Lit Crucible by Troy Denning

So we'll be getting a lot more Squibs, then. Just what everyone was dying for.

Heard that one before, I'll believe it when it happens. Especially supposedly coming from a Denning book.

 

Enough mocking for now then...

In all seriousness, who has the most reason to hate Han? I can think of one in particular:



I told you all the villain of the ST would be Darth Chewbacca! Forgotten by his best friend Han, abandoned by his family, wrongly thought dead. No wonder the Wookiee's pissed off enough he wants to mess with time.

 

You know Zorr, I initially thought that might be Chewie's severely hacked off Dad out for a very cold vengeance!

 

yeah it is sad that we have zero control over anything in this universe. We are forced to bow to whatever Disney's whim is. Unless we could convince every eu fan to ban the new books and movies. unlikely. I hope it is better than i expect. I am expecting my beloved eu to be collapsed by a time bending artifact and cease to exist. Watch it will be like Dallas, it was only a dream. But it will be the direct antithesis. Instead of waking up from a bad dream, and everything is as it should be, we will wake up to a nightmare. I hope i am wrong. I hope Disney's desire to do a movie every two years, and do a young Han Solo series means they care and will save Star Wars. At the very least i expect Luke to be butchered power wise.

 

Is it too much to ask that when three old people go to stop a gang threatening some mines, they fight a gang threatening some mines? Is that the worst storyline ever? Does it really need to be a mine-threatening GALACTIC PERIL?

MINE GANGS WERE GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE A-TEAM, DAMMIT.

 

What? No. For the most part it's a blessed relief the fanbase has no control over anything in this universe.

 

The fact that Luke's capable of taking on Waru doesn't mean that he has to fight an EPIC GALACTIC THREAT every book. Mystery gangsters strongarming a remote mining operation are their own sort of challenge, one requiring detection and investigation, and one that can provide a significant numbers advantage against just two Jedi and a couple old smugglers. The idea that Luke can just snap his fingers and dismiss anything short of a galactic threat, or that only a galactic threat is worthy of his attention, is a fallacy, born of lazy thinking, limited creativity, and poor storytelling principles. Or as I like to call them, post-NJOism.

Luke doesn't need to be matched in power or facing an existential threat to create a compelling story full of challenge. Look at HOT -- he investigated the Cavrilhu pirates, got caught in a trap in their base, and then went to a mystery world to rescue Mara, got shot down, and had to skulk through an EOTH fortress, sabotage it, and escape. At no point did he face a galactic threat, just the challenge of investigation, high numbers, and a few clever tricks thrown in his way. Or look at plotlines in the NJO -- he explores an enemy-held world, and then takes on a planet's worth of forces with insufficient backup. He tracks down a student who may be falling to the dark side. He tries to determine where the enemy will strike next, and what they're doing, and if Elan's defection is a ruse. He investigates for enemy spies. He breaks a blockade. And on and on and on. All of that is set within the context of a bigger war, but it's not epic galactic crisis plotlines where he has to take on a Level Twelve Force Threat each time. It's certainly not OH NO TWO SQUIBS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE GALACTIC ECONOMY GUYS BECAUSE TAKING OVER A MINE ISN'T EPIC ENOUGH BUT ALSO THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE MINE BECAUSE LANDO OWNS MINES AND THIS MINE IS THE KEY TO THE GALACTIC ECONOMY OR SOMETHING. AND ALSO A GALAXYWIDE APOCALYPTIC DOOMSDAY DEVICE ON TOP OF THAT BECAUSE EPIC THAT'S WHY.

Ugh.

No, clearly, we need to throw an apocalyptic space-time-Force-warping doomsday device on top of a goddamn mine-strongarming gang because it's just so unbelievable that Luke could do anything without it being a galactic EXISTENTIAL CRISIS every five minutes, and why the hell wouldn't Lando's mine be strongarmed by random galactic-economy-dominating Squibs with existential doomsday devices?

Now I just really want a book where Tim Zahn writes about the big three helping Lando get out from under a criminal gang leaning on his mine, because he could actually write this because he can think about things like plotting and isn't infected with the existential epics. That's the book this could be and should be.

 

yeah it would be nice to have some light hearted novels with small threats like in some of the bantam novels. But they have to injure luke in some way to make such a story believable now it seems

 

James Bond fights mega magnitude threats all the time and no one complains...


Besides, I don't think this sounds like an epic kapow story - it sound more like the galactic threat is a sideplot to up a general chaos - and that sounds like fun to me!

 

Not in Skyfall he doesn't!

(I enjoyed Skyfall though, interesting that we got to know a little more of Bond and the adversary was far more of a personal nemesis, but not aimed at Bond.)

 

I stand retortless, then.

...apparently nothing stands anymore ...

 

Skyfall's still very good, but it's also a very different Bond film in a good way.

 

Skyfall is what LOTF should have been.

But Caedus was no Silva.

 

I'm not sure how Skyfall was received (I just know there was a great deal of complaining that "Bond wasn't Bond, he was just a killer", but all of Craig and Dalton's movies have gotten that... if you ask me, Bond's a killer who puts on a charming facade), but I personally feel it was one of the best Bond films in years. It, like, had a point

 

Not in Skyfall, or Quantum of Solace, or Casino Royale, or Licence to Kill, or From Russia With Love . . .

 

Well, it's a different series, with different expectations.

Notably when the first Agent of the Empire arc ended with the reveal of Cross fighting a big galaxy-wide threat, there were definitely people who got upset at that twist.

 

It's a difference of scale IMO. In a franchise set on earth just about any supervillain nutjob with a lot of money or hardware can threaten world stability. Especially in the Cold War where someone like that could torch off a nuclear exchange with a stolen ICBM.

Star Wars is set in space, so a threat to the entire galaxy needs to be a little bigger, more than a bunch of sith infesting Coruscant or even a space-ghost eating Luke's girlfriends, trying to pass those off as apocalyptic threats seems a little silly, and the idea that giant interstellar wars can start every couple years is a little hard to swallow.

 

Come now, is anyone here trying to tell me there's something in Star Wars that's silly or hard to swallow? Really??

Point is, Luke got his licence to kill in ROTJ, I like to see him use it! Blow buildings and stuff. Just bring it on. If you want careful plots, and well, we've just had Scoundrels, and I'm sure that's not the last we've had of Zahn.

 

One of them could die from something mundane, like choking on a piece of food, that'd throw everyone for a spin.

 

Han Solo made it clear that for luke to die the law of physics would have to take a day off lol

 

this blurb makes me sad....... I'm still going to read it, but my hopes are faltering.

 

i don't think this will be a very good novel or series. hopefully the movies can save Star wars

 

Even if it is subpar I am holding out for SotJ