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?

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.

 ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

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."

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.

 ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

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.

March to the Stars by David Weber & John Ringo (Empire of Man Series, Book 3)

Civan and their Mardukan riders.

I confess: Fun as creature design may be, it does take time to come up with something decent. So when it comes to sketching for this blog, I tend to avoid the harder-to-imagine creatures/aliens... Or go with a fairly basic design, say, based on examples on the cover, if any.

But the civan, at least, seem to be pretty straightforward. They're often compared to velociraptors (though obviously much, much bigger. More like utahraptors.) Nasty critters.

Now imagine a cavalry of several hundred civan, ridden by 3-meter-tall, four-armed Mardukans armed to the teeth with lances... shields... massive swords... black powder pistols. Colorful, billowing banners bearing the emblems of their once great, now fallen, cities. Charging full-tilt  (like the one in the lower right corner in the sketch above.) Ohhh yes. That's a picture begging to be painted.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Ah, freedom!" ... "You have an unusual concept of freedom, Roger."

March to the Sea by David Weber & John Ringo (Empire of Man Series, Book 2)

   The purely Mardukan variant of poker, which would have made the professionals of New Vegas choke if they ever saw it, said that any player could call a check of all the cards once per game. The rule also required that all the Mardukans at the table throw all of their cards on the table and raise their hands above their heads. ...

Card check!

   ...Roger kicked back and laughed silently while he watched. The locals had the oddest approach to cheating he'd ever heard of. If you weren't cheating, they considered you stupid. But if you got caught, they considered you a gross incompetent. As soon as they'd figured out the ways they could cheat at cards, they'd leapt in with abandon. Spades and the other whist derivative games were the only ones where they couldn't hide cards, but even then they bottom-dealt, cross-dealt, and stacked decks so cold they froze. And yet they still played for money. 

~~~~~ 

<---  The last of the barbarian horde, trapped on the Great Bridge, pressed on one side by 'demons' and the other by a terrible killbox full of smoke and fire. They are broken. Even those who survive will clearly never be the same. Their chieftain clutches his ancient, ceremonial battleax, and steps up onto the wall.

He will not be taken alive. He will not allow the great ax to fall into enemy hands...

March Upcountry by David Weber & John Ringo (Empire of Man Series, Book 1)

     You hear the phrase time and again... "Don't judge a book by its cover."

For years I've seen these books scattered around the house, with gradually migrating bookmarks in 'em... obviously much enjoyed by various family members... yet, I was never interested in picking up the first book and reading it. Why? The covers! I wasn't willing to take the actual story seriously because of the covers. I was turned off before reading a single word. I know, I know: how silly of me... but it's true. The only reason I decided to finally read this book is because I'm planning to go to a convention which David Weber and John Ringo will both be attending. So, hey, might as well read SOMEthing by them before going, right?

Heh. I'm glad I finally gave it a chance. I enjoyed it, in spite of the high level of language and violence (what do you expect... it's a story about a company of Marines fighting their way across a planet full of barbarian hordes and all sorts of nasty creatures.)

Sgt. Julian has a close encounter with some yaden (a.k.a. giant vampire moths)

 

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Prince Roger & Cord fighting back-to-back on the walls of Voitan

  His magazine clicked suddenly empty, and he tossed the rifle into "his" bunker and waded in with the katana as he had before. This battle was a complete madhouse, with dozens of screaming barbarians clambering over the parapets, their false-hands holding the ladders and both true-hands filled with weapons. Trading parries with a scummy who was better than usual, Roger found himself back-to-back with Cord and realized they were practically alone. ...

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Prince Roger dueling Kranolta barbarians

Cuckoo's Egg by C.J. Cherryh

Presenting the stones -- Hatani test

     Often, I am content to make a few simple little sketches after reading a book. Sure, I'd love to make complete illustrations, but to at least do SOMETHING is okay... it's enough.
But then there's some books for which I can hardly stand to make even those few simple sketches -- not because the book is uninteresting or hard to visualize, but because it's a story that is particularly engaging to me, and it bothers me not to be able to represent it with a genuinely GREAT picture.

Cuckoo's Egg is one of those books.

  I wish I could give you a beautiful, fully rendered painting (or two, or three). Then you could really see, could *feel*, this story. But alas, I have neither the skills nor the time to make anything beyond a couple rough sketches

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 One narrator knows nothing; the other knows everything but reveals very, very little. Something huge is going on. Something desperate. Chaos descends over a world, and we have only a few speed-blurred glimpses of it, barely understood through Thorn [the protagonist]'s eyes:
...A shuttle, poised against the smoke-stained sky. On the horizon, a red sun burst, and swelled, and faded...
   

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thorn -- Hatani solution

 Cuckoo's Egg has a good, satisfying ending, and yet... it's left so wide open. It's like the story's only getting started! But... copyright 1985, and no sequel in sight. Oh well.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

What an odd (yet amusing) little book. So many "Wha...? Okaaay, whatever" moments, but what do you expect, when the protagonist is a time machine repairman? Time travel does weird things to a person, y'know.

  When it happens, this is what happens: I shoot myself.
  Not, you know, my self self. I shoot my future self. He steps out of a time machine, introduces himself as Charles Yu. 
  What else am I supposed to do? I kill him. I kill my own future.





To give you another picture of the quirky meta thing that is this book, I leave you with this conversation:

Hello, whoever you are?

Still here.

You're retcon, right? This is the retcon shuttle.

You got it.

Can you pick up Ed for me?

Sure. Who's Ed?

My dog.

I don't have any record of a dog.

Technically, he didn't exist.

You have a retconned dog for a pet?

Yeah.

Cobra Strike by Timothy Zahn (Cobra Trilogy, Book 2)

     Inspired by the background of the original cover... here's a  sketch of a random Qasaman guard with his mojo (the bird).

Frankly, I didn't do the mojo justice. Those things are supposed to be the quintessential birds-of-prey. They're the Qasamans' bodyguards. Don't even think about shooting a weapon in their presence. The result can be absolutely horrific. Just look at what happened to York:

 York shifted his aim to the mojo on the dying man's shoulder and a second dart found its target . . . but as he brought the palm-mate to bear on Moff's mojo all hell broke loose.
  They were smart all right, those birds. The dead Qasaman hadn't even fallen to the floor before the remaining five mojos were in the air, sweeping toward him like silver-blue Furies. He got off two more shots, but neither connected--and then they were on him, talons digging into his face and gun arm and slamming him hard into the seat.  . . .

It was like a scene out of a nightmare -- York under attack by mojos.

Cobra by Timothy Zahn (Cobra Trilogy, Book 1)

   A sudden rustle of cloth brought Jonny's attention back to the priest. The service was drawing to a close, he saw, and the crowd was kneeling for the final prayer. Hastily, Jonny dropped to his knees, glancing around as he did so. Challinor's Cobras were still on their feet, whatever feelings of respect they might have overridden by the tactical necessity of keeping close watch on the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Almo hesitate and then, with a glance in Jonny's direction, kneel with the rest of the people around him. Between the coffin stands Father Vitkauskas had himself knelt . . . and as he began the requiescat, Jonny's eyes sought Chrys, saw her hand slip under the hem of her long skirt to the device strapped to her leg . . . .
   And MacDonald sat up in his coffin.

MacDonald sits up in his coffin . . . and subsequently unleashes a wild spray of laser beams into the unsuspecting Cobra rebels. YESSS.

Future Imperfect by L.A. Graf (The Janus Gate Trilogy, Book 2)

The Drake rides the bow wave of an explosion over Tesseract Fortress.
(Hm, this is a scene worth revisiting later, with more detail and accuracy.)

So there's this scene with altChekov and Sulu...

As quickly as they had moved, it still hadn't been quick enough. They landed in the midst of a circle of weapons, and behind each gleaming metallic barrel was a lean, angular face taking aim with unemotional efficiency. Sulu felt a disorienting wave of disbelief--it was like facing an execution squad of multiple Spocks--but he drew himself up and made his expression as austere as he could, to match theirs. After one swift glance around to make sure there weren't any Gorn or Klingon supervisors in sight, Chekov did the same.

 ...And that picture--of a solemn-faced Sulu standing up against a crowd of well-armed Romulans--interested me. But as I was trying to figure out the positions of the Romulans, it dawned on me: I stink at crowd scenes. Cringe. Didn't even bother trying out different poses/angles/etc for this one.











   Sulu & altChekov flying a Gorn shuttle with another shuttle's warp core on board. Okay, this may be one of those that reeeally needs context to make sense.

Ensign Chekov (Walter Koenig)
 

Future Imperfect on Amazon

Present Tense by L.A. Graf (The Janus Gate Trilogy, Book 1)

"What's the deal?" the geologist asked, glancing back and forth between them as if their silence had alarmed him. "What the heck did you guys see?" 

   "A human shape," Uhura said, trying to keep her voice calm and unshaken. "The lights were outlining it, as if it was just starting to appear." McCoy was already scrambling down the rubble pile, and she snapped her own helmet alight, then levered herself out from between her boulders to follow him. "The problem is, it's appearing right in the middle of that rock column."

Dr. McCoy, Lt. Uhura, and geologist Zap Sanner return to the healing chamber to look for Lt. Sulu. Sketched in pencil, tone & color added digitally.

      Bonus sketch of two Lt. Sulus (George Takei, John Cho). Funny thing is, I couldn't make up my mind while reading this trilogy whether to picture Sulu as George Takei or as John Cho. All the others I easily pictured as the original cast. I think I eventually decided Captain Sulu would look more like George Takei, and Lt. Sulu more like John Cho.







"Virtual Cave" = a handy reference for this trilogy
Present Tense on Amazon

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7)

Boom--boom--ba-ba-boom went the horrible drum. Then another sound began to mix with it. 
"Listen!" said Jewel: and then "Look!" said Farsight. A moment later there was no doubt what it was. With a thunder of hoofs, with tossing heads, widened nostrils, and waving manes, over a score of Talking Horses of Narnia came charging up the hill. The gnawers and nibblers had done their work.
     Poggin the Dwarf and the children opened their mouths to cheer but that cheer never came. Suddenly the air was full of the sound of twanging bow-strings and hissing arrows. It was the Dwarfs who were shooting and--for a moment Jill could hardly believe her eyes--they were shooting the Horses. Dwarfs are deadly archers. Horse after horse rolled over. Not one of those noble Beasts ever reached the King.

King Tirian, Jewel, Jill, and Eustice look on as the first Talking Horse goes down...

Even though I've read this book before... hearing this scene again... well. Let's just say I agreed with the reactions of Jewel and Eustice:

"Little swine," shrieked Eustice, dancing in his rage. "Dirty, filthy, treacherous little brutes." Even Jewel said, "Shall I run after those Dwarfs, Sire, and spit ten of them on my horn at each plunge?"

They didn't have the chance to land even one blow of Talking Horse AWESOMENESS on those stinkin' Calormenes! Argh. 


The Last Battle audiobook on Amazon 

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

"I'll not find a better man than you, not on the steppes, not in any city or in all the wilds of the Eight Realms. You're better than seven years of food. You're better than windows. You're even better than the sky."

Dashti, the heroine of Book of a Thousand Days. Quickish color pencil drawing.

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Amazon listing for Book of a Thousand Days audiobook