Books That Made Me Cry - Star Wars: X-Wing 6 - Iron Fist
All right, Hypothetical Reader, you may have noticed that I still haven't figured out what to put on here between the weekly review/article. Here's one idea, I could take what might otherwise be a listicle and turn it into a series of shorter blog posts? Clever way to spread out content? Or cheap shortcut? You decide.
Books can affect you in any number of ways. Sometimes they introduce you to new ideas and make your world bigger. Sometimes they speak to something deep inside you and make you feel like someone else understands. Sometimes they just wrench your guts out and send a cascade of hot tears down your face and make you wish you hadn't started reading that chapter on the bus.
We'll start with perhaps the most embarrassing one:
Star Wars: X-Wing 6 - Iron Fist by Aaron Allston
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
When'd I read it?: I want to say maybe summer or spring break in 9th or 10th grade.
What's it about?: Sixth in the X-Wing ennealogy (second in the Wraith Squadron thrillogy within said ennealogy), Iron Fist relates the continuing adventures of a commando/fighter pilot squadron led by Original Trilogy also-ran Wedge Antilles. In this installment, Wraith Squadron goes undercover as pirates (I think, it's been awhile) to take on former Imperial officer Warlord Zsinj as he tries carve an empire for himself out of what's left of the . . . Empire. Anyway, the Wraith Squadron books are actually kind of a hoot, and manage to make Zsinj (the rarely seen, bumbling villain of The Courtship of Princess Leia (look, the old EU was trying, dammit!)) into a menacing figure.
Why'd I cry?: You may be unsurprised to learn that as a teenager I strongly identified with lovelorn, sarcastic misanthrope Ton Phanan. A former physican with a bacta allergy, Phanan was the team's medic, and also a cyborg. So you know, pretty cool all around. Anyway, he gets a big melodramatic death scene where he dies in the arms (I think, it's been a while) of his best bud Garik "Face" Loran (If you want to know, Face was a former child actor known for his work in Imperial propaganda holos). Later, Face reads Phanan's goodbye letter (which he wrote while dying). I can't remember if it was the death or the letter or both that made me full-on ugly cry. In any case, I admit without shame (well, with maybe a tiny bit of shame) that a Star Wars novel made me cry.
Would it make me cry again if I re-read the book now?: I'm not sure, the only X-Wing book to survive my bookshelf purges was #9 The Starfighters of Adumar (A book which answers the question: What if Alexandre Dumas wrote a Star Wars tie-in novel?), and I'm not willing to buy it again just to find out. So, maybe?
Links:
Apparently I was wrong, X-Wing is a decalogy.
Books can affect you in any number of ways. Sometimes they introduce you to new ideas and make your world bigger. Sometimes they speak to something deep inside you and make you feel like someone else understands. Sometimes they just wrench your guts out and send a cascade of hot tears down your face and make you wish you hadn't started reading that chapter on the bus.
We'll start with perhaps the most embarrassing one:
Star Wars: X-Wing 6 - Iron Fist by Aaron Allston
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
When'd I read it?: I want to say maybe summer or spring break in 9th or 10th grade.
What's it about?: Sixth in the X-Wing ennealogy (second in the Wraith Squadron thrillogy within said ennealogy), Iron Fist relates the continuing adventures of a commando/fighter pilot squadron led by Original Trilogy also-ran Wedge Antilles. In this installment, Wraith Squadron goes undercover as pirates (I think, it's been awhile) to take on former Imperial officer Warlord Zsinj as he tries carve an empire for himself out of what's left of the . . . Empire. Anyway, the Wraith Squadron books are actually kind of a hoot, and manage to make Zsinj (the rarely seen, bumbling villain of The Courtship of Princess Leia (look, the old EU was trying, dammit!)) into a menacing figure.
Why'd I cry?: You may be unsurprised to learn that as a teenager I strongly identified with lovelorn, sarcastic misanthrope Ton Phanan. A former physican with a bacta allergy, Phanan was the team's medic, and also a cyborg. So you know, pretty cool all around. Anyway, he gets a big melodramatic death scene where he dies in the arms (I think, it's been a while) of his best bud Garik "Face" Loran (If you want to know, Face was a former child actor known for his work in Imperial propaganda holos). Later, Face reads Phanan's goodbye letter (which he wrote while dying). I can't remember if it was the death or the letter or both that made me full-on ugly cry. In any case, I admit without shame (well, with maybe a tiny bit of shame) that a Star Wars novel made me cry.
Would it make me cry again if I re-read the book now?: I'm not sure, the only X-Wing book to survive my bookshelf purges was #9 The Starfighters of Adumar (A book which answers the question: What if Alexandre Dumas wrote a Star Wars tie-in novel?), and I'm not willing to buy it again just to find out. So, maybe?
Links:
Apparently I was wrong, X-Wing is a decalogy.
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