что решительно ни черта не понимаю в гравболе

Fhurek’s face darkened to an alarming purple. “Very well, then. I’ll do it. It’s the alien players, Zare. Kelio and the other one…Sina. If we win this game, we’re guaranteed a shot at the championship. But if that happens, those two will need to be removed from the roster.”
“What? Why?”
Fhurek smiled thinly. “Because I said so, Leonis. I have no issues with aliens myself—some of my best friends are nonhumans—but some grav-ball fans object to alien physiognomies, seeing them as giving nonhumans an edge.”
“You want to kick Frid and Hench off the squad?” Zare demanded. “They’re important members of the team! They’ve earned this!”
“I don’t want to do anything,” Fhurek said. “As center striker, it’s your job to deliver a grav-ball title for the SaberCats. But as athletic director of AppSci, it’s my job to make sure that title isn’t…tainted by talk that we had an unfair advantage. Isn’t that right, Coach Ramset?”
“I can see why misguided people might think that,” Ramset mumbled, and Zare felt his anger at the old Duros evaporate, replaced by pity. He was too scared to protest any more vigorously than this.
“That’s the right word exactly, Coach—‘misguided,’” Fhurek said. “I couldn’t agree more. It’s a shame some people feel that way. But we shouldn’t be worrying about social change—just winning that grav-ball title.”

Not all of my original idea survived. I’d imagined Zare catching sight of a red-haired baby in a hover-pram pushed by a sinister nanny droid, but that wound up feeling like a reference for a reference’s sake, which I’ve come to believe undermines storytelling instead of supporting it. (I kept the droid as DDM-38, the academy’s eyeless caretaker.) Connections between Star Wars stories are fun, and can include everything from character or creature cameos to retellings of the same events. I’m happy we were able to connect The Secret Academy with The Force Awakens. But more than that, I’m proud of a connection that I think exists for the right reasons.

Yes, the connection sparked conversation about The Secret Academy among readers hungry for The Force Awakens lore. That’s always a good thing in the book business — even if I cringed at assumptions that Zare and Finn must be related.

But the connection also made sense within the Star Wars galaxy. During the Clone Wars, the elder Hux served alongside Jedi Knights and clones, two groups that trained warriors from birth. Hux saw the deficiencies of the Empire’s conscript and volunteer stormtroopers and imagined a radical reimaging of what the Jedi and clones had done. That program began in secret and was fulfilled by his son for the hermetic, fanatical First Order.

This was one of the first books written after the Legends announcement, and so when I found myself needing to identify an engine part for a TIE fighter I went to Story Group for advice. What they told me was reassuring: I was pretty safe using Legends locations, terms for engine parts, and the like, because why would they reinvent those things? This was an early lesson about the durability of what I’ve come to think of as the “infrastructure EU.”

Первая книга - ИМХО, одна из лучших коротких повестей по ЗВ. К сожалению, дальше все стало хуже - вторую часть , в общем-то неплохую, подпортила обязательная связь с сериалом, третья - просто филлерная, а четвертая расстроила скомканным финалом. Где-то на середине стало понятно, что основные элементы сюжета не работают как надо - это касается и поиска сестры главного героя Ривер Тэм, и раскрытия темы молодых имперцев, и элементарной способности героев влиять на свою судьбу без помощи экипажа "Призрака". Талантливые, но в сущности обычные подростки из среднего класса, самостоятельно противостоящие высокопоставленным врагам - тоже не лучший вариант, но компромисс найти было можно.