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Star Wars schna
Since SpikeTV was broadcasting the original Star Wars trilogy in HD this weekend, husband and I geeked out and watched all three. After getting a noseful of the more recent prequels last weekend, we sorely needed a reminder of the time when Star Wars was still awesome. (our conclusion, not that you asked, was that the prequels needed moar Han Solo.)
Watching the trilogy got my long-dormant fan-interest up, and I spent a good bit of time picking through the five Timothy Zahn novels that are most of what remain of my SW book collection. I did read most of the novels that came before Vision of the Future, from the decent (Zahn's) the the mediocre (Barbara Hambly's) to the superlatively shitty (The Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre, in a rare bad offering.) Although I am a fervent Luke/Mara shipper and didn't mind it at all, the end of VotF had me laughing because of Zahn's sheer nerve.
Consider: because he is the only unattached male in the main cast, Luke is the town bicycle. He's gotten some across the galaxy, from the unrequited (Gaeriel) to the serious (Callista) to others I'm probably not remembering. It's all technically "canon," so Zahn spends VotF gleefully deconstructing everyone else's previous love interests for Luke as irrelevant and then setting up Mara as the once-and-for-all Oh Tee Pee. Then, just to put the icing on the cake, he's got to address the possibility that Mara might have been getting some Lando action on the side in another book he didn't write.
It's just brilliant. Zahn's hardly a romance writer (though I'll give him that what romance he does put in has a nice light touch) so the contrived awkward moments and surreptitious snuggles do inspire some eyerolling. But at the end, he brings the hammer down: LUKE AND MARA ARE OTP 4-EVAR AND I'M CAPPING IT OFF WITH A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL, SO HA HA ON ALL YOU OTHER AUTHORS.
It seems that after VotF, an atomic bomb got dropped on Our Heroes, so that's the end of my personal canon. Subsequent to that book, they all lived Happily Ever After. In some ways, the Star Trek fanfiction has a better model: you can play with the toys, but you have to leave them the way you found them. Helps if the show is current, of course.
Also, if anyone has any good recs, I'm listening. :D
Watching the trilogy got my long-dormant fan-interest up, and I spent a good bit of time picking through the five Timothy Zahn novels that are most of what remain of my SW book collection. I did read most of the novels that came before Vision of the Future, from the decent (Zahn's) the the mediocre (Barbara Hambly's) to the superlatively shitty (The Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre, in a rare bad offering.) Although I am a fervent Luke/Mara shipper and didn't mind it at all, the end of VotF had me laughing because of Zahn's sheer nerve.
Consider: because he is the only unattached male in the main cast, Luke is the town bicycle. He's gotten some across the galaxy, from the unrequited (Gaeriel) to the serious (Callista) to others I'm probably not remembering. It's all technically "canon," so Zahn spends VotF gleefully deconstructing everyone else's previous love interests for Luke as irrelevant and then setting up Mara as the once-and-for-all Oh Tee Pee. Then, just to put the icing on the cake, he's got to address the possibility that Mara might have been getting some Lando action on the side in another book he didn't write.
It's just brilliant. Zahn's hardly a romance writer (though I'll give him that what romance he does put in has a nice light touch) so the contrived awkward moments and surreptitious snuggles do inspire some eyerolling. But at the end, he brings the hammer down: LUKE AND MARA ARE OTP 4-EVAR AND I'M CAPPING IT OFF WITH A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL, SO HA HA ON ALL YOU OTHER AUTHORS.
It seems that after VotF, an atomic bomb got dropped on Our Heroes, so that's the end of my personal canon. Subsequent to that book, they all lived Happily Ever After. In some ways, the Star Trek fanfiction has a better model: you can play with the toys, but you have to leave them the way you found them. Helps if the show is current, of course.
Also, if anyone has any good recs, I'm listening. :D
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I read the Courtship of Princess Leia too and remember nothing about it except that it was dumb. Same with The New Rebellion.
I ordered SW:Union even though it looks terrible, shuttupno subject
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As for Star Wars books, the only really really good one I read was Shadows of the Empire. I've read the Courtship of Princess Leia (which made me wonder why Leia was being so frigid and Han so reckless in the first place) and the Bounty Hunter Wars, but Star Trek novels > Star Wars, hands down.
Oh wait was this supposed to be somewhat making fun of writers' attempts at romance in the Star Wars universe? If so then I just think of the 'love' between Anakin and Padme. Egads. XD
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I've read my share of crappy ST novels, but Peter David's stuff wins forever, hands down.
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I've been off-handedly keeping up with the Legacy Arc, and really, what the authors are doing to the universe now just pisses me off more than anything.
The Legacy Comics, on the other hand, ARE AWESOME. Mostly because all of the main characters we know are dead and you're dealing with Luke Skywalker's drug-addict great-grandson.
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HAPPY EVER AFTER, GOD DAMN IT. HAPPY EVER AFTER.
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