Char, NC [Book Club] Shadows and ROTJ books and minis, Sat, Nov. 17th @ 11am

Book: Shadows of the Empire and Return of the Jedi
Date/Time: Saturday, November 17th at 11:00 a.m.
Place: Beatties Ford Rd Library subject to change

His name is Xizor, Underlord of a galaxywide criminal organization called Black Sun. He seeks to displace Darth Vader as Emperor Palpatine's right hand. To do so, he will hatch a brilliantly evil plan to discredit Vader in the Emperor's eyes. But in the meantime he will join the Dark Lord in an unholy alliance whose common target is the young Rebel hero, Luke Skywalker. While Vader and Xizor bait their trap for Luke, Han Solo is being held captive, flash-frozen in a carbonite slab. Mourning the loss of the man she loves, Princess Leia mounts a rescue mission to free Han. She enlists the aid of Luke, who is sharpening his skill in the Force at Ben Kenobi's home on the edge of Tatooine's Western Dune Sea. Skywalker organizes a crack fighting force, including Wedge Antilles and his famous X-wing squadron; Lando Calrissian; and the mercenary Dash Rendar. Yet the fierce battle that ensues to rescue Han will not go according to plan. For the Empire's spies are everywhere. What's worse, though he is cold and reptilian, Xizor has a certain predatory charisma that not even Leia can totally resist. Against the judgment of Chewbacca, who has promised Han to keep her from harm, Leia walks willingly into Xizor's lair in a dangerous play of passion and willpower to get the information she needs to defeat him. At the same time, Luke stands in the crosshairs of a conspiracy of assassins and bounty hunters recruited by Xizor's lieutenant, the beautiful but lethal human replicant Guri. As the struggle between Xizor and Vader intensifies, Luke finds himself the potential prize of the two most evil entities in the galaxy - one who wants him alive, and one who wants him dead. In a final, explosive showdown, the Rebels must infiltrate Xizor's impregnable stronghold and fight the combined forces of Black Sun and the Empire in deep space. With death and betrayal looming on every side, Luke, Leia, Lando, and Chewie must use every weapon and resource at their disposal

We will do away with our spoiler policy for the ROTJ book because it IS the novelisation of a movie we have all seen However, no spoilers for Shadows of the Empire

We will probably meet for an hour to an hour and half.

Everyone is welcome but please post that you will be attending so that we know how many seats to set up.

Questions? Ask. If it is a more general book club question, please ask it in the Book Club planning thread

We will break in December for the annual Christmas party.


Previous Book Club threads:

The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: A New Hope by George Lucas
Han Solo: Rebel Dawn by A.C. Crispin
Han Solo: The Hutt Gambit by A.C. Crispin
Han Solo: The Paradise Snare by A.C. Crispin
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Micheal Reaves
Darth Bane: Pathway to Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Lucerno
[link=http://boards.theforce.net/charlotte_nc/b10

 

We will play minis after we discuss the books.

Also, we have to decide on books for next year. Our top choices are:

The Thrawn Series

Legacy of the Force [although we'd start out with Darth Bane: Rule of Two in January]

 

If you aren't attending the book club meeting on Saturday and want a say in next year's reading please post here. But if you help to choose that means you are committing to attending next year.

Also, we are going to discuss whether or not we are going to keep the meetings at Beatties Ford Road Library. We originally decided on that location because it was central. We had folks coming from Concord, Matthews, Hickory , Huntersville, etc. If you have suggestions, let us know now!

 

We had a great time today (sorry no pictures as we all forgot cameras). We've decided Xizor is full of himself and annoying (Thrawn is at least a worthy adversary) and that the book was pivotal to Luke's development.

I read a passage from RotJ outloud (when Luke removes Vader's mask). It is one of my favorite passages from SW literature.

We discussed what we are going to read next year and everyone has agreed on . . .






























Thrawn! . . . with a side of Darth Bane

So, this will be our schedule:

Jan-Darth Bane v2.0
Feb-Outbound Flight
Mar-Allegiance (meet Zahn at StellarCon!)
Apr-Heir to the Empire
May-Dark Force Rising
Jun-The Last Command
Jul-Specter of the Past
Aug-Vision of the Future
Sep-Survivor's Quest
Oct-Off for Hickory Con (tentative)
Nov-TBD

We also discussed whether or not to keep the meetings at Beatties Ford Road Library. We feel that this is a central location easily accessible to anyone coming from Concord, Mint Hill, Rock Hill, Gastonia, Hickory , etc. Yes, the neighborhood is a little dicey but we've never had a problem (except for the boy who attempted . . . and failed to walk off with my Death Star! ).

We are going to stay with this location and we strongly encourage (cough*purplepenguin*cough) those who live on the other side of the county to join us.

We also discussed the new mailing list and how that is keeping us in touch with each other better than the forums at theforce.net. We will continue to make announcements on the forums and keep our presence but our main communication will be through our mailing list. We will also be requiring people to attend a meeting or an event to meet them in person before we give them access to the mailing list.

After that we played minis! I got punked by my kid She and FettAspirant soundly trounced me. It was great to have FettAspirant there because he really challenged my knowledge (lack of . . . ) minis.

andyf played TK-2970 and beat him. I think that was a retaliation for TK-2970 handing Andy one of the custom modules and then calling out "Look! I gave Andy the shaft!" harharhar

It was great to see roydh there. Wish you could have stayed to play minis!

So, this is the final book club thread for 2007! It's been a great year! Thanks to everyone who has made it to our meetings.

~Jada