Execute Chapter 66 : a Star Wars fiction podcast

With a title like that you might be expecting some grand story along the lines of Heir to the Empire. Prepare to have your expectations disappointed. This is a fairly unique book that takes place entirely from Luke's point of view, but it isn't grand or epic. While it isn't terrible, it does feel like a series of fetch quests with only occasional (and out of character) glimpses into Luke's feeling...

This week we go for a little more of the "beyond" in our "canon, legends, and beyond" with a wrap up of Season 1 of The Bad Batch. A special episode requires special guests, and this time we're joined by the very special Arian Gulick and Gary Mitchel. Tune in as we settle a debate for the ages: is it O-MEG-a or O-MEEG-a? Do you wish The Clone Wars could never end? Well lucky for you Disney+ found...

Time for another set of High Republic books. First up is The Rising Storm. The Nihil are still rampaging through the galaxy, and the Drengir are destroying all life on any planet they land on. What does the chancellor decide to do? Why throw a huge and expensive galactic fair of course. Because there's no way that could go wrong. Shockingly it goes really wrong, and it's up the Jedi to try and sav...

This week we have an EC66 first! Fan and friend of the show Gary Mitchel, fresh from ConGregate 7, brings us an exclusive interview with the founder of the Expanded Universe, New York Times Best-Selling Author and Grand Admiral Thrawn's daddy, Timothy Zahn. Yeah, that's right. An actual interview with an actual Star Wars person. And not just any Star Wars person. Tim. Kriffin'. Zahn. Big time righ...

This week we're going back to our favorite Star Wars author, James Luceno, with Catalyst: A Rogue One novel. The backstory on the design and construction of the first Death Star is a perfect story for Luceno to be telling. Like his other works it might be light on the action, but it makes up for that in character building, political in-fighting, and the overall general wormy sneakiness that is Ors...

Time for more Claudia Gray, and yes we will eventually cover all of her books. She's one of the best because her YA books don't really feel like the YA you've come to expect. Leia is 16, and go through her rite of passage to be recognized as the future queen of Alderaan. Along the way she gets into a lot of trouble, uncovers a dangerous secret about her parents, and grapples with what it means to...

Have you ever wondered how the Dianoga ended up in the trash compactor? Or why TK-421 was so bad has his job? Or perhaps you wanted many many stories about the cantina in Mos Eisley. If so From a Certain Point of View has you covered. 40 stories by 40 authors for the 40th anniversary of A New Hope. With that much going on they can't all be great, but when this book shines it really shines. There a...

The Clone Wars was canceled with a lot of story lines left hanging. While we're all thrilled we got the end of Ahsoka's journey (the Clone Wars portion of it at least) we never found out what happened to a pretty big character from the series. Dark Disciple gives us the final story of Asajj Ventress. We also get to know seldom seen (and possibly still alive) jedi Quinlan Voss. This is the noveliza...

Mitth'raw'nuruodo is back, and he's as smart as ever. This time he's spreading his smart around so that everyone who works with him gets to share in the strategic and analytical genius we've all come to associate with our favorite blue skinned alien. That's a good thing since it seems pretty clear that the Grysk will be coming hard for Thrawn and the Chiss in the final book of this new trilogy. An...

If The Force Awakens tricked you into thinking Phasma would be an awesome bad guy with a great story: surprise! You just got Maul-ed. So here's a book to give a story to the character that never did anything or went anywhere in the movies. Well she went into a trash compactor, and then a burning chasm, but you get the idea. Phasma grew up on a brutal world as a brutal person, and joined the b...

The finale to the Alphabet Squadron trilogy (does everything HAVE to be a trilogy?) wraps up with Victory's Price. Just what is that price? Pretty cheap for our main heroes actually. Yrica Quell has switched sides yet again, and her former teammates are out for her blood. And hopefully the blood of the remnants of the Empire while they're at it. Chass is lost, Wyl is desperately reaching...

26,000 years before the battle of Yavin some mystical pyramids flew around the galaxy scooping up force sensitive beings to settle on the planet Tython. It's a planet perfectly balanced in the force, and as long as the beings live in balance things are super. Lean too hard into the dark side, and the planet will try to kill you with force storms. Unfortunately, you won't learn any of this from rea...

This week marks the one year anniversary for Execute Chapter 66! To celebrate we're revisiting one of favorite Star Wars authors, James Luceno. Despite the rather generic Jedi, Dark Lord is definitely worth a read. It's not Luceno's fault that the Jedi were all pretty generic until The Clone Wars animated series came out so we'll let him slide. If you've ever wondered what was going on behind Vade...

Two High Republic Books, One High Republic Episode! A Test of Courage Newly knighted Jedi Vern, Master Douglas, and a large number of dignitaries are on their way to the dedication of the Starlight Beacon. Tragedy strikes as a bomb explodes, and kills nearly everyone on-board. That's right, a book for kids begins with the death of hundreds of people. It's actually a surprisingly good read for old...

"The galaxy is at peace" is not the way Star Wars books begin, but then we are in a brand new period of history. The High Republic media (books, comics, etc) are giving us a glimpse into what life was like under a well-run government, and competent Jedi. Light of the Jedi is the first book of this new era, and there's some pretty exciting stuff here. Hyperspace disasters, pyramid scheme pirates, a...

The longest opening crawl ever wraps up with Empire's End. Or is it? Yes it is. Sort of. The last book of this trilogy gives us closure for new favorites like Norra Wexley, and the untimely end of a few others. With so very much happening over the course of three books we spend a lot of time just wrapping all of this up. Whether you loved them or not there really is lot happening here. Until we me...

The Aftermath trilogy takes us from the fall of the Galactic Empire to the rise of the terrible New Republic. In book one (Aftermath) we meet a ton of new characters while revisiting a few old friends. And, of course, the controversial Mr. Bones. Make of him what you will. Regardless, most of the first book is set up for book two (Life Debt). Political intrigue and plotting isn't necessarily best...

Is Lost Stars just Romeo and Juliet set in the Star Wars universe? Yes and no. There are certainly star-crossed lovers, but those lovers also end up at every big thing that happens from Alderaan to Jakuu. Claudia Gray is one of the best Star Wars writers around right now so even her YA stuff doesn't feel as YA as something like Poe Dameron: Free Fall. If you were waiting for us to talk about a bet...

This week we take a break from all that boring reading stuff and talk about the just-finished second season of The Mandalorian. But it's a big task, so we brought some friends along. So listen as Beth, Ryan, Chad and their friends Noel, Gary, and Pete, work their way through this exciting season of television, disagree about the returns of several you-know-whos, and determine once and for all if i...

Before anyone ever knew that Star Wars: A New Hope would really have a sequel there was...another. A book that was super weird, and yet led us to such well known things as kyber crystals. But it was also too early into the story to know that Luke and Leia were related so some stuff got (and reamains) really awkward. Regardless of how it holds up through time this is the earliest Star Wars book, an...

Timothy Zahn has been bringing us the adventures of Grand Admiral Thrawn since the early 90's. While the last trilogy might not have been everything fans wanted, Zahn did have his hands tied in the canon situation of the time. Now that Zahn has been let off the leash we're getting to see a lot more of what we've been waiting for. It's time to finally learn more about the Chiss, the unknown regions...

Han Solo is a handsome young rogue with dreams of flying off into the stars and finding adventure. Oops...um, sorry. Poe Dameron is those things too, but in a much more poorly written way. If you wanted to know more about the Spice Runners of Kajimi (without really finding out anything about them or seeing any actual spice running) then this might be the book for you. We've occasionally been disap...

This week we talk about the audio play Jedi Lost. The Skywalker saga may be over, but there are enough books to keep Star Wars fans satisfied for years to come. Chad, Ryan, and Beth have started a series to keep you up to date on all the action. Join our book club as we run down the best that canon, legends, and comics have to offer.  Music by Lester Dragstredt of  The Mystery Men? &nbsp...

The second book of the series from Alexander Freed. The ragtag group of pilots from Alphabet Squadron is back, but they're finally working as a team. You'll get to know them all much better this time around, but if you were hoping for more Hera you're out of luck. What you do get is some crazy stuff that we won't spoil here. Spoilers are for the show! There are some excellent twists and turns...

Today you get two books for the price of one. Padme wasn't well fleshed out in the prequel movies. Now is our chance to learn more about who she was outside of her weird relationship to Anakin. The first book shows her transition from queen to senator. The second is a prequel the gives us the girl becoming queen. The Queen's Gambit isn't out yet so you'll just have to wait to see what that transit...