That's a good one. Claudia Gray has proven to be one of the MVPs of the books.
Star Wars Books Thread
- Thread starter Mr Light
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That's a good one. Claudia Gray has proven to be one of the MVPs of the books.
Recently read two Star Wars graphic novels (it's much easier for me to get into Disney Star Wars comics than the novels). I thought TIE Fighter was quite good, but I didn't care much for Allegiance, the prequel to Rise of Skywalker. I thought it was a great missed opportunity to set up the movie even more than they did. I don't blame the writer so much as Disney/Lucasfilm who no doubt limited the kind of story that could be told.
I had similar feelings towards Resistance Reborn, the novel prequel to Rise of Skywalker. Or really, any of the novel or comic prequels for any of the new movies.
Pretty much the same for the Trek stuff. They aren't going to give us anything meaty.
Read Death Troopers during a recent hospital stay and enjoyed it. A nice blending of Star Wars and zombie horror that made for a nice change of pace for the GFFA.
For the first 100+ pages I felt that with minimum tweaking, it could be set in almost any sci-fi universe given the lack of Jedi and rebellion, but then the two characters that are not mentioned on the back cover or the dramatis personae showed up, placing it firmly in GFFA. It was a nice surprise because I wasn't expecting any more characters to be introduced more than a third of the way into the book.
For the first 100+ pages I felt that with minimum tweaking, it could be set in almost any sci-fi universe given the lack of Jedi and rebellion, but then the two characters that are not mentioned on the back cover or the dramatis personae showed up, placing it firmly in GFFA. It was a nice surprise because I wasn't expecting any more characters to be introduced more than a third of the way into the book.
Yeah, the "Journey to..." stuff for the movies has always been a bit of a letdown in terms of being a movie prequel. Heck, in the past, the best stuff that actually lead into the movie wasn't even part of the program.
The anthology movies had it better, where they actually had prequel novels that set things up for the movie in question.
I don't care for the sequel characters much so I stayed away from Resistance Reborn. However, with Allegiance being a slender volume (too slender IMO) I decided to give it a shot to see if it would have any juicy tidbits of info. I have also read some of the Age of Resistance comics (Kylo Ren and Finn, and actually thought both were better than Allegiance,particularly the Finn story. I thought he was better handled in his one-shot story. In Allegiance he was back to being a goofy character unfortunately.
The Ren story I think tried too hard to have him outdo Vader in some way in a vain attempt to make Ren a legitimate threatening character.
I see what you're saying. Though I haven't read any of the prequel anthology movies I think what you said could also go for the prequel series prequel novels. I didn't read the prequel novel to Attack of the Clones, but Labyrinth of Evil was a pretty good read. I can't say that Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter was officially a prequel to The Phantom Menace, but it did take place right before that movie and I really enjoyed that book.
About the best thing I can say about Allegiance is that it was much better than Shattered Empire. Shattered Empire had some very good artwork, but there wasn't much story there at all. Was there a prequel comic to The Last Jedi? If so, I know I didn't read it.
I recently discovered the app Libby, which hooks into the local library, giving me access to eBooks and audiobooks. I've been working through some of the new Star Wars audiobooks and have finished the Aftermath trilogy, Lost Stars and Last Shot. I should finish up Bloodline today and then will start into Catalyst. Just trying to get caught up on the new "canon." And since my job is pretty mindless, its not a big deal for me to listen at work.
The Age of Resistance comics are pretty good. I especially liked the General Hux one and the insight it gave into him.
I enjoyed Last Shot more as a novel than for how it fit into the movie (in retrospect, I think it was held back by having to be coy about L3 because of the split time-period, while still making her a major part of the story, so it couldn't give us anything about her and Lando, in particular, that went beyond the film). Catalyst, I thought was a bit dull while reading it, but I appreciated it a lot more once I saw Rogue One for all the extra shading it gave Krennic (and to a lesser extent Tarkin and Galen).
Also, another vote in favor of the Age of Resistance miniseries over the actual move prequel comic. I liked them enough that I'll probably pick up the other Age of... collections at some point.
There were a couple of one-shots, one about DJ and how he ended up in the slammer when Finn and Rose find him and an original trilogy-set one where Leia, Luke, and co. first discover Crait (albeit not meshing with the Leia YA novel, which provided an alternative origin story). Didn't read either of them, though (and they were never collected in trade form anywhere
).
I read the first issue of The Rise of Kylo Ren the other day. Right off, I thought the cover art was great. As for the issue, I thought it was rushed, though it did provide some information on
So the issue provided some interesting tidbits of information.
I might buy this one when it comes out in a trade as opposed to monthly.
who the Knights of Ren are and what they are about, as well as what really happened to Luke's Jedi Temple. The artwork inside the book was good, but not as good as the cover.
It feels like Marvel has been unshackled to now provide more meat on the bones of some of the lingering mysteries of the sequel. We got the stuff with the Knights of Ren, we see Ben right after his fight with Luke and more of his conflicted nature, we see that Snoke (I'm assuming) destroyed the Jedi Temple (not Ben), and we see a younger, somewhat healthier looking Snoke (and learn that Luke gave him his injuries, though I can't say he inflicted them all), and we get a weird, creepy embrace between Snoke and Ben, which showed more affection between the two than was depicted in The Last Jedi, which could mean their relationship deteriorated by that point, or that Snoke was just being nicer and empathetic, like Palpatine in the prequels, was until he could bring Ben fully, or more fully, over to the dark side.
The book also introduced three Jedi students who are on the Ben's trail. One is dead set on stopping Ben, another is more disbelieving that Ben would kill Luke (which Ben believes he's done), and the other is more on the con-Ben side. We also get a look at this kind of another world Snoke seemingly lives on.
It feels like Marvel has been unshackled to now provide more meat on the bones of some of the lingering mysteries of the sequel. We got the stuff with the Knights of Ren, we see Ben right after his fight with Luke and more of his conflicted nature, we see that Snoke (I'm assuming) destroyed the Jedi Temple (not Ben), and we see a younger, somewhat healthier looking Snoke (and learn that Luke gave him his injuries, though I can't say he inflicted them all), and we get a weird, creepy embrace between Snoke and Ben, which showed more affection between the two than was depicted in The Last Jedi, which could mean their relationship deteriorated by that point, or that Snoke was just being nicer and empathetic, like Palpatine in the prequels, was until he could bring Ben fully, or more fully, over to the dark side.
The book also introduced three Jedi students who are on the Ben's trail. One is dead set on stopping Ben, another is more disbelieving that Ben would kill Luke (which Ben believes he's done), and the other is more on the con-Ben side. We also get a look at this kind of another world Snoke seemingly lives on.
I might buy this one when it comes out in a trade as opposed to monthly.
I also read the Mace Windu miniseries, from 2017, Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu. I had read an issue or two of it before and it hadn't grabbed me. But this go around I liked it much more. I thought the antagonist was interesting, and I liked the insight into Windu's mindset and some of philosophical questions raised about the Clone Wars and the role and motivation of the Jedi and the Old Republic in that war.
It reminded a bit of the Dark Horse Mace Windu one-shot, which I also remember enjoying.
It reminded a bit of the Dark Horse Mace Windu one-shot, which I also remember enjoying.
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