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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14213
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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 Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 11:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Falconer wrote: | | I think he meant Salvatore. |
GHHAAA> Got them two mixed up in my head..
| Quote: | | I just find it hard to get back into the Star Wars novels now days. It is like there is still so much saturation out there from so many different places.. It was like like my original statement about some of the stories that came out of the EU. Kevin J. Anderson was one of the worst. The Jedi Academy had great potential but was ruined for me by the over the top powers of Kyp Durron, the power of the Suncrusher and Tarkin's protege/lover Daala. It would have been a fine comic but in print it let me down. |
I didn't have much issue with the whole Daala being Tarkin's lover angle, but i do agree, the whole Kyp angle was OTT.. However, as i mentioned in one of the other 'novel' threads, i didn't mind the sun-crusher.
BUT i did love the novel, how it tied into what went on in the Dark Empire comics, what with the devastation to Mon-can from the world devastators, or what went on, on coruscant.
| Quote: | | And one thing I can say is I never discouraged others from the NJO. I was just always up front that I didn't enjoy it. But not everyone is going to enjoy every single thing that is put out. I actually had a friend (I say had, he passed away almost 10 years ago) that loved The Crystal Star. He thought it was the absolute best Star Wars novel written. I never got around to asking him how he felt about the NJO. On a side note I am glad he never got to read And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer. He was such a big HGTG fan I think that may have killed him. |
OMG// Someone actually loved Crystal Star?? Wow. I thought it was tied (with Planet of Twilight) as the worst novel put out during the whole EU time line..
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Pel
Line Captain
Joined: 10 May 2006
Posts: 983
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 11:08 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: |
OMG// Someone actually loved Crystal Star?? Wow. I thought it was tied (with Planet of Twilight) as the worst novel put out during the whole EU time line.. |
I understand it was much better in the original Huttese and many of the subtle nuances were lost in the translation. 
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14213
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 2:54 pm Post subject: |
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Well, at least it wasn't in Original Klingon!! 
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ReverendKeaton
Lieutenant
Joined: 16 Jun 2018
Posts: 87
Location: West Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:20 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: |
OMG// Someone actually loved Crystal Star?? Wow. I thought it was tied (with Planet of Twilight) as the worst novel put out during the whole EU time line.. |
Yes. Yes he did. And I believe Planet of Twilight was high on his list too. As well as Darksaber. He really enjoyed some strange stories. I hate that he didn't live to see the Marvel CU. He would have loved that. |
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Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)
Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 10435
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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| Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.
I'm ashamed that I actually wrote a letter to Vonda N. McIntyre, the author of Crystal Star, expressing my dislike for novel and asking for her personally to give me my money back. I don't have a copy of the letter or a perfect memory of it, but I am sure it had a lot of opportunities to be more polite. I remember just being so burned up that there was almost no action in it. Han did not shoot his blaster a single time. The Millennium Falcon did not shoot at anything. The biggest action was the villain cutting Threepio in half with a lightsaber. I do remember telling her in the letter that I liked her Star Trek books but asking if she knew what space opera was. I felt Luke got sucked into the cult way to easily. I remember my initial reaction to the book was that it felt like a rejected Deep Space Nine script, so I'm guessing I probably mentioned that in the letter. (I still think that though.) And part of my anger was probably misdirected hostilities because earlier that year I had also read Kevin J. Anderson's entire trilogy, so I probably felt that Crystal Star was the last straw.
I was still immature then and looking back, I was probably acting like the entitled internet fanboys that I despise nowadays (thankfully there wasn't social media back then so I couldn't make a public @$$ out of myself that easily). I feel my complaints are valid but I didn't have to tell the author and I'm so embarrassed I may have acted that way to another person. Although it was over 23 years ago I want to apologize to her! Especially since after my absence from Star Trek for many years, me getting back into it and thinking The Search for Spock film made no sense, but then rereading the novelization which had all the stuff edited from the movie that made it make sense. I thank her for making it possible for me to enjoy that movie again!
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ReverendKeaton
Lieutenant
Joined: 16 Jun 2018
Posts: 87
Location: West Virginia
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| Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:12 am Post subject: |
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| Whill wrote: | I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.
I'm ashamed that I actually wrote a letter to Vonda N. McIntyre, the author of Crystal Star, expressing my dislike for novel and asking for her personally to give me my money back. I don't have a copy of the letter or a perfect memory of it, but I am sure it had a lot of opportunities to be more polite. I remember just being so burned up that there was almost no action in it. Han did not shoot his blaster a single time. The Millennium Falcon did not shoot at anything. The biggest action was the villain cutting Threepio in half with a lightsaber. I do remember telling her in the letter that I liked her Star Trek books but asking if she knew what space opera was. I felt Luke got sucked into the cult way to easily. I remember my initial reaction to the book was that it felt like a rejected Deep Space Nine script, so I'm guessing I probably mentioned that in the letter. (I still think that though.) And part of my anger was probably misdirected hostilities because earlier that year I had also read Kevin J. Anderson's entire trilogy, so I probably felt that Crystal Star was the last straw.
I was still immature then and looking back, I was probably acting like the entitled internet fanboys that I despise nowadays (thankfully there wasn't social media back then so I couldn't make a public @$$ out of myself that easily). I feel my complaints are valid but I didn't have to tell the author and I'm so embarrassed I may have acted that way to another person. Although it was over 23 years ago I want to apologize to her! Especially since after my absence from Star Trek for many years, me getting back into it and thinking The Search for Spock film made no sense, but then rereading the novelization which had all the stuff edited from the movie that made it make sense. I thank her for making it possible for me to enjoy that movie again! |
Thank you. He was a good guy. We grew up together. Graduated high school together, went to college together. Played peewee football together. Drank, partied and gamed. Played a lot of DnD, SW, Top Secret together. I hauled him around when he broke his hip in a car wreck. He was in from Tennessee visiting his mom. She went in and he had passed away in his sleep. It was a bad time for me. Not a lot of people left from my graduating class around anymore much less one that I spent most of my life running with.
But I digress, even back when The Crystal came out I was on the old AOL SWRPG mailing so I was in touch with what community there was online at the time. I guess feeling were up and down about everything going on. It died off though and a lot of people transitioned elsewhere. He was one of the few people who I knew (if not the only one) that liked that book. But he also read a lot of Star Trek novels so that may have been the key for him.
Now as far as the Star Trek novels I loved The Search for Spock novel. It did make a lot of things make sense that were left out of the movie (which I paid two dollars for my sister and I to go see when it came out). I cannot say I have ever actually written an author and given a bad critique (the same cannot be said about some networks and TV shows).
I understand the Kevin J. Anderson hostility though as his name has been a curse word in my house for decades. It has even put me off reading any of the other work he has done (the Dune Series especially). The series I have been most into as far as sci fi has been The Expanse. It seems to be the one series holding my attention as of late. I am always open to suggestions as to any books, old or new, that anyone would to want to suggest. |
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ReverendKeaton
Lieutenant
Joined: 16 Jun 2018
Posts: 87
Location: West Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 7:58 am Post subject: |
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| And I must say after I got past the first chapter of Darth Plagueis the book has started to grow on me. Possibly a good sign. |
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Pel
Line Captain
Joined: 10 May 2006
Posts: 983
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 10:45 am Post subject: |
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Agreed. I felt it didn't delve quite deep enough into the mysteries of his research, but it was an overall good read, despite know the eventual outcome.
Ms. McIntyre did do a fine job on her Trek novels, despite dropping the ball on Crystal Star.
Even the NJO series had a few good parts, Wedge introducing the Vong to the Empire's style of warfare being my personal favorite (Orbital Bombardment, Baby!), followed closely by Lando's YVH-1.
I was particulary disappointed in the later Republic Commando novels. For a series that promised much rump-kickery, it devolved into lots of angsty dialogue and depressingly little action
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Dredwulf60
Line Captain
Joined: 07 Jan 2016
Posts: 911
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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| ReverendKeaton wrote: | .
I understand the Kevin J. Anderson hostility though as his name has been a curse word in my house for decades. It has even put me off reading any of the other work he has done (the Dune Series especially). The series I have been most into as far as sci fi has been The Expanse. It seems to be the one series holding my attention as of late. I am always open to suggestions as to any books, old or new, that anyone would to want to suggest. |
If you enjoy Frank Herbert's DUNE books...
Stay away from that intellectually bankrupt cash-grab/ fraud that is the new Dune universe, authored by KJA and supposedly working off Herbert's secret notes as provided by his son...but which mysteriously no one else has ever seen...and which seem to produce stories totally at odds with the original works.
You're welcome. |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16320
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Dredwulf60 wrote: | If you enjoy Frank Herbert's DUNE books...
Stay away from that intellectually bankrupt cash-grab/ fraud that is the new Dune universe, authored by KJA and supposedly working off Herbert's secret notes as provided by his son...but which mysteriously no one else has ever seen...and which seem to produce stories totally at odds with the original works.
You're welcome. |
Seconded and thirded. I am an avid book collector, and the first KJA Dune book has the dubious distinction of being the only book I threw away after reading once. It didn't even deserve to share shelf space with my Dune books. I refused to touch the others.
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14213
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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Well, i decided to pick up the novelization for TFA/TLJ and rogue one.. Will give them a read, to see how different they are from the films.
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14213
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 1:58 am Post subject: |
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Well, i've finished off reading both TFA and TLJ novelizations, and i was very impressed by the writing of both..
IN the next one, i am Hoping we see DJ get his come-uppance.
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WillTasker
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 25 Jan 2017
Posts: 115
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| Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Whill wrote: | I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.
I'm ashamed that I actually wrote a letter to Vonda N. McIntyre, the author of Crystal Star, expressing my dislike for novel and asking for her personally to give me my money back. I don't have a copy of the letter or a perfect memory of it, but I am sure it had a lot of opportunities to be more polite. I remember just being so burned up that there was almost no action in it. Han did not shoot his blaster a single time. The Millennium Falcon did not shoot at anything. The biggest action was the villain cutting Threepio in half with a lightsaber. I do remember telling her in the letter that I liked her Star Trek books but asking if she knew what space opera was. I felt Luke got sucked into the cult way to easily. I remember my initial reaction to the book was that it felt like a rejected Deep Space Nine script, so I'm guessing I probably mentioned that in the letter. (I still think that though.) And part of my anger was probably misdirected hostilities because earlier that year I had also read Kevin J. Anderson's entire trilogy, so I probably felt that Crystal Star was the last straw.
I was still immature then and looking back, I was probably acting like the entitled internet fanboys that I despise nowadays (thankfully there wasn't social media back then so I couldn't make a public @$$ out of myself that easily). I feel my complaints are valid but I didn't have to tell the author and I'm so embarrassed I may have acted that way to another person. Although it was over 23 years ago I want to apologize to her! Especially since after my absence from Star Trek for many years, me getting back into it and thinking The Search for Spock film made no sense, but then rereading the novelization which had all the stuff edited from the movie that made it make sense. I thank her for making it possible for me to enjoy that movie again! |
I am guilty of all of this and more, so you're not alone in your regrets of youth. (I also didn't like ST3 as a kid but now its one of my favorites in the series.) |
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ReverendKeaton
Lieutenant
Joined: 16 Jun 2018
Posts: 87
Location: West Virginia
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| Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Dredwulf60 wrote: |
If you enjoy Frank Herbert's DUNE books...
Stay away from that intellectually bankrupt cash-grab/ fraud that is the new Dune universe, authored by KJA and supposedly working off Herbert's secret notes as provided by his son...but which mysteriously no one else has ever seen...and which seem to produce stories totally at odds with the original works.
You're welcome. |
Dune is one of my all time favorites. I refuse to read the prequels by Brian and Kevin. I like what I like and to me they are true Dune works. |
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Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)
Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 10435
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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