Starting 9 November, sid_guardian on Dreamwidth is hosting a read-along of the Guardian novel by priest. Each week we’ll post a few excerpts to start things off. Feel free to drop in and join the discussion, whether or not you're keeping up with our reading schedule.
Fans of the novel, the drama, or both are very welcome! We expect we'll talk about the adaptation and do a lot of compare-and-contrast.
What: read-along of Guardian by priest, starting with volume 1
When: weekly, starting 9 November
How much: two chapters per week (see here for schedule)
Where: sid_guardian community on Dreamwidth
Who: all Guardian fans, novel and drama, as well as anyone who just wants to give it a try.
Star Wars: Brotherhood by Mike Chen read-along, hardback edition
Part 1, chapters 1-10
Wherein I react as I read this novel. It's a Star Wars novel, there will be good, bad and ugly. You have been warned. Spoilers below.
Chapter 1
Skip. Explosion happens. Ruug is shocked.
Chapter 2
Pg 10, Opening words are: "Anakin Skywalker stood" where is he standing? Only the Shadow knows.
Pg 11, Now know that he's standing in the Temple courtyard under the Great Tree. I feel like this is a long time to wait before finding out where the POV character is. (this might be a me problem)
Pg 11, The Jedi are called "General" just because it's a convention the clones came up with?
Pg 11, Mentioning Siri Tachi.
Pg 11, Siri is present as a master to a new knight but nary a word about a certain Ferus Olin? For shame.
Pg 11, Jedi are temporarily rotating into an open Council position? Kinda feel like the Council would convene and, using the guidance of the Force, would elect a new member instead of trial a bunch of people, but whatever.
Pg 12, Anakin's emotions come from his...hands?
Pg 13, Anakin thinks he's the only Jedi to feel emotions.
Pg 13, Anakin thinks Mace hates him.
Pg 14, Jedi clap after Mace finishes his speech.
Pg 14, Obi-Wan is flustered when a politician doesn't show up on time. The man who doesn't trust and has distaste for politicians.
Pg 14-15, The Jedi invited politicians to attend the not-knighting, knighting ceremony. Why would they though? It's not a high school graduation, it's an advancement within a closed order.
Pg 15, The Jedi Council take Palpatine's emergency call in the middle of the ceremony, I assume for drama's sake. Then Yoda dismisses the onlookers except for all the random knights instead of taking the meeting private and deciding what to do after hearing the information like they do in the movies...
Pg 15, Obi-Wan has to remind Anakin that he's a knight now, I don't hate it but I'm not loving how it's done here or Anakin's reaction.
Pg 16, This chapter is finally done. I kind of don't know why we needed to even have Chapter 1 if all the information has to be revealed again later on. I also thought we spent way too much time in this chapter catching up on Anakin's backstory and him thinking about his life to this point. Kind of a dull start but let's hope it gets better.
Chapter 3
Pg 17, Obi-Wan reiterates that Anakin is his equal, seems unlikely for him to do that.
Pg 17, Obi-Wan is surprised Anakin might need a period of adjustment to make the transition from Padawan to Knight because he and Obi-Wan had argued so much in the past.
Pg 18, Obi-Wan doubts his own ability to temp as a Council Member.
Pg 18, Neutral systems apparently "Work with all sides" while remaining members of the Republic and Galactic Senate... (In my opinion, neutral systems in a civil war are more like Kansas during the US civil war and less like Switzerland during WWII, but whatever)
Pg 19, What "long, volatile history" does Anakin have with Neimoidians? Is this a reference to The Phantom Menace? Anakin was barely involved in the whole thing.
Pg 21, No one is waiting to see if the Neimoidians are asking for help with investigating this bombing before making plans to do so... And the Jedi apparently need to develop a strategy to propose to be approved by the chancellor and the Council before going into the field and learning about the disaster...
Pg 22, So, the Jedi have knighted everyone already months ago, but they have a post-knighting ceremony where they give pep-talks to the new knights for some reason like it's a high school graduation...
Pg 23, Padmé and her retinue just...come into the Temple? Like, she's just allowed in? Without an escort or anything? So she can attend Jedi High graduation? What? This is a closed monastic order, randos aren't allowed in the cloister!
Pg 25, Padmé calls Obi-Wan "Master Kenobi" but gives him no more personalized greeting even though it seems she hasn't seen him since Geonosis? By Episode III she's much more friendly to him and it seems strange to have her be so distant after all they went through together just a couple months ago.
Pg 25, Now Bail Organa is just...hanging around in the Jedi Temple too?
Chapter 4
Pg 27-29, Anakin takes Padmé on a hot date racing on an illegal track in the underbelly of Coruscant... This is what they decide to do the first time they see each other after getting married...what? (My kingdom for an EU book about Anakin that doesn't involve him getting into illegal races!)
Pg 29, Anakin is wearing a mechanics coat as a disguise but as a 9 year old on the outer rim he saw straight through Qui-Gon's poncho disguise so who does he think he's fooling?
Pg 29-30, Anakin is having some difficulty adjusting to his replacement arm, I like this thoughtfulness.
Pg 31, Padmé: "Let's grab something to eat instead of getting arrested." Good lord, the dialogue here is just...not it. Did the author only watch three episodes of the Clone Wars before writing this book?
Pg 31, Jedi are acting as medics?
Pg 31, I like Anakin reflecting on how his life might be if Qui-Gon hadn't found him.
Pg 32, Anakin and Padmé make fun of Obi-Wan's hair... Obi-Wan has traditional "knight" hair, throw a suit of chain mail on him and he's ready for an Aurthurian round table. Trish Bigger knew what she was about when designing his look for Episode II.
Pg 33, Padmé notices people's destitution, Anakin doesn't unless he really tries because she's so much more compassionate than the Jedi. The boy who grew up destitute and can feel people's emotions through the Force. That boy. Yeah.
Pg 33, "Anakin's own sun-dragon heart" well, that's a line for sure
Chapter 5
Pg 36, Dex was an information broker?
Pg 38, Obi-Wan is so naïve that he can't conceive that someone from "his side" would be behind the bombing, instead he jumps to conclusions instead of letting the Force guide...
Pg 39-40, Obi-Wan seems pretty dim here, he's asking Dex how he should conduct an investigation and how to manage the situation diplomatically, ugh
Pg 39-40, Dex brings up Satine for no real reason just to needle Obi-Wan on having a girlfriend in the past (sidenote: there needs to be a moratorium on giving Obi-Wan girlfriends, please Disney, he has too many!)
Chapter 6
Pg 42-43, Padmé eating space shawarma: "This is really, really, really, good. And, I don't want to know what's in it." What is this dialogue? Padmé is a senator not a valley girl.
Pg 44, Awww, Anakin gives Padmé his Padawan braid just like in the micro-series. ❤️
Pg 44, Why do all these authors keep referring to all children as younglings? In the movies the term was used for children at the Temple, not children in general, why do they keep doing it?
Sometimes this book isn't clear about who is doing what where. More than once I've had to reread a description of someone's actions multiple times to try and parse exactly what's happening. Help me out here Mr. Chen!
I do like that Padmé and Anakin at least seem to like each other unlike in some shows *cough* the Clone Wars *cough* so that's nice.
Chapter 7
Pg 52, Obi-Wan has to rely on thoughts of Qui-Gon to not lose his composure when speaking with Dooku...
Pg 52-54, Obi-Wan maneuvers himself into a terrible diplomatic situation so that highjinks may commence. *sigh*
Pg 55-56, Palpatine is asking for Padawans to be drafted and Mace says well, "We are at war" I swear some people have no respect for that man. Then Yoda says for Obi-Wan not to worry his little head about it and focus on the bombing and Obi-Wan takes it as a sign of faith in his abilities? Why is Obi-Wan so dumb here?
Pg 56, "Even Jedi had interpersonal conflicts" just, what? A monastic order where these knights regularly have to depend on each other for their lives and ya know, it's just like any workplace where people don't get along with the office Karen.
Pg 56, This chapter just won't let me gooooo. "A decade had passed since Obi-Wan handled the responsibility [of teaching younglings]...and he cringed a bit inside. It quickly turned into a grin at the thought of Anakin Skywalker...the Chosen One, the young man who charged headfirst into Count Dooku's lightning attack, now headed toward the biggest challenge of his life." This whole paragraph is just...yikes. If this was supposed to be funny it did not manage that.
Chapter 8
Pg 58-59, Temple droids *sigh* "Professor Huyang" *sigh* Random little girl who we don't even know the age of *sigh* Referencing lots of Padawans dying at Geonosis despite none actually being there *sigh* Female zabrak with horns *sigh*
Chapter 9
Everyone is still at the Temple btw, almost 10 chapters in and we are still not on an adventure.
Pg 63, Anakin reconfigures Temple screens to show podracing... something he never so much as mentions after Episode I.
Pg 63, Referring to the place where the Jedi take their meals as the refectory like in a monastery is good, I like it.
Pg 64, Anakin telling childish lies about changing the screens to show podracing... am I supposed to believe that Anakin is 19/20 here or 13/14? 'Cause that's the vibe I'm getting.
Also, this is chapter 9 and the first chapter where Anakin and Obi-Wan actually talk to each other. What's the deal? Isn't this book about them and their relationship? Shouldn't they at least spend a little time together?
Pg 65, Obi-Wan chooses not to have a heart-to-heart with Anakin because he wants to stay focused on the bombing... you know, work and rules is all Obi-Wan thinks about, no time to think about his closest friend/pseudo son...
Pg 67, Anakin thinks he's too good to train younglings...
The time has come to announce this blog's The Name of the Wind Read-Along, coming at you this summer starting July 1st.
Whether you're a first time reader or hankering for a reread, your esteemed hosts welcome you in sharing this experience with fellow readers and KKC lovers.
We're hard at work whipping up prompts to discuss the book, its characters, themes, and all that oh-so-good nerdy stuff.
To give you an idea of the reading schedule, it's going to look something like this:
July 1-3: prologue - chapter 9
July 4-10: chapters 10 - 34
July 11-17: chapters 35 - 58
July 18-24: chapters 59 - 78
July 25-31: chapters 79 - epilogue
(p.s. some chapters are super short so hopefully the amount of chapters each week isn't too intimidating!)
Though we have a certain timetable in mind, you by no means have to follow it. You can read as much or as little as you like each week, we just wanted to provide a more structured option for those who would like it. Just have fun with it and enjoy the story at your own pace!
We're also going to be using these tags when discussing/posting about the book and the read-along, so feel free to use them for your own posts:
#kkcreadalong
#notwreadalong
And for the sake of first time readers, we'll use spoiler tags! Sometimes we want to discuss things from the first book in light of events from the second one, so remember to filter the tags if you don't want to see it
#notwspoilers
#wmfspoilers
We're all looking forward to reading this amazing story with you all! See you in July!
Throughout January 2021, I will be hosting a read-along of Ovid’s Heroides (Letters from Heroines) over on my Instagram, @readingancientclassics. Feel free to join! You can either read-along on your own, or I can add you to the group chat if you’d like to read & discuss communally. There are also a couple of free English translations legally available online.
