Reading Wrap-Up: March 2021
Apr. 2nd, 2021 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
justanorthernlightMy brain is a bit mush lately, I hope there aren't too many typos/lost trains of thought in this.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Volume 2: Doctor Aphra and the Enormous Profit (Doctor Aphra Annual #1 written by Kieron Gillen, art by Marc Laming and Will Sliney, Doctor Aphra #9-13 written by Kieron Gillen, art by Kev Walker and Marc Deering )-- Aphra sets up an underworld auction to sell her now-active ancient Jedi artifact, meanwhile BeeTee and Triple Zero have been getting restless with the acute lack of murder they've been doing lately.
I honestly don't have all that much to say about this volume, it was enjoyable but it was more action than plot, very high body count. It kind of seemed like a bridge to tie off the Rur Crystal arc and kill off a bunch of small-time underworld characters. Annual #1 delved into Black Krrsantan's past, he is not a cuddly Wookiee.
Star Wars: Darth Vader Volume 2: Shadows and Secrets (Darth Vader #7-12) & Volume 3: The Shu-Torun War (Darth Vader Annual 1 (art by Leinil Francis Yu) & Darth Vader #16-19) written by Kieron Gillen, art by Salvador Larroca -- Rereads for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
swbookclub. I wrote about them at length there, and I wrote about them when I read them last year as well. I really like this series as a whole (volume 2 has some great moments on Naboo), but I think volume 3 is the weakest link. The plot and side characters are fine, but it's not super connected, like a non-arc episode in a tv show.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule -- JFC this novel was grim. I have no idea when Soule started writing it, (it was published January 2021), but if the pandemic didn't influence the bodycount of this novel I would be very surprised. (That said, I did overall enjoy it, but it was not a restful, relaxing, or escapist read at all.)
Set about 200 years before the Prequel trilogy, a ship breaking apart in hyperspace sends pieces of debris flying towards the Hetzal system at catastrophic speeds. A passing Jedi cruiser arrives in time to avert the worst of the carnage, but a crew of brutal marauders called the Nihil, who have access to mysterious hyperspace technology, start taking advantage of the chaos as debris pieces emerge near other worlds. The Supreme Chancellor asks the Jedi to get to the bottom of what happened
As I said above, I really liked this. In terms of Jedi content it was everything Master & Apprentice wasn't, it went deep and weird on both the Force and hyperspace, it tied into preexisting canon well (the San Tekka family is featured heavily, and the Jedi outpost on Elphrona is the one that appears in The Rise of Kylo Ren (also by Soule)), and it was, ultimately, about the Jedi being a light in the galaxy, despite the darkness. I'm looking forward to the sequel, although it seems to be by a different author (I think The Rising Storm is the direct sequel, this one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger).
(I did start getting an almost Pavlovian flinch response to a Jedi thinking about the future/friendship/anything happy around a third of the way though, because that was a sure-fire signal they were about to die or have the friend they were thinking about killed right in front of them. As I said, high body count)
The biggest knock against it is the pacing, the plotline on Elphrona clearly took place over just a couple of hours, while being interspersed with events taking place over days or weeks but without anything to mark that they are different timelines. Also, I find that if it takes me more than two sittings to read a single action scene I just lose interest and want it to be over. Like, does this really need to be stretched out for 100+ pages? .
Star Wars: Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed -- another reread forswbookclub . This novel follows a Rebel infantry company retreating from the Empire around the events of The Empire Strikes Back. It's one of my favorite installments of the new Expanded Universe, and I wrote paragraphs upon paragraphs about it over there, it has everything from gritty ground battles and imperial infighting to found family and Hope™. 10/10, chef's kiss, etc, etc.
Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose -- Look, I read something that isn't Star Wars related! And it's nonfiction, too! The title is pretty self explanatory, it's about spying and espionage during the Revolutionary War, focusing on the Culper Ring. It's pretty interesting, goes into detail on a lot of the spies' pasts and motivations, and there's some interesting tidbits about ciphers, invisible inks, and the regular intrigues involved in European diplomacy at the time.
I don't read a lot of nonfiction so I'm not altogether sure how to quantify it, there were some parts where I wish it went into more detail, but overall I liked it. I picked it up because last year during quarantine I watched about two seasons of the tv show based off of it (Turn: Washington's Spies (2014). I could tell the show was taking a lot of liberties with the historical timeline and wanted to know more. It's a peak Hey! It's That Guy! show (Jamie Bell, Aldis Hodge, Burn Gorman, and Kevin McNally are in it, just to name a few), and it did some things really well, but it just kind of missed the mark on keeping my interest, and the romantic subplots are so bad and wholly invented for the show.
I also reread significant chunks out of the middles of Page, Squire, and Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce yet again. Around mid-month I was hit by an overwhelming bout of childhood nostalgia. About two years ago I started a big Tortall reread but stalled out halfway through the Trickster duology (coincidentally right where I stopped following the series as a middle-schooler, although there were other extenuating circumstances involved in that). Still, I was really hankering for that style of fantasy novel, so I finally convinced myself that it was okay to just skip over the part I don't like and am now about 3/4 of the way through Terrier.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Volume 2: Doctor Aphra and the Enormous Profit (Doctor Aphra Annual #1 written by Kieron Gillen, art by Marc Laming and Will Sliney, Doctor Aphra #9-13 written by Kieron Gillen, art by Kev Walker and Marc Deering )-- Aphra sets up an underworld auction to sell her now-active ancient Jedi artifact, meanwhile BeeTee and Triple Zero have been getting restless with the acute lack of murder they've been doing lately.
I honestly don't have all that much to say about this volume, it was enjoyable but it was more action than plot, very high body count. It kind of seemed like a bridge to tie off the Rur Crystal arc and kill off a bunch of small-time underworld characters. Annual #1 delved into Black Krrsantan's past, he is not a cuddly Wookiee.
Star Wars: Darth Vader Volume 2: Shadows and Secrets (Darth Vader #7-12) & Volume 3: The Shu-Torun War (Darth Vader Annual 1 (art by Leinil Francis Yu) & Darth Vader #16-19) written by Kieron Gillen, art by Salvador Larroca -- Rereads for
swbookclub. I wrote about them at length there, and I wrote about them when I read them last year as well. I really like this series as a whole (volume 2 has some great moments on Naboo), but I think volume 3 is the weakest link. The plot and side characters are fine, but it's not super connected, like a non-arc episode in a tv show. Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule -- JFC this novel was grim. I have no idea when Soule started writing it, (it was published January 2021), but if the pandemic didn't influence the bodycount of this novel I would be very surprised. (That said, I did overall enjoy it, but it was not a restful, relaxing, or escapist read at all.)
Set about 200 years before the Prequel trilogy, a ship breaking apart in hyperspace sends pieces of debris flying towards the Hetzal system at catastrophic speeds. A passing Jedi cruiser arrives in time to avert the worst of the carnage, but a crew of brutal marauders called the Nihil, who have access to mysterious hyperspace technology, start taking advantage of the chaos as debris pieces emerge near other worlds. The Supreme Chancellor asks the Jedi to get to the bottom of what happened
As I said above, I really liked this. In terms of Jedi content it was everything Master & Apprentice wasn't, it went deep and weird on both the Force and hyperspace, it tied into preexisting canon well (the San Tekka family is featured heavily, and the Jedi outpost on Elphrona is the one that appears in The Rise of Kylo Ren (also by Soule)), and it was, ultimately, about the Jedi being a light in the galaxy, despite the darkness. I'm looking forward to the sequel, although it seems to be by a different author (I think The Rising Storm is the direct sequel, this one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger).
(I did start getting an almost Pavlovian flinch response to a Jedi thinking about the future/friendship/anything happy around a third of the way though, because that was a sure-fire signal they were about to die or have the friend they were thinking about killed right in front of them. As I said, high body count)
The biggest knock against it is the pacing, the plotline on Elphrona clearly took place over just a couple of hours, while being interspersed with events taking place over days or weeks but without anything to mark that they are different timelines. Also, I find that if it takes me more than two sittings to read a single action scene I just lose interest and want it to be over. Like, does this really need to be stretched out for 100+ pages? .
Star Wars: Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed -- another reread for
swbookclub . This novel follows a Rebel infantry company retreating from the Empire around the events of The Empire Strikes Back. It's one of my favorite installments of the new Expanded Universe, and I wrote paragraphs upon paragraphs about it over there, it has everything from gritty ground battles and imperial infighting to found family and Hope™. 10/10, chef's kiss, etc, etc. Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose -- Look, I read something that isn't Star Wars related! And it's nonfiction, too! The title is pretty self explanatory, it's about spying and espionage during the Revolutionary War, focusing on the Culper Ring. It's pretty interesting, goes into detail on a lot of the spies' pasts and motivations, and there's some interesting tidbits about ciphers, invisible inks, and the regular intrigues involved in European diplomacy at the time.
I don't read a lot of nonfiction so I'm not altogether sure how to quantify it, there were some parts where I wish it went into more detail, but overall I liked it. I picked it up because last year during quarantine I watched about two seasons of the tv show based off of it (Turn: Washington's Spies (2014). I could tell the show was taking a lot of liberties with the historical timeline and wanted to know more. It's a peak Hey! It's That Guy! show (Jamie Bell, Aldis Hodge, Burn Gorman, and Kevin McNally are in it, just to name a few), and it did some things really well, but it just kind of missed the mark on keeping my interest, and the romantic subplots are so bad and wholly invented for the show.
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I also reread significant chunks out of the middles of Page, Squire, and Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce yet again. Around mid-month I was hit by an overwhelming bout of childhood nostalgia. About two years ago I started a big Tortall reread but stalled out halfway through the Trickster duology (coincidentally right where I stopped following the series as a middle-schooler, although there were other extenuating circumstances involved in that). Still, I was really hankering for that style of fantasy novel, so I finally convinced myself that it was okay to just skip over the part I don't like and am now about 3/4 of the way through Terrier.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-03 03:51 pm (UTC)Interesting that the newer book felt grim for you. I haven't read it yet (so many other SW books laying about my place), but was briefly distracted by the shiny new cover.
LOL - my reading lists contain a lot of Star Wars lately, too.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-04 08:53 am (UTC)