Has an interview up at Rising Shadow.
It’s mostly about her new Star Wars novel — has anybody read that yet? It’s on my TBR pile, but I kind of expect it to sit there for about a year or until I suddenly have a mad urge to re-read everything by her and then run out of titles to re-read and find the Star Wars book sitting there. And the Star Gate tie-in novels, too.
I’m not very familiar (actually, at all familiar) with the Star Gate universe, and only moderately familiar with the Star Wars universe. But so what? I’m pretty sure I’ll like any tie-ins that Martha Wells wrote. My path may even be backwards to everyone else: maybe I’ll read Wells’ Star Gate books and then get interested and watch some of the show. Did any of you watch Star Gate? What did you think of it?
And who’s with me in writing off the later Star Wars movies and basically ignoring everything past the original three?
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Waves hand. I never heard anything about the later SW movies that made me want to see them.
For after end of Jedi, Timothy Zahn’s trilogy was pretty good.
Never saw Stargate, sorry.
Just because I think it’s neat and I just found it, I’m going to burble on about “Man At Arms” on YouTube wherein a blacksmith makes swords, Wolverine’s claws, and other nifty things. Red hot metal! Meteoric metal! Hammers! Damask patterns! Broken drill bits, and saw blades. (we’ve been there in this house, while messing with metal.)
Even if I weren’t rereading Rohan’s WINTER OF THE WORLD which features the best smith ever, it would be fascinating.
I was never a huge Star Wars fan as a kid, but I’ve read a shocking number of Star Wars tie-in novels since I started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. There are quite a few good ones out there, though I haven’t come across anything to match THE FINAL REFLECTION. The Wells book is definitely on my list, since I loved her Ile-Rien books (thanks for recommending those, by the way).
It looks like Martha Wells wrote Stargate:Atlantis tie-ins. I think I watched an episode or two of that show, but I couldn’t get into it. I really liked the original Stargate series, though. It had some fun characters (especially Richard Dean Anderson’s Jack O’Neill), and I appreciated that it didn’t take itself too seriously. If you’re in the mood to watch SF on TV, you could do a lot worse. One warning, though–as I recall, some of the early episodes were kind of weak. You might want to start partway through the first season, or even at the beginning of the second season, then go back and watch the earlier episodes once you actually care about the characters.
Elaine, thanks for the YouTube pointer; I must remember to check that out . . . someday . . . when the leaves fall off the trees and I once more have internet access from home. It sounds like a very dramatic intro to smithcraft.
I’m so clueless about Stargate that I didn’t realize “Atlantis” is not part of the main show. Not that I care, since I only bought the books because Wells wrote them.
What are your top three picks for Star Wars tie-in novels?
My top 3 picks for Star Wars tie-in novels? Hmm…
Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy, which Elaine mentioned above, is pretty universally recommended as a good place to start for anyone who’s at all interested in Star Wars tie-in novels. I thought Zahn did a good job with the characters from the movies (Han, Leia, Luke, etc.), and he also introduced some interesting original characters.
The Rogue Squadron/Wraith Squadron books, featuring Wedge Antilles (the only X-wing pilot other than Luke to survive the attack on the Death Star), are also widely beloved and lots of fun. I think I’m in the minority, but I actually like Aaron Allston’s Wraith Squadron stories better than Michael Stackpole’s original Rogue Squadron books.
However, the most interesting Star Wars novels I’ve come across so far are the five Republic Commando books by Karen Traviss, starting with HARD CONTACT. They’re set during the same time period as the prequel movies (which I completely agree with you about), and the protagonists are all clone troopers and people who work with them. Traviss did some very nice worldbuilding (given the constraints of a universe that fundamentally doesn’t make a lot of sense), and she introduced some great characters. This turned out to be a very controversial series, mostly because some fans believed that she hated the Jedi and treated them unfairly. I can see their point, but it didn’t bother me. The series unfortunately came to an abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion when the Clone Wars animated series came out and completely contradicted everything in it. Around the same time, Traviss got into some kind of dispute with her publisher and stopped writing Star Wars tie-ins completely.
By the way, Barbara Hambly also wrote a few Star Wars tie-ins many years ago. I get the sense that they’re not particularly well thought of by Star Wars fans, but I enjoyed them, especially CHILDREN OF THE JEDI.
Thanks, Linda! I don’t much care what Star Wars fans think because continuity and so forth aren’t important to me, so I think maybe I will try the Barbara Hambly tie-ins and see if I like them.