A Critique Of Kevin J Anderson

[Lord Poe]

Anyway, anyone have good ideas for more reasons why he sucks?

Darksaber: first, Luke visits Jabba palace again. Then he visits Ben's hut again. Then he visits Dagobah. Then he visits Hoth WTF? Is he conducting a fucking tour of the movie locations?

[Alexus]

Darksaber: first, Luke visits Jabba palace again. Then he visits Ben's hut again. Then he visits Dagobah. Then he visits Hoth WTF? Is he conducting a fucking tour of the movie locations?

Exactly my point. Exactly.

[Admiral Drason]

Kyp Durron. He was such wank fest. I cant stand him in the NJO and he was created by KJA.

[Praxis]

I reread my SW books from time to time for fun, but I've never reread the BFC, Planet of Twilight, or The New Rebellion.

Very smart. I got in a terrible situation of going on a vacation and running to the bookstore and picking out the novels I hadn't read before.

They were:
the BFC books
New Rebellion
one of the Boba Fett books.

Imagine the horror. That was all I had to read in English for a full month.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I reread my SW books from time to time for fun, but I've never reread the BFC, Planet of Twilight, or The New Rebellion.

Very smart. I got in a terrible situation of going on a vacation and running to the bookstore and picking out the novels I hadn't read before.

They were:
the BFC books
New Rebellion
one of the Boba Fett books.

Imagine the horror. That was all I had to read in English for a full month.

You poor, poor bastard. At that point, I'd blind myself. They didn't even have... the Glove of Darth Vader?

[Petrosjko]

I reread my SW books from time to time for fun, but I've never reread the BFC, Planet of Twilight, or The New Rebellion.

Very smart. I got in a terrible situation of going on a vacation and running to the bookstore and picking out the novels I hadn't read before.

They were:
the BFC books
New Rebellion
one of the Boba Fett books.

Imagine the horror. That was all I had to read in English for a full month.

That has just become one of my definitions of hell.

[Darth Yoshi]

You poor, poor bastard. At that point, I'd blind myself. They didn't even have... the Glove of Darth Vader?

I argue that the Glove of Darth Vader is worse.

[Petrosjko]

You poor, poor bastard. At that point, I'd blind myself. They didn't even have... the Glove of Darth Vader?

I argue that the Glove of Darth Vader is worse.

It at least has the excuse of being a kid's book.

[Rogue 9]

I thought they just hid them? Maybe my memory on this one is faulty (books are in boxes right now, and looks to stay that way rest of month).

The planet wasn't BDZed. Praxis, what are you smoking? If the planet had suffered a Base Delta Zero operation, Luke wouldn't have been able to land on it, get out of his ship, and walk around!

You're right, it wasn't a BDZ. They RAZED it, not BDZed it. They just smoked the surface.

Yeah, and Rome razed Carthage. Razing does not require orbital bombardment.

If I remember right, the Yevetha actually razed the planet

Wrong. The Empire was responsible for driving the White Current users into hiding; they were way the hell away from the Koornacht Cluster when they were first forced to move.

[Rogue 9]

Anyway, anyone have good ideas for more reasons why he sucks?

Darksaber: first, Luke visits Jabba palace again. Then he visits Ben's hut again. Then he visits Dagobah. Then he visits Hoth WTF? Is he conducting a fucking tour of the movie locations?

Actually, yes. That's precisely what he said he was doing.

[Praxis]

The planet wasn't BDZed. Praxis, what are you smoking? If the planet had suffered a Base Delta Zero operation, Luke wouldn't have been able to land on it, get out of his ship, and walk around!

You're right, it wasn't a BDZ. They RAZED it, not BDZed it. They just smoked the surface.

Yeah, and Rome razed Carthage. Razing does not require orbital bombardment.

If I remember right, the Yevetha actually razed the planet

Wrong. The Empire was responsible for driving the White Current users into hiding; they were way the hell away from the Koornacht Cluster when they were first forced to move.

Can't really argue- it's one of the only books I never re-read. I got through it as fast as I could and hid

[Coriolis]

I'd forgotten he'd killed off Madine, bastard.

Madine dies?????? THAT BASTARD!!! He was so cool!

[Praxis]

I'd forgotten he'd killed off Madine, bastard.

Madine dies?????? THAT BASTARD!!! He was so cool!

It's a pitiful death, too. Him and two commandoes do a bunch of work, track down Durga the Hutt and his contrived minature Death Star superlaser called the "Darksaber", get on board, get his two commandoes killed and him captured and brought before Durga.

Durga taunts him a bit while Madine sends a distress signal. The fleet drops out of hyperspace, and is approaching (nobody on the bridge notices). Madine sees them OUT THE WINDOW approaching to rescue him, and Durga the Hutt takes a blaster and shoots him in the heart just before Wedge's fleet attacks and blows Durga out of the sky for killing Madine.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Glove of Darth Vader = Pictures > KJA.

Star Wars Science.

[His Divine Shadow]

4) Shield generators only have a range of 200 meters, and are bubble shields.

5) There are 10 meter interference zones if the boundries of two shield bubbles on two capships overlap.

I do not see any technological issues here, seems to me you personally just don't like these limitations.

6) If you put a proton torpedo in that 10 meter interference zone, it is magically 'amplified' so that it can take out an entire capship AND THE ENTIRE SHIPYARD (capable of building ISD's) IT IS IN!

I never saw anything about any magical amplification, only that it could get through the shields, and if it was a anti-capship torpedoe combined with a lucky hit, why not?

12) The organic technology brainbug. We're not talking Yuuzhan Vong here, we're talking Species 8472. Some magical organic ship that looks metallic, that can outrun ships with hyperdrive and blow up an ISD in a split second, heal itself super fast, etc.

Now it seems you never even read the book, the ship that was destroyed was a tiny little thing, not an ISD, another frigate or small cruiser almost killed it with it's guns, the thing didn't have any shields either.

13) A freighter being hit with an avalanche while parked on an ice planet kills everyone on board.

Well the door was open, ofcoure it would kill everyone.

14) A Star Destroyer's sensor range is 4 light years, WHILE CARRYING A GIANT SENSOR ANTENNAE that takes a full HOUR to detach.

Well no, this again is that piddly little ship that is not a star destroyer.

15) He makes up an entire class of uberpowerful Jedi-like people that can create holodeck-style images that can actually hurt someone and even withstand a BDZ from orbit, just with their minds, yet are nothing more than people with force powers. Why can't Luke do that?

They didn't withstand a BDZ, they just made the enemy think they'd killed them, also there was no BDZ anywhere on those planets, their sole speciality where illusions and a Jedi uses the force differently than they did, Luke was however learning it a little bit by the end of the book.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

KJA writes his Star Wars books like they're bad comic book stories, particularly in that he seems to talk down to the reader and underestimate their intelligence.

Speaking of comics, how Dark Lords of the Sith and The Sith War didn't end up as crap due to his involvement, I have no idea: at least on DLS, there was Tom Veitch to probably smack him into shape, but he was with someone else with TSW...

[PainRack]

KJA writes his Star Wars books like they're bad comic book stories, particularly in that he seems to talk down to the reader and underestimate their intelligence.

Speaking of comics, how Dark Lords of the Sith and The Sith War didn't end up as crap due to his involvement, I have no idea: at least on DLS, there was Tom Veitch to probably smack him into shape, but he was with someone else with TSW...

Its not just the SW books. Its all and everything related to science fiction, even the Dune series. The only time he doesn't appear to do that is for his own Zero series, where he takes painstakingly pleasure in describing everything in detail and the X-files, where he doesn't even bother to say what is going on but just say "government is bad!mmkay?"

[Lord Poe]

Man...when I first heard that KJA was writing a Star Wars book, I was overjoyed! I loved his first book, "Resurrection, Inc." Now look what happened!

[HemlockGrey]

What's the deal with this "Madine is so awesome" stuff? He had like four lines in the movie!

[Petrosjko]

What's the deal with this "Madine is so awesome" stuff? He had like four lines in the movie!

In the same ballpark as the number of lines Boba Fett had.

[Praxis]

4) Shield generators only have a range of 200 meters, and are bubble shields.

5) There are 10 meter interference zones if the boundries of two shield bubbles on two capships overlap.

I do not see any technological issues here, seems to me you personally just don't like these limitations.

It doesn't fit with anything else we know. Star Wars doesn't have bubble shields. The ships apparently are unable to adjust the distance of the shield from the ship. And this overlap has never occured anywhere else.

6) If you put a proton torpedo in that 10 meter interference zone, it is magically 'amplified' so that it can take out an entire capship AND THE ENTIRE SHIPYARD (capable of building ISD's) IT IS IN!

I never saw anything about any magical amplification, only that it could get through the shields, and if it was a anti-capship torpedoe combined with a lucky hit, why not?

Dropping an anti-capship torpedo onto an unshielded thrustship that has taken no damage and has full armor is not going to blow up the thrustship AND an entire shipyard.

And it DID magically amplify. I just looked it up; here is the quote.

(for those who don't know, Fat Man refers to a Yevethan Thrustship)

"What's the standard radius of an imperial particle shield?"
"Two hundred meters."
What's the diameter of a Fat Man?"
"Two hundred forty meters."
"So the one that's docked-it's not fully enclosed by the yard's shields."
"So what? It has its own shields. Which are sure to be back up by now, even if it did have them down for unloading."
"Exactly. Which means there should be an interference zone between the two shield boundaries," said Brand. "If we can wedge something in there-"
"Then the shields will concentrate and focus the blast, multiplying the effective yield."

So far, this kinda makes sense, although proton torps are ALREADY shaped, so it shouldn't multiply the effective yield. But normally this would make sense that it concentrates the blast.

A little bit later, a K-wing tries to make the shot.

"This thing's full of Star Destroyers, Skids. It's got to go. Can you make the shot? It's up to you."

Yep, this thing is full of Star Destroyers. That gives you an idea on the size of this thing. The capship they're targetting is 240 meters long.

The K-wing ends up putting itself in the interference zone, and the explosion of it and its payload is amplified...

Brand loooked away from the plot table and out at the shipyard just to see it enveloped in an enormous explosion that ripped the thrustship free and sent the yard into a slow, tumbling roll.

...and destroys the entire shipyard.

A suicide impact from an A-wing was enough to blow up the Executer's BRIDGE, but when it's magically amplified through the shield boundaries, a suicide K-wing can take out an entire shipyard and several under-construction ISD's.

This is just silly.

This was way beyond concentrating the blast.

12) The organic technology brainbug. We're not talking Yuuzhan Vong here, we're talking Species 8472. Some magical organic ship that looks metallic, that can outrun ships with hyperdrive and blow up an ISD in a split second, heal itself super fast, etc.

Now it seems you never even read the book, the ship that was destroyed was a tiny little thing, not an ISD, another frigate or small cruiser almost killed it with it's guns, the thing didn't have any shields either.

I didn't remember what kind of ship it was, but I remember that it was blown apart like it was nothing.

And I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure at some point Lando made a comment about no ship being able to stop it.

13) A freighter being hit with an avalanche while parked on an ice planet kills everyone on board.

Well the door was open, ofcoure it would kill everyone.

You sure the door was open? I thought they were inside the ship studying stuff.

14) A Star Destroyer's sensor range is 4 light years, WHILE CARRYING A GIANT SENSOR ANTENNAE that takes a full HOUR to detach.

Well no, this again is that piddly little ship that is not a star destroyer.

You're right, but still, it's carrying a big fat sensor array and it can't even scan the next sector?

15) He makes up an entire class of uberpowerful Jedi-like people that can create holodeck-style images that can actually hurt someone and even withstand a BDZ from orbit, just with their minds, yet are nothing more than people with force powers. Why can't Luke do that?

They didn't withstand a BDZ, they just made the enemy think they'd killed them, also there was no BDZ anywhere on those planets, their sole speciality where illusions and a Jedi uses the force differently than they did, Luke was however learning it a little bit by the end of the book.

Yeah, like I said above, you're right, it was just a raze.

[His Divine Shadow]

I didn't remember what kind of ship it was, but I remember that it was blown apart like it was nothing.

And I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure at some point Lando made a comment about no ship being able to stop it.

It wasn't a very big ship at all, a frigate almost killed the thing with it's guns later on, these where blaster guns too, so apparently this couldn't have been a very big ship if it didn't even carry proper laser cannons or turbolasers, iirc it was mentioned to be a frigate or something, below 400m mark anyway.

You sure the door was open? I thought they were inside the ship studying stuff.

Yup, I remember reading about how the interior was instantly packed to the brim with snow.

You're right, but still, it's carrying a big fat sensor array and it can't even scan the next sector?

Well there's the passive/active thing already mentioned, could be this is a passive thing.

[Praxis]

I didn't remember what kind of ship it was, but I remember that it was blown apart like it was nothing.

And I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure at some point Lando made a comment about no ship being able to stop it.

It wasn't a very big ship at all, a frigate almost killed the thing with it's guns later on, these where blaster guns too, so apparently this couldn't have been a very big ship if it didn't even carry proper laser cannons or turbolasers, iirc it was mentioned to be a frigate or something, below 400m mark anyway.

You sure the door was open? I thought they were inside the ship studying stuff.

Yup, I remember reading about how the interior was instantly packed to the brim with snow.

You're right, but still, it's carrying a big fat sensor array and it can't even scan the next sector?

Well there's the passive/active thing already mentioned, could be this is a passive thing.

Okay, right on most of those points, but on the last one, I believe they were actively scanning. Anyone remember what page that was on?

[Kurgan]

I'd forgotten he'd killed off Madine, bastard.

Madine dies?????? THAT BASTARD!!! He was so cool!

It's a pitiful death, too. Him and two commandoes do a bunch of work, track down Durga the Hutt and his contrived minature Death Star superlaser called the "Darksaber", get on board, get his two commandoes killed and him captured and brought before Durga.

Durga taunts him a bit while Madine sends a distress signal. The fleet drops out of hyperspace, and is approaching (nobody on the bridge notices). Madine sees them OUT THE WINDOW approaching to rescue him, and Durga the Hutt takes a blaster and shoots him in the heart just before Wedge's fleet attacks and blows Durga out of the sky for killing Madine.

Drama!

What about the part how the Darksaber sputters, sparks, and then gets crushed between two wandering asteroids?

[Coriolis]

I'm kinda interested in what could've happened if Madine survived and lived to the NJO series...