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Star Wars Mask of Fear Review Episode CCXXV · Star Wars Alliance

0:00
Speaker 1: The Force will be with you always.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of a Star
0:25
Speaker 2: Wars Alliance. Of course, I am your host, Clay, and
0:29
Speaker 2: with me back from the dead.
0:32
Speaker 3: Is Katie's joking, y'all. I'm so sorry about last week.
0:39
Speaker 3: Last week, it was awful. Let's just leave it that.
0:46
Speaker 4: I gotta.
0:48
Speaker 2: I got a text just full of just symptoms and infections,
0:55
Speaker 2: and I'm like, you know what, let's let's let's not
0:58
Speaker 2: even a tempt We're fine, We're totally fine. Let's just
1:02
Speaker 2: move everything to next week.
1:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like we were supposed to record this last
1:08
Speaker 3: on Sunday last week. Now we're recording it on the
1:10
Speaker 3: twenty third, and then we're supposed to have light up
1:14
Speaker 3: sudden Neither of those happened.
1:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I was dying.
1:19
Speaker 2: But you're here thankfully. Yes, you have survived. But I
1:25
Speaker 2: before so, guys, if you are, of course reading the
1:29
Speaker 2: title of this episode, you know that this is our
1:32
Speaker 2: reign of the Empire Mask of Fear review. Of course,
1:36
Speaker 2: this is going to be somewhat of a Part two
1:38
Speaker 2: because we do have Part one non spoiler review.
1:43
Speaker 4: We do get very minimal spoilery.
1:47
Speaker 2: Back then, it was all the way back in December.
1:49
Speaker 2: And the reason why that is is because, of course,
1:53
Speaker 2: there were copies of this book floating around in December
1:58
Speaker 2: after New York Comic Con. There was just a whole
2:02
Speaker 2: lot of the book already out and about. There was
2:06
Speaker 2: no embargo date on reviews, and we both, I think
2:11
Speaker 2: Katie could have gotten it finished. We were both really busy.
2:15
Speaker 3: During I did finish it.
2:18
Speaker 4: You did finish it, Okay, so you had finished it.
2:20
Speaker 2: I had not. I was super busy at the end
2:23
Speaker 2: of the year for work, and I didn't get the
2:26
Speaker 2: chance to finish it. I have now finished it. Now
2:31
Speaker 2: we're going to have our overall review. We're gonna talk
2:34
Speaker 2: spoilers and all of that.
2:36
Speaker 3: All right, y'all, We're going to hit our first ad
2:38
Speaker 3: break and we will be right back in three two one, Katie.
2:44
Speaker 2: How did you feel overall about this story? Freed?
2:51
Speaker 3: Alexander Fried is the author of this book, and by golly,
2:56
Speaker 3: is he masterful. The dude can write some shit. Like
3:08
Speaker 3: I'm like listening to this book. Even though I was
3:11
Speaker 3: dying last week, I still had like the brain power
3:14
Speaker 3: to go. Man, this book is just so damn good.
3:17
Speaker 3: Like there's a few chapters in this book particularly like
3:20
Speaker 3: chapter I think it's like it's late sixties, but it's
3:26
Speaker 3: where because basically the whole premise of this book for Monmouth,
3:31
Speaker 3: my y'all, is that she is trying to pass a
3:34
Speaker 3: bill to basically standardize the imperial government right after Palpatine
3:41
Speaker 3: has made his announcement. Would you say that's her whole
3:44
Speaker 3: purpose in this book is getting a bill passed that says, Okay, yes,
3:49
Speaker 3: we're an empire now, but like the Senate is still
3:54
Speaker 3: in charge.
3:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, fair statement.
3:58
Speaker 3: Right, And so one of the late chapters in this
4:03
Speaker 3: book there's seventy two chapters overall, one of the late
4:10
Speaker 3: chapters in this book is where Massamita basically says, oh,
4:19
Speaker 3: you got your bill passed, but it really didn't pass
4:23
Speaker 3: like and just lays out like all this on the line.
4:27
Speaker 3: Such an artistic chapter that like blows your mind, but
4:33
Speaker 3: like it's also like haunting because the parallels to what
4:38
Speaker 3: it feels like is going on right now.
4:40
Speaker 2: Right, that is masterful. And I that's exactly what I
4:44
Speaker 2: was gonna say, is that, like we had said very
4:51
Speaker 2: early on that like the feelings of this book, even
4:58
Speaker 2: in the first twenty chapters, was like this is hitting
5:03
Speaker 2: close to home and I'm not really sure how I
5:07
Speaker 2: like it. And then yeah, that last that last conversation
5:13
Speaker 2: with Massamita, it was like, hey, like you had said, congratulations,
5:21
Speaker 2: you won. Oh, but by the way, this is what's
5:26
Speaker 2: gonna happen, and this is how we're gonna lay down
5:29
Speaker 2: the law and boom and boom and boom and boom.
5:34
Speaker 2: And you look at all the shit that Baale Organa
5:43
Speaker 2: and mon Mathma and all of our characters throughout this
5:47
Speaker 2: book went through. Mon Mafma at some point in this
5:55
Speaker 2: book feels a little less human biggurtive t figuratively and
6:03
Speaker 2: literally because of some of the decisions she has made
6:07
Speaker 2: in this book.
6:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it was all or nothing, m it sucks.
6:16
Speaker 2: But the the great mind that is this author one
6:24
Speaker 2: of the things that I don't think a lot of
6:26
Speaker 2: people really take into account or really care about when
6:31
Speaker 2: it comes to Yeah, I'll read other books because I
6:35
Speaker 2: already know what Star Wars is. You know, I already like,
6:39
Speaker 2: there's the story is already there. You're telling a story
6:41
Speaker 2: about characters that we already know, Like, how could I
6:45
Speaker 2: really feel anything for these characters when I know they're
6:48
Speaker 2: in story?
6:51
Speaker 4: You Like, I knew I knew that mon Mathma will survive.
6:57
Speaker 2: I knew that bail Orehana would, I know that saw
7:02
Speaker 2: Guerrera would survive. But there's points in this book like
7:08
Speaker 2: holy shit, what's gonna happen?
7:11
Speaker 3: And there's those moments feel real.
7:15
Speaker 4: Yes, like you.
7:16
Speaker 3: Said, like you know, okay, all these characters are going
7:20
Speaker 3: to survive, but the same instance, you forget about it.
7:24
Speaker 3: It's certain moments in this book, because especially when mon
7:27
Speaker 3: Makma meets with the former separatist senators that are being
7:33
Speaker 3: proposed for reintegration and she wants them to be a
7:35
Speaker 3: part of her bill, and she's standing there she realizes,
7:38
Speaker 3: oh shit, I'm on trial. This isn't just like a hey,
7:42
Speaker 3: I'd like you to be a part of my coalition
7:44
Speaker 3: for this bill, Like this is like, hey, we might
7:48
Speaker 3: execute you for war crimes bitches.
7:51
Speaker 4: Yeah.
7:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's so intense and like one thing that
8:00
Speaker 2: I will say for people who are more into the
8:08
Speaker 2: books that we have read that are very action packed,
8:12
Speaker 2: m I will admit I don't think this is the
8:16
Speaker 2: correct book for you, because yes, there are moments, there
8:21
Speaker 2: are one hundred moments where there's action. Yeah, but this
8:28
Speaker 2: is a political thriller. This is one hundred percent political thriller.
8:34
Speaker 2: There is a lot of talking, there's a lot of
8:38
Speaker 2: mind games, there's a lot of suspense, And I feel
8:44
Speaker 2: like that is where this book really hits home. Like
8:49
Speaker 2: that is where the I always I always use this
8:54
Speaker 2: uh this euphivism, but like this is that is where
8:58
Speaker 2: the meatment and the potatoes are, like the scuffles, the action,
9:04
Speaker 2: it's like okay, like did everybody make it out of?
9:08
Speaker 4: Like okay, cool, let's get that.
9:09
Speaker 2: Let's get back to the actual part where.
9:12
Speaker 4: I want my popcorn.
9:13
Speaker 2: And I'm sitting there listening to this and like, holy crap,
9:16
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen next? And I want to talk? So
9:22
Speaker 2: how did you feel? Oh man, I'm gonna forget his name?
9:24
Speaker 4: Aren't I? The assassin?
9:28
Speaker 3: Sojoan?
9:30
Speaker 4: Sojoan?
9:32
Speaker 2: Sojoan's story. We saw him all over the place, yep.
9:40
Speaker 4: We saw him.
9:43
Speaker 2: Really high on emotions, really low on emotions.
9:47
Speaker 4: We saw him.
9:50
Speaker 2: What basically his thoughts of the war and everything else.
9:55
Speaker 2: How did you feel about Sojean's character?
9:59
Speaker 3: Sojean's character was so intriguing, Like I would love to
10:05
Speaker 3: see like concept art for what he was supposed to
10:11
Speaker 3: look like. Because I can like sort of pictured in
10:15
Speaker 3: my head. But also like the story of his species
10:20
Speaker 3: is so heartbreaking because like they are having like trouble
10:24
Speaker 3: conceiving as like the generations go on. It's their quote
10:27
Speaker 3: unquote curse. So but like what happened there, because like
10:32
Speaker 3: Modern Monthly even talks about it, where she's like, oh, yeah,
10:35
Speaker 3: like I tried to get a bill passed to support
10:38
Speaker 3: you guys, but then it got lost because of this,
10:42
Speaker 3: this and this, and then by the time it was
10:46
Speaker 3: ready to come back up, like nobody cared about it anymore.
10:51
Speaker 3: And so to hear that was heartbreaking because you think
10:57
Speaker 3: about how many different species are in Star Wars and
11:01
Speaker 3: what we look at right now with like what's going
11:03
Speaker 3: on in our world, and you go okay, but like
11:07
Speaker 3: how many times do we hear something on the news
11:09
Speaker 3: and then just go oh okay, like the and then
11:13
Speaker 3: cycle comes over. Do you never think about it again?
11:15
Speaker 2: You move to the next crisis. Right, That's just how
11:19
Speaker 2: our life has really been pushed. And with Sojon we
11:26
Speaker 2: he's introduced as an assassin, he's introduced as this like
11:33
Speaker 2: cyborg with all this augmentation and all of this other stuff,
11:39
Speaker 2: and there comes a point where Baylor Ghana is traveling
11:44
Speaker 2: with them, and uh, they go to Sojan's homeworld and uh,
11:52
Speaker 2: like Sojian has like at his village, like it's it's desolate,
11:59
Speaker 2: there's there's nobody left there, but there's like a random
12:03
Speaker 2: Android that's still keeping watch.
12:06
Speaker 3: And that's like the storyteller of his people. Like I'm
12:13
Speaker 3: not sure because he mentioned like something like a great wheel,
12:16
Speaker 3: but I'm not sure like that android was the great Wheel.
12:21
Speaker 3: But this is just basically somebody who keeps the story
12:26
Speaker 3: of his people and the history. And as Bail listens
12:30
Speaker 3: to it, because Sojourn goes okay, like I want to
12:33
Speaker 3: hear what happened by all can hear what happened? And
12:37
Speaker 3: Bail just like kind of I feel like that was
12:40
Speaker 3: the moment where he really like grew up innocence because
12:44
Speaker 3: the whole front half of this story, he's just like okay,
12:49
Speaker 3: but the Jedi, the Jedi, he's.
12:52
Speaker 4: Really in his own feelings.
12:53
Speaker 2: He's all about like he wants the justification of like
12:57
Speaker 2: I saw what happened at the Temple. I want some
13:01
Speaker 2: justice for this, and it's all for himself really like
13:06
Speaker 2: to have this feeling of like I knew the Jedi
13:09
Speaker 2: were good people, and I want more people to know
13:11
Speaker 2: that the Jedi are good people. But when he is
13:16
Speaker 2: finally with Sojoon and listening to this story and listening
13:20
Speaker 2: more to Sojourn throughout that entire time, he starts like
13:25
Speaker 2: it it sounds really bad, but especially for somebody who's
13:29
Speaker 2: in the position of power that he is in, He's like,
13:32
Speaker 2: oh shit, there's more than just me out there in
13:35
Speaker 2: the universe that we need to really take care of. Like, yeah,
13:39
Speaker 2: it's really sad, but it's a really nice moment. But
13:45
Speaker 2: there's there's this moment where he does tell Sojoan like,
13:49
Speaker 2: you know, you could just walk away, and it's not
13:54
Speaker 2: in a sense of like, hey, don't kill me, like
13:58
Speaker 2: it's not worth it type of thing. For this whole
14:00
Speaker 2: war is like like aren't you tired? Like yeah, you
14:05
Speaker 2: could just walk away and we could just stop fighting,
14:08
Speaker 2: like everybody just stop fighting. And Sojoan has gone through
14:14
Speaker 2: so much at this point he actually like thinks about
14:17
Speaker 2: it for a split second. He's like, oh, yeah, you know,
14:20
Speaker 2: I could, but no, like that's just not like I
14:25
Speaker 2: have a mission.
14:28
Speaker 4: And it's intense.
14:29
Speaker 2: Like we go from there, we go, we get to
14:34
Speaker 2: a point where like Sojoan is back into like basically
14:38
Speaker 2: it is so back and forth because they get to
14:41
Speaker 2: CHORUSCNT after that and they kind of are cornered, and
14:46
Speaker 2: so Sojean's like, sorry, dude, I gotta do this, and
14:49
Speaker 2: he like holds a gun to his head and like
14:52
Speaker 2: pushes him off and almost pushes him off a freaking
14:55
Speaker 2: like like what.
14:57
Speaker 3: Like the platform.
15:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, a platform like who knows how high in Coruscant
15:05
Speaker 2: because we know that the levels are so freaking high. Yeah,
15:10
Speaker 2: and he just runs off and I think I love.
15:13
Speaker 2: Like love is a really weird word for Sojourn because
15:19
Speaker 2: he is so sick in the head. But it's because
15:23
Speaker 2: of the war. It's because of every moving piece around
15:28
Speaker 2: him that has basically made him the individual that he is. Yep,
15:33
Speaker 2: it's not that he chose this life. The life chose him.
15:39
Speaker 2: And like he goes into a bar, a dancing bar,
15:43
Speaker 2: and like there's so many people like having good time
15:46
Speaker 2: and dancing and stuff, and in his head because again
15:50
Speaker 2: he's so sick in the head, he's just like all
15:54
Speaker 2: these people just enjoying themselves when there's people dying out
15:58
Speaker 2: there in the galaxy. Like he thinks every single person
16:02
Speaker 2: has a responsibility, and there's a huge argument in that, like, yeah,
16:06
Speaker 2: this even in our real world, like you can probably
16:10
Speaker 2: have the same kind of conversations.
16:13
Speaker 3: And it's really especially with what's going on in the
16:16
Speaker 3: Middle East right now, like you look at it and
16:19
Speaker 3: people are like, yeah, but like babies, kids, mother's, father's
16:25
Speaker 3: grandparents are dying over there, and yet we're sitting over
16:28
Speaker 3: here podcasting, Like I like, there's only so much you
16:32
Speaker 3: could do in a sense, but also like I enjoy
16:39
Speaker 3: It's hard to say I enjoyed, but it was very
16:41
Speaker 3: intriguing seeing that perspective played out in this.
16:45
Speaker 2: Book exactly because the moment where he gets to like
16:49
Speaker 2: a private room or whatever, there's like three or four
16:52
Speaker 2: people in there, and he finally cracks. He's like at
16:57
Speaker 2: this and he pulls the his little electro laser, and
17:03
Speaker 2: you know, he's asking people, like what did they do
17:06
Speaker 2: when they learned that there is a war going on?
17:08
Speaker 2: Some dude is like high out of his mind. He's like,
17:11
Speaker 2: what are you even talking about, dude?
17:12
Speaker 3: What war?
17:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, But then there's this woman that's like I knew
17:17
Speaker 2: that there was a war, and I wanted to do
17:19
Speaker 2: something about it. I went to school and I wanted
17:23
Speaker 2: to help in the ways that I could, and Sojian's
17:27
Speaker 2: like that's not enough, and she's like, what do you
17:29
Speaker 2: mean that's not enough? Like I am doing my part.
17:33
Speaker 2: And then some random person that like Sojian tries to attacks.
17:37
Speaker 2: He's like, did you know that there was a war?
17:40
Speaker 2: She's like, yeah, I knew, but there's nothing that I
17:42
Speaker 2: could do because I was fourteen. And again it goes
17:46
Speaker 2: it goes to that sick of mind that Sojoon has.
17:49
Speaker 4: He's like, that's no excuse.
17:52
Speaker 3: We're to go into our second ad break and we'll
17:56
Speaker 3: be right back.
17:57
Speaker 2: And I hay, just no excuse for war, and I'm
18:00
Speaker 2: just like, holy crap, Like.
18:03
Speaker 3: But I mean, like put it into the perspective of
18:06
Speaker 3: like child soldiers right now, and yeah, like Sojian's been
18:10
Speaker 3: fighting his entire life like and so to him, like,
18:15
Speaker 3: there really is no excuse when it comes to age
18:19
Speaker 3: being Yeah, like what you want to think about, Like,
18:23
Speaker 3: and that's terrifying. That's absolutely terrifying.
18:27
Speaker 2: Like, which is why I think that, like, out of
18:32
Speaker 2: everyone in this book, like I'm kind of mad that
18:36
Speaker 2: they would introduce a character like Sojourn and have the
18:41
Speaker 2: internal war that he has.
18:44
Speaker 4: And then have the outcome that he did.
18:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you almost have to wonder potentially if if
18:55
Speaker 3: that I think we ought to just say it so
18:58
Speaker 3: like Sojian is basically implated with a power source that
19:02
Speaker 3: could basically turn him into a suicide bomber at his
19:05
Speaker 3: own choice, but also that his superiors in the Separate
19:10
Speaker 3: Test Alliance could choose to blow up. And that's what
19:13
Speaker 3: ends up happening is Mon gets the past coode from
19:17
Speaker 3: one of the Separatist leaders and blows him up to
19:20
Speaker 3: prevent mass casualties. Yeah, but you almost have to wonder
19:28
Speaker 3: if like Mont did end up saving lives on Corussant,
19:34
Speaker 3: because he would have chosen to blow up in the
19:40
Speaker 3: Executive Center because he was going after a Palpatine and
19:43
Speaker 3: was going to take out as many high powered people
19:45
Speaker 3: as he possibly could. But I mean also he could
19:47
Speaker 3: have chosen to blow himself up in the middle of
19:50
Speaker 3: that dance club, like yeah, with how fast he was
19:56
Speaker 3: losing it. And it's I really do hope that this
20:02
Speaker 3: continues to be a trend in the Really Empire books,
20:06
Speaker 3: maybe even getting like not necessarily a prequel, but like
20:09
Speaker 3: a prequel with like the techno Empire, like exploring like
20:15
Speaker 3: what actually had to go on to set up because
20:18
Speaker 3: you think about it, like maybe even Echo was kind
20:22
Speaker 3: of like a test dummy for this program.
20:25
Speaker 4: You know.
20:25
Speaker 2: And and it's funny that we right before we started
20:30
Speaker 2: talking about this, we were very briefly talking about Brian
20:34
Speaker 2: brand S Anderson because I've been looking into his books
20:38
Speaker 2: and there's like Book one, Book two, Book two point five,
20:43
Speaker 2: and Book three, and like we've never really had that
20:49
Speaker 2: in the books that we have read here on Star
20:52
Speaker 2: Wars Alliance. There's never been like a mini book to
20:59
Speaker 2: help connect. Yeah, like a novella, yeah yeah, there hasn't
21:06
Speaker 2: really been one, or a light novel or something like.
21:10
Speaker 2: And I think that Star Wars would really benefit from
21:14
Speaker 2: one of those to just like just give like extra context.
21:19
Speaker 2: And it's not something that is necessarily needed.
21:23
Speaker 4: But like in these instances with.
21:28
Speaker 2: Sojean's homeworld and his people and everything else, I wouldn't say, hey,
21:34
Speaker 2: we need a six issue mini series or a twelve
21:38
Speaker 2: issue maxi series dedicated to Sojoan and his world and
21:43
Speaker 2: his people, because I just don't know what numbers those
21:47
Speaker 2: would put up when it comes to when it comes
21:51
Speaker 2: to comics. But when you connect it if you if
21:57
Speaker 2: you title this book thing and you give it the
22:02
Speaker 2: subtitle a Mask of Fear prequel or something, you get
22:08
Speaker 2: all the people that have read Mask of Fear to
22:12
Speaker 2: go and run and get that book.
22:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they did something similar with Legends. I feel
22:18
Speaker 3: like with the New Jedi Order trilogy, where they had
22:23
Speaker 3: they had two ebooks that were set up to kind
22:26
Speaker 3: of telling like the story of like how Jason started
22:30
Speaker 3: his fault to the dark Side and how Jana recovered
22:33
Speaker 3: the loss of her brother recovered from the loss of
22:36
Speaker 3: her brother. So they've done something similar. And actually I
22:42
Speaker 3: think technically the Lost Tribe of the Sith novellas were
22:50
Speaker 3: actually published as a helper to the Fate of the
22:56
Speaker 3: Jedi series, because yeah, yeah, so Fate of the Jedi
23:01
Speaker 3: has it's a nine book series where actually, like the
23:07
Speaker 3: Sith species comes out and like interacts with Luke and
23:15
Speaker 3: his kid and like all the others and everything, and
23:19
Speaker 3: so the Fate of the Jedi kind of goes into, hey,
23:23
Speaker 3: this is the Sith species. They were lost on this planet, like,
23:27
Speaker 3: and it's called the Lost Tribe of the Sith, and
23:28
Speaker 3: there's eight novellas and they were eventually published in a
23:32
Speaker 3: trade paperback, but it was something very similar, so there
23:40
Speaker 3: is precedence.
23:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think that it would I think it's
23:45
Speaker 2: something like that would be beneficial for canon novels, especially.
23:49
Speaker 4: With something like this.
23:52
Speaker 2: But speaking to the point where man Mathma makes that decision,
23:58
Speaker 2: she makes the decision to you know, like you said,
24:04
Speaker 2: save lives, but it comes at a cost of her.
24:08
Speaker 3: Own Basically, she loses she loses a lot of pieces
24:13
Speaker 3: of herself, and she loses her stomach together.
24:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, she has like pieces of metal just randomly in
24:21
Speaker 2: her body. Now, Like it's rough, Like I had no
24:27
Speaker 2: idea that this is the direction that they would go.
24:33
Speaker 3: Now, yeah, and I don't know how much it'll come
24:37
Speaker 3: to play later on. Like I feel like the final
24:41
Speaker 3: chapter where she has relations with paren like, I feel
24:44
Speaker 3: like that's the conception of her daughter right there, Like
24:48
Speaker 3: we saw the conception of the daughter there. But it's
24:54
Speaker 3: interesting to see, like, especially considering the planet's a time
24:58
Speaker 3: jump over the next two books and the uh the
25:05
Speaker 3: second one is being written by Rebecca Roanhorse and then
25:09
Speaker 3: fran Wild is writing the third book, So just taking
25:13
Speaker 3: on that different perspective of like, hey, will this affector
25:17
Speaker 3: for the rest of your life kind of thing, and
25:19
Speaker 3: I'm sure it will, but in like what sense of
25:22
Speaker 3: the word so so with So, the other two original
25:32
Speaker 3: character like main characters that are kind of written in
25:37
Speaker 3: this book by Freed is Hockey and Chimmish. And I
25:42
Speaker 3: believe Hockey species is a Legends pull uh, but Chimmish
25:50
Speaker 3: is human. I I'm pretty certain. But Chimmish is non binary. Uh.
25:57
Speaker 3: They use their pronouns this entire books. So there is
26:01
Speaker 3: a representation for the LGBTQ community in this which Freed
26:07
Speaker 3: has been really good at pulling in representation there for
26:11
Speaker 3: like his Alphabet Squadron trilogy. So Chimmish is a really
26:20
Speaker 3: interesting character and she gets or they excuse me, I'm
26:25
Speaker 3: already done it. I just trying to tell myself, like, hey, focus, Chimmish.
26:32
Speaker 3: It's intriguing where their story can go. It feels very
26:40
Speaker 3: extremist the group they're getting themselves. They got themselves involved
26:44
Speaker 3: in with this book with the forty forties, but they
26:51
Speaker 3: make the decision to save my Macma's life and in
26:57
Speaker 3: the process kind of end up on the outskirts because
27:00
Speaker 3: Hockey is a spy master that ends up roped all
27:05
Speaker 3: along with Bail's journey, so she she is spying on
27:09
Speaker 3: Bail but also helping Bail in his quest to redeem
27:13
Speaker 3: the Jedi. But also Hockey is training Chemish. So I'm
27:21
Speaker 3: curious to see how their stories will progress over the
27:28
Speaker 3: next two books, like if they will come into play
27:30
Speaker 3: like its hockey now going to be the spy master
27:33
Speaker 3: for the Rebel Alliance? What do you think?
27:38
Speaker 2: I I think so like and again like I almost
27:48
Speaker 2: can see and I I always wait until the audiobook
27:56
Speaker 2: to pronounce these words are these games? Because I saw
28:00
Speaker 2: hockey and for some reason, I just wanted to pronounce
28:03
Speaker 2: it hakai, but uh, hockey.
28:09
Speaker 4: They like.
28:12
Speaker 2: They also like, there's guys, there's a lot of anger
28:16
Speaker 2: in this book, and it's just because it comes with politics,
28:22
Speaker 2: like it's just like lives are at stake, yep.
28:28
Speaker 3: And.
28:32
Speaker 2: Hakai like they here's I did again?
28:36
Speaker 4: Hockey? Hockey? Like there's a there's a moment, right.
28:43
Speaker 2: What I'm trying to remember very early in the book,
28:46
Speaker 2: well not very early, it's like mid like maybe chapter
28:51
Speaker 2: like twenty eight to thirty, when all hell breaks loose
29:00
Speaker 2: and that's when Bail excuse me, leaves with I'm forgetting
29:10
Speaker 2: his name again Sojourn, and they leave Hockey behind and
29:17
Speaker 2: then like Hockey is found by clones.
29:22
Speaker 3: And then she realizes that bail was right, that they
29:25
Speaker 3: were coming to kill him.
29:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so like Hockey is trying to play it
29:30
Speaker 2: safe also because they're very quick on their feet, because
29:34
Speaker 2: there's a moment when there's a like a general or
29:37
Speaker 2: commander of one of the clones gets a call and
29:42
Speaker 2: Hockey is like watching them in their peripherals and just
29:49
Speaker 2: getting like only his very subtle responses to the one
29:54
Speaker 2: sided conversation and like reading his body like language and everything,
30:01
Speaker 2: and their like uh shit, like here we go, like
30:06
Speaker 2: something's about to go down. And so I do think
30:10
Speaker 2: that Hockey will in some ways mirror Sojean's story, You do.
30:22
Speaker 4: I do.
30:23
Speaker 2: I think that Sojourn up until his death played both sides,
30:33
Speaker 2: but it was not in the sense of trying to survive.
30:39
Speaker 2: He played both sides because he got the right information
30:43
Speaker 2: at the right time for the side that he was playing. Yeah,
30:49
Speaker 2: because all he cared about, in a very again sick
30:54
Speaker 2: minded way, was his form of justice. And I think
31:01
Speaker 2: Hockey is going to devolve to.
31:06
Speaker 4: That type of individual.
31:09
Speaker 2: Because right right now they are yes or no, sir,
31:13
Speaker 2: like I follow orders. Let's get this done. I'm gonna
31:17
Speaker 2: do this, you know, for the Empire. I'm gonna do this,
31:20
Speaker 2: and da da da.
31:22
Speaker 4: And it's just like.
31:24
Speaker 2: At one point in this series, I think they're gonna snap. Yeah,
31:31
Speaker 2: and it's gonna get to that point. Like that's what
31:33
Speaker 2: I feel.
31:35
Speaker 3: I don't know if Hockey will snap. I do feel
31:38
Speaker 3: like Shimmish will snap, especially if they end up confronting
31:46
Speaker 3: mon Matha, Like if they get involved with the Rebel alliance.
31:50
Speaker 3: There needs to be a Shimmish mon Mathma confrontation mm hmmm,
31:57
Speaker 3: because Shimmish has to talk about her cousin Zuma, who
32:04
Speaker 3: gets murdered because of Man, and that's what they go
32:08
Speaker 3: off on in the quest is like why did Zuma
32:10
Speaker 3: have to die? Like that's the question Mush wants to know,
32:14
Speaker 3: and it'll come down to a confrontation with Man. I'm
32:18
Speaker 3: fairly certain by the way, I know we've kind of
32:21
Speaker 3: moved off of mind, but I have to talk about
32:25
Speaker 3: the audiobook for this because we with the Force Unleashed
32:31
Speaker 3: we had literally just talked about how it's probably one
32:34
Speaker 3: of the worst produced audiobooks that Random House Worlds is
32:38
Speaker 3: kind of had with Star Wars. This phenomenally produced. January
32:44
Speaker 3: will fully killed it, like the impression she gives to mind,
32:50
Speaker 3: because that's like the biggest part of why she's here
32:54
Speaker 3: is mon is the main character in this. Like yes,
32:58
Speaker 3: Bail saw An, other people have perspectives, but on is
33:03
Speaker 3: the focus here. She's the character on the front of
33:06
Speaker 3: the book after all. So having January Voice do the
33:14
Speaker 3: audiobook for this was super important, Like we had talked
33:17
Speaker 3: about a couple of weeks ago when we found out
33:19
Speaker 3: January was doing the audiobook for this, and she just
33:24
Speaker 3: absolutely did an amazing job, like brava, like great job.
33:30
Speaker 2: We had the awesome opportunity from Random House Worlds give
33:36
Speaker 2: us the audiobook in advance, and you're right, it.
33:41
Speaker 4: Was beyond.
33:45
Speaker 2: Beyond Like it was light years away from what we
33:49
Speaker 2: had listened to with the Fourth Unleashed that and and
33:56
Speaker 2: I'm a fan of Mark Thompson. I know you're a
33:58
Speaker 2: fan of Thompson.
34:00
Speaker 4: We've had our.
34:01
Speaker 2: Qualms with him being like the Star Wars person, like
34:07
Speaker 2: the the the go to for these books. But this
34:16
Speaker 2: felt and sounded great. It was absolutely amazing well produced.
34:25
Speaker 2: There was emotion in there, there was it was it
34:29
Speaker 2: was excellent.
34:32
Speaker 3: And like there's not like there is like heavy emotion
34:37
Speaker 3: in this because there's not like a singular enemy in this,
34:42
Speaker 3: Like the separatists are the enemy, the Empires the enemy,
34:46
Speaker 3: but also like just the Republic itself is the enemy.
34:52
Speaker 3: Like there's enemies on all fronts. Like there's not a
34:55
Speaker 3: focal enemy in this. Everybody else has their own enemy.
34:59
Speaker 2: Well yeah, Like and there's also the enemy of paranoia.
35:03
Speaker 2: Like I think that is a wonderful aspect of this
35:09
Speaker 2: book because of how intense it makes scenes Like there's
35:13
Speaker 2: a moment in this scene and we talked about briefly
35:17
Speaker 2: in our part one, but like when man Mathma is
35:24
Speaker 2: like just standing in front of a window and she's like,
35:28
Speaker 2: I know you're watching, and I know you're listening, but
35:32
Speaker 2: I don't care.
35:32
Speaker 4: So I'm just gonna wave wave and she's like waving.
35:37
Speaker 4: She's like a crazy person.
35:38
Speaker 2: She's waving at no one.
35:40
Speaker 4: But we have no idea, like.
35:41
Speaker 2: We like like, but just the way it plays out
35:47
Speaker 2: just kind of it gives you this feeling of like
35:52
Speaker 2: they have to watch every moment of their lives.
35:56
Speaker 3: No, yeah, And I mean that's how Hockey's introduced, is
36:01
Speaker 3: she's watching every moment of Bail's life. Yeah, Like, it's
36:09
Speaker 3: kind of wild how things turned so fast, because I
36:16
Speaker 3: mean this literally picks up days after Palpatine's announcement. Uh Like,
36:22
Speaker 3: And by the way, if you're not following Tom Holler
36:26
Speaker 3: on substack, he did an incredible one hundred item list
36:30
Speaker 3: about this book.
36:32
Speaker 2: I haven't read it yet, but I saw it in
36:34
Speaker 2: my email.
36:34
Speaker 4: I was like, Oh, I need to get to it.
36:36
Speaker 3: There were some really good things in there. Like. He
36:39
Speaker 3: also talks about why Darth Vader doesn't make an appearance.
36:43
Speaker 4: God, okay, I need I need to I need to.
36:49
Speaker 3: Gosh, I forget where I was going with that, And
36:51
Speaker 3: we're about to jump into our third ad, y'all. We
36:55
Speaker 3: promise we'll be right back. We promise. Oh the crawl,
37:00
Speaker 3: So that was the whole point is item ninety one
37:02
Speaker 3: on his list. I knew it had something to do
37:04
Speaker 3: with this. He talks about how most Star Wars books
37:08
Speaker 3: have a crawl. This one instead opens with Palpatine's speech
37:14
Speaker 3: from reorganizing the Republican the Empire and Padme's observation. So
37:21
Speaker 3: this is how Alberty dies with thunderous applause. Like, so
37:25
Speaker 3: that's literally setting us up for this entire book. Basically. Okay,
37:32
Speaker 3: so we've talked about the politics in this book. We've
37:36
Speaker 3: talked about man Machma, We've talked about Bail. I feel
37:40
Speaker 3: like Bail is Bail in this book. Uh, what did
37:45
Speaker 3: you think about Saw? Saw kind of disappears after the
37:54
Speaker 3: archaeological area with the where Bail gets basically captured.
38:04
Speaker 4: Yeah.
38:06
Speaker 2: I thought Saw was a good addition in this just
38:15
Speaker 2: like how he was introduced in Rogue one. He is
38:21
Speaker 2: a wild card. He is uncontrollable. He gives insight to
38:30
Speaker 2: our main characters and it's and it's it's insight, but
38:37
Speaker 2: it's like that's so fucking crazy. I'm not gonna do that,
38:42
Speaker 2: but it leaves that imprint on them. For the remainder
38:46
Speaker 2: of the book, it's like, okay, like Saw maybe crazy,
38:51
Speaker 2: but he knows what he's doing.
38:53
Speaker 3: And I mean even Mon brings him in at the end,
38:57
Speaker 3: like they have their first discussion of about rebelling and
39:02
Speaker 3: mat and Bail is on board, Saw us on board,
39:05
Speaker 3: and Mom is still like like, I'm gonna do this
39:09
Speaker 3: from the political side of things, I'm gonna compromise, and
39:11
Speaker 3: Biale and Sall are like, you don't compromise with the enemy.
39:16
Speaker 2: Well, not only that, but also what I love about
39:21
Speaker 2: this more often than not when it comes to stories
39:24
Speaker 2: like this and what I well, first i'm gonna I'm
39:27
Speaker 2: gonna start with what I hate. What I hate and
39:29
Speaker 2: what most people hate with books like this is that
39:33
Speaker 2: there's zero character development. Like they can they can go,
39:37
Speaker 2: they can go through so much in a story, and
39:39
Speaker 2: then they do the same thing over and over again.
39:41
Speaker 4: And that's kind of.
39:42
Speaker 2: What you're thinking with mon here mm hm. But then
39:47
Speaker 2: there's this statement of like Saws like you don't got
39:51
Speaker 2: the guts, which is actually really harsh to say for
39:55
Speaker 2: somebody who literally lost their stomach. But but bon Bon's
40:03
Speaker 2: She's like, the hell I do? I killed a man
40:08
Speaker 2: and I'm still standing and I'll do it again. He
40:14
Speaker 2: says that to her, and like that was probably the
40:16
Speaker 2: coldest line of this entire damn book. Like there's so
40:20
Speaker 2: much shit that happened in all seventy one chapters. But
40:25
Speaker 2: when you get into that moment where Saw is calling
40:29
Speaker 2: her out and she's like, bitch, do it again.
40:34
Speaker 3: And then she has the nerve to go, but how
40:38
Speaker 3: do I contact you when I mean something? And she
40:40
Speaker 3: goes you will never contact me, never, not in a
40:46
Speaker 3: million years. Like, I just can't wait to see how
40:52
Speaker 3: their relationship evolves over this, because we see where they're
40:57
Speaker 3: at in Rebels, we see where they're at in and
41:00
Speaker 3: pre season one, and we're gonna see where they end
41:02
Speaker 3: up at. Yeah, with the end of and Or season two. Like,
41:09
Speaker 3: I'm so intrigued to see how this is gonna go.
41:12
Speaker 3: And I think I think now I know why because
41:18
Speaker 3: we talked about when this trilogy was announced, Hey, why
41:21
Speaker 3: are they spreading this out over three years? Like, if
41:26
Speaker 3: you have three different authors involved, why do you need
41:30
Speaker 3: to spread it out that much? Uh? And I think
41:35
Speaker 3: now I know why, because they needed to kind of
41:38
Speaker 3: see and Or season two and digest. Hey, this is
41:43
Speaker 3: where these characters end up at the end of this
41:46
Speaker 3: nineteen year span, and I need to account for that
41:51
Speaker 3: in the midst.
41:53
Speaker 2: It's gonna be very interesting to see because when does
41:59
Speaker 2: we're gonna clearly see all of season two prior to
42:04
Speaker 2: seeing whatever book two is gonna be named?
42:07
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, book two, Book two is do out next.
42:10
Speaker 4: Spring next spring.
42:11
Speaker 2: Okay, so I assume with that being said, and again
42:18
Speaker 2: Tom has already said from time and time again, nothing
42:22
Speaker 2: is holding them back from making any announcements at any
42:25
Speaker 2: time that they want.
42:27
Speaker 4: Correct, right, I'm gonna ballpark it.
42:32
Speaker 2: We're going to get We're not gonna get the title
42:35
Speaker 2: at celebration. We're not gonna get the title at celebration
42:39
Speaker 2: because it is still within the cycle of people being
42:43
Speaker 2: able to read Mask of Fear like it by the
42:48
Speaker 2: time you guys are listening to this on Thursday, two
42:54
Speaker 2: days Yeah, like it's just come out. Like so, I'm
42:59
Speaker 2: gonna ball market We're going to get the title of
43:06
Speaker 2: the second book.
43:09
Speaker 4: In July. I'm gonna say July.
43:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's reasonable because you've got the end
43:16
Speaker 3: of High Republic in June. I think July is reasonable
43:19
Speaker 3: because then you also have the opportunity at if they
43:24
Speaker 3: choose to do the same thing New York Comic Con
43:27
Speaker 3: they did the early copies.
43:30
Speaker 2: You kind of have that moment like you could possibly
43:34
Speaker 2: see the announcement at San Diego, but I don't, like,
43:38
Speaker 2: I think it's anywhere from right before San Diego to
43:42
Speaker 2: San Diego to make that announcement.
43:44
Speaker 3: I don't think you're gonna see it at San Diego
43:47
Speaker 3: because I think san Diego we see the new publishing initiative.
43:51
Speaker 2: Ah, so true.
43:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I don't think. And you people can say, oh, well,
43:58
Speaker 3: there's not been a new publishing initiative announced. They have something.
44:03
Speaker 3: They have something, they've.
44:05
Speaker 4: Been teasing it for a while, they've been for a while.
44:09
Speaker 3: Okay. So we've talked about SAW, We've talked about hockey
44:14
Speaker 3: and Chinese, We've talked about bail, We've talked about Mond,
44:17
Speaker 3: we've talked about the politics. We've talked about representation here,
44:22
Speaker 3: we've talked about the audiobook. Is there anything else that
44:25
Speaker 3: we are missing here, Clay.
44:28
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think that is all of
44:31
Speaker 2: mask of fear in a nutshell.
44:35
Speaker 3: Our thoughts, and there's a lot that happens.
44:37
Speaker 2: There's a lot that happens. And I want to reiterate
44:41
Speaker 2: for real, if you are an individual that uh feels
44:50
Speaker 2: like they don't want their real world in a entertainment
44:57
Speaker 2: since they if you're getting into a book to step
45:02
Speaker 2: away from the real world, I would hold off on
45:05
Speaker 2: this book just for a little bit. If you are
45:09
Speaker 2: needing a new way to interpret how life is making
45:13
Speaker 2: you feel, I say pick up this book. There is
45:18
Speaker 2: a lot happening in today's world that is scary. Similar
45:24
Speaker 2: to what's going on in Mask of Fear, And I
45:28
Speaker 2: know that me and Katie could probably go on huge
45:31
Speaker 2: tangents right now about what is going on in real life.
45:35
Speaker 2: But one thing that I will say is that when
45:40
Speaker 2: I didn't want to deal with real life, I put
45:43
Speaker 2: my nose in a book where I put my nose
45:46
Speaker 2: into comics and life imitates art, and it kind of
45:51
Speaker 2: got annoying for me. But then I very quickly realize
45:55
Speaker 2: the way that real life, like the reason and why
46:00
Speaker 2: you see quote unquote politics in your comics is because
46:04
Speaker 2: comics were invented because of politics.
46:08
Speaker 3: Like Star Wars was invented because.
46:10
Speaker 2: Of politics, exactly, like it is the reason why like
46:16
Speaker 2: they exist, and I think that it's important to acknowledge that.
46:20
Speaker 2: And although times can be scary, just like Tom says
46:26
Speaker 2: in his one hundred facts about this book, this book
46:31
Speaker 2: is about hope, as as weird as that sounds, and
46:36
Speaker 2: you're going to think, how the hell is this book
46:40
Speaker 2: about hope? Like you need to understand the overall story
46:45
Speaker 2: of Star Wars too, like there is just an overall
46:50
Speaker 2: like feeling of like hey, like Empire strikes back, but
46:54
Speaker 2: Return of the Jedi comes right after, like you have
46:57
Speaker 2: to remember these things.
46:59
Speaker 4: So I.
47:04
Speaker 2: Might be saying this out loud to better help myself,
47:08
Speaker 2: you know, understand what is going on in real life
47:10
Speaker 2: right now. But this book did have some moments that
47:18
Speaker 2: were a little too real for me. I had to
47:21
Speaker 2: step away from the book for a little bit. And
47:23
Speaker 2: that's okay too. Nobody's telling you that you have to
47:25
Speaker 2: finish this book within a week, a month, whatever. Support
47:31
Speaker 2: your local bookstore if and when you can and get
47:35
Speaker 2: this book. But it's a great book, and I would
47:38
Speaker 2: say give it a try.
47:40
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I was going to say something too, but I
47:44
Speaker 3: really can't say it any better than Clay just said it.
47:47
Speaker 3: So with that, Clay, where can they find you?
47:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can find me at Blue Sky. I think
47:54
Speaker 2: I've made my decision. That's where I'm going to be
48:00
Speaker 2: open threads to look at a lot of other people's stuff.
48:05
Speaker 2: But when it comes to posting, when it comes to
48:08
Speaker 2: being in a good place, I feel like Blue Sky
48:11
Speaker 2: right there is the place to be. There's still a
48:16
Speaker 2: lot of crappy stuff, and it's mostly because of the
48:19
Speaker 2: world that we're living in, and people are just kind
48:22
Speaker 2: of reiterating it. Not so much to be ship posters
48:25
Speaker 2: but to be like, hey, we all still got to
48:27
Speaker 2: be aware of the crappy life that we are unfortunately
48:30
Speaker 2: living in. But I am mostly talking about comics over
48:36
Speaker 2: at Blue Sky because that's my job. So if you
48:39
Speaker 2: are into that, I will be posting there for that.
48:45
Speaker 2: I want to go ahead and take this time also
48:49
Speaker 2: to think all of you who followed me into the
48:52
Speaker 2: journey of Super SINSI over at Ranger Alliance. Because I
48:58
Speaker 2: just did all of the annalysis of our old episodes
49:01
Speaker 2: and our new episodes.
49:03
Speaker 4: We have had a net.
49:06
Speaker 2: Gain of twenty downloads comparatively to our older episodes dealing
49:13
Speaker 2: with Power Rangers jumping into the new series of Super Sentai.
49:18
Speaker 2: We jumped from forty to sixty. It feels good. I
49:22
Speaker 2: really love it. Me and Jake are really enjoying the
49:26
Speaker 2: new series. We just recorded an episode today as the
49:29
Speaker 2: time we are recording this, and so that episode is
49:33
Speaker 2: actually going to be live by the time everybody else
49:36
Speaker 2: is listening to this episode of Star Wars Alliance, So
49:38
Speaker 2: go check that out as well. Katie, We're gonna follow you, y'all.
49:44
Speaker 3: You can find me mostly lurking on most social media
49:50
Speaker 3: platforms into the at slice of Katie this show. You
49:54
Speaker 3: can shoot us a message via email. It is at
49:58
Speaker 3: Star Wars Alliance at gmail dot com. Remember there's no
50:02
Speaker 3: eight in wards. It is very important, Please don't forget it.
50:06
Speaker 3: You can also shoot us a text or leave us
50:09
Speaker 3: a voicemail with a nickname so we know how to
50:12
Speaker 3: talk to you on the show. That phone number is
50:15
Speaker 3: eight three zero five three eight four eight two eight.
50:19
Speaker 3: We have an account on the site that shall not
50:22
Speaker 3: be named, but we're not using it. We have kind
50:26
Speaker 3: of stepped away from there, so we're not actively posting
50:29
Speaker 3: on social media at the moment. Clay and I still
50:32
Speaker 3: have to talk about it. I feel bad making Clay
50:35
Speaker 3: do all of our social media shitwork because I don't
50:40
Speaker 3: sign into any sites anymore basically, so.
50:43
Speaker 2: And I'm already attached to my phone, so it's totally fine.
50:49
Speaker 2: But yeah, we've we've decided to not go to that
50:53
Speaker 2: other site anymore. But I will continuously remind people that
50:59
Speaker 2: we are live for Star Wars Alliance on those Wednesday
51:03
Speaker 2: nights and everything else, so be on the lookout on
51:07
Speaker 2: threads and on Blue Sky.
51:10
Speaker 3: Yes. So with that, y'all, I want to wish everyone
51:13
Speaker 3: a great day or night whatever. Timeday you are listening
51:16
Speaker 3: or watching, and we will see you next time. Then
51:18
Speaker 3: the Force will be with you