Fanclub X-wing Series Fan Club: Home of the Dancing Gamorrean

Welcome aboard MiraxTerrik

 

Thanks for the warm welcome! I would love to join the X-wing Fan Club if you're still accepting new members. I love X-wing pilots. Don't know why, but none of the other fightercraft (or their pilots) ever did much for me. Oh well, I guess I'm a lost cause in that regard.

I wish they would come out with another flying-based game. I really enjoyed TIE fighter and broke many joysticks getting through some of those missions. I remember loving the X-wing game but never played any of the Rogue Squadron games (money was tight). Were those any good? I still have my PS2 and can probably get help setting up DOSbox if I need to in order to play them.

I love and hate seeing Wedge in the list of dramatis personae for Mercy Kill. It's great because I know he'll be awesome, but I always have this niggling fear in the back of my mind that they're going to kill him. I'm not sure if I should be more disturbed knowing that I'll have a mental breakdown for when that time comes, or the fact that a fictional character has that strong of an emotional hold on me.

I'm a little confused. When I had read the X-wing books and comics the first time, I had the impression that Wedge had his revenge on the Bonestar Pirates when he was 15 or 16. I don't have my books with me at the moment so I can't check, but I'm looking at the wiki and it says he was 18 at the time, but there is no way he looks 18 in The Phantom Affair. Also, I think that's the only time I've ever found a mullet adorable in any way.

I'm going to spoiler the following impressions I have on Mercy Kill just in case. I really ought to read the forum rules again, I thought I could still remember them but no, not really. Lots of things to catch up on. It's a wonderfully exciting time for Star Wars right now. I'm currently pestering my friends to start reading SW books again and rejoin TFN. Initial efforts are encouraging but I need to control myself so that I don't completely nerd bomb them.

Anyways, on to Mercy Kill:

I hope there are many pranks in this book. The pranks were always my favorite parts of the X-wing series, you know, besides the parts with Wedge. I'm pretty confident in Allston's ability to write humor and expect to see much of it in this book. I feel like he's always had a good sense of pacing and knows exactly when to pop something to lighten the mood so it doesn't become overbearing.

Spoiler

I'm on Chapter 8 right now. It's rather jumpy and I'm having a little bit of hard time following what's going on. I adore Myri (of course), and Piggy but the action is very unclear to me. I liked the initial intro with Admiral Teradoc (I'm surprised the Empire is still around. I had assumed for some reason that the remnants of the Empire would have gotten destroyed. I guess it makes more sense for them to keep out of the entire war if at all possible and let the New Republic take the brunt of the casualties.), though I thought Face in that bar scene with Teradoc seemed more immature than he acted in the original three Wraith Squadron books (How is this even possible???).

Having not finished NJO, I find the concept of a Yuuzhang Vong ally pretty interesting and always thought their tech was pretty cool, but creepy. I don't recognize the name of Wraith One, but I'm assuming she was in other books. I'm giddily anticipating Face's reappearance in the book because I fully expect it to be ridiculous and spectacular. Right now the only time he's mentioned is in the context of how no one in the group knows more than they need to because of his security measures. I love that Kell and Tyria hooked up (I assume) and named their daughter Jesmin. That was a nice touch.

So uh, I didn't realize that Fey'lya had died. I think I'm pretty happy about that since I loathed his appearances in other books. I feel like I need to rush through Mercy Kill so I can get cracking on NJO and beyond, but I'm resisting that temptation. I'm worried that the fact there is a city named after Ackbar means that he's dead. I really don't want Ackbar to be dead.

Piggy doesn't read like the Piggy in the previous Wraith books. He seems to read more like a human in this book than a biologically enhanced Gamorrean, if that makes sense to anyone else. Frustration, boredom, and anger seem to get to him a lot easier. I remember that previously he was extremely capable of controlling his emotions, like the time when he smashed the brains out of that one Twi'lek assassin in Iron Fist. I guess the war really did a number on him. I'm not looking forward to getting to that part of NJO.

 

I don't want to comment much, because I might give away something further on in the book. I've read it twice and even though I had finished the NJO the fact that I haven't read it in 10 years is still hurting me. I did recently re-read everything Bantom and for the first time the material after the NJO up to Mercy Kill. You are right about Jesmin, she's awesome! Also you will understand about Piggy as the book goes on. The humor continues but so do the casualties and the action, so hold on tight.

 

There are a few things I'm unclear on and don't want to look up on Wookiepedia because I'm trying to limit the amount of spoilers I'm getting exposed to.

What is the Galactic Federation of Alliances? Also, in which series do the second Galactic Civil War happen?

 

Not sure on the first one, unless you mean the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (mostly shortened to Galactic Alliance) which is the government that replaced the New Republic.

As for the second GCW, that was from the Legacy of the Force series.

 

Missed final page - question already answered. Sorry!

 

Mercy Kill read update:

Spoiler

Ouch, I didn't see Runt's death coming. Bad, bad Allston. No fair toying with us like that.

 

Love the new avatar Mirax. Keep reading

 

With the way you guys keep talking about MK I can't wait for it to come out in PB so I can enjoy it as well.

 

When you get hold of it, I'm sure you will!

 

Thanks runjedirun.

What is PB?

MK read update:

Spoiler

I've finished up to Chapter 26. Bhindi dies very suddenly, Voort has just taken command of the squad, and there exists a second unit of Wraiths.

Wedge showed up and does exactly what I've been expecting him to do in this book, but it's a big let down. I don't think it was very honest to stick him in the DP if he doesn't show up until after 2/3rd of the book (pg 252). At the same time, I didn't think he would have a huge role in this so maybe I've just been deluding myself the entire time. *shrug*

I really enjoyed the interaction between Voort and Kirney. It reminds me a lot of a line about the consequences of letting Wes babysit your kids.

I've gone back to the beginning and am now reading everything over. I think I was having trouble following so many different storylines and new characters that I glossed over a bunch of parts that make a lot more sense now. Still confused about the role of the blonde pilot that planted the bomb in Face's landspeeder. Also, I giggled once I realized that Face's car is basically Kitt.

I am probably completely off base, but I think there is an Imperial spy within the squad, and my current suspects are Turman, Sharr, and Thaymes. Sharr would be too obvious a choice, but I don't know about the others. I think there's a spy because I think pretty much all of the X-wing books had a spy from one side or another causing problems. So again, probably way off base but it's the only way I can think of introducing conflict towards the end of the book. Then again, there are enough things to wrap up that that is probably unnecessary.

 

Sorry... comes with the territory of being ex-military

Sent from a Galaxy far away via R2-N6

 

Almost everyone does it, CPL - timesaver, but I have to refer to the title lists myself sometimes!

 

Mirax the first time I got to chapter 21 and the cast doubled on me I thought about going back and starting over again as well. But I just had to know the ending so I kept reading. The 2nd time I read it I got a lot more out of it. Surely I'll get even more the 3rd time and 4th and there will be a 3rd and 4th, because it's an awesome book!

 

runjedirun, I'm glad I'm reading it again, because there is a lot of stuff I missed the first time around. I'm really curious how Allston's going to wrap everything up within the two hundred pages or so that I have left. You telling me to strap in for a wild ride?

 

Make sure your crash webbing is secure.

 

I loved it with all the extras, and the confusion and the numbers and everything. And I thought Wedge's appearance was perfect. Not so much as to take away from the newbies, but still so much of the Wedgely Awesomeness.

 

I don't know, I think Allston could have squeezed in a little more Wedge. As much as I love the new generation it's hard to see the old guys get "old".

 

They're still hot hands in an X-Wing, though - and a very special type of X-Wing at that! Really wonder what the bad-guys started thinking when those two turned up!

 

Oh, it's not like SW heroes age or lose their skills, but to see Wedge take a back seat to anyone, even his own Daughter can be a little hard to swallow. Besides who in their right mind would want less Wedge?

 

I always love me some Wedge. Maybe people are tired of him, but I don't think you can have a proper X-wing novel without him.

Tim, probably "Sithsp-" *bzzt!*

I'm back at Chapter 27. A few things that popped out at me this time around.

Spoiler

I'm adding Trey to my list of suspicious people. I initially had cleared him because of Jesmin's cavalier attitude about him, but he seems to be around when everything goes to hell. He also had that weird exchange with Myri about her father. Also, how Myri points out that he never on intrusions with the same member of Wraith squadron twice. If Allston hadn't have distracted me with the identity of the Duros the first time around, I might have picked that piece up. Actually, the more I think about this, the more I'm convinced that Trey is a mole. Argh, or a red herring, but probably not. Okay, I really need to finish the book now.

One thing I'm not clear on. Why is Bhindi shrieking in the middle of enemy territory (pg 201)? Also, rereading has me considering that one of the injections she received was a poison.

It also occurs to me that General Thaal's appearance in the novel is very, very late, considering he's the main baddy. Part of the fun of previous Allston novels was the interactions between Zsing and Melvar. I'm assuming Allston has a good reason for this.

Okay, strapping into safety netting now. Charging shields to full.