The Bacta War by Michael A. Stackpole (X-Wing Series, Book 4)

Young Gavin Darklighter

   Gavin came in through the doorway and paused in the foyer near the droid detection unit. He twisted left and right, shaking a cloud of Tatooine's fine dust from his tan cloak. Beneath it he wore what was once a white shirt, a black vest, dark brown pants, and knee-high boots. Around his middle he had strapped on a blaster and had tied the lower end of the holster around his right thigh.
   "Looks the fair pirate, our friend." Mirax raised a hand. "Gavin, over here."
   Corran agreed with Mirax's assessment, though Gavin's sloppy grin kind of marred the image. 

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I'll be doing a lot of traveling in June, so I'm going to go on hiatus with this blog for the next month or so.

The Krytos Trap by Michael A. Stackpole (X-Wing Series, Book 3)

Qlaen Hirf, a Vratix, talks to Wedge and Mirax

  While I'd love to illustrate some the lovely space battles featuring the ships for which this series is named... well, I didn't. Instead, here, have an insectoid alien!

Oooh, here, also have a lovely little world-building quote (I eat this stuff up!):

 Mirax reached out and brushed a hand over the flesh of Qlaern's right foreknee. "The Vratix find both sound and vision to be deceptive senses. As Qlaern reports it, both sight and sound are things that are of the past the moment you perceive them. Only touch reports information that is concurrent with the gathering."

Wedge's Gamble by Michael A. Stackpole (X-Wing Series, Book 2)

Today I give you... wilder-nerfs! Which, to be honest, has very, very little to do with this book, except for one brief mention: "Wedge smiled as he watched a herd of wilder-nerfs spread out over a far hill like an inky black stain on the golden carpet." Do nerfs have any significance to the story? No, not really. Why did I choose to sketch them? Because... nerfs! Why would I not want to draw them?

3D! -- The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn

As another brief change of scene from the standard sketches-from-books, today I offer you a rough clay maquette of a book character -- Ixil (plus one of his outrider ferrets, Pax) from Timothy Zahn's The Icarus Hunt. 

The Icarus Hunt is one of my all-time-favorite books. You can bet that eventually I'll make a post with sketches from it!

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Princess Academy, Book 1)

   My brother took one look at this book and made a dismissive comment, something along the lines of "That is definitely not my kind of book."

  I laughed, because it does look pretty silly on the surface, but it's actually surprisingly engaging. In all fairness, he's probably right about it not being his kind of book. However, I found that despite my own doubts as to whether or not it would be my kind of book... I enjoyed it, and am interested in reading the next in the series.

  Sure, it's a book about a "princess academy", but it's also a book by SHANNON HALE, so who cares if the premise sounds silly?

The final exam

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AfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSesothoSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduUzbekVietnameseWelshYiddishYorubaZulu

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The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers

Luke tries to teach Eppie Belden how to heal her own mind

The Ties That Bind by Jude Watson (Jedi Apprentice Series, Book 14)

  Qui-Gon reached inside the pocket of his robe. "And he reminded me of something important."
  "A clue?"
  He handed Obi-Wan a pastry he had plucked from Manex's tray on the way out. "Even in the middle of a mission, don't neglect to taste the pastries."

The Dangerous Rescue by Jude Watson (Jedi Apprentice Series, Book 13)

 
  The worker shifted her feet. She was constantly moving as Obi-Wan asked her questions. And she seemed so nervous. "No, but they had to file a flight plan." Gazing at Obi-wan, she wiggled her foot.
  Obi-Wan noticed the movement and looked down. A small hand was curled around the worker's ankle.


 


  "That's my boy, Ned," she said in a whisper. "Please don't report me. I had to bring him to work this week. My mother is ill and she's the one who takes care of him."

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

Monsieur Cocq de Noir, Maria, and Wrolf in the pine-woods

. . . And then it seemed as though the light were taking form.
  It was still light, but within the light there were shapes moving that were made of yet brighter light; and the shapes were those of hundreds of galloping white horses with flowing manes and poised curved necks like the necks of the chessmen in the parlour, and bodies whose speed was the speed of light and whose substance seemed no more solid than that of a rainbow; and yet one could see their outline clear-cut against the night-dark background of the trees . . . They were the sea-horses galloping inland, as Old Parson had told Maria that they did, in that joyful earth-scamper of theirs that ushered in the dawn.

The Evil Experiment by Jude Watson (Jedi Apprentice Series, Book 12)

 "How dare you question me!" Captain Yur T'aug sprang to his feet and stalked toward Obi-Wan and Astri. He came within centimeters of their faces. "Get out!" he bellowed.

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Qui-Gon Jinn, Jenna Zan Arbor, & Quint

  "Are you telling me I am not wise?" she asked.
  "You have intelligence. Maybe genius. But that is not wisdom."
  He had disturbed her. She covered it with a laugh. "I've heard of Jedi mind tricks. You are trying to get me to doubt myself. That is impossible."
  "Here is an example of what I mean," Qui-Gon said. "You do not recognize what truth is, so you call it a trick. That is why you are not wise, Jenna Zan Arbor. Wisdom is something you cannot identify because you cannot measure it with your instruments."

Conspirator by C. J. Cherryh (Foreigner Series, Book 10)

Bren Cameron, Paidhi-Aiji

   The Foreigner series is... science fiction with a healthy dose of political thriller. You know, real-world politics are something I avoid like the plague, but make it politics with aliens, and somehow it becomes fascinating.

   Granted, C. J. Cherryh's writing plays a big part in making it so interesting. I love how immersive the point-of-view is in her books. When Bren Cameron (main character throughout the Foreigner series) is distressed about not knowing where those closest to him are, I'm distressed. When he's exasperated about Cajeiri's constant shenanigans, I'm exasperated, even while I sympathize with Cajeiri's point of view.

Rescuing the youngsters

The Captive Temple by Jude Watson (Jedi Apprentice Series, Book 7)

<---  Xanatos escapes once again, this time by falling back into a rush of water in one of the Jedi Temple's water tunnels...

Obi-Wan and Bant sit together in the Room of a Thousand Fountains.  --->

The Last Command by Timothy Zahn (Thrawn Trilogy, Book 3)

Luke on Honoghr

Noghri commando

   Isn't it great to revisit a book you love -- after a long enough period that you've forgotten all but a few major plot points / characters -- and find that it's just as good as the last time you read it? That's my reaction after this most recent read through the Thrawn Trilogy.

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I'm not quite satisfied with any of the depictions I've seen of the Noghri thus far. My attempt draws from several different versions, and it's at least... closer.

GAME TIME! -- Knights of the Old Republic

My Revan, Juhani, and Bastila

Wait, what? You're drawing stuff from a video game?!

Believe it or not, when I first came up with the idea for this blog, I considered included occasional game-related illustrations. Normally I read way more often than I play games. But then a few weeks ago I decided to finally play through Knights of the Old Republic. 

It's a great story... drew me in quite successfully. Let's just say I've done a lot more gaming than reading lately.

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My version of Revan... plus Mission for height comparison

The defeat of Darth Revan

The Dark Rival by Jude Watson (Jedi Apprentice Series, Book 2)

 It's funny how memory works, isn't it? It has probably been well over ten years since the last time I read this series.

There was one scene in this book which I remembered distinctly . . . Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi on a boat, leaving the mining platform where Obi-Wan had been a prisoner... Obi-Wan's electric collar couldn't be removed, so Qui-Gon ever-so-carefully sliced it off with his lightsaber. Ooo, ahhh! What a great picture of how much Obi-Wan already trusts Qui-Gon even before becoming Qui-Gon's padawan! So dramatic!


Guess what? That never happened. What was actually in the book:
     Qui-Gon placed his large hands around the collar, searching for a catch or seam. He could not break the collar, or twist it apart. He set his lightsaber to lower power and tried to cut it, but could not.
  "I need a high power, and that would injure you," he said.
  "Or behead me," Obi-Wan pointed out cheerfully.

... And  no, that exchange didn't happen on a boat. It was on land. And Qui-Gon had already deactivated the collar using the Force before they even got onto the boat in the first place. Oops.

 

 Left: The, uh.. skinny, manga version of Qui-Gon?

Upper right: Xanatos introduces himself as representative for Offworld. 

Lower right: Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon battling dragons in front of a cave, from book 1

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Xanatos

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (Thrawn Trilogy, Book 1)

Joruus C'baoth (booo! hiss!) aboard the Chimaera, coordinating Thrawn's multi-pronged attack

   [Pellaeon] turned to look at C'baoth's strained face, an icy shiver running up his back. He'd never really bought into Thrawn's theory as to how and why the Fleet had lost the Battle of Endor. Certainly he'd never wanted to believe it. But now, suddenly, the issue was no longer open to argument. 
   And with the bulk of his attention and power on the task of mentally communicating with two other task forces nearly four light-years away, C'baoth still had enough left to do all this.
   Pellaeon had wondered, with a certain private contempt, just what had given the old man the right to add the word Master to his title. Now, he knew.

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Here, enjoy a sketch of one of my least favorite characters from one of my favorite book trilogies. He's not a bad character, mind -- rather, he's one of those villains you love to hate... I feel that way even more so after reading Timothy Zahn's Outbound Flight, which is set many years before this.

Dreamlander by K. M. Weiland

Chris Redston - the Gifted

Orias Tarn

The Jedi Apprentice Series

The Jedi Apprentice series follows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn's early adventures together -- before The Phantom Menace.
(Book 1 by Dave Wolverton, all the others by Jude Watson)

Obi-Wan Kenobi as a young padawan

I loved these books as a kid. Drawing the above picture of young Obi-Wan felt like... well, kind of like fulfilling a promise to my younger self. I'm re-reading these, and though I can see now that the writing isn't very good, there's still a spark of magic there.