Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Frigates In A Star Wars Novel..

A Frigate is a type of warship. It is also an ubiquitous word applied by authors of Star Wars tie-in novels...I don't believe this word has ever been spoken by any of the characters in the Star Wars films. While it is an accurate word to use...it doesn't sound like the language of characters from the movies..Star Wars characters travel in "ships" and "shuttles" or "shuttlecraft" and "vessels" - not frigates.

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When the books I own don't send me, I try to figure out what happened. Kevin Hearne's Star Wars: Heir To The Jedi has an interesting narrative hook - an adventure told in the first person by Luke Skywalker - but I didn't believe for a second that Luke would use the word "frigate" at all..he never used that word in the films, why the change? It's strange storytelling hiccups like that which make it feel like I'm reading something that was cranked out under a deadline, as opposed to something with more care, but sci-fi and fantasy novels are not often known for conscientious craftsmanship, they're more about concepts. This is actually the 2nd SW novel ever to try 1st-person narration  ( I, Jedi by Michael Stackpole was the other ), so there's a painful lack of innovation. What's worse is that Luke is separated from the core SW supporting cast, so Hearne has no one for Luke to play off from the films; if the "payoff" was to show how Luke learned telekinesis  ( pulling his lightsaber out of the snow as he did during The Empire Strikes Back - one of the neat tricks he accomplishes in the series, mostly overshadowed by the popularity of Han Solo's swagger ), then it's a very myopic payoff.

There are nice moments, though, so, yes, I can offer a good quote.

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