Thinky thoughts
I spent this morning waiting to see if I would be called for jury duty and read all of Last Shot and on the train read Lost Stars.
Waiting to see if I was called and the questions they asked made me thoughtful about judgement and justice and knowing your own lines. I'm not using any specifics because it wasn't the specifics that made me go huh. It was more being impartial and really looking hard at my own biases and the points that make me say, that's not okay. I couldn't do a fair job about this. I know I'll be pondering this for a while and it will definitely work into my writing, there's already an idea nibbling at me.
In terms of the books, they're both good but I wouldn't say either of them is great. The Han and Lando book, the characters and the settings are rich and wonderful, the plot felt kind of tacked on. There were elements in the plot that I wished had been pushed harder at but hopefully they will be in the movie and Older writes good action. He also gets that a big part of the appeal of the Star Wars' universe is its diversity and complicated ethical issues around everything with nothing as black and white as it seems. It left me almost wishing they'd shrunk the plot since the character work was so rich. I recommend with caveats of a slightly convoluted plot added on.
Lost Stars, I wanted to like it better than I did since the idea is clever. It follows a boy and a girl from the same planet but different social classes who bond over wanting to be pilots when they're about seven. They work together to get into the Imperial flight academy and we track them from the time of their planet being part of the Empire, seven years after the end of the Clone Wars to after the battle of Jakku. I don't think its a spoiler to say that one goes to the Rebellion as this book's been advertised as a kind of Romeo and Juliet in Star Wars. This is one where I wish everything had been pushed a little harder because there were powerful moments to do with the good and bad of the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Yet it felt like in terms of the Empire especially, there wasn't a balance in terms of what both characters saw. After a certain point, I wasn't sure if I truly bought one of the character's choices. Claudia Gray has a great gift for writing the Star Wars' universe and making it feel vast, complicated and rich. These aren't her strongest characters but its a good read. I read it on the train and didn't put it down once I started it.
This entry is also posted at https://ceitfianna.dreamwidth.org/475521.html. Please comment wherever you'd like.
Waiting to see if I was called and the questions they asked made me thoughtful about judgement and justice and knowing your own lines. I'm not using any specifics because it wasn't the specifics that made me go huh. It was more being impartial and really looking hard at my own biases and the points that make me say, that's not okay. I couldn't do a fair job about this. I know I'll be pondering this for a while and it will definitely work into my writing, there's already an idea nibbling at me.
In terms of the books, they're both good but I wouldn't say either of them is great. The Han and Lando book, the characters and the settings are rich and wonderful, the plot felt kind of tacked on. There were elements in the plot that I wished had been pushed harder at but hopefully they will be in the movie and Older writes good action. He also gets that a big part of the appeal of the Star Wars' universe is its diversity and complicated ethical issues around everything with nothing as black and white as it seems. It left me almost wishing they'd shrunk the plot since the character work was so rich. I recommend with caveats of a slightly convoluted plot added on.
Lost Stars, I wanted to like it better than I did since the idea is clever. It follows a boy and a girl from the same planet but different social classes who bond over wanting to be pilots when they're about seven. They work together to get into the Imperial flight academy and we track them from the time of their planet being part of the Empire, seven years after the end of the Clone Wars to after the battle of Jakku. I don't think its a spoiler to say that one goes to the Rebellion as this book's been advertised as a kind of Romeo and Juliet in Star Wars. This is one where I wish everything had been pushed a little harder because there were powerful moments to do with the good and bad of the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Yet it felt like in terms of the Empire especially, there wasn't a balance in terms of what both characters saw. After a certain point, I wasn't sure if I truly bought one of the character's choices. Claudia Gray has a great gift for writing the Star Wars' universe and making it feel vast, complicated and rich. These aren't her strongest characters but its a good read. I read it on the train and didn't put it down once I started it.
This entry is also posted at https://ceitfianna.dreamwidth.org/475521.html. Please comment wherever you'd like.