Ardea Writes Worlds

Safe for work, story-typical violence aside, but I'm an adult and will sometimes talk about adult life stuff (like idk doing chores.) If in doubt, I don't ship it but also don't care if you do.

Also IDK why my underfunded library consortium got 173 audiobook copies but I am also not complaining about getting my hold immediately upon release? Last I saw they had two (2) print copies and the wait is months long

(update they dropped to 16 audiobook copies but I know that hold list was over a hundred people long and when I checked a few days ago it said over a hundred copies on order)

Their sci/fantasy general audience catalogue is a) public domain b) popular vintage (Card, Heinlin etc) and c) a rotating tiny number of current publication that pops in and out at random and often, to my perpetual annoyance, cycles through a series as it is published so only book 1, then only book 2, then only book 4 etc.

Chapters: 22/22

It’s finally done. I skipped the entire generator-coolant sequence because it’s pretty anticlimactic after Xen. 

Dathomir's force-users being divided into "people who can consistently keep their temper and make community decisions" and "people who make a habit of violently losing their temper and only act in self-interest" which actually makes more sense than the Jedi code 99% of the time. A gal had lost her temper, burst a blood vessel (visible scar from dark force use) and was sent to go cool off/heal up and had to think about her actions.

Leih strongly considering marriage as a political alliance that will bring a significant military power to their side. There was an actual weighing-the-benefits conversation and she took it seriously (Han was being an idiot at the time; I have no memory of the other guy but think he had a cool mom?)

Leih sitting down to spend HOURS cracking a keypad to rescue herself from the book's villain-of-the-day. Like she just plunked down and brute-forced the code one try at a time. Time's going to pass anyway, might as well get yourself out. I think she did it too.

WINTER. Winter being the solution to several books' problems just by showing up and solving all the things. Middle-aged action spy cool aunt.

Kyp Duron - exploring "my freedom fighter is your terrorist" taken to the logical extreme when hatred of the empire goes too far. Like went to go save his brother, ended up exploding more worlds than the death star, still not a Sith. All the authors were scared of him after that.

Luke dismantling his hand to borrow the battery to pick a lock.

Luke and Mara having to walk their butts out of a jungle where they have to work together but are also both pretty useless

Corran Horn being a decent pilot with a pride problem who genuinely grows up and gets over his dick-measuring contest with another pilot. Gets captured, lets himself out, shows up to save his best friend from his treason trial. Later probably the best-written "Adult making grown-up decisions about all this nonsense" who gets to give Luke a solid lecture on how to teach, trust and guide his students. Him and Mara teaming up with her espionage and his detective skills. Becomes a detective who is pretending to be a pilot who is pretending to be a Jedi.

The prank war in Wraith Squadron

All of Wraith Squadron. Face especially. The swamp rescue/death scene more especially.

Kyle Katarn having a female business partner, them not being romantically involved, and their platonic friendship still being enough to rescue each other from the dark side.

The empire cult that practiced ritual scarification to mimic storm trooper armor.

the hutt sith!!

Anakin getting a living ship for .03 seconds then it sacrificing itself for him (idk who padme is THAT is his actual start of darkness; twelve year old kiddo gets the universe's coolest talking emotive ship by spirit-bonding with sentient ship-seed babies, grows the ship, gets to pilot ONE TIME and something kills it. I too would have become a sith.)

Honestly everything that was going on with Jana. CW superhero girl stuck in a Star Wars universe. Hot boyfriend(s), cool plots, joins a bug cult, cosplays a reincarnated alien goddess, outlives everyone. No seriously I think she was last skywalker standing after all the bs with jacen's plot? his plot was stupid, I stopped paying attention.

Joruus being so weird that he out-weirded people who had worked with Palatine

Tahiri being Anakin 2.0's manic pixie dream girl, authors had no real idea what to do with her after creating her. Got wrecked by alien cultists, got over it, got Anakin, got over him too, always toed the line of force use because she was an impulsive un-parented teenager making normal teenager choices. Luke being like. what. what are you I do not understand this (very normal 14 year old girl all things considered)

Lots of frank discussions of inter-species romance without any erotica. Just like complete normalization of it. Also alien hybrid kids showing up from time to time.

Isane being an awesome Empire villain with the BEST secret hideout/base/ship/prison ever and being quite truly evil, not just informed-villain.

Rogue squadron having to talk through the difference between attacking an enemy base and liberating the planet it's on, and how the easiest ways to hurt the empire will also do great harm to the innocent people who live there too, and they can't stick around to save the civilians they're putting in danger

As far as "random generic white dude dropped into Barbarian Alien Planet who then Out-Barbarians the Natives and Leads Them To Victory" goes, it is vastly more comprehensible with significantly less cultural appropriation.

In a rough sketch: Entitled brat is dropped on a jungle death-world populated mostly by things that want to kill and eat him. The natives are six-limbed eight-foot tall horned amphibians whose civilizations vary from loose family groups to industrial city-states. The main character and his buddies pull "white savior" on occasion by providing the locals with technology needed to solve some particular problem, generally involving winning a battle against superior forces with the power of Having Bigger Guns and/or Geology. Main character discovers a spine, a conscience, a moral compass and a (human) girlfriend. Then everyone goes home.

Between it and Zahn's (very very good) Manta's Gift, there are ways to do this story well without making a hash of indigenous cultures or re-treading early 1900's exploration fantasy or reducing earth's colonial history and tragedies of exploitation to a Disney fantasy.

It takes a great deal of skill to split the hair of making a relevant commentary on historical tragedy and real-life ongoing cultural erasure while also making a piece of fiction that thrills its audience and provides narrative resolution; I wouldn't say the "March To" series is that, (its authors are NOT subtle with their own commentary and it's pretty sharply American militaristic) but tbh I think it gets closer than Avatar.