Jedi of the Republic Mace Windu Review

Well, here’s the second item that glares as just not being up to par in my eyes.  As I promised, my reviews won’t be all sunshine and rainbows if it’s not warranted and in this case, it’s definitely not.

First, the story is rather weak.  The opening issues make the battle droids out to be far too human.  I can’t see a battle noting the beauty of a planet and how unfortunate they are to have no one to share it with.  As silly as the battle droids were made to be, that didn’t seem to be an accurate portrayal to me.  Then we come to Rissa who at one point answers Mace direction to get back to the ship to meet back with Kit and Prosset Dibs with “Oh, I’ll make tea.”  The story leans heavily on the prosperity gospel for it’s later development of Mace as a padawan.  Not very original at all.  Finally, we have the bounty hunter assassin droid that was built up from the beginning and in the end, wasn’t much of a challenge for Mace.  That does nothing but leave the reader feeling unsatisfied.

Second, and the worst part, was the artwork.  Some frames you’d think “okay, there’s a chance to get this right” but then you look at Yoda and all that hope goes away.  Other frames, especially background characters, looked like it was just a half-hearted attempt to represent them instead of actually drawing them.  Sometimes, Mace is characterized correctly and there’s other times where you ask yourself “what was this guy thinking?”

If you are a completist then you’ll suffer through it like everyone else.  If not, I’d say skip it

Up Next:  Continuing the catch up Darth Vader (2017-Present)  Issues #1-6 The Chosen One

Battlefront II – Inferno Squad Review

Battlefront II – Inferno Squad is a media tie-in (video game) written by Christie Golden chronicling the earliest days of Inferno Squad from the destruction of the Death Star, the formation of the squad and it’s first assignments.

This will be a spoiler free as possible review so have no fear and read on!  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It was written in a style that was easy to digest and paced extremely well.  It’s literally one of those books that you don’t want to put down because you can’t wait to see what happens next.  With character development woven in with tales of espionage, there aren’t many slow spots at all.

One of my favorite characters ended up being Piikow, a Chadra-fan, that’s not a main character.  His personality jumps off the page and will bring a smile to your face.  There’s also other appearances that will be recognizable from the Clone Wars and Dark Disciple as well.

If you haven’t read this one, I highly recommend it as it’s one of the best books of the new story group canon in my opinion.

Up Next:  I take a step back to read the Mace Windu series.

The Reorganization of the Empire

 

After the devastating defeat of the Death Star at the hands of the Rebel Alliance the Empire now has to regroup.

Battlefront II – (Ch. 1 – 4):  I’ll save the meat of this for a review of the entire book but in these first few chapters we’re put into the Battle of Yavin as well as getting introduced to Inferno Squad.

Star Wars – Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure (Chapters 3-12): Greg Rucka does a great job capturing the persona of Han Solo.  Having been talked into a pickup of Lieutenant Ematt of The Shrikes (unit that scouts for new base locations) by Leia, Han heads to the Outer Rim to complete the mission (for a price of course).  During this mission, he and Chewie encounter Bounty Hunters and the Empire.  Here we are introduced to Commander Alecia Beck.  While highly skilled, her emotions get the best of her at times.  As I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps she could be paired up with Grand Admiral Thrawn for the express purpose of learning to keep her emotions at bay.   To see her prowess grow while experiencing more Thrawn adventures would be fantastic!  While this book is classified as a young novel, I’d recommend it for all ages.

 

 Star Wars – Princess Leia #3-5, “Princess Leia, Parts III-V”  Leia continues the mission of finding all Alderaanians with some snags along the way.  Not to fully “spoil” this one, she finds a couple of very different groups and turns a spy situation into a position of strength and development of her own leadership.  Overall, it’s a good read.
Star Wars – “One Thousand Levels Down” (Star Wars Insider #151)  This is a short story by Alexander Freed about a teenage girl and her brother, both Alderaanians, trying to survive in Coruscant.  They end up meeting a Mon Calamari that takes them to ship full of refugees and in all respects, their new family.  Very entertaining!

 

 

Star Wars – “Last Call at the Zero Angle” (Star Wars Insider #156) Jason C. Fry is back at it and writes a tale of a couple of Imperial squadrons in a bar that scuffle but in the end reconcile those differences, especially when their Wing Commander Weller enters and informs them of the fate of the Death Star and what lies ahead for them.

Up Next:  Battlefront II – Inferno Squad (Ch. 5 – 28, Epilogue)

After the Death Star…

This is a great example of the timeline I use (http://thetimelinesite.com/timelines/33-star-wars-timeline) can get a little complex but you realize that it makes complete sense as you read.  It forms a cohesive story with events unfolding all around the galaxy.

Princess Leia #1 (pgs 1-5) details the events immediately following A New Hope.  Medal ceremony concluded the events of the future are put into motion.

Lost Stars Chapter 10 is a packed chapter!  Ciena and Thane deal with the reality that the Death Star is no more which means Ciena deals with the loss of a friend while wondering what became of Thane.  Thane, wonders the same of Ciena while on his mission to Dantooine.  Tying it up with their romantic interests brings the chapter to its conclusion.

Battlefront Twilight Company Chapter 32 shows Private Namir, two months in with Twilight Company, getting the news of the Death Star’s demise.

Smuggler’s Run, chapters 1 and 2, show Chewie getting a medal (love this!), establishes his age at almost 200 years old and Greg Rucka nails Han’s personality perfectly.  Chapter 2 introduces Commander Alecia Beck.  First impression of her is that she would make a great Imperial duo with Thrawn!  Would love to see those two work together at some point.  We’ll see where she ends up and if that’s a possibility.

Princess Leia #1 (conclusion) and #2 starts off a bit awkward to me as Leia seems a bit out of character.  She’s depicted as not sure of her role in the rebellion and then going against Dodonna’s orders to round up remaining Alderaanians with a pilot named Evaan.  To add to the awardness, R2-D2 is with her on this mission instead of staying with Luke, who along with Wedge, ends up pursuing Leia and being evaded by Evaan and R2’s deception.  Luke seems to admire this ploy while Leia and Evaan are off to Naboo for the first stop on their mission.  She runs into Lord Junn, acquires a ship after recruiting Pareece to join her.  Tula, a student of Pareece’s, comes along as well, sending a transmission to her sister from Alderaan who apparently is a part of the Empire.

Up Next:  Battlefront II: Inferno Squad Chapters 1-4  Really looking forward to reading this one as I’ve heard good things and owned it since day 1 but have resisted the urge to read it early!

Star Wars – Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure (Chapters 3-12)
Star Wars – Princess Leia #3-5, “Princess Leia, Parts III-V”
Star Wars – “One Thousand Levels Down” (Star Wars Insider #151)
Star Wars – “Last Call at the Zero Angle” (Star Wars Insider #156)

From A Certain Point of View

From A Certain Point of View is a collection of short stories set mostly in the time period of A New Hope with the exception of The Whills which is set in the distant future.  With 40 different authors, okay, 39 and 1 comic cell, I had no expectations that I’d like every entry nor did i have any expectations that they’d work together.  There is certainly something for everyone in this book although I’d almost guarantee that there’s also something that you will not like somewhere along the way.  With that many authors and that many ways to tell stories, it’s bound to happen.

I’m a traditional Star Wars fan.  I prefer new tales to expand and add depth to the original stories.  Not much for the comedic versions or ideas that stray far from the main road. Fortunately, there’s plenty to be found among the 39 short stories.  Raymus (Gary Whitta) is one of those and starts the book off quite nicely.  Without massive spoilers, this story ties Rogue One and A New Hope together very well.  Strong efforts from Christie Golden, Ken Liu, Griffin McElroy, Sabaa Tahir, Rae Carson (really a stand out story!), John Jackson Miller (one of my favorite authors in the galaxy) and Claudia Gray give this book a very strong start.

As I promised, I’m not a sunshine and rainbows kind of guy so the next stretch of stories really dampened my enthusiasm for the book.  Meg Cabot writes a story of Aunt Beru and it just didn’t work for me.  Cabot goes for an angle that felt like the Holiday Special brand of humor and just didn’t have the substance to pull me in.  Then there’s We Don’t Serve Their Kind Here by Chuck Wendig.  Wendig tells a very good story of Wuher here but at times, tries a little too hard to be funny which  distracts from the actual story.  The Luckless Rodian, Not For Nothing (Ahdieh and Lafferty respectfully) are two of the stories in the book that deal with Greedo and paint him as a bumbling idiot.  As a more traditional fan, my earliest memories of Star Wars literature painted Greedo as an up and coming bounty hunter whose main fault was being overly eager more than anything else.  I prefer that characterization of Greedo versus what’s presented in this book.  The Kloo Horn Caper follows and while there’s a decent story in there, the style in which it is written is very clunky and tends to make the story hard to read.  Paul Dini’s Boba Fett story is very brief and really offers very little insight.

Fortunately, the book takes a turn upward from here.  Zoraida Cordova turns in a very strong effort with You Owe Me A Ride, dealing with the Tonnika sisters.  Cordova captures the spirit of the old Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina very well.  Delilah S. Dawson follows with The Secrets of Long Snoot and does a phenomenal job of making you see a side of a character that’s only on screen for a just a few seconds but in a way you just don’t expect.  Born of the Storm by Daniel J. Older is another one of those stories that just tries too hard to be funny and ends up not fitting in for me.  Laina by Wil Wheaton caught me off guard and in a great way.  I urge everyone to take that one in.

The book continues with Fully Operational by Beth Revis.  Revis is one of those authors that just “gets” Star Wars in my opinion.  I’ve really enjoyed her work so far.  It’s followed up by An Incident Report by Mallory Ortberg.  Written from Admiral Motti’s perspective, it just didn’t work for me.  Change of Heart by Elizabeth Wein and Eclipse by Madeline Roux follow and really work well.  Pablo Hidalgo does a great job with the Alderaan firing sequence details as well as working in Rogue One/Catalyst ties.  Kieren Gillen adds a Doctor Aphra story that I found very entertaining, although I haven’t gotten to much of the Aphra comics yet so outside of a few flashbacks, this was my first real exposure to her as a character.

One of the more controversial stories is by Glenn Weldon, Of MSE-6 and Men.  This one just wasn’t for me.  It didn’t feel like Star Wars and didn’t really tell a story that ties back to A New Hope nor was it written in a style that I found appealing.  I’m sure some readers will love it but this one just wasn’t my cup of tea at all.  The other remaining story that didn’t work for me was The Baptist by Nnedi Okorafor dealing with the Dianoga creature.  This one felt more like something out of Aliens than Star Wars for me.  There’s entertaining aspects to it for certain but just not something that strikes me as probable canon material.

Jason Fry, E.K. Johnston, Charles Soule also turn in very entertaining efforts that fit well within the framework of A New Hope.  Really appreciated Fry’s nod to Fake Wedge.  Overall, I think this book is entertaining but not really one that I’d deem as absolutely a must read to gain a better understanding of the events of A New Hope.

Up Next in my chronological reading:

Star Wars – Princess Leia #1, “Princess Leia, Part I” (pg. 1-5)
Star Wars – Lost Stars (Chapter 10)
Star Wars – Battlefront: Twilight Company (Chapter 32)
Star Wars – Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure (Chapters 1-2)
Star Wars – Princess Leia #1, “Princess Leia, Part I” (pg. 6-20)
Star Wars – Princess Leia #2, “Princess Leia, Part II”

The Journey Continues…

In my previous blog, I mentioned that this journey began on Twitter.  So far, I’ve worked my way up to A New Hope.  Everything prior to that, be it movies, books or comics, I’ve read.  I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed 95% of it easily.  My reviews will not be sugar-coated nor will they be in the “I hate everything Disney” angle.  I plan to be as objective as I possibly can.

So what am I reading now you may wonder?  If you are a Twitter follower of my personal account (@MidGaGator72) then you probably know I’m in the midst of From A Certain Point of View.  I’m halfway through it at this point and there’s really only 3 of the stories that just didn’t work for me.  Once I get through the 2nd half, I’ll come back here and break down likes/dislikes and general overview.

If you’ve read From A Certain Point of View or do so later, please comment and let me know what you think here or on Twitter (@yodarulz78).  Look forward to hearing from you!

 

A long time a go in a galaxy far, far away…

Thanks for dropping by first and foremost, I hope you’ll drop by and follow me as I read strictly chronologically anything and everything Star Wars.  A little about myself though.  I am a long-time Star Wars fan, first seeing Empire Strikes Back when it came out as an eight year old kid.  The moment I saw Yoda, I knew I found something special.  Since then, I’ve read and watched everything I could get my hands on to get further immersed in this magical galaxy.

I read the old EU books chronologically and while disappointed at first in the Legends branding and reboot, I decided to be open-minded.  So far, I haven’t been disappointed.  In fact, I have tweeted what I’m reading and watching and now I’ve enjoyed it so much that I have more to say than Twitter can provide.

I look forward to interacting with each and every one of you about Star Wars and your thoughts on not only my journey but your journey and learning more about the fandom as I go!