rggzy-reads

[rggzy-reads]

Alright time for another catch-up review! This time, for X-Wing: Rogue Squadron. I remember after finishing this book feeling pretty good about this whole project, it was super fun and the story had me hooked. I won’t do a plot summary for the X-Wing books because there’s tons of characters, and sometimes details can cross over between the books too, so it’s hard to sum it all up in a neat paragraph.

I think one of the neat aspects I really appreciated about this book was the casual mentions characters would make that would help build up established lore from the movies- for example, a character mentions that Wedge Antilles has two Death Stars painted on his X-Wing. That’s a detail that makes me envision the ship, the character, and how people in the story think about it. It helps me remember that, woah, Wedge really was part of both Death Star runs and survived, and that’s badass and now we get to see more about him!

This book really understands my itch for lore drops in the Legends timeline. There’s a lot of characters and concepts that will appear in many more books, or that may have appeared in other ones before this (I’m doing timeline order for this reading, not release date). Characters like Tycho Chelchu are cool because he was part of missions from the movies and previous books- Hoth, Endor, Bakura (see, it’s already appeared!). I love the military protocol droid Emtrey, the fact that he’s programmed to get together any necessary equipment is very funny and interesting for a droid. Plus, this book expands on the Bothans, who are much more important (?) in Legends lore. Already, this first book is setting up a direction for a larger story- the Empire still has remnants, how will the New Republic handle them?

My favorite character introduced has to be Corran. Maybe I just like the trope of the main character not trusting anyone, but eventually learns to love their teammates. However, it felt good for a character to actually listen to the needs of the people around them and then change for the better. He’s able to instill more of an inner peace and trust as he advances his career with Rogue Squadron.

Alright, now as much as I love this book and Legends in general, we gotta look at the elephant in the room. These books do not handle women characters well. At all. And it’s not easy to ignore, any woman who’s central to the plot has to have something like “shapely legs” or needs to be the kind of person that everyone falls in love with immediately. It comes up again and again in these X-Wing books, and there are even some times where women just aren’t treated well and it’s considered normal. That’s not to say that characters like Mirax, who’s an independent rogue smuggler, aren’t cool! It’s just that authors like Stackpole just don’t know how to write women sometimes.

With that said, I still think this book is lots of fun, and I enjoyed it a lot. I wish these books from the 90s simply treated women better, and the sections where it happens are not super prevalent. The surrounding stuff is cool, and if you’re going to read any X-Wing novel you should probably read this one.

[rggzy-reads]

It’s been a hot minute since I read it, but I gotta catch up eventually- so let’s start with The Truce at Bakura! An overall impression of this book- weird, and does some good stuff and includes some fun lore, but loses me at parts.

A quick story summary, so spoilers for this Star Wars book from 1993 if you care:

Picking up directly after Return of the Jedi, the Rebel Alliance intercepts an old messenger shuttle from Bakura, an imperial-ruled planet on the far edge of the galaxy near the Unknown Regions. News of Emperor Palpatine’s death has not spread there quite yet, and they’re requesting backup for an external invasion. Leia, Luke, and Han decide this may be a good way to flip a relatively important imperial world, so they take a fleet to help out. Lots of politics and interactions with the people on the world later, they finally end up battling the Ssi-ruuk: a species of aliens that look like velociraptors and enslave sentient species to drain their life essence into combat droids and ships. A team-up, or the titular “Truce” is what it takes to drive off the Ssi-ruuvi forces, but the Alliance is also able to defeat the Imperial forces that try to double cross them.

As this is the book that sets the tone for my reading journey, there’s a lot to unpack- first, I really liked the lore drops in this one. There’s implications early on that Leia is looking to restore the “Old Republic” (it’s what they call the Republic before the Empire, I don’t think it’s related to the KOTOR series, though the implications of that would be pretty crazy), but also that Luke is looking to make a new Jedi Order even though he’s still pretty focused on military expeditions at this point. The other wild thing that happens in this book is that a Force Ghost Anakin appears to Leia, as she’s still freaked out about the fact that he is her father, and hasn’t accepted it as Luke has. Super cool moment, and it’s one that I would like to see explored in Canon eventually.

Alright, why do I think this book is weird but fun then? Kathy Tyers does a really good job of dialogue in this book, I found conversations between the main three of Luke, Leia, and Han to flow well, and she gets the way they all push each other’s buttons and pester each other down really well. The weirdness starts in a trend that more Star Wars authors will follow- a love interest character for Luke, in this book her name is Gaeriel. Her presence glitters in the Force for Luke, and she distrusts him because she went to imperial university and doesn’t like Jedi or whatever because of it. It’s just a weak tension that gets resolved once Luke force heals her grandma, and then nothing happens between them.

The other weird part of this book? The ssi-ruuk. It’s not like a saurian species in Star Wars is all that weird, it’s just the fact that they really only appear in this book, and the technology they use involving the force and hypnotism, there was something in the descriptions of their ships that made it feel like a mismatch in the Star Wars universe. I guess anything from the Unknown Regions is going to be weird, but setting up their ambitions of a galaxy-wide invasion and taking care of it by the end of the book lowered the stakes quite a bit.

Overall, this book is fun! It’s strange, it’s weird, it’s seemingly important for lore (and will be referenced later), and is probably only about 300 pages or so. If you get your hands on it I would recommend to read it and see how you feel about some of the weirder elements.

[rggzy-reads]

Alrighty, so I want to outline a project I’ll document on this blog! Ever since I picked up a copy of Vector Prime by RA Salvator at a thrift store, I’ve been very intrigued by the Star Wars Legends timeline as it pertains to the New Jedi Order- I enjoyed my time with it but there were so many questions I had! So many characters, and new villains, and background politics with the New Republic. So I set out to try and find a way to understand what the hell was going on- by reading, in chronological within the universe order, every main book post Return of the Jedi. (Thank you Wookiepedia and your Legends Timeline, the ability to filter out pretty much every category other than the adult novels and young adult was life saving https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Legends_books )

This journey has been going on since March of 2022, and will probably be going on for a while, as I’ve finished about 8 out of 97ish books. But what am I interested in when it comes to reading all of these? I think the most important thing is the lore, I’m interested in how cohesive of a universe and story this series of books presents. Surely it’s different from Canon, and so far the lore even paints a much different picture than the prequel movies. I love trying to find all the little details, and then see if any of those details are expanded upon in further books. I’ll certainly comment on the quality of the books too, as even at this point I’ve read some straight up bad books imo. My prediction for how I’ll feel at the end of this? Probably satisfied in a job well done, but I have a feeling I’ll find the whole timeline to be pretty inconsistent and messy, but fun!

This is my complete list:

- Truce at Bakura

- X-Wing Series

X-Wing: Rogue Squadron

X-Wing: Wedge’s Gamble

X-Wing: The Krytos Trap

X-Wing: The Bacta War

X-Wing: Wraith Squadron

X-Wing: Iron Fist

X-Wing: Solo Command

- The Courtship of Princess Leia

- The Thrawn Trilogy

Heir to the Empire

Dark Force Rising

The Last Command

- X-Wing: Isard’s Revenge

- Jedi Academy Trilogy

Jedi Search

Dark Apprentice

Champions of the Force

- I, Jedi

- Castilla Cycle

Children of the Jedi

Darksaber

- X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar

Planet of Twilight

- The Crystal Star

- Black Fleet Crisis

Before the Storm

Shield of Lies

Tyrant’s Nest

- The New Rebellion

- The Corellian Trilogy

Ambush at Corellia

Assault at Selonia

Showdown at Centerpoint

- Thrawn Duology

Specter of the Past

Vision of the Future

- Junior Jedi Knight Series

The Golden Globe

Lyric’s World

Promises

Anakin’s Quest

Vader’s Fortress

Kenobi’s Blade

- Survivor’s Quest

- Young Jedi Knights Series

Heirs of the Force

Shadow Academy

The Lost Ones

Lightsabers

Darkest Knight

Jedi Under Siege

Shards of Alderaan

Diversity Alliance

Delusions of Grandeur

Jedi Bounty

The Emperor’s Plague

Return to Order Mantell

Trouble on Cloud City

Crisis at Crystal Reef

- New Jedi Order Series

Vector Prime

Dark Tide I: Onslaught

Dark Tide II: Ruin

Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial

Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse

Balance Point

Edge of Victory I: Conquest

Edge of Victory II: Rebirth

Star by Star

Dark Journey

Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream

Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand

Traitor

Destiny’s Way

Force Heretic I: Remnant

Force Heretic II: Refugee

Force Heretic III: Reunion

The Final Prophecy

The Unifying Force

Dark Nest I: The Joiner King

Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen

Dark Nest III: The Swarm War

- Legacy Series

Legacy of the Force: Betrayal

Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines

Legacy of the Force: Tempest

Legacy of the Force: Exile

Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice

Legacy of the Force: Inferno

Legacy of the Force: Fury

Legacy of the Force: Revelation

Legacy of the Force: Invincible

- Crosscurrent

- Riptide

- Millenium Falcon

- Fate Series

Fate of the Jedi: Outcast

Fate of the Jedi: Omen

Fate of the Jedi: Abyss

Fate of the Jedi: Backlash

Fate of the Jedi: Allies

Fate of the Jedi: Vortex

Fate of the Jedi: Conviction

Fate of the Jedi: Ascension

Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse

- X-Wing: Mercy Kill

- Crucible