Lit Crucible by Troy Denning

Irony of irony actually is, he is pretty much the only one to use Young Jedi Knight characters.

Editorial Mandate

Was there really any other way to end LOTF by that point? Any idea of redemption was killed by the way Traviss had him behave as Vader the Second.

Other than Isolder who was really killed somewhat pointlessly I actually can’t name that many. Cal Omas self sacrifice was pretty fitting and the death of a few of the less well know young Jedi (most of which he actually introduced) in the NJO served to add gratify.

There is no writer living or dead on earth that could have written a satisfying ending to those.

I have to agree here actually, like Allston he seems to suffer from being forces into co authored series and is way better if he gets to tell the story on his own and is given time to do so.

Tatooine Ghost was not, Dark Nest was more "exotic" then outright dark.

Oh come on, its SW we have to be surprised so few people get permanently maimed in the books, since it happens in half of the movies. As on torture I don’t recall any in Dark Nest or Tatooine Ghost whilst I can barely remember FOTJ/LOTF, though outside of Ben getting placed in the Embrace of Pain for a while (which might have been a different author) I can only remember some in Star by Star and it is what the Vong do since novel one and the somewhat imfamos Vaila scene (which is not torture per se). Traviss though has Vader II mindprobe somone to death.

There was so much worse in LOTF than that side plot

Pretty sure that was Traviss contribution

The Kiliks were not powerful or bent on galactic domination, at least per se, they are surprisingly complex in that regard. LOTF lack of a real villain is actually the major failing of that series, the Confeds are profile less mess and Vader II so utterly fails at keeping things together he could not have held the galaxy if they handed it to him (which they pretty much did anyhow), whilst Aboleth is simply insane and lacks long term planning.

 

Dirty corporate warfare and reality-warping super artifacts? How the hell do those go together? Why the hell would a "ruthless genius" even think of getting involved with that? Maybe the plot will involve the big three using lethal force to help get an edge of the mining biz. Killing people and destroying property for the sake of business to stop the evil villains who kill people and destroy property for the sake of business. And eventually the bad guys get desperate and use the maguffin? And the cause and effect completely flies over Luke's head?

Also, of course Lando is still mining rocks in the middle of nowhere. What else would he do? It's not like any corporate giants ever used their natural resource business to branch out to different fields or go into politics. The entire notion is preposterous!

 

When was the last time a SW novel back blurb was even half accurate?

 

Darth Plagueis?

 

Crucible is definitely going to a crucible alright, a crucible on my suspension of disbelief.

 

I sense something, as if an entire EU suddenly transformed into an AU, and was suddenly silenced. Well, we should continue with our speculating.

 

I see everyone has already called it!

My take:

And then there's an artifact that can be bend time and space? OK, I'm calling it now - they enter it, the world spins away and Luke wakes up on Endor with a load of Ewoks looking at him, with the hangover from hell!

Or, this turns up:



And this guys invites them for a ride:

 

Some days I feel I should just keep my mouth shut...

Feel free to throw eggs at me for giving them ideas.

 

A fork emerged in the EU....

Feel free to finish the thought.

 

...and plunged into Waru, which Abeloth then picked up and ate?

 

Could be a hit or a miss. I'm more inclined to believe it'll be a miss.

I'm wondering when Denning will come back on these boards?

 

He used to be on here?

 

Wow.

That blurb sounds really stupid. But it's more or less what I've come to expect from Del Rey. I guess they need to come up with more and more ridiculous galaxy in peril threats in order to justify keeping the Big Three front and center long after they should have stepped back and allowed the younger generation to shoulder the burden.

The more I think about the post NJO EU the more I hope the ST wipes it out of existence.

 

Apparently so, Chewie -- one reason why I joined up here myself. IIRC he uses TailOne as his username. It's on one of the bios out on him in Wiki.

 

Ah, the Trousers of Time!

 

Oh my... folks, settle down.. rest.. take a breath... overreaction never got TFN anywhere.. well except to beards.

To get some of the facts:

-this is a blurp... they are unreliable marketing devices!
-The book ties back to Dennings earlier WEG work as we were told earlier.. so lets check those out, will we? A lot there in Scoundrel's Luck. Enemies of Han, lots of cool Columi that qualify for ancient species with artifacts etc.
-it will change Han and Leia so that they will take the backseat from now on and have the next generation star its own adventures without parent interference
-I actually like the artifact.. I always like ancient mysterious out of the ordinary stuff. and I think the blurp was done on purpose to unsettle us with the surprise being: none of your fears will happen. worst case they adress them and the possibility but Han and Leia choose to not use it and come to terms with their past by not saving their lost kids lifes or Chewie finally moving on and accepting it. so they are ready for the backseat instead of active duty.
-besides we had timetravel in SW as canon already a lot.. pizzaz and marvel mags.. devilworlds.. flowwalking recently despite their attempt at retconning it which did not work.. it exists, is not used and that's it. heck we even got 4dimensional beings that percieve all of time as present and mixed. last of the jedi even featured those. bounty hunter wars books did, kerra holt novel did in some shape or form too.

and most important SWORD OF THE JEDI takes place after this book, heck is released after it.. why should they retcon the EU away in any shape or form with this book ever if they continue selling it afterwards? does not compute or make sense. Anja Solo's Legacy and Sword of the Jedi tell us clearly the EU survives and sticks, even if the Sequels might tweak it a bit. So accept that finally..

Damn, all those panicking TFN folks here remind me more and more of Episode7 board movie purists in disguise... who if not us believes in the EU survival? If we don't why should everyone else?

 

I think the blurb was actually pretty awful - when are they not? (and the many adjectives don't help) - but I'm still looking very much forward to this book. First of all because its what I've wanted: a one-book adventure, plus an adventure where I get my Big 3 on their own without those kriffing kids and appretices filling up the pages Second because I think it will have a lightness to it that we need - and third, because I'm very curious what it will do in terms of preparing for the ST. The blurb definitely seems to confirm this book is a brick in that.

 

It was just so long is all. It never ended. Two evil genius and someone else who have a lifelong vendetta against Han? If they're so smart, why couldn't they find him unil he was 80?

 

Stuck on Mortis.

 

A thought on this. Considering Abeloth hasn't been resolved yet, maybe this is just simply a continuation?

To get away from the whole Crisis on Infinite Star Wars thing.

 

sorry this book will be a miss. We constantly see greatly exaggerated summaries , and you can't believe them. But considering the rumors i have heard ( the link is in the episode 7 forum) the focus in the movies is on one child of Han and Leia, and one grandchild. So that throws out Jacen and Anakin if the rumors are true, and where the hell is Ben? So Allana is the future i guess.

 

Well, that little back-cover blurb was disappointing to say the least. Am I the only one hoping that it’s about as accurate as the one on the back of Slave Ship?

Unless the villain from Hans past happens to be Salacious B Crumb, then I'm okay with whatever.

 

Actually Ceiran, I'd see this thread as heading into a quite healthy 50-50 split of ripping said blurb to pieces versus taking the mick out of it, in style!

Nor do I think it true that posters don't care about the EU, quite the opposite! Yet, in practical terms, there is little to actually do about the future, even if it becomes better defined, right now.