I'm Listening to Star Wars!!!!

[JewishHobbit]

And I figured I'd leave my thoughts here. I work as a mid-shift Janitor and I can listen to my Ipod through most of my shift. I've been listening to music like normal when I got a hankering to listen to a book instead. I listened to The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks but after that I had a thought.

I'm a nerd and I always felt like I should be into Star Wars more. I thought the movies were alright but I've always been interesting in the books... I just didn't know where to start and have never had time to invest in all that reading.

Well... the audiobooks and all those hours at work is perfect for me to jump on board. So I've been listening and enjoying the stuff so far, though I'm learning there's a lot of stuff cut out of the abridged versions I have, including the ending of most of them, so I have to look up the proper ending when it's finished, but still... I'm having fun.

I figured I'd start with the Episode 1 era books and just go chronologically in order from there, reading only the novels (not including young adult stuff).

So far I've listened to (in chronological order):

Cloak of Deception by James Luceno
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reeves
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks
Rogue Planet by Greg Bear
Outbound Flight by Timonthy Zahn
The Approaching Storm by Alan Dean Foster
Episode 2: Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore
Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover
The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes
Medstar I: Battle Surgeons by Michael Reeves & Steve Perry
Medstar II: Jedi Healer by Michael Reeves & Steve Perry
Jedi Trial by David Sherman & Dan Cragg
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart
Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
The Han Solo Trilogy Volume One: The Paradise Snare by A. C. Crispin
The Han Solo Trilogy Volume Two: The Hutt Gambit by A. C. Crispin
The Han Solo Trilogy Volume Three: Rebel Dawn by A. C. Crispin
Episode IV: A New Hope by Alan Dean Foster
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back by Donald F. Glut
Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry
Episode IV: Return of the Jedi by James Kahn
The Bounty Hunter Wars Volume I: Mandalorian Armor by K.W. Jeter
The Bounty Hunter Wars Volume II: Slave Ship by K.W. Jeter
The Bounty Hunter Wars Volume III: Hard Merchandise by K.W. Jeter


The Order In Which I Liked Them:

Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Shatterpoint
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Labyrinth of Evil
Outbound Flight
Medstar I: Battle Surgeons
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Rogue Planet
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
Episode 2: Attack of the Clones
Han Solo Trilogy Volume III: Rebel Dawn
Han Solo Trilogy Volume II: The Hutt Gambit
Han Solo Trilogy Volume I: The Paradise Snare
Cloak of Deception
Medstar II: Jedi Healer
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
The Bounty Hunter Wars Volume I: Mandalorian Armor
Shadow of the Empire
The Approaching Storm
The Bounty Hunter Wars Volume II: Slave Ship
The Bounty Hunter Wars Volume III: Hard Merchandise
Jedi Trial
The Cestus Deception
Episode IV: A New Hope

 

[JewishHobbit]

I'll do a quick opinion on these as a whole and then Ill give my thoughts on the next ones as I listen to them.

Of the bunch I think the best ones are easily Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Outbound Flight, and Shatterpoint. I like Darth Maul and Mace Window, so that first and last one was a given, but the middle one, Outbound Flight, was a pleasant surprise. It's really got me interesting in the Thrawn books but I have a while before I get to those.

I feel that the worst ones are Phantom Menace, The Approaching Storm, and The Cestus Deception. Honestly, I really struggled with these and if I were actually reading them I think I'd have quit. Phantom Menace wasn't as bad as the other two and I liked how it was more fleshed out than the movie (particularly the early scenes with Anakin) but there was still just too much hoaky "whoops" moments with young Anakin that resulted in some great victory. There were minor mentions of maybe it was the force but it was just too coincidental for me. I feel that took it down a lot. The other two were just boring and uninteresting. I thought I'd like Cestus because I was always interested in Kit Fisto but no dice. Oh well.

The rest of the books fall somewhere in the middle. I think Attack of the Clones was a better book than movie, though some of the Lucas hoakiness is still in there. Getting inside Padme's head and seeing early scenes with her and her family makes the love story a bit more believable, though still somewhat of a stretch.

I thought Rogue Planet was a good bridging book in that it fills a good gap between Episodes 1 and 2, it plays up Tarkin from Episode 4, deals with the initial plans for the Deathstar, and introduces a character that I hear is a player in the New Jedi Order (though I know little about those yet). But other than those key players being involed, the plot itself was a little mediocre. A good read but not one of my favorites.

Cloak of Deception is the only one I've not mentioned and really I think that's because I got no real lasting impression on it. It was good and I enjoyed it but I was fairly indifferent when I was finished. It was a good book to start on, though if I'd read it after reading those first three I mentioned I think I would have been very let down.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Now, I'm having trouble getting ahold of the Republic Commando and Clone Wars books by Karen Traviss so I guess I'll be skipping those. I really wanted those Clone Wars ones, as I've never seen the cartoons or whatever it is they're based after and they seem pretty important toward introducing characters and such... but oh well.

Skipping those my next up are the two Medstar books. They're smaller I've noticed and I might be able to finish both of them tomorrow. Here's hoping! I'll let you know what I think.

 

[Watson]

You should read the Han Solo trilogy. That was one of my favourites when I read the EU books back in the day.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I'll get there, I'm going chronological. Which trilogy though? He has two doesn't he?

 

[Watson]

I only read the origin trilogy. It starts at his birth and ends just before he meets Obi-Wan and Luke.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Today I listened to the Medstar duology: Battle Surgeons and Jedi Healer. These were written by Michael Reeves, the same writer as Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, and I'm glad to see that he carries over one of my favorite characters from that book into these.

While the series isn't the best I've read, it's still enjoyable. It's nice to take a break from the typical Jedi mission and focus more on a regular medical team during the Clone Wars (aided by a Jedi Padawan, Barriss Offee, who was thoroughly explored in Approaching Storm.

Divying the books up though, I feel that Medstar I: Battle Surgeons was a great book. I was totally into it and loved all the characters introduced. It concluded aspects of the story but left other broader aspects open for the second book. I really liked this one.

Sadly, I feel that Medstar II: Jedi Healer wasn't quite as good. I didn't like some of the conclusions the longer storylines had, though I felt the characters were still good. While I thought it was funny that the writer found a way to get a droid drunk, there was just too much focus on drinking and I don't feel it added anything to the plot. Still, a decent conclusion to a readable story.

If I had to judge them seperately I'd say Medstar I would be just below my favorites while Medstar II would fall quite a bit further down the list, but not as bad as my lowest.

Next up is Jedi Trial... listening to it Monday!

 

[JewishHobbit]

Okay, so I'm behind on a few books.

Jedi Trial

This was a pretty mediocre book. The biggest thing about it is that it's the story of how Anakin is finally granted the level of Jedi Knight, from Padawan. The ending was all pretty good but overall I felt the story was just kinda mediocre. Not the worst book I've read but down in the bottom of the list certainly.

Yoda: Dark Rendezvous - FANTASTIC book! You really get into the heads of Yoda and Dooku as well as several Padawans. This is the first and only time I've ever actually LIKED Dooku as a character, and the dealving into the past when he was still under Yoda was interesting. Going outside of their story, the plot also focuses a lot on two young Padawans, Scout (who basically sucks at the Force), and Lei (who doesn't). Seeing them grow throughout the story and Yoda's interaction with them plays them all up.

I like that we see all the aspects of Yoda in this novel, from his humor to his seriousness to the level of his power. This may quite possibly be my favorite to date in this Star Wars reading experience, up there with Shadow Hunter and Shatterpoint.

Labyrinth of Evil - This is the prequal to Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and boy does it read like it. In fact, it roles directly into he beginning of RotS so this and RotS read like one story.

Of all the adult novesl this is the first time we actually see General Grievous, which is cool. It was a little slow during the first half of the book but it really picks up in the second half and I was sucked in. It would have been even better if I didn't already know the events of RotS. As my favorite Jedi is Mace Windu... I like that he gets some good face and fight time in the second half of the book, including a battle with Grievous.

While I wouldn't put this up with Yoda, Shadow Hunter, and Shadowpoint... it'll likey be right below those in quality.

I'm about 4 hours into the 13 hour long Revenge of the Sith now so I'll let you know what I think when I'm finished with that, likely tomorrow.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Thinking through them, here's the order in which I enjoyed them, top being the ones I enjoyed the most, bottom my least favorite.

Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Shatterpoint
Labyrinth of Evil
Outbound Flight
Medstar I: Battle Surgeons
Rogue Planet
Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones
Cloak of Deception
Medstar II: Jedi Healer
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
Jedi Trial
The Approaching Storm
The Cestus Deception

 

[Gamma Ray]

Books on tape. No doubt an American invention.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Not a clue. I personally will take a hardbacked novel any day, but since I have hours of doing nothing but cleaning and thinking I figured I'd take advantage of it and get caught up on some "reading."

It's the abridged audiobooks that kill me. Almost all of these Star Wars books are abridged, so I have to listen to them and then get home and google the book's plot to see what was cut out. Almost all of them cut out the endings or aftermath of the endings. Outbound Flight was the worst. It was good but then felt like it ended abruptly. I googled it at home to figure out what was going on and realized they cut out some very important ending points.

Oh, and Jedi Trial, the book that's supposed to see Anakin becoming a Knight... yeah, the mention of his becoming a knight is cut out of the audio book too. Oh well.

Though in the defense of audiobooks... they're great for people who want to know about a story but either A) can't read or B) don't have the eyes to read (whether through blindness, injury, or age), or C) don't have time to devote to reading (like me).

I go to work as a school janitor and listen to books on tape. I finish these Star Wars books (for the most part) a book a night. I'd still be on Cloak of Deception if I were reading the novel. I just don't have the time I'd like to spend reading.

 

[Bim]

I must admit, i've never tried any audiobooks, but it's cool that they're available and u can take advantage of them t:. I didnt know so many SW books were available in this format though, wow.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I think just about all of them are available as it turns out.


Revenge of the Sith

This book was SO much better than the movie and I loved the movie. I feel like Anakin's fall was more believable and the ending scenes were much more touching having gotten into their heads, not only in this book, but in previous ones as well; Yoda's guilt over the fall of the Jedi was touching, his blaming himself for teaching old ways and not adapting while their enemies had; Padme's death; Obi-Wan's mindset after Anakin's betrayal; etc. This was a really good and emotional book.... though the opening scene with Palpatine and Dooku felt like it went on forever!

Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader

The final book of the Clone Wars era and I didn't like it as much as the previous two. It was decent but the Jedi in the story were pretty 2-D and cookie cutter. Anything having to do with their story kinda bored me, but I liked everything having to do with Anakin, now Darth Vader. We see the evolution of his being the high flying Jedi to the grounded temprament Vader. We also see his views on Sidious and life in general now and the slow death of what had formerly been the mind of noble Anakin Skywalker... and in the end we're left with just Vader.


This is the point I really wanted to get to and I haven't decided if I'm going to continue on yet or not. I'll likely finish through Return of the Jedi this week just to get that far but I may stop there... at least for now. I'm spending too much time on these and not enough on the book I should be editing or other projects I need to focus on. But we'll see when that time comes. My read list is updated in the first post as well as the order of how I liked them. This will continue as I read more books.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Also.... while at Half Priced Books yesterday I bought my first Star Wars book, Shatterpoint.

I don't plan on having a big Star Wars collection but there are a few I'd like to own in hardback in my book collection. Probably from Outbound Flight up in the list of the ones I enjoyed the most but I don't know if I'll buy that many or not. I'd like to get Revenge of the Sith but I can't own that without owning Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones as well because I'm a bit of a completionist... so I'll likely end up buying those as well whenever I find them cheap.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I listened to the Han Solo Trilogy today and as Watson said, it was definately good. I think it was nice to move on to something not Clone Wars related. I liked the series overall and having listened to them all in one sitting I'm having trouble remembering what happened in each book, so I have to google them to figure out what happened when.

The Paradise Snare

Book 1 and we learn about the childhood of Han Solo. While I liked this book it still lacked the things that I think of when I think of Han, namely Chewbacca and the Mellinium Falcon. The story was good though and I enjoyed it. It was short so it didn't drag at anypoint, which was good. A nice read.

The Hutt Gambit

Book 2 and a much better read than book 1. We're introduced to Chewy (or reintroduced due to his being in some Clone Wars novels) and learn how he and Han came to be partners. Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, and Lando Calrissian are all fairly prominant characters, and the Millenium Falcon comes on the scene. It's also interesting to see a bunch of different Hutts go to war with each other. Very interesting book and it had my attention all the way through.

Rebel Dawn

The last part of the trilogy, I felt, wrapped up all the storylines began in the previous two books and doesn't stand on its own all that well. We learn the ultimate fate of Bria, Han's first love introduced in book 1, and we see the end of the Hutt Wars. Boba Fett plays a nice balance in the grey area... not good or bad. Han gets ahold of the Mellenium Falcon and we see what strains the Han/Lando friendship. Han becomes involved with the Rebellion but just as quickly exits it for good reason. This book ends with his becoming hunted by Jabba and the very scene that began his role in Star Wars with his meeting Obi-Wan and Luke.

All-in-all this was a very good series, very enjoyable. I'm not really a big fan of the original trilogy so I thought I'd be bored by this but not so. I wish I had the Lando Calrissian trilogy but I couldn't ever find it online so I won't be reading it.

I'll be listening to the very short Soldier for the Empire tomorrow, which is book 1 of the Dark Forces trilogy... though the rest of them come after Return of the Jedi. And following that I'll listen to Episode IV: A New Hope. Then Wednesday I'll listen to Episode V: The Empre Strikes Back and Shadows of the Empire and I'll finish it up Thursday with Return of the Jedi. I'd like to listen to Allegiance by Timothy Zahn, which takes place in that grouping somewhere but I couldn't ever find it... but no biggie. I'll decide at that point if I will be continuing on or taking a break. We'll see.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Well, I just couldn't get into Soldier for the Empire so I skipped it. It's only a 2 hour listen so I might come back to it but I doubt it.

Thus, I moved on and in the past two days I listened to A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Shadows of the Empire, and Return of the Jedi.

I won't go into much detail since most of these are some of the best known stories in recent history and the books are so similar it was almost boring to listen to. Shadows was an interesting book that I think made Luke's growing power in the Force more believable for Return of the Jedi. I've always felt that A New Hope was the crappiest of the movies and it still stands for all the books I've read. I finished that one and very nearly just quit and assumed post-clone war books would suck.

Well, I'm still not that impressed but the rest of them got better and Return of the Jedi was enjoyable. I'm not sure if I want to continue beyond this point or not. Next would be the Bounty Hunter Wars, and I like Boba Fett so I might listen to those... I don't know. I may just stick to important books about Luke and co. leading to the New Jedi Order, which I'm kinda curious about.

I know I'll likely not listen to anything tomorrow but I'll decide soon.

 

[redmarvel]

Yoda - Weird Al

 

[JewishHobbit]

Ahhh... one of the great Wierd Al songs of my youth. This played often in my bedroom even before I even saw the movies.