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

Books Empire & Rebellion #2: Honor Among Thieves

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Barriss_Coffee, Sep 9, 2013.

  1. Arrian

    Arrian Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 15, 2011
    Truly? I loved it. It's in my top five EU novels.
    A whole novel dedicated to a battle between the Galactic Empire and New Republic: what could be better?
    It was pulpy, self-contained and fun; it added great continuity like the fabled battle of the eponymous Mindor, and Luke resigning his commission; and it was very well written, with Luke, Leia, Han and Lando(!) all coming off near-perfectly.

    Also: Luke, mirroring his father, crash lands a Mon Calamari cruiser on a planet.
    And: it's set in the New Republic era.
    And: the space battle is brilliant.
    And: Rostu, Vastor and Geptun.

    It was everything a SWEU novel should be, in my opinion.
     
  2. Reaper63

    Reaper63 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 17, 2002
    and in mine, it was a waste of time and money, I don't think the characterizations were that great. I HATED the Mandolorian army, I reject the living rock, affected by the force. just terrible
     
  3. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Make sure Honor Among Thieves is on your list. One of the best EU books I've read in a very long time. Lots of action, with humor and snappy dialogue a la ANH. And Scarlet might be my favorite EU character since Brian Daley was doing the honors.

    Plus it's got like a billion new planets (OK, 27 ... but point stands). The galaxy actually feels properly big.
     
  4. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Do we really need that many new planets for one story? What's wrong with using the (rather large) amount of plates we already have? On most of them we have only seen one city after all. Or in Coruscant's case; one part of the city
     
  5. Jeff_Ferguson

    Jeff_Ferguson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 15, 2006
    There is no dearth of talented SW artists. Dark Horse hires people to do gorgeous covers of comic issues that will cost you $2.50 and which you'll read from cover to cover in less than twenty minutes. But for Waru-knows-what reason, Del Rey continues to put these lazy photoshop stock image jobs on the covers of books that will cost you $25 in hardcover and which will take you far longer than twenty minutes to read.

    Why?

    WHY????

    Seriously, why? These stock image covers aren't just lazy, they're boring. They don't grab the interest of a potential buyer. A stock image of Han holding a blaster is tacky and overused, and it doesn't present the book as being at all unique. A Trevas-drawn image of Han firing his blaster at a new-and-interesting-looking badguy would practically scream "I'm new! Buy me! I'm unique!" There are tons of consumers who ignore the old adage and who judge a book by its cover. Has Del Rey completely given up on selling SW to them?
     
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  6. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Just because it need to be said again
     
  7. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Well, this is all I needed to hear.
     
  8. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Yeah, that's a pretty damn good endorsement. I mean, I was gonna get it anyway, but to be compared to Daley? Where's that Fry meme when I need it? Phillip Fry, that is. :p
     
    GrandAdmiralJello likes this.
  9. Darth_Henning

    Darth_Henning Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 1, 2007
    That is a really good question. I mean, while I applaud expanding the universe with new characters, ships and sometimes planets, 27 in one book? Thats.....more than a little excessive. There are so many planets that have only ever been visited in one book/comic/game/etc and never mentioned again that could and should be re-used at some point.

    Sure, if you need a new planet in area X where there's a bunch of mining planets but no water world, ok sure, create a water world. But somehow I doubt that this many unique planets to this book (that will likely never be referenced again) were necessary.

    There is an atlas for this kinda thing that the authors can use...






    As for the photoshop covers. There have been some notably terrible ones in recent years - Crucible, LOTF for the most part, and perhaps the worse offender Millennium Falcon.

    I'm not sure why there's been such an emphasis on that recently.

    But what bugs me just as much is that since the end of NJO pretty much every cover has been decided to be "show precisely one character, and if possible from the waist up. Two if you absolutely have to."

    Look at the Bane Trilogy, any of the TOR novels, DN, LOTF, FOTJ, Riptide, Crosscurrent, Choices of One, Red Harvest, Death Troopers....

    Can we please get some covers that actually show more than one person at a time? and maybe, just maybe some planets or ships?
     
    Gamiel likes this.
  10. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    ...maybe I should actually read Daley before this book comes out.
     
  11. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    YES YOU SHOULD.

    Well, it sounds like a hardcover pickup.

    As for the planets, sounds great. With so many stories just set on one or two planets, and everything revolving around Coruscant, we've been missing a real pan-galactic planet-hopping adventure. Hopefully a good chunk of those planets are visited, and not just referenced.
     
    jasonfry likes this.
  12. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 17, 2004

    [​IMG]
     
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  13. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    look, I lightly skimmed them once like 17 years ago or something and I didn't take the time to actually read them :p
     
  14. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Wow, really? Granted I'm a geography dork, but I love that this book is full of new places. As a fan/reader, I get impatient with Star Wars Clue -- "it was the Ithorian, with the lightsaber, on Bespin." Gimme new stuff, so long as the results still feel like Star Wars -- and SWEARHAT (best acronym ever?) most definitely does. I really think folks will like it.

    And yeah, anyone who hasn't read Daley, you're in for a treat. The characterization of Han is spot-on, it's full of great little character moments and observations, and it's genuinely funny.
     
  15. Jeff_Ferguson

    Jeff_Ferguson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 15, 2006
    I only read Daley relatively recently. After I finished university, moved away, and lost interest in nearly every new novel, I started checking out some old EU gems that I had missed --- The Han Solo Adventures, the X-Wing novels, the Droids cartoon, the radio dramas of the original trilogy --- each one of them was a treat. Just for the hell of it, I may add the Jedi Prince and Galaxy of Fear books to that list some time.

    And Jason: Yeah, I'd take a new planet and new species over a Twi'lek and a Rodian on Tatooine any day. I think what Gamiel was going for, though, was the bevy of already-existing but criminally underused planets and species that exist in EU lore. Then again, is there really any difference between creating your own planet and using one that only exists in the EU as a descriptionless namedrop? Like you said, the galaxy's still big enough for thousands of new planets.
     
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  16. jasonfry

    jasonfry VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Yep, both are good strategies.
     
  17. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Well, given that I thought it was too boring to read as a kid... if the usual patterns with these things holds true, then I'm probably likely to enjoy it a lot this time around. I had terrible taste as a child. :p I've been meaning to get to it, but Honor Among Thieves just makes it a little more pressing.

    I'll add it to the gazillion contemporaneous reads I have going on my kindle right now. Sometimes I wish I could just read books for a living. It'll be the only way to get a serious dent in my list. :p
     
  18. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

    Can't resist a well done Han.
     
  19. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Plus you need to do some kind of read-through article(s).
     
  20. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    New places are nice but why not visit new places on old planets. F.ex. tCW have given us new places on old planets
     
  21. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I am not even going to got there, because I was about to do yet another rant on TCW and what it did with planets. I don't have anything else to talk about, because virtually no one cares about the stuff I like, and what I like is little more than footnotes or completely meaningless thanks to what has happened in recent years.

    Daley is on my to-do list, but I only got around to obtaining the two Han Solo trilogies when A.C. Crispin passed away.
     
  22. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    jasonfry, because I just have to ask, when you compare SWEARHAT to Daley, does that extend to Han's characterization as well? Absolutely love Daley's take on Han.
     
  23. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Zeta I joined after you and have not seen your rants, just you snobbing tCW and I want to know what you think. So were can I read your rants?
     
  24. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    Everywhere. :)
     
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  25. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    If you don't know what Zeta thinks of TCW, wait five minutes.