AramZS
Imagine if Dan Brown was smart and Neal Stephenson was better at integrating his deep historical research into the plot and also the fascinating history of the deep weirdness of internecine catholic conflict was the setting for a murder mystery and you've got this book. Not an easy read, hard to believe there was one an era where this book was very popular, but worth the work. I recommend it.
This book is a great deal of fun once you get in to it, even if it is not–as some sellers are advertising–a Culture novel.
Sadly, also just not quite as clever as the Culture novels. It's very good, better than most SF, but while many Culture novels can have a rough start they all build to big satisfying payoffs. This one was all a little too obvious and, as a result, just not as satisfying an end or a book. All that said, a great world to live in for a while.
There are some really good ideas, world-building, and setup here but the execution is just poorly organized and paced. Writing itself is pretty good on a sentence to sentence basis. The book just couldn't stop tripping up the psychodrama it was aiming for. There were a bunch of moments that were clearly supposed to be gasp reveals that it just couldn't land, they ended up confusing instead of dramatic. It also simply didn't give itself the space to deliver on its big scifi idea sadly. Then it can't land the ending. I'd try future books by this author, but this one just doesn't work sadly.
There's a distinct writing style here that plants this book firmly in its age of publication, but put that aside and you'll find a set of great science fiction stories that seem remarkably ahead of their time, very interested in many of the same topics and technological conundrums we would write about today.
I don't get why so many people recommended this to me. It's well written, as in words on the page, but not much for story. Lampshading the bad jokes doesn't really negate them if you keep doing it over and over again. I dunno, it's fairly harmless, but the description of existing as a bad MMO, doesn't excuse it being the literary equivalent: shallow, substituting numbers for narrative and setting a bunch of hooks that don't pay off until you pony up for the expansion.
If this is one of the best LitRPGs I fear it isn't so much a genre as an excuse to use video game mechanics as a crutch for a lack of narrative.
This is a very good book, very well written, a very clear and piercing realistic view of what is likely an all-too-near future. It is also so incredibly depressing I needed to take multiple breaks and finish other books in-between certain moments of this sort tome.
This is the future billionaires imagine for the world, from the perspective of the rest of us, and it is extremely bleak. The end feels like a catharsis, but it isn't really.
The end result is extremely well-crafted but so unrelenting that I cannot really recommend it, I could barely finish it.
Basically an extra star for good voice acting.
I dunno what to do with this book/audio play? It seems to mostly exist to tie up a bunch of loose ends from other entries into the High Republic multimedia project? It feels deeply lacking in a reason to exist. The first audio play about Lourna Dee made sense to make, she was pivotal in the High Republic storyline at the time and an interesting character that it at least made sense to try and explore more deeply. In this book she's irrelevant to the larger story and, weirdly, mostly irrelevant in her own story as she gets dragged around to different planets and High Republic events. It feels like this was greenlit, the voice actors hired, and the decision made to make this audio play before The High Republic's relevant plot points got written.
The result is a pretty meaningless set of events to lead up to the main plot, an encounter with Avar Kriss (who feels almost like a ghost in this format that robs her of any internality) and the ridiculously named Baron Boolan as part of the story arc addressing the “Blight”, a new threat introduced recently in the larger High Republic plot. Boolan ends up to have an extremely interesting origin story that ties together the prequel story of the 2nd phase of The High Republic with the 1st and 3rd phases, but doesn't get explored very much.
The role this plays in the larger story, like too many entries into The High Republic, feels entirely inconsequential, another exercise in treading narrative water. The end result is the story feels strongly like it is going to accomplish something but merely makes minor changes around the minor characters of Sskeer and Boolan. I remember the last 45 minutes of this story, thinking ‘oh, are they actually going to change something or impact the plot of the current High Republic main arc in any way?' and then just feeling incredibly disappointed when the result was nope, nope they are not.
Like the rest of the High Republic audio works, it is well performed with good use of music and sound effects, but don't come for the story because it is barely there. I guess if you are a big Lourna Dee fan this is your jam, if you have only read the novels there is some new stuff in here...
But I don't believe you! What is Lourna Dee's character that makes you a fan? I just checked the Wookiepedia and it has like... 10,000 words worth of Stuff Happening but no character other than uhhh she's angry. Name one character trait of Lourna Dee other than that she's angry!? Things she did don't count. I can't. No one can! She's a collection of plot points but I'm struggling to find a character there. Hell, Baron Boolan gets more character in this one story and he's a mad scientist called Baron Boolan! I changed my mind. This book isn't for fans of Lourna Dee, because they don't exist–no matter what they say. This book is for fans of Baron fkin Boolan. Now go update his Wookiepedia entry like he deserves!
This is a gorgeously written book, with some amazing scenes that stick in the mind. It also contains some really well done philosophy and cultural critique, most notably of Christianity. That said, I found the pacing frustrating, at times extremely difficult to hold attention on. I understand what it's doing and why, this is not a complaint that should prevent you from reading the book, it's just an imperfection in an excellent work.
A really great book. A wonderful take on the classic tales and an excellent continuation of them. It is a throughly modern story in a way that updates King Arthur and the Round Table's form to make it more intriguing, insightful and relevant to our current time while it also grows the legend's soul, in the way that only the best Arthurian tales can.
One of the easiest books to read about algorithms you'll find, chock full of insights about how music, the music industry and the world of streaming works. Perhaps the best part is that the casual fun writing is shot through with the author's music suggestions and humanity, giving the whole piece a warm friendly feel. It's also filled with potent quotes about the future we should want to build with algorithms, computers, and art. Every Spotify user should read it. Then everyone else.
I get what the author is trying to do here, the framework of a modern fantasy fable is well executed and there's some really gorgeous writing; but it doesn't work for me personally. My attention kept sliding off this book every time the focus shifted no matter how much I tried to stay engaged. I don't know why it didn't work for me exactly, but it's not the author's fault. Lee has a clear vision of what they want to accomplish, how they want to accomplish it and they execute it with excellence. If this sort of fable-making is your jam, I suspect you'll love it, but for me I think I'll be putting down the series here.
Things actually happened in this one, but boy were they drawn out in some spots. Again, I beg whomever is behind this practice in Star Wars HQ to listen to me: a bunch of random described battle scenes are useless if they don't advance the character arcs or the plot. I think the plot advanced somewhat here, we had a bunch of good character moments for sure. Elzar and Avar are both strong characters given a lot of time here and it helps the book a lot. It's too bad that it makes almost every other character seem flat as paper in comparison.
There's still this huge problem of Marchion Ro and the Nihil being not so much a mystery as just plainly inexplicable. The Stormwall still feels out of nowhere, not just in terms of storytelling, but also in terms of the Nihil's capabilities. They just don't seem well organized, smart, or coordinated enough to pull off what we've seen in this and the last book. This problem is only exacerbated by the character of Senator Ghirra Starros. Starros is especially prominent in this book and her arc is basically about trying to organize the Nihil into a political entity/power and failing.
Which lends itself to a real question: this has been going on for a while–how can it if the Nihil are so disorganized and back-biting? They don't have an organizational goal or real leadership, Ro just wants to kill as many Jedi as possible as this book makes excruciatingly clear. So what is all this other shit for?!? The book introduces (I think) a new character that makes it even clearer that he's very focused on the Nameless eating the Jedi and like... they're real good at that already? If that was his goal, all this Stormwall stuff seems entirely unnecessary and he doesn't seem to have the motivation to push it forward. The Nihil just aren't effective big bads and while a lot of this book is good, it is good enough to make it clear that the Nihil are just a bafflingly low-tier enemy. The Jedi have consistently brought huge fleets to bear, executed precise space combat operations, and even in this book basically force push their way through major Nihil defenses. If all that is possible, how did things get to this point? Why are they staying at this point? None of these questions seem to have a good answer in the stories we've seen in the books thus far.
It's too bad too, because there's clearly something there in this book. The trapped people inside the occlusion zone are a really interesting concept to explore, the drama of the Stormwall separating people is effective, and the way it causes the characters that are fleshed out to react is interesting. It's just too bad there's a hollow nothing at the core of this where the story simply doesn't work, coming from some central planning committee at the heart of the planning of the High Republic series.
The High Republic multimedia project continues. As the core story spins out more and more side stories the whole thing continues to be difficult to follow and gets more difficult all the time. At the same time the many supplementary pieces means that any individual story (like this one) has trouble advancing a plot in its own pages or the larger plot outside of the book. It's hard to believe that this series has repeated the same mistake that the main Star Wars series has, instead of spending the time exploring the universe of Star Wars everything is cinched closer and closer to this central plot and the central plot... isn't great.
The High Republic's plot is more and more an assemblage of stuff than it is a real story. There's the big scary spaceship that... is important for some reason. There are the Nameless who are a threat defined by what they can do but don't really have a solid context in the Star Wars universe and are literal animals dependent on others to move them around. And there are the Ros who... have a motivation... to do things... I guess? I don't know what Marchion Ro's motivations are, but there are two Ros, and they are a common thread through the two eras of The High Republic we're seeing, so I guess they mean something somehow.
If you were looking for some sort of answer or advancement on any of these points in this book, you aren't going to get it. The Nihil threat has exploded into being basically an entire enemy government that's taken over a swath of space... for some reason. I want to remind you that the Nihil are marauding space pirates. Now they're basically a power to rival the New Republic both on a military and science basis. Ok. But also things are happening inside Nihil space. A planet is in trouble. There's a bad lady and science thing we have to stop. Someone's family is missing. Someone's student was thought dead, but instead is missing. So we have to do some unassociated stuff. What follows is basically a wrapper story around three almost entirely unconnected stories where characters you know from other books interact and do things that accomplish nothing. I understand that there is some larger story going on that apparently... for reasons unclear to me... almost all of these books basically have to tread water around. Ok, but they can't tell their own internal stories that have a basic plot?
It's real weird that the whole Stormwall thing happened between every piece of media and not a single one of them covered it. I looked this up and even Wookiepedia seems to be confused, but I'm pretty sure that this major universe-changing event just happened “off-screen”? But this is extremely central to this story now. I think this idea of hyperspace routes and how they work is extremely interesting, but this book–like many of these–is more interested in exploring if a lightsaber whip is useful than it is in picking up this pretty fascinating narrative hook.
In this book we see:A character worried about her family being on the wrong side of the Stormwall and so she goes to find them and their planet is destroyed by something associated with the Nameless. So she rescues them and leaves them on the wrong side of the Stormwall. They're ok. Nothing changes. A superteen is upset her super science was stolen by a mean doctor. So she goes to kill the mean doctor and blow up the science in the hope that will shut down the Stormwall. She realizes killing is bad and even though she kills a random mean person she's not going to kill the person she came here for who is keeping the Stormwall going, she's spent the entire length of her time in this book attempting to do a thing she now doesn't want to do. Returns to her girlfriend and the other side of the Stormwall. Nothing changes. A Jedi depressed over the loss of her apprentice finds out he's alive (we know this already as readers) and crosses the Stormwall to rescue him. He's just fine actually, he doesn't need her help, he stays exactly where he is to help fight raiders. She returns to the other side of the Stormwall. Nothing changes. Only one of these short stories actually moves the plot forward, the first with its mysterious planet blight. But this is just one more nominally Nihil threat when they're already a threat. What is the point? Where is this going? This book won't tell you.
Ok, nothing happens in this book. I'd say that the characters evolve, but really they don't. Vernestra does progress along her character arc in theory, but it is really only to return her to the hyper competent state in which we first met her. Ok, so what is in this book? Let's go to the Star Wars: The High Republic checklist:
- A hyper competent super teen. Check. (Only one this time I think. I'm unclear exactly how long it has been between books, but I think Vernestra is a twenty-something by now?)
- A sassy droid. Check.
- Cute Space Animal. Check and Check.
- Character from one of the movies who is apparently nearly immortal. Check and Check.
- A total plot cul-de-sac where everyone returns to their starting places with minimal change at the end. Check.
It's just like... insane to me how much The High Republic project is wasting its opportunities. All this stuff that is happening would be a great context to tell some stories that expand the Star Wars universe, which make an interesting space for the reader's mind to play in. But instead it's just stuff connected to the main plot which has spent years going nowhere.
There are some potentially interesting characters in the mix, but they all have to be related to each other, or a major family, or Jedi that have been basically locked into a pretty narrow archetype, which limits them. Being stuck behind a hyperspace blockade could be a way to explore what an interesting version of the Star Wars universe at this point looks like sans Jedi. But it isn't explored. The Jedi stuck on the wrong side of the wall could be an interesting look at how they operate independently, but that barely happens. The back and forth about the hyperspace prospecting economy could become an interesting area to explore, but they just don't. What sucks about this book is that it is well-written enough that it is less bad and more frustrating. So much potential, so little done with it.
Also, for reasons that baffle me, these books are all overloaded with POVs. This book is no exception. It has to be a mandate from central Star Wars writer command, but I don't understand why. It makes an already difficult to follow story more difficult, it accomplishes nothing for the plot, and it forces us into the POV of characters that don't makes sense as POV characters. Even worse, it often deflates tension that could be built by just sticking in a single POV. This book has the problem just as bad as most of the others. This time that problem manifests in Xylan Graf.
Xylan Graf is not as fun to read as the author thinks he is. I dislike him as a character, much less a point of view character. In a book overstuffed with POVs, not only is his irritating, but it is entirely unnecessary. His chapters do not accomplish anything meaningful and he is basically just a pawn other POV characters drag around. Not that they should do this, but you could have replaced his role here with a memory card and it wouldn't have changed this story. It's fine to have him as an... irritating... character and have another cute space animal next to him, which I guess is some sort of requirement, but not sure why he's a POV at all.
The last note is that, while I understand we're in a post-Han-shot-first world... this particular book's instance that all killing is bad is so odd. The Jedi have killed a ton of people on screen. They've fought a war. Most of the main characters in this universe have killed a lot of people. Most of the heroes have! Are they going to ret-con Star Wars so that Luke told everyone to go to the escape pods before they blew up the Death Star? The idea that Star Wars is now a place where hero characters have comic-book Superman morals is extremely odd to me. Even within these books, Jedi kill beings all the time. But in this book there's a whole sequence where the author shakes their hand at the reader and character to be like ‘no, even if this could save millions of lives, you killing this one lady can't be done'. What? That might work in other contexts but this is a baffling turn for Star Wars. This is not the type of universe where people are particularly concerned with the death of their enemies. Jedi use laser swords that are basically impossible to hit someone with non-lethally! I don't understand why this particular book is so moralizing on this when that isn't a feature of the Star Wars universe usually. I don't really care that much if this is going to somehow be the new Disney mandate moving forward, but every time it came up I found it extremely odd and disconcerting, especially when it is made central to one of the major plots in this book.
Like most of these books, this one clearly suffers from some sort of misfire on how this series should be run from Central Command and on top of that too tight a grip on plot and character to allow this book to actually be fun. I'm not sure who this book is for. Why do I keep reading these? I guess morbid curiosity. Reading these books is like watching a slow motion train crash, a lot of pretty chaos to no good end. I'm just curious about what new and weird way the next one of these will crash to the ground in a burnt hunk of metal next.
I'm actually very excited to see this TV show. It's wild to me to think that this project is going to be realized into TV because I can't imagine what they're going to do with it, but I'm 90% sure it is going to be bad ideas. Is it going to tread water like these books? Are they going to actually conclude something? Will they also skip back and forth over 100 years? Will Yoda continue to be a central character? Will they literally re-animate Maz Kanata out of her brief moment in the other Star Wars? Which characters are they bringing to life and how will they screw it up terribly? It's hard to believe the same media company that made Andor is going to dip its toe into spending millions of dollars to bring to life this story but ok! Sorry to all the writers who work on these and shape these characters who will def get no credit or compensation if the TV show is successful.
It took me a little time to warm up to it, but I quite enjoyed this book. There's a lot really interesting going on when it digs into its world. It is unfortunate though that most of the major plot lines raised are not resolved, presumably set to be addressed in further books in the series, leaving this not particularly self contained. That said, if you go into this knowing it's more a part 1 than a book 1, it's quite fun. I look forward to the next book.
Now that I've got the full book and played a session I can tell you that this does an ok job with the setup of this game, but it doesn't touch a big chunk of what makes the game good. There's a whole elaborate set of info and rules for space combat and yet this quickstart makes the insane choice to set your first session in the era before the Homeworld 1 video game, pre-space travel. If you ran this session, it wouldn't even make sense to carry over any characters to the next one. My advice is to just buy the book if the idea of a Homeworld RPG interests you at all and skip the quickstart entirely.
All of the best things that made Wildstorm fun to read are here, turned up to the max and then filtered through Brubaker and Philips perfectly in-sync noir sensibilities. Glad to finally have a full collection of what is easily one of my favorite comics. When people talk about grim dark adult comics, the examples they bring to the table are usually dumb with an inability to actually tell a story or have real characters operating in that mode, instead it ends up being offensive bs where they can't even get around to telling a story that isn't more than smashing action figures together in blood packs. Here we've got a modern superhero noir that approaches things with an actual story to tell, a real consistent tone to set it in and real characters to tell it.
The panel placement continues to drive me insane. I do think the story is good, and getting better, but this is a comic, the visual elements have to be as effective at storytelling as the words and the way they continue to manage panels is bad. It's just bad. The decision to flip between layouts constantly with no clear signal and to mix that with overlapping panels that bleed out with no borders makes reading these books a slog and is entirely unnecessary. It's not accomplishing any meaningful effect and the panels themselves are rarely leveraging it to go much across the spine, making it doubly pointless.
Sort of shocking that no one has thought to do a modern vampire story about a vampire American WW2 veteran who kills vampire Nazis. So much fun, but also with some interesting complexity about old times and new in there that I enjoyed. But also look, I'm never going to object to a full page bloody vampire flight where the character yells ‘I'm gonna kill Nazis like a good American'. Good stuff!