Star Wars Legends Reading Challenge: Fatal Alliance

Hello friends! It’s been a while since I posted about my Legends Reading Challenge, but I’ve finally finished The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, by Sean Williams. On top of it being quite a hefty read (482 pages!), I put it down a few times when I was busy reading current canon like The Last Order and Mask of Evil. It didn’t help that the story wasn’t (at least initially) very compelling to me. But let’s get into it.

SPOILERS!!! (Legends have been out for years, but just be aware.)

The story takes place about ten years after the sack of Coruscant by the Sith, as related in the book Deceived. There’s a treaty, but also a very cold Cold War between the Republic and the Sith Empire. It starts with a strange ship being intercepted by a smuggler called Jet Nebula (not his real name, as you can imagine). He’s on a job for the Hutts, but decides to see what kind of cargo this ship has as a bonus. But before he can board the Cinzia, it self-destructs. He takes what’s left of it back to the Hutts, who decide to auction off what they have. Tasha Bareesh, the ruling Hutt, doesn’t reveal what it is, but lets it be known that it could be very profitable and change the balance of power in the galaxy.

Into this mix comes several characters: Shigar Konshi, a Kiffu Jedi Padawan who is sent to Hutta to investigate what it may be (his master is Grand Master Satele Shan); Eldon Ax, the apprentice to Darth Chratis, with instructions to steal whatever it is; Ula Vii, a Republic envoy who is actually an Imperial spy, sent by the Republic to find out what it is and who hopes to use it to please his Imperial masters; Larin Moxla, a disgraced Republic soldier (who is also Kiffu like Shigar) who meets and accompanies the Jedi Padawan; and Dao Stryver, a Mandalorian whose interest and motive in acquiring the item is a mystery to all. All they are told is that it’s from an unknown planet that could hold untold riches in minerals and/or have a strategic advantage. Naturally, both the Republic and the Empire want those things.

They all have competing interests and loyalties, they all end up on Hutta, and naturally chaos erupts and battles are fought. As they all fight each other, whatever it is the Hutts have escape the vault it’s locked in. Turns out they are droids, but unlike any droids they’ve ever seen. They dub them “hexes” because of their shape, but they are super-resiliant, adaptable, and lethal. They can join together to increase their strength. And they endlessly scream “We do not recognize your authority!”

Turns out the killer droids were made by Lema Xandret, a particularly skilled droidmaker, who hates the Sith Empire with a rage she put into these droids. The Sith had taken her young Force-sensitive daughter, named Cinzia, and that loss and rage fuels her to create droids that could wipe out the entire galaxy, if attacked. Here’s the twist: the Sith apprentice, Eldon Ax, is that child who had once been Cinzia. She doesn’t remember her mother, Lema Xandret, and only wants to finish her mission for Darth Chratis (who she hates, by the way).

The Essential Legends edition of Fatal Alliance, with Eldon Ax and Shigar Konshi on the cover.

Anyway, the droids in the vault are finally destroyed, but Ax leaves with a piece of the “nest” from which the droids can replicate themselves, and Stryver has the ship’s navicomputer, both of which lead them back to the planet they originated from. Shigar has psychometric abilities and a piece of a droid, from which, after some persuasion from his master, he’s able to discern the coordinates. Or close enough. Envoy Vii ends up with Shigar, Larin, and Jet Nebula.

They all converge on the planet Sebaddon, which is near a black hole just outside of the galaxy itself. They all reluctantly agree to work together to destroy the colony of hexes (Lema Xandret and the small colony are already dead) to save the galaxy. They hatch a plan to have mixed troops attack two spots on the planet: the equator, where the CI (central intelligence governing the hexes) seems to be, led by Satele Shan and Eldon Ax; and the southern pole, where the actually factory building the hexes is located, led by Darth Chratis and Shigar, as well as Larin and some troops.

While on the ground, which is a very unstable, volcanic landscape, Darth Chratis tries to seduce Shigar to the dark side (doesn’t seem like a good time to do that, but whatever, lol). The Sith Lord and the Padawan fight, and Shigar has to fight the dark side, the anger, within himself.

On the equator, Satele and Ax come upon the actual central intelligence of the whole operation: a clone of Lema Xandret’s daughter, Cinzia. She’s younger by a few years, and suspended in a red, bacta-like substance, where she’s lived her whole life. The red fluid has some kind of metal in it that blocks her Force abilities. Lema had put her here to protect her, but she’s been a virtual prisoner. The droids had killed Lema Xandret when she sent the ship out to make a deal with the Mandalorians, as they were programmed to fiercely protect Cinzia. But her mother somehow lives on in the fluid, talking to her daughter in a kind of telepathy. The hexes take orders from Cinzia now, but she’s been so isolated and protected, she’s quite naive and doesn’t know anything about the outside galaxy, or the battles that have been taking place above the planet. She wants to know Ax better, her “sister,” what her life’s been like. Ax is appalled, naturally, and doesn’t really want anything to do with her. Her mother, “alive” through the liquid, starts to strangle Cinzia when she doesn’t listen to her and decides to help them with the hexes. Satele breaks the glass of the tank to save her, but she’s not used to living outside the tank, and dies shortly thereafter. But Cinzia told Ax she could control the hexes, like her, if she uploaded her DNA into the matrix, which she does.

After that, the battles end and Ax announces to Darth Chratis she no longer answers to him. He scoffs, of course, but then she orders the hexes to attack and kill him, and then to destroy themselves.

Afterward, Ax goes back to Dromund Kass and becomes an apprentice to Darth Howl, who is on the Dark Council. I was kind of hoping she’d leave the Sith Order, but no, she has her own ambitions and Darth Howl is the pathway to that.

Shigar is now allowed to take the Jedi Trials, which he’d been denied at the beginning of the book. I liked him throughout the story, but he does seem a bit angry and rash. I think he’s meant to join other Jedi later on who want to engage the Sith in battle sooner rather than later, if only to end the cold war and get on with it. Another war is coming.

As an aside, I just want to say that yes, Lema Xandret was a little insane, lol. Okay, a lot insane. But as a mother, I totally understand her maternal rage. If the devil stole my child to raise as evil, I’d burn down the galaxy in revenge, too. Just putting that out there.

So, all in all, I thought the book was fine. It took me a while to warm to it and get to know the characters, and actually care about what happens to them. They all had their own personal battles to fight, which tends to draw me in more than space battles, lol. But by the last quarter of the book, I was eager to see how it all worked out. I do believe this book is linked to the Old Republic video games, so there’s probably some stuff about these people or events I don’t know or understand. But that’s okay. In the end, I give this book:

Three out of Five Lightsabers.

Next up is The Old Republic: Annhilation, by Drew Karpyshyn.

Onward!

Star Wars Legends Reading Challenge: Red Harvest

Hello friends, the Legends Reading Challenge continues with book #4, Red Harvest, by Joe Scheiber.

(Warning: SPOILERS!!!)

So, this one is that rare combination of Star Wars and horror, specifically: zombies! Not my usual cup of tea, although I will admit to having watched the first few seasons of The Walking Dead, as well as The Last of Us (which I loved). So zombies aren’t completely off the table for me, lol.

This one takes place about 3,600 BBY (before the Battle of Yavin), so still firmly in the Old Republic. The majority of the story takes place on the icy planet Odacer-Faustin, where a Sith Academy is overseen by Darth Scabrous (that’s a good one!). Scabrous has been experimenting with an ancient Sith ritual in order to achieve immortality (as they do). But he is lacking one crucial element: a particular flower called the Murakami orchid, which is slightly Force-sensitive.

On the planet Marfa, a Jedi named Hestizo Trace, who is a member of the Jedi Agricultural Corps, tends the many plant species there, including a Murakami orchid with which she has a special relationship. Hestizo, or Zo, can communicate with the orchid through the Force, and can hear its thoughts in her head, which I find particularly fascinating.

Somehow Scabrous is aware of this orchid and Zo’s relationship with it (it’s not clear how he knows; Sith magic?) and sends a bounty hunter after her, a Whiphid named Tulkh. He takes her and the orchid back to the Sith Academy. Scabrous puts the orchid into his crazy potion and injects it into his speciment, a Sith student he’s been experimenting on. The student, Wim Nickter, has been transformed into a mindless beast. He escapes his cage, slams into another student who had been spying on Scabrous, and they both plummet from the top of the tower to the ground hundreds of meters below. They don’t die, however; Nickter had infected the other student, and they both run rampant through the campus, infecting the other students, and the the “Sickness” spreads. Zo, meanwhile, escapes Scabrous in the confusion and realizes she can still hear the orchid–through the infected students.

In another part of the galaxy, Rojo Trace, Zo’s brother, is investigating a crash (he has psychometry, where he can see images when he touches an object). During the investigation, he “hears” Zo calling for help, and is determined to find her. It doesn’t take long for him to figure it out, and off he goes to Odacer-Faustin to save his sister.

Along the way, we get to know a few Sith students–Ra’at, Kindra, Maggs, and Hegwith–and how they are dealing with the hordes of zombie students swarming the campus. They band together, but because they’re Sith, they don’t trust each other and will betray each other the first chance they get. One by one, they’re taken out by the zombies in bloody, brutal fashion.

Meanwhile, Scabrous, who is also infected by his potion, needs to find Zo: the Sith ritual requires him to eat the living heart of someone with a high midichlorian count so he doesn’t become a mindless zombie, only acquiring the immortality he seeks. He finally captures her and is about to cut her heart out when her brother shows up and fights Scabrous. Unfortunately, he doesn’t win the duel, and Scabrous disembowels him. It’s finally the spirit of the orchid that saves her, as Zo commands it to grow inside the zombie bodies, exploding them with vines growing out of ears, eyes, mouth, until their heads expode, lol.

Tulkh is a Whiphid, which is a warrior and hunter species. Image from Wookieepedia.

Zo’s last savior is Tulkh, who has had his own adventures with the zombies, allying with an HK-droid and a mechanic named Pergus Frode. They show up on Tulkh’s ship to lift her out of the Sith chamber where more zombies are trying to kill her. They manage to blow up the tower and get away from the planet, but Tulkh has been infected by the blood of a zombie tauntaun (really) and Zo has to blast him out of the airlock, along with a stowaway Sith student zombie. When she returns to Marfa, she decides to go back to the Temple on Coruscant to continue her training, in case it’s not the end of the zombie virus story.

So, yeah, this book moved right along with short chapters, tight writing, and a whole lot of horrifyingly detailed blood and gore, as one would expect with a zombie novel. By the end, I’d had about enough of disintigrating body parts, exposed viscera, mindless flesh-eating, etc. What I did find interesting, as I mentioned, was the bond between Zo and the orchid, and the idea of a Force-sensitive plant, which I don’t think we normally consider. They are living things, of course, and so are imbued with the Force like everything else. That this one was semi-sentient was really intriguing (although we did see it in the Drengir in the High Republic). I also like the Neti librarian, who was a huge tree-like creature that oversaw the Sith archives of scrolls, parchments, and data discs. He reminds me of an Ent, like Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, he got infected, too, and decided to burn everything in the library. He was really the only good thing at the Sith Academy, and the fact that he was a plant-like being speaks volumes. The cold, dark deadness of the Sith Academy contrasts sharply with the living laboratory of the plant-filled Jedi Agricultural outpost. The fact that the orchid, which was a key ingredient in the Sith immortality potion, which only brought living death, was also the key to defeating it, was a nice symbolic touch.

I also want to mention the Jedi Agricultural Corps, of which Zo was a member. In Legends, any Jedi who don’t or can’t take the Jedi trials or who otherwise aren’t up to snuff on their Force abilities and can’t become a Knight, go to one of several branches like the Agricultural Corps. They don’t get kicked out of the Order, they just become useful in some other way. Zo had her talent of communicating with plant life, so that’s where she went. Everyone has their place and a purpose.

In contrast, it was also interesting to see the workings of a Sith Academy. The students, naturally, are competitive in a self-serving and often devious way; it’s survival of the the most cunning and ruthless. They certainly don’t work together or form friendships, even under the stress of a zombie attack, lol. Dark side through and through, so it wasn’t sad to see that all of them perished.

I found out that this book is a prequel of sorts to Schrieber’s other zombie Star Wars book, Death Troopers, which occurs much later in the timeline. More zombie fun! This book was entertaining in its own way, but not my favorite kind of book, especially when it comes to Star Wars; however, Halloween is on the horizon, so my rating is…

Three out of five lightsabers.

Next up is The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, by Sean Williams.

Legends Reading Challenge: Deceived

Hello friends, the Legends Reading Challenge continues with…

(As always–SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived, by Paul S. Kemp. You know, I really thought I’d have to slog through the Old Republic books, but they’ve been surprisingly good. This one, especially, I thought was quite good, as it had interesting, complex characters that had to make difficult decisions.

There are three interweaving plotlines in Deceived. One is of Darth Malgus, who, at the beginning of the book, leads the assault on Coruscant and destroys the Jedi Temple. At his side is Eleena, a lovely lavender Twi’lek, a former slave that Malgus had taken pity on and rescued. Now she is is his constant companion, lover, and stand-in-conscience, and is absolutely devoted to him. During the assault, Malgus defeats Master Zallow, a Jedi Master, and the Sith force kill all the Jedi in the Temple.

Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Aryn Leneer is on Alderaan with a Jedi delegation meeting with the Sith for a peace treaty. It doesn’t sit well with Aryn, as she had recently fought the Sith on Alderaan. When her former Master, Master Zallow, is killed by Malgus, she feels his death and is devastated. Once Coruscant is taken, the Republic has no choice but to acquiesce to the Sith’s demands. Aryn is furious that they are capitulating, but the Jedi and the Republic really have no choice. Aryn decides that she will leave the Order and pursue vengeance for her master’s death.

The third story involves a former Republic commando named Zeerid, who is now running spice for a criminal syndicate called The Exchange. He is only doing it for the money to take care of his daughter, Arra, who had been in an accident that killed her mother and left her with no legs. Zeerid wants to give his daughter a better life, and is now in debt to The Exchange and feels there is no way out. His boss wants him to deliver engspice (a highly addictive form of spice) to Coruscant, which has been shut down by the Sith. At the same time, a rival operative employed by the Hutts called Vrath Xizor is trying to stop the shipment, either by destroying the spice, or killing Zeerid.

Darth Malgus and Eleena Daru, by Aleksandra Skiba.

These characters will all come together and collide during the course of the story. Aryn, who had fought beside Zeerid before and considers him a friend (and perhaps a little bit more), seeks him out to help her get into Coruscant, and he happens to be going there. Vrath tells Malgus about Aryn, and Malgus figures out that Zallow was her master and she’s probably looking for him. So he goes to her.

I love these characters because they’re all wrestling with some form of internal conflict. Malgus, who is furious that the Sith are seeking peace when he wants war, knows he has a weakness: Eleena. He loves her, and that makes him vulnerable, particularly to other Sith lords like Darth Angral and Lord Adraas, who use the idea of Eleena to undermine him. Aryn obviously has left behind the Order to seek vengeance for her master’s death; she chooses to do this without too much doubt, but realizes that when she seeks to hurt him through Eleena that perhaps she’s gone too far. And Zeerid hates himself for dealing in spice, but feels he has no other choice in order to help his daughter; he later kills Vrath in order to protect her, and must live with the idea of being a murderer.

There are some great lightsaber duels and fight scenes, and I like that the plot remains fairly simple but interesting nonetheless. The characterizations and personal stakes involved are enough to keep me invested. Particularly at the end, when Darth Malgus defeats Aryn in battle but lets her go for sparing Eleena; he then turns around and kills Eleena after admitting to her that he loves her. He recognizes that she is his weakness, and he mustn’t be weak or vulnerable in any way. It’s tragic and so very Sith-like, lol. So Malgus lives, but Aryn keeps her soul and goes to live with Zeerid and Arra on Dantooine.

My only gripe is that there are too many names that begin with the letter A: Arra, Angral, Adraas, and Aryn. Whyyyyyy, Paul S. Kemp????

Rating: I’m going to give this one 4.5 out of 5 lightsabers (not sure what half a lightsaber looks like–the hilt or the blade? Or split down the length? Lol.) I really liked this one, but I need to read more Legends to get to know what a 5-star book looks like (I’ve heard great things about the Bane trilogy, so we’ll see).

Up next is Red Harvest, by Joe Schrieber. Just in time for Halloween: zombies!

Star Wars Legends Reading Challenge: Revan

Hello friends! Welcome to book #2 in my Legends Reading Challenge: Revan, by Drew Karpyshyn, published in 2012. It’s been out for quite a while, so there are SPOILERS ahead!!! (And it’s kind of long, lol). By the way, I’m getting the chronological order of the books from a list on Youtini.com.

So Revan is a character from the Knights of the Old Republic video game, and the events of this book occur between in the middle of Revan’s video game story arc. As I’ve said here before, I’m not a gamer, so I felt I had to do some research before I began this book. Youtube to the rescue!

This is what I gathered from my “Revan’s Story” research (very basically): Revan was a very gifted Jedi, strong in the Force, who did not agree with the Jedi Council’s stance on staying out of the Mandalorian conquest of the Outer Rim worlds. He gathered some loyal Jedi who followed him to fight the Mandalorians, including his close friend Malak. At one point during the war, Revan found a Mandalorian mask and put it on, vowing to never take it off until the Mandalorians were defeated. After besting Mandalore the Ultimate in one-on-one combat, the Mandalore revealed that it was a Sith who pushed them to go to war with the Republic, so Revan and Malak went in search of this Sith on the planet Dromund Kaas. It was the Sith Emperor Vitiate, who, when Revan and Malak confronted him, twisted their will to the dark side and sent them out to make war against the Republic.

Now Darth Revan and Darth Malak, they did just that; the Jedi Council decided they had no choice but to fight back and sent Jedi Knights to oppose them, led by Bastila Shan. At this point, Malak had challenged Revan (as Sith do) but Revan won the battle by shearing off Malak’s jaw (oof). Anyway, Bastila confronts Revan, but there’s an explosion and he’s injured. She instinctively tries to save Revan, bringing him back to the Council. They decide to wipe his memory and retrain him as a Jedi. He and Bastila then go back out to defeat Malak, and the two Jedi fall in love, though they both try to ignore their feelings. Malak manages to capture Bastila and turn her to the dark side. After much trial and tribulation, Revan defeats Malak, turns Bastila back to the light, they declare their love for one another and go back to Coruscant to live together. This is a very trimmed down synopsis, and I may have gotten some things mixed up, lol. But it was enough background for me to know in order to start the book, which begins with Revan and Bastila on Coruscant.

Revan is having vivid dreams and nightmares, mostly about a dark, lightning-filled world. He believes it’s some of his memories coming back and is convinced that there’s still something out there that threatens the Republic. We know that it’s the Sith Emperor Vitiate on Dromund Kaas, but Revan has no idea what these dreams mean, only that he is compelled to do something about it.

He decides to talk to his old Mandalorian friend Canderous Ordo. He and Canderous were enemies during the Mandalorian Wars; when the Mandalorians were defeated and the clans scattered, Canderous became a mercenary. Revan meets him during this time, and they work together during the Jedi Civil War to defeat Malak. Anyway, he asks Canderous for help, seeking any information on what he, Revan, had said or done when Canderous knew him. Canderous asks around among his Mandalorian contacts and finds out the clans have been searching for Mandalore the Ultimate’s mask in order to reunite and possibly move against the Republic. Revan had told him he had taken Mandalore’s mask and he and Malak had hidden it somewhere to prevent the clans from reuniting. It was after that he and Malak went to the Unknown Regions and came back as Darth Revan and Dark Malak.

Revan believes that finding Mandalore’s mask might help him discover why they went to the Unknown Regions and what happened there. Canderous says that the Mandalorian clans are looking for the mask on the planet Rekkiad. Revan decides he needs to go and find out what his dark dreams mean. When he tells Bastila, she gives him her own news: she’s pregnant with his child. She understandably must stay on Coruscant, and neither of them know if they’ll ever see each other again (spoiler: they don’t). Even so, Revan leaves with Canderous and his loyal droid, T3-M4.

Meanwhile, on Dromund Kaas, we meet Lord Scourge, a Dark Lord of the Sith who arrives to serve Darth Nyriss, a member of the Dark Council. Scourge, like Nyriss and many on the Dark Council, are of the Sith species, red-skinned and strong with the dark side. Scourge is ambitious, as all Sith Lords are, and hopes his service with Nyriss will one day lead him closer to the Dark Council. However, he becomes enmeshed in the entangled machinations of Nyriss, who tests Scourge’s abilities, loyalty, and motivations. It turns out that Nyriss and others on the Council believe the Emperor is mad and will bring the galaxy to eventual annihilation. To convince Scourge of this and recruit his help, she tells the history of Vitiate and what he’s done. He’s lived for over one thousand years; his immortality stems from what he did to his home world, Nathema–through a Sith ritual, he drained the entire planet of life and Force energy, every living being and plant reduced to dead ash (this reminds me of the Blight in the High Republic novels–a deadness that spreads across planets, in which the Force itself is absent). Nyriss decides to take Scourge to Nathema so he can experience it himself and convince him the Emperor must be stopped.

Meanwhile, Revan and Canderous meet up with the Ordo clan on Rekkiad (who are led by Canderous’ wife, Leera). Revan and Canderous find the mask at the top of an ice tower, but Leera has figured out that he’s their old enemy Revan and turns on them. Leera and her team are killed, and Revan gives the mask to Canderous to lead the Mandalorians as Mandalore the Preserver. But seeing the mask unlocks some more memories of Revan’s, which also leads him to Nathema.

Scourge, after being on Nathema for a short time and experiencing the total loss of the Force, agrees that the Emperor is mad and must be stopped. He and Nyriss leave the planet, but before they leave the system they detect Revan entering it and crash-landing on the planet. They take him prisoner, leaving T3 behind.

Revan is their prisoner for three years. They get all the information they can out of him, but don’t really have a use for him. What’s interesting is that Scourge becomes interested in Revan. Revan is drugged most of the time to keep his Force abilities at bay, but Scourge will often visit him to have conversations with the Jedi. He knows Revan has mastered both the Light and Dark sides of the Force, which fascinates him. He wants to know about Force visions, which Revan has had (and which darksiders rarely have, apparently). Revan makes use of Scourge’s interest, attempting to plant the idea of Scourge freeing Revan so they can work together to take down the Emperor, a common goal for both of them. Scourge is getting impatient with Nyriss and the rest of the Dark Council, who clearly aren’t going to make a move against the Emperor out of an abundance of caution and fear.

In the meantime, T3 has gotten himself off of Nathema and found Meetra, a Jedi known as the Exile. She’s got a whole backstory of her own (which I learned about on Youtube, but won’t get into here), but basically, she worked with Revan during the Mandalorian Wars and now wants to find him. Meetra goes to Bastila with T3; Bastila gives Meetra two things: a holovid of herself and Vaner–her and Revan’s 3-year-old son–and Revan’s old Mandalorian mask.

Meetra and T3 go to Nathema, where T3 extracts information from the dead city about Dromund Kaas, where they head next. Meetra eventually meets up with Scourge, and they come up with a plan to free Revan so they can work together to defeat the Emperor. Of course, things go terribly wrong.

Scourge, who has had an actual Force vision of seeing Meetra and Revan dead at the Emperor’s feet, starts to have doubts. Unlike the Jedi, he’s unwilling to sacrifice himself for the cause (although he’s willing to sacrifice others). When the battle with the Emperor goes badly, he makes his decision and betrays the Jedi, killing Meetra and showing Vitiate he’s willing to kill Revan. He tells himself he will continue to undermine the Emperor and take him out when the time is right, so their deaths are acceptable. He lies to the Emperor to save his own skin.

However, the Emperor has another use for Revan–he keeps him in stasis indefinitely, feeding off of his lifeforce. During this time, the Force ghost of Meetra stays by his side, giving him strength.

Scourge is rewarded by Vitiate with immortality and the title of “Emperor’s Wrath.” The ritual to achieve this is extremely painful, and to Scourge’s dismay, he finds out after the ritual that the pain never ends. He’ll just eventually “accept” it and become numb to any emotions, which runs counter to his plans–as a Sith Lord, he counts on his anger and hate, as well as that of his enemies, to fuel his power, a power he had hoped would increase over time so he could defeat the Emperor. Ah well, make a deal with the devil, and you get what you deserve.

The epilogue shows Bastila, an old woman fifty years later, talking with her son and grandchildren. Vaner has not inherited force-sensitivity and got into politics instead, helping to rebuild the hurting Republic. Bastila misses Revan, but believes he achieved his mission, as there has been no threat to the Republic since he left.

It’s very sad, and I’m glad she doesn’t know the truth–that Revan is alive and being held by Vitiate and will be for the next TWO HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS. Revan’s story isn’t over, and I assume the next game tells it–that eventually Revan is freed from his prison and splits into two beings: the “good” Jedi part that becomes a Force ghost (I think?) and a living being that is all dark-side revenge against the Emperor. Say what you want about Legends, it’s over-the-top nuts! But in a fun way, lol.

Despite not having played the game, I enjoyed this book. I liked Revan and his story, but he’s kind of larger-than-life, which makes sense–he’s a mythical figure to the Jedi. Surprisingly, I found Scourge to be the most interesting character. He’s bad, no doubt about it, but he’s complex, too. Ambitious, brutal, but understands the existential threat of Vitiate and willing to work with the Jedi to defeat him. But only to a point. Sith like absolutes–Scourge wants to know that they will definitely win if they go up against the Emperor. Revan tells him they must have faith in the Force and do their best–and be willing to sacrifice their lives for it. This doesn’t satisfy Scourge, lol. The Force vision he has (which he thought he wanted) doesn’t help. He doesn’t know how to interpret it, and it makes him skittish. That doubt seals his fate–once the battle goes downhill, he decides to save himself, rationalizing that at least one of them will live to continue the battle. But he only gets eternal pain as a result, which–duh, dark side.

Rating: 4 out of 5 lightsabers.

Anway, a cool book, and I’m really starting to get into this Old Republic stuff. Onward to Darth Malgus in The Old Republic: Deceived.

Star Wars Legends Reading Challenge-Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void

Hello friends, and welcome to the first post of my Legends Reading Challenge. The first book in timeline Order is Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, by Tim Lebbon. It was published in May of 2013, and ties into a collection of comics called Dawn of the Jedi. (I’m only reading the adult novels, and not any comics or junior novels, etc).

Into the Void takes place about 25,000 years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). It has date references such as 3,500 TYA, 7,537 TYA, 10,661 TYA, etc., with chapters starting with a quote from some Master. TYA stand for “Tho Yor Arrival,” which refers to eight ships that arrived in the Tython system long ago, from a mysterious, far away system, and which held Force-sensitive beings. They began the settlement on Tython and eventually became the Jed’aii Order. These ancient Jedi strove to find a balance between Ashla (the Light) and Bogan (the Dark).

I had to look up a few of these things on Wookieepedia, as I didn’t know much about this time period and the book doesn’t exactly spell it out. I have a feeling the comics delved much deeper into the ancient lore. This book tells the story of a particular Jed’aii, Lanoree Brock, that lived about 10,000 years after the Tho Yor appeared. She is a Ranger, akin to a Jedi Knight’s role and responsibilities, travelling the system and helping out in whatever way she can. There is no hyperspace travel at this point, so they’re contained to the Tython system.

Lanoree is called back to Tython to speak with the Jed’aii Council concerning a new mission. They’re concerned about a cult called the Stargazers, who have developed a device that, if detonated near a supposed “hypergate,” will either cause a hyperspace gateway to open up, or cause a black hole that will swallow the entire system. They want Lanoree to find this group and stop them. The twist is that the leader of this group is Dalien Brock, Lanoree’s brother, who has long been thought dead.

The book flips back and forth between the present and the past; it tells of Lanoree and Dal’s relationship and childhood. Their parents are both Jed’aii, and Lanoree has a strong connection to the Force. Everyone expects Dal to have that connection as well, but…he doesn’t. This seems to be something they can’t accept, as they believe he’ll eventually “allow the Force in,” as if he’s actively pushing it away. This kind of confused me–is he Force-sensitive or not? Because if you’re Force-sensitive, why would you actively reject it? Dal seems to hate the Force and everything about it, but I assume it’s because he can’t access it. His parents and sibling don’t seem to accept this and keep encouraging him to continue with his studies. He and Lanoree travel across Tython on their “Great Journey” to different temples where they study different aspects of the Force. Each time, Dal fails miserably. Is it any wonder he becomes bitter and hateful? They keep expecting him to do this thing he cannot do.

Anyway, Dal becomes obsessed with the ancient myth of their ancestors, who they were and where they came from, and is determined to somehow get back there. He finally murders a Jed’aii student and flees to the Old City, which is a ruin built by an ancient race, the Gree. Not much is known about them, but Dal believes there is a hypergate deep in the bowels of the City. Lanoree follows him, hears him scream, and finds his bloodied clothing. Everyone assumes he’s dead.

In the present, it seems her brother is definitely not dead, and Lanoree is instructed to find him and stop him–kill him, if she must. With the help of a Twi’lek Jed’aii contact named Tre Sana, she follows a trail from Khalimar to Nox to Sunspot, playing a game of cat and mouse with Dal, who she believes has gone completely mad. Twice he tries to kill her, and twice she survives. She finally catches up to him back on Tython as he brings his device to the Old City and very nearly initiates the device before Lanoree kills him.

An artist rendering (Albert Umanov) of Greenwood Station on the planet Nox.

It took me a bit to get into the book, but once it got going, it was fine. I found the Jed’aii Order interesting, especially the temples the young learners had to visit on their “Great Journey” to finish their training. Tython itself is described as a planet strong in the Force, and it seems only Force-sensitives can manage to live on the planet. Their code wasn’t as solidified as we see in the later Jedi; these Jed’aii strive for balance between the Light and the Dark. I can see where some fans got the idea for the “Gray Jedi” in this story.

Lanoree herself, though she doesn’t relish killing, separates quite a few heads from bodies in this story, if it serves her mission (with a metal sword; there were no lightsabers yet). She also studied and had a proficiency in Alchemy, a “manipulation of the flesh through use of the Force,” which I thought very weird, to say the least, lol. She conducted experiments on her ship, the Peacemaker, in which she grew living tissue from her own cells, and which she used to heal herself when Dal shot her in the chest at point-blank range. She was always trying to balance the influence of Bogan (the Dark) when she felt pride and power from her accomplishments. She was also tempted to try Dal’s device herself after he was dead, to see what would happen. Just for a minute.

This was a fairly entertaining book, and I learned a lot of Legends Lore about the early incarnation of the Jedi, a good start to my Legends Reading Challenge.

Three out of Five Lightsabers

Up next: The Old Republic: Revan

Star Wars Legends Challenge

I love Star Wars in any form: movies, live-action shows, animated series, some comics and manga, and of course, the books! I favor “canon” books–the ones that have come out since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2015 and is supposedly what “really” happened in a galaxy far, far away.

Everything that came before that–all the books, comics, games, etc., usually referred to as the Extended Universe, or EU–got relegated to what is now called “Legends.” A lot of EU fans were furious, believing that everything they loved and knew as Star Wars had been thrown into the trash bin. I get that, but as I’d never been a huge EU fan, it was far less painful for me. I tend to see the EU as an AU, or alternate universe, of Star Wars. A different way things could have gone for our characters. Whether people like one or the other better shouldn’t matter, and we certainly shouldn’t be at each other’s throats about it. And Disney Star Wars has borrowed a lot from Legends, if you pay attention.

As a fan of anything Star Wars–seriously, there’s not much I don’t like–I feel I have room in my heart for both canon and Legends. I’ve simply concentrated on canon, sprinkling in Legends here and there that caught my interest. There are still plenty of canon books I haven’t read yet that I intend to someday (looking at you, Thrawn and Alphabet Squadron), and I will always read upcoming publications; but I’ve decided to turn my attention to Legends and read them in a more consistent fashion.

I’ve been reading Dawn of the Jedi by Tim Lebbon, which happens to be the first Legends read in timeline order. I thought, well, why not keep going? It’s time for a Star Wars challenge, and I’ve always had the intention of reading all the Legends books “someday” (that’s about 160 adult novels). Why not now?

So here’s my challenge to myself: one Legends book per month (on average), in timeline order. This is on top of any canon book I may be reading, and any non-Star Wars book. I think I’ll do separate posts on the Legends, outside of my monthly update.

This is a lot of freaking books, lol. I can do this!

I’ve printed out a list of Legends in timeline order from Youtini.com, which is a great resource for Star Wars books. I already own a few, as I often pick them up as I come across them at used bookstores. I’d like to get all physical copies and have a complete collection at the end of this–which will take some time! It’s a little daunting and long-term, and I worry about getting through the Old Republic novels, as I’m not a gamer and not familiar with these characters. But I’m determined, lol. Revan and Bane, here I come!

I’m sure I will love some, and hate some, but it will be an interesting experience. Stay tuned for the first Legends Challenge post!

Do you prefer canon or Legends? Or both? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!