Lit A Chronological Journey Through the EU: Currently Disc. Interference

That's an interesting point, but to this point, Gav has been portrayed as being a guy who really doesn't care that much about the repercussions of his actions. He's a Hyperspace Explorer that maps hyperspace routes for use by other ships; he knowingly does a sloppy job and it leads to the destruction of a load of Ssk Kahor's property. Setting aside that Kahor is a crime lord, that's still not really a great thing to do and Gav's immediate reaction is to skip planet without paying for the damages. In order to do this, he steals a ship from the one person, aside from his sister, that's been a friend to him since his parents died. And I'd just like to point out that by knowingly doing a sloppy hyperspace route, he could very easily have killed a load of passengers on a freighter. It was pure luck that it was a droid piloted cargo ship that he destroyed. And he doesn't seem to even consider this possibility. And I believe the implication is that Gav's done this before, as a quick way to get money when he needs it. I think we as readers aren't supposed to consider all this any more than he does, but the fact remains that, whether the authors intended us to notice it or not, Gav is a guy who wouldn't be racked with guilt over doing what he did. It's a huge character inconsistency that suddenly he cares about other people's lives and how his actions effect them. Gav has essentially made his living via endangering people's lives just because he can't be bothered to actually do a good job. It doesn't make sense for him to suddenly be weeping uncontrollably over the death of Kressh and his followers.

Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 2: Forces in Collision



*So, Jori actually gets convicted of ship theft and sent to a hard labor camp. This seems kind of extreme. I mean, the fact that her brother has disappeared and she did come back to the Republic and her story seems remotely plausible, at least plausible enough to cause reasonable doubt. But who knows what the legal system really is here.

*Plus, just for ship theft, she gets sent to this really extreme labor camp. I mean, she’s frigging swinging the sledgehammer, you know?

*Third implausible fact about Jori’s imprisonment? She actually escapes! From a lockup where some hardcore criminals are obviously kept. Well, whatever.

*Oh, Ssk Kahor shows back up here. He gets the Starbreaker 12 when Jori’s convicted. I like this guy.

*Oh my God. Fourth implausible fact? Jori is able to sneak into the Empress Teta’s private chambers! This woman is like just a few years removed from a massive rebellion under her rule and her security is already so lax that a frigging ESCAPED FELON can get into her private rooms.

*Luckily, Odan-Urr is with the Empress, telling her about a horrible vision he had about a huge threat from outer space blah blah, so Empress Teta actually believes Jori.

*Everyone swings into action to prepare for attack; meanwhile, back on Korriban, Naga Sadow’s fleet heads for the Republic at record speeds.

*The story has, to this point, been, frankly, pretty low-energy. I mean, we got to see Ludo Kressh blow up again. But a trial for ship theft isn’t totally riveting or anything. But at this point, things to start to pick up.

*CANONICAL STATUS: Mostly fabricated. At this point, The Fall of the Sith Empire does begin to bring in the historical narrative by engaging directly with Odan-Urr, Empress Teta, etc. But again the most likely fictional Jori Daragon drives and dominates the plot. Whether this is good historical fiction is up for debate; that is indeed historical fiction simply isn’t. This work is NOT RECOMMENDED for use as a historical resource.

* ½ out of **** stars.

Kevin J. Anderson

*Okay, next time, we’ll move on to the next issue of this series, The Fall of the Sith Empire 3: First Encounter!

Star Wars Chronology!

 

Ah, so KJA actually condensed the super-important-universe-changing-war into just three comic issues. Right then. Might have been forgivable if there had been things like plausible character development or, well, a good story, in the first seven. But character development can also happen during conflict --- if you're trying to portray this war as big and bad and legendary, then why wait so long to actually start it?

Yeah, the first Lost Tribe of the Sith novella and Crosscurrent did a good job of expanding the Great Hyperspace War. That was over ten years after The Fall of the Sith Empire was published, though, and in that interim time, the paltry events of KJA's comics were made out to be much bigger than they actually were. I wouldn't say that being the architect of the first ever Jedi/Sith war is that big a deal when the Sith get easily and quickly crushed within, what? A few hours? Two days, at most? It's 2014, and retcons have made the war into a bigger deal, but in 1998, KJA's writing failed miserably at doing so.

Yeah, that's a good point. For sure his name would be remembered as that guy who really surprised the Republic that one day, but if we look at nothing more than KJA's comics, I don't find it plausible that he'd be remembered as one of the most influential and powerful Sith Lords in history. This image, from 2001's The Dark Side Sourcebook, has always bothered me.



Ten years before The Old Republic established that Naga Sadow's Sith actually did have a legacy, this image was putting him in the same category as Sidious and Bane in terms of his influence. Give me a break.

In short: I applaud other writers for retconning Sadow and his Sith Empire into something worth a damn, but I deride KJA for failing to do so within the pages of his comics. Just as the Jedi Academy trilogy isn't any better because Stackpole made sense of it with I, Jedi, these comics aren't any better because of later retcons to the impact of the Great Hyperspace War.

 

Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 3: First Encounter



*Okay, so the war finally starts, thank God.

*I had forgotten that the story actually gave Ssk Kahor a real ending, but he and one of his henchmen are out cruising around in the Starbreaker 12 when the Sith fleet comes out of hyperspace right in front of them. So, Ssk Kahor gets the “honor” of being the first Republic casualty. That’s kind of cool, actually.

*Okay, the action sequences here are pretty good. The attack on Coruscant especially is beautifully drawn.

*Equally intelligent is the idea of Empress Teta offering pardons to those rebels who fought against her previously if they will now will fight on her side against the Sith. It’s a nice touch and has actually been used in real life I’m sure.

*I should also mention that Aarrba the Hutt gets a great death scene (they usually do) and he dies heroically (they usually don’t).

*He’s all like bellowing “Crush you!” and rampaging over a bunch of Massassi warriors as they stab him repeatedly, but he just keeps going and everything. It’s easily the one genuinely great moment in this little duology.

*I should also mention that he’s wearing a fez, but he’s so badass that he actually makes the fez look cool.

*That fez is interesting actually. I’m just now wondering if he’s based in some weird way on Sydney Greenstreet’s character in Casablanca. Greenstreet wasn’t Hutt size, but he was larger than usual. Now I’m going to reread Aarrba’s scenes and try to hear Greenstreet’s voice saying his lines.

*So Jori shows up just as Gav is bending over the dead Hutt covered in his blood. She assumes he’s killed Aarrba and attacks him. Gav flees, rather than simply gaining a little distance and telling her he’s innocent. And I mean there is a war going on . . . couldn’t you give your brother the shadow of a doubt?

*CANONICAL STATUS: Much more than the prior to entries in this series, First Encounter relies heavily on what appears to be true historic records. The heroic death of Aarrba the Hutt, for instance, is easily verifiable and the details of the attack on Coruscant on the whole are accurate. Still, obvious corruptions abound; this work is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

** out of **** stars.

Kevin J. Anderson

*Okay, next time, we’ll take a little break in the middle of Fall of the Sith Empire to get a few stories about what’s going on behind the scenes of Sadow’s war. Next time, it’s Crosscurrent!

Star Wars Chronology!

 

Crosscurrent: The Past



5,000 BBY

*So, far and away the bulk of this new novel takes place 41 years after Yavin and follows Jaden Korr. But there are four sections of the novel that flash back to the Great Hyperspace War and so we’ll talk about those four sections now.

*There is a section labeled The Past in chapters 1 – 4 and also chapter 8.

*The first section is in Chapter One and actually opens the book. We are introduced to Saes, a former Jedi now working for Naga Sadow. His ship, Harbinger, and another ship that we’ll talk about quite a bit later, Omen, are picking up some Lignan crystals or something for Sadow to use in his war against the New Republic.

*I’m just glad they weren’t Adegan Crystals. I got my fill of those in the Nomi Sunrider audio drama. More on that later.

*So, Saes’ old master, Relin, and Relin’s new Padawan, Drev, are en route to try to smash up Saes’ plan to get the Lignan Crystals to Sadow in time for his invasion of Kirrek.

*The invasion of Kirrek is what closes issue three of The Fall of the Sith Empire, I think, hence the story falling here on the timeline.

*Drev is an Askajian. And Kemp can’t stop talking about how fat he is. I don’t know what an Askajian is, but I find this whole lingering on his morbid obesity a little strange.

*Seriously, this mother is huge. I mean, massive.

*So, Memit Nadill, Odan-Urr and Sadow all get name checked, but none of them appear.

*So, the Dark Side is so strong in the system where Harbinger and Omen are that when Relin and Drev arrive in system via hyperspace, Drev instantly vomits all over himself.

*See, fat people are disgusting.

*What’s even more hilarious is that the normally humorless Relin can’t help but laugh about this, leading Drev to comment that he’ll try to employ scatological humor more often if it’ll keep his master in a good mood.

*Is a vomit joke scatological?

*Regardless, a Jedi Master cackling madly at his vomit-covered Padawan is an image I did not expect to see in Star Wars EU. You know, after the demise of Star Wars Tales.

*So, Relin sneaks aboard the Harbinger to confront Saes, while Drev attempts to take out Omen from their Jedi fighter.

*There’s a wonderful bit where a Massassi stops Relin and questions him. He asks him who is superior is and Relin flatly says, “Memit Nadill.” The Massassi says he doesn’t know who that is and Relin says he’s a Jedi Master on Coruscant. The Massissi says, “What . . .” and then Relin kills him.

*I should note that not only does Relin carry a blaster, he uses it about as much as he uses his lightsaber during this whole sequence on the Harbinger. Which I kind of dig. I like my Jedi uncivilized.

*This story is essentially one long action sequence as Relin ducks and covers around Harbinger as Saes tries to find him and Drev tries to attack from space and Los Dor, Saes’ second in command, tries to get the ships to jump into hyperspace.

*And I will say this: Kemp writes great action.

*So, there’s this great moment when Relin rounds a corner and comes face to face with six hulking Massassi. He speaks one word to them: “Run.” They don’t; he kills them all.

*This action sequence is really great.

*So, we’ve seen all the tricks with a lightsaber: double bladed, one in each hand, etc. But this is how I like my Jedi: saber in one hand, blaster in the other. That is how you wade into a melee and just kick ass.

*I should note that at the end, there is one surviving Massassi who has only been wounded in the foot. He asks Relin to kill him so that he will have the honor of having died in battle rather than just being wounded.

*And Relin does it! That kind of floored me.

*I’ve always hated the Jedi of this period. But this Relin cat . . . he’s got it goin’ on. I could stand more of this guy.

* ‘“Not like this! Kill me! I demand it!” “As you’ll have it, then,” Relin said, and put a blaster shot in his skull.’

*Bad. Ass.

*So, Saes arrives after Relin plants bombs in the hyperdrive. Saes wears a strange sort of form fitting mask which will doubtless be important later. The two fight.

*Anyway, long story short, the hyperdrive blows up, Drev crashes into the Harbinger’s bridge, Relin escapes on an escape pod, the Harbinger and the Omen butt heads causing a lot of damage. But the hyperspace process is already underway and Saes is unable to stop it.

*The Past section of Crosscurrent closes as the horribly damaged Harbinger leaps into hyperspace, pulling Relin’s escape pod in after it.

*As we will discover, should we press on through the Present section of Crosscurrent, Saes and Relin jumped through space and time. They both cross paths with Jaden Korr 41 years after Yavin.

*But for now, we won’t talk about that. So what we have here is a sort of short story length work, about fifty pages or so.

*As I said before, Kemp writes great action. And in Relin, he creates an entirely new kind of Jedi and one that I wanted to read more about.

*I enjoyed this a lot, actually.

*CANONICAL STATUS: While little is known of the details of Sadow’s larger war, the events surrounding the Omen and the Harbinger have been well documented and verified. This work is RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*** out of **** stars.

Paul S. Kemp

*Next time, we’ll take a look at what happened to the Omen, the other ship in this fracas as we follow the Lost Tribe of the Sith to their Precipice. Be here for that.

Star Wars Chronology!

 

No. Emetological.

 

Askajians are the species of the fat six-breasted dancer in Jabba's palace. They're not actually fat-fat, they just store water because they're from a desert planet.

 

Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice



5,000 BBY

*This story was first published as a free e-book; it, along with the rest of the stories in the series, have now been collected in a single book. I recommend the book because e-books are the devil.

*As this begins, we join Commander Yaru Korsin, already in progress. His ship is crashing, breaking apart, and he is desperately trying to hold it together.

*I have to say that I was just absolutely caught by surprise on the very first page of this series. And it wasn’t the last time either.

*But, anyway, he’s talking to his engineer via hologram and then, as Korsin watches, her head CATCHES ON FIRE and she staggers out of the picture, shrieking in agony. And Commander Yaru Korsin, even in the midst of his ship crashing, starts LAUGHING!

*Well, we are with the Sith; we know that now.

*So, I read the first page and as I was reading it, I was thinking, “Wow, this is very reminiscent of Crosscurrent. Another Sith ship is crashing.” I was kind of rolling my eyes over it, to be honest.

*And then on page two, it reminds me that Korsin is the commander of the Omen. So, Lost Tribe of the Sith is all about the other ship that was there when Relin and Saes clashed aboard the Harbinger.

*And that just reminded me of why I love reading the SW EU like this.

*So, this is essentially a short story, split into four chapters.

*Okay, so prior to this series, the only John Jackson Miller stuff I’d read was the first arc of KOTOR, Commencement. I was impressed with the set-up to Commencement, but got bored with it before it was over. So, I wouldn’t call myself a Miller fanboy.

*Since writing the above, I’ve read farther in the KOTOR series. I think you could call me a fanboy now as I think this is probably the best comic series the EU has yet produced.

*But regardless of that there is something here that is really great and also sadly rare in the EU: actual wit.

*So, long story short, the Omen crashes on a backwater planet named Kesh. Like the Harbinger, it jumped into hyperspace extremely damaged and ends up on Kesh because that happens to be where the hyperdrive fails completely.

*So, we are introduced to our cast of characters; the pragmatic Yaru Korsin; his half-brother, the arrogant Devore Korsin; Devore’s wife, Seelah and their young son, still an infant. There’s also Ravilan, a Red Sith . . .

*It took me a minute to remember that this was when some of the Sith were humans and some were the red skinned fellows of the comics. So, I thought this was like a Grey Jedi or something for a second.

*Then there’s Yaru’s right hand man, Gloyd.

*So, anyway, the Massassi start dropping dead as soon as the survivors have gotten out of the Omen. There’s something on Kesh that is fatal to them apparently.

*This leads to yet another hilarious and entirely inappropriate moment of brilliance.

* “To her left, another Massassi hacked mightily – and mutely regarded the result: a handful of dripping scar tissue. Korsin looked at the quartermaster and asked drily, ‘Is that normal?’”

*I rolled on the floor over that one.

*So, the theme of this series as a whole is time. It recurs again and again throughout the next few books in the series. In Precipice, the time that’s important is how little time Yaru has to gain control, to establish his leadership of the survivors before they turn on one another. “Not twenty standard hours since the crash and things were starting to get basic. Tribal.”

*So, Yaru returns to the wreckage of the Omen to see if it’s possible to send a transmission. He finds Devore there already, out of his head on spice. The two clash over the leadership of the group.

*It is to Miller’s credit that he is able to create such engaging and realistic characters in such a short time. Generally these kind of Original Character short stories don’t work very well. But this one does. In just thirty pages, Miller sketches Yaru, Devore and Ravilan all perfectly. They feel absolutely real and breathing.

*Yaru and Devore and their clash over leadership . . . Miller manages to make this brief scene feel like what it is: a culmination. You feel decades of tension in this battle. Miller has created an implied emotional history, which is something most authors of these kinds of stories aren’t able to do, at least not in a compelling way. You feel that this isn’t an argument happening out of context. This feels like the final argument in a long series of them between these brothers.

*And, of course, as we knew it would, the clash moves from the verbal to the physical as the two brothers take out their frustration and anger against each other.

*It concludes with a gripping moment when Yaru is able to set off an explosive in Devore’s face. Devore’s “I can’t see” is horrible, but then Yaru helps him up, walks him to the cliff and, with a quiet, “I will complete my mission,” tosses his blinded half-brother over the edge to his death.

*When Yaru returns to camp, there’s a great moment when Seelah knows that Devore was at the wreckage, but she can’t say that because she knows Devore went to the wreckage to kill Yaru. So, Yaru is able to pass it off that his half-brother has vanished; but he and Seelah both know the truth.

*And, as the story closes, Yaru keeps another secret; at the wreckage, he saw another one of the strange winged beasts that fly through the sky on Kesh. But this one, unlike the others he’s seen since the crash, carried a rider. Kesh, it seems, is inhabited.

*Well, as I say, Yaru is a great creation already. Even in just thirty pages, Miller has sketched a real person for us. He is neither a purposely perverse figure in the “Aw, the Sith weren’t all so bad” vein, nor a cackling, “Look at me I’m evil” villain. He is simply an absolute pragmatist, a man who takes duty seriously, and will not flinch when the time comes for tough decisions.

*Already, even just thirty pages in, I am anxious to read more. I call this a success.

*CANONICAL STATUS: The historical records of the Sith on Kesh are of superlative accuracy. This text should be seen as an exact accounting of the events it details. This work is RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*** ½ out of **** stars.

John Jackson Miller

*Okay, next time, it’s a new project that I’ll be using to break up this project. Every ten chronological posts (and, yes, we’re already at ten posts!), I’ll be dropping in a different kind of post. Look forward to that.

Star Wars Chronology!

 

So, I found this interesting list over on Joe Bongiorno’s fantastic website. It attempts to give a chronological list of the 111 (actually 115, since there are a few ties on the list) Star Wars stories you must read.

And I thought it would be interesting to go through the list with you guys and see what you thought of his picks. Much as I love Joe’s website, I feel the list misses quite a few actually indispensable works and includes several that are pretty terrible and not at all necessary and it hasn’t been updated in a few years apparently. So, definitely, we won’t be agreeing with this list, but I thought it would make a fun corollary to my regular chronology project. If I haven’t come to a work in my regular chronological journey I’ll do a regular style bullet point review, as well as a brief nugget write up. If, as on this first one, I’ve already done a regular bullet point review of the story in my regular journey, I’ll just do the short paragraph.

But enough talk! Let’s get to the first entry on the list.

1. Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith (1997) – Kevin J. Anderson



Well, it has some amazing art. The non-human characters, except for the Sith, are amazingly creative and well rendered and the world the comic creates is visually arresting. Moments like the long shot down the Valley of the Dark Lords are images that you could spend an hour perusing and still not catch every detail. Also to the good are some of the side characters. Ssk Kahor, a Trandoshan thug, is a finely realized minor villain; Odan-Urr is a bookish, decidedly nontypical Jedi and Aarba is a groundbreakingly interesting & sympathetic Hutt.

But I wouldn’t recommend you read the dialogue (“I am vindicated! The great Dark Lord has come to crush you for your sacrilege!”) or the narration (“Without blind hope, a hyperspace explorer has nothing.”). Under no circumstances attempt to follow the plot; Gav & Jori Daragon are a pair of hyperspace explorers who would be distinctly unlikable if they weren’t so uninteresting. They’re captured by Naga Sadow, a Sith Lord who adheres to the school of Method Acting, and schemes to overthrow the Republic in the most complicated way possible.

MOMENT YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Obviously, the scene in which a severed head is murdered by being shot (in the head, of course). Seriously, if the loss of his heart, his blood, his stomach, and his lungs didn’t kill him, I doubt a frigging blaster will do more than put him in a bad mood.

ESSENTIAL? No.

OK, next time, we’ll get back to the regular chronology by getting into the next story in the Lost Tribe of the Sith series, Skyborn!

Star Wars Reviews!

 

One man's essential is another man's trivial, after all. Any list such as this is subjective.

 

Sooooooo is the Beast Wars of Onderon soon? And the Naddist Uprising? Please say yes. Really. Please. I want to talk about them/debate desperately.

 

Soon! We are moving rapidly through the 5000 ABY period!

Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn



5,000 BBY

*So, this one’s also in that collected stories book I mentioned last time.

*Once again, I just have to tout Miller’s incredibly facility with humor. This one starts with a great gag: “Heretic!” “Good to see you too, Mother.”

*So, we open this story by introducing Adari Vaal. She is a teacher and a scientist who has come under fire for espousing views about the creation of Kesh that go against the native religion.

*There’s a great running gag where Adari collects rocks and everyone that hates her is always throwing rocks at her. “Who needed expeditions when you had an angry mob to collect samples?”

*So, Adari is a widow, her husband having been killed by his uvak, which is what those winged beasts are.

*So, Adari appears before the village council, the Neshtovar. She is defending her proposition that many of the Keshiri rocks were formed by volcanic activity. The Neshtovar say that this blasphemes against the Skyborn, the Gods who created Kesh from their own blood.

*This just perfectly captures the extremity of religious beliefs: “Do you think the village is going to fall into a hole because I talked to your children about some rocks?” “It very well could!”

*And then, during the hearing, everyone is distracted by the sound of an explosion on a mountain peak nearby. They are puzzled by this, but we readers are not; the Omen has just hit Kesh like a ton of bricks.

*So, Adari flees her village because she thinks the Neshtovar are about to pass a death sentence on her. She takes her husband’s uvak, Nink, and flies to the sight of the ‘eruption,’ which is, of course, the Omen’s crash site. And she passes overhead as Yaru Korsin is tossing Devore off the cliff. She then is the rider Yaru saw; and she has seen something too: a cold blooded murder.

*So, Adari sneaks up to the Sith campsite at night out of curiosity and also because the Sith are manipulating her through the Force. She is captured.

*So, Korsin quizzes Adari on all things Keshiri and comes up with a fine ploy. The Sith, using the Force for illusions and tricks, will pass themselves off as the Skyborn, at last descended to their people.

*So, the Sith use Adari to make contact with the Keshiri and they begin a mining operation to find workable material to repair the Omen and also, as cover, begin building a temple on the mountain, near the crash site.

*There’s a killer scene of Adari and Yaru talking about the fact that she saw Yaru murder Devore. The two bond over their shared predicament; Adari has turned her people over to the Sith to be manipulated and exploited because she was an outcast; Yaru was forced to kill his own brother because his brother refused to be controlled. These are two people who have been forced to do things they find distasteful in order that the greater good be served, or, and this is perhaps most troubling to both of them, perhaps they only did these things for selfish reasons.

*But if Precipice ended with Yaru keeping a dangerous secret and this story ends with Yaru finally sharing that secret with Adari, Adari has another secret. As a scientist, she is familiar with the soil of Kesh; the materials the Sith need to repair the Omen are not here. The Sith, Adari realizes, are going to be on Kesh for a long, long time. And she begins to wonder if, all that time in the balance, she has made the right decision.

*So, this story was really great too. In Adari Vaal, Miller has created a strong, fascinating female character to contrast with Yaru. Both Adari and Yaru are pragmatic; both consider themselves trapped; both share a secret; and both will be together for a long, long time. Like I said last time, it’s time that is the theme of this series. Last time, it was the specter of how little time Yaru had to assert control over the survivors; this time, it’s the specter of just how much time Adari and Yaru are going to be in this devil’s bargain together.

*I mean, the old “Force user pretends to be a God” is not a new trope. But the characters here are so wonderfully sketched that you don’t mind that the plot itself is somewhat predictable this time out.

*CANONICAL STATUS: The historical records of the Sith on Kesh are of superlative accuracy. This text should be seen as an exact accounting of the events it details. This work is RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*** out of **** stars.

John Jackson Miller

*Okay, next time, we’ll leave Kesh and catch back up to how things are going in the larger galaxy. Join me next time for Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 4: The Dogs of War!

Star Wars Reviews!

 

Tales of the Jedi? Nice.

What? I like those comics!

 

Dang, I need to catch up... I've only read 1/2 total of the SW books out there, and all of them out of order.

 

Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 4: The Dogs of War



5,000 BBY

*Okay, so Gav manages to escape from Jori.

*Naga Sadow proceeds to start retreating, due to the battle turning against him. Gav is so wracked with guilt over the way he kind of helped Naga Sadow, though in point of fact, he didn’t really do much of anything, that he decides to lead the Republic in pursuit and help them catch up to Sadow and kill him.

*Sadow is aware that this is going on, however, so he proceeds to lead Gav, Jori and Empress Teta’s fleet into a trap. Sadow uses his weapons to make a star go nova (thank you, Kevin J. Anderson . . . I wonder if you’ll ever do that again . . .), killing Gav, though everyone else is basically able to escape. Gav is, of course, redeemed (or something) by his noble sacrifice. Not that he had anything to be redeemed from except his penchant for pushing random buttons for no reason.

*Meanwhile, Jedi Master Ooroo, the brain in a vat, sacrifices himself in the battle of Kirrek turning the tide and giving Odan Urr a nice emotional moment.

*So, for all the other mistakes, at least they killed both the head on a platter and the brain in a vat. Good for them.

*Or is Anderson just trying to tell me that reading these comics leads to brain death?

*CANONICAL STATUS: As with the rest of the entries in this series of stories, the broad strokes are certainly more or less true. Naga Sadow’s defeat, retreat and ambush of the Republic Forces are all well documented, though there was nothing so ridiculous as a star going nova in the ambush. As to the details of the main characters, the less faith placed in those details the better. This work is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

* out of **** stars.

Kevin J. Anderson

*Next time, we’ll wrap up this little comic series. Join me next time for Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 5: End of an Empire.

Star Wars Reviews!

 

Hmm, I liked it. It's so... different from the PT order, and that's a good thing! And I liked the characters, too.

 

Did you cover Dawn of the Jedi yet? Isn't it before this stuff?

 

It is. I hadn't read them yet when I started the thread. I wanted to go ahead and get started posting since I had so many reviews already good to go. I have purchases Into the Void and the trades are next on my list, so reviews of those should be coming in the not too far distant future.

Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire 5: End of an Empire



5,000 BBY

*I just want to point out that master Ooroo is referred to as the “jellyfish master” in this comic. Just straight up referred to as that. I’m not sure that there’s any way to react to that except with hysterical laughter.

*Okay, now this is just ludicrous. Ludo Kressh was presumed dead at the end of The Golden Age of the Sith when Sadow blew up his ship. He returned at the start of this story and Sadow blew up his ship again. Here, at the climax of this story, Kressh returns AGAIN and Sadow blows up his ship AGAIN! This time, he actually dies, but still, get a grip, man, that’s just stupid.

*Somebody once argued that this was supposed to be “ludicrous” and that Anderson was hinting at this by naming the character “Ludo Kressh.” Anderson is about that stupid, so, yeah, maybe. But I don’t know what that’s supposed to excuse. Stupid is stupid, even if it’s named Stoopid.

*So, anyway, in the whole star going nova kerfuffle, Sadow ends up fleeing to a deserted planet known as Yavin 4 (ooh, neato, a tie in!); the Republic thinks he’s dead, but in fact he’s just starting to build some temples that we’ll see later on.

*Things are somewhat better for our good guys. Jori has taken over Aarrba the Hutt’s shop, Empress Teta is back in command and Odan-Urr is returning to his master’s homeworld to set up a library. How charming.

*All in all, this one was an improvement over the first volume. It was more emotional and the battle scenes were done better. However, it still fails to really engage on quite the level one looks for.

*CANONICAL STATUS: Much like the previous volumes in this series, this one features a fair amount of legitimate historical detail, such as Sadow’s exile to Yavin 4 and the founding of Odan-Urr’s library. It also, however, contains a wealth of textual additions that have no factual foundation. This work is NOT RECOMMEDED as a historical resource.

* ½ out of **** stars.

Kevin J. Anderson

Next time? Well, we’re finally done with these comics. Next time, we’ll take an overview of this period of history with our first foray into the moving image. Join me next time for Timeline 12: The Great Hyperspace War!

Star Wars Reviews!

 

Ludo Kressh died too early. He should have became the Dark Lord who marked Kun and Ulic. Those comics imply that Sadow's rival is the same Dark Lord who marked Kun and Ulic. Furthermore, the Kun and Ulic Dark Lord has long hair, just like Ludo.

 

Honestly I don't like Tales of the Jedi much aside from the world building it does that leads to better stories in Kotor and DOTJ.

But I liked the latter half of the series more, with Exar Kun, Nomi and Ulic.

Oh and Redemption. That arc basically makes the whole thing worth it for me.

 

Anderson is not 'stupid' and I'll take the worst of his work over almost everything that comes in the future, like NJO, LOTF, FOTJ...

I feel good after reading his stuff. I felt angry after reading the NJO and synopses of LOTF and FOTJ. So I'll take his work over the other stuff any day of the century.

 

Kevin Anderson's prose is atrocious. Actively criminal. I mean, I honestly believe he deserves to be persecuted for things he has put to the page. As Rogue1-and-a-half said, "jellyfish master".

At the same time, he writes exceptionally entertaining books. He's just very good at engaging you with the plot and, miraculously, with characters that spew his abominable dialogue. Golden Age and Fall feel somewhat rushed, but when he has the time to engage the reader, he will.

 

Yes.