Need Star Wars EU nerd assistance STAT

[Cyrrex]

Heh, yeah, I have been there too (I actually posted some snarky bits directly to Traviss...I seem to remember offending her somehow).  Only, that isn't the story I heard....which just goes to show you that you can't believe even the most hardcore of SW geeks.  We're still geeks, after all.

[WindupAtheist]

I could just be misremembering something or other, to be honest. It's been a number of years since I had even that sort of distant secondhand connection to the EU.

[Morat20]

The Zahn books, the X-wing novels, and the Wraith Squadron novels.

The Zahn books because they're decent, and because the last pair are basically a big "FUCK YOU DUDE" to everything written between them. (Mostly Zahn saying "Jesus, make Luke a little fucking Godlike, didja? Fuck up a perfectly good Mara/Luke relationship for what bullshit now, really?").

X-wing because they're light reading and shit gets blown up.

Wraith squadron because it's funny light reading where shit gets blown up. I still remember the squadron motto: "Pretty. What do we blow up first?". And, of course, Lt. Kettch.

Plus, Allastan's Wraith books kill pilots off. Regularly. Even ones people like. Because fighter pilots don't have the best life expectancy in a fucking war. And I can applaud that.

[Fordel]

Are people with Red Skin destined to be on the DarkSide, or does the DarkSide make your skin red?

[Ironwood]

You get a susceptibility to the Dark side, yes.

Also, smallpox.

[Cyrrex]

Are people with Red Skin destined to be on the DarkSide, or does the DarkSide make your skin red?

The Dark Side doesn't make your skin red, silly.  But it will, of course, turn your eys yellow and red.   

So I guess it's only fair to postulate that red skin will in fact make you fall to the Dark Side.  So will speaking with a British accent, unless you are Obi or Qui Gon.

[WayAbvPar]

You get a susceptibility to the Dark side, yes.

Also, smallpox.

I am most of the way through the first Rogue Squadron book (I have had exactly dick for reading time the past week or so). It isn't anything earthshattering or anything, but it isn't making me want to tear my eyes out of my head either.

[MahrinSkel]

Can't stand Stackpole. He's a genuinely good guy, and he knows how to construct a big, splashy plot, but even when I was fourteen and reading his Battletech novels, I could tell his grasp of character was shit. Not as bad as Anderson, of course. I truly don't understand why people keep publishing him.

In case anyone is still paying attention to this subthread: Because he never damages a franchise, and never underperforms (if a typical installment in the franchise sells 10K, a Stackpole-authored entry will do at least that well).  In some cases, the very fact that his characters are weak is a *plus*, there's no chance his will overshadow those of the canon, while his plotting and world-painting is strong enough to carry them as standalone, even there he plays nice in the sandbox.

My father had several fairly good westerns rejected because his characters were too vivid, they were more memorable than the peripheral characters from the canon they stood in for.

--Dave