Review: Shadows of the Empire
Mar. 17th, 2006 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterOne of the few rules I have is that I don’t do Star Wars Extended Universe. Basically, it’s movie or bust for me – I might gleam a gem or two of inspiration from an interview with Lucas or from the novelisations, but if it wasn’t in the movies, it’s not canon. I also consider 99% of the EU to be mass-rpoduced drivel.
Shadows of the Empire, which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fyrie made me read, is part of that 1%.
I’m not saying the book is perfect. But it’s highly enjoyable. All characterisations ring true, all interactions seem real, intra-movie introspection is plausible. And then there’s Vader.
Shadows takes place between TESB and ROTJ, so Vader is. And he’s written perfectly – impressive, impulsive, and just bratty (in a mature way) enough to make me believe this is both the villain I adored in the Original Trilogy and the rebel Jedi I grew surprisingly fond of in the prequels. Mind you, the book came out in 1996 – several years before we even got a look at Yippee Kid in TPM, never mind Hayden.
It’s not a dazzling intellectual endeavour – hello, Star Wars – but it’s certainly enjoyable. I would have preferred for Xizor to get his arse kicked worse, though: this was one fictional character that I was plotting how to assassinate fifty pages into the book. (I decided sabotaging his physical-training machine would have been the most elegant way.)
In other news, I’m still working on the Coldfire FST. I was listening to HIM’s version of Wicked Game yesterday and I realised it’s the perfect Gerald/Damien song:
The world was on fire, no one could save me but you
It's strange what desire will make foolish people do
I'd never dreamed that I'd need somebody like you
Yes, this FST is going to be highly on crack.
Shadows of the Empire, which
fyrie made me read, is part of that 1%.I’m not saying the book is perfect. But it’s highly enjoyable. All characterisations ring true, all interactions seem real, intra-movie introspection is plausible. And then there’s Vader.
Shadows takes place between TESB and ROTJ, so Vader is. And he’s written perfectly – impressive, impulsive, and just bratty (in a mature way) enough to make me believe this is both the villain I adored in the Original Trilogy and the rebel Jedi I grew surprisingly fond of in the prequels. Mind you, the book came out in 1996 – several years before we even got a look at Yippee Kid in TPM, never mind Hayden.
It’s not a dazzling intellectual endeavour – hello, Star Wars – but it’s certainly enjoyable. I would have preferred for Xizor to get his arse kicked worse, though: this was one fictional character that I was plotting how to assassinate fifty pages into the book. (I decided sabotaging his physical-training machine would have been the most elegant way.)
In other news, I’m still working on the Coldfire FST. I was listening to HIM’s version of Wicked Game yesterday and I realised it’s the perfect Gerald/Damien song:
The world was on fire, no one could save me but you
It's strange what desire will make foolish people do
I'd never dreamed that I'd need somebody like you
Yes, this FST is going to be highly on crack.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-20 01:12 am (UTC)(And in comparison to X-Men, I'm sure even Star Wars EU is a blessing of straight storytelling and people, like, actually staying dead once they're down. I mean, what did Palpatine have, two or three clones? He should hire one of the Summerses as a survival consultant. Or possibly Sinister.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-20 01:28 am (UTC)I can't talk about people staying dead, though. I never want to leave them that way either. ;) (Of course, certain parties have pointed out that comic book resurrections would not have reached the point of a joke, if comic book deaths or "deaths" were used more prudently, with less of killing off "for effect" or just to get rid of them characters everyone should know will be wanted later. I'm sure the likelihood of resurrection or retcons makes people feel more free to kill them cheaply, too, though.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-22 02:12 am (UTC)I don't like retcons in comic books or TV shows (what Enterprise was doing to TOS history bugged me, so I stopped watching the show early in the second season). I didn't like the way Jean Gray was killed off in 1980 (was it that long ago? ye gods and little fishes!), but we just dealt with the fact that she was dead. When they brought her back, I was displeased. I loved the character, but thought that whole story arc was as pointless as killing off Spock in the 2nd Trek movie and not lettting him stay decently dead, which alas gave us the 3rd and 4th movies (okay, so I like the whales, but still) wherein Spock gets back together in the 3rd one, but only at the end, and then spends all of 4 getting his act together. All this stuff smacks of soap operas. :(
Jim Starlin's "The Death of Captain Marvel" was a *great* book. If anyone tells me that they brought him back after all that, I shall be unhappy. You can see how little I've kept up with comic books in recent years.