Like many people who’ve written science fiction novels, author Bethany Jacobs cites other writers of sci-fi as influences in the following email interview about her space opera / space fantasy novel On Vicious Worlds (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), which is the second book of The Kingdom Trilogy after 2023’s These Burning Stars.
But unlike her fellow science fiction writers, Jacobs also cites a certain cult classic fantasy TV show as being just as big an influence on this saga.
With Megacosmic Rift (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), author Abby Goldsmith is presenting the fourth entry in her six-part science fiction space fantasy series Torth.
In the following email interview, Goldsmith talks about the origins of this series, and her plans for it moving forward, while also noting that Megacosmic Rift is, “…secretly my favorite of the series.”
When you write a review of a video game, especially a game as big and deep as Star Wars Outlaws (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), you think of a lot of things that just don’t belong in a review. Like, how you’d make it better, or how you wish it a different kind of game. You’re supposed to review the game as it is, not as you want it to be.
But you still think of these things. And I had a lot of these thoughts when I was writing my review of Star Wars Outlaws.
Here are a couple I could remember now that my review is done and the game is out.
From the beginning, the Star Wars saga has had good guys and bad guys. But some of the more interesting characters — be it Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, or Anakin Skywalker when he was an impetuous young Jedi — are the ones who manage to be mostly good but also a little bad at the same time.
It’s to that list that we can now add Kay Vess, a low-level criminal who’s the main character in the new open world action game Star Wars Outlaws (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC).
And she’s an apt choice for this game, too, since Outlaws is also mostly good but a little bad as well, while also managing to be interesting.
Though it was released in 1977, the original Star Wars was somewhat different from other science fiction movies that came out in the ’70s. It wasn’t as slow paced, it wasn’t more intellectual than action-oriented, and it wasn’t set in a world that was clean to the point of feeling sterile.
Which is why it’s interesting that the Disney+ show Star Wars: Andor — the first season of which is now available on 4K and Blu-ray as Star Wars: Andor: The Complete First Season — would be the most ’70s-esque entry in the Star Wars canon, despite being made in the ’20s.
While Star Wars fans remain divided over the prequels, those movies had their fans then, and they have their fans now. And as one of them, it’s been great that the people who oversee Star Wars are not divided, but supportive. Hence why we get novels like John Jackson Miller’s The Living Force, which takes place a year before The Phantom Menace, and Steven Barnes’ upcoming Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss, which it set right after that movie.
It’s also why we got the Disney+ show Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, in which Ewan McGregor got to reprise his role as the titular Jedi, and bring some of his co-stars along as well.
Thankfully, for people who don’t have Disney+ or who prefer physical media, we also now have Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Complete Series on 4K and Blu-ray, and yes, I’m going to say it: The Force is strong with this one.
We’ve all done dumb things in the pursuit of love.
But what’s terrible in real life can often be good in fantasy. Or, in the case of author Samantha Mills and her new novel The Wings Upon Her Back (paperback, Kindle), secondary world fantasy / science fantasy.
In the following email interview, Mills discusses the kind of trauma that inspired Back, as well as the things that influenced this story.
While it will forever be known as “that show with Baby Yoda,” The Mandalorian has become much, much more. And that became especially clear in the show’s second season, which went even deeper into Star Wars lore, Mandalorian culture, and the aftermath of the Empire’s fall.
Well, now you can enjoy all of it, and without the fear of it being delisted or glitching out, thanks to Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Complete Second Season (4K, Blu-Ray).
Writer David Edison isn’t alone in being influenced by video games. Or Frank Herbert’s Dune. Or Tori Amos. Or anime. But being influenced by all of them…at the same time… In the following email interview, Edison talks about how these influences coalesced into the sci-fi space opera / epic fantasy mash-up that is his second novel, Sandymancer (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook).