Books Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy by Jason Fry

YUP.

 

Delivery person brought an Amazon UK order this morning containing this amongst other books. (Jason got to share a box with HP Lovecraft). Hopefully I'll have time to take a look this week.

 

That's good company. Coincidentally, I just read The Great God Pan, which was a big influence on Lovecraft. Interesting book -- it's one of those books that doesn't impress you until you realize it was the original idea that many writers took and ran with, and without which lots of great stories wouldn't have been written.

 

I don't think I've read that.

 

Rebel in the Ranks cover has shown up. Well, if I coded that URL correctly. (Probably not.) Comes out in March. Bit more about the book in this post to Dorkery.

 

I think that only Chambers' The King in Yellow rivals it for influence on modern horror from stories of that period.

 

Like the cover!

 

Thanks Jello. If you have time, PM me and tell me what I did wrong? Baffled.

 

I took a look at the original post and Jello's edit for you, Jason. Your original link was http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/image/105692523871 . However, I think the boards didn't like that due to the 'wrapper' with the Tumblr, facebook, etc information. If you right click on the image there and copy the image location over to a new tab, you get the actual image: http://36.media.tumblr.com/d0c282524cb4dc0d65f140d0ce334765/tumblr_ngw0q09OKD1qzwodio1_1280.jpg.

I've seen other users have similar issues with images.

 

it took me a while but I have finally read it!

Surprising it was a really good read! Maybe the whole gravball paragraphs were a bit boring for me, but other than that, nice set up for Zare in Rebels.

Starting part 2 today

 

This was an excellent and surprisingly intelligent read given its target audience.

What really makes it work is the subtlety and all the little things:

Little bits of corruption.
Little acts of destruction.
Little harms.
Little deaths.

It all slowly adds up to a disturbing picture. One of the most effective sequences is the arc for Ames, who becomes DX-578, a soulless stormtrooper, who is seen at the end arresting Beck, as Zare looks on.

At the same time the book strikes a neat contrast between the idealised Empire Zare's parents believe in and the reality, represented by Flurek, a petty, corrupt and xenophobic official.

All in all, a hell of a start.

 

Oh yes, your report was most excellent and indeed accurate.

Thing is, without watching Rebels S1, I wouldn't have reason to be interested in Zare, but I have so I am. The right order definitely matters on this one.

 

Just about finished with this first book. To tell you the truth it's been a little difficult to make it through book one. Book 1 revolves around the game that is obviously a different take on football. My brother is a highschool football coach and I pay a good amount of attention to and generally know how these school teams are run and every time they talked about the game they were playing in the book I just kept on thinking how unrealistic the whole thing was.

Kids are never given as much say as the kids in the book were and if they ever were to have anywhere near the amount of say that they were given in the book you'd be asking for a team that wouldn't win a single game. No matter how talented the player was. I feel that if the book was going to revolve so much around the team and the season they were playing I feel like it should have been a little more true to how real sports teams are run.

That's really the only gripe I have but since the book revolved so much around the team and the season they were playing it became a pretty big gripe.

 

The sports stuff never comes back much after Bk 1, keep going Jammin, you won't regret it.

 

Good deal. Glad to hear that. Again it wouldn't have been that big of a deal but the fact that so much of the book revolved around that team turned it into a bit of an issue for me.

 

Oh, I found it boring as anything too.

 

I didn't know they had varsity wine-tasting teams.

 

This is my periodic note that I would LOVE a collected edition of these books. Even all together, it would make a smaller volume than Lost Stars.

 

Yes, but then they only get the cash for 1 purchase!

 

I recently reread this and I actually enjoy the sports sections. In Star Wars we are generally following people who are at elite at something. Zare was born to be a leader. The sports sections show how truly exceptional he is at that.

 

True however it was taken a wee bit too far. Basically running and calling the game......very few guys in the nfl are even allowed to do that. Let alone fourteen year olds.

Anyways I'm glad I am finished with that part. The last several chapters were better once all that Star Wars version of highschool football was over with.