Not the Droids You're Looking For: A Review of the Thrawn Star Wars Trilogy, Timothy Zhan

Unless you count my brother's The Empire Strikes Back's pop-up book he got from Santa when he was 7 and I 9 I have not read any type of Star Wars book. This little fact has slowly over the years been bothering me and thus in June I made a conscience life-altering decision to become a more rounded Star Wars fan. Please note that I used the word fan not fanatic. While the idea of dressing up my family in bounty hunter outfitters (Bossk, IG-88 and Boba Fett) for Halloween may be my most ultimate idea ever this is really just a dream and not an active item on my to-do list. I am okay being consider a geek. I am not okay with being viewed as a threat to my neighbourhood.

The Star Wars book universe is immense.   Therefore rather than blindly grabbing the first book with a wookie on it, I decided to do some research. It didn't take too much effort to find what I was looking for.  

So you've seen the Holy Trilogy so many times you can recite it from memory. You have the soundtracks on infinite loop on your MP3 player. But have you read the best Star Wars books and graphic novels? Below we've narrowed down the Star Wars books to the ten that are absolute must-reads for fans of the saga.   If you’re a Star Wars fan who hasn't read the Thrawn trilogy, we feel sorry for you. Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command launched the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe book series and are responsible for the resurgence of Star Wars in the 90s. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of Heir to the Empire, so it’s a perfect time to start.

Before I go full Star Wars on you I am assuming you have some working knowledge of the franchise. I have only met one person who has never watched the films. Because this person happens to be my darling sister-in-law I have let this huge error in her ways pass.  Once in awhile I sneak little glances her way to see if she is living fine outside the world of Star Wars and miraculously she is okay. I've decided she closet drinks, it is the only explanation of how anyone can avoid all the ways of the Force.   

The review of The Thrawn trilogy is dependent on how you view yourself; a fan or a fanatic. As a fan, reading this trilogy is a fun, little snippet into what may happen to the New Republic and the Empire after the destruction of the second Death Star. I really enjoyed jumping into this time-frame. To think that all would be fine once the Battle of Endor is a child's vision. Zahn's books matures the series bringing in more complex, adult problems to a very idolized film world. Ackbar, Mon Mothma and in turn Leia all have political depth to them making them more interesting to follow. Internal power struggles distract the Republic from properly governing the worlds now under their domain.  

No discussion of Star Wars would be complete without the Empire. Zahn does not disappoint. Allowing the reader to understand the motivations and problems facing the Empire and more importantly presenting it as a political dynasty rather than a singular evil entity was fascinating. Above all, Zahn's biggest accomplishment in these books was Grand Admiral Thrawn. I love bad guys. It was so satisfying to finally read a new character within the Star Wars universe who could have easily been a part of the original three films without having any ties to Darth Vader.

If you are simply a reader interested in new things, these books are okay. If you are looking for literature, move along, these aren't the droids you're looking for.  However if you are a fanatic who happens to have Han and Leia action figures in their original bubble cases stored in your china cabinet (this is my entire retirement plan) then these books are for you. Honestly, I have no idea how I feel about these books. Yes, I like the idea of them but because of the weak (extremely so) writing cannot decide if  the  Star Wars universe works beyond the genre of film. My instinct is telling me they do.  What is needed is a better writer who is up for the challenge. I wonder what Connie Willis is up to nowadays?

Awesome Sauce

Being that it is Thanksgiving weekend, I've decided to mark the event by highlighting a few books that  merit a big ole' awesome sticker slapped onto their covers.  I don't know about your family but we don't sit around the turkey expressing our thankfulness to one another.  Frankly, we eat, we drink, we argue about politics and then dream about turkey sandwiches.  In fact the turkey sandwich is such a hit in my Norwegian side of the family that you sit down for dinner at 1 in the afternoon for the sole purpose of then having turkey buns at 6p.m.  on the same day.  Okay, it may have more to do with the prairie/farming history my family tree is rooted to but I digress.  Actually I seem to have digressed a lot.  If only we could skip right to pumpkin pie and turkey buns....I think I just went cross-eyed from anticipation.

Thanksgiving is big here in North America.  So is being awesome.  Hence my combination of the two.  You know we all have books we have read that are great.  We love them.  We read them over and over again.  But then there are books that are for some reason straight up amazing, awesome if you will.  The odd thing about these books is that you may never read them again.  The book's hold on you is brief, a weekend or two even a month (how long does it take you to read a book for goodness sakes?). But during that time you are transfixed, glazed over, zombie-like as you immerse yourself in the world found in those pages.

To give some context to what I mean when I type the word awesome,  please keep this in mind.

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline  It goes without saying that this book is awesome, wicked in fact.  Stupid ass great.    If you spent your childhood fighting over the Atari controller, believe neon to be a colour, and, feels an intimate connection to Zelda then you must read this book.  Ready Player One is a homage to our gaming childhood.  Plus the book has that world within a world, within a world element to it that I just love. 


American Gods, Neil Gainman  Most of us have been introduced to something that Gainman has either written, produced, scripted or created.   If  Burton, Depp and Gainman were locked in a room together, and told that the person who created the weirdest, darkest piece of creativity would survive I am  unclear to who that would be.  I am quite aware that Depp does not write. This is my blog and my post and I like to keep a small part of my brain thinking about Depp at all times.

American Gods is an old tale of religion wrapped into an all American road trip.  We follow Shadow an ex-con released from prison after three years of incarceration.  As he struggles with his wife's tragic death and seemingly adultery he meets Mr. Wednesday,  a self-proclaimed aging God that accompanies him on his journey.    Way back I had (Canadian Lit) to read Fifth Business by Robertson Daves. It wasn't until I read American Gods that I found a book so wonderfully rammed with symbolism as Fifth Business.  (Yes, that is a good thing.)

Wicked, Gregory Maguire  Technically not a SF book but at the time I was locked to this book and feel the need to acknowledge my old obsession.    I am betting that you have read this one so I won't bore you with the details.  If for some unknown reason you missed the bandwagon that was Wicked, it is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West.  Guess what she was greatly underrepresented and misunderstood.



 

Teenland: Comparative review of Divergent by Veronica Roth

My heart fluttered in my ribcage through out the summer as I dove deeper and deeper into the Sci-Fi Teen genre.  I thought I had broken free from those old binds that used to confine me as a 15 year old.  You know, the binds of first love, stupidity, despair and stupidity.  But alas, no; one child, one husband, a world of experience cannot completely erase the teen in me.   

Stupidity is the theme of my self-imposed teen summer.  I seemed to ebb and flow from pure enjoyment to pure frustration while reading both  The Hunger Games, and the Divergent  trilogies.   Katniss's and Tris's lack of emotional intelligence drove me to distraction.  How could Roth and Collins  develop  strong, vibrant female protagonists who both come across as emotional morons?  For God's sakes ladies, the boy likes you!

Contemplating my summer of stupid that was basically spent under my backyard maple tree ( got one tree and a deck....resist the urge to picture some type of Canadian dream retreat with loons and shit)  I am surprised at  how long it took me to come to terms with both of these series. I realized that to  embrace the books I had to look back to my own teen years and more specifically the level of idiocy I displayed.   Katniss and Tris are morons because guess what, that is what being a teen is all about. Sure, they are dealing with death, blood and murder but they are still young women experiencing love for the first time.  Am I selling the series to you?  Or like me is the thought of walking in your old beat up Doc Martins (!) really a quick trip to the first level of hell?  However you view it, both authors successfully capture the tortured,  touching emotions of  first love.  

There is a great amount of stupid behaviour in both these series but as I came to realize, good stupid.   I should also mention there is a great amount of violence that acts as the backdrop to  Katniss's and Tris's world view.  I must say I had quite the enjoyable reading summer skipping through pages of utter carnage while sitting looking out over various wading pools making sure my son was not drinking the water or taking off naked down the street.   Having already climbed high on top of the bandwagon that is The Hunger Games let me officially state that while The Hunger Games manages to have the glamour attraction to it, it is Veronica Roth's Divergent series that displays a more original plot with tighter, more controlled writing.