Destiny's Way

 

 

 

   The Theme of The New Jedi Order is can we kill at least one important character a book? I'm going to have to test my theory and make a list!
 

   I will spare you the spoiler. This book compared to Traitor it is really not good. But being Traitor is the best Star Wars EU I have read... it's a hard book to follow. I don't understand why most of the books published in hardback are not the best ones in the series!

 

   In this one we do learn more about Vergere and at last Jacen is reunited with his family. But emotional depth is an afterthought to this author which is such a disappointment.

    At one point they decide to "Knight" the younger Jedi. What is the point in this?! They have been listing them as "Knight"s the whole time... they just up and say, hey we should "Knight" these kids? What about the older Jedi like Corran and Kyp? They don't get to be knighted?!

   Second, why is Luke saying things he doesn't even know what they mean himself... it's kind of weird/creepy... Sounds like Jaina's going to be having a hard time ahead of her by what Luke said at her Knighting.

The New Jedi Order: Traitor

   I have been looking forward to reading this one. Not because of the author but because I wanted to read what happened to Jacen. He's been missing for a while now.

   After reading a few pages I put the book down and in awe wondered, "who wrote THIS?!" It was completely different then any other New Jedi Order books I have read thus far. But, I slightly recognized the style, but could it be... I couldn't remember the name. It's been a number of years since I read The Revenge of the Sith. But I recognized the ability of this author to take a story to another level. I was right the author is Matthew Stover.

   Most of this story is about Jacen. I read on Wookieepedia that it was the first Star Wars EU to not have an appearance of an original character. It also claims this is the shortest. My paperback copy is 292. Dark Journey is close at 301.

    We are now learning more about this bird like alien named Vergere. Vergrere now claims she met Jacen's Grandfather when he was a child. But did not know of his fate with the dark side.

  Some ideas she shares with Jacen sound Jedi'ish but some stuff she comes up with sounds like it came straight from the darkside and is confusing the day lights out of Jacen. She seems to want to save one minute and turn him over to the Vong the next!

  The Jedi who has a history of reckless adventures Ganner enters in the story with rumors that Jacen Solo is still alive and takes on a personal search to find him believing if he is still alive it could make a differance in the war and help turn Jaina around from her Dark Journey.

   I don't understand why he goes to Jaina about Jacen. They had all been together when Jacen's death supposedly happens. Jaina does admit that she never told her mother what the Vong put him through before he died. She believes that they kept him alive just to hurt him and does not want to hurt her mother who still has hope that her son is still alive. So Ganner goes out on his own.

   One interesting point struck me. Is Anakin really dead? I mean, I think he is and at one point Vergere remarks that it is unknown if the dead can still feel pain after thier death... In the beginning of the book Jacen sees his brother in a much deeper level of pain then he.... He also knows about Jaina's slip into the dark side before he is cut off from the force. So... is Anakin really in pain... dead, and/or capture in someway by the Vong and being held by them. Where was the author trying to go with this... I don't have answer.

Will the Force Live Long and Prosper?

 Just when you think things can't get stranger in the Star Wars World. Disney buys Star Wars... 3 new movies are ahead... NOW the director has been selected! And that director is the JJ Abrams, the director of the latest Star Trek movies!!! Yeah, Star Trek!!! I personaly really like Star Trek and grew up watching it. I even bought a copy of the last Star Trek movie made cause I found it for $5 but never got a chance to watch it... well, maybe I should now...
 To be honest I am trying to not read much about what the new movies my be about but this news did reach me. I haven't seen his Star Trek film but I did read he was a Star Wars fan and that was part of the reason he DIDN'T want to director a film but I guess he gave in. But that gives me hope that someone who respects the Star Wars Universe will do his best to make it the best he can...
 That's all for now....

Ring in the New Year!

Happy New Year 2013!

 It’s been a crazy year! Hard to comprehend I’ve been reading the Star Wars Novels for over a year now!

Ringing in the New Year

 I had a pretty good Christmas. Spending it with family for the first time in several years! Family in both blood and made. I didn’t realized how much I missed some of them! But I miss NY as well as in some ways I’m just not a southern girl... in many ways really. It's funny though that I left NY/NJ getting away from Sandy and Christmas day in AL greeted us with Tornados! Such a wild year!

  But, I wanted to share my prize of the season. :-) I saw these first on a blog about black Friday and thought that’s neat… I’ll never see them as I don’t often do black Friday. I think it’s silly after trying my hand at it a couple of times.

 I did go to the store later that day and found these! BUT I did not buy them as I just still thought they were overpriced for me. Christmas came and went and I was looking over the clearance and came across toys half price! I started looking for these as I had been watching them for a while… YES! HALF PRICE!

  One set is classic prequel characters and the other is Clone Wars characters which I started watching in Oct. on my trip to NY. What bugs me in nether have an adult Anakin Skywalker in it! There is a child Anakin and a Darth Vader but not a young adult Anakin... oh well, maybe I'll get one later... Oh, and I did go back later and find a cute R2D2 candy dispenser!

 Here's to 2013! May it be as crazy as 2012 but in a much better way!

The New Rebellion

  3/4 of this one was pretty mediocre. Probably didn't help that it was following such an intence trilogy, The Black Fleet Crisis. It bugged me at first that this author ignored things that had happened in past books that should have continued the growth of the characters. And then half way through the book she started mentioning stuff from past books! It was odd, like she'd just read the others half way into writing her's... :-/




Han helps Leia out of the bombed Senate building

   I found the part with the bombing of the Senate building interesting cause this was written pre 9/11 unlike another I have read, (I think it was Labyrinth of Evil) which used 9/11 as the obvious inspiration. Since this was pre 9/11 it was interesting to see a terrorist like attack portrayed when at the time main land America had never been through one. And unlike Laberath of Evil it was not used as a political statement in the story. As Labyrinth of Evil was.

 

 

 I guess a lot of the mediocre parts did help in building to the end. The last quarter was good and really made the book worth reading!

With that said I will now move on to some comments that are spoilers... so look away if you wish.

Where to start... uh, I'll just start somewhere...

 

Nandreeson with his fire breathers revengefully tries to execute Lando

Lando; Well, make that Lando and Han. I got confused after their smuggler friends switch sides so many times! I've yet to figure it all out! Maybe the point was that money will makes simi-good people do some bad things... but that back stabbing started getting old and confusing! And the dragon people? Come on! I don't know if that is a creation of this author or another being Lando and the dragons had history, but they were rather silly. And the way they defeated them was even worse!

Leia; The problem was it was like all she went through in The Black Fleet Crisis didn't happen. She AGAIN is being sent to a vote to the Senate to remove her. After TBFC this is really nothing new! More should have been mentioned about that because it should have naturally played into her character growth.

Luke; OK, right off I can't think of anything much to complain about. It is nice that the Super Jedi idea has finally died. It totally ruined the Luke created in the films. This author did a pretty good job with Luke. I did how ever notice a copy of Children of the Jedi on let's see how bad we can beat up Luke... It did work but it seemed more like copying another authors work then coming up with something original.

Anakin; Awe, I'm liking this kid!

R2D2 and Threepio; I like how they become heroes though I got confused a few time in the part R2D2 was waging war.

Mara Jade; What was going on with this?! She shows up much to Hans dislike to be of no help what-so-ever! She plays no part what-so-ever in saving Luke. One moment she's behind Han. Then the author totally drops her! It's like she wasn't even there :-/ and not mentioned again until they are on their ride back.

Kueller; Ok, now onto the mask. On the front cover there in a disturbing image of a skull. A realistic human skull! The book talks of how realistic it is also. Now check out illustrations of this character and notice all of them show him wearing a mask that looks more like a robot! Hu? Also I in the book it talks about how the mask holds memories but not much else is elaborated on this matter which leaves you wondering what does the mask "remember" and what is the point? How can the mask be used in the future? A lot in this book makes you wonder about things cause they just are brought up but never taken to a conclusion... which bugs me...

Pinteresting...

So I thought I'd share some good Star Wars pins I've come across Pinterest lately...

 This one makes me laught and I find to be one of the better one of the "I just met you and this is crazy... " song craze!

At the right is a beautiful portrait of Padme Amadalla I did not find on Pinterest but wanted to share cause it's so well done. The artist is Erik-Maell click on his name to visit his site!

I love realistic fine art so I'll stick to that theme. Here we have a fine image of the Millennium Falcon. Don't know who the artist is for this one, I went to the site it was pinned and it seemed to be a place selling art not even in English...



Luke Skywalker wielding his father's lightsaber. Artist Unkown.

Have to laugh at this one cause the expression

so reminds me of my 6 year old nephew!

A touching image of the death of Darth Vader done by Jeff Carlisle

 To the right going back in time to Obi-Wan's battle on Mustafar with Anakin, whom by now is going by the name Darth Vader. Artist unknown.      "YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER FROM ME!"
"Your anger and your lust for power have already done that! You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now… until now, you have become the very thing you swore to destroy!''"

―Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Below, the rise of Vader. Again artist unknown. These pics are reposted over and over until you don't know who did them!



                                    



The Crystal Star

  The second generation of the New Republic is now taking flight. This is the first time real personalities are given to the Solo Twins. A story was dedicated to them in the trilogy of Jedi Academy but not much was reviled of their personality. Actually I didn’t even quite understand why it was even written but that’s part of a different review...

  Part of this story is told through the view point of Jaina after her and brother’s imprisonment after their kidnapping. It was hard starting this one cause I got so wrapped up in Planet of Twilight! The odd thing is this book was written BEFORE Planet of Twilight but happens afterwards! Therefore the author could not include that into her story. The Crystal Star was written by Vonda N. McIntyre which according to the cover has won a number of awards. This book was pretty good. She seemed to have some unique views of the main characters personalities. Luke is portrayed as be moodier then normal which I guess you can can use your imagination and attribute it to his loss of Calista in the last book but like I said that had not happened when this book was written but it sort of works. One thing I found interesting it she is the first author pre The Phantom Menace that questions whether Jedi were suppose to marry are not.

Waru and C3P0

  When reading other reviews, some like parts of this story to something from the Star Trek world not Star Wars... while unlike some Star Wars fans I am a Star Trek fan as well but I have to agree some things were kinda weird, Waru being one thing!

  They also, like in The Courtship of Princess Leia got Luke’s light saber color wrong! How hard is it to remember that he has a GREEN light saber? Why wasn’t this caught before it was published? Back some years ago when the Clone Wars cartoons were out they were selling light sabers for Halloween and I wanted one. I went to by one and all I could find was red and blue! I was puzzled! It was suppose to be green by what I remembered! (At the time I was just getting to watch the second set of movies and hadn’t seen any of the Clone Wars stuff) I ended up buying a blue one and finally realized that they were selling Anakin’s light saber and I was remembering that it was Luke’s that was green. Come on! Even I knew it was green! anyway...


Hethrir

 Some of the things she added to the Star Wars universe sorta bugged me. Where did she ever come up that green streaked hair looks ordinary on a human female? I just don’t know where she got that. Also I don’t understand why some authors must come up with character names that can’t possibly be pronounced!

   But that leads me to the villain of the story, Hethrir. This is where the story most interested me. It didn’t take me long to figure out what inspired a lot of the story and this villain's name. It was clearly a parallel to the Hitler and his Hitler Youth. And so I see where the name Hethrir originated! I actually like the way this was done. I have done a lot of research through a good part of my life on Hitler and that side of WWII. Children were started at a young age to be true to their country and leader. It is a saying I have often quoted be it in my work as an Historian or looking at the current politcs of today "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"... even in the Star Wars Universe!

"My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes...That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication...That is how I will create the New Order." – Adolf Hitler, 1933.

For more about the Hitler Youth visit... THIS SITE

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I will also note quickly that The Crystal Star ends abruptly... most abrupt end I have seen yet. I don’t care for abrupt endings... with that said on to, Before the Storm...

Light Up the Sky!

Remember the price of freedom in every galaxy!

The Courtship of Princess Leia

  I  barely know where to start with this one… (If you ever want to read this stop here) While the story by it’s self was readable and somewhat interesting I had to wonder why this book was allowed to be published! I did read that this writer was suppose to write a trilogy. Glad to hear that didn’t happen. I mean the writer didn’t even get the color of Luke’s sword right! :-/ It’s green not blue! To say something good about it. The general jealous fighting between Isolder and Han was kinda amusing. I read some people complaining that it was a romance novel. Well, I don’t read romance novels but I hope they have a bit more romance in them then this one did cause a lot of it was running around with creepy women they called witches… “witches” in the Star Wars world? That just doesn’t seem to fit, maybe that’s just me. And also, what’s up with bumping this up to PG/mild PG13? Then there is the relationships between all these people! Luke and Leia are twins that are strong in the force yet Leia doesn’t even feel when her brother arrives on the planet! But she does feel when he dies? But yet he doesn’t die, no, nature around him heals him… come on, they are likening this to Luke’s

First cover for The Courtship of Princess Leia but
was thought to look too much like a romance novel.

battle with Vader and the Empioror but then when he really has a fatal injury the force saves his life… and after this revelation he’s suddenly Super Man! Make that Super Jedi! Is this guy saying it’s impossible to kill Luke?! I think the author went over the bounds & made this plain ridiculous! And Isolder’s mother was killing people to keep them off the throne and hated Jedi but then turned on a dime for really no reasons at all 8~/ I did think the whole idea of Han wining a planet and kidnapping Leia was kinda cute. But what happened to needing money to buy a planet for Leia’s people? Isolder was brought into the picture because of

Han and Leia's Wedding

this! But at the end when Han was paid by the witches Leia tells Han to keep it for their wedding… uh, what about her people? I have a few other  issues with this book, I won’t even bother going into everything! … oh wait, Luke was late to his sister’s wedding due to a mistake?! He is Super Jedi now who can tell people about their future children! How can that really happen and why didn’t they wait for him? I mean Leia couldn’t wait for her only living relative, her twin brother too to start her wedding?! Ugh!

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On to; Tatooine Ghost