Archive for the ‘Kirtan Loor’ Category

Spoiler conscious review of X-Wing: The Krytos Trap

Novels or Series Mentioned

X-Wing: The Krytos Trap

X-Wing: Rogue Squadron

X-Wing: Wedge’s Gamble

X-Wing Series

Shawdows of the Empire

            Even though I am mindful not to spoil this book for you, any review will reveal some things regarding the book, but I hope this review will excite you enough to go and read it, instead of ruin the story for you.

I have never been one to plan my week around a television show.  That is not to mean that there are not shows I love.  I called my best friend Boner just so I could be more like Mike Seaver, but if I was busy hanging out with friends, or out golfing,  or chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool, and shooting some b-ball outside my school, I did not watch my watch to run home to catch a TV show.  That all changed when in high school I discovered The Practice.  I loved this legal drama.  I don’t know what it was about this show.  I never wanted to be a lawyer, and other than trying to find ways out of speeding tickets, I am not even that interested in law.  My love for legal shows continued when I followed Alan Shore from The Practice to Boston Legal.  Just a side note if you have not watched Boston Legal, you are missing the greatest television show in the history of the known universe.  All you need to know about Boston Legal is Denny Crane.  He makes the show magical.  Also, there are only two movies I must watch if they come on TV even though I have seen both hundreds of times, and they are the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and A Few Good Men.   I tell you of my love for legal dramas and legal comedies for one reason, and that is to explain to you why I loved X-Wing: The Krytos Trap. 

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Spoiler Conscious Review of X-Wing Wedge’s Gamble by Michael A. Stackpole

Novels or Series Mentioned

X-Wing Wedge’s Gamble

X-Wing Rogue Squadron

X-Wing Series

            This review will be spoiler conscious.  Although you can’t do a review without mentioning some aspects of the story, I will be thoughtful as to not ruin this book for you.

In X-Wing Wedge’s Gamble, you have a story of a team that does one thing so well, but in this book, the same team does something completely different.  In X-Wing Rogue Squadron, Rogue Squadron does one thing great fly missions.  The wall to wall action in the space battles is what made X-Wing Rogue Squadron such a great read.  Well, in X-Wing Wedge’s Gamble, Stackpole definitely gambles by taking Rogue Squadron out of their element where they excelled and placed them in a completely different one.  It reminds me of Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan where both athletes left the sport in which they highly succeeded and took a chance in another arena.    

If you are my age, you will remember Bo Jackson in all of his glory.  He signed to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals in 1986 and became a starting outfielder for them in 1987, and wowed us all with his sheer athleticism.  I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to run a semi-circle up and down and wall like he did when making a catch in the outfield…just to let you know I couldn’t do it.  Bo was amazing.  Then in 1987, Bo does the unthinkable.  He signed with the L.A. Raiders to play football, and he was unbelievable in that sport too.  He flat out embarrassed bold talker Brian Boworth by running around, away, and just plain over him on a Monday Night Football game in 1987.  Watching Bo Jackson do two sports so well is still an achievement I am glad I got to witness. 

            If you are my age, you will also remember Michael Jordan quitting basketball because he had nothing left to accomplish and put his effort in becoming a Major League Baseball player.  Unlike Bo, this switch was painful to watch.  Jordan just looked awkward and strange in a baseball uniform, and although Jordan was a better baseball player than I ever was, you just wanted him to go back to baseball because watching someone who is so great at one thing flounder in another was painful. 

The question becomes will X-Wing Wedge’s Gamble be a Bo Jackson and succeed in their second element and be great, or will they be a Michael Jordan and need to return to where they are comfortable?  

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Spoiler Conscious Book Review of X-Wing Rogue Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole

Books or Series Mentioned

X-Wing Rogue Squadron

X-Wing Series

New Jedi Order

This review will be spoiler conscious.  Although you can’t do a review without mentioning some aspects of the story, I will be thoughtful as to not ruin this book for you. 

It has taken me a while to begin the X-Wing series.  Even though I know the significance of this series because it introduces several key characters and back story, when standing in the book store, I still chose other books over this series.  Even though I know Michael A. Stackpole is one of the best Star Wars authors out there, I still chose other books over this series for one reason…the hardest thing for a writer to write is a space battle.  How many times have you read a maneuver described in a space battle and thought, “what did the pilot just do?”  Space battles are tough to write because I, and most readers, have never experience space flight to connect these maneuvers to pictures in our mind.  I end up reading space battles for the facts of: who shot who down, who won the battle, and who survived, but rarely do I get caught up in reading a space battle and the description is so clear that I can see the battle in my mind.  Again, I do not fault writers for this, but my lack of knowledge of space maneuvering in a space craft.  This difficulty has always caused me to pause in buying the X-Wing series because it focuses on space battles, but thankfully, my wife for my birthday bought me X-Wing Rogue Squadron, which then sat on my shelf until I finished about a dozen other books, but I finally read it, and I was glad that I did.

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