Lou, KY 2015 Book Club dates

?

 

Why the ? Appo? Its just a smiley for book club. Yay reading!

 

See you all tonight!

 

at Barnes and Noble Hurstbourne Lane tonight at 7pm/

 

You got it! Just look for the crew in the cafe wearing Star Wars shirts.

 

wasn't sure what it was for and the answer to your question is






of





course...

 

Great to see everyone last night including our surprise guests 11-11 and Mindtwister! Yay! Good discussion as always. Everyone had good (if different) points to bring up about the book. Me, I feel like the charm and humor of the book made up for any other deficiencies and I really enjoyed it. But I don't want to steal Jammies' thunder, I'll let him give report.

 

Thanks Mika.

First, let me start with Tarkin—our book for February. I do apologize for not posting this up sooner. As Book Club Guy I feel that I owe it to the Alliance to post things up timely, but also with some depth to the posting and work had be doing a lot of writing and, um, I forgot.

In Feb we had a good meeting. It was Jammies, Zannah, Appo, and surprise guest Dar! We talked about the book of course, but as is typical with us we went in depth into the greater lore of star wars. We talked about Tarkin the man, the screen villain, and actor Peter Curshing as well as the Empire, the Sith, and the chess game that Sidious is so good at playing. We also talked about Tarkin’s footware. Dar and I also talked about some Force Awakens spoilers we heard, and how good the New Jedi Order was.

Tarkin, written by James Lucino—probably one of if not my favorite living star wars author. This book, to me, was incredible. In what is basically a “Dude Where is My Car” adventure with Tarkin and Vader, Lucino is able to drop mind bombs in a spare sentence or two—and it is these tangential third person omniscient glimpses into the Empire that gave me goose bumps.

While Lucino has claimed that he did not prep any differently for this book then did has his other words, we do know that in this post-buyout environment Lucino had access to the “yellow notebook” of George and several scripts of the now abandoned live action “Star Wars: Underworld.” From those sources we know that Palpatine has a first name and it is “Sheev.” We know about the criminal element in Courscant, the cartels like the Droid Gotra (“a lethal band of repurposed battledroids with what some considered legitimate grievances against the Empire for having been abandonded after their service during the Clone Wars) and the Crymorah Crime Syndicate. We know that the Jedi Temple is now the Imperial Palace. We know that, somehow, there is a Sith Temple under the Jedi Temple (“That the Jedi had raised their temple over the shrine had for a thousand years been one of the most closely guarded secrets of those Sith Lords who had perpetuated and implemented the revenge strategy of the Jedi Order’s founders.”). We learn that the Death Star is being built in orbit above Geonosis as seen in the theme park ride Star Tours. We learn that the Emperor has zero interest in ruling the galaxy. That the sith grand plan was just to get all the people out of the way so that Sheev Palaptine can focus on immortality; as the bureaucracy of the Empire and the might of “ a supreme military overseen by a commander with a will to be as merciless as he is, can secure an Empire that will endure for a thousand generations.” The above blew my mind.

I also liked the protagonists (or, antagonist if you are imperial). While we don’t get to know them as much as we should, it is interesting that those who fought for the Republic would be the first among the galactic populace to start the fires of rebellion.

Appo and I both felt that the ending was “forced.” Too convenient to have Tarkin, his Duck Dynasty uncle Jova, and the rebel Teller all show up on the same acre of land at the same time.

Good to see a lot of WEG stuff back into canon. Good to see S-threads, and Victory Class Star Destroyers, and the Tarkin doctrine. Absent was any females. No mention of Tarkin’s wife, or his mistress, or even his mom really. No mention of the Gorman Massacre, but maybe that has yet to happen or it just doesn’t exist in this canon. Of course the Death Star creation from the old EU is gone, but that is probably for the best as it got extremely convoluted.

In the end, I thought this was a very strong way to start this new chapter in star wars story telling. While the plot is pretty decent, it is the little nuggets and subtext that make this novel stand out to me. Lucino did a great job of exploring a villain without making him sympathetic or an evil seed spawn.

 

I've finished "Lords of the Sith" if someone wants to borrow my copy.

 

Bump
Just a week away...Monday June 1 (day after Wonderfest )
Book: Lords of the Sith....this is for you Appo and Zannah
Hope to see everyone there

 

Bump. See you tonight!

 

Wish more of you could have attended. Had some good discussion with Jammies. In brief..."Lords of the Sith" was a better Cham Syndulla book than Sith Lord book. We also got to see the first (?) big attack by a rebel cell on the Empire. Also, for a totalitarian regime, the Empire is pretty progressive about their members' sexuality. And again we see (as we did in the Heir to the Jedi book) that caf (in addition to coffee) is cannon again.

 

wish i could have been there... sounds like fun... hopefully my hours will change next month and I will b able to make the meetings and everything again

 

Thanks Mika!

(I know I still need to write an after action report for Heir To The Jedi)

We did have a good chat about the book, the new canon, diversity, and star wars in general.

Kemp’s Lords of the Sith (not unlike Lucino’s Dark Lord) gives the reader a glimpse of what it is like to be Darth Vader. Lucino’s book starts immediately after Order 66, while Kemp’s canonical Lords of the Sith starts 5 years after the formation of the Empire. A comparison of the two books is a good and fun exercise, and one that I did in prep for this week’s book club but, along with my notes, misplaced. Still—if you liked Lords of the Sith, pick up Dark Lord. Both books though quickly shift the focus from Vader to new characters who quickly become the protagonists of their respective books. In Lords of the Sith, that character is Cham Syndulla; whom fans will remember as the Twi Lek freedom fighter from The Clone Wars season one and three, and as the father of Hera of Rebels.

As Mika stated, and we both agree—this is much more Cham’s book then Vader and Sidious’s. Cham is competent, noble, and very smart. His ingenious use of clone-wars era droid tech (and all his other assets) gives the Ryloth Resistance it’s first major victory: the destruction of an Imperial class star destroyer and perhaps it’s two occupants, the titular Sith Lords. But as Cham finds out, and as we discussed at length, this victory turns to ruin. What can come of a planetary resistance movement that takes advantage of a weak and passive occupation force and successfully destroys an Imperial ship of the line?

It’s not like the Empire will run away! Just as we will learn that the Empire didn’t impload after Endor. Ryloth is going to be in for a major counterstrike (I’d like to read/see about that—and maybe we will in Rebels). Cham, who planned everything out so well, didn’t seem to plan for victory. “Exit points” he would say, “allways have an exit point.” For Cham, his exit point came in the form of a realization that his cause cannot begin and end on Ryloth. Only in a free glalaxy can his home planet ever be free. In this we see further seeds for an Alliance of rebels.

Cham was supported by his right hand Isval—a really interesting character I thought. My complaint about Heir to the Jedi was that the female character only served to further the quest of the male lead. This is a classic sexist trope of genre literature, and one that Star Wars needs to outgrow. Isval is much more three dimensional than “what’s her face” from our last book. Moreover, she is much more militant and hard core than Cham. Being a freed sex slave will harden you like that I guess. While we have seen glimpses of slave life in Star Wars briefly (I doubt those blue ladies really liked Sebulba THAT much, and Oola became Rancor food), Kemp doesn’t shy away from the psychological damage of such a traumatic life. Her “sport” of Imperial officer hunting illustrates this, as does her lust for blood and vengeance. But, as the book ends so too does gender progress as Isval (MILD SPOILER) dies for the man she loves.

In a universe of Leias, Asokas, Kora Holts, Padmes, etc—we really got to stop with the stereotypes.

No talk of this book and gender politics would be complete without bringing up the white bantha: the first LBGT character in a Star Wars novel. At least, that is what the press behind this book says; and it is certainly the first in the New Canon. But I pointed out that same sex couples have been in Star Wars fiction for a while. Tales of the Mos Eisly Cantina is arguably the first, with the Wolfman and his love the thing that was a sock puppet (Lamparu?). The author never gives us a gender specific pronoun for the alien and perhaps it doesn’t have a gender? Hutts (until recently) didn’t have a gender either, reproducing asexually. So, that would be a same-self-hutt relationship. However, in the New Canon, Hutts have genders and are no longer hermaphrodites. Karan Travis gave us our first human same sex couple with her Mandolorians. Later, in Fate of the Jedi, Troy Denning gives us a same sex couple in the Jedi Order.

Kemp gives us Moff Mors. She starts the novel off as a pretty gluttonous Imperial, but we learn that she is masking the pain she feels at the loss of her wife. As the novel goes on, she becomes much more sober and more competent then her subordinate Belkor led us to believe.

As Mika and I discussed, she is an imperial—but perhaps she serves to show us that the Empire is not as bigoted as we used to think. “We at the Empire don’t hate same sex couples,” I joked “we hate Alderaanians!” The old canon Empire was sexist, speciest, and lots of other “ists.” I think that is mainly because of the Nazi imagery used in the films. In light of the prequels, and the new canon, it seems that the Empire hates whatever is in the best interest of Palpatine to be hated. Mos Amedda is an alien, and the right hand political wonk of the Emperor—yet Wookies and Geonosians are hated and enslaved (and it just so happens that they work really hard! Coincidence?). I liked Mors as a character in her own right, and I suspect we will see more from her.

So, what about the Lords of the Sith? We didn’t have that much to say really. They did kick butt. They also butted heads, with Vader constantly being taught his place. I enjoyed that part of the book. Palpatine was always in control, always teaching Vader, and always the Sith Master we know him to be; even when he kindly, sympathetically, looks after his guardsmen (in my head he switched from sith lord to good old chancellor Palpatine and then back again, as he did so often in the films).

We both grew tired of the constant fight against the bugs. Then more bugs. Then bigger bugs. Then a bug queen.

The two of us gave this book one thumb up (out of four thumbs).

We then launched into all sorts of speculation on what this new version of the Empire is like, who the Royal Guard really are, what the formation of the rebellion will look like, what cross over media will pick up these stories if any, and the general geekery that we are so good at.

Oh, and we talked about my Bronze Award. And Pecan Salad sandwiches.
See what you all missed? Join the fun in August as we read an oldy buy goody: The New Rebellion!
Jammies

 

It's almost Book Club monday! This August we will be reading The New Rebellion. Hope to see you all there, and PM me if you need a copy of the book.
-Jammies

 

what time do you all meet?

 

7:00pm at Barnes and Nobels off of Hurstborn Lane. Book Club is 6 times a year, with the next one on August the 3rd. Hope that will work for you!

 

I'm about half way through Dark Disciple and then I'll get started on New Rebellion. I work day shift that day so I plan to be there.

 

thanks for letting me know when it meets.

 

One week away!

 

*sigh* Just found out the spoilers for Dark Disciple....yeah, I can say that I will never read a NewEU book.

 

Yeah it has some problems. After our meeting tonight I'll post up some thoughts in the non-book club book thread.

See everyone tonight!

 

It's on my to read next pile, or rather, my to finish next pile.

Hope to see you all tonight! Don't talk to any strange droid on your way over.

 

good turnout last night?