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jivjov
Sep 13, 2007

But how does it taste? Yummy!
Dinosaur Gum
There's Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away book that came out shortly after TFA. It's marketed as a YA book, but it's the same general style of short stories from the old Tales books

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Bulkiest Toaster
Jan 22, 2013

by R. Guyovich
Yeah maybe I will check that out. The YA aspect was making me shy away, but then again I like the original Tales books but they aren't exactly high literature.

jivjov
Sep 13, 2007

But how does it taste? Yummy!
Dinosaur Gum

Bulkiest Toaster posted:

aren't exactly high literature.

Star_Wars.txt

Jazerus
May 24, 2011


Bulkiest Toaster posted:

Yeah maybe I will check that out. The YA aspect was making me shy away, but then again I like the original Tales books but they aren't exactly high literature.

You mean the story where the racist bartender in Mos Eisley distills Greedo's corpse for whiskey flavoring isn't going to be seen as a timeless classic?

VaultAggie
Nov 18, 2010

Best out of 71?
I gotta admit, Lost Stars is up there as one of my favorite Star Wars books, along with thrawn trilogy and revenge of the sith novel. Even with the YA tag, I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than either aftermath book.

jivjov
Sep 13, 2007

But how does it taste? Yummy!
Dinosaur Gum
Lost Stars is 100% awesome

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

Bulkiest Toaster posted:

I would even settle for a Tales from Maz Kanata's bar set of short stories, or a Tales from Nima Outpost. I really liked the old Tales books.

They kind of are doing these - off the top of my head, there are stories for Grummgar, the girl on Grummgar's lap, Maz's cooking staff, the red pirate and his first mate who Finn talk to, a couple of the more minor cantina aliens, the Jakku sheriff who got cut from the film, that Jakku animal vendor who was in the first ever set video for TFA, and Unkar Plutt.

I've read a few, though the only one I really liked was the Crimson Corsair one, even if that sets up a few of his crew who aren't actually featured in the movie (or his level in Lego TFA). That's one of the things that differs from the Bantam-era Tales Of books, their backstories so far are all pretty inconsequential, don't even really relate to anything, and don't tie into the wider universe (such as it is) in any major way. Most of them aren't even clear as to whether they take place long before TFA, just before, during the movie events, or even if they'll be dated after.

Actually in terms of those stories setting up stuff from TFA, the one with the female First Order spy from Maz's castle might be the closest as it hints that she is the person who recovers Vader's helmet for Kylo Ren, from an ex-stormtrooper who was at Endor. Apparently the audio version of this story backs up the implication by making the guy who hires her have Kylo Ren's voice.

Canemacar
Mar 8, 2008

Bulkiest Toaster posted:

I think the new canon is going to continue to be slightly disappointing because Disney does not want to tread on the new movies, which means we will probably continue to get inconsequential side stories.

Definitely. Once the new trilogy of movies is done and all the characters from the original trilogy are dead or irrelevant we might get some more substantial stories set between the first and third trilogies.

Dapper_Swindler
Feb 14, 2012

Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

Chairman Capone posted:

They kind of are doing these - off the top of my head, there are stories for Grummgar, the girl on Grummgar's lap, Maz's cooking staff, the red pirate and his first mate who Finn talk to, a couple of the more minor cantina aliens, the Jakku sheriff who got cut from the film, that Jakku animal vendor who was in the first ever set video for TFA, and Unkar Plutt.

I've read a few, though the only one I really liked was the Crimson Corsair one, even if that sets up a few of his crew who aren't actually featured in the movie (or his level in Lego TFA). That's one of the things that differs from the Bantam-era Tales Of books, their backstories so far are all pretty inconsequential, don't even really relate to anything, and don't tie into the wider universe (such as it is) in any major way. Most of them aren't even clear as to whether they take place long before TFA, just before, during the movie events, or even if they'll be dated after.

Actually in terms of those stories setting up stuff from TFA, the one with the female First Order spy from Maz's castle might be the closest as it hints that she is the person who recovers Vader's helmet for Kylo Ren, from an ex-stormtrooper who was at Endor. Apparently the audio version of this story backs up the implication by making the guy who hires her have Kylo Ren's voice.

why doesnt Kylo Ren just get the head/helmet himself. why does he need some toadie/spy to get it. plus it would make for one of those cool comics where he walking to the spot while having flashbacks and questions himself, until he finds the fabled helmet and it gives him resolve. yeah i get its from some ex-stormi or some dumbshit. but still.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

Info on the Rogue One tie-in novel:

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/09/star-wars-catalyst-a-rogue-one-story-synopsis/

I'm interested in it now.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
I hope the project isn't actually called The Death Star Project, because if it is, that would make Galen's hope for it's altruistic use about as silly as Qwi Xux's naivety towards the Sun Crusher. Unless the promise Krennic makes is to use the Death Star as a nuclear deterrent.

Wheat Loaf
Feb 13, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
The latest rumour I have heard concerns an Ahsoka Tano novel that's due to come out (I think) next year. This book is going to explore what she was doing between the end of Clone Wars and her appearance in Rebels. But there's apparently a bit of a rumour going around that it is going to reveal that Ahsoka is bisexual, which I thought was interesting. If it is true, I think it would be a pretty big deal. Sure, there have been some gay and bi characters in Star Wars before, but I think she would definitely be the biggest.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

Wheat Loaf posted:

The latest rumour I have heard concerns an Ahsoka Tano novel that's due to come out (I think) next year. This book is going to explore what she was doing between the end of Clone Wars and her appearance in Rebels. But there's apparently a bit of a rumour going around that it is going to reveal that Ahsoka is bisexual, which I thought was interesting. If it is true, I think it would be a pretty big deal. Sure, there have been some gay and bi characters in Star Wars before, but I think she would definitely be the biggest.

I've seen the passage, and it's not nearly as explicit as everyone makes it sound. Basically, a character says, "I want to kiss you... sorry, I'm babbling because we're going to die," and Ahsoka's response is, "Stay calm, we're not going to die." While this could be read either way it's not the "they actually canonically confirmed 100% that Ahsoka likes girls!" the Tumblr crowd is taking it as, especially since there have already been several books where they did emphatically establish gay characters.

Canemacar
Mar 8, 2008

Doesn't sound like a confirmation that she likes girls at all. More like she's re-assuring a friend who's in a near panic like you would expect a jedi to do.

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.

Canemacar posted:

Doesn't sound like a confirmation that she likes girls at all. More like she's re-assuring a friend who's in a near panic like you would expect a jedi to do.

You clearly aren't putting as much thought into this as tumblr.

Milkfred E. Moore
Aug 27, 2006

'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'
Yeah, I'm not seeing that as a indicator of anything. Unless the lines are vastly different in the text to that summary.

jivjov
Sep 13, 2007

But how does it taste? Yummy!
Dinosaur Gum
People are literally just extrapolating things from the fact that she doesn't take a moment, mid-combat, to say "no, do not kiss me, I am only sexually attracted to make gendered beings"

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

I went back and found the actual image:

Wheat Loaf
Feb 13, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
Heh, that means almost nothing at all. I have been taken in by a second-hand source. :v:

Dapper_Swindler
Feb 14, 2012

Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

Chairman Capone posted:

I went back and found the actual image:



it just reads like a weird weadon light hearted joke moment more then some deep bisexual romance. tumblr/click bait, read way to much into stuff.

Bulkiest Toaster
Jan 22, 2013

by R. Guyovich
It's probably just an experimentation/phase Ashoka is going through. She will probably outgrow it.

Nckdictator
Sep 8, 2006
Just..someone
Was browsing the old Timeline website, came across some unpublished short stories.

Have to admit, some are pretty decent for dumb pulpy stuff.

http://www.starwarstimeline.net/AdventureJournal16/ServantoftheEmpire.htm

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.
Shame Battlefront is kind of lame, because that DS1 themed DLC looks really nice.

Also, I cannot be ever impressed by Bossk. I just think 'lizard victory dance' every time I see him. Or Boba Fett outsmarting him.

Lake Jucas
Feb 20, 2011

WHAT OF OUR BARGAIN?
Battlefront is actually pretty great right now. Between various patches and DLC it's become an awesome title. Pretty sure more people are playing it now than at any time after the initial release. I say give it a shot.

Unctuous Cretin
Jun 20, 2007
LUrker
From the Battlefront thread:

Cardboard Box A posted:

http://swbstats.com/

Currently online players

PC: 4,026 (24h peak: 4,930)

XBOXONE: 8,861 (24h peak: 20,654)

PS4: 18,949 (24h peak: 30,493)


So yeah PC remains quite dead, though not as dead as Hardline. But it's weird that the large game modes would be first to go. Also no Heroes vs Villains, that was the best mode.

Milkfred E. Moore
Aug 27, 2006

'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Lake Jucas posted:

Battlefront is actually pretty great right now. Between various patches and DLC it's become an awesome title. Pretty sure more people are playing it now than at any time after the initial release. I say give it a shot.

It's really not. PC Australia, Battlefront numbers are so small that if you play five nights a week you'll run into the same dozen or so players across the seemingly one game server that is running.

I can't imagine buying Battlefront now.

Lake Jucas
Feb 20, 2011

WHAT OF OUR BARGAIN?
I'm in PS4, so I never have an issue. Your mileage may vary.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
Not to kick a hornet's nest, but does anyone know what Karen Traviss has been up to recently? The last thing I remember her being involved in was Halo with those "Man, humanity are loving assholes" Kilo Five books. I know this is the Star Wars thread, but Star Wars is also where she first became infamous. Call it a morbid curiosity on my part, being one of the people who finds her earlier work actually pretty good.

Big Mean Jerk
Jan 27, 2009

Well, of course I know him.
He's me.

Arcsquad12 posted:

Not to kick a hornet's nest, but does anyone know what Karen Traviss has been up to recently? The last thing I remember her being involved in was Halo with those "Man, humanity are loving assholes" Kilo Five books. I know this is the Star Wars thread, but Star Wars is also where she first became infamous. Call it a morbid curiosity on my part, being one of the people who finds her earlier work actually pretty good.

Apparently not much. Since she wrote those godawful Halo books she's only done two others; a GI Joe novel and an Arkham Asylum/City/Knight tie-in.

Casimir Radon
Aug 2, 2008


Arcsquad12 posted:

Not to kick a hornet's nest, but does anyone know what Karen Traviss has been up to recently? The last thing I remember her being involved in was Halo with those "Man, humanity are loving assholes" Kilo Five books. I know this is the Star Wars thread, but Star Wars is also where she first became infamous. Call it a morbid curiosity on my part, being one of the people who finds her earlier work actually pretty good.
Thread has been pretty dead lately so I'm happy to talk about anything. Apparently she is or was writing GI Joe comics. I don't read them so no clue there. Her Twitter account is mostly retweets and snotty comments about the Labour Party. She probably has plenty of money and can afford to not work all the time.

Makes me wonder how well off some of the more prolific EU authors are. Some of them have to be millionaires.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?

Casimir Radon posted:

Thread has been pretty dead lately so I'm happy to talk about anything. Apparently she is or was writing GI Joe comics. I don't read them so no clue there. Her Twitter account is mostly retweets and snotty comments about the Labour Party. She probably has plenty of money and can afford to not work all the time.

Makes me wonder how well off some of the more prolific EU authors are. Some of them have to be millionaires.

Well, R.A Salvatore, whatever you think of his writing, is very well off. And I imagine that some people have a steady stream of income simply due to the sheer volume of material they receive money off of. Guys like KJA probably wouldn't need to write another thing after the metric ton of books he wrote in the 90s.

As for Traviss, the last thing of hers I enjoyed was Gears of War 3. Now, some game writers jumped to novels, and met with terrible results. See: Drew Karpyshin and the embarrassment that is the Revan and Darth Bane novels. However, I actually think that Traviss being the lead writer for GOW3 was a good move, because it restricts her worse tendencies and focuses on her strengths. She writes good group dynamics, you can't deny that. Sure, a lot of the time her dynamics are between like minded individuals who share her political views, but in Gears 3 it works really well, and lends some more depth to a series that reveled in ultraviolence. Her Gears novels go into that nonsense with the wannabe Maori guerillas who are so much better than Marcus and Dom because tribal warrior code of honour bullshit, but they aren't in Gears 3. I really like how she moved Cole and Baird from one note supporting characters to developed individuals.

How well do some of the comics writers do transitioning to novels? Is A New Dawn by JJM any good?

Casimir Radon
Aug 2, 2008


Arcsquad12 posted:

How well do some of the comics writers do transitioning to novels? Is A New Dawn by JJM any good?
It's pretty decent. One of the things that does annoy me about it, although it's not its fault, is that since there's not much new material for authors to reference they keep talking anout the bad guy from A New Dawn like he was a really big deal. He really wasn't but they don't have much else to draw on so they talk about Count Vidian like he really matters in the big scheme of things. Zahn for instance had more freedom so he'd go and make offhand remarks about people, places, and things that had never been seen before. Maybe they'd be visited eventually, maybe they wouldn't. It made the galaxy seem like a really big place. Again, not JJM's fault it just annoys me.

I really like Kenobi, it's one of the best Star Wars books to come out in the last 10 years. He did a really good job witha mandate that didn't seem like it had much room. You've got to remember that it came out around the same time that FOTJ was finishing up so good books were few and far between.

I also liked Overdraft which was some stand-alone novel he wrote.

Milkfred E. Moore
Aug 27, 2006

'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

Arcsquad12 posted:

Well, R.A Salvatore, whatever you think of his writing, is very well off. And I imagine that some people have a steady stream of income simply due to the sheer volume of material they receive money off of. Guys like KJA probably wouldn't need to write another thing after the metric ton of books he wrote in the 90s.

As for Traviss, the last thing of hers I enjoyed was Gears of War 3. Now, some game writers jumped to novels, and met with terrible results. See: Drew Karpyshin and the embarrassment that is the Revan and Darth Bane novels. However, I actually think that Traviss being the lead writer for GOW3 was a good move, because it restricts her worse tendencies and focuses on her strengths. She writes good group dynamics, you can't deny that. Sure, a lot of the time her dynamics are between like minded individuals who share her political views, but in Gears 3 it works really well, and lends some more depth to a series that reveled in ultraviolence. Her Gears novels go into that nonsense with the wannabe Maori guerillas who are so much better than Marcus and Dom because tribal warrior code of honour bullshit, but they aren't in Gears 3. I really like how she moved Cole and Baird from one note supporting characters to developed individuals.

How well do some of the comics writers do transitioning to novels? Is A New Dawn by JJM any good?

I thought Traviss' short story about Cortana and the Gravemind was really good. She seems to be great at adding depth if you keep her restricted but, given free reign...

Peter Watts - of Blindsight fame - did a Crysis novel that I'd like to check out because he seems so unsuited to doing a video game tie in.

Apparently the forthcoming Mass Effect novel will be done by a Hugo-award winning author, too.

Casimir Radon
Aug 2, 2008


Also, as of yet Ahsoka doesn't have an audiobook listed. Only hardcover and Kindle. But the rumor is that they will release one narrated by Ashley Eckstein.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Casimir Radon posted:

Also, as of yet Ahsoka doesn't have an audiobook listed. Only hardcover and Kindle. But the rumor is that they will release one narrated by Ashley Eckstein.

Day one purchase, if true.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

Arcsquad12 posted:

Not to kick a hornet's nest, but does anyone know what Karen Traviss has been up to recently? The last thing I remember her being involved in was Halo with those "Man, humanity are loving assholes" Kilo Five books. I know this is the Star Wars thread, but Star Wars is also where she first became infamous. Call it a morbid curiosity on my part, being one of the people who finds her earlier work actually pretty good.

Her GI Joe comic was from September 2014 to May 2015 I think, then it was cancelled. She did a Wonder Woman (!) one-shot comic September last year. As far as I can tell, she hasn't done anything since then.

Actually, does anyone know what her thoughts on TFA were? I assume she hated it because there weren't any Mandalorians but would still be up for seeing anything amusing she spouted off.

Casimir Radon
Aug 2, 2008


She probably didn't even watch it.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

It's kind of impressive to think of how huge a splash she made in 2004, a decade later she's pretty much burned all her bridges.

EDIT: In terms of comics-to-books authors I'll add that Kenobi by JJM was really good.

Chairman Capone fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Sep 29, 2016

yronic heroism
Oct 31, 2008

Casimir Radon posted:

Thread has been pretty dead lately so I'm happy to talk about anything. Apparently she is or was writing GI Joe comics. I don't read them so no clue there. Her Twitter account is mostly retweets and snotty comments about the Labour Party. She probably has plenty of money and can afford to not work all the time.

Makes me wonder how well off some of the more prolific EU authors are. Some of them have to be millionaires.

I got the impression the pay was okay but not spectacular for most of them. Remember it's the Star Wars name that does most of the selling. Maybe Zahn is an exception but only if his post Thrawn trilogy stuff got more reader loyalty.

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ScottyJSno
Aug 16, 2010

日本が大好きです!

yronic heroism posted:

I got the impression the pay was okay but not spectacular for most of them. Remember it's the Star Wars name that does most of the selling. Maybe Zahn is an exception but only if his post Thrawn trilogy stuff got more reader loyalty.

This is how it work for me.

I am a 34 and love Sci-fi. I bought every Star Wars book until New Jedi Order becuse of "it's a Star Wars book. " only years later did I look up what any of them might have wrote that was a non Star Wars book. I like Greg Bear and Zahn. 15 years clean. No Star wars books, feels good man.

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