The crimes of KJA

[Rogue 9]

You mean his son? And yeah, Arthur was killed in a tragic battle where both he and Mordred killed each other.

In most versons of the legend i've read Mordred is either un related of his newphew. I can't remember a version in which mordred was his son.

Actually, he was both. Mordred was Arthur's illegitimate son by his half-sister Morgause. (Some versions name Morgana La Fey instead of her sister.) Arthur was not aware of his relationship to Morgause when she seduced him.

[Master of Ossus]

I rather liked Tattooine Ghost. Especially the bit about the projectile weapons bouncing off stormtrooper armor

Denning seems to have a MUCH better grasp of the capabilities of SW technology than most of his peers. Both Tatooine Ghost and Star by Star included other tid bits regarding their abilities that I doubt other authors would have mentioned.

[Connor MacLeod]

I would have to say that Stackpole has written some very good works, but his consistency is atrocious. The first two X-Wing novels were horrible. The third X-Wing novel was really good. Then his next book tailed off, again.

The first two novels were direct copies of the X-wing video game (hell he even lifts one of the historical missions as a "training" mission for pilots, doesn't he?) His characters have no real flaws (or vulnerability to death - he didn't evne kill off Asyr in Isard's Revenge for Chrissake!). And he insinuated that an X-wing's shields couldn't survive a rear-end collision from a ground truck.

I, Jedi was a crime against literature. I know that everyone and their grandmas loved that book, but I thought it was one of the worst things I've ever read.

it was okay. If you ignore the blatant Corran-worship, some of the Jedi stuff is interesting. The alternate perspective he provided on the "Jedi academny" period was interesting, even if Corran has to take a personal hand in destroying Kun , but it wasnt particularily fantastic.

When he got around to writing in the NJO, Onslaught was a great book, but Ruin was sub-par, and very disappointing because I was hoping for a good conclusion to the series.

I actually did not much like his NJO books much. Onslaught was so so, but its not very good. Although it was better than "Balance Point" - though the NJO doesn't get really interesting until you step up to "Star by Star" - though the Luceno novels were quite good

His biggest problem is that his works are SOOO rushed. HE takes practically no time on his novels, and it shows more often than not in the finished product. I really don't like Corran Horn, and I think it's pretty clear that Stackpole can only write Corran Horn books (and, actually, other writers--most notably Troy Denning--have made Corran a more interesting character than Stackpole did), I also think he's pulled off some okay works with that character.

Agreed. The same is, as I said, also quite true of Kyp Durron and Mike Stackpole and Zahn with Pellaeon/Mara/Thrawn.

[Connor MacLeod]

I rather liked Tattooine Ghost. Especially the bit about the projectile weapons bouncing off stormtrooper armor

Denning seems to have a MUCH better grasp of the capabilities of SW technology than most of his peers. Both Tatooine Ghost and Star by Star included other tid bits regarding their abilities that I doubt other authors would have mentioned.

What's your opinion of Luceno? He's a pretty good writer - I sort of like the Agents of Chaos novels - they were rather interesting in their own way (no blatant technical missteps) - but "Cloak of Deception" was just plain great.

And don't forget Daley. His work includes not only the magnificent "Han Solo adventures", but also the radio dramas of the OT (the first one of which was excellent, the second very good, and the third sorta blah, but the poor guy died after it was finished - what do you expect?)

Fuck Zahn. Daley captured the spirit of Star Wars far better than Zahn could ever hopeto.

[Master of Ossus]

The real literary problem of the X-Wing series was that a squadron has too many characters to bond with throughout one book, so most of them don't do anything. The authors of the early works then compounded this inherent problem by killing minor characters left and right in the very first works, which prevented us from bonding with and understanding the minor characters over time. While some may proclaim this as being "realistic"--and there I agree with them--it also hampers the literary development of the novel. It would have been better if Rogue Squadron had been reformed, done some easy missions together in which no one had died, and then in the third and fourth books of the continuing arc some people had been killed, since that would have given us enough time to bond with the characters more easily. Allston recently made some attempts to fix this issue with Starfighters of Adumar, in which he reduced the squadron down to four and slowly added a couple of other characters, and in Solo Command, during which the squadron was really a secondary character to Han Solo. That is a SERIOUS step up from the way in which Stackpole was running the X-Wing series, and from Allston's previous works.

[Master of Ossus]

Agreed. The same is, as I said, also quite true of Kyp Durron and Mike Stackpole and Zahn with Pellaeon/Mara/Thrawn.

Frankly, the difference there is that Corran is a comparatively crappy character with VERY artificial limitations and incredible strengths heaped on him. Pellaeon, Mara, and Thrawn are all interesting characters, with Mara and Thrawn IMO being CLEARLY the best EU creations to the series. By contrast, Kyp is only an average character, with not nearly enough there to base a novel around (let alone the multiple KJA works revolving around him), and Corran is a crappy character.

[Master of Ossus]

What's your opinion of Luceno? He's a pretty good writer - I sort of like the Agents of Chaos novels - they were rather interesting in their own way (no blatant technical missteps) - but "Cloak of Deception" was just plain great.

Luceno's okay. I don't particularly like his writing style, but that's just my opinion and I recognize that most people will get more out of it than I do. I agree that Cloak of Deception was very strong (particularly since when I read that I had just finished the worst SW novel in history--The Approaching Storm). A funny thing about authors, though, is that with writers that write several very good books and one magnificent work we understand if they can never again reach that bar (ie. We forgive Golding for not giving us two Lord of the Flies, and Steinbeck for not giving us two Grapes of Wrath quality works), but if you're a writer of pretty good books who writes one really good book we kind of treat you as a writer of pretty good books.

And don't forget Daley. His work includes not only the magnificent "Han Solo adventures", but also the radio dramas of the OT (the first one of which was excellent, the second very good, and the third sorta blah, but the poor guy died after it was finished - what do you expect?)

Fuck Zahn. Daley captured the spirit of Star Wars far better than Zahn could ever hopeto.

I agree that Daley captured the spirit of SW better than Zahn did, but Zahn's books are superior. I think I'll take the higher quality novel based in the SW universe over a lower quality novel that more effectively mimics the SW universe.

[Connor MacLeod]

Well, I always figured Allston decided to "abandon" most development - most of his characters never really *had* alot of depth. Jesmin Ackbar is a blatant cardboard cutout and simply a means of furthering Kell Tainer along... kind of the same with Tyria (though she gets her own "key" development.) I'd say the "most" developed characters might be Face Loran, Gara Petothel, and Myn Donos (though Myn isn't really a big factor until the third book.) Those are perhaps the closest to "core characters" you get in the book.

So yes, his characters tend to lack the depth that might otherwise have, but I also think it works in his favor. Allston's books really aren't meant to emphasize character development - they're emphasizing a sorrt of "bigger scope" - there's alot going on - the hunt for Zsinj, Wedge's neat new idea, etc. The characters if anything are more of a "glimpse" into the overall social enviroment that this overriding plot takes place in - only a parrt of the much bigger picture. Combined with Allston's "generally better" writing quality (especially humor) - I think it works quite well.

Another plus for Allston is tht he doesn't waste time (or efforrt) trying to "develop" the main characters like Wedge or Han Solo - he lets them stand on their own merits (unlike Stackpole who seems to have to invent deeper backgrgound for Wedge for some reason.)

But on the opposite side, ,he *does8 make some effort to make his enemies interesting. Compare Zsinj in "Courtship of Princeess Leia" to Zsinj in the Wraith Squadron novels.

Lastly, you have to give Allston credit for is that he did not bludgeon the reader over the head with Wraith Squadron, especially in the NJO books and STarfighters of Adumar. Wraith squadron is *not* the core element to the books - its a big part, but its not THE part. Hell, in the later books, its not even much of a side note. [/quote]

[Connor MacLeod]

Luceno's okay. I don't particularly like his writing style, but that's just my opinion and I recognize that most people will get more out of it than I do. I agree that Cloak of Deception was very strong (particularly since when I read that I had just finished the worst SW novel in history--The Approaching Storm). A funny thing about authors, though, is that with writers that write several very good books and one magnificent work we understand if they can never again reach that bar (ie. We forgive Golding for not giving us two Lord of the Flies, and Steinbeck for not giving us two Grapes of Wrath quality works), but if you're a writer of pretty good books who writes one really good book we kind of treat you as a writer of pretty good books.

Haven't you ever read Splinter of the Mind's EYe?

I agree that Daley captured the spirit of SW better than Zahn did, but Zahn's books are superior. I think I'll take the higher quality novel based in the SW universe over a lower quality novel that more effectively mimics the SW universe.

What is it you think makes Zahhn's books superior? Insofar as the radio dramas go Daley did mimic the universe (its nto that hard either , being based on teh script - though he really expanded it in some neat and interesting ways) - but the Han Solo books are quite good. I think its quite a good characterization of Han Solo, and the adventures capture what *would* happen between those two. I would love to have read more stories like those.

[Master of Ossus]

1. I have read Splinter..., even without being forgiven for its massive distortions of canon that hadn't been written yet, Splinter is still better than The Approaching Storm. Have you read that book? No one who's read it can pretend that there's anything else in the SW universe that approaches its shititude. (Incidentally, don't buy it to see for yourself--PLEASE!).

2. Zahn's plots are more interesting and better developed, and Thrawn and Mara really are good characters. Despite Zahn's tendency towards minimalism (with some notable exeptions), I still consider Zahn's work to be better than any other SW authors, with the possible exception of Denning.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Why should he be singled out as any worse than others? The other EU writers have made that same mistake as well - in fact Stackpole made it worse by initially indicating that the Lusankya was 10x the size of a Star Destroyer, but later reversing this by reiterating the 8 kilometer figure in "Isard's Revenge!" And there are others just as guilty also, like Kube-Mcdowell and the Intimidator (who can be credited with the "Executor-class" invention.)

But unlike others (like Stackpole, who reiterated the 144 "fighter" complement for the Lusankya), I can at least credit KJA with giving an Executor-class a realistic fighter complement, even if he is an inept writer.

Basically, if you kicked out every writer that wrote the Executor is 5 miles long, all we'd have left are FanFic writers - most of which are probably in ASVS or SD.Net (I used to think that other boards containing serious studiers would know this stuff as well, but after even a brief glimpse of some of them my hopes died.)

Here's why I rate him worse. If he has the skill and courage to buck the EU's trend and go with the canon, I can forgive a lot of bad writing.

But there is a difference between:
1) "The Executor has a thousand fighters in my story because I've seen (bonus points if you personally verified) the evidence that the Executor's official length is badly wrong. Using the correct size from the canon, I've estimated the size of the hangar bay. Why, It is bigger than the bay on an Eclipse. From that, I conclude that the Executor is perfectly capable of holding a thousand fighters. COMBINED with the needs of my story, I've decided to assume they can use this capability when necessary."
2) "The Executor has a thousand fighters in my story because my story needed it. Rather than work with the SW reality, I twist it until the Executor has a thousand fighters. Yes, I know I just said that a 8km ship had more fighters than ships double its size and mass, but I don't care about continuity at all, only my whim of the moment."

One of them is Saxton (though AFAIK he doesn't write stories.) The other is KJA. I'm sure you know which is which.

The durability of stormtrooper armor (and the later mention of invulnerability against projectile weapons) also comes from KJA books - the Young Jedi Knight series, in fact It predates the VD's too I believe.

That's HIM?

You're kidding, right? Stackpole basically adopted the X-wing games into a novel format (he even credits the designers of the X-wing game in the first book!) I kind of like the early "Rogue Squadron" comics better (mostly because it was not "all Corran, all the time") than the novels, but the early novels were just plain *BAD*.

I don't make this stuff up, I just report them. If I ever bump into that website again, I'd give you a link.

Some of Allston's earlier stuff suffers from following Stackpole';s example with fighter to fighter combat, although he was better at capital ship battles than fighter battles (the latter maintaining the "Xwing" model.) Allston also presented much more interesting and IMHO realistic characters - people with flaws, with humor ("Yub Yub, Commander."). He doesn't focus on just one guy and developing him to death - and he will actually *kill* heroes (He kills at least what - four people in the first book, and at least two more in the second.) Overall, Allston's characterization is FAR superior to stackpole's. And his technical accuracy got better- hte Rebel Dream/Rebel Stand duology was in fact one of the more sterling examples of NJO novels.

You don't have to convince me of all that. I agree with you!

And shield domes. Although to be fair that also goes against Allston as well (though he has to be credited for the way he handled taking down Executor-class shields.) You also have to hold the "Rogue Squadron taking down big ships" mentality against Stackpole more than with Allston (Allston at least understands the concept of big-ship participation in battles along with fighters.)

Yeah, well, at least he got it right once. If you can give points to KJA on accidentally bumping into a superior estimate of Executor fighter capacity, I can praise Stackpole for getting it right once.

I was actually more than a little annoyed about how easily those fucking shields went down. And all due to a fucking brain-bug that doesn't quite contradict the film enough to be wiped out.

To be fair, between Wraith Squadron and Solo Command, Allston seems to be trying to "make the turn" away from fighter-wank to a more combined arms (realistic, consistent with canon) view of things. Implacable was killed in almost as annoying a style as Stackpole might have done. Iron Fist got better, with some real capship battles. Solo Command marked the transition out of it, though in Starfighters of Adumar, he slipped a bit into it again - just a feeling.

[Lord Pounder]

Personally i loved Allistons work. It introduced something a lot of EU lacked, humor. I remember nearly pissing myself the 1st time i read the Piggy/Phanan(sp?) skit. I still laugh when i read the Janson naked scene. The scene where Wedge orders Janson to shoot the sun on Adumar was the funniest in SW. Also i think the Fleet battles Alliston wrote about where the best written, though techniqualy dodgy at times. He made the Courtship of Princess Leia more understandable.

On a critical note i dislike the way Janson goes from being a juvanile in the Wraith books to an arrogant nympho.

[Connor MacLeod]

1. I have read Splinter..., even without being forgiven for its massive distortions of canon that hadn't been written yet, Splinter is still better than The Approaching Storm. Have you read that book? No one who's read it can pretend that there's anything else in the SW universe that approaches its shititude. (Incidentally, don't buy it to see for yourself--PLEASE!).

Yes. I can't say I disliked it - I just found it incredibly boring. I suspect they mostly brought him back due to the fact he wrote Splinter long before SW novelizations became popular, and were hoping that status might be a selling point.

What about KW Jeter? The guy who wrote the Bounty Hunter Trilogy? Did you enjoy that at all? I found it rather enjoyable, and he seems to be underrated as a source for technical consistency.

2. Zahn's plots are more interesting and better developed, and Thrawn and Mara really are good characters. Despite Zahn's tendency towards minimalism (with some notable exeptions), I still consider Zahn's work to be better than any other SW authors, with the possible exception of Denning.

Actually I'd put Allston up there too, just for his characterizations (and for the NJO Duology he wrote). And Jeter, and Daley of course. I suppose though in those cases the reasons they are "good" might differ from Zahn, since each tends to write a different "segment" of the Star Wars universe, while Zahn's (while minimlaist) tends to try to emphasize a bigger picture.

I like Zahn, but I also find people tend to overestimate his "take" on Star Wars. I liked the Thrawn Trilogy, but the Hand of Thrawn was something of a disappointment relative to his first three books. I think it had potential, but it just really didn't "go" anywhere. The whole bit with the Hand of Thrawn thing/Disra bit was just a cheap way to "resurrect" Thrawn, and largely a plot device to throw Luke and Mara Jade together (and possibly, to set up the Vong... or not.)

[Connor MacLeod]

Basically, if you kicked out every writer that wrote the Executor is 5 miles long, all we'd have left are FanFic writers - most of which are probably in ASVS or SD.Net (I used to think that other boards containing serious studiers would know this stuff as well, but after even a brief glimpse of some of them my hopes died.)

I know, but it seems more an excuse to bitch about KJA than a legitimate excuse, no matter how bad he really is.

Here's why I rate him worse. If he has the skill and courage to buck the EU's trend and go with the canon, I can forgive a lot of bad writing.

I didn't quite say that. He got some things right, yes, but its not like he actually made explitict firepower figures or anything (He could have just been borrowing the Dankayo incident, or from the ISB for all we know.) But I am willing to acknowledge the fact he *did* do so - few EU authors actually ever referenced the "slagging" stuff.

But there is a difference between:
1) "The Executor has a thousand fighters in my story because I've seen (bonus points if you personally verified) the evidence that the Executor's official length is badly wrong. Using the correct size from the canon, I've estimated the size of the hangar bay. Why, It is bigger than the bay on an Eclipse. From that, I conclude that the Executor is perfectly capable of holding a thousand fighters. COMBINED with the needs of my story, I've decided to assume they can use this capability when necessary."

To borrow your analogy, if we eliminated every EU author on the grounds that they probably didn't do their homework, we would only have fanfic writers, wouldn' t we? Fact probably is that most of the EU that is "consistent" with canon is either blindingly obvious, or purely accidental.

2) "The Executor has a thousand fighters in my story because my story needed it. Rather than work with the SW reality, I twist it until the Executor has a thousand fighters. Yes, I know I just said that a 8km ship had more fighters than ships double its size and mass, but I don't care about continuity at all, only my whim of the moment."

Which doesn't bother me. Pellaeon noted that the ship was "As big as the Executor". That sort of overrules the "5 mile" statement, doesn't it? The fact it carries "thousands" of fighters rather than a couple hundred is also telling.

One of them is Saxton (though AFAIK he doesn't write stories.) The other is KJA. I'm sure you know which is which.

Actually you can probably replace KJA with alot of EU authors by that logic. Doesn't mean I'm not going to willingly acknowledge the things they get right, accidental or otherwise. (What about like, the Dodonna quote with the Essential guides, for example?)

That's HIM?

The spear throwing incident? Yeah, it was.

I don't make this stuff up, I just report them. If I ever bump into that website again, I'd give you a link.

Which website is that?

Yeah, well, at least he got it right once. If you can give points to KJA on accidentally bumping into a superior estimate of Executor fighter capacity, I can praise Stackpole for getting it right once.

I don't disagree I can even credit Stackpole with getting the Executor size correct - once, even though he continued to infer that the ship carried only 144 fighters.

I was actually more than a little annoyed about how easily those fucking shields went down. And all due to a fucking brain-bug that doesn't quite contradict the film enough to be wiped out.

The bit with the Corruptor was worse. The "Lusankya" is somewhat more palatable because we know that the Rogues ordered a substantial number of capital grade launchers - which presumably were fit onto those freighters. (I suspect that Drysso was more afraid of the station's launchers because he figured they were *capital* grade - stations would be big enough to mount such.) I suspect the initial fighter torpedoes were meant more to "illuminate" the target point the missiles were supposed to hit, than anything else.

And to be fair again, Stackpole *did* indicate it would require at least twelve squadrons of X-wings to engage the Lusankya.

To be fair, between Wraith Squadron and Solo Command, Allston seems to be trying to "make the turn" away from fighter-wank to a more combined arms (realistic, consistent with canon) view of things. Implacable was killed in almost as annoying a style as Stackpole might have done. Iron Fist got better, with some real capship battles. Solo Command marked the transition out of it, though in Starfighters of Adumar, he slipped a bit into it again - just a feeling.

Wraith squadron was perhaps the most annoying of the novels, yes, but they only really managed that they did because the Implacable's shields were down and they'd breached the reactor (enabling the Corvette to fire up into it) Given the proximity of the ship to the destroyer and the angle, I don't think they could have easily targeted the vessel (and not knowing the power of the proton torpedoes the wraiths were carrying, you can fudge the results a bit. After all, Slave-1 can carry multi-gigaton firepower, why can't an X-wing?

As for the Agonizer incident in Starfighters of Adumar it took sixty fighters (1 B-wing squadron, 1 Y-wing squadron, and 3 "Blade" squadrons) using coordinated, concentrated mass-fire volleys (at least two of them, in fact) to even breach the shields of a Star Destroyer. Initial volleys did little damage, but in the end all they did was drive the ship off with "heavy damage" - and they lost neaerly a third of their fighters doing it, IIRC. That's head and shoulders above anything Stackpole would do

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

I know, but it seems more an excuse to bitch about KJA than a legitimate excuse, no matter how bad he really is.

I have less reason to bitch about KJA than people who've already made the mistake of buying the books. TA is an important criteria in my story-assessing, perhaps too important. But I also assess effort in maintaining various aspects. It is sometimes obvious when the author is simply lazy either in character or technical.

I didn't quite say that. He got some things right, yes, but its not like he actually made explitict firepower figures or anything (He could have just been borrowing the Dankayo incident, or from the ISB for all we know.) But I am willing to acknowledge the fact he *did* do so - few EU authors actually ever referenced the "slagging" stuff.

Well, we could always look low and see Stackpole's kilojoule range lasers.

To borrow your analogy, if we eliminated every EU author on the grounds that they probably didn't do their homework, we would only have fanfic writers, wouldn' t we? Fact probably is that most of the EU that is "consistent" with canon is either blindingly obvious, or purely accidental.

Well, at least they do their WEG homework as I understand it.

Which doesn't bother me. Pellaeon noted that the ship was "As big as the Executor". That sort of overrules the "5 mile" statement, doesn't it? The fact it carries "thousands" of fighters rather than a couple hundred is also telling.

Try this mathematical statement:
We know A = 17.6
We know WEG says A = 8
KJA says B = A = 8. It is obvious who he's trying to follow.

But he's a hypocrite:
We estimate A > 1000
We know WEG says A = 144
KJA says B = A = 1000. He breaks it here.

Getting an answer on a test by luck mans you got points, but it doesn't have anything to do with your ability.

Actually you can probably replace KJA with alot of EU authors by that logic. Doesn't mean I'm not going to willingly acknowledge the things they get right, accidental or otherwise. (What about like, the Dodonna quote with the Essential guides, for example?)

I'm also acknowledging it. Except that I'm going to lambast him of laziness, to an even greater extent than is typical of EU authors.

Which website is that?

I found it.

I don't disagree I can even credit Stackpole with getting the Executor size correct - once, even though he continued to infer that the ship carried only 144 fighters.

Don't be so sure. You don't know that "size = length"

The bit with the Corruptor was worse. The "Lusankya" is somewhat more palatable because we know that the Rogues ordered a substantial number of capital grade launchers - which presumably were fit onto those freighters. (I suspect that Drysso was more afraid of the station's launchers because he figured they were *capital* grade - stations would be big enough to mount such.) I suspect the initial fighter torpedoes were meant more to "illuminate" the target point the missiles were supposed to hit, than anything else.

And to be fair again, Stackpole *did* indicate it would require at least twelve squadrons of X-wings to engage the Lusankya.

144 X-Wings could launch 288 torpedoes per salvo. The Lusankya was recorded in bad shape after only 150. We could say it is a "capital grade" thing, but it is pretty durn obvious Stackpole wasn't thinking about anything like that.

To explain Corrupter, the fighters would also be able to carry capship torpedoes. But then you begin to lose the "capital grade is different" rationalization for the Lusankya episode to explain away the disparity between what the estimates and what happened.

The man can't even keep himself consistent within a fucking PAGE. On P.314, the man reports that the Freedom only has port weapons and starboard weapons are shot. Yonka immediately orders to bring the Destroyed Starboard Weapons to bear. Sigh...

Actually, Agonizer and Master Stroke were BOTH damaged, but Wedge was only commanding 106 fighters total. I guess I could rationalize it away as "capships going after Master Stroke and planes going after Agonizer." One has to admit in any case it was better than Stackpole, but then ANYONE is better than Stackpole when it comes to fighter-wank.

Starfighters of Adumar also has one of the most blatantly obvious cop-outs to save a hero. Tycho and a TIE Defender did a head on head on P.282. Instead of doing something intelligent like using its LASERS to kill Tycho, the TIE Defender chose the ion cannons - thus ensuring Tycho doesn't die. Of course, Wedge figured out how to kill the Defender, and the Defender, costing 300,000 credits and an elite pilot, died in exchange for destroying a single TIE Fighter, costing 60000, and its pilot.

[Master of Ossus]

Yes. I can't say I disliked it - I just found it incredibly boring. I suspect they mostly brought him back due to the fact he wrote Splinter long before SW novelizations became popular, and were hoping that status might be a selling point.

What about KW Jeter? The guy who wrote the Bounty Hunter Trilogy? Did you enjoy that at all? I found it rather enjoyable, and he seems to be underrated as a source for technical consistency.

The Approaching Storm can only be described as a piece of shit produced by a crappy writer. He didn't tell us a story--he told us about the story by explaining endlessly that "Bariss was very by-the-book," or similar. He TOTALLY missed the characters. His in-universe understanding was the worst I've ever seen (ie. Totally untrained, untalented people using the Force for telekinesis), and his writing style sucked unbelievably badly.

As for the Bounty Hunter trilogy, it was pretty good. I only had a few problems with teh books. I wouldn't place him with Zahn and Denning, but he's a strong second-tier SW writer, and he chose an interesting perspective.

Actually I'd put Allston up there too, just for his characterizations (and for the NJO Duology he wrote). And Jeter, and Daley of course. I suppose though in those cases the reasons they are "good" might differ from Zahn, since each tends to write a different "segment" of the Star Wars universe, while Zahn's (while minimlaist) tends to try to emphasize a bigger picture.

I like Zahn, but I also find people tend to overestimate his "take" on Star Wars. I liked the Thrawn Trilogy, but the Hand of Thrawn was something of a disappointment relative to his first three books. I think it had potential, but it just really didn't "go" anywhere. The whole bit with the Hand of Thrawn thing/Disra bit was just a cheap way to "resurrect" Thrawn, and largely a plot device to throw Luke and Mara Jade together (and possibly, to set up the Vong... or not.)

That's true. His duology wasn't as strong as the trilogy, and I was a little disappointed. I still thought they were great works, but you're right in that they missed his previous mark.

[consequences]

The actual wording Stackpole used in the infamous collision incident was 'equivalent' to a truck impacting at 60 kph. Which implies that the bomber was moving at a percentage of its speed equivalent, not actually moving at 60 kph itself. Although, if you consider that a starfighter's max speed is relativistic, this means that he thinks an X-wing's shields can take an ungodly impact and only lose half their strength.

Crix Madine's Death, possibly the most pointless to date in SW, including the stormtroopers who set off a booby trap in Rogue Squadron. When a Fanfic writer gets you to care more about a character in <10 pages than a published author does in 50+, you know something's wrong.

[Rogue 9]

The actual wording Stackpole used in the infamous collision incident was 'equivalent' to a truck impacting at 60 kph. Which implies that the bomber was moving at a percentage of its speed equivalent, not actually moving at 60 kph itself. Although, if you consider that a starfighter's max speed is relativistic, this means that he thinks an X-wing's shields can take an ungodly impact and only lose half their strength.

Well, you ever play the original X-Wing game? One of the fastest ways to kill TIE fighters with a Y-wing in that game is to ram them when they try to head-to-head you in a swarm. I made ace in a single mission that way. *Chuckle* X-wings aren't so tough, but they can take a single TIE ramming on the shields.

I don't know if we can really compare that with canon. Did a TIE fighter ever collide with a Rebel starfighter in the movies? At least one that wasn't already shot up? If one did, I missed it.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Aragorn died of natural causes (old age) about forty years after the War of the Ring. It wasn't part of the main story text, put in the Appendicies, so it doesn't count.

How did you come by that number? The War of the Ring ended in the year 3019 of the Third age, Aragorn died in the year 120 of the Fourth Age, almost 123 years after the War of the Ring had ended.

It's simple, really.

I just fucked up.