Lit Books Cynically Reliving the X-Wing Series

GoingInside, fair enough. I wouldn't say SOA's my favorite of his books (that honor goes to SC) but it's up there.

 

Thing about Adumar, and this is one weakness the book definitely has, is that we only really see one major city-state: Cartann. There are a lot of other groups and societies across the planet that could have been fleshed out and made the culture as a whole more diverse, since what we see of them late in the book shows that while they share some of Cartann's quirks, they don't have nearly as many glaring logical flaws in their socialistic makeup as Cartann does. The main issue is that we don't get to see any of that beyond a few glances at the very end of the book.

Imagine if the New Republic wanted to bring the Earth, our Earth, into the fold, and saw that the most influential and powerful nation, the one nearest to creating a one-world government, was 1950-60s Soviet Russia, sent their advance agents there, then their diplomats. Would Earth seem a Planet of Hats if all the diplomats and agents saw were Bolshevik soldiers, aristocracy, diplomats and peasants? How different would it be for them to be forced to flee, as Red Squadron does, to another country, like The UK or America, in hopes of setting up a resistance against the Empire-sided USSR?

I'm not totally disagreeing with you, SoA does have flaws for sure. I wish it were longer and took more time to flesh out both Tycho and Hobbie's views on the culture they're surrounded with, and gave us a better look at the other city-states on the planet aside from Cartann. I just think it's the book that stands alone best of all of Allston's work. If you combine the Wraith trilogy into one super-novel then that would be his best work by far. SoA is just his greatest single work, IMO.

 

I always thought that the 'Planet of Hats' trope was used rather deliberately, and then deconstructed somewhat with the revelation (or at least the bringing the issue into closer focus) that not all the Adumar nations took the 'Proud Warrior Race' tradition to the same extreme that Cartann did. You are led to believe that all Adumari are like this, just like, in the beginning, you are led to believe that the perator is a planetary leader. Just as we find out that that is not the case, we later also find out that not everyone thinks the same way about honour and death.

Just what I always got from it.

 

Well said. Part of me wishes the novel were longer for that reason. Also because it would mean more Wedge.

 

There's always been a certain amount of cognitive dissonance for me that one of my favorite Star Wars books is a little character-driven adventure for vague stakes that takes place on an oddball little planet with no connection to anything else, or even thematic resonance with the greater saga. Reading all this analysis now, I think I finally understand why it still feels so Star Wars to me, the way Adumar is reflective of so many of the prior presentations of other planets. Very clever on Alliston's part.

I remember when I first picked this book up, I was surprised by it (just like I was surprised at the shift from the Rogues to the Wraiths). Where everything before had been about the full squadrons, this was just a little cast of friends. It was set off from the rest of the X-Wing books by several years, and it was reflective of all the changes the galaxy had gone through. I definitely feel the similarities to Mercy Kill, where both books are about characters getting old, observing the changing universe around them, and rediscovering their joy for life. Wedge found love and the ability to trust in himself, Piggy found a new family and the ability to love his work.

I also remember thinking it a bit odd that Hobbie was considered an essential member of Wedge's circle of friends. I didn't get to the read the X-Wing comics until Dark Horse put them in Omnibus form, so I had never read a story with Hobbie in it before SoA (aside from 'Empire Strikes Back' of course). Tycho came from the Rogue books, of course, and Janson was from the Wraith run, but Hobbie had gotten left out of all the novels. His bromance with Janson was something that just existed in the comics, and I never had any great urgency to read those. (Comics were expensive compared to novels, and I preferred the novel medium, anyway.) Hilariously, the only other source that really makes major use of Hobbie as a character is the Empire comics. Dark Horse contradicted their own characterization, rather than the typical Novels vs Comics vs TV vs Games we get these days.

SoA also, for me, solidified the fact that the X-Wing books had been Wedge's story all along. I started off thinking it was Corran's story, with Wedge as a supporting character. Then, with arrival of the Wraiths, I considered the series to be an anthology, with Wedge as a connecting element. SoA, however, was the close for all of his subplots going all the way back to the first Rogue book, focused on Wedge's journey, staffed by his closest personal friends. It had been Wedge all along, with strong deuteragonists.

 

This is one of the things I appreciate the most about SoA, and the rest of Alston's X-Wing books.

Part of the problem with the majority of Star Wars EU writing (although less recently) is that even where things aren't trying to tell tales in the same format with the same stakes as the films (Thrawn and Jedi Academy Trilogies), most of the works are about these galaxy defining events with titanic clashes between good and evil, the very way of life of our protagonists under threat, planets being liberated or destroyed, and Jedi fighting Sith.

The Wraith books told a story about a fight with a warlord that anyone who had read Courtship of Princess Leia knew that they wouldn't win, and Starfighters tells a story about a backwater planet with the stakes being basically that the NR might have some more missiles, and I love them for it. It means that the characters have to be up to muster because the story can't lean on having a series of epochal events to drive development.

 

Yep. Corran's just the main POV character for all the Rogue Squadron novels - but only I, Jedi was his story.

 

SoA definitely does have this aspect as a plus, and it's something I'd like to see more of. Relating back to the use, perhaps overuse, of the Big Three in so many of the latest chronological books actually diminishes the Star Wars universe and makes it seem smaller, whereas seeing other characters doing other things, not all of which are galaxy-changing, expands the scope of the "legendarium". I'm still dreaming of that story with a mostly-new cast going into the Unexplored Regions and having various adventures, a la Farscape. Kind of like the NJO Remnant trilogy, but, you know... better.

 

Starfighters was one of the best books of the Bantam run and the EU as a whole in jmo.

I also thought Allston handled the Qwi character and breaking her up with Wedge, so much better than his buddy Stackpole did. Allston managed to be respectful to the character and the author while pointing out how stupid both that character and relationship were.There was also none rudeness or complete lack of self awareness and irony that was in the writing of IJedi.

 

Aaron Allston, Collaborator Supreme!

 

Can I ask what you mean by better than Stackpole?

 

I literally use that scene as my handbook for how to respectfully break couples up in my shipping fanfiction.

(Hey, don't judge me, the kids like shipipng stories.)

I can't speak for fett 4, but it's probably a reference to 'I, Jedi' where Corran gave his (Corran's, not Stackpole's... maybe) opinion of the relationship.

 

I dislike Lucky too, for the same reasons. It was not needed at all, and only serves to muddy things.

But I don't think Orinda was such a disaster for Wedge and the New Republic. They had been winning in almost all their battles and campaigns against the Empire. So what if the Imperials destroyed a fleet carrier, captured a few systems, and made the Lusankya run away? It was merely a setback in New Republic's long road to victory. I mean, if one has to give a real world example: Japanese and German forces scored some small victories in the second half of WWII. But that didn't change the fact that they were losing overall, and losing badly.

 

The same reason that despite that the US military was gradually winning against the Confederacy in 1864, not even Lincoln thought he we was going to be re-elected. The NR was tired of war, a number of ex-Imperials were in positions of power, and the Battle of Orinda was a political embarrassment - remember that Pellaeon had put forth the claim to Orinda based on it being of 'cultural value', since it was once the capital of the Empire for a brief time, and stated that they did not plan to pursue any further offensive action. I'm sure there was a thought of "Let him have it" on Coruscant, especially with the Remnant being considered of little threat to the NR.

 

It's not necessarily that Orinda was a disaster for the NR, or even Wedge's career. It's that I think it would have weighed fairly heavily on his mind, which does not appear in SoA, so you would have to read all that angst backwards into the story, when the story is emotionally satisfying as it is. It's prioritizing the neat lines of creating historical coincidence over the already wonderful story of SoA.

 

Yes it is a reference to IJedi where Stackpole trashes via his Gray Stu mouthpiece Corran. Qwi the character and her relationship with Wedge. Heck he spent half his book trashing the JA. Now whether you like KJA's works or not (I think he is a hack and a bad hack at that) and his character choices, you don't simply rubbish them on page so openly. Allston's work is a perfect example of how to do it respectfully.

Slightly OT but the selfawareness think was that he failed to be aware that what was applicable to KJA (and it was) was also applicable to him and his buddy Zahn in regards Mara and even Corran.

 

More thoughts on SOA: the bad guy. Tomer Darpen's another successful villain for Allston and definitely a change of scenery. Last book, we saw the New Republic grappling with some of the dilemmas that happen when you're in power (Krennel; do we attack him? Really? Why HIM?) a little. But this book takes it further because you actually have a New Republic officer who's unequivocally the bad guy - and he's not a bad guy because he's a spy or a crook, he's a bad guy who's trying to advance the New Republic's cause, he's just doing so in a way that can't be condoned.

One of the most interesting parts of his conspiracy was Wedge's line "you can't explain your whole revised plan to General Cracken: he'd never go for it." That's probably true, because otherwise Darpen could've had Cracken pull rank on Wedge or issue him clearer instructions in the first place; he wouldn't have had to impose a comm blackout and plot to have Wedge killed. Meaning, Cracken is still one of the good guys, as is the New Republic leadership - it's why so much of the Adumar mission has to happen behind their backs. But while Cracken wouldn't have approved the Adumar operation, it's exactly the sort of thing I can imagine his successors like Dif Scaur and Borath Maddeus getting behind. In other words, Tomer Darpen isn't just a rogue operator; he's the face of what New Republic Intelligence (and arguably the entire New Republic/GA government) will eventually become.

 

Oh, my. It's not just me? That's one of my wishes too, right down to the Farscape inspiration... possibly with a few other space opera shows thrown in.

 

Especially since the NR/GA government is eventually collaborating with a government led by Turr Phennir, who does exactly the same thing as Darpen on the Imperial side, only the Imperials don't have the dissonance between their government's stated goals and ethics and their own.

 

Personally I think Havac said it best:

 

Haha they could even go to Zonoma Sekot and get a living ship (like Moya). Seriously, though, I'm desperate to get away from Coruscant and GFFA politics.

 

I'd have to agree with all that.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the meaning of Mary Sue, but the reason I've never understood the criticism of Corran Horn as a Mary Sue is that I don't understand how a character who's shown throughout all his books to be repeatedly, badly wrong on so many different things could be seen as too idealized.

He's wrong about the Redemption scenario and being entitled to these points, and needs Wedge and Tycho to straighten him out.

He's wrong about how he should be relating to his fellow X-wing pilots, and needs Lujayne to straighten him out.

He's wrong about Tycho being a spy, and he doesn't find that out until he's locked up in the Lusankya.

He's wrong about who the spy is. (Wrong enough to consider sleeping with her).

He's wrong in jumping to conclusions about both Mirax and Booster. Wedge needs to intervene both times, more forcefully the second time.

He's wrong to dismiss Tycho's experiences as something that couldn't possibly match his own pain, and Winter needs to point out (without actually pointing it out, which of course makes it that much more effective) that he's really being an @$$hole.

He's wrong about the value of training as a Jedi and about what his father's trying to tell him about it - twice in the same novel at least.

He's wrong about the value of what Luke is trying to teach him.

He's wrong about his own vulnerability to the dark side, as he realizes after beating Remart.

He's wrong to think he can take Exar Kun, and needs Mara Jade to save his ass and the students to get rid of Kun.

He's wrong to think he can take Shala the Hutt - he does escape, but Elegos beats it into him that it was as much dumb luck as anything until he's acknowledged it.

Heck, he's wrong to think he can infiltrate the Invids at all. He was doing great for a while, but once the Jensaari show up, it's pretty clear that the only reason he isn't skewered right then and there is because Luke arrives in the nick of time and saves his ass.

It's not AS blatant as I'm making it sound, because plenty of other people (often ones that he's arguing with or judging) have chances to be wrong too, and besides, it's really natural - screwing up is how we all learn. I'm just saying that if I were an author trying to insert an idealized version of myself into fiction in order to show those friggin original characters how it's REALLY done... I think I'd have whitewashed a lot more of my flaws and SNAFUs instead of shining a light on them.

 

I'm not, necessarily, but definitely tired of the way they've been done in the last couple of big story arcs, and definitely ready to read more of something different (I can haz no more Sith pretty plz w/ cherry on top?) and with lower stakes than the fate of the galaxy. Also, I was picturing it as a story on the Empire of the Hand, since we still don't know much about that.

Mind you, if we explore the Unknown Regions too much, we'll have to call them something else.

 

Kinda like Captain Archer from ENTERPRISE, but with a longer-running season....


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I don't think Corran has a beagle he regards as the most important part of the crew...