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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit The X-Wing novels. How good are the last ones?

Discussion in 'Literature' started by JediMasterKeno, Jan 25, 2013.

  1. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
    I'm enjoying Mercy Kill, but really don't see it as part of the X-Wing series given that its entire plot (and several of its main characters) are direct spinoffs of Fate of the Jedi. I have to wonder if it was originally conceived/pitched as a FOTJ spinoff and someone in marketing decided to add the X-Wing part of the title in later.
     
  2. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    That's basically how it happened. Allston didn't know it was going to get the X-wing label until late in the game.

    Jello: I really like Krytos. It's got Corran's prison-break storyline, the trial storyline, and all this political stuff, plus Loor's terrorist resistance. It's trying different things, bringing in different genres of storytelling, and still feeling like an X-wing book.
     
    Riv_Shiel and instantdeath like this.
  3. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    I'm gonna need to reread the X-Wing series (still haven't read Isard's Revenge or Starfighters of Adumar yet) before the NJO. Great books, but I really rushed through them.
     
  4. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Isard's Revenge is my personal favorite, but I also love the entire series, though I still haven't read Mercy Kill. My greatest fear about Mercy Kill is that it I am going to hate it simply for being a FotJ tie-in with the X-wing label slapped on it, because I don't like the direction the post-NJO was taken and refuse to read the post-NJO for being a depressing mess.
     
  5. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    Exactly what I was expecting to hear.
     
  6. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I need to do another read through myself. I read the first 9 in order back in summer of 07. Going to wait until Mercy Kill comes out in paperback and read all 10 summer of 2014.
     
  7. fett 4

    fett 4 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2000
    Hmm it's been awhile since I read it but isn't the plot about an upside down SSD buried under Courscant o_O

    While the rest of his character's were rather bland cyphers who just winked at each other. I actually thought Loor was Stackpole's most interesting character shame he killed him off.

    Besides I can never forgive Stackpole for ruining the TIE fighter.

    Which is why Allston was always superior to Stackpole in JMO. He was also smart enough to know to have his gang not just be fighter pilots but commando's as well, so it didn't look stupid when they were having ground adventures cough Wedge's Gamble cough

    Solo Command and Starfighters of Adumar were great well written books and worth a read in JMO.
     
  8. jamesplace

    jamesplace Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2013
    Likewise, to this day, the series is my favourite of all the books. Sadly I no longer have them - and they're one of the few (well, more than a few really) that still aren't available on Kindle in the UK. They're also really hard to come across in stores - but then again they're getting on a bit now I guess!
     
  9. kataja

    kataja Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 4, 2007
    I found Stackpole's X-wing books tiring, so I still lack Bacta War and Isard's Revenge. In contrast, I love Allston's three nextcoming Wraith books to bits! They catch SW in it's essence and proved to me it can be more than just Luke (and trust me - that was a HUGE admission from me :p) I still lack Adumar and Mercy Kill -. they wait in my bookshelf as reward when I've managed to force myself through some of the more tedious stuff.
     
    fett 4 likes this.
  10. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Anyone remember that scare a couple years ago when they said that all X-Wing books were to stop being made?
     
  11. cdgodin

    cdgodin Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 9, 2009
    Yes! I remember that! Luckily, I already had all of them, but I'm betting that announcement drove up the sales for them a lot.
     
  12. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Ha ha lol. I just had to mention that to see what others remembered about that. I had mine as well
     
  13. Zorkel567

    Zorkel567 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 20, 2010
    I remember that. Stackpole gave everybody a scare, just for it to turn out he made a mistake. Fun times...
     
  14. KarrdeFan

    KarrdeFan Jedi Master

    Registered:
    Oct 18, 2012
    I am like you, I read the first four and then stopped as I heard the characters were different aside from Isard's Revenge. AFter following the boards, I very happily changed my mind and bought them and read them straight through. I was glad I did as they are all great. I still have yet to pick up Mercy Kill but the rest are worth it. If the Thrawn Trilogy got me back interesting in the EU, the X-Wing books pulled me in directly. And I will agree, Starfighters is worth the read alone.
     
  15. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
    Can I ask why some people here didn't like Isard's Revenge? Reflecting back, I've always remembered it as my favorite.

    Although one of my reasons might be why others disliked it: my exposure to the X-Wing series was with the comic first and the books later, and I've always had more of a soft spot for the comics. And Isard's Revenge is very much more a continuation of the comic storyline and Thrawn Trilogy both than the earlier X-Wing novels.
     
  16. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    As I said earlier, Isard's Revenge is my personal favorite, and I haven't even read the comics, though the fact it directly follows the Thrawn Trilogy might have some significance.
     
  17. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Isard's revenge was a very good novel.
     
  18. reagan64

    reagan64 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Feb 26, 2006
    I think I actually liked the Rogue Squadron books better than the Wraith Squadron stories. It's been a while since I've reread any of them so I don't remember if there were real issues I had with the latter or if I just thought the concept of a combined Fighter/Special Forces unit was misguided. In general I like conventional warfare better than cloak-and-dagger stuff as the premise of fiction. I tend to pay more attention to content than form so I can't comment on the writing really. The first scene with the TIE Defenders in Isard's Revenge is one of my favorites in the series even if the book isn't one my favorites.
     
  19. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    I wouldn't say I disliked it, but it's the weakest of the series primarily because it's sort of a tacked-on epilogue to the Stackpole arc. Initially, we had a satisfying four-book arc with the Rogues maturing as a unit and taking out Isard. Then we moved on to the Wraiths . . . and then there's a two-year time-skip and Isard's back so we can kill her all over again and tie up the last loose end, the Lusankya prisoners. It's just sort of a redo of The Bacta War, as far as progressing the plot -- Krennel's inclusion doesn't really do anything to continue the arc. It's just kind of something to get a book out of. Stackpole clearly planned to bring Isard back in Bacta War -- it's definitely well set up in that book -- but he didn't leave himself enough story setup, and though the timeskip is cool in allowing him to tackle the Rogues in a new time period, address the Thrawn campaign, and show them moving forward a little in their lives and getting promotions, it's not integrated well enough to keep it from feeling like just kind of an epilogue that didn't have to exist, and was only cooked up based on about half a book's worth of ideas.

    Had Stackpole used the opportunity to create a whole new narrative arc to build a duology or trilogy around, I think it could feel a little more purposeful.
     
    Sarge likes this.
  20. jedimaster203

    jedimaster203 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 19, 1999
    I've loved all of Allston's X-Wing books, especially Starfighters of Adumar.

    I enjoyed Mercy Kill quite a bit, but there were a few issues. I really enjoyed that the villian wasn't your standard Imperial admiral that is waging war on the GA/NR. I would, however, like to see some more Wraith Squadron type books in the future.
     
  21. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Sniper Wolf seems to dislike them too:
     
  22. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
    Although by now, the "GA official as villain" trope is pretty overused also. I mean, since the end of NJO, I think the Galactic Alliance or a faction of it has been the villain more often than it's been the heroic side.
     
  23. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    I really enjoyed Krennel and the little bits and pieces the book tossed us about how the warlords like him functioned alongside Thrawn and co.

    I know Adumar is loved, I just have trouble with the whole concept of their people as presented. People that worship fighter pilots and participate in mortal combat on a regular basis, but don't really seem to have that much else going on in their lives - it just seemed like a huge stretch to me. Kinda like Allston wanted to make a whole planet of fans of the series that he was writing. :p
     
  24. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    Never struck me as that farfetched, they pretty much are the equivalent of medieval Knights and the only people the X-Wings Pilots meet are either other Pilots or Nobles, what we learn about more normal people is that they are either downtrodden factory workers living in slums or a not all that much better off middle class.
     
  25. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    "he(Wedge) was deafened by the roar of the crowd"

    Also, the liason mentions how the President of Adumar(for all purposes) has the support of the people due to demostrations of his piloting leadership.

    There is certainly room for such a notion, such a planet and people in fantasy/sci fi. It just wasn't to my tastes.