(no subject)

[skygiants]

Some top moments from Medstar II: Jedi Healer, the sequel to Medstar I: Battle Surgeons, the second Star Wars tie-in novel about overworked and stressed-out medical professionals on a backwater yet highly contested jungle planet during the Clone Wars:

- the ongoing subplot about doctors stealing doses of the miracle drug produced on-planet, which is not allowed to be used on-planet because of how valuable it is, to secretly use on dying clones and low-level personnel

- the loving description of Barriss Offee's lifetime-guarantee spun-plastic boots

- the Doogie Houser wonder kid prodigy who shows up at the beginning of the book to replace a beloved dead character and does nothing plot-relevant throughout the book except continue being annoyingly good at surgery

- "she couldn't talk to any of her colleagues -- what was she going to say? Hey, Jos, I just became one with the entire galaxy ... and how's that case of Ortolan rhinorrhea you've been dealing with?"

- the moment the book briefly tried to red herring the audience into thinking a different character was the enemy spy than the one who was obviously the enemy spy; as a red herring it was not particularly effective but it did make me look back and appreciate the surprising skill with which the authors avoided gendered pronouns in the spy's POV sections throughout both books in the duology

- I-Five the droid, staring with dramatic reverence after a new female-coded droid who's just been brought in to work the cantina: "She's beautiful!"
"I-Five ... are you saying you're attracted to Teedle?"
"No. Had you wondering for a second, though, did I not?"

- "From what I've studied of popular culture, I think this is the moment where I'm supposed to remind you of all the wonderful advantages you, as an organic, have over me, a mechanical. Unfortunately, I really can't think of any."

- the later reveal that what the war reporter thought was I-Five joking about assessing Teedle's assets was in fact I-Five and Teedle determining that one of her internal engines could be used to fix an emergency on-station and Teedle subsequently being dismantled for parts, which is just, like, a really good and casually chilling moment that does a better job at digging into themes of disposability and artificial personhood in the Star Wars universe and during the Clone Wars period in specific than other piece of canon I've yet encountered! did not expect that from the hospital soap opera tie-ins tbh!

- "somehow, during his sojourn here, [the hard-boiled three-foot-tall war reporter] had become infected with a germ more deadly than any bug to be found in Drongar's pestilential ecosystem: a conscience"

- the fact that the book resolves with the wonder drug that everyone is fighting over casually mutating into something that's Just Another Plant ... perfect bleak comedy of an ending. Catch-22esque. Yes, please hit me over the face with metaphors about the futility of the war and use as large a sledgehammer as you like, that is exactly what I'm here for!

Apparently there are further tie-in novel adventures of the three-foot-tall war reporter and his best mean droid friend and, on the one hand, they will not be about overworked doctors, and on the other hand, I might read them anyway?? Unfortunately this now appears to be who I am.

Comments

[sovay]

- "somehow, during his sojourn here, [the hard-boiled three-foot-tall war reporter] had become infected with a germ more deadly than any bug to be found in Drongar's pestilential ecosystem: a conscience"

CLASSIC.

[skygiants]

It just encapsulates so intensely The Kind Of Book This Is and I love it very, very much.

[ceitfianna]

Where are you finding these books? I want to read them.

[skygiants]

I bought them in the Kobo store as vacation read indulgences -- I seem to remember having difficulty finding them in the BPL tbh.

[ceitfianna]

That makes sense, I've also had trouble when I've gone looking for them. Update, I found them through ILL and Comcat so I'm going to try and read them that way.

[genarti]

I can't get over "ortolan rhinorrhea," I gotta say. I know Ortolans are a real Star Wars species, but I just keep thinking SONGBIRD RUNNY NOSE and laughing.

Uh anyway! I'm so glad to hear these books are continuing to be everything they are, from the surreal to the hilarious to the actually really meaty stuff! (Infected with a conscience, loool.)

[skygiants]

They probably have to be quite specific in Star Wars medical journals whether they're talking about diseases in capital-O Ortolans or small-o ortolans!

(One small detail I really liked is that all the doctors call the big central hospital on Alderaan where a bunch of them did their internships the 'Big Zoo' because there's five million different species getting treated there every day.)

[chestnut_pod]

- the loving description of Barriss Offee's lifetime-guarantee spun-plastic boots

go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✓ some good👌👌shit right👌👌there👌👌👌 right✓there ✓✓if i do ƽaү so my self 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about

[skygiants]

I mean then she immediately slices through one with a lightsaber by accident but it DIDN'T STOP ME COVETING THEM.

[larryhammer]

Unfortunately, I really can't think of any.

Awesomesauce shade, there.

[skygiants]

I love this mean robot .... SO much!!!

[davidgillon]

the book resolves with the wonder drug that everyone is fighting over casually mutating into something that's Just Another Plant ... perfect bleak comedy of an ending. Catch-22esque. Yes, please hit me over the face with metaphors about the futility of the war

Possibly also metaphors about exploiting indigenous jungle plants for Western medicine?

[skygiants]

Yeah, I keep wondering how much of that is intended to be in there and how much they are carefully sidestepping in order to try to draw on the Aesthetic guilt-free tbh -- the tropes are all very clearly drawn from American wars in Korea and Vietnam, but the book is Very Explicit that the only indigenous life on the planet is plants, bugs, and rapidly evolving bacteria, and the ethics of export mostly get brought up in terms of the clones who don't get treated with the wonder plant.

[lokifan]

the ongoing subplot about doctors stealing doses of the miracle drug produced on-planet, which is not allowed to be used on-planet because of how valuable it is, to secretly use on dying clones and low-level personnel

*hearteyes*

the later reveal that what the war reporter thought was I-Five joking about assessing Teedle's assets was in fact I-Five and Teedle determining that one of her internal engines could be used to fix an emergency on-station and Teedle subsequently being dismantled for parts, which is just, like, a really good and casually chilling moment that does a better job at digging into themes of disposability and artificial personhood in the Star Wars universe and during the Clone Wars period in specific than other piece of canon I've yet encountered!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

And omg that ending. Whoa.

[skygiants]

The Teedle subplot KILLED me. The reporter's like 'but when the backordered part arrives we can rebuild her??' and everyone just looks at him like he's unthinkably naive to ever expect such a thing would happen.