Lit The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: headquarters thread

Copy and paste.

 

I don't know, something feels awkward.

 

Just a quick reminder: November means Young Jedi Knights season 3, Return To Ord Mantell discussion starting once everyone is in their Halloween party aftermath.

December has the third Lando book.

After that, we're astonishingly unoccupied. Any ideas and wishes?

 

We could go for the Bounty Hunter Wars though if I actually try to reread those I would properly find something to point out that just feels wrong on just about every page. So lets go for
Splinter of the Mind's Eye

 

Grey1 we could try the experiment we discussed. Otherwise, my vote goes to... hmm... probably @Gorefiend's idea.

 

I'm a bit surprised that we haven't done either of those in the past... maybe we could pair up Splinter with ANH?

"The experiment" would be an all-out comic discussion, right? Who's up for that? If we chose that, I'd do it as a special one-off thing to see if we get enough interest, than probably make a spin-off out of it. Although I must say I like the idea of having a bit of space between the rare/obscure/bad books we still have as options, just so that we get a bit of fluctuation into the rooster of participants. Bounty Hunter trilogy and Jedi Academy trilogy are both a must, for example, and I guess that might be a bit much for people who are less than convinced by those.

 

Yeah, I'm talking about comic books. I'd suggest having it as part of the regular 181st, since it would slow down us running out of books. I'd recommend starting off with something that isn't as well-read but still available to a decent portion of the fanbase, particularly stuff that has been omnibused- the Quinlan Vos Omnibus, one or more arcs from X-Wing, even Shadows of the Empire (though personally the only part of that I enjoyed was By The Emperor's Hand). I'm down with pairing Splinter with ANH as well, maybe save a comic experiment for January?

 

I suggest the Clone Wars: Wild Space or The Clone Wars: No Prisoners.

 

We haven't done Splinter yet? I'm in.

 

Has there been any decision yet on what books we'll be discussing next year? If not, why not do the rest of the Republic Commando novels?

 

Hrmpf, I didn't have the thread on my watch list and therefore missed your replies. Modern technology...

I still haven't figured out if a comic experiment would be welcome, RC. I'm all for it, and I think X-Wing would be the place to start. And while the Vos arc is starting to get old, I think there's more classics out there that we could dive into first. Maybe Crimson Empire? TOTJ? I feel like I've forgotten everything about Golden Age of the Sith, even though there's probably always references in the KOTOR/TOR era.

I'd love to start with ANH and Splinter since ANH has been on the wishlist for quite some time, and Splinter just makes sense for us. I'd suggest Jan/Feb for those, or Feb/March if we do a comic month first.

Bounty Hunter Wars - even though it's bad, I'd rather do that than the better known JAT, to be honest. We'll have to do JAT eventually, though. And since almost nobody joined the YJK discussion, I guess almost everybody hasn't had too much KJA yet!

The TCW tie-ins... I can see that making sense, Charles - I remember that there wasn't much going on in the review threads, so it's the same situation we had with Fatal Alliance last january: It's pretty obscure, but it's also pretty new, and there's been debate on how recent the books should be. Full disclosure: I think Wild Space is outrageous. And not in a good way. Also, those books are pretty expensive, and I'm not sure if everyone here could just burrow them to join the discussion. (But yeah, there's lots of cheaper books that people don't just buy to join in with our fun either, I know.)

Republic Commando... you know, actually, I'm astonished that the first thread went far better than expected. I'm not sure if the others would result in a similarly restrained discussion; Triple Zero was the original flame war starter, I think True Colours opened the can of clone numbers, and Order 66 was... well, Order 66. So I see a lot of conflict potential in those beyond "I honestly re-read the book and want to join the discussion by a civil pointing out of its flaws" and "because of my re-read, I want to politely contest your criticism". And again, it's all pretty new. And there's already been a lot of discussion.


How do all of you see it? Do you prefer the original mission statement of the 181st dealing with forgotten gems and forgotten bombs, and how old/how forgotten/how obscure must these gems be?

 

I think that we are rapidly running out of obscure items, myself. The way that I tend to view the 181st's mission is that it's supposed to be a more in-depth, arguably literary discussion of these stories. A rather different perspective than the official discussion threads, which just tend to be reaction posts/canon nitpicking (not to denigrate the posters in those threads). Basically I see the 181st threads as being more highbrow than the normal discussion threads, so to me a lack of obscure books isn't too crippling.

To be fair about Traviss, I think that a lot- arguably most- of the people who got involved in the 2006 flame wars no longer post here. Traviss tends to be a can of worms, true- I've proposed a corollary to Godwin's Law that the longer a thread goes on in Lit, the more likely it is that Traviss will be drawn into it- but it can be done, if we can make sure that everyone stays on topic, whatever that topic may be. On the other hand, that Traviss thread back in late September/early October got rather heated, so that's something else to keep in mind.

I like the TotJ idea, and if we do go with the comics I think that it would be a great opener. I also like your CE idea, as it's a relatively obscure title in addition to being an older title (relatively speaking). But whatever we do, I'll chime in as long as I have the reading materials.

 

"more highbrow than the normal discussion threads"? I have to make a funny advertisement out of that!

Thinking about TOTJ, I'd love to do that, we'd finally get to ride on the TOR wave (even if it's just the shallower "free to play" wave). Also, it's pretty interesting since it's a closed era in itself, making these 21 issues a proper story with beginning, middle, end, and epilogue. Hm, a 181st special extravaganza: the Tales of the Jedi marathon... Can I get the highbrow readers to join me in that?

 

I only read the Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy several years ago once, I am a fan of the Republic Commando series, so I shouldn't cause problems when discussing those, and I utterly despise TCW and its tie-ins out of respect for the Clone Wars multimedia project timeline.

 

If and when you do the JAT, will "I, Jedi" be included (if it hasn't been done yet)? It is contemporaneous with that triiogy. OTOH, would it make more sense (with the stated proviso) to do it separately?

 

Actually, IIRC "I, Jedi" was the very first novel to be covered by the 181st.

 

Hand of Thrawn Duology needs some love. Two of Zahn's best, yet two of Zahn's most underrated.

 

HoT... Hm, there's a thought. We'll keep that in mind.

I, Jedi was the first book - back in 2008. If everyone that's staying with us through a theoretical JAT discussion were interested, we could theoretically do I, Jedi again. Maybe as a five year anniversary thing. Notice the "if".

In addition, I invite all of you to come over into the YJK thread. I'm writing way too much about the romantic relationships of the young Jedi in relation to later canon. Even if you don't have the books or don't want to touch them again, you could still disagree with my theories or point out flaws in my non-encyclopedical knowledge. We could all be pretty high-brow about it.

 

New month, new discussion. With Lando.

Regarding the upcoming schedule, how would you all enjoy this?

Jan: Tales of the Jedi - all four arcs/21 issues
Feb: Star Wars by Alan Dean Foster/George Lucas
Mar: Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster

Okay?

 

I'll have peace on those terms!

#TheKingintheNorth

 

All this talk of peace will surely start a war...

 

I have no problems with the list. I'm especially in favor of the decision for January.

 

Here's a reminder: Tales of the Jedi is around the corner. A good opportunity to correct my mistake of saying that this was 21 issues total; right now, I'm convinced it's 23.

 

It's 35, actually, if you count The Golden Age of the Sith and Fall of the Sith Empire.

 

So, Death Troopers. The book I love and so many people hate. It has plenty of discussion points, and personally, in terms of descriptions and settings, Death Troopers did an outstanding job. It still ranks highest on my list of most atmospheric, and there's discussion potential there. For example, what does Death Troopers do differently that sets its settings apart from other work? And for that matter... the whole matter about Star Wars and zombies. When my brother bought it for me for my birthday, he said it could go one of two ways: It could be really awesome or really corny, and either way was worth a look.