Author: Jay Shah

Jason Fry in Three Dimensions, Part Two

Posted on May 4, 2015by Interviews

sote-ritrContinued from Part One, where we discussed the Rebels timeline and Zare Leonis’s speculated connections to The Force Awakens.

Speaking of The Force Awakens again, I was just at the panel for that yesterday morning, and Kathleen Kennedy made a comment about how the new Star Wars is gonna be more inclusive for the fandom…have more recognition for female fans, starting with the films. What do you think the chances of that being reflected in the new novels are? We have characters like Merei of course, and we have Sabine and Hera from Rebels. Is there gonna be time to have—and Merei had a joint point-of-view with Zare in your second novel—is there gonna be a chance to have a female-led Star Wars young adult novel, or adult novel in the future?

Um…there’s nothing in my work that addresses that, that I have in the works, but yeah. I think that’s definitely happening, and I think it’s gonna be wonderful when it happens, and I bet it would happen very soon. I don’t know any secrets, but like you, I can see that yes, as Kennedy said, Star Wars has made, I think, a huge jump in that realm. And it’s great, because one thing you see at a convention like this, you see talking to fans, is that Star Wars really does lead the way people think about things, and that’s wonderful. Read More

Jason Fry in Three Dimensions, Part One

Posted on May 1, 2015by Interviews

jasonjay

While the profilic author-of-all-trades (wait, does that make sense?) Jason Fry has been kind enough to grant Eleven-ThirtyEight extended interviews twice a year since the inception of the site, this, our fourth go-round with Fry, has the fun distinction of being our first in-person interview. And by “our”, I mean the perpetually-pluralized Jay Shah’s, who was able to grab some time with Fry at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim a couple weeks ago.

This is also the first time I’ve had to transcribe audio for something like this, which was an interesting new experience for me: trying to remain true to the essence of a statement without including all the “ums” and “y’knows” was a fun challenge, and hopefully I’ve managed to represent both parties well without putting words in their mouths. So with that (and a reminder that this is only part one—much more will be coming on Monday), I’ll turn it over to Jay. – Mike Read More

Rebel in the Ranks – Among the Best Novels in the New Canon

Posted on April 13, 2015by

sote-ritrJason Fry’s second entry in the Servants of the Empire young adult novel series takes place concurrently with the Rebels season one episode “Breaking Ranks” and his two books arguably do more to develop Lothal as an interesting place than an entire season of the still-excellent show has managed to do. If you’re still worried about the “young adult” part of that sentence, read our review of the first book in the series and have all your concerns allayed. Fry’s second book in the series continues to provide adult-like depth to the setting explored in the television show, but it also works really well as a YA novel that we would have really liked to read when we were younger.

While the first book in the series introduced the characters and the setting, this book builds on it while changing the tone enough that it doesn’t read like just a follow-up story. The first book featured themes of colonialism and adolescent sports drama that related to each other in surprising ways. By Rebel in the Ranks, the main characters have moved on to different things and the style of the storytelling changes accordingly. Yes, there are two main point of view characters now: Zare Leonis returns as a newly-minted cadet at Lothal’s Imperial Academy, while Merei Spanjaf’s role expands as we see her various undercover attempts to help Zare find out about his sister’s fate. The two characters’ different narrative arcs – and the contrast with the themes explored in the first novel – constitute the true meat of the novel, though part of the novel also overlaps with the story of “Breaking Ranks.”

Though we’re not a huge fan of novelizing television show episodes, Fry does it pretty well: the story of the novel does not play second-fiddle to the television episode, and actually serves to make the action in the episode seem a lot more interesting. As we said in our previous review, the Servants of the Empire books should be essential reading for any fan of the Rebels television show. We can now add an additional recommendation: it’s good reading for any young Star Wars fan not only because the readers might identify with the characters, but also because the audience might learn to relate to people they’ve never identified with before. It’s a book about camaraderie and teamwork, and those themes carry through from the book’s dedication to the very end. Merei Spanjaf, in particular, is a great female role model and Disney should pay attention to her!

Read More

The Bantha in the Fridge: Our Reactions to Heir to the Jedi and You-Know-What

Posted on March 27, 2015by , , and Aggressive Negotiations

nakariIf you’re new-ish to Eleven-ThirtyEight, this may be your first exposure to Aggressive Negotiations, our occasional chat-session format. Aggressive Negotiations are just that; fast-paced, live discussions among members of the ETE staff (and others), often focused on hot-button topics like the earliest previews of Star Wars Rebels or Dark Horse Comics losing the Star Wars license. This time around the gang got together to dish on Heir to the Jedi, in particular the big spoiler at the end of the book—so consider this your warning on that score. Remember, this format is about fandom at its most raw; no censorship, no second-guessing, and a bare minimum of copy-editing. Cheers! – Mike

*     *     *     *     *

Jay: hello folks

Lisa: hey

Jay: I can’t stay too long, so hopefully Ben arrives shortly

Lisa: he’s got 10 minutes

Lisa: :p

Jay: yeah

David: here i am as well

David: all fresh and clean

Lisa: so fresh and so clean

Lisa: Did you like the book?

Lisa: I think we need Ben cuz I’m pretty sure he hated it

Jay: eh. It was a real struggle to even read it

Lisa: really? That’s interesting

David: I actually hated it, so I might fill that role :p

Lisa: perfect Read More

Where there’s Smoke: The End of the Beginning

Posted on March 6, 2015by and

rr-groupshot

Ben: When Star Wars Rebels started, we were privy to a very small knot of rebellious souls. A former Jedi turned drunken gunslinger, a Lasat with a chip on his shoulder and temper to match, a Mandalorian who loved to paint as much as fight, a street-rat orphan who stole for a living and a cranky patchwork astromech droid, all held together by a Twi’lek pilot who kept them pointed at the Empire instead of each other. The season went on; we got to see more of their personalities and hints of backstory, and caught occasional glimpses of a wider picture, of a bigger plan than just the group on Lothal. It wasn’t until the finale of the first season, however, that we finally saw what that meant.

We had hints from the beginning that the Lothal rebellion was just one of many in existence. Agent Kallus’ report to the Inquisitor at the end of the show’s pilot told us as much. The segmentation of the organization, keeping each cell separate with as little knowledge as possible of the others, is intelligent strategy taken from real-life resistance groups, such as the French Resistance in World War II. You cannot betray what you do not know. While Lothal seems a rather unimportant backwater world, the Empire is there, and that is (seemingly) enough for Hera. But this would be far from a normal cell, and their impact would be far larger than Hera would ever have guessed at the beginning. Read More