Lit SOS: Save Our Skywalker, Luke Skywalker (v3)

I think he's active playing vid games on his PS4!

Now onto HttJ....

One of the reasons I suspect Luke post-ANH but pre-ESB gets a rough deal is that he's the kid in the story, he isn't man-of-the-galaxy Han or a-bit-too-scarily-cool Leia, he is, in a good many ways a kid. One subjected to one hell of a learning in about 48 hours at the end of which his family, as he knows them are dead, as is a kind old fella, and he's ended up storming and escaping and then blowing up a planet-killer the size of a moon. He's at the stage in his life where he's uncertain of what to do or be. For some, that's an unwelcome reminder of how they were at that stage in their life!

HttJ works well enough as a Luke piece in a few key respects. It is not a cataclysmic, earth-shattering book that will rend continuity and change things forever, it is simply a good character study of Luke and we've had very few of those.

The rest is spoilered as a pre-caution, but is not particularly spoiler-heavy:

Spoiler

What is clear in HttJ is that Luke is not without skills and abilities, they just tend to be focused in specific areas - flying and shooting. Courtesy of being familiar with places on Tattooine Luke is at ease with aliens in general, but lacks knowledge of specifics, but is willing to learn. Leia's advice that he not trust everyone is well-meant but misses a fundamental aspect of Luke's nature, he can't be that cynical. (In some ways it could be said that it's Luke's influence that rubs off on Ha and Leia across the OT and not the other way around.)

One of the things that the book did well, certainly better than Zahn with A / CoO, was nail the nature of the Force and the difficulty of learning to use it. It is basically an irrational magic field that you can't wield with reason. At the same time, Hearne avoids opting for the Force-Zombie-activates-God-Mode setting. Instead, Luke taps the Force instinctively to enhance his own abilities to the next level, so using it in combination. This is refreshing as there was a tendency in Legends for some authors to say only the Force was needed! The space battle with the Interdictor and its 2 TIE squadrons was a case in point.

Nakari Kelen is a great character for Luke. An older, taller woman who's good with a sniper rifle and quite at ease with being so! If you wanted a character a million miles away from Mara Jade, who tended to get depicted as acerbic and abrasive more often than not, then Nakari is it. Nakari is basically a lesson in You-Don't-Have-to-be-a-Bastard-to-show-"Strength" and that I didn't expect from the book.

And then there is the dark side... This features only briefly near the end and is never called so by name, nonetheless anyone who reads it will recognise it for what it is, even if Luke cannot. Hearne's description of it is excellent, bringing a new aspect to the fore that fits in perfectly with what has been known of it. A yawning, perpetually hungry abyss of darkness. One that Luke instinctively knows is no good for him. From this you can conclude a few things - namely, Luke Skywalker is never turning to the dark side. It pretty much had him, utterly vulnerable, more open to its lures than he ever would be as he didn't even know its predatory gaze was on him and Luke still rejected it! It'll take a lot more to get him anywhere near close. It'll take a galactic megalomaniac, with an another moon-sized planet-killer, plus a homicidal father, a massive fleet ambush and threatening the deaths of all those he cares about to get Luke even in striking distance of it.

 

I've arrived at what is about page 50 and so far I really enjoy HttJ. It's scope is not as great as is usual in Star Wars with all the world shattering cataclysms, but that doesn't bother me at all, it's simply been an interesting journey with a lot of insights into the mind of Luke Skywalker.

 

Luke in many way is a Messiah type character, and unfortunately, Messiahs tend not to have the chance to live happy lives, regardless of how much they deserve it.

 

Dunno, in the movies he only was a messiah-type at the end of ROTJ. Now his role probably changes into that of the mentor. Star Wars characters can be dynamic, they can play more roles than one.

 

Aww thanks Child, I'm fine just taking a break from rumors and little on news from the movies. I'm also curious to hear JB's thoughts on HttJ but I'm looking more forward to the main comic and Darth Vader. Also Rebels has been enjoyable

 

Yay! Glad you're okay!

Jedi Ben, I loved your review of HttJ! Great job! It gives me hope for the book. Now I really do need to get started on reading it, so I can do a proper response to and discussion about your post of the book.

That's certainly a wonderful fan art piece! Too bad it's not actually published somewhere so the artist can get paid for such a wonderful image. Or, has it been printed somewhere?

As for taking the books to the library, I took the ones I knew I would never want to read again anyway. Someone else might as well have the opportunity to read them if I'm never going to do it. Some of them were old sourcebooks anyway. I don't really know why I bought those in the first place. I kept all of the SW books that I enjoyed and that I might someday revisit again.

 

Anybody looking forward to Star Wars Aftermath ?

 

Most certainly! Even if Luke's not in it (which is a possibility, if he's in the Shattered Empire comic that takes place around the same time), or if he's not one of the main characters, it's been too long since we've had a post-ROTJ novel.

 

Whoops, I got the titles confused. Is Shattered Empire the comic with the cover of the Ewok
Celebration ?

 

Yes, that's the one. Aftermath is the novel by Chuck Wendig.

 

I'm the era between Episode 6 and 7 gets fully explored in a tv series or animated series. Think of 30 years of potential Luke adventures.

 

Well–15 or so. If you go by rumors.

 

I can't say I'm particularly enthused much about either project at this point:

• Aftermath: Still know too little about it.
• Shattered Empire: Wake me up when we know the writer and artist.

 

will there be shattered empire novels to? Or just comics?

 

Shattered Empire is the title of the "Journey to The Force Awakens" comics. So will there be novels with that title? No. Will there be novels in a similar vein? Probably, at some point.

 

Posting this for two reasons:

1. It's awesome.
2. It also conjures that twin sunset scene so damn well.

 

That really is very nicely done! Thanks for sharing, JB!

 

YOOOOOOOOOOOOO

JUST SWINGING BY TO DUMP MY TUMBLR-FUELED POST-TFA-TEASER-PART-DEUX FANGIRL LOVE ON THIS THREAD



*PTERODACTYL SCREECH*



*cartwheels away*

 

I can't wait to see you all meltdown when it turns out that's not actually Luke.

 

It's quite some hand they gave him for sure.

 

Maybe it's time to make some hand puns?

http://www.darthsanddroids.net

 

Yep, my reaction to that trailer shot was a big, "Hell yeah, Luke's back!"

I really like the aesthetics of the new hand while being hooded like Obi-Wan was in ANH. It gives Luke a bit more of a dangerous edge.

 

Look at that!

Luke is clearly not a bad guy in this teaser. The gesture we see is affectionately and the Luke in the voiceover is not an evil Luke either.

 

I know, this all was seriously my favorite part of the whole thing. Hearing his voice remastered so beautifully and seeing the Brobot moment there...just...just excuse me, I'll be over here...

 

Now the boards are actually working again....

Yep, that was so cool. The whole trailer really worked well to blow away the doom 'n' gloom rumour-mongering that's been a plague for the last year or so.