StarWarsClassics

 Apparently I'm pseudo live blogging this one. Wouldn't you know it, less than 20 pages after those conversations they don't actually matter because: 1. Jaina finishes her girl's trip with Tenel Ka and does her best Han impression to save Zekk and co. 2. Bornan's nav computer is almost instantly remote sliced, so not-Boba-Fett get the location of the plague warehouse anyway. Good thing we got to read all those awkward conversations so they could be rendered instantly pointless.

 I'm only just started on this, and it's the end of the arc, so I might two part it. For tonight, I want to whine about something that pops up twice early in the book. It's a common mistake I see with new writers, but Anderson can't really use that excuse (Moesta, as far as I can tell, has zero credits besides these novels, so maybe she gets a pass). Basically, you realize your plot/characters are dumb. Someone has to go somewhere they have no business being, to do something they have no business doing, in a way that doesn't make sense. How do you handle it? The bad/Anderson way is to let the characters ramble on about it for half a page or so before not actually resolving it. Aryn’s shoulders drooped. “That sounds like your father-but why didn’t he simply destroy the module, or bring the information here to Coruscant?” Why indeed? Raynar explains the fear that he might not be able to successfully get the information to New Republic. A traitor/disguised Diversity Al...

 It's a shame both blogs are tied up in sloggy series right now. But I'm so close to the end of both that I'm trying to push through. I guess it's been a while since I did a summary, and I think I need one to make my complaints for this book make sense. The current story arc revolves around "The Diversity Alliance" an alien supremacist group who have convinced Lowbacca's friend to join them. Zekk has decided to become a bounty hunter, rather than joining the Academy. His first big bounty is Raynar's dad, who is currently on the run, trying to hide the location of an Imperial bioweapons storehouse. The twins, Tenel Ka, and (sometimes) Lowie are also looking for him, so their paths occasionally intersect.  Raaba (who had been vaguely alluded to the early books, and is now promoted to a full character) convinced Lowie to come check things out with her new cult/terrorist cell, so he zips of the Ryloth with her. The Twins and co. go to get him back.  I'...

 1995's release consist of: The Cornellian Trilogy: Ambush at Corellia , Assault on Selonia , and Showdown at Centerpoint The start of Young Jedi Knights: Heirs to the Force , Shadow Academy , and Lost Ones The first two Tales of...: Mos Eisley Cantina  and Jabba's Palace The first Junior Jedi Knights: The Golden Globe The first two Callista books:  Children of the Jedi and  Darksaber That's one trilogy that doesn't need to exist, three below average novels (even by the standards of the poor series they're in), two meh short story collections, one decent kiddy novel, one unfollowable fever dream, and THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR a vaguely entertaining, slightly continuity advancing, novel about Hutts trying to build a Death Star. 1994's books sucked, but at least they moved the universe along. Any one of them did almost as much as the entire line up for this year. I'm predicted this however many posts ago, but man was 1995 bad.

 I really thought I had 2 or 3 year/era overview posts already. In my mad rush to try to get through all the crap, I knew I hadn't done one in a while. Now I can't find the old ones, so I don't know if I titled them differently or hallucinated, or what. Anyway, 1994!  Releases include: Jedi Academy Trilogy ( Jedi Search , Dark Apprentice , Champions of the Force ), The Courtship of Princess Leia , The Crystal Star Also the TIE Fighter video game , which will get some kind of mini-review at some point. So, a lot of movement in the EU for this year (especially with less than half a dozen books). The Jedi Academy Trilogy obviously establishes the Jedi Academy, and a bunch of characters of varying importance (most importantly all 3 Solo kid's first "proper" appearance as characters, not just background). Dathomir makes its first appearance (and a bunch of other, less important, planets). The Solo twins get kidnapped for the first time!  Big year. Total crap year ...

 Anderson and Modesta really like dropping lines from the OT into their books. I marked them for a while as I was reading (remember when I was going to mark all the "bad feelings?") but kind of got over it. This time, it gets promoted to the title of the book! Other than that, I'm pretty sure only Baen would touch, "A group of bad guys named with Diversity in their name use a plague to try to get revenge on humans," these days. I figure I'll have to address that in more detail at some point, but I might as well wait to the end of the arc so I can fully go out on it.  Book still not good, but better than the last one (which was borderline unreadable at points) and slowly stepping into something resembling a real plot that the main characters will have to resolve.