novel coming from IDW. The big point point of difference for this one is that it is done in the art is done in the style of Disney animation.
Unless there's more of a big selling point to this one, if I decide to go for a RO comic book adaptation, it'll be the Marvel one.

Yeah, the Marvel version has extra scenes woven into it and the hard cover trade "paperback" will also reprint the Cassian and K2-SO one-shot comic Marvel made. The IDW one looks cool, but doesn't seem to offer anything new.

 

[Tuskin38]

Phasma novel excerpt

http://www.starwars.com/news/phasma-excerpt-first-order-captain-journey-begins

 

[JD]

Very interesting, that was not what I expected for her backstory.

 

[The Wormhole]

Skimming over that excerpt, it seems I was wrong in my theory that the unnamed aggressive teenage girl travelling with Armitage Hux (who grows up to be General Hux in TFA) in the novel Empire's End was Phasma. Oh well, this seems an interesting origin all the same.