Books Star Wars: On The Front Lines

I don't think it's due out until the 18th

 

Due out July 19th (in Australia it'll likely the 19th or 20th if not for three-six months later).

 

My local bookstore told me that my copy was in today but that I couldn't buy it. Talk about twisting the knife.

 

I ordered my copy on B&N today!

... but it's not gonna be here till the 31's, since it's coming packaged with my copy of Inferno Squad ;-;

 

Saw it at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore today, read through as much as I could in my short time there so I probably missed a lot (or misread something). Awesome book, as soon as I get the money together, I'm buying it. Not sure anything super-new, but I love seeing them name certain ships at important battles (especially in nuEU). Like I think this book is the first time in nuEU that the Guarlara name from the Battle of Coruscant was reconfirmed (I think?). As well as Rieekan's Striking Distance (unusual name for a Mon Calamari Cruiser, but whatever). Thane was mentioned as capturing the Inflictor's captain, but nothing beyond that unfortunately. I could only skim through fast, but apparently someone from Twilight Company was mentioned as fighting at Hoth, which is new, I think? Which kind of clashes with the book since I thought only their "captive" and the two leaders were there? My memory could be off though.

Funny the book said Grievous escaped on a Separatist frigate when the movie clearly showed a Trade Federation battleship.

Ackbar was listed as commander at both Endor and Jakku (and two different pieces of artwork at that!). I wish we could have gotten a picture of Agate, and no picture of the Starhawk battleship either, but at least both were mentioned. Randd had planned for Jakku to prove the Empire could last, but Imperial battle groups were kind of trying to shove each other to the front of the fire, letting each other get blown up (different from how fanatical they sounded in the Aftermath novel).

Funny enough, the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer wasn't mentioned at all (I think?). Well, they only had TFA to go on, and the Starkiller battle was basically just TIE Fighters vs Resistance X-wings. Even when they list all the forces and vehicles involved, no mention of the Resurgent, though they have a name for that ugly AT-walker. Don't remember what they called it, just another AT-something. The forces for that battle had TIE Figher, X-wing, First Order Speeder, AT-thing, but no Finalizer. They said most of the First Order officers evacuated from Starkiller in time, of course, and that the Resistance's strategy was to destroy the oscillator and disable Starkiller long enough to evacuate D'Qar. Is that new information? Poe was lucky that he didn't just disable Starkiller but ended up blowing it up altogether.

Sounds like the New Republic is out of the picture though- all politicians killed at Hosnian Prime, "leaderless vacuum", something like that, with the fate of the galaxy being decided between the First Order and Resistance. The FO lost Starkiller base and the galaxy knows them for how evil they are now, but things are still grim. Think it was mentioned that Mon Mothma was too naive to think the Senate apparatus could be used to expose the Death Star (which sure fits with her blind approach to a lot of things in nuEU), though Yavin was still a disaster for the Empire (and was covered up as best it could by propaganda and blamed on the late Tarkin).

Lots of interesting tidbits here and there. Like saying Ozzel should have approached slowly from the asteroid belt rather than appear directly over Hoth (and thus setting off plenty of alarms). Or that by fighting at point-blank range at Endor Ackbar hoped that it would throw the Imperial fleet into enough disarray to give the Rebel fleet an opening to escape (something like that). Awesome book, probably the closest thing to a Warfare guide we'll be getting for a long time yet (at the rate the nuEU is moving). Wish it had had some more new ship pictures but the artwork is excellent.

 

Excited to get this Tuesday. Have it preordered on Amazon.

 

Anything extra on Geonosis and Scarif?

 

I only had time to skim from Battle of Coruscant onward (I'm always looking to see if they have anything new about Endor). I think one of the other Hammerheads at Scarif was named, the one that escaped. The name started with a C, don't remember what word it was off-hand, sorry. (Convalesce, Coalesce?). Going to try to buy it this weekend.

 

I might go locate it to add to the buy list if I can find it.

 

Dammit man, it's a bookshop, not a library!

 

I know, I would have bought it then and there but I wasn't carrying much cash yesterday, wasn't expecting to find this book and for it to be this good. Now I have the money so I'm going back tomorrow to buy it.

 

I want first dibs on your notes

 

The research base on Jakku is referenced again and it's not the same as the Observatory. The research base is by Carbon Ridge and the Observatory is on the Plaintive Hand Plateau. Rax's main base is also located near Carbon Ridge and he takes a shuttle to the Observatory in Empire's End.

 

Ok, I now officially own a copy. And that Hammerhead's name was the RHA Hammerhead corvette Consonance.

And now that I have a chance to read the book in depth... Hobbie died on Hoth?! Surprised they put that back in, but oh well. Guess he won't be in any future Rogue Squadron stories (if there are any more, at least he and Wedge were in Rogue Squadron earlier). Not sure if he killed Veers too, the book says his snowspeeder decapitated Blizzard One.

At Endor Piett was afraid of countermanding Palpatine's orders, so the Imperial fleet lost the advantage of overlapping fields of fire. Mon Cal cruisers were the Alliance's heavy cruisers, ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 km (always nice to see a size larger than 1.2).

I think the TFA base walker is called the AT-PD- All Terrain Patrol Droid. Hux is a general mainly because of nepotism and good simulator scores. Apparently the Unknown Regions were quiet as he has no actual battle experience. Hux was the Commander for that battle, Leia for the Resistance.

I'm not entirely up on nuEU stuff, so it was interesting to read up on things I missed- like Sloane ordering the retreat at Endor, Blade Squadron B-wings at Jakku, as well as U-wings landing forces at Jakku too (so they lasted that long at least). I'm honestly not entirely sure this book is quite worth $50, but I love anything that names individual ships (and the art is quite good). Most of the battles are ground battles, but that's not too surprising with the title. Its just fun to read a narrative of what the current EU looks like.

 

...does it actually say he died? Cause according to his Databank entry (which, admittedly, have a history of incorrect information, as it also claims he defected alongside Biggs, although apparently the current story on that is he was undercover and helped Biggs defect?) Hobbie ejected and survived.

 

How could they kill Hobbie? I am honestly taking that harder than when Han died in TFA.

 

Does it actually say Hobbie was killed?

 

Wait what if they think he is dead and he is in fact badly wounded and left there.

What if he survived and became embittered

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

If Hobbie is officially dead on Hoth in canon, I'm going to be incredibly angry. Like, not kidding or being flippant at all here.

 

Same.

Spoiler

Come on, my Rogue Squadron brethren let us riot FOR HOBBIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Is a direct quote ok? "Though Derek "Hobbie" Klivian gave his life on Hoth, his heroic death saved others by blunting the Empire's advance." Fulcrum is mentioned, as is Wedge, so, guess its true? Unless they retcon it later, but not happy that they chose this part of the old novelization (of all things) to include. I hope they can retcon it later. Not sure if this is an in-universe book or not, but doesn't seem like it.

 

Wasn't this actually story-boarded and partly filmed though?



The novelization used that part of the script though I cannot tell for sure if it was supposed to be Hobbie in the scene, Sure looks like his actor though