Dude, Where's my X-wing?(X-wing series, possible spoilers)

There are too many people in Stackpole's books who have been thought dead but who actually are still alive: Bror, Corran, Mirax, Asyr, Isard, Tycho, whole squadron in IR...Gets a bit boring.

 

When Bror Jace "died" we believed it because he was the first of the "dead" people to show up again. He didn't show up for three books, which made it more realistic. The rest of them, well, I have to agree, the people "dying" did get old.

I asked this in another thread, but I'm gonna ask again here: What ever happened to Pash Cracken after TTT? Last thing I saw him doing was leading an A-wing squadron and then he just disapeared.

~Inyri

 

I'm not too sure about Pash there. We know he wasn't in Rogue Squadron at the time of Bilbringi, he was back with his A-wing unit. Afterwards however, we do not know.

Someone stated in another thread about Han mentioning "cracken's grandkids" so we must assume that good ole' Pash has survived and is working hard alongside Tycho, Hobbie, Wes, and Wedge to prevent the galaxy from becoming further Vongified.

 

pardon my ignorance, but what is TTT?

 

The Thrawn Trilogy, consisting of Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.

TC

 

thanks MWB.

Yeah, that was me who brought up that question on another thread. I was just posting it a couple of places to get info.

~Inyri

 

I enjoy all of the X-wing books, but I prefer Stackpole's battle scenes. They made it easy to visualize what was going on.


BTW, Corran is my favorite character.

 

Ya, and what makes half of Rogue Squardon "dying" only to come back and no main characters dying even more boring or annoying is that fact that Stackpoles love to have the characters go on, and on and on about how dangerous their missions on and spit out dialog like "if you want to live long, don't become a Rogue"

 

LOL! True. But by the time I started the second book, I was attatched to them all and didn't want to see them die.

~Inyri

IMO I don't know why people hate Corran so much. He's egotistical, but that makes him hillarious.

 

Mike Stackpole's characters can be broken into different groups.
1) Main character (Corran): This guy learns from everyone else and is (apparently) the only pilot in the squad with brains
2) Redshirt (Peshk, Riv, etc): useless character who take up a comm designation, adding nothing to the story. Merely a target for the TIE Fighter Corran vapes a moment later.
3) Psychologist (Wedge, Iella, Tycho, Nawara, the rest of the good guys): supporting characters whose very presence makes Corran even more superior, due to their most valuable insights into his psyche.
4) Imperials: Bad guys. We get about a hundred different descriptions of TIE explosions.

Every character in XW 1-4 falls into one of these categories. The great thing about XW 5-8 is that you simply can't dump the different characters into their presets. You need a separate column for each pilot. Then the beauty of it all: where in Rogue Squadron the only pilot who learns anything is Corran, EVERY PILOT gets taught something.

Kell learns to get some testosterone. How? The death of Ms. Ackbar. Face learns a lesson. How? The death of Ton. Wedge learns through the apparent death of Janson. Myn Donos learns through the death of Falynn Sandskimmer. See a pattern?

The only flaw I can find in Allston's books are that people either die, or learn something from the ones who did.

 

"LOL! True. But by the time I started the second book, I was attatched to them all and didn't want to see them die" - thats why you kill them. If your going to make Rogue Squardon dangerous and the type of squardon where people die you NEED to kill of some of the characters that the readres like. how much better would the books had been if say Orrly died and Corran feel to pieces over it for a while. Part of the attraction to charactesr that aren't Han, Luke and Leia is that they can die, and theres some danger to the stories.

"IMO I don't know why people hate Corran so much. He's egotistical, but that makes him hillarious" I don't hate him because hes egotistical, I don't like him int he X-Wing series because he makes all the otehr characters look like they have no talent like they were stupid. If Corran wasn't there every mission they went on would have failed, and when he wasn'there they didn't go on missions, they just sat on their asses on Coursant.

 

Lotsa good points about the X-wing books but not all I agree with. What's the deal with people slagging Michael Stackpole? We may sit here and pull out particulars all we like but I'd like to see one of us manage to cram the fall of a tyrant(and I choose the word tyrant cauz others may not be suitable for kiddies eyes), the recalmation of Coruscant and then Thyferra with just a squadron of X-wings into three books(three because Rogue Squadron didn't really include much in it). There's not really much room left to develop marvelous character. And that's the type of writer Stackpole is I guess whereas Allston was more a character developer.

But on that note, I have to agree that Allston's books are better to read because of the human side to it(or the not so human side- Runt...oh man that horse-person is insane!) And I do love the way that Allston presents a different side to the pilots we have grown to love. Corran marches up to Luke as if he was still only just a farmboy but Kell is all awe-inspired at seeing Han Solo. The Wraiths seem more normal(I use the term lightly) and people to whom we can sorta relate in the emotion side.

Just my thoughts. Flame if you want but that's what I think

 

I like the Wraith Squadron books better than the Rogues. Although, I just finished Iron Fist, and have to say that Alliston's ending battle scene is hard to follow at some points, considering the squadron is spread out into three or four groups or individuals. Maybe it will be easier to comprehend after the second read...

 

I like Stackpole's books more because of the battle description. Dont get me wrong, I love AA's books, just think Stackpole did a better job with battles.

 

I feel compelled to point out the OUTSTANDING work MAS did on the X-Wing comic books....and how one must read them to get a very good understanding about his writing mechisims in the novels.


Corran makes a comment in Books 1 about how "I thought most rogues don't make it back alive" after a sucessful mission. Several politicans (and one certian Bothan general) take potshots at Wedge Antilles for casuality numbers in Rogue Squadron.


Those comments are made because of what happened in the comic books. Several characters died in those, and most of them were main ones. Isard's Revenge is a logical extension of the "Rise of Isard" series of Comics, and finishes up/ties up the loosened ends after the Comic series, like "what happened to Krennal" and "why did Isard have a clone"?


As for Corran being MAS's "pet character", I can see why people would think that....but also can't. I wonder if people call Talon Karrde a pet charcter to Zahn, Face Loran a pet character to Allston, and host of others pets to others. Corran's story arc is logical and sound, and actually pretty good compared to others.


MAS was the first to give character to Wedge. he also brought about the character of two awesome dudes; Baron Fel and Tycho Celchu. Good stuff for that, I say.

 

I thought the whole series was fun. I enjoyed allston's books just a bit more, but MAS were close in my oppinion.

 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Allston's work too. In fact, I'm counting down the days until his newest book is released up here in the alleged 'Great White North" (we have no snow!).

 

I have to say Allston's book were a little bit more fun to read, but MAS is a great writer. While I agree that Corran is a little to superhuman, he is still a great character. The character's from MAS books are also used more in EU, while wraith squadron has been mentioned in passing in the NJO I don't recall having actuley read any actual shots with Allston's characters in them. Granted MAS has written books in the NJO while Allston's is just about to come out, so we might see some of his characters return. I also believe that MAS did a pretty good job of balancing all of the character development in Dark Tide series of NJO so he can handle more than one character...

 

"thats why you kill them. If your going to make Rogue Squardon dangerous and the type of squardon where people die you NEED to kill of some of the characters that the readres like. "

I know that's why you kill them. That's what happens in war. But it's still nice to close a book and know that your "friends" are still alive. At least until the next one comes out.

~Inyri

 

That's his point. Asyr was never killed and all the other characters were just cannon fodder plot wise.

 

Come on guys when you compare even stackpoles books the New Jedi Drivell they make me long for the days of waiting on pins and needles for the next book to come out. Allston is definitely funnier but he doesnt handle the technical details as well. I got into the book series (like most people) long after i was a jedi master in the x-wing games, and mike Stackpoles adaptation of the game is right on. i remember spending hours trying to beat the redemption/requiem scenario. i think thats why i was totally adicted to the books from page one. on a side note. you guys dont know how lucky you are to have some one you can crack star wars jokes with. some of my friends get my original trilogy jokes but if i were to walk into the bright sun and tell one of my friends that it offends me turn it off, they would think i was loony. ahhh well. such is life. party on

 

I just need to point out something... i was away at least for 3 months, and all this time the same thing keeps going on and on and on... Corran gets bashed all the time. Find something new to gripe on, will you?

Ara
(Annoyed, itchy, and looking like she went thorough a shredder)