ObiwombleKenobi

There's also an argument that they're too kind to a particular character.

Still, LFL Press' YA books are generally character pieces and this works well as that for Finn and Jannah.

The book's weakness is its framing story, though it has good cameos from Lando and Poe. The description of the Battle of Exegol and the Emperor's lightning storm assault is excellent. The problem is it's final revelations and their resolution come out of nowhere and feel rushed.

As to the past stories, they each deal with the First Order being a perpetually controlling, totalitarian fraud. They put forth a certain image but are entirely contrary to it, engaging in murder, corruption, extortion, you name it, they do it.

In continuity terms, it establishes the First Order isn't entirely gone. But the more interesting and smarter use of continuity is how well it goes with the Phasma and Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire books, with Phasma and Cardinal popping up here.

Star Wars: The Last Order

This is a good story. Nothing revolutionary, no earth shattering status quo stuff. Yes, it is a post-RoS story but only minimally, with the bulk of the book being a story about Finn and Jannah's pasts.

But will I remember what happened if I finish 1 before 2 hits the west?

Heh, no other series has this problem.

From what others have posted on Threads, it sounds some way off, perhaps 2027.

But does give me more catch-up time

Hey, there's not one more in the Calvard arc, there's two! Calvard has gone from a trilogy to a quartet.

Seeing a trend here...

Exclusivity is fading yeah, digital libraries though? They're here to stay.

I suspect Sony may be banking on digital library lock-in / inheritance while MS bets on a Steam / PC link.

From a casual view, Sony's might be the safer one, but no way to tell how they play out. After the way 2025 has been, anyone feel up to predicting 2027-28? I don't.

Come to think of it, the move away from disc drives also undercuts the value sell.

I've never needed to own a Blu-Ray or UHD player, as PS3-5 does that. PS6 or XB V2X? Probably not, streaming only. Makes it harder to justify the buy.

The Switch 2 has sold well, but that's below the 500 mark and the trick is how it sells over the next couple of years, as the tech enthusiast buyers run out. The new consoles will sell to that same crowd regardless of price.

The wider, casual players? No, I don't see it.

This thread's a good read. What I'm not seeing is who is advising Sony and Microsoft? These companies can see what's going on, they know living costs are higher, disposable income lower. Audio-visual tech is topping out.

How in this world is the answer more expensive consoles?

Along with stories like Shadow of the Sith it boosts the era well. I still want to see how this plays out, and if it goes past 12 issues, but this latest development has made it more likely I'll nab the trades, despite despising the lead character.

I'm far, far from being a Kylo fan, had no interest in the Legacy of Vader comic, then the latest issue dropped, you can easily find a full spoiler summary. And the panel of a certain character and how he sums up his life and death to Ren is easily one of Soule's best pieces of writing.

I have a strange view of the sequel era, I'm iffy on the films but will easily encourage anyone to grab some of the books and comics set in it.

And then all you do in the games is spend 500 hours on karaoke.

This sounds too easy a win, they'll never go for it.

I'm sure it'll find a way.

Vegeta's Dragonball?

Deploy the lawyer-Nazgul to raze the White House.

The funny thing for me about this aspect of RoS is, despite being an utter bastard for at least 2.5 films, I liked what Driver showed of Ben in the moments he had.

Does that mean he gets to live? Hard to say, to make that story fly would require very smart writing, covering thorney areas.

Yup. Two years on social media has shown me that people have this idea that they can somehow affect these huge companies. Generally, nope.

Smaller, niche titles / series who need the sales more? Sometimes.

This explains a great deal about why and how Xbox has changed in the way they have over the last couple of years. A really good read.

Does feel like they've been set up to fail with that profit target.

The Peacemakers An all-new novel based on the landmark TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Attention Trek Readers....

@unamccormack.bsky.social has a new DS9 novel, The Peacemakers.

August 2026.

www.simonandschuster.ca/books/The-Pe...

From the response both Yotei and Keeper are getting, I don't think people are immune to art design and graphics. You could point to Expedition 33 and Sword of the Sea too.

We are in interesting times where tech and graphics are practically topping out, which emphasises the art design.

You could perhaps argue No Man's Sky is a generative AI game, as the model creates worlds and quests. But play that for long enough and you see the general patterns it relies on.

I'm starting to wonder what AI actually means for games.

If it's procedural generation of some graphics and daily / weekly quests, those have been done for years. Skyrim was one of the first with its radiant quests. The quality of them was crap but it was all about quantity.

This is the key - you have to define your engagement in a way that corporate decisions cannot hit.