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!

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 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.

 ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

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.

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.

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (Space Trilogy, Book 1)

Augray, a sorn

Why did it take me so long to get around to reading C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy? It has the beautiful imagery I fell in love with in the Chronicles of Narnia, and the keen wit typical of Lewis... but it's a lovely balance between the dense, intellectual writing of his nonfiction and the light, aimed-towards-children writing of Narnia.

Cobra Slave by Timothy Zahn (Cobra Rebellion Trilogy, Book 1)

I actually read this last month. Started and finished in two days flat, then picked up another book just a day or two later. Hence when I first sat down to sketch something from this... my mind was blank. I went too fast for any particular picture to stick in my mind. Oops. Normally I'd count it a loss at this point, but the book has been sitting in my studio for weeks now, waiting for me to open it back up and find something to draw. I did give it a try a while ago, attempting to design the Troft, but... it wasn't a sketch worth seeing the light of day.

Instead, I leave you with one simple sketch of a scene I found amusing...

Lorne jumps into an arrowcrest tree to avoid being dragged off by the Dominion Marines

We Few by David Weber & John Ringo (Empire of Man Series, Book 4)

   Not so much a full scene here, just... pieces of a scene.

See, putting Mr. Chung (a.k.a. Roger a.k.a. the one-legged dude in this sketch) into a strong, dynamic pose proved to be a bit... difficult.

Ah well, try, try, and try again, eh?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On another note... I don't usually get emotionally stirred up by novels. The exception being, I will occasionally laugh out loud while reading, and yes, a good book when finished will often leave me giddily happy. But besides that, any effect on my emotions is pretty minor. 

Ha. I did not expect this book to be an exception. But it is. There's this one scene... I don't want to give too much away, but for those who've read it: it's when Roger finds his mother. And for whatever reason, that almost choked me up a little. (Maybe the fact that I was up reeeal late reading had something to do with that.) (No, for those of you who *haven't* read it... it wasn't a warm fuzzy moment. It's heartbreaking, and anger-inducing.) The tension up to that point is real high, and I guess it just got to me.

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