Hang on to your masquers folks, we're kicking off the year skipping a bunch of the other backstory, and diving headfirst into the NJO.

I'll be updating this periodically with thoughts, mini-reviews, so mute the thread or, I suppose #NewJediZander

Also, though I'm terrible about podcasts, I'm hoping to dig into the Vongcast too, so I'll give shoutouts when I get there.

#NewJediZander

First up, Vector Prime by Michael Stackpole

#NewJediZander

Maybe halfway through at this point - I'm honestly surprised how much of a slow burn this is, but it's really working to set up the impending doom of the series.

#NewJediZander

This does, however, have the effect of making it... a fairly bad Star Wars novel. That is, all the good parts are the Vong chapters - Carr, Nom Anor, and the awesome scientist Danni Quee (who, as we'll get to, should have been more important in the series)

#NewJediZander

There's *so* much introduction to the Vong, language, society, and tech, and oh man so much of it reads like the worst 'person making fun of fantasy' gibberish. It's great, and there's a lot of pay-off down the road, but it's... inexpertly done.

#NewJediZander

Stackpole, on the whole, isn't like... amazing. But he serves the purpose very well

#NewJediZander

The menace though - Especially in the chapters on ExGal-4 - Carr's set up as the monster in his own little horror story and it works perfectly. The part where they travel out into the jungle and discover the change to the planet.... yeah, that's terrifying stuff.

#NewJediZander

The rest of it though... If I could skip all the Han, Luke, Leia chapters I'd give it serious thought. They're not done well. They've done nothing so far, and it's pretty surface level stuff. Han is a klutz Chewie is angry, Threepio is shrill...

#NewJediZander

Leia is especially bad, set up as a diplomat who loses her temper, a mother who is both jealous of and doesn't trust her girl (no, a woman now, we read dramatically).

#NewJediZander

Jaina's kinda been a non-presence so far, other than the really stupid side-mission to the asteroid belt game.

#NewJediZander

Jacen and Anakin are the standouts here, with their 'two sides of being Jedi' discussion which is, as I've mentioned, something I'd love love love for SW to dig into more. Warriors of Justice vs. Monks of Peace. Jedi are both, and it's a hard dichotomy to balance

#NewJediZander

Anakin though... oof buddy. You sound a little too much like your RotS namesake for me to be comfortable here. I dunno if you're supposed to be rooting for Jacen, but he's easily the more sensible one.

#NewJediZander

Anyway - Kyp's squadron's been destroyed, Luke and Mara are going to Belkadan, and the Falcon is heading to Sernpidal... Slow start, butwe all know where this is heading. Hang on to something, it's gonna be big.

#NewJediZander

Not going to remotely try to defend the backlash - what's new in this fandom - but... I'm a little more sympathetic to people who got blindsided by Chewie's death now.

Whenever I read it back in 2006-ish, I knew it was coming beforehand....

#NewJediZander

But if you didn't? That could hurt. Chewie's hardly in the book before then. It's the middle of the book, not a big finale. You only get one chapter of setup of the situation on Sernpidal beforehand, and most of it is semi-comedy with a nihilistic old guy.

#NewJediZander

Even in the moment, it's... very fast. One moment Anakin and Chewie are rushing out to save a kid, the next Chewie's gone. It's honestly very well done, but damn it is startling.

#NewJediZander

On the whole, while I am of course sad Chewie dies here, it's... a really good choice for the series. Sets up the stakes, tone, Han's arc, Anakin's arc... there really isn't anything else like it, at least in the EU. The big moment where everything changes.

#NewJediZander

Really leaning into the 'Luke is OP' thing right out of the gate. I don't mind, this Luke is also excellent, but... perhaps not as interesting as canon Luke.

#NewJediZander

One nitpicky - but major - loss in new SW is hyperspace being instant... Having it take time feels realistic, raises stakes and tension, keeps people out of communication.... etc. It's *much* better.

"Speed of plot" yeah I know, but it doesn't feel that way.

#NewJediZander

Final battle... mixed honestly. The first half, with the cocksure Star Destroyer commander and the wild plan to drill a one-man pod into Helska to see what's going on? Great

#NewJediZander

Jacen rescuing Danni? Great. Just excellent. Why are they not a thing. ugh.

#NewJediZander

The out of nowhere second half "Oh, Lando's weird and has these things from 20 books ago lying around and apparently reflected mental energy will start evaporating the planet"

uhm

#NewJediZander

I know they wanted to give our heroes an early win to keep this opening from being too dire, but damn. it doesn't quite feel earned. Luke, again, over the top, but in a fun way.

#NewJediZander

and finished off with a nice little 'nothing's ever the same' speech from Han. You can almost hear the authors going "If we killed Chewie... NO one is safe! hahaha" but fine. it works. And Han's coming to terms with all this is... honestly a great character move.

#NewJediZander

So, Vector Prime - 3.5 or so out of 5. Solid start with a lot of potential, just a little rocky in places.

#NewJediZander

Next up, the Stackpole Duology. Which I remember being very favorites when I first read them.

Based on my experience going back to the X-Wing series though.... hoo boy, we'll see.

#NewJediZander

Also lol, sign of where Star Wars was at in the novels - we get to learn every character's inertial compensator percentage preferences.

Imagine that in a new Canon novel

#NewJediZander

So, Dark Tide I: Onslaught

#NewJediZander

I already hate Stackpole again. The worst part (as we'll get to esp. in the next one) is he has a good eye for what makes a grand Star Wars scene. He just can't write dialogue. At all. Every character likes to exposit everything. Constantly.

#NewJediZander

The prologue is a good example of this. We aren't familiar with the pirate crew, so each of the members on the bridge, who presumably know each other and know what and why they're doing things take the time to explain it all for us.

#NewJediZander

This is going to start the series of my going "So I don't remember what happens," but here we get references to the Camaasi incident, and Kre'fey - which I believe are the events of the HoT Duology?

#NewJediZander

Anyways, point we're in full-on 'Love Pilots, Hate Politicians" mode, with Gavin as our Rogue, Borsk as our Senator, and soon to be Corran as our handsome action super-star cop pilot jedi guy.

#NewJediZander

Most interesting bit so far is the continuation of the Jedi schism I mentioned before - Funny that Kyp's utter screw-up in book one hasn't brought him down a single peg. Fucking Kyp.

#NewJediZander

We also get Jacen, who last book was "Hmm, maybe there's something to this Jedi should learn to fight thing Anakin's on about," immediately going "Not only do I not want to go on missions, I'm not sure i want to be an official Jedi thanks."

#NewJediZander

So whee, characterizations. It's not way off though. Still, the underlying tension there, and him challenging Luke on what the best way to lead the Jedi is great stuff. Hopefully we have time for more in-between Corran posing for the camera

#NewJediZander

Poked through Star Wars Invasion, the Dark Horse comic tie-in tonight.

The less said about it the better.

#NewJediZander

So I know you want to play up inner Jedi conflict , but holy hell Ganner is unbearable at first. I literally need to know how these people aren't darksiders yet

#NewJediZander

Another thing stackpole does is taking... Like everything and applying video game logic to it. Corran and Valin can't levitate things....wtf? How does that remotely make sense? They haven't unlocked it yet?

#NewJediZander

I won't deny having a Jedi who can't use basic abilities is interesting... Were it described any other way. Similar the line from Corran to his son like 'that's a little more dark sidey than you want to be messing with'

Way to make this stuff so crass.

#NewJediZander

Then not like 2 chapters later we have a pretty brilliant little scene where Anakin and Mara talk about not using the force lightly, and how/when to use the force to help others? Which is fantastic?

More of this please.

#NewJediZander

Book seems to have continued on with a handful of vignette-threads and no overarching plot. We're all meeting up here soon, but I think that's because there's supposed to be an ending, not because anything else

#NewJediZander

Jaina literally going 'I want to get into rogue squadron on my own merit' and then having her mom get it for her is a choice I guess.

I like Jaina but she's very underbaked so far. 'She's the pilot!' Is about all they've got

#NewJediZander

Stuff with Corran and Ganner, Luke and Jacen, Gavin and team... All fine. Mara and Anakin are still the highlights here

#NewJediZander

This book sorta falls into the trap where the Yuzzhan Vong are specifically meant to be hard to fight for the Jedi, but none of them struggle at it at all?

#NewJediZander

Overall though I'm probably enjoying it more than the other Stackpole stuff I've reread - it's smaller scale, more personal, and there are fewer sexy ladies who cannot but throw themselves at the heroes.

#NewJediZander

Giving Leia a Yoda-esque mentor/friend through Elegos is a genius move honestly

#NewJediZander

Though lol the whole Camaasi 'we're pacifists because we have memories' thing is great.

...you mean like anyone else?

#NewJediZander

yeah, finished this off today. Book's fine. Battle of Dantooine is okay, but really overall it seems hampered by lack of direction? This seems very much a "stuff happened" interim. Maybe more focus on Elegos and Leia, given they had the big 'mission' of the book?

#NewJediZander

Stackpole can't resist setting up Corran for the big finale in the next one, but... it's weird. Corran's mission basically gives us duplicate information to Jacen and Luke's? Beyond that setup what was the point?

#NewJediZander

Anakin and Mara continued being good, although I'm already over Mara's "Oh she's so weak, but she won't talk about it" thing. Just let her be cured please.

#NewJediZander

Some of the neatest stuff in the book were hints of what's to come. The image of Ganner being covered with insects... Jacen in the Embrace of Pain, and desiring something more from the Jedi... Clearly it wasn't *all* made up as they went along :p

#NewJediZander

Anyways, now the New Republic is in on this, and the Yuzzhan Vong will begin invading in earnest. Where do we go to next? I do believe it's Ithor (heart breaks)

#NewJediZander

Dark Tide I: Onslaught, 2.5-3/5

Mostly perfunctory, but that's still better than a hell of a lot of star wars novels

#NewJediZander

(One thing I'm just thinking of that hurt this was the lack of a bad guy PoV? I know Shedao is big in the next one, why not set him up more here?)

#NewJediZander

On to Dark Tide II Ruin - Again, Michael Stackpole

#NewJediZander

Maybe a quarter through but really don't have much to say yet. It seems like a continuation of the last one. Though, we are getting more good Jaina bits finally, which is nice.

#NewJediZander

Again, the tension in the Jedi order is kinda weird, like... Kyp and his followers are pretty straight up awful.

(But then they're doing what our heroes were praised for doing in the last book when they basically staged a coup...)

#NewJediZander

Also once again way to spoil the end of the book in your first scene, Corran. You did it last book, you did it this time too

#NewJediZander

Best part so far is more with Shedao Shai and then now him meeting with, unfortunately, Elegos. Who's just one of the bestest nicest guys it'd be unfortunate if anything were to happen to him

#NewJediZander

Oh yeah... End of Vector Prime Han almost seems... okayish... here though. God damn. He's just *gone*. His one scene so far has been "Hey there my 16 year old kids who I blame for my friend's death, you wanna drink?"

#NewJediZander

Through the mission to Garqi and its extraction. Honestly the reasoning there is fairly muddled. idk if Why and what they were hoping to accomplish there make as much sense as 'what ends up happening'

#NewJediZander

The escape is pretty cool. Good running fight with Corran, Ganner, Jacen. Ganner's little apology scene. Being saved by the Baffor trees...

This book still seems a little all-over, but at least there's the sense it's going to *a* place.

#NewJediZander

I'd totally forgotten about this "Let's talk about the Eye of Palpatine" B-Plot though. I like Chalco's DJ vibes, but otherwise oof, it's kinda dire.

#NewJediZander

Whee, Jag shows up. Less whee the Empire saves the day - this book is *very* willing to show them as heroic.

#NewJediZander

Whoa, so uh. There's a cancelled book in the middle of this duology, and... Now that I'm halfway through I kinda feel like it's way too obvious. Ruin goes

"Mission to Garqi"

STOP

"Mission to Ithor"

Like there's not *remotely* a transition here

#NewJediZander

Plus, the timeline is moving along *fast*. We have mentioned of "This will happen in two weeks" and the next chapter it's happening. Nice that they're having some downtime I guess, but the pacing here is way off.

#NewJediZander

That said, and all my previous complaints about Stackpole said, the Ithor part of this book is one of my favorite parts of the series, and one of the worst stories from the Invasion. Coruscant? Sure. But then Ithor.

#NewJediZander

The Ritual to 'become not yourself' is a fantastic idea, both for how Ithorians see the planet, and just a very cool thing for the Jedi to go through.

#NewJediZander

I wish though that they'd perhaps been... harsher? Like Jacen notes that the high priest probably realizes some of the oaths aren't real. Like those Jedi should've 100% been called out, this isn't a 'going through the motions' thing.

But ah well.

#NewJediZander

Really wish there was more with the Ithorians themselves honestly. There's some good hints at "Victory or not, their culture will be inherently ruined by this happening at all" but we only see that through the eyes of a bunch of humans

#NewJediZander

(Side note: The dude from the Mos Eisley cantina having been one of the most important Ithorians of all time is *very* *stupid*)

#NewJediZander

And so we move on to Corran receiving a "message" from Shedao Shai... For a couple of books that haven't been too keen on making the Vong as scary as Vector Prime, this chapter does it *well*

#NewJediZander

The eerie description of the Shuttle flying as it's not meant to, the growths on the ship, the 'blood test', the growths *inside* the ship that start evaporating... and then, the ritual skeleton. Horrifying, but powerful.

Message received.

#NewJediZander

So now Corran is going to fight a duel for an entire planet and I don't know why literally anyone would let him do this, but it's Corran so of course he will.

#NewJediZander

Still not happy with the "Everyone shitting on the politicians and this is seen as a good thing in the book"

#NewJediZander

Like I get it, Borsk is an absolute shithead, but... that's almost the problem. Borsk is *such* cringing venal mess that it's hard to read him as anything other than this straw-man for the Militaristic characters to attack

#NewJediZander

Nothing but problems with that, but the book is *fully* on the side of "Fuck 'em, they don't know what's best"

And, we're literally talking about the New Republic Military leadership and that of THE IMPERIAL REMNANT *agreeing* on this.

#NewJediZander

And it's not like I don't want Politics in Star Wars. This book would be extremely well served were it to take things as seriously at least as the prequels do. I'm not saying the political climate needs to be fully developed, or that even the politicians need win

#NewJediZander

We can still have our "Big explody ships rah rah rah" either way. But reducing the political sphere to - let's be honest, basically greedy anti-semitic stereotypes. Hoo boy. It's doing ~everything~ a disservice here.

#NewJediZander

In many ways, thematic or other, this series is a *much* superior post-OT story than the Sequel stuff, but...

Certainly has some exceedingly problematic shit too.

#NewJediZander

Reading Legends books on ebook is hilarious bc there's so much promotional material it's like

'Epilogue. 54% of book read. 4 hours to go.'

#NewJediZander

aaand finished it off. As you might've guessed, I'm conflicted. There's a *lot* in the battle for Ithor I like, it's very big and consequential, and has that edge of maximal horror ala Chewie's death that just hits right for the series

#NewJediZander

But on the whole this book, with the previous, is very strangely constructed, and it *really* feels like it needed to be the three books to properly pace and set up everything. Everything at Ithor should've been basically one entire book, front to back.

#NewJediZander

Corran's admission that he hit the dark side in his final duel - very nice, it's a great little gutting of the big moment that you don't normally see in SW, and really like given everything that happens how could that not be the case.

#NewJediZander

The actual biological superweapon - it's a short scene, and again I'm *extremely* annoyed there's almost no mention of the Ithorians themselves - but the visuals of this dissolving black wave across the planet is stunning

#NewJediZander

Not much more to say here, there's other similar complaints as before - Borsk is once again given a 'I'm a snivveling little shit for no reason' scene, Corran being a bit too perfect, Love for Pellaeon ("I've always respected you" !! From a NR Admiral!)

#NewJediZander

A little nice Jaina scene, but again she's more underserved here than compared to Anakin or Jacen, both of which are great. Her scene earlier with Jag ("You're not.... grim.") is great, but her only really earnest one

#NewJediZander

Jacen... goes backwards a little here, if slightly. His admission at the Ithorian ritual seems a little cheap, but I really like his concern for giving up Corran at the end - There's little in this whole scenario that seems right for the Jedi, and he pokes at that

#NewJediZander

Anakin though. Poor friggin kid. The youngest one, dealing with the biggest losses, and.... well, with what happens later. He's just trying to be so good just let him :(

#NewJediZander

Dark Tide II: Ruin, again 2.5-3. Parts are way better that the previous Onslaught, but it's also less consistent.

#NewJediZander

Two authors down, and going into Luceno - used to be my hands down least favorite two books of the series, but I've come around a *little* on him, so I'm pretty hopeful.

#NewJediZander

That said, I'll be taking a SW break here and reading something else first, so it'll be a little bit. See you soon

#NewJediZander

Linking this, bc a) Good convo, and b)

uhhh yeah this happened

https://twitter.com/serswjm/status/1214981321682014214?s=20

#NewJediZander

Welp finished up some Oates, so now on to Luceno.

Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial starts now

#NewJediZander

Like I've mentioned before, Luceno was never my favorite and I have bad memories of these books in particular... But I've come around on him enough to be kinda excited to see how this goes.

#NewJediZander

So far so good. Nice creepy intro to our new antagonist, mentions of Shimrra, meeting Vergere.... Things are really getting going now.

#NewJediZander

Holy hell Wookiees don't mess around with the Life Debt huh. Your family has to pick that up for you? Anyhow, Chewie's funeral. (Through Threepio's pov is a neat touch) Sad times.

#NewJediZander

Didn't remember this from before but it's cool how they use the first three authors to explore three distinct sections of the Vong society. First the Political sphere, then Military, Now religious.

#NewJediZander

Oh hey, Viqi Shesh shows up! And to defend Leia and the Jedi! What a nice person!
(In the same scene Borsk does too! Wha? )

#NewJediZander

Whoa Bossk is in this? Did *not* remember that one.

#NewJediZander

And oh yeah, the Ryn. Fair warning, I really like Droma, but oh my god Luceno there are some bad choices here

#NewJediZander

Just been talking about characters not contents, bc so far this book is pretty sparse. A third of the way through a Han focused book and he's been in maybe three chapters.

#NewJediZander

We've almost had more one-offs, which... I'm liking Luceno's writing all right, but I could really do without these. They just bog everything down and the point of the chapter is mostly Vong we already know anyhow.

#NewJediZander

This book is pretty weird, but in a cool way. The Vong plot is so understated compared to the horrors they inflict in order to pull it off. I've not once felt like the Jedi were in danger, but Han sure has been.

#NewJediZander

But that still makes the action pretty forgettable. Why does any of this happen? Basically the A plot seems like it's in the background, and only exists to drive the B plot, which is the focus of the book, except there's less of it.

#NewJediZander

Also there's a lady Yuzzhan Vong so, btw, she's super hot guys.

#NewJediZander

Han and Droma - still great. Great pairing, great banter, just great. Droma always has one of those little problematic touches to him which... Ugh. But his actual character is such a great idea for a 'who's Han's friend poat Chewie?' Well... It's basically Han.

#NewJediZander

And holy hell Luceno cannot write a fight. Like at all. There's a space battle that's all generalities 'there were x-wings flying around...'

and like twice there's been a chapter break right when Han started some shit, only for us to come back to the aftermath.

#NewJediZander

Best action scene so far was Han and Droma's escape from the Wheel in a shuttle - you actually get a sense for how good a pilot Han is. Very cool.

#NewJediZander

All this comes to a head in a pretty neat, but understated finale. It's kinda funny how the book takes fine to point out 'they won, but if you look at it from this other point of how they lost!'

#NewJediZander

So it all kinda feels... Pointless. I enjoyed it, and it's better written than the last two (but holy Christ fewer one-off asides please), but everything is 'this happened but really it didn't.

#NewJediZander

So a solid 3/5 for Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial.

Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse

#NewJediZander

Little behind on this, I'm already a good third of the way in... honestly not a lot to say though. The Structure seems much the same as the previous book, and we're still mostly dealing with the aftermath of that, the plot hasn't picked up tons

#NewJediZander

Still could use more focus, everything seems kinda scattered. It's nice getting a broad view of things, but some of it is pretty inconsequential to the overall story

#NewJediZander

Leia has had a *lot* of time in this series so far where she's friggin' angry as hell, pulling diplomatic rank. Channelling some Lady Vader here.

#NewJediZander

They're really trying to get me to care about Wurth Skidmarks and it ain't going to happen

#NewJediZander

Meanwhile the Jedi debate rears up again, except this time Jacen doesn't make sense. The Jedi are asked to go find information, but he casts it as 'subterfuge'... Like you're actively being told to *not* fight, and it'll help people. It's what you *want* dude.

#NewJediZander

I know Hapes is Hapes, but I'm like kinda annoyed at Leia being remotely okay with this duel thing

#NewJediZander

Meanwhile we get Droma and Han flying around in the falcon being cool, doing very little

#NewJediZander

And oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Talon Karrde is in this book. This is because he's been mostly forgettable.

So far this book seems to be "Here's what some fan favorite EU people are up to at this time." It's kinda bland honestly, even more so than the last.

#NewJediZander

Oh, but the Han/Droma scene where they out-fly a bunch of coralskippers on a desert planet gave me a *lot* of TFA Falcon scene vibes. Cool parallels there.

#NewJediZander

The Yuzzhan Vong deity structure is very close to Evil Mortis. Yun-Yuzzahn the father, Yun-Yammka the Son, Yun-Harla the Daughter....

poetry, rhymes, etc.

#NewJediZander

The only thing that really throws this off is the addition of Yun-Shuno, the deity of the shamed, the uh, Furtive Pygmy.

Who's ends up being embodied in the series' chosen one basically, so uh maybe we're not far off after all.

#NewJediZander

So like, this is the thing with Luceno - and as stated, I like his stuff more now - his tendencies to make everything so flattened just rob what could be a neat scenario of much depth.

#NewJediZander

In this book, the central conflict revolves around the Hutt's dealing with the Yuzzhan Vong, and that they stopped shipping spice to certain worlds - this tips off the NR.

#NewJediZander

The entire book so far has just been mostly random characters going "Can we trust this information? If so, where should we defend?"

#NewJediZander

And like... that's not even a bad premise for a book. But because we jump around between undeveloped characters looking in from outside, it comes across at 'nerds discussing a wiki article' level. At this point I don't much care who gets the axe, just please do it

#NewJediZander

The other PoVs - Leia, Han, Skidmarks, are all off on their own, totally unrelated. Literally. None of them have anything to do with the main plot. Or each other.

It's just this weird jumble. The previous book had some focus w/ Ord Mantell. This is just boring.

#NewJediZander

Oh. Oh yeah.

What the total fuck is up with them arming Centerpoint Station? (Not at the end, and idr what happens but) - We *JUST* had a book about the Jedi trying to stop superweapon usage.

#NewJediZander

Ugh, now I'm annoyed. I've complained about this book all up until now, and it turns out I really enjoyed the conclusion.

#NewJediZander

After spending all the time wandering around aimlessly, it turns out there was a pretty decent convergence at the end of it all, and that makes it difficult to judge.

#NewJediZander

Still, the focus is really weird. Leia got like two chapters setting up the Hapan tragedy. Anakin and Jacen, likewise maybe two. Wurth Skidder gets maybe 3, but ends up not doing much - that arc goes to Kyp who didn't even get a chapter.

#NewJediZander

Han and Droma are almost superfluous in their own book, not even doing much in the conclusion here. The big thing though is the maneuvering by the Yuzzhan Vong against the Hutts, which was well veiled. All the back and forth in the book does kinda resolve neatly.

#NewJediZander

Still, even if things work out by the end to a cool finale, it's all over the place beforehand, and requires a couple of characters to be driven by the plot, not their arcs thus far in the series.

#NewJediZander

Anakin and Jacen are the big ones there - their scant presence in the book is basically 'Let's sit in the driver's seat of a superweapon, *THEN* we discuss whether it's okay to use or not. Nothing can go wrong with this!"

#NewJediZander

Probably the most interesting aspect of Luceno's novels is just never expounded on much - the idea of the galaxy capitulating/helping the invasion. The peace brigade, there's a little with the Hutts, and then enslaving refugees on whatever planet Han goes to...

#NewJediZander

And of course our dear friend the senator

#NewJediZander

It just always feels like the main focus is set aside so that the book can have a big Star Wars finish. And like. Yeah, big fights against the Vong are cool, but in a lot of ways that's not remotely the strength of the series.

#NewJediZander

Anyhow, 2/5 to Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse

(What even is that title remotely referencing? There's... nothing.)

#NewJediZander

On to Balance Point! The second of the "BIG" novels in the series. I remember being pretty into Kathy Tyers' stuff before, but I know her work is not remotely popular so... we'll see how this goes. :P

(But hey, one of.. two? ladies in this series?)

#NewJediZander

NJO ranking to date:
Vector Prime
Hero's Trial
Ruin
Onslaught
Jedi Eclipse

#NewJediZander

More and more I'm convinced all the official art of the Vong is... Not what they look like.

Frustrated though, because it's very embedded in my mind, and I'm not sure I'm a good enough artist to extricate what they should be...

#NewJediZander

Not quite sure how to even articulate it either. I don't like the big brutish takes, nor the "they're literally Githzerai" one

#NewJediZander

Mostly great great art, but not interpretations I like:

#NewJediZander

much prefer, I think when they're more skeletal? But that's also not the full picture - mostly I think it comes down to the scarification and how they're still depicted as... not pretty I guess, but... balanced? Symmetrical?

#NewJediZander

Closer, but maybe not quite there:

#NewJediZander

(I'm going to be a terrible person and not track down the artists on these, but I'm pretty sure this is all official art in one form or another)

#NewJediZander

Honestly? Probably *the* best Vong image? (and it's silly bc it also contains "sexy lady vong!")

is the dude on the cover to Conquest

#NewJediZander

spoilers for 15 books ahead, but they're not just *monsters*, they're typical humanoids, with a whole mess of Sado-masochism. They embrace pain, changing their bodies and whatnot, but sorta the point is they start out mostly human. You have to have that base to it

#NewJediZander

Should make sure this is on this thread

#NewJediZander https://twitter.com/serswjm/status/1215700946224926720?s=20

Anyways this diversion brought to you by me wanting to draw Vong but also then not wanting to.

#NewJediZander

Alrighty, Balance Point by Kathy Tyers

#NewJediZander

So I'm a little ways into this, not muuuch has happened yet, though I think it's about to. Honestly so far I'm pretty pleased with this, especially as a change of pace.

#NewJediZander

In fact it reads thus far much more like an old Bantam book than the rest of the series has been.

#NewJediZander

Most of this has been setup of the fairly low-key scenario of our heroes helping out on Duro. While I appreciate this, it's never quite explained how *everyone* finds this a good use of time. Han and Jacen in charge of like a tiny colony? Sure, but why?

#NewJediZander

Jaina gets hurt, and immediately the next chapter she shows up and is horribly horribly racist wheee. Really hoping she actually gets time to shine in the series, and isn't always second to Jacen (third to Anakin too, tbh)

#NewJediZander

Speaking of, Jacen's really good here, really standing out as the main character of the series so far in a way I don't recall - but I appreciate.

#NewJediZander

Honestly, what his arc is pointing towards and what happens later... frankly *insulting* that

a) LotF has him go evil, what the absolute fuck
b) the ST couldn't do something similar.

#NewJediZander

Anyways, here he's full-on pacifist, basically afraid to touch the force in any way lest he push himself on it - very interesting take for a Jedi.

#NewJediZander

Great scenes with Randa the Hutt who - maybe it's because I'm watching Freemaker - reminds of Graballa in some ways. The young Hutt scion perpetually in over his head.

Just less funny, of course. (But like, tweak the dialogue a liiiittle bit, it's right there.)

#NewJediZander

Leia again, is a bit of a let down. She's in charge, people don't listen to her, so she gets short. That's kinda her in the series so far.

#NewJediZander

Some really good and needed scenes showing Mara and Luke as actually a couple, and good stuff from Mara's POV, although of course the 'I'm finally complete as a women bc pregnant' stuff is ridiculous.

#NewJediZander