Books EMPIRE & REBELLION: RAZOR'S EDGE by Martha Wells: The Official Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Oh yes they can. One particular Human Replica droid from a certain Jedi Prince series comes to mind.

 

That just goes with unfortunate implications SOTE fully went there.

 

What's disturbing is this means, with Crucible, there are TWO attempts to create Leia-themed sexbots.

Troy, really?

 

I dunno. What disturbs me, isn't the idea of droids havin sex in itself. It's more how close it gets when I insert a stik into a slot...

Well, imagine if Lucasfilm really would be able to make sexbots - how many of them that would have been procuced since 1983...

 

Say hello to those awkward thoughts.

Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion shortens nicely into SWEAR, so SWEAR:RE
Or RE:SWEAR to confuse everyone.

 

Not to be confused with:

 

Do you really think the children's book series HRD is a sexbot?

It's a MURDERBOT.

 

No, TRIOCULUS intended to use it as a sexbot.

He just forgot the real Leia is DANGEROUS.

(Oh, right, right, he didn't KNOW she was a robot. SUREEEE)

 

"Is it so wrong to be a murderer? Or a liar? Or an inhuman monster? I may be all of those things, but I still have a heart."

HIS ONE VIRTUE WAS ALSO HIS ONLY WEAKNESS OH THE IRONY.

 

LIES! His weakness was the fourth eye hidden in his heart!

 

Read the first couple chapters and so much more refreshing compared to the last Big 3 book that came out.

 

Nice book -- not nearly as awesome as Kenobi and the like, but a well-written adventure story without any boring parts that fits in well with continuity without being continuity-heavy in the least. And not because the author doesn't know continuity -- she uses Ishori (yay! finally! and sans Diamala to boot!) and a Lorrdian, touches on Han's adventures in the Corporate Sector and generally does a great job of showing us the Big 3 exactly where they would be judging from everything we know, both film-wise and EU-wise. Wells is both an admitted fan and a good writer, and it shows -- in the best possible way.

 

Minor and probably rather petty musing halfway in this (otherwise good) book: why is it that from having been more or less invisible, women are suddenly in command everywhere in this story? Leia, Metara, Viest, Anakaret... Plus they form literally the half of the force in general. Sure, I appreciate it - but how does that fit with the rest of the EU? At least the lack of women in the Imperial ranks is explained with sexism... But ok, if this is the tune from now on, I can live with it... Next step has to be to make less of them slim and remarcably attractive.

 

So I assume I'm not the only one a little disappointed by this book? First off, $27 for a 250-page story?! I read this in about 4 hours. This should have been published as a paperback. Fortunately I got it for $16. While the story is good and the characterizations of the OT heroes are great, I wasn't too impressed. This isn't the first "smuggler base in hollowed-out asteroid" story I've read. A solid start for a new SW author, but I hope she does better with her next novel. Of course, how can anybody beat Kenobi?

 

Short of a big surprise, no one's beating Kenobi here for a long time but that doesn't stop us getting some good stuff.

 

That's why I'll be waiting for paperback to get it.

 

Oh sweet Jesus it's in color. Has some hero colorized all of the Jedi Prince artwork? I WANT TO PAINT MY SKYHOUSE THE COLOR OF ZOOCHBERRIES.

 

Finished it yesterday and I was very satisfied with it. It was in many ways opposite of Kenobi; brimmed with action from page one as it was - but the characterizations were spotless (particularly Leia who Wells really gets!) and the execution faultless. Very enjoyable read - and really starwarsy in its feeling! Loads of kabooms and optimism! If these last two novels is the new trend you can count me in!!!

I can't really even complain about Luke's characterization in it, save that he had too little pageroom

Spoiler: SPOILS!

Replace 'alien' with 'positive reader', 'Han' with 'fans in general' and 'Leia' with 'Martha Wells' and
I can't but think this small scene is the authors subtle comment to the reader:
Alien: "God luck, crazy human lady. It was fun destroying stuff with you."
As they headed toward the access ladder for the hatch, Leia asked Han, "Is that why you stick around? The thrill of destroying stuff with me?"
His sideways glance was hard to read. "One of the reasons."

 

Not all. Just that one and like four others.

 

I just finished reading this and I thought it was ok.
But it was probably one of my least favourite Star Wars books.

It started out well, though from the first few scenes I was worried that the author was getting Star Wars confused with Star Trek, what with all the mentions of people going to "engineering".
Her writing style was really meh, and hard to follow. I was bored tearless through the middle section and really struggled to get through it.
I like that she tried to add more female characters, but she went way too far and it was a bit silly that everyone in positions of power was a female.
Also I would have liked more references to other continuity, and I found all settings very boring.
And the thing that bugged my most was the rebels kept stunning everyone! I could understand the pirates, but why stun the imperials? So stupid and makes no sense. It would never happen realistically, they would always be set on kill and how often in the movies do Leia, Han and the rebels have their blasters set on stun? Never.

On the positive note I thought her characterisations were good, Leia especially, and her relationship with Han. Luke was ok, and though probably not her fault, it annoyed me how weak he was. But I guess he had to be in the situation they put him in, at that point in the timeline.
Maybe someone can aware me why Luke is never flying X-Wings in books set between Episodes IV and V? seems to me that that would be his thing. Leading Rogue Squadron and all. But so far everything I've read, Allegiance, Choices of One, and now this all have him wandering around like a kid just getting in everyone's way?

Well still not as bad as Crystal Star. But not much better. Mostly just because I found it really boring, which almost never happens for me with Star Wars books.

 

The best Leia-centric book bar far. She was pretty awesome. I really liked the strong females theme of the whole book. The end sort of petered off for me. But I enjoyed it, overall. Like others have said, not Kenobi awesome. But waaaaay better than Crucible.

Is there a review thread for this book yet? I haven't seen one, but I wanted to be sure. (Subtle hint, Lit. Mods., if one hasn't been posted )

 

My feelings exactly! Though they were good characters each of them.

Oh - I'm so glad you say this!!!! Though RE was waaaay better than Allegiance and Choises of One where Luke's almost a parody. At least in RE he can accomplish something - even if it's small stuff! But I wonder why this is? Is it because the writers think he becomes so Deus Ex Machina in later books that he should get any screentime before he becomes a Jedi?

 

Yes definitely worse in Timothy Zahn's books. If I had to guess it's because the authors just see what he does in A New Hope and try to repeat that, ignoring that he is supposed to be a hotshot X-Wing pilot during this time (considering the last thing he does in Episode IV is blow up the Death Star and the first thing he does in Empire Strikes Back is lead a squadron of Snowspeeders).

But it least in this book it hints at him being part of Red Squadron. In Allegiance and Choices it's not even a plotline at all. He's just Han & Leia's kid sidekick always screwing around and being naive.