I promised in my last postthat I’d share some pics of my Star Wars shelves, probably as an addition to my usual Entertainment Update. But this seemed worthy of its own post, so let me introduce you to my most prized possessions, lol.
So here are my two Star Wars shelves. The tall one contains all the canon books and references, and the smaller one is my Legends shelf. (The shelf to the right of that is my husband’s shelf of marbles, dice, old bottles, and other shiny, fun little ephemera that he fancies). So here’s the top of the canon shelf, which contains almost all of the High Republic novels (adult and YA). Trials of the Jedi, the last book, I had to put on the next shelf down. I put my Acolyte Funkos of Yord, Sol, and Osha here. Though they’re not in these books, they’re a part of the later High Republic as seen in The Acolyte. I love my “life-size” Grogu; the little diorama is something my husband found for me at a flea market. A thrift shop framed photo tops it off. The second and third canon shelf. Most of the paperbacks are in chronological order, and the hardcovers are new ones mostly shelved in release order (but not always, lol). It’s getting to the point where they go wherever I can find room. I love my Cassian and Wrecker figures; Cassian is near Rogue One books, and Wrecker is where I could fit him. I have Cal Kestis near the Battle Scars book, and if you look closely, you’ll see a tiny Padme figure next to the Queen books. The Luke with Grogu Funko is just adorable.Fourth and fifth canon shelf. The fourth has odds and ends, like short story collections, Ian Droescher’s Shakespeare collection (the original trilogy), Carrie Fisher’s The Princess Diarist, journals, cards and games, and canon books I have yet to read (Thrawn, Ronin, Tarkin, etc). Good place for my Rey Funko, and beloved Hello There Obi-Wan. The bottom shelf has magazines (SW Insider as well as others), comics, and reference books. Grogu is everywhere, of course, and I love my Rey figure with BB-8. This shelf is newer, since I started my Legends Reading Challenge. I get the books as I come across them or when I get to the book to read, so most of these aren’t read yet. I’m still in the Old Republic phase, but getting close to finishing that one. One mug contains some SW Topps cards I’ve come across, and the other holds SW bookmarks. And naturally lots of little Grogu knicky-knackies. Bottom two of Legends shelves. Some YA or middle grade Legends books, some different-sized Clone Wars books, and an Essential Legends of Shatterpoint (The Essential Legends are gorgeous, but I’m going to stick with the original release covers from now on). And all the rest of my figures and knick-knacks. I love my big BB-8, and the Obi-Wan figure from his show. Also Cloud City Han and Leia figures in the back my husband got me. And a big, BIG Mando, lol.
And that’s it so far. 🙂 These shelves will continue to grow and become stuffed with each new book, and I’ll probably have to find a place for the figures and Funkos. I’ve stopped getting the toys for the that reason–I just don’t have the room, and I’d rather save it for the books.
Share your Star Wars shelfies if you have them, I’d love to see them!
Hello friends, and welcome to the latest installment of my Legends Reading Challenge. We’re still in the Old Republic (and will be for a bit), and this time it’s Drew Karpyshyn’s Annihilation. Let’s get into it!
This one stars Theron Shan, the son of Grand Master Jedi Satele Shan (descendant of Revan and Bastila Shan). Except Satele gave him up at birth, to be raised by her former master, Ngani Zho. Satele, besides breaking the Jedi code of no attachments, knew that having a child would distract her from her job as a Jedi fighting for the Republic against the Sith Empire. Theron knew who his mother was, and understood why she gave him up, but they never had contact with each other or had a relationship of any kind. He never knew his father, and Ngani Zho was all the father he ever needed. Turns out, though, Theron didn’t have an affinity for the Force, so instead of going to the Temple, he trained as a spy for the Republic. And he’s very good at his job.
The Sith Empire seems to be flagging in the war with the Republic, but a ship called the Ascendant Spear is a huge threat. It belongs to the Sith Lord Darth Karrid, who can plug into the ship itself through portals surgically implanted into her brain, making it extremely dangerous to the Republic cause. The Supreme Commander of the Republic Forces, Jace Malcom, wants this ship destroyed and decides to send Theron, along with Jedi Master Gnost-Dural, on a mission to destroy it. Gnost-Dural was Darth Karrid’s master before she fell to the dark side. They come up with a plan, but not before Jace has a stunning realization: Theron is most likely his son. He and Satele had had a relationship decades ago during the war, and Satele never told him she was pregnant. And Theron doesn’t know, either. Before the mission, Jace tells Theron he’s probably his father, and Theron isn’t exactly thrilled with the revelation. Ngani Zho was his father, the only father he ever knew or needed. Jace’s revelation is unsettling, to say the least.
Anyway, Theron and Gnost-Dural must execute a rather complicated plan: they need to steal a black cipher from the Empire’s Minister of Logistics, which will allow them to listen in on Imperial transmissions to find out where the Ascendant Spear will be docked; but they can’t know it was stolen, or they’ll change the encryption codes and it will be worthless. So they have to break into the Minister’s Office, steal the cipher, replace it with a broken one they have, and then blow up the building so everything will be so damaged they won’t know the cipher was replaced by a damaged one. Got that?
Of course things don’t go exactly according to plan, but they manage to get the job done with only a few injuries. They go back to Coruscant, and through the cipher find out the Spear will be docked at Reaver Station. They need a way onto the station to get to the ship, which they intend to sneak on board and plant a virus that will incapacitate it. They enlist the help of Teff’ith, a young Twilek woman that Theron sees as a kind of younger sister and feels responsible for (they had some adventures together in a video game–I think? Or comics?–and Ngani Zho died protecting her). She does not appreciate Theron’s help and really wants nothing to do with him, however. But she’s part of the Tion Brotherhood, a criminal gang that can get them ship codes, uniforms, and a way onto Reaver Station, so they make a deal.
After some trouble, they get on board and Gnost-Dural goes to face his former Padawan. His plan is to get her to send the Spear to the planet Duro, which is going to be attacked by the Empire. Theron had sent Teff’ith to Coruscant to ask his mother, Satele, for help–if she can convince Jace to send a Republic fleet, they can save Duro and take down the Spear at the same time. Gnost-Dural fights Darth Karrid’s two apprentices and then her for a time, but gets captured. But it’s all part of his plan, even the torture he endures at her hands.
Meanwhile, Theron finds a way on board and gets to the engine room, where he connects to the ship’s systems through his cybernetic implants (I forgot to mention those, lol) to try to find a way to plant the virus. But then he figures out he can’t plant a virus, as Karrid connected to the ship would know instantly and destroy it. So he decides that when (if) they get to Duro, he’ll just sabotage several systems like weapons, communications, etc, on the fly to give the Fleet a chance to destroy it. If they get to Duro.
Gnost-Dural has gone through some horrendous torture, but manages to manipulate Karrid into going to Duro. Once there, the battle ensues, and Theron causes some trouble for Karrid once she’s plugged in. He also releases Gnost-Dural from his prison, and the Jedi makes his way to Karrid’s chamber. Theron leaves the engine room and they meet up; Gnost-Dural fights Karrid’s apprentices while Theron tries to get into Karrid’s sealed chamber. By this time, the Fleet has dealt fatal blows to the Spear and the ship is failing; the apprentices flee to escape pods and Karrid is blown up inside her chamber. Theron and the Jedi find an escape pod and get out of there, to be picked up by Jace–along with Satele and Teff’ith–on his Republic ship.
We leave with Theron softening a bit on Jace, and maybe–eventually–Satele.
I enjoyed this book–I liked the characters, there was a good balance of action and character development, and the pacing was good, moving right along its 350 or so pages. I really thought I’d have to slog through these Old Republic novels, but so far they’ve been pretty good. I give “Annihilation”:
3.5 lightsabers out of 5.
Up next is “Knight Errant,” by John Jackson Miller. I tend to like his Star Wars novels, so I’m looking forward to it. (According to my list, “Lost Tribes of the Sith” is the next book, but I’m not feeling it right now, lol. I think I’ll save this one for last in the Old Republic category.)
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 recognizeyour 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.
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.
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.
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!
Hello friends! I hope everyone is having a great summer (if it’s summer where you live!). I’m not a big fan of the heat, so I prefer being in air conditioning reading a good book, lol. And I’ve got a few to tell you about, but first:
(The Acolyte Spoiler Warning!!!)
The Acolyte, finale. I enjoyed every minute of this show, and while the finale left enough open for a possible Season 2 (which I very much would enjoy), it brings the series to a satisfying close. I won’t recount every scene here, but just give my thoughts on the finale as well as the show as a whole.
Everyone ends up back on Brendock, where all the trouble began. Osha has seen a vision of Mae killing Sol without a weapon. The fact that it turns out to be Osha herself is heartbreaking. I never thought about the Force choke as a possibility to the riddle of killing a Jedi without a weapon, but it seems obvious now. And the way Sol forgives her as he’s dying, with a tear rolling down his cheek and almost getting out “I love you,” is gut-wrenching.
And I love Sol, but let’s face it–he made a lot of mistakes in this show, lol. All the Jedi on Brendock did, except perhaps Kelnacca (yes, he used his claws on Torbin, but he wasn’t of his own mind and I consider him blameless). But the fact that at the end, despite everything, Sol doubles down on claiming he was “doing what he thought was right,” makes me wince. Oh, Sol. Maybe, but you didn’t do what a Jedi should do.
There’s been some complaints that this show paints the Jedi as “evil,” and that’s just not true. It simply shows that they’re fallible and make mistakes. Too many at this time, which leads to their downfall many years later. That was the whole point of the Prequels–the Jedi were blind to the evil right in front of them. That didn’t just happen overnight. This show goes a long way in showing how they got there.
Qimir was a fantastic villain, by the way (and puts the seductive back into the dark side, lol). Whether or not he knows about Plagueis lurking around the island is up in the air, but I think he does and is under his direct tutelage. And I think Plagueis will be very much interested in this Force-born individual for his immortality studies.
I thought the series was great, and like I said, hope there’s a Season 2 to answer our lingering questions: Whatever happened to Mother Koril (Nightsisters?)? Will Vernestra find her former Padawan Qimir (with the help of amnesiac Mae?) What ultimately happens to Osha and Qimir? With the recent announcement of two Acolyte-centric books coming out next year, I’m guessing we will eventually get a Season 2. So take that, haters!
Honor Among Thieves, by James S. A. Corey. This was a fun Legends book focusing on Han Solo and a mission he gets involved in not long after the Battle of Yavin. He’s sent to find a Rebel spy (for which he will be paid, thank you very much) and bring her back to the Rebel fleet. Said spy, Scarlet Hark, has other plans: she’s got intel on a new Imperial weapon based on an ancient alien technology and needs to get to the guy who’s going to sell the location of it to the highest bidder. The technology is a way to stop ships from going into hyperspace, essentially grounding them in their own star systems; whoever controls that technology can control what happens in the galaxy. Eventually, Han, Scarlet and Leia get to the location to either take control of it or destroy it if they must.
This was a fun adventure, and I liked that it was all from Han’s point of view. And of course, we get a little more insight into Han and Leia’s burgeoning relationship at this early stage. Luke was a peripheral character here, helping where he was needed and offering his sunny optimism at this point, but not much else. Chewie, too, was sidelined as he was always left behind in the Falcon to provide the last-minute rescue from sticky situations several times. But I loved that it was Han-centric, and how he seriously comes to question exactly why he’s hanging around these crazy Rebels.
The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, by Dr. Chris Kempshall. While awaiting the next Star Wars book to come out, I figured I’d check this one out chronicling how the Empire came to be and its eventual fall. The author is an actual historian in real life, and here he writes in the voice of Beaumont Kin, a character played by Dominic Monahan in the sequels. Kin, a historian who had been studying Sith relics, joined the Resistance after The First Order destroyed Hosnian Prime. After the defeat of the First Order, he worked on this historical treatise, finding it extremely important to understand how totalitarian states arise and how to possibly prevent it from ever happening again. He focuses, of course, on Palpatine, but also on the nature of the Empire, its bureacracy and protocols. There’s even footnotes linking his subject to various sources, from surviving Imperial archives (many of which were destroyed) to speeches by Leia Organa, as well as personal conversations he had with her.
It’s interesting to read, because we the reader know so much more than the writer himself about events in this galaxy (we’ve seen all the movies and read all the books, you see, lol). He can only surmise certain things based on the evidence he has at hand, and it’s kind of fun to know what he can only guess at.
I’m only a few chapters in (and it’s a big book–500 pages), and I’ll probably read it here and there between other Star Wars books, so I probably won’t finish it any time soon. But I’ll let you know when I do and what I think about it.
Writing on Empty, by Natalie Goldberg. I’ve read most of Natalie Goldberg’s memoirs and writing books, even though I don’t write according to her method much anymore, but she was a huge influence on me back in the day. And I just like to keep up with what’s going on in her life. Here, she recounts how, during the Covid pandemic, she went through some writer’s block, though she doesn’t like to use that term. Nevertheless, she lost the will to write and had to find her way back somehow. Through friends, books, and a retreat in Oregon, she came to the conclusion that, despite the isolation, the emptiness and despair, the only thing you can do is to write through it and get to the other side.
Swift River, by Essie Chambers. I’m going to come right out and say that I read this book because I went to school with the author. I didn’t know her very well, but she was in one of my English classes, and at the time I thought, This girl is going places. And she did; she went on to get an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and worked as a film and television executive. She was recently on the Today Show with Jenna Bush, who chose this, her debut novel, as a Read With Jenna pick.
Here’s the Amazon summary of the book:
It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.
But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered, and she is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, whose lives span the 20th century and reveal a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. But how will what she’s learned of the past change her future?
A story of first friendships, family secrets, and finding the courage to let go, Swift River is a sensational debut about how history shapes us and heralds the arrival of a major new literary talent.
I recognized part of my childhood in this book–the Western Massachusetts setting, the 80’s references, even the name drop of a common teacher we both had. But it’s more than a nostalgic trip to childhood; it’s about the black experience in the North (I learned about “sundown towns” in this book, which I had never heard of, where entire black communities left a town overnight because of prejudice and racism in the early part of the twentieth century). But mostly, it’s a coming-of-age story about a young woman who’s trying to find her place in the world. It’s a wonderful book that I won’t soon forget.
What’s been entertaining you lately? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!
Hello, friends! I haven’t posted for a while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading and viewing. There’s a lot here, so I’m going to be brief. Here’s the latest:
Rebel Force: Trapped (Book 5), by Alex Wheeler. I’ve been enjoying this junior novel series, and I think Trapped is my favorite. It deals with X-7 trying to figure out who he used to be before he was brainwashed to become an Imperial assassin. We never find out who he really was, which is a disappointment, but over all this one was good.
Star Wars Rebel Force: Uprising (Book 6), by Alex Wheeler. This is the final book in the Rebel Force series, bringing the story to a fairly satisfying conclusion. Luke is drawn to a cold desert moon by the Imperial who brainwashed X-7 (under a project that is called Project Omega, btw). Luke is caught, of course, and begins to undergo the same sort of brainwashing X-7 did (in other words, torture), but because he has the Force or something, it didn’t quite work. His friends hatch a plan to rescue him, and it works, but we lose Ferus Olin and Lune Divinian, which made me sad.
The Last of the Jedi Book One: The Desperate Mission, by Jude Watson. After reading the Rebel Force series, I wanted to learn more about Ferus Olin, Lune Divinian, and Trever Flume, characters that I first met in that series; turns out these characters are also in The Last of the Jedi series, by Jude Watson, which takes place twenty years beforehand. I also get the feeling Ferus is also in the Jedi Quest series that comes before that series, so the character has a long history in Legends. This first book has us meet him as a young man, who has been taken prisoner by the Imperials on the planet Bellarasus for leading a rebel group called The Eleven. Obi-Wan Kenobi gets wind of this, and decides he must go help Ferus, who he remembers as a feisty young Padawan who left the Order. A young Boba Fett makes an appearance here, hired by the Imperials to find Obi-Wan and Ferus.
The Six, by Anni Taylor. Off and on, I’m part of a book club that includes me, my sister, her husband, and their daughter. We decided to start back up again, and picked this book to read. It’s a thriller, and a fairly gruesome one, at that. Evie, who has a gambling problem and has racked up a ton of debt, is desperate and agrees to go to a monastery on a Greek island for a chance to compete in six challenges, the winner of which will win money–enough to pay off her debt. But she can’t tell her husband or two small children where she’s going, and Evie has no idea that what she’s signed up for is a game of horror. Not my usual fare, but it did draw me into its mystery, and had plenty of surprising twists at the end.
Disney Gallery: Mandalorian S3. I’m going to say it: Season 3 of Mando is not my favorite. I really liked the dynamic and relationship between Din and Grogu in the first two seasons, and maybe I wanted more of that. But the first two seasons obviously were building up to something more, something broader than just these two characters. Mainly, the Mandalorians, and Bo-Katan’s role in uniting them to retake Mandalore. Fine. But I’ve only watched it once through, and haven’t had any desire to rewatch, which is a big indicator of how much I love a show. At any rate, it’s still interesting to watch these making-of specials, and they never fail to make me appreciate the story more. After watching this one, I thought, eh, it wasn’t so bad.
Emily. I’ve seen plenty of movies about the Bronte sisters, or about Charlotte alone, but I’ve never seen one about Emily specifically, and this one was pretty entertaining. Since we can’t possibly know everything about her personal life, there’s quite a bit of creative license taken here, but it’s not completely outside the bounds of belief. Things like Emily partaking in opium with her beloved brother Branwell; and more particularly, having an affair with the local curate, William. These things are suggested as having an influence on Emily’s outlook and personality, and how she came to write such a strange, passionate tale like Wuthering Heights. Emily has always been characterized as the “strange” Bronte sister, content to spend time alone and not go out into the world; but still, how could a “proper” Victorian lady, the daughter of a clergyman, sheltered and shy, write such a thing? By taking drugs and falling in love and having sex, of course! Oh, and getting a tattoo on her arm that says, “Freedom of Thought.” Who knows? Maybe it’s true, but at any rate, I enjoyed the movie.
That’s what I’ve been up to lately, in between writing some fan fiction, which I’m having a blast with. Feels good to get the pen moving and making characters speak again.
What have you been up to, Star Wars or otherwise? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!
As always, the Star Wars reading continues. Here are the books I’ve been diving into:
Star Wars Rebel Force Book 4: Firefight, by Alex Wheeler. This is a continuation of the junior novel series I started a while ago and which has been surprisingly entertaining. This outing takes us to Kamino, which I thought was really neat, considering all the Bad Batch I’ve been rewatching. So we know what happens to Kamino in Canon, but this is a Legends series, and here Kamino hasn’t been destroyed by the Empire, but simply abandoned. Luke, Han, Chewie and Artoo are sent there to investigate why the Empire abandoned it and any weapons that may have been created there; but are ambushed in orbit by a group of assassins hired by X-7 to kill Luke. Han, Luke and Chewie crash land, as well as a few of the assassins, but only one named Div survives. They end up having to help each other to get out of the creepy, abandoned city that is overrun by mutant sea creatures the Kaminoans created. A lone Kaminoan scientist, who has gone insane by this time, still runs his “experiments” and calls in the Imperials to take care of the intruders. Turns out Div is a former Jedi, but after Order 66 turned to mercenary work. After working together to escape Kamino, Luke and Han consider him a friend, but want him to tell them who hired him to kill Luke (although they already suspect it’s X-7) and where to find him, but Div refuses to divulge that information, presumably because it’s “bad for business.” I can’t decide if I like Div or not, lol. They reluctantly keep him prisoner on Yavin 4 at the end of the story, hoping he’ll spill the beans. This was a fun read, with sea monsters that can swallow you whole and then regurgitate you back up to eat later; and flying dinosaur birds that our characters get to ride over the stormy Kaminoan ocean. Cool!
Star Wars Rebel Forces Book 5: Trapped, by Alex Wheeler. The fifth installment of the series that I just started and am currently reading. Div escapes Yavin 4, and our characters set out after him. Stay tuned.
Force Collector, by Kevin Shinick. This is a reread between the latest canon releases (waiting for Rise of the Red Blade in July). I really enjoyed it when I read it a couple of years ago, and thought it would be fun to read again. It takes place in the sequel era, just before The Force Awakens, and is about a teenage boy named Karr who has a strange ability: psychometry, which is a Force ability wherein you touch an object and get flashes of things and people and events that object has “seen.” This is an ability that the Jedi Quinlan Voss and Cal Kestis possess. At this point in history, not much is known about the Jedi, and most people don’t even believe they existed. But Karr’s grandmother insists that Karr has the Force, and though she doesn’t possess the Force herself, she takes it upon herself to teach Karr what she knows, which admittedly is very little. But Karr is determined to use his ability to find out more about the Jedi and how to become one himself. With the help of his new friend, Maize (the daughter of a First Order officer), they traverse the galaxy in her father’s shuttle, following clues and piecing together the story of the Jedi. It’s not a real deep story, but it’s super fun seeing the Jedi through the eyes of a young person who knows very little about them but wants to penetrate the myth.
Shatterpoint, by Mathew Stover. This is a Legends book about Mace Windu that I was hoping to get into and see Mace in a new light. I never really liked him in the films, but in books you get a chance to see more of a character’s personality, and I wanted to give him another chance, lol. But I only got about 40 pages in and got bored. It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good story, I just don’t think I was in the right frame of mind to read it. I put it on my “Hopefully I’ll get back to reading this one day” pile, which includes Tarkin, Thrawn, Ronin, and Revan.
Other than reading, I’ve been writing some Star Wars fan fiction, this time about The Bad Batch. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit obsessed with this show and these characters, and I wasn’t ready to let them go yet. So it’s been really fun spending more time with them in my own story. Not sure if I’m going to share it, either here or on a fan fiction site; I might just be writing it for myself. But if you see fewer blog posts from me, it’s because I’m spending more time with Clone Force 99, lol.
So that’s what I’ve been up to. What Star Warsy things have you been doing? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!
Path of Vengeance, by Cavan Scott (Canon). This YA novel is the final book in Phase 2 of the High Republic, and at 500 pages, it was a whopper of a good book. It continues the story of Marda and Yana Ro, of the Wave 1 YA book Pathof Deceit. It spans the events of the Battle of Jedha (as told in the Battle of Jedha audiobook) and the Battle of Dalna (as told in Cataclysm), and follows the doings of the two Evereni cousins, Marda and Yana, from the Path of the Open Hand. We hadn’t seen them since the Wave 1 YA novel, Path of Deceit. Marda is still naively following the Mother, the self-proclaimed prophet of the group, and Yana, disillusioned with the Mother after the death of her girlfriend on a mission from the Mother, is trying to distance herself; she keeps getting pulled back in with concern for her younger cousin. She also forms an uneasy alliance with her deceased girlfriend’s father, the Herald, who the Mother threw under the bus during the Battle of Jedha. They return to Dalna together, he to wrest power from the Mother, and Yana to try to convince her cousin to leave the Path. But Marda is already gone when she arrives: she’s on another mission from the Mother, this time to Planet X to retrieve more eggs of the Nameless, the Force-feeding monsters that kill Jedi. I find it interesting that both the Ro’s talk to and have visions of their dead loved ones: Marda sees Kevmo, a Jedi Padawan she loved and who was killed in Path of Deceit; and Yana sees her dead girfriend, Kor. They’re not really actual ghosts, but extensions of their conscience and their own inner dialogue. It’s also the story of Matty Cathely, a Jedi Padawan who is sent to Jedha, and Jedi Master Olivia Zeveron, who has a surprising connection to the Mother. This book is a very satisfying end to Phase 2, even though I still have some questions–I’m hoping Phase 3 will somehow answer them, perhaps through flashbacks.
Star Wars: Rebel Force Book 3–Renegade, by Alex Wheeler. (Legends).
Book three in the Rebel Force series, this one focuses on Han Solo (the first focused on Luke, the second on Leia). The Imperial assassin X-7 attempts to kill Luke (and fails) and frames Han for the crime. Leia, investigating the crime and trying to be objective, comes off as doubting Han’s innocence. This angers Han, naturally, so Chewie busts him out of jail and they flee Yavin 4. While Han tries to get back into his old life of smuggling, Leia and Luke go to Tatooine to hide Luke from any other attempts on his life, reuniting with his old friends, though they end up arguing. It’s clear Luke still has a lot to learn about being a Jedi, as he’s quick to anger, eager to impress his old friends, and acts reckless, to Leia’s disappointment. Jabba gets wind of Luke’s presence on the planet, and because Luke is Han’s friend (and Han owes him money), sends the bounty hunter Bossk after him to lure Han to him. Meanwhile, Han ends up on an Imperial station on a job to steal various supplies, gets betrayed by his partner, and while trying to escape the Imperials, finds out that Tobin Elad, the man who became a friend and part of their group, is actually X-7 and is the one trying to kill Luke. This whole scheme of Han going to the Imperial base is apparently orchestrated by the ghost of Ben Kenobi, which is a tad weird, to say the least. Anyway, Han and Chewie end up on Tatooine to save Luke just before X-7 attempts to kill Luke again. X-7 gets away, but you know he’ll be back at some point to finish the job. I do feel bad for X-7; he’s been tortured into who he is, forgetting his former life and living only to please the Commander. We get flashbacks of his “training,” and for a junior novel, it’s difficult to read. No gory details, but it’s clear what the guy went through. Sometimes it’s obvious these books are junior novels, taking us back to familiar faces and places, and elicits the occasional eye roll, but they’ve grown on me, and I’ll keep going on the series.
The next Star Wars book in my queue is Shatterpoint, by Matthew Stover. It’s a Legends book that focuses on Mace Windu. I’ve never really liked Mace (I thought he was mean, lol) but I’ve been softening my stance a little bit lately, mostly because of his character in the Clone Wars animated series. I thought I’d give him another chance in this book; I’m curious to see how I feel about him, and this book written by Stover, who wrote the brilliant novelization of Revenge of the Sith. Eager to dive in.
Have you read these books? What did you think? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!
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