Pulp of the Week - Death Star

Japanese Book Cover that I like better as it highlights main characters.

Death Star
by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry - 2007

Death Star takes place in the moments just before and during the events of the original Star Wars - you know, the real one where Luke blows up the Death Star with a proton torpedo shot through a tiny vent the size of a womp rat.

What is interesting about this story is that the heroes of the original story are only minor characters here. The Imperial characters are the leads, especially Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader. Leia is also featured.

One of the unique features of the book is that in each of the first twenty chapters a new character is introduced. These include (in no particular order) a bar owner, her bouncer, a prison guard, an architect, a smuggler, a librarian, an ace TIE Fighter pilot, a doctor, and the Superlaser trigger-man.

The tales follows the construction of the Death Star and follows through its life and death. I appreciated that the events of the original movie are not retold (mostly). The book sees those events through other eyes, and shows the effects of them on the characters. I liked the second half of the book far better than the first, but it is tough introducing that many characters without just having a lot of exposition. Once everyone is in place, the story hauls ass.

As I was reading, I first thought the book would be the story of the creation of the Deathstar, but it went farther that that and the characters were forced to consider their part in the war and the in the Empire and make some tough choices. If the authors, Reaves and Perry, had faltered here, the book would have been a bit of a dud. However, as the stakes grew higher, and the choices tougher, the book got better and better.

Grand Moff Tarkin is a strong presence throughout the story and he is written as a ruthless, driven man. Human, but heartless (almost) and played well. Tarkin is somewhat irritated by the presence of the Emperor's domineering foot soldier, Vader. But Tarkin is believable and well written. However, as with Vader, our sense memory of the film's classic performances by James Earl Jones, David Prowse, and Peter Cushing (?) help enormously with the characterizations. Especially Tarkin, who is given some backstory and relationships that are new (to me, anyway.)

This book takes place after Death Troopers and before (and during) Star Wars (the one you younger folks call A New Hope. To me it will always be Star Wars.) I would give Death Star a 7, but the last third gets an 8.5. This is a fun read.

There was one boneheaded reference in the book where there is a blaster battle in a Death Star corridor and reference is made to the walls and floor being coated with a substance that prevents blaster fire from going through to other levels. I think the Empire might have won the war had they used this coating on their storm trooper armor...

For this review I read the hardcover novel from the Burbank Public Library. I'll give Death Star a 7.5 out of 10 for the weird every chapter is a new character for the first half of the book, but an 8.5 overall. This was a fun read and I'll be reading more Star Wars novels.

X-Wing Miniatures Game - Expansion Set 1

Fantasy Flight released the first wave of expansions for X-Wing simultaneously with the starter set. While two of the models are also in the starter set, all of the cards are new, so that means that there are lots of new pilots and upgrades!

The Big Gun in Wave 1 is the big man himself, the

Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader flying in his TIE Advanced X1.

The other new ship in this wave is the Y-Wing.

Yes, we get Dutch, but no Porkins. Somebody start an internet petition...

 

The expansion versions of the X-Wing and the TIE Fighter include 

new upgrades and pilots. Wedge is the big name here.

 The TIE pack includes 6 new pilots, with 3 unique ones...

 There is a lot of stuff included, and many hours of gaming ahead to figure out good combos of ships, pilots, and upgrades. And we are supposed to have Wave 2 by Christmas. Here's a few action shots to whet your appetite for more Star Wars...

 So get out there and get gaming!

X-Wing Is Here

The Star Wars X-WING Miniature Game from Fantasy Flight Games is at stores now (including Target). It is a fighter on fighter game quite similar to the popular Wings of Glory (formerly called Wings of War and formerly sold by Fantasy Flight...)

As you can see, the game comes with three ships, one X-Wing and two TIE fighters. The miniatures are fantastic. I was looking forward to this game, so I prepared a play mat as it comes with no board (you can play it right on the tabletop.) The box is small - 10x10x2 inches.

I found this great piece of Death Star art online and stitched a whole mess together in Photoshop. These Death Star Greebles are by Jedilaw. The graphics can be found here.


Back to the game... Let's see what is in the small box. Open it up and there are the thick cardstock tokens.

 
 Beneath that is the new FFG catalog.

Next is an ad for the single ship expansions and a quick play rules sheet. (Skip this if you have ever played a game more complicated that Risk.)

 

 Then the full rules. A .pdf of these and video tutorials are available at FFG here. The videos make it really easy to learn the basics.

Finally there are the special dice and the Damage, Pilot, and Upgrade cards. FFG has taken some flak for only including 3 of each kind of die when there are times when you need to roll 4. Strangely, FFG is offering a separate dice pack and a $5 app for dice rolling for their Star Wars games.

 Then there are the ships, the beautiful ships. With this starter you get 2 TIEs and 1 X-Wing. Luke Skywalker is one of the pilots, but since Darth Vader pilots a TIE Advanced, he is not one of the pilots in this game. Vader is one of the pilot cards in the TIE Advanced expansion pack.

The four sheets of tokens include asteroids and a shuttle to use in scenarios along with tokens for Target Lock, Critical Hits, Shields, etc. The Maneuver Dials have been punched out of the sheets below. Also on the sheets are Maneuver templates. These are cardboard sticks that measure the different movement choices the ships have.

Here are the Maneuver Dials. Each player chooses a move for each of their ships and then reveal it when it is their turn. FFG thoughtfully provided an extra set of the plastic pieces that holds the dial parts together.

Here is all the stuff in the box.

Oh, yeah... Did I say the model ships are pretty??? The ships are 1/270th scale and all the ships made for the game will be accurate to this scale.

For components quality and what you get in the box, I am satisfied. The models are very nice and compare well in cost and quality to Wings of Glory.

I would like more of the clear pegs to have more variety of elevations on the table, but that is a minor quibble. Someone will make them if FFG doensn't.

Next I will do an overview of the expansion packs...

Pulp of the Week - Death Troopers

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Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber

Death Troopers is the first Star War novel I was drawn to since Timothy Zahn's original Thrawn Trilogy. Zombies in the Star Wars Universe? I'm in. As it happens, this book takes place shortly before the events of A New Hope.

Schreiber's novel follows two teen-age brothers, Kale and Trig Longo, survivors and grifters that are prisoners aboard the Imperial Prison Barge, Purge. They are headed for some remote prison planet. Their father died earlier in the journey. The boys survive alone.

When the huge engines come to a stop, the routine is broken, and Zahara Cody, the chief medical officer of the ship, has no idea how important her role is about to become. The ship drops out of hyperspace and needs repairs. Fortunately, there is an Imperial Star Destroyer in range. The Purge docks with it and that's when the trouble starts. Zombies. Lots of them.

Somehow Zahara and the Longo brothers get to the Star Destroyer and find help from an unlikely source, although one that has been known to have to deal with Imperial entanglements.

There is a lot of death, carnage and gore with a shipload of Imperial Storm Troopers and the zombie virus spreading fast. Can the Longo boys escape the duel ship death trap and the Death Troopers?
That would be telling.

I will say that the novel is full of surprises and that the writer, Joe Schreiber, keeps the pace deadly and the tension relentless. I would recommend this book to Star Wars fans, zombie fans, and horror fans. There. Did I leave anybody out?

I'll give Death Troopers and 8.5 out of 10. 

Comic-Con 2009 - Costumes

One of the awesome things about Comic-Con is the startling number of high quality costumes wandering around the convention hall floor. Fifteen years ago it was half Star Wars and half Star Trek. But back then the Con was dominated by men. Now, the gender is split about half and half, and the Star Trek costumes are few and far between. But, I bet that will change next year.

This year Steam Punk was on the rise and the costumes are of a wider range of themes than ever. Feast your eyes on some of the brilliant work by talented and brave (or brazen) individuals.