Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn - Book Review #277

I love Star Wars.  I love heists.  Put them together and you get Han and Chewie putting a team together to rob a Black Sun crime boss.  Nothing to it.

This story takes place shortly after the events of A New Hope, where Han has lost his reward from the Alliance and he has to make it up to pay his debt to Jabba.

I can't say enough about the talents of Marc Thompson, who narrated the book.  His abilities to create character voices was as if an entire cast was making the production.  It really felt like an episode of the movies.

That said Timothy Zahn sometimes went over the top in putting obstacles in the way of the terrific team of specialists Han gathered to do the job.  The safe they had to crack was so elaborate that I completely lost my interest in it.

All-in-all it was an entertaining story if a bit long, I loved how Zahn tied in events of the past with hints of the future.  He also created characters that I wound up caring about and look forward to reading about in the future.


The book is certainly set up for a sequel.

Lots of fun.

Timothy Zahn's ISFDB page - http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Timothy_Zahn

Timothy Zahn

Star Wars: Aftermath, Book One by Chuck Wendig - Book Report #230

This is an interesting series.  In the run up to the much-anticipated release of the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens Chuck Wendig wrote a trilogy that bridges the time between since Return of the Jedi.  32 years is a lot of time to play with.

The only downside to the story is the filler.  There are so many action sequences, that felt unnecessary, it quickly became boring.

But it was the narration, done by Mark Thompson, that kept the story lively.  He is a terrific voice actor with a complete command of accents.  This was impressive considering how many characters the author used.

It should also be said that the music and sound effects were amazing.  It was a complete experience.  It is unusual to hear a full audio drama.

There was a lot of exposition to cover, but since the leadership of the Empire is dead, Wendig chose to focus on one splinter group which control three capital ships.  During a secret meeting with this group of Empeirals an unlikely group of people come together to thwart their plans.

I loved the formation of that rebel team.

Chuck Wendig's website:  http://terribleminds.com/ramble/

Chuck Wendig