district3sbitch-blog

[robertfettuccine]

Ok I’m going back home next week for spring break and my house has all my books in it except for the ones I can’t live without that I brought with me to college and apparently I need to reread some books so

Spring Break Reading List

Valiant Sarah McGuire (I know I own it but I don’t remember reading it so this is for you @kanerallels )

Wraith Squadron Again (legends my beloved)

Fellowship of the Ring (I will and very much shall try to the best of my ability I will attempt to get through it I’m really gonna do it this time)

People that keep telling me to read books: am I missing anything???

Or also if anyone has book recs in general so I can stop re re reading pride and prejudice and republic commandos

[lupinerage]

Tagged by beloved mutual @arrows-for-pens

Rules: List ten books that have stayed with you in some way, don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you.

1 Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra @thebibliosphere

2 American Gods by @neil-gaiman

3 Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

4 White Night by Jim Butcher

5 Roverandom by JRR Tolkien (also Leaf by Niggle, but it's technically a short story)

6 Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

7 Hunting Adeline by HD Carlton

8 Eragon by Christopher Paolini

9 Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston

10 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

(honorable mention to Terry Pratchett, my brain refuses to let me read his books despite Adoring every quote I've ever read)

Tagging @gentlerainmorninghush @sexloveandkittys @thatqueer-dm @theselkiesea and @fear-theory

And anyone who sees this and wants to do it, please do.

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X-Wing: Iron Fist by Aaron Allston

[kkrazy256]

glup shitto

glup shitto is my glup shitto.

but in reality it's Redeye. He's my beloved. My glup shitto. He's alive and well and being a scaredy-cat. Wraith Squadron loves messing with him. Sobbing, crying I love him.

Send me a fandom

[thegirlwholied]

Hiya! Since you're my go-to lover of SW Extended Universe, I was wondering if you had any recs for where to start reading within the EU and/or what some of your favorites are?

I legitimately have Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion on my coffee table at the moment (since on May the 4th I grabbed a pile of visual-guides etc. from my library to rapidly study for a bar’s Star Wars trivia night) so this is inevitably going to be one of those My Time Has Come!!! posts.

Short answer is YES and there will be Choose Your Adventure Options.

Big Caveat, though, aka the cream & sugar with which to take this answer:

- Most of my Star Wars reading took place between ages 9-14 & the limited rereading I’ve done has mostly been post Rogue One & mostly skimming; this also means we’re talking Ye Olde EU here & at that mostly pre-2004 EU.

Also? A thing to know about the EU?

A lot of the “entry points” are kickoffs of 9-book series… or a 19-book series…or trilogies, including one with a sequel duology. So do you want:

Standalone?

Series Starter?

Short Stories?

Comics Instead?

Total Random Sampler if you want to go In Media Res to the nth degree?

All right, let’s go. ;D

Standalone.

Han/Leia focus?

For solid Leia characterization as well as banter-romance, some finding-out-Shmi-Skywalker-exists prequels shenanigans, & a plot about art from Alderaan (and secret Rebel codes), Tatooine Ghost.

For a Glorious Hot Mess… okay no probably don’t read Courtship of Princess Leia, but please do read this article on it.

Other focus?

Truce at Bakura - very sci-fi-y, very Imperial v. Rebel bidding for planetary political support plot-y, immediately after Return of the Jedi. Bonus for Anakin’s Force ghost visiting Leia… but I forgot more than I remember of this one so can’t vouch for much without a reread.  

Series Starter.

For ladies with lightsabers, villains who like art, and crazy clone stuff before anybody knew what the clone wars were supposed to be:

Heir to the Empire, 1st in the Thrawn Trilogy: the “It is Known” of the EU.

It was the real-life kickstarter of the main books, & the classic answer to your question. And it is hyped for reasons; while half of them are Zahn’s original creations (Talon Karrde, Mara Jade, Thrawn himself, Pellaeon, plus just New Republic & politics), a lot of it is just solidly managing a Han&Leia&Luke who feel and talk like their movie selves.

(Also, you’ve probably heard of Mara as Luke’s wife and pretty importantly? Very much not so in this trilogy, which is not to say the tension isn’t there. You could time jump the 10 years right to the Hand of Thrawn duology where the romantic tension is more Overtly There, since the in-between 10 years can be more or less handwaved as ‘New Republic & Jedi Academy Adventures Occurred’).

But my personal series pick:

X-Wing: Rogue Squadron. A 9-book series (+ a recent 10th follow-up feauring. one of Wedge’s daughters, which is on my to-read list since Allston, who wote 4 of the 9, may be my favorite EU writer).

The first 4 books are one Rogue Squadron arc; the second 3 are a separate trilogy (Wraith Squadron); next two are follow-ups but also kind of standalone adventures & I think the last, Starfighters of Adumar, may be the best beloved.

I’m a big judge-novels-by-their-first-sentence person, and the EU novels are…rarely great by that measurement. But Rogue Squadron starts with You’re good, Corran, but you’re no Luke Skywalker, which really is an excellent introduction to how this tie-in material is going to roll and to a brand-new Star Wars character (particularly as Corran’s reaction to that statement from Wedge tells us most of what we need to know about him & his biggest flaws on p. 1.)

Yes, lots of space battles; yes, almost all totally new characters aside from Wedge Antilles (but the “cameos” are great, when Luke & Leia etc. do show up); has its boys’ club feeling moments (most of our main ladies are love interests for one of the main pilots; even my beloved Wraith Squadron has The Girl™ syndrome). But the plots are about as good as the EU gets, and I have badly wanted this to be a TV series since I was small.

+, by book 2 of the X-Wing series you get 3 Star Wars ladies all in the same room talking to each other: Mirax Terrik (smuggler), Iella Wessiri (basically a detective who became an Intelligence officer), & Winter (many things, including Leia’s original BFF, but mainly undercover operative). And there’s 4 other plot-significant female characters I can think of in that book alone (2 on the good side, 2 less so), as well as a really excellent Leia cameo scene.

Alternate starting point: Just go with X-Wing #5, Wraith Squadron, as you don’t really need the first 4 to follow, & it laces much more humor in with the action, with added focus on 2 pilots from the original trilogy (Hobbie & Wes Janson, & this is why everyone loves Janson) as well as Wedge. Fewer ladies, although Tyria Sarkin is pretty darn great.  

Controversial starting point: From what I’ve seen of EU fandom, folks either love the New Jedi Order or hate it, and while (like most Star Wars books) it has Certain Things I take issue with… I mostly loved it, and Vector Prime, which kicks off the 19-book-series, was part of why.

Of the Solo kids, Jacen & Jaina had their own series (Young Jedi Knights) and Anakin had his own (Junior Jedi Knights); in the adult books, they’d mostly been little and played minor roles either a) being adorable or b) being kidnapped. Here is where they’re suddenly part of Real Galactic Shenanigans and the crisis of their generation kicks in.

It also marked the end of all’s well that end’s well era in Star Wars books, for, as Han puts it (thank you, Goodreads quotes):

“I had built this bubble around us. Around all of us-you, me, Chewie, the kids, Luke, Mara, even Lando. Heck, even the stupid droids. We were all in it, you know. In it and safe, a cozy family. Nothing could hurt us—could really hurt us.”

Also feat. Jaina Solo being the best damn up-and-coming pilot in the galaxy able to fly circles around her brothers.

Short Stories

Good option if you want a taste of the Primary EU authors’ styles without committing, and if you like shorts in general. (There’s a huge new short story anthology coming & I’m cautiously interested, since I remember these as fun):

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales from Jabba’s Palace (you can meet Mara Jade here if you don’t want to commit to the Thrawn trilogy), Tales from the New Republic (includes the novella-length “Interlude at Darkknell” briefly feat. Bail Organa’s personal messenger “Aach” and more finding-out-about-the-Death-Star-plans shenanigans)      

Comics Instead

Rogue Squadron had a comic series too, completely separate from the novels/set earlier, & while I never read all (outlet mall had a bunch of the graphic novels for $2 and I swooped them up when I was 12), I’ve reread the ones I have, plenty. Would definitely recommend.

(Rogue One feels, with this comics quote, from the best lady pilot of the comic series: “Sometimes the only way evil can be defeated is by the selfless, sacrificial efforts of good people. We can only hope that when our time comes, the cause is as noble and the need as great.”)

And I remember liking the Mara Jade: By the Emperor’s Hand graphic novel.

Crazy Sampler Option

Where *I* started: Junior Jedi Knights: Vader’s Fortress, 9th birthday gift.

Surprise to me, Star Wars books exist! Surprise, Han and Leia have kids and one of them is Anakin Solo, age eleven, with the weight of being named after the ‘good man who was’ Anakin Skywalker on his shoulders & also ice blue eyes; surprise, he is now the love of my nine-year-old life.

Surprise, this is actually the 5th book in the ongoing Junior Jedi Knight series but the in media res did not phase me (helped by 90s-style reintroductions).

…in fact it made me like it better than I might have starting from the top. Maybe because I love mysteries, maybe because I’ve always gotten my books from libraries first & foremost & so would just grab whatever was available, I have started many a series, both accidentally and on purpose, with a book that was Very Much Not the First In the Series; if I like it, I usually backtrack.  

Absolutely No One suggests Junior Jedi Knights as a starting point… But. Adult!Me still gives an approving nod to some Really Nice Things here:

-this was my intro to the Luke’s Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, and I will forever love the aesthetic of his Jedi Academy being in the temple from A New Hope

-the best pseudo-Yoda-figure in the EU, with huggable Muppet-ready design.

-Immediately passes the Bechdel test thanks to conversation between Jedi instructor Tionne & Anakin’s BFF Tahiri (the Childhood Friend Romance Trope is strong in this series)

-Tionne herself, who names her ship Lore Seeker because she’s all about history and bought said ship “for a song” (traded an ancient song about the ‘very first Randoni merchants and the vaults where they hid their wealth’).

-I totally don’t still have this book and have it open in front of me at all what no

-You know how in Harry Potter Dumbledore writes a very nice letter back to Petunia explaining why she can’t come to Hogwarts? Luke… is not Dumbledore. Luke deals with Uldir, teenage son-of-two-cargo-pilots & stowaway who shows up on Yavin 4, desperate to become a Jedi despite zero Force talent, by letting him stay & participate in what training he could.  

-the plot: Vader kept Kenobi’s lightsaber (because of course) and they go to retrieve it at Vader’s Fortress.

- no lava because Mustafar wasn’t in-canon yet but yes otherwise it could basically be Vader’s Fortress from Rogue One exactly. Same aesthetic! You could consider this his Other Castle. The summer cottage.

-Anakin Solo finding Vader’s “bedroom” aka creepy sleeping cylinder, complete with tiny hologram of Luke Skywalker

So yes my randomly-ordered suggested-just-dive-the-heck-in sample pack, based more on “here are my favorite Star Wars book people and why I love them”, would include:

- Junior Jedi Knights: Vader’s Fortress

- Young Jedi Knights: Lightsabers (aka pay attention to what you’re doing kids or you might get your arm cut off or worse be the one to cut off the arm of the girl you like)

- the Mara comic if you’re not quite feeling All of the Thrawn 

- Rogue Squadron: Blood & Honor comic (because it is the one place you’ll get the full storyline on ‘who are these Fel people who keep coming up?’, meet Corran & Iella in their CorSec days, & Plourr gets to be great.)

- “Interlude at Darkknell” - it’s Stackpole (X-Wing writer) AND Zahn (Thrawn) co-writing, so you get a feel for them both, AND it’s short (…+ ”Aach”

X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar, if you’re only going to read one of the nine

New Jedi Order was By No Means designed for any to be read as standalones and so I think delving in out of context would be an Experience but… If I Had to Pick One… 

I would cheat like a scoundrel & pick 2 and say the Enemy Lines duology, for both plot & dialogue & the best take on the Old Guard of the Rebel Alliance At War Again, but especially the dialogue (as quotable & memorable throughout as the EU gets).

[ibmiller]

This reminds me of the piece I posted for posterity almost a year ago, after Rogue One came out (http://ibmiller.tumblr.com/post/155750520209/why-star-wars-fans-hate-star-wars-spriggans-den). Annotations under cut:

Yub Nub, to me, is Yub Yub, the cry of Wes Janson from the colon-overdosed Star Wars: X-Wing: Wraith Squadron by sadly deceased author Aaron Allston.

Right away, we have the first big divergence with the author’s experience: I love the Special Editions, and have nothing against the DVD or Bluray editions either. (The only copies I have ever owned are the VHS fullscreen (golden box) Special Editions, and the Bluray complete box set edition of the first six films. And I love it.)

Zahn-era Expanded Universe canon is very interesting as a term, since for me, it would actually mean what I would call the “Bantam Era.” The period from 1991 to 1998, when Bantam Spectra was the publisher of Star Wars novels, bookended by five Timothy Zahn novels telling the complete story of the impact of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade on the Star Wars universe.

I can’t believe that the Jedi Prince books are being referenced here. That’s just hilarious, and sad. And also revealing, as later annotations will show.

The predictions he makes about me are largely correct. Except that I love the Special Editions. Which I do think is an important sign of my biggest divergence. Because to me, the Star Wars films aren’t sacred. They’re deeply fun, and often show great craft and hints of deeper meaning. But additions to them aren’t blasphemy - largely because they’re just six parts of a much larger story.

He says that Star Wars exists in “heaps of out-of-print mass-market paperbacks” and my beloved Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (which in original format was orange, and had such beautiful pen-and-ink drawings by Doug Chiang). But he later dismisses the novels as worthless, and I never have. There are plenty of them which are really terrible, but I believe at least the original five Zahn novels and the Allston-penned installments of the X-Wing series, not to mention the Knights of the Old Republic game, are stories that have significant craft and merit to them outside of their connection to the original films.

I did used to hate Empire. 10 year old me did not like Luke losing.

He says that when he was 10, the novels were boring. What was he reading? If he was mostly reading the ones aimed at 10 year olds - those Junior Jedi Knights, Young Jedi Knights, Galaxy of Fear, Jedi Prince, or Jedi Apprentice books, I can concur with him. But the ones aimed at adults, and consumed by 10-20 year olds like candy? Some of those are more than just pablum, and his dismissal of them without qualification seems like hasty writing.

I’m writing these annotations because my roommate and I bought tickets to see The Last Jedi last night. I was really torn on the issue, because I do not want to spend time waiting in line for this film, but I do want to see it, partly because I want to spend the time with my roommate, and partly because I would like to be proved wrong and see a new Star Wars story that equals my experience of the Thrawn trilogy and the X-Wing novels and comics, with flying an X-Wing in X-Wing Alliance or becoming a Jedi in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

I would like to have that sense of excitement about Star Wars again. But right now, whenever my cube-mate at work is jumping up and down in her seat because of the latest trailer, or various people I follow on tumblr (you know who you are) post extremely emotionally about Darth Vader, I inwardly groan, and then once again despair that I’ve become the writer of that 2005 essay about hating Star Wars.

[robertfettuccine]

Update on spring break reading:

Valiant Sarah McGuire hhnhnnhnmmnhbggnhhmmmmnnnnhn

Definitely not like.. my fav book of all time (that title will probably never change) but man. I like sewing and I like fantasy and I like little kids who are rogues (I love him your honor also I teach a kid in Sunday school who is Exactly like will and he’s my lil buddy and aaaaaa)

Ive started rereading Wraith Squadron now bc Yes and they are Amazing and Face Loran and Ton Phanan my beloveds I missed them

Ive discovered that I might actually be sick and not just imagining symptoms bc of anxiety (love it when I medically gaslight myself) so reading has been slow bc I’m tired all the time and keep falling asleep and having to reread pages but yeah I’m getting some tests run tomorrow wish me luck (yes this is related to reading bc get Sick fixed —> be able to read more)

Anyway thanks to all who gave me book recs I’m gonna get to them eventually and now my tbr is longer than it’s been in a while (excluding books for school ofc) so yeah

[accidental-spice]

Re-reading Wraith Squadron again...

[accidental-spice]

#5, 7, 8 and 12 for the character ask game!

#5: A character that's from my favorite video game

Trilla Suduri from Jedi: Fallen Order, of course!! She DEFINITELY deserved a redemption arc. So. Y'know. Thanks

#7: A character that I'd marry unironically

Daniel Sousa. Without hesitation

#8: A character that I simp for (and I'm unashamed)

See above

#12: A character that I love that's underappreciated

Since I can't make ALL my answers Daniel Sousa....🤣🤣

I really deeply love Ton Phanan from the X-Wing books. He's this cocky pilot who's always flirting with literally every female ever...ohhhhhhhhh. Yeah, he's basically Carswell Thorne

BUT. He's also not! He's this doctor turned fighter pilot with an allergy to bacta and feelings, so every time he gets injured, he has to get a cybernetic replacement for whatever he's blown up this time.. I dunno, there's something tragic but kinda cool about him. He cares more than he'd admit. And I love that

Thanks for the ask!

Character ask game

[accidental-spice]

Into the silent night

With you by my side

Joy in a lonesome world

For this boy and girl

Angels celebrate

As we stand face to face

With God's gift tonight

You and I

Day 6 of 12 Christmas art, inspired by Into The Silent Night, by For King And Country!!

These are two of my OCs that I haven't talked about, like, at all. The guy's name is Tobiah Donos, and the Twi'lek girl is named Ryth Arant, and they are both Resistance era pilots!!

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X-Wing: Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston

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X-Wing: Solo Command by Aaron Allston

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X-Wing: Wraith Squadron by Aaron Allston

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X-Wing: Iron Fist by Aaron Allston

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X-Wing: Iron Fist by Aaron Allston