Reading Wrap-Up: February 2021

Remember how I said I was probably going to read fewer Star Wars comics this year? Yeah, that isn't happening.

— Star Wars: Journey to The Last Jedi: Captain Phasma — written by Kelly Thompson, art by Mark Checchetto —
At the end of The Force Awakens Phasma escapes from the garbage chute on Starkiller Base and sets out to kill a fellow officer who discovered she was the one who lowered the shields, causing the base's destruction, and then frame him for the same crime.

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— Star Wars Doctor Aphra Volume 1: Aphra (Star Wars Doctor Aphra #1-6 — written by Kieron Gillen, art by Kev Walker —
My semi-chronological comics read through continues, and oh yeah, we've got some Weird Force Shit and ancient Jedi heresies going on now!

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— Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel — Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel written by Kieron Gillen, art by Mark Checchetto, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #7-8 written by Kieron Gillen, art by Andrea Broccardo, and Star Wars #31-32 written by Jason Aaron, art by Salvador Larroca —
Aphra has an ancient Jedi artifact to activate, and she needs a Jedi's help to do it- sort of. 

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— Hyperion by Dan Simmons (reread) —
It's The Canterbury Tales in SPACE! (Or so I've been told.) In a medium-distant future on the eve of an interstellar invasion, seven pilgrims gather together to make a trip to the planet Hyperion, where a mysterious time-travelling monster called the Shrike will kill six of them and grant the wish of the final one. Along the journey there, they share the stories that led them there.

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— Star Wars: Darth Vader Volume 1: Vader -- written by Kieron Gillen, art by Salvador Larroca (reread) —
I reread this for swbookclub , I've written about how much I love it before, I still love it. We are talking about Volume 2 a week from Monday.

— Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark by various authors —
The publisher's summary of this short story collection made it sound like these were new adventures starring TCW characters, but it's actually basically mini-novelizations of TCW episodes and story arcs. It's fine, I guess, but I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I had realized that. There are some decent stories (the last one, "Bug", had the most new material and dealt with the destruction of the Nightsisters), but overall it's pretty bland.

— Star Wars: Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston —
This was swbookclub 's February novel. I am not the biggest fan of YA tropes, but I usually really like both the boring kind of political intrigue and pseudo-spy court intrigue plots. This book didn't execute either of them well, and seemed more interested in hitting those YA coming-of-age plot points than any kind of realism. (I also have thoughts and feelings about how the SW YA novels have been handling romance, but I think I should make a separate post about it.) 

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The book club is doing Battlefront: Twilight Company for March, which I read when it first came out and really liked.

— Star Wars Volume 6: Out Among The Stars — Star Wars #33-37 written by Jason Aaron, art by Salvador Larroca & Andrea Sorrentino, Star Wars Annual #3 written by Jason Latour, art by Michael Walsh —
Jason Aaron's Star Wars run comes to a close in a very bizarre fashion.

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