MobileChelonian

When I watch a show called BATTLEstar Galactica, I expect to see a Battle...

Screaming at eaching other and swooping camera angles does not make a show a "drama".

I just finished Season 1 today and, so as not to experience any withdrawals while waiting for Season 2 to download (only three days left!) I also rented the first disk of the second season. I have to catch up fast so I can join in on the weekly Battlestar Galactica viewing parties my friends have.

I find myself a little frightened by how much some characters remind me of other people, mostly people I'd rather not be reminded of. The president? That's the leader of my church worship team. Captain Apollo? I just realized tonight that he bears a disheartening resemblance to Luke Skywalker. I hate Luke Skywalker. He was the worst part of Star Wars, stealing Han's glory at every opportunity. Captain Apollo is only slightly less whiny.

Erm. I'm okay, really.

Pete, meet Hannah. Hannah, meet Pete. Commence the Luke bashing.

As she can tell from my screen name, I think she's a smart girl when it comes to Han Solo.

Pete, I think she's a bigger Star Wars geek than YOU are. And that's saying something.


You have age and guile on your side though.

Back in the day, I could out-geek anyone. In fact, on a relatively recent ill-fated pseudo-date with a fellow nerd, the boy in question and I were discussing lightsabers and cauterization (yes, we talked about this in public), and he said, rather full of himself, "There's only one instance in which a lightsaber did not cauterize an amputated limb." Before he could go on, I blurted, "Ponda Baba." Yes, I said that in public, too.

What are your feelings on the Kevin J Anderson series of Star Wars novels? And what is your favorite collection/series of Star Wars fiction?

Which Kevin J. Anderson series? Young Jedi Knights? Crap. The Jedi Academy Trilogy? Crap. His stupid Darksaber sequel? Crap.

Oh, I guess it doesn't matter which Kevin J. Anderson series you meant...

Really the only Star Wars profic authors worth reading, in my humble opinion, are Troy Denning, Matthew Woodring Stover, and Kathy Tyers. Denning and Tyers both wrote for the New Jedi Order series, a mostly disposable crock of crap about a warlike alien race (who looked just like the warlike alien race in Galaxy Quest) decimating the galaxy and terraforming planets. Portions of Battlestar Galactica actually remind me of the NJO series, but a strange mutant version of NJO that was actually good. Denning and Tyers also wrote for other eras of the Expanded Universe, and Denning just started what's supposedly a really good trilogy of post-NJO fiction, the first book of which I purchased months ago but have yet to read.

Stover wrote Shatterpoint, another one I have purchased but have yet to read in full, set during the Clone Wars from Mace Windu's point of view. The bits I have read are exceptional, often dark like Neil Gaiman, but with much better action scenes than Gaiman ever wrote.

Kneejerk responses for most profic fans include Michael A. Stackpole and Timothy Zahn, who wrote some of the first spinoff novels. (People who say Zahn was the first are lying: Alan Dean Foster and the late great Brian Daley were the first profic authors, with Splinter of the Mind's Eye and Daley's glorious Han Solo trilogy.) I consider Stackpole and Zahn entirely overrated, particularly in recent years. Both authors have worked their own characters into the spotlight that rightly belongs to Han--Zahn's Mara Jade married Luke (WTF?! Who would marry that?) while Stackpole's despicable Corran Horn, who is what we fanfic authors generally call a Mary-Sue, has risen to the rank of Jedi SuperUberMaster in the face of serious limitations in his innate Force abilities, and were Stackpole to write a book in which Horn travelled back in time and fought Yoda, Corran would win and readers would gobble it up like chocolate-coated tripe.

Thus concludes our brief recap of Star Wars profic. If you like, I can dig up a few of my favorite works of fanfiction, most of which kick profic ass. As it was, I had buried so much of this knowledge deep in my psyche that I had to do an Amazon search to find most of the author names. Just remember, Zahn and Stackpole=bad. Tyers, Stover, and Denning=awesome. And avoid anything with an illustration of Corran Horn fighting Yoda on the cover.

Now you see why I've been scaring boys since 1984.

I haven't read a Star Wars novel in many years but I do recognize the name Matthew Woodring Stover...he wrote two very kood, ass kicking novels called Heroes Die and the Bladeof Tyshalle. I didn't know he had entered Star Wars.


And I liked Corran Hornm back when he was an X-Wing pilot for Rogue Squadron. I just wish he'd stayed that way, instead of turning into the inevitable Jedi-master. Rogue Squadron was *good* because nobody in there was a major character, and nobody used thr Force. They just whupped arse with a snubfighter.

Amused, I am, at your knowledge. Mmmmm. Answer an e-mail once in a while, you should.