What are You Reading Right now?

Was the Thrawn comic series based off of one of the trilogies? I'm hellbent to finish The High Republic and then either read the Aftermath Trilogy or one of the Thrawn Trilogies, just not sure which one... I did read the comics though.

 

Not sure if you're refereing to the same comic book series, but the old Zahn/Threawn Heir to the Empire trilogy was definitelly turned into a comic book series.

 

Not Heir to the Empire, I read that way back when, and I'm perfectly good leaving all that right back there. No this was a comic series more recent, with the Eli Vanto (?) character. It showed his "capture" and working up through the Imperial ranks...

 

I read the book (and its two short follow-ups) a couple of years ago. For me, the two things that made Zahn's original book so compelling were: 1) Thrawn's character; and 2) the Luke/Mara Jade scenes. The chemistry between the two of them was really good stuff.

However, I sadly doubt we're going to see Mara Jade anytime soon (if ever). So the only takeaway from the book (IMHO) is Thrawn.

 

I've never been sold on Mara Jade at all. I found her a terrible character, (and Zahn's writing pretty bad much of the time). Granted, I haven't red Heir to the Empire in ages (and the follow up stories I only read in comic book form), but I recently read the Hand of Thrawn duology (Specter of the Past/Vision of the Future), and by the Whills, that's some of the worst litterature I've ever read and the Luke+Mara stuff was all terrible (but to be fair, all of it was terrible, so... yeah).

I hope they let that dead horse lie burried and forgotten. If they HAD to reintroduce a Luke romance story, I would much rather see the Lumiya/Shira Brie storyline reimagined.

 

I am so glad to see someone else say this! It's quite a ridiculous character all around. I'm flabbergasted any time someone ponders if she will ever be made Canon. Honestly, even pre-PT I didn't care for the Heir trilogy. I even tried to give it another shot recently, and it really does not age well. Thrawn is the gem in that cow pasture for sure. That's partly why I sorta shuddered when Ahsoka used "Heir to the Empire" directly in a quote. I know those books are loved by many, and upon hearing that, the tin foil hats came out. I think Filoni will recycle and repurpose as many little bits as he can, but anyone expecting even a rough re-telling of that story is probably in for a big disappointment. We have Mt. Tantis somewhat repurposed, Thrawn, Paelleon and Ruhk, I'm not sure how much more can be dusted off and reshaped to fit Canon.

From what I have seen and heard, I will say that Zahn has done a great job of fleshing out Thrawn, with Filoni and Mikkelson adding their genius as well. Apparently the comic I read was an adaptation of the 2018 Thrawn novel that is the first of the Thrawn Trilogy, so I will probably start there and then go to the Ascendancy Trilogy.

 

Yikes, I never expected YOU and Angelman to be such Mara Jade HATERS!

I'm not a fan of Thrawn in animation. Not to get too amped up over his live action introduction, but it seems to me that Mikkelson -- with the right lighting and under the right direction -- could instantly turn Grand Admiral Thrawn into the next 'Darth Vader.'

 

I love the Thrawn Trilogy though there's some nostalgia there as I was 11 when Heir To The Empire came out. I've re-read them a few times over the years and as an adult I don't consider them great literature but still fun to read. Though I do find that with each book they get less entertaining and the third is not a great ending. The rest of Zahn's stuff has been hit or miss for me and of the new Thrawn books I only read the first one. I didn't think it was terrible it just forgettable for me. It's actually the main reason I didn't read any of the follow-ups because by the time the sequel came out I couldn't remember anything about the first one and I wasn't going to reread it anytime soon. On the subject of Mara Jade though I wasn't a big fan either. Zahn went overboard on making her so unlikable at first that I didn't really care about her redemption later.

Anyway I'm reading some SERIOUS literature right now. I think it's adapted from a play... okay a comic book.

Even though I didn't just give Thrawn high praise I'd go with the Thrawn books, those Aftermath books are some of the worst things I've ever read.

 

I've actually read that one (albiet a long time ago). I seem to remember that it read very old-timey, but that the overall premise was fun. What did you think of it?

 

So far it's pretty entertaining but like a lot of his earlier stuff (or at least pre-2001: A Space Odyssey) it's kind of like old-timey pulp sci-fi. Kind of goofy but fun.

 

I couldn't get past the present tense with this one, so I never actually read the trilogy. But may I ask why it ranks among the worst stuff you've read? (I believe you, I just found it interesting and want to be informed )

 

In the middle of Django Wexler's "Burningblade & Silvereye" trilogy. I think Star Wars fans would like it. The author said Star Wars was one of his inspirations when world building. It's not a space fantasy though, it's more like the show/universe of RWBY for those that are familiar with that series.

 

It's hard to say as it's been several years since I've read them and I've forgotten a lot about them... or maybe just blocked it out. One thing I remember is they were real gimmicky, the present tense being just one of many gimmicks used by the author who seemed more interested in looking clever and being groundbreaking than telling a good story. He was constantly trying to make the Star Wars universe more like Earth by inserting all these little real world references into the Star Wars universe. Like at one point a Rebel veteran is given an emotional support Ewok. I guess I'm supposed to laugh and be... oh just like here on Earth! From what I remember there were lots of these little things scattered around and to me it's just a lack of imagination. Rather than expanding an interesting universe very alien to ours he was just contracting it by making it a parody of our own. Also it was pretty poorly written/edited. There were mistakes in it like a character being referred to as a Rodian, then the next page he's a different species then a page later he's back to being a Rodian... or maybe it was the other way around. I thought maybe I was confused or something but looked it up and sure enough it was just a screw-up.

But aside from those details the overall story was just awful. I've mostly blocked out the climax but from what I remember it was one of the dumbest things I've ever read. I think the remnants of the Empire were trying to pull off some silly Dark Side magic ceremony to destroy the universe or some such nonsense. And so much of the point of these books was supposed to be that it was unrealistic for the Galactic Civil War to just end in one decisive battle at Endor. All this series does it drag it out another 5 years (I think that's the timeline) and have it end at another, less entertaining, decisive battle at Jakku.

I probably could have given you a better idea right after I finished them. The bottom line is that it was so bad that I couldn't bring myself to even think of reading another Star Wars book for over a year after I finished it.

 

Thank you, @NunbNuts; that clears some things up. I've tried three times to begin the first Aftermath book, but I always throw it aside in like the first page. The entire sith ritual in the Jakku desert thing -- throwing sith artifacts down a hole somewhere, is it? -- I have picked up from references and such, and it sounds very dumb, to be honest.

Well, you've pretty much confirmed it for me, then. No need to bother with these books. Thanks, mate

 

An author whose stuff I either love, hate or sometimes have no clue what I just read. So far this one is pretty good but I'm not entirely sure what's going on yet so it may end up being one of the latter though I suspect it's just a slow reveal. I almost read this like 15 years ago when I heard they were making a movie, which either never got made or is a VERY long production. For those that haven't heard of him he's the guy who wrote the novels/stories that were the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report among others. Though often the movie is very loosely based on the source material. A lot of times they don't even use the original title since even they're pretty weird. "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "Blade Runner" which they took from a book by a completely different author in which the name actually made sense.

 

While I haven't read Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, I do love me some "Horse-lover Fat", me! <3 But he can be quite esoteric. His through line tend to be questions around existencialism; Am I real? What is reality? Am I hallucinating right now? Etc.

Apart from the ones you mentioned, A Scanner Darkly is fairly accessible (and was made into a quasi-animated film with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder) and The Adjustment Bureau (which was adapted into a film with Matt Damon & Emily Blunt).

There's also Valis, but that one -- in which Philip K Dick explores his own life changing mystical experience while, high as a space station, he chased David Bowie around LA and in a flash of light had a pink beam blasted into his skull which for a moment revealed to him the secrets of the universe -- is quite difficult to grasp. (He made several attempts to fictionalize that experience, but I believe Valis was the most accessible).

His most successful novel, though, was probably The Man in the High Castle, which was recently adapted and expanded into a 4 seasons TV show on Amazon Prime; quite possibly his commercial masterpiece.

 

I read The Man In The High Castle a couple years ago and I wasn't that crazy about it. I'm a little hazy on specifics but I do remember it was pretty confusing and kind of slow. I've seen A Scanner Darkly but I haven't read that one, or Valis. I do have the latter on my tablet though and was planning to read it at some point.