Barbara Hambly ... Worst Star Wars author yet?

OK now I have not read the New Jedi Order yet, but am I the only one who absolutely HATES Barbara Hambly's two Star Wars books? (Children of the Jedi and Planet of Twilight)

I have the hardest time concentrating on these books. It's like the way she writes is clumsy or doesn't flow well or something, cuz it is AGONY for me to make it through them.

Also, the aliens and a lot of the story ideas do not FEEL like Star Wars. The stupid aliens running around the Eye of Palpatine with stormtrooper personalities imprinted on them in COTJ is just retarded. The Dyzm/droch thing in POT is totally gross and very un-Star Wars.

She also seems to use little things that pull me totally out of the Star Wars universe. For example, in Planet of Twilight, she refers to a "smashball" player that Han likes named Rip "Iron One" Calkin. Umm ok or maybe Cal "Iron Man" Ripkin, a legendary Major League Baseball player here in the real world? That's WAYYYYY to close to real life. And not two paragraphs later she writes "Han remembered with a sudden pang making love to Leia on the rug of milk-white stohl fur..." Am I the only one who does not want to KNOW about this?? I know they do it, but reading the words "making love" in a Star Wars book seem very jarring and out of place to me.

Oh yeah and it was Hambly who came up with Callista... wow could she be any more annoying or make Luke any more of a wimp?

 

no. Andy Mangels.

 

No you are not alone

 

Why Andy Mangels? Twin Engines of Destruction was awesome, and I liked his adaptions of Nightlily and We Don't Do Weddings, for the audio dramas.

 

Twin Engines killed Jodo Kast.
And the essential guid eto characters sucked.

 

I don't think this is a really appropriate topic for discussion... At least in terms of blaming someone as the "Worst SW Author Ever".

Each author has had his or her bad moments. Look at "The Crystal Star". But the issues you're citing are really just your personal opinion. Some of us actually like Callista - she definately had a great, mysterious backstory to her. And as for Luke being wimpy and whiny... well, I think we have precedent for that in the canon, my friend...

<whiney voice>"But I was going to Toche Station to pick up some power converters!"</whiney voice>


Barbara Hambley is primarily a fantasy and horror writer. You can't blame her if her books take on a similar feel. Besides, SW is really fantasy more than sci fi anyway.


Oh, and I'm glad they killed Jodo Kast. It's pretty bad when even villains can't be killed off in a storyline, and there's a lot of other people that need to die. Aurra Sing should have died at the end of "Hunt for Aurra Sing". Otherwise the whole comic was pointless; it ends up almost exactly where it started.

 

One nickname is all I need to give the worst author in my opinion. Kube. Come on, when was Star Wars a political thriller and not something that only used politics to help deliver a better story? Until the first two books in McDowell's Black Fleet Crisis, I can't come up with a time when Star Wars books were more political thrillers than action/adventure style stories for their genre.

 

Bringing in authors with talents in different areas was actually an excellent idea. If you really want all your books to sound and read the same, then look somewhere else. If you really want to flesh out a universe, then give it a lot of stories of varying types, so you can learn about all the aspects, not just one.

 

I like all SW books. Just to varying degrees. I actually enjoyed PoT and CotJ.

I only have trouble swallowing some stuff. The later Marvel stories ( some of the silly plots, aliens, and bad art ) and The New Rebellion.

 

Ummmm, Sauron, it was titled, "The Hunt for Aurra Sing" not "the Death of Aurra Sing." They delivered exactly what the title said - they hunted her.

 

Genghis12:

Yes, I believe I did type the title in correctly the first time. I double checked, but thanks for pointing that out anyway.

 

There is room for politics in Star Wars, yes. But for Star Wars to become a brand new genre, no room there. Someone once said that the only things that made the Lando Calrissian Adventure's Star Wars books was because they had Lando and the Falcon. Otherwise, they could have been given their own individual title and have been their own scifi series. Same thing holds true for Before the Storm and Shield of Lies. We could take just about any political thriller out there, change it just a little, and then call it a Star Wars book. But as I have said before, politics have been used to add dimension to the story, not as the story itself.

Do all nonpolitical driven SW books sound the same. No. Having different authors has always been great. Yet they have always made things sound like they should be in a Star Wars book, no matter the difference in their writing. But Before the Storm and Shield of Lies sound less like Star Wars and more like the real world.

 

Take out the X-Wings and other SW references and replace them with Battletech equivilents, and there's little difference between Mike Stackpole's X-Wing and Battletech books. The battle scenes especially are so similar, its scary.

 

I hope I'm not alone in saying this, but I enjoyed the Black Fleet Crisis. Did anyone else like it??

 

I thought it was the reliance of Stackpole on the X-Wing games which made his X-Wing books somewhat problematic. He used tricks and other strategies that any X-Wing game veteran knows that work in the game, yet would get you killed in fiction-life.

 

It was all right. Not the best SW out there but not the worst.

 

The X-Wing series is the best series of STAR WARS books out there.

P.S. There shall be no smack talking of the Great One, Michael A. Stackpole

 

Don't be so quick to put down writers like that until your good enough to write better than them. A simple, I didn't like so and so a book would have been fine. There is no reason to make a thread with the title of what a horrible writer Barbara Hambly is.

 

I've heard many people say that Barbara Hambly's other works are quite good.

 

Barbara Hambly's other works ARE quite good. She just doesn't have as firm a grasp on the SW universe as some of the other authors, IMHO. But I certainly wouldn't call her a bad author.

 

Yes I certainly was not ripping on her all around... hence the subject worst STAR WARS Author... I was commenting on her being the wrong author for the job. She just does not seem to have a grasp on Star Wars. I am sure her other books are quite good. Otherwise she would not have gotten the Star Wars gig.

As for the Black Fleet crisis, I am currently reading, or re-reading as the case may be, the Bantam books in order. I started with The Thrawn Trilogy and am working my way forward. I just finished Planet of Twilight and am starting The Crystal Star. After this is the Black Fleet Crisis which I have never read...

Maybe I should be wary of it, from the negative feedback here? Oh well, I did not like The Crystal Star the first time around, but maybe this time I will....

 

Knight, I used to think exactly the same as you about the BFC, but I reread it this year, and much to my suprise and delight, I thought it was excellent! I think the whole luke thing got tiresome towards the end of the shield of lies and didn't really pick up with tyrant's test, but the whole political intrigue shenanigans was good.

I'd have to pin hambly as my least favourite star wars author- but perhaps that tag is a little unfair to old barb'. To be fair, I'd have to say I've never read anything else she (or any other star wars author, for the record) has written. So perhaps a better tag would be- the person who has written the worst star wars novel.

It sucked in an epic fashion.

 

I think her two Star Wars books were pretty bad, but they did have their good parts. . . I just can't think of them right now . . .

Kevin J. Andeson, however, I can't stand. I mean, really, the great Wedge Antilles, a mere bodyguard? And how many superweapons can the man come up with? AND killing Madine did not exatly endear me to him. Plus, I just can't stand that Qwi character.

 

Kevin Anderson has gotten better with some things. He's not perfect, but he does have his strengths. I thought that he made the JAT enjoyable for adults and younger readers, or someone who prefers the simplicity of ANH.

Barbara Hambly...her SW work was interesting. Different. I thought that her worlds and locations were quite good. And I remember her writing Leia very well. But otherwise forgetable books. Why was Lando helping Han and Chewie find Leia in PoT? Because he's one of the "gang" from the films. No point to it.

Crystal Star...An okay book. Interesting, original aliens and creatures. But Hethrir was a weak villain, and the plot was pretty lame. Personally, I could only take 5 minutes of POV from Jacen and Jaina at 5-years-old. Too much kiddy-talk.

New Rebellion - HATED the writing style. Plot was the same old crap...remnant Imperials and a Dark Jedi stir up some trouble for the New Republic. Han has to recruit some "old smuggling buddies" to save the day. Only good stuff was getting into Lando's head and detailing Brakiss before YJKs.

Black Fleet Crisis - I haven't experienced enough of it. I actually read Before The Storm twice, Shield of Lies once, and haven't read Tyrant's Test yet. I will be in October though, all in order. I loved BTS when I first read it, and really enjoyed Shield. Kube introduced a lot of new factions, aliens, creatures and planets. This is good, when most authors just take whatever's in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races. But, there's almost too much on every page. Ah well. Still good, and I REALLY liked the vagabond scenes with Lando, Lobot and the droids. It brought back memories of the Rafa system, and there was some good lines. Lando - "I'm so hungry I'd kill my best friend for a fracking cracker" ( paraphrasing )

 

The Empire had no involvement in TNR whatsoever. The two VSDs that Kueller had were manned by droids.