181st Imperial Discussion Group: X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble!

Hiya kids!

This week we will be discussing Rogue Squadron: Wedge?s Gamble by Michael Stackpole. Here?s a link to the TF.n staff reviews, and per usual, I?ll kick us off with some discussion points and then join in as we go.

So! Our second X-Wing novel ? here?s hoping it proves as popular as the first.

-- There was some discussion last month about the benefits and limitations of telling the story so strictly from Corran?s POV. This time, while we still see a lot from his perspective, we do also get the story told from more perspectives within Rogue Squadron as they are forced to split up down on the planet. Yet, still no signs of Hobbie or Janson. Iella gets introduced as well as a few new pilots. So, I guess what I?m trying to get at here is, how did you find the balance between new characters and old; between sticking with Corran?s familiar POV and moving toward multi-POV storytelling (in the good guys camp at least), and do you still miss Hobbie and Janson?


-- Okay, moving from the good guys to the bad guys, and again riffing on some things we discussed last month, what about Isard and Loor? We see more of Isard?s plans now, scheming to bankrupt the Alliance with an easily cured, but expensive plague, planning to give them an epic Trojan horse of a planet ? the planet whose recapture might seem better placed as the culmination of the series rather than a bitter victory mid-way, no less. Is she still a fairly stock character? Is she becoming more frightening? Are her schemes genuinely intriguing or still pretty predictable? And what of Loor ? not as large a presence as he was in the first novel, but showing signs of development at the end with his revelation that he no longer fears death, or at least, that the fear motivates him rather than crippling him. Again, what did you make of this? Intriguing? Too slow?

-- While there?s plenty of X-Wing action, instead of focusing on dogfights, the bulk of this novel takes place on Coruscant and sees the Rogues pressed into espionage. Did you like the change of pace?

-- Extrapolating from that last point, the planet-bound plot is full of tension as the spy in Rogue Squadron continues to rat them out, and our scenes with Isard prove that she knows more than our group knows she knows, meaning every action they take, we have to wonder, does this play into her plan? Are they really outthinking the enemy? Do you think this succeeded? What about the continuation of the Tycho plot? We now find out why no one trusts him, and it?s a reason good enough even our protagonist can?t be sure, even Tycho himself can?t honestly be sure, and we end with Corran getting shipped off to the exact same place? Thoughts?

So, take it away, guys!

Next month we will be discussing Rogue Squadron: The Krytos Trap by Michael Stackpole.

 

I'll try to jump in on this one, but I don't know how well I can squeeze another book into the end of the semester

I've been wanting to re-read Wedge's Gamble probably since Episode III came out. Now that I know Coruscant a bit better (three prequels and two TV shows) and have seen what a Battle of Coruscant looks like, it'll be interesting to see how my perceptions and imaging of the book has changed since I originally read it.

Plus,I always thought the Wedge/Mirax kiss was cute.

 

I never totally drank the Corran Kool-Aid; Wedge was always the better character and if you really want to see ensemble done well, look to Allston. Stackpole's X-Wing books used to be about the best thing going, I thought, until Allston's X-Wing books showed me what Stackpole's could have been, if he hadn't been so obsessed with Corran.

The first book was pretty static; not a lot going on. This one, taking the Rogues out of their cockpits and putting them on planet, was a lot more fun. Corran wouldn't really start getting on my nerves until I, Jedi, so he was still good here, particularly with that great speeder bike chase.

But this one definitely felt more expansive than Rogue Squadron, which was very, very good from where I stood.

As to the villains, Kirtan Loor was always the best character from this series. Always.

Things start to kind of wear around the edges already. One can forgive Corran's fake death at the end of this book since it's a plot point, but one wonders, given that it was an important moment here, why Stackpole felt compelled to give Corran a fake death at the end of Rogue Squadron too. Because with this being the second, in just two books, fake death for Corran Horn, you begin to see already that Stackpole has some tics, tics that are only going to get more irritating as you go along.

Wedge's Gamble and The Krytos Trap were definite high points, KT being one of the highpoints of the entire EU. Bacta War was fun, but after that, pretty well any time you see Corran Horn, run like hell.

 

I think the book almost suffers from having Isard fully reveal her plots. Instead of it slowly unraveling that they've been given a poisoned planet and they're playing into her hands, it's all spelled out before they've even gotten control. A lot of the dramatic heft is gone when the villain has whole scenes of "Here, let me explain my plan ahead of time . . ." that lay out the actual plan, no surprises. It's a bit of a tradeoff -- the book benefits in general from having villain POV developing the antagonists fully, but suffers specifically from losing a lot of surprise, and Stackpole doesn't even really try to keep a sense of mystery. The same tradeoff shows up in the end scene -- is it better to give Corran's "death" some actual heft, let it sit and stew and have people wonder before the next book reveals he survived, or is it better to undercut that and instead go with the dramatic bang of a CAPTURED! cliffhanger?

Speaking of villains, though, Kirtan Loor's development continues to be great. He's a typical Stackpole character -- too self-awarely self-analytical, narrating his own character development to the reader through bursts of sudden revolutionary personal insight -- but his arc is intriguing enough to overcome that. His growth to competence, from buffoon to self-assured threat to the heroes and to Isard, in this book is key to what makes The Krytos Trap great. This is the book where Stackpole's entire stable of villains are assembled -- though the spy's not out in the open yet, he/she/it's here, Loor's here, Isard's here, Thyne's here, Derricote's here, and Vorru's here. The thing about Stackpole's villains is that depth of villainy. Isard's there, plotting grandly. Loor and Thyne both have backgrounds with Corran, scheming against him as Isard's tool and Loor's tool, respectively. Vorru's holding Thyne's leash, with control of Black Sun you know you can't trust him with. The spy is finally taking action that's undercutting the squadron. Derricote is Isard's henchman, manufacturing the virus. None of these, besides Loor, are themselves great characters. Isard's relatively flat, a plan-spieling arrogant middle-aged lady with a list of Bond-villain visual tics who's always got some scheme and whose genius is showed as much as told. She's a credible villain, but she doesn't leap off the page; she's too stock. Thyne, too, is pure scummy stock, the vicious criminal; he's all two-D. Vorru's just Grand Moff Tarkin if he were corrupt, a power-thirsty noble alternately gracious and brutal; there's no depth to him. But all of them together, seen in action, add up to more than the sum of their parts.

Speaking of ensembles, it's great to really see the broader cast come in. It's still overly convenient that Mirax is acting as the Rogues' personal smuggler (who died and made her Han Solo?), overly convenient that Tycho's love interest Winter and Corran's partner Iella are their Intelligence contacts, and, for that matter, overly convenient that all three groups get tied together through massive coincidence in the big midbook action scene. But, ignoring the contrived manner in which everyone is forced together, they're a great cast when they're together. Iella, Mirax, Winter, Asyr, and Inyri provide great additional skills to the team (as well as some feminine faces -- it's interesting that, out of a grand total of five love interests, only one comes from within the squadron initially [Nawara and Rhysati don't count as love interests, since it's not a case of a major character finding a woman {and make no mistake, every female character in here is a supporting character to a male character . . . let that debate begin} but a case of two supporting characters getting mutually paired off in the background with no development at all] and only one female is introduced from outside the squadron and doesn't develop into someone's love interest [she already had her turn with Thyne? In any case, she doesn't get a man herself]). Within the squadron, it's great to see more of Gavin, increase the supporting presence of a lot o

 

One thing I really liked about the book was the ambition set down at the start: Let's take Coruscant!

Now it seems like not that a big a deal, but then it was this big missing story that the likes of DE and TTT had only mentioned or alluded to.

Then, as the defences of Imperial Center are sketched out, you start to wonder how the planet could possibly fall to anyone, which is all the cue you need to read on....

 

Hey, I had a lot of fun reading this book. I want to start off this jumbled review with two words: Pash Cracken.

I love this guy! He and Judder Page both, the two unsung heroes of The Unifying Force. I didn?t know very much about either of them before I read that book, but it was a travesty that they weren?t included in its dramatis personae. Then I got to read about Page doing awesome stuff in Rogue Squadron, not to mention being included in the Kessel plotline of this book --- but Pash Cracken as part of Rogue Squadron? Awesome! I honestly knew so little about these books going in that I had no idea that Pash was in them at all, let alone a part of the squadron. He had a really good role as a supporting character in this book, and I can?t wait until The Krytos Trap, when we?ll hopefully get to see him actually pilot an X-wing. I don?t rue the fact that we didn?t get anything from his POV, as, unlike in book one, there were plenty of POV's to go around. Seeing through the eyes of Corran, Wedge, and Gavin in equal portions made for a very interesting and well-done recon of Coruscant. Gavin has been fleshed out as a character quite a bit more now, and Wedge had the prominent role that I was shocked he didn?t have in book one.

I think that Stackpole did a good job of pacing the book. Even though it was all about the Rogues being on Coruscant, he kept them off of Imperial Center for the first 120 pages, allowing him to throw in the Kessel mission, and to dedicate much of the first 100 pages to Wedge and the Provisional Council. Mad props to Stackpole for including the Provisional Council, Leia, Fey'lya, Mon Mothma, Airen Cracken, Doman Beruss --- it was this plotline that gave the siege of Coruscant the importance that it deserved. At first glance, the X-wing books are easy to dismiss as a ?side story? in the New Republic Era, but, no, they?re actually full of important events that help establish the New Republic as a legitimate government, and include many of its key political and military figures. And that?s why the first 100 pages were as important as any other 100.

The Isard-Loor-Derricote story is being continued really well. Isard remains a menacing figure, pulling all the strings in the background but remaining elusive to the reader --- very unlike Thrawn, who the reader was with every step of the journey. I'm aided by the fact that I've read the Rise of Isard arc in the X-wing comics, but picturing her standing there, bathed in the evil red glow of her office, gives me chills. The passage about how she covets space on a crowded planet was very good. And the Krytos virus is truly despicable; the fact that Isard hasn?t a single reservation about using it makes her a very effective villain. However, I do agree with Havac's point that the whole Krytos scheme being explained so early ended up really hurting the book. If the reader had believed that the Empire wanted to fight for Imperial Center, right up until the very end, and then was just as confused as Wedge as to why the Empire didn't put up much of a fight... if the reader had been left to piece together clues about Isard's plan, rather than know about it from the beginning... that would have made the ending, well, tragic.

I thought that Corran Horn's role in this book was the perfect size. Not the overload we got in Rogue Squadron, but not diminished too significantly, either. There was a really cool action scene where Stackpole made the reader totally expect that Corran was going to crash his speeder bike into the apartment where Wedge and his crew were hanging, as, well, the preceding passage had seen a speeder bike crash into their apartment --- but instead, he made it crash into the garage where Gavin and his crew were hanging. That was great stuff. I didn?t really care that it was Corran who was firing the final shots that would see Coruscant?s shields go down, but Corran-wise, the end of the book really bothered me. The New Republic has just taken Coruscant, b

 

As Jeff touched on, the amount that Mike Stackpole focused on the Provisional Council really added a good sense of the importance that capturing Coruscant was for the New Republic. The political interactions, the differing strategies on how to take the world, and everything else really provided some depth to the inner workings of the New Republic's main governmental body.

Stackpole wrote one particular scence that still stands out in my mind all these years later. When Fey'lya goes to Ackbar's quarters on Home One and has a frank and honest conversation. The reader has been conditioned since Zahn's books to distrust Fey'lya, but this one little scence really provides some depth to the character. Furthermore, it is the only time in the Expanded Universe where Ackbar and Fey'lya put aside their mutual dislike of each other and decide to jointly present a plan to Mon Mothma. It was a unique experience, that showed some interesting depth to both characters.

The one thing that always bugged my was the relative ease with which Coruscant fell. I understand that IU this was due to Isard's desire to give Coruscant to the NR to trap them and unleash the Kryto Virus, but I still feel the final battle could of been a bit more epic. After leading up to this battle for the entire book, it was a bit of a letdown when the battle literally ended so quickly.

Stackpole describes the sheer size of Ackbar's fleet is great detail. At one point, it is described to cover the sky above an entire hemisphere of the planet. It was also neat that he included some ships that were famous from other works- namely the captured Star Destroyers Liberator and Emancipator, as well as Captain Onoma's kickass MC80B Mon Remonda.

All in all, I enjoyed the book immensely. Parts could of been better, but it is one of the true gems of the EU.

--Adm. Nick

 

Oh, yeah, I loved the scene with Fey'lya and Ackbar. I'd completely forgotten it was there until this reread, then read it and was blown away by how subtle and stereotype-blowing it was. Especially from Stackpole, who tends to lean heavily on the black-and-white, stereotype-extreme characterizations. To see Fey'lya played not as a scheming bastard, but as a politician who's rivals with Ackbar but not enemies, to see them both work together, be frank with each other, shake hands, and get something done together is just great -- right up there with Fey'lya on the bridge of the Ralroost in Ruin. It was just fantastically written besides being a great acknowledgment of the fact that, whatever his faults, Fey'lya is on the same side as Ackbar.

Jeff: Now you have to PM me to tell me who you think it is.

 

My favorite parts were the descriptions of what was happening to the Quarrens when they got the virus. They pretty much just melted. Like the previous poster, i am already getting sick of Corran Horn. I bought the 3 book in this series and couldn't get into it. I really wish they would go more into the other pilots histories and such. like shieve the wolf guy. He's the coolest outa all of them but he is hardly used. but according to you guys, you say the 3rd book is great, so i might have to give it another try

 

Eh, I'll just post it. Like I said, this is still just speculation on my part, even if I'm about 99% sure. Becca, I figure you've worked it out too, but just in case you and I both have wildly different theories, keep in mind that this isn't a spoiler, as, like I said, I've been resisting the urge to go read more about the Rogues on Wookieepedia. But I'll eat my hat if the spy isn't Wedge Antilles.

... Wait, I mean Erisi Dlarit. Even if it weren't for the fact that I've read about most of the rest of the Rogues still being good guys in later EU, Corran's "bad feeling" about her says it all. Although in 2009, I know things about his Force-sensitivity that I wouldn't have in 1996.

I guess it could theoretically be Riv Shiel or Rhysati, who, if I have read about them in later EU, I don't remember it... but, yeah, totally Erisi. With that said, Nobody reply to that part of my post! I want to stay officially spoiler-free on this thirteen-year-old mystery.

Neat timeline thing --- the book states that six months have passed since the new Rogues first became a part of the squadron. So with Rogue Squadron at 2.5 ABE, Wedge?s Gamble is officially at 3 ABE. That?s pretty cool, I had originally thought that all four would take place within a few months, but now it looks like they might lead directly into Wraith Squadron and the hunt for Zsinj.

On that note, I really like what Stackpole is doing with Zsinj. According to Aaron Allston?s FAQ, nobody had any idea that the X-wing novels would continue until after the first four had already been published; Stackpole couldn?t have known that Allston would come along and write about the hunt for Zsinj. Which means the shadowy background role that he?s given Zsinj so far was more of what I touched on earlier --- bringing together elements of the Bantam Era that had been previously written about. Zsinj, who Dave Wolverton had established as a dude that the New Republic definitely wanted to go after, is now, one year prior to Courtship, being treated as a pretty bad dude that the New Republic will definitely soon want to go after, once they have a stronger hold on the galaxy. That?s a rare and admirable trait in a SW author --- respecting the continuity of others in a way that feels natural in and adds depth to your story. And it?s not even the type of continuity that if it weren?t present, it would be a glaring error. Stackpole is somebody who actively wants to incorporate stuff from other authors into his books, and the end result is fantastic cohesiveness.

I?d like to also give my support of the Ackbar-Fey?lya scene. Great stuff there.

 

Okay! *cracks knuckles* I'm not going to specifically reply to people, but I will try to address most of the stuff raised that I have actual opinions on. Firstly, I understand Hav's problems with the logic underpinning using the Rogues as spies - that kind of threw me too. And kind of a sign of the times; not like the Rebellion when lack of personnel could be used to justify just about anything. But it is fantastic fun and far more expansive than the previous novel.

I'm not finding myself too annoyed with Corran Horn though I do understand why some are. It's fair to level the accusation at Stackpole that his characters are too self-aware and Corran definitely fulfills many Gary Stu criteria. I have read I, Jedi and he doesn't even annoy me there, but I think a large part of that was because Corran was aware of his own flaws too. A legitimate argument can be made that that sort of false awareness - giving characters flaws just so they can heroically overcome them - is just one more piece of Gary Stuness, but equally, it makes me feel that the arrogance of Horn in places here is deliberate; I, Jedi retrospectively gives me more faith that I'm not supposed to blindly approve of his actions. That said, he is by no means my favourite character. Currently I think Tycho is, with Wedge second.

As an aside, I also understand Hav's point about the coincidentalness of the action sequence. At least in part, I wondered if that was down to some amount of Force sensitivity in Corran? Certainly that's what I attributed his picking that bar of all bars to, and perhaps even part of the meetup later, though obviously Corran wasn't the only participant.

Also on point about Corran's force sensitivity and it wrecking thirteen year old mysteries, the combination of not having heard about her much in later EU and a particular passage means that yes, Jeff, I share your suspicions exactly, though I too am avoiding parts of Wookipedia like the plague...

The next section is highlighted not because it contains the name of whom I suspect to be the spy but it does heavily imply from references to certain storylines, etc. I do wonder if I would have come to that conclusion not knowing about Corran's hunches though. I think I might have since it's also in a section of the book that goes on and on about the importance of said hunches, but equally I think I might have put it down to Corran's arrogance or pride. Especially in relationships with women, he's a little full of himself and self-centred. As I said, I like the guy, but I can't help it, whenever he talks himself into or out of dating a women in logical terms, talking about compatibility, friendship, whether or not he's fallen in love with her yet or how easily he could, I always get the impression he's approaching it from the assumption that he's at the upper edge of their league. He likes to give himself logical or altruistic motives, but really, I've never gotten the impression that Corran has ever considered a relationship from the perspective of what the woman would get out of dating him. So...yeah. I can believe that I would have dismissed those thoughts as in-character for Corran, even if wise, but not a premonition, had I not known? Then again, I'm not the sharpest when it comes to guessing plot twists...

I'm going to diverge from Hav's criticisms about Isard and Corran's death though.

I understand your point about her revealing all her plans, but I actually enjoyed that part. I didn't really connect with her so much last novel, and I think a lot of that was fearing she was going to be another Daala. A Bond Villain I can take, but a Bond Villain whose idea of victory involves, well, anything like any plan ever invented by Daala, is just...boring. So, okay, perhaps her plans don't reach the heights of Machiavellian strategy, but...the are interesting and a little surprising and not entirely lame. So for me, if I didn't know what her plan was, and it was just endless "Ahaaaa, I have the Rogues RI

 

Man, I loved this book. Still do, as well. I loved the mirror station's crew, too. More later as I am more coherent.

 

The comics and books were pretty much simultaneous, but the only commonalities in the casts of each were Wedge and Tycho. The comics were actually better with female characters, having Elscol and Plourr as major characters with their own arcs that didn't revolve around falling in love with anyone and strong supporting characters in Feylis, Ibtisam, and Herian. While both Ibtisam and Feylis were in romantic relationships with others in the squadron, the men were not the lead characters and they were pretty much equal pairs.

 

Heh heh. As much as I liked Ganner's turn-around in Ruin, there's just something too... Stackpole about this quote:

"You don't understand, Jacen, the Yuuzhan Vong didn't fool me. I fooled myself. Throughout this mission, since I first heard of the Yuuzhan Vong even, I wanted to prove that I was better than they were. I was furious that I did not get to engage a Vong on Bimmiel. The first one I killed this afternoon, I tricked into stepping into that hole. I knew he was a fool, and he died because of his stupidity. And somehow, I started thinking that I was a genius compared to the rest of them. It wasn't a stretch for me to think I was brilliant compared to the Yuuzhan Vong. I've been thinking that for a long time compared to other Jedi. [?] So, yes, I'll have a scar, and it will be good. The old Ganner, he had a perfect face over a perfectly arrogant attitude. Not so anymore. Every time I look in a mirror I'll be reminded that he died on Garqi, and I'm here in his place."

It was kind of head-scratching, wasn't it? Page's commandos seemed the perfect choice for an insertion mission, accompanied by some of Cracken's people. But it is almost hard to criticize when it did provide for such a fun novel. Keeps the series fresh and varied --- space battles in book one, not so much in book two... but now I miss space battles and want more.

I chalked it up to Corran's Force-sensitivity --- recall that when he started wandering around in Coruscant's underbelly, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, but still felt like he was kind of being led somewhere. It was totally the Force saying, "OK, here's how you're going to crash two of your friends' parties at once..."

Yeah, same here. For years I've been hearing that these nine books are ambrosia, while everything else is street meat, but now all of a sudden everyone is like, "Welllll Stackpole's were OK, but wait 'till you get to Allston's!"

I completely agree with this, Nick --- even though we, the reader, knew that Isard was letting the New Republic have Coruscant... it's Coruscant. The Empire only puts out like two Star Destroyers in defense, and Wedge is only a little bit suspicious that Isard let them have the planet. Isard would have done wonders in easing the NR's suspicion if she had put up even some semblance of a fig

 

Does anyone else feel that Stackpole kinda of goes back and forth on what he wants the Imperials to be? That is one part that always bothered me. They have detailed files on the rogues enough to try an assassination of them but not enough to see through some bad disguises when they insert into Imperial Center. They make destroying Rogue Squadron a piority because they are a symbol for the alliance but yet they have no idea where they are even after they have a spy in the group. It seems that we have to go back and forth between versions of the Empire that is strong and lethal and a keystone cops version. One minute Corran is worried that Loor will track him down and the next he could care less. I mean they want you to believe that despite the fractured nature of the Imperial command structure, minor warlords, no set Moff council, no one in charge and so on that they are capable of destroying the Alliance even after the losses at Endor and yet they seem bumbling at best. It is a complex dynamic to say the least and yet it is very much what the Empire is at that moment. So I can't decide if it is sheer brilliance by Stackpole or just some dumb writing.

 

Well, Stackpole didn't explicitly state it in the book, but you have to imagine that Isard was forced to shuffle her priorities a little bit --- in book one, she wanted Rogue Squadron destroyed, but after finding out that they were the team inserted into Coruscant, they suddenly became people that she wanted to succeed. Now that she's lost Coruscant, she can focus again on destroying the Rogues, and Corran Horn will be the tool which she uses to do that.

I also want to throw this out there: Wedge's Gamble is an awesome name for a book. Like, just simply awesome. I've loved it as a book title since I first saw it a book store over ten years ago. I really wish that we were getting book titles like that these days --- Jaina's Gamble. Fel's Trials. Jag's Commandos. Sigel's Dare.

I'm really interested to start The Krytos Trap --- seeing the New Republic just starting to operate off of Coruscant, getting used to the whole thing --- more provisional council, maybe? More Leia? I'll have to wait and see...

 

Finished this up last week, and now posting a response.

It's been awhile since I read anything by Stackpole, so I had forgotten the rather peculiar way his characters speak. The romantic dialogue, in particular, seems a bit on the stilted side. However, the strength of the story and the overall narration more than compensated for this, and made for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

There was a lot of romance in this book, with both Erisi and Mirax. What makes this element really stand out for me is Corran's introspection on his love life. While Corran does perhaps center too much on himself in his inner monologues, that is largely in keeping with his character: pilots are, by stereotypical nature, egotistical alpha-men, and Corran admits to being aggressive and self-confident. As such, his navel-gazing about the two women felt very much in-character. What's more important, though, is that we actually have a thought process that goes into the love dynamic, something that is not much seen in Star Wars. Anakin and Padme seemed initially predicated on her being pretty, Luke and Mara was more or less an Act of the Force, and Tycho and Winter occurred somewhat off-screen in the comics (there is, of course, another couple that gets introduced later in the series, but I'm not going to spoil that). I can't think of another example in the SW lit where we had at least one of the characters consciously decide to pursue or not pursue a relationship.

While the Battle of Coruscant that we see was, perhaps, anti-climatic, this book did a good job of not telling the whole story. We see a bit of the space battle, though even that is loosely described. The invasion itself, however, is skipped clean over, and we even get a week's(?) buffer if later material wanted to fill in the battle. Whether through accident or design, that's some good foresight.

In-universe, I do wonder about Corellia getting a seat on the Provisional Council. It's stated numerous times in the text that Corellia adopted an isolationist policy officially, and that the Diktat was Imperial-leaning. Was Doman Beruss then the leader of the Corellian rebels that didn't desert with Bel Iblis? Or was this an attempt to win the support of a key Core World as the Rebellion tried to become the New Republic?

 

Originally, Alliance Council seats were based on the number of casualties, as a statement in lieu of democracy; that may have continued...



- The Imperial Ewok

 

I just finished this book, and I really enjoyed it.

One thing that bugged me was how often the characters just seemed to run into each other on Coruscant. Particularly Corran, it seemed several times he would be outrunning imps and just happen to crash into other Rogues on the ground. Granted they were all in the same geographic area, but it still seems so unlikely.

 

Well, it's unlikely to begin with that they're in the same geographic area; it's an entire friggin' planet.

Yeah, Beruss represented the Corellian faction of Rebels. Just like Leia sits a sort of representative for Alderaanians as a people in and out of the Rebellion, Beruss does the same. There's a sort of government-in-exile aspect going on. The Wookiees were represented before Kashyyyk was liberated, for example, as was Chandrila. It's all representation of Rebel factions that then seize control of their homeworlds when the homeworlds are taken, not representation of the sovereign governments of those worlds.

 

AHA! While reading TheRedBlade's review, I suddenly realised why I don't feel se annoyed by the somewhat stilted dialogue in these novels. They remind me of Babylon 5! Not that that's...a great revelation or qualitatively improves them or anything, but I feel satisfied having identified what it was about the style that made me feel comforted if not awed by skill. Also I agree that Corran's introspection while arguably clumsy in execution, covered an interesting point - another thing Stackpole and Straczynski (sp?!) have in common.

I think we could probably argue that Jag demonstrates a conscious decision to pursue Jaina both during LOTF and more obviously recently in FOTJ when he proposes to her? But yes, as less of a main character than Jaina we aren't often in his POV about those decisions, more in Jaina's and she's a lot less introspective about that sort of thing.

Mulberry - I see your criticisms of it and yes, it seemed convenient to me too, but I mostly buy it in Corran's case as I read it as subconscious Force sensitivity leading him in the right direction.

 

Speaking of stilted dialogue, I found this last night in The Bacta War:

"Please, Horn, do your worst. Know that when we meet again, to you I shall do my worst!"

Stackpole badly, badly needs to take a class in dialogue. It's just so obviously and shoddily constructed. I love the guy, I love the books, but my god, this last read-through has just revealed how utterly atrocious the dialogue is. The prose isn't much better; there's a distinct underuse of punctuation and a tendency toward grammatical nightmares. But the dialogue is just stupendously stilted.

 

I actually liked the change, showing that the Rogues aren?t just flying aces. You see some of that tactical acumen coming forward in how they approach ground-based confrontations.

Kool-Aid huh? I agree that Allston is better at ensembles, moving between characters and fleshing them all out.

Funny you say that. This very title was one of the reasons I snagged the X-Wing books off the shelf in the store. This was among a few Star Wars books I picked up and got me back into the EU after a break.

It?s true, but that?s so very Star Wars. Right from the OT they talked in a peculiar way.

 

am i the only one who still doesn't buy the NR releasing criminals into the capital world in order to cause mayhem to make the mission easier? Coruscant has so many places to hide it just....arg *head 'splode*

IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! IF CHEWBACCA IS A WOOKIEE YOU MUST ACQUIT!

 

Oh, I fully agree. I maintain that, had The Empire Strikes Back come out in the same atmosphere the Episodes II and III were released to, people would complain about the dialogue there as much as they do in the PT.