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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

A&A The Official Barbara Hambly Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Literature' started by The Gatherer, Feb 21, 2002.

  1. ReaperFett

    ReaperFett Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 9, 1999
    Considering BFC started (release wise, not timeline) before POT IIRC, and that mentioned Daala as a problem, KJA was simply fitting it in properly. Dont blame him for two authors conflicting.
     
  2. Ambassador Cara Jade

    Ambassador Cara Jade Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 1999
    I don't blame him for doing it, I blame him for not doing it well.
     
  3. Shelley

    Shelley Jedi Youngling star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2001
    I found the description of "han and leia made love on a rug the previous night" totally inappropriate

    It's a lot more appropriate than the numerous, and fairly explicit, love scenes that Luke and Mara have gotten in the NJO.
     
  4. Doo-Kimmie

    Doo-Kimmie Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2001
    I agree with Shelley.

    Hambly's one line about Han and Leia's love life is far more appropriate, especially for Star Wars, than 95% of the stuff written about Luke and Mara in the NJO.
     
  5. Jedi_Suzuran

    Jedi_Suzuran Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    May 22, 2002
    Saying that a couple made love on a rug is not a line that anyone needs to be disgusted of.

    It's not a blatant sexual reference.

    Why criticize that when Luke and Mara are constantly thinking about sex, and acting on it?

    Or worse, Luke, the son of the damn Chosen One, is called a "plaything"?

    Not in the least comparable.

    This double standard is disgusting.
     
  6. Doo-Kimmie

    Doo-Kimmie Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2001
    This double standard is disgusting.

    It is, Jedi_Suzuran. It's a double standard that is flagrant throughout the EU fandom, in ways I'm sure you are familiar with. (You know what I mean.)

    Han and Leia get one sentence of intimacy and it's deemed inappropriate, whereas Luke and Mara go at it like rabbits and that's "kewl."
     
  7. ReaperFett

    ReaperFett Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 9, 1999
    Seems a bit of an unfair argument you have there. It is fine because of Luke/Mara scenes? What if person doesnt like them either?

    But you dont bring that up. Apparently, to dislike the scene gives you a "disgusting double standard". And that was taken from what appears to be a single sentence when Mara wasnt even mentioned.



    Stop attacking Mara when it isnt relevent ;)
     
  8. Doo-Kimmie

    Doo-Kimmie Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2001
    Apparently, to dislike the scene gives you a "disgusting double standard". And that was taken from what appears to be a single sentence when Mara wasnt even mentioned.


    ReaperFett, the passage in question is not a "scene" at all. There are no actual scenes of Han and Leia doing anything akin to what Luke and Mara do throughout the NJO.

    In Hambly's book, Han, having just learned that Leia has been kidnapped, glances at a rug and has a bittersweet memory in reference to that rug. It's a single sentence.

    The "double standard" is that the sentence is deemed inappropriate, which I take to mean as something not suitable for the material, whereas any of Luke and Mara's scenes are more "erotic" by far, IMO.
     
  9. ReaperFett

    ReaperFett Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 9, 1999
    Well I personally found it innapropriate. My man reason is timing. There Mon Mothma is telling him Leia has gone missing. To me, Han wouldn't sit there reminiscing.
     
  10. Doo-Kimmie

    Doo-Kimmie Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2001
    Well, I find Mara telling Luke to not mourn for Anakin because it might upset Ben more inappropriate.
     
  11. Jedi_Liz

    Jedi_Liz Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 24, 2000
    that is not Barbara Hambly related, please get back on topic!
     
  12. Doo-Kimmie

    Doo-Kimmie Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2001
    It is most certainly Hambly related as she is criticised for writing a single sentence about Han and Leia's intimacy wherein other authors write paragraphs and paragraphs about Luke and Mara, all of which is treated as sacred text.

     
  13. ReaperFett

    ReaperFett Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 9, 1999
    Noone said their opinions on that. So you cant actually slate anyone. I found it inappropriate. End :)
     
  14. Doo-Kimmie

    Doo-Kimmie Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2001
    Now I'm confused. What, exactly, did you find inappropriate?

    Hambly's sentence in POT or comparisons between that one sentence and all the Luke and Mara stuff?
     
  15. ReaperFett

    ReaperFett Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 9, 1999
    The scene. The timing making it so
     
  16. Doo-Kimmie

    Doo-Kimmie Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2001
    Well, RP, I disagree.

    But kudos to Hambly for giving Leia a lightsaber duel as well. I had completely forgot that Leia got to fight that Hutt. Leia Organa 2, Hutts 0!
     
  17. Guinastasia

    Guinastasia Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 9, 2002
    Can we PLEASE leave off the Mara/Luke vs. Han/Leia for once? (I for one don't think it's inappropriate at ALL-I mean, love scenes, or hints at it. For crying out loud, people! Go read Little House on the Prairie or something if that offends you!)

    I did like how Hambly had things end up for Daala. I wish she could have stayed with the guy.

    I just didn't really like COTJ or POT. But like I said, I DID enjoy her short stories.

     
  18. Ambassador Cara Jade

    Ambassador Cara Jade Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 1999
    Have you guys read Murder in Slushtime? It's also really good. I think my favorite short of her is Taster's Choice, from the Jabba's Palace Anthology, though.
     
  19. Ambassador Cara Jade

    Ambassador Cara Jade Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 1999
    Hmmm...does anyone else hear crickets?
     
  20. DarthLad

    DarthLad Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    I've not read her other work but her Star Wars novels were easily the worst ones I've ever read. I just didn't like them. Found the uninteresting and the characters were boring and very 2 dimensional. Also the stories were pretty lame. A Jedi stuck in a PC? Talk about suspending your belief.

    I may check up some of her other stuff.
     
  21. VaderLives

    VaderLives Jedi Master

    Registered:
    Jun 23, 2002
    I too find Hambly's writing very hard to follow. I don't need 'See Spot run.', 'See Spot drink.', but I sure don't like sentences that drag on forever, so much so that I have to re-read them 4 or 5 times.

    I think she is a talented writer, I just don't like her style. I think she handles the characters ok. But the way she writes is just not my cup of tea. COTJ has taken me the longest of any of the 20 or so Star Wars books I have read. I'm still not finished and I have been reading it for a week and a half. I just can't lay down with this book and read for long period of time as I find her style distracting.

     
  22. Isbeth

    Isbeth Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Has anybody read her Beauty and The Beast series of novels? Are they any good?
     
  23. Lucid_Lady

    Lucid_Lady Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 28, 2002
    Luke was whimpy in the books - and she injured him in both books as well.

    I didn't see this as Luke being wimpy. I saw it as him being human. I think his role of being a Jedi is often played up so much that people tend to forget that he is human.
     
  24. Shyviolet

    Shyviolet Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 19, 2001
    Has anyone else read "Each Damp Thing," Hambly's short story in The Sandman: Book of Dreams? I haven't read the rest of the book yet so I can't compare her short story to the others in the book.
    I liked her characterization of the Sandman characters, particularly of Cain and Abel. She did a much better job of depicting the Sandman characters than she did of the Star Wars characters.
    Another thing was I really didn't care for the plotlines of CotJ and PoT. I didn't find them plausibe in a Star Wars sense. Yes, I realize Star Wars is sci-fi/fantasy, so naturally it is going to be unrealistic, I just had a bit of a hard time believing that Luke would fall for some dead chick trapped in a computer, and so on.
    While I did like "Each Damp Thing," I noticed some of her sentences got a bit confusing. I noticed this difficulty in her Star Wars novels as well. I wouldn't go as far to say her whole writing style is convoluted, but she does go into great detail which requires the reader to go back and re-read a passage in order to fully understand what she is talking about.
    Being that "Each Damp Thing" is the only non-Star Wars piece I have read by Ms. Hambly, I am interested in reading some of her other stuff.
    On a side note to Ms. Hambly: Major props for the Neil Gaiman references in CotJ and PoT.
     
  25. CallistaRieekan

    CallistaRieekan Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Dec 7, 2000
    I also don't care what anyone says, 'Children of the Jedi' is my all-time favorite Star Wars novel, and Callista is right up there with my favorite characters. The writing in that novel was so beautiful, and it featured the best characterizations of Luke, Han, Leia, et al that I've seen in the EU.

    I will admit that 'Planet of Twilight' was rather... odd, but in its own way it's one of the saddest stories I've ever read. And I really came to like Liegeus.

    I have yet to read 'Murder in Slushtime', but since I just won a copy of the relevant Adventure Journal, I will be rectifying that very soon. I'm very much looking forward to reading more about Callista.

    It's my opinion that if KJA hadn't so brutally denigrated her character in 'Darksaber', Callista wouldn't be half as hated as she is. Sometimes I wonder if 'Darksaber' was written as badly as it was on purpose. :)


    -CR