New Testingstan

The purpose of this thread is to wade through the sea of mediocrity and pick out the few gems from licensed fiction like the Star Wars Expanded Universe, or WH40K. Games, Comics, Books, whatever. If you think it's good, recommend it to others and explain why.

I'll start it off with Aaron Alliston's Wraith Squadron series. Alliston is probably my favorite EU writer. His character work, battle scenes, and humor are second to none. The Wraith Squadron series is notable for having it's own characters with their own well done story arcs that would still be entertaining even without the SW logo on it. There are appearances from movie characters, and Wedge plays a key role, but he was honestly pretty flat in the X-wing series before Alliston fleshed him out. Note: While the previous wraith squadron series was excellent, the new book coming out will be burdened with being set in the latest cash-cow book ark, Legacy of the Force. This series was not well done, and it's setting is one of the worst in all of SW. Even alliston's writing and the Wraith's usual antics might not be able to save it from the shit heap. I'll know as soon as I pick it up and let you know if it's worth reading.

Another decent writer is Matthew Stover. I wholeheartedly recomend his EpIII novelization, as well as Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. The EpIII book captures the emotions and interactions of the characters far better than the film, and Shadows of Mindor is an excellent adventure serial about Luke's brief time as a general in the New Republic military, as well as the bloodshed that caused him to leave the military life and devote himself to the Jedi.

From WH40K's Black Library :

You can't go wrong with the Commissar Cain series of novels. It's well written (or at least the french translation is ), the characters are more than one-dimensional, and the action is fun and not milwanked.

Yub yub commander

Warcraft novelizations ?

Oxymoron wrote:Warcraft novelizations ?

Erm. Not the ones I read. Sure, I liked them when I was younger, but I don't think there's really much substance to them. Mind you I haven't read any of the newer ones so they might be better.

Yeah, no, I meant to reply to Veef :

Veef wrote:Yub yub commander

It reminded me of what the peons says in Warcraft II when you select them ("Zog-zog"). To be honest I've never read any licensed Warcraft material, and my knowledge of the games' universe is very sparse.

In fact, the only licensed novels I have ever read were the WH40K ones, and I've only read the first book of the G(h?)aunt series, the three first of the Cain series, and the first Horus Heresy book ; and then the Cain ones are by far my preferred of the bunch, as they contain just the right mix of silly and serious for my tastes.

Cain series
The Last Chancers
Eisenhorn
Space Wolf series

Those are all good 40K stuff, and combine sillyness with grimdark, though the Last Chancers is more grim then silly.

Is the Eisenhorn omnibus still in print? I can't find it at any of my local bookstores.

I think?

Check amazon/chapters or ask the staff.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Cain books at first; they're essentially "What would happen if Blackadder and Baldrick were 40K characters?" but honestly I would only reccomend the first omnibus. They get boring pretty quickly; the third book was yawn-o-rama and I struggled to get through the second omnibus. The audiodrama, Dead in the Water is worth a listen though; the guy they got for Cain is an excellent fit for the role.

I also probably recommend the Ravenor trilogy over the Eisenhorn one. Eisenhorn is a good entry for 40K but is mostly just three barely-connected stories with a shared cast rather than an actual trilogy with a persistent story like Ravenor.

Also, Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lords books are great fun. The viewpoint being from traitor marines rather than chaos marines adds a nice twist and there's a fun few bits where the books poke fun at some 40K conceits and clichés.

Graham McNeil is normally a good read too; while not all his books are a hit (Outcast Dead, for example, was a jumbled mess) at the very least he tries to do something interesting with stuff that's usually overlooked. Also Fulgrim is pretty much my favourite 40K book.

Darksi4190 wrote:Another decent writer is Matthew Stover. I wholeheartedly recomend his EpIII novelization, as well as Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. The EpIII book captures the emotions and interactions of the characters far better than the film, and Shadows of Mindor is an excellent adventure serial about Luke's brief time as a general in the New Republic military, as well as the bloodshed that caused him to leave the military life and devote himself to the Jedi.

Stover's Episode III novelisation wasn't just a good Star Wars novel, it was a genuinely good sci-fi book in it's own right.

Also if you're going to read the Ravenor books make sure you get the edition that includes Thorn Wishes Talon, the short story between the first and second books. It's great fun and adds some important context for the second and third books.

Black Library have also recently done an audio drama of it which is well worth a listen even if you've read the story. The two other stories with it aren't particularly interesting unless you fucking love Eisenhorn and really want two pointless goes-nowhere-does-nothing distractions.

My issue with Ravenor is it seemed Abnett couldn't decide whether to do a story about his band or the inquisitor and mashed the concepts.

I wish he would do a book about Nayl though.

Another EU book I just remembered is Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. You get to see Vader establish himself as the big bad he is in ANH, and there's great insight into his character.

Oxymoron wrote:It reminded me of what the peons says in Warcraft II when you select them ("Zog-zog"). To be honest I've never read any licensed Warcraft material, and my knowledge of the games' universe is very sparse.

Any licensed Blizzard IP's EU is a pile of shit, even more so than most other EU stuff.

Darksi4190 wrote: Another decent writer is Matthew Stover. I wholeheartedly recomend his EpIII novelization, as well as Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. The EpIII book captures the emotions and interactions of the characters far better than the film, and Shadows of Mindor is an excellent adventure serial about Luke's brief time as a general in the New Republic military, as well as the bloodshed that caused him to leave the military life and devote himself to the Jedi.

Downside to Stover is if you've read one book, you've read them all.

Manus Dei wrote:*snip*

lol. I know the title is shopped but that cover actually looks real. I wonder what book it's from.

Darksi4190 wrote:

Manus Dei wrote:*snip*

lol. I know the title is shopped but that cover actually looks real. I wonder what book it's from.

It's the original cover to Ghostmaker, I believe. I actually own that version, too. It reminds me of the kinds of covers all Sci-Fi books had when I was a kid.

I think BL really changed their game with respect to book covers sometime around 2005 or 2006. Some of the artwork published before that was hilarious, like the old Gotrek and Felix books.

Best and most unexpected Doctor Who/Blake's 7 EU: the Kaldor City audio dramas.

CAAAAAARHNELLL

F.J. Prefect, Esq wrote:Best and most unexpected Doctor Who/Blake's 7 EU: the Kaldor City audio dramas.

Never heard of it.

Care to elaborate?

Darksi4190 wrote:

F.J. Prefect, Esq wrote:Best and most unexpected Doctor Who/Blake's 7 EU: the Kaldor City audio dramas.

Never heard of it.

Care to elaborate?

literally the first result on google

It's something that should be awful fanservice stupidity but is actually kind of cool

Nietzslime wrote: literally the first result on google

i got this on shitgle as the first result
http://torrentz.eu/9b4dc7249c65175401fe ... 193df27f01


google results change based on their vast corporate database of personal information

I'm torn about something.

I've been going back and re-watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and there are several episodes that I actually think are very good, but I know a lot of people don't care for the style of it (which does have legitimate problems) so I'm not sure if i'd actually recommend them to anyone.