I spent half my day at work reading all the super weapon entries on Wookiepedia. Also, I got home late because we won trivia at the bar, but there were no Star Wars questions.
Splinter of the Mind's Eye Sweet Ralph Macquarie cover art, courtesy of Wookiepedia! Summary: Luke and Leia crash on a swamp planet. Leia has PTSD. Luke has a crush on her. They go looking for the Kaiburr Crystal with cranky Force grandma and replacement Chewie twins. Darth Vader shows up and mostly kicks their asses, but he falls in a hole. What it introduces: Naming things X of the Y : Which would hold for 4 of the 9 movies, 70ish novels, and numerous video games, comics, etc. The Kaiburr Crystal: Shards of which would become the most desirable lightsaber focusing crystals in the later EU. Kyber crystals would make an appearance in the new canon as both lightsaber crystals and part of the Death Star's superlaser. Commentary: Splinter of the Mind's Eye is widely considered the first book in the Expanded Universe. It was published in 1978, about half a year after the original release of Star Wars/A New Hope. Preceding it are a few of the Marvel Comics (which I'll be...
ANH Radio Drama I've talked before about how the radio drama is my favorite adaptation of the OT. In many ways, it serves the role often played by a novelization by expanding on the original story moreso than the actual novels (particularly ANH). If you haven't listened, bounce over to Youtube: Or The Internet Archive and have a listen. George Lucas cut the University of Southern California (his alma mater) a sweetheart dollar deal to license the story, music, and sound effects. Brian Daley (who wrote the Han Solo trilogy earlier) did the scripts. In the modern era of big budget podcasts and audiobooks, it's a little harder to express how freaking cool these were as a kid into Star Wars in the 90s (though the Jedi adaptation wasn't produced until 1996). I literally wore out my cassettes. Long story short, these are professionally produced, well directed, and make great use of John William's score (with a few additional cues recorded for the occasion) and a full cas...
It's been how long since I did one of these? How did I format them? I think after over explaining Heir to the Empire I'm going to go a little more informal with these. Honestly, I don't love 'em. I talked before about how HttE Thrawn is peak Xanatos-scheming. In the later books, the plans get kind of goofy. The asteroid blockade of Coruscant in particular stands out. 1. A cloaking device in combat (briefly) or when you're not being looked for (slip in) is one thing. Putting them on asteroids and parking them over Coruscant is dumb. Couldn't you just use some space glitter to reveal them? Or make a corridor with tractor beams? Something? 2. They're real trusting about Karrde's count. "Haha! I had more asteroids!" is very Thrawn. The entire "off camera" Katana fleet hijacking is kind of disappointing as well. I get the urge to go for "I did it 35 minutes ago", but it's the climax/set piece for the second book, and it'...
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