Lit Chronological Journey Through the EU: Disc. Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 2

I posted this on the temp boards, but I thought I'd go ahead and post it here. As you can see if you look through the body of this thread, most of my posts have been hit hard by all the truncation. I hear this'll be fixed eventually. But even if not . . . I may fix a few here and there myself. We'll see. But for now . . .


The Fourth Precept



25,783 BBY

*So, Visionaries . . . we talked a bit about Visionaries before when I reviewed Prototypes, the ridiculous story about Durge, and the story about Dooku creating Grievous, which it seems was called The Eyes of Vengeance or something. My memory is patchy about Visionaries, which is somewhat merciful, I think (though I did like the Dooku story and the Maul/Obi-Wan story; nothing else was really worth the paper it was printed on, but whatever).

*So, I pulled out my copy of it again and took a look at The Fourth Precept. This story can be summarized very briefly. Over five pages of stunning visuals, two figures have a lightsaber fight in space, the heart of the earth, maybe some other places, I dunno, before ending up poised together, their bodies perfectly balanced against each other.

*In other words, you might want to load up on the Mary Jane before you start this one.

*Ok, so let’s plumb the text here. Well, the story is completely dialogue free, but the title gives a clue. The Fourth Precept would be, I am assuming, a reference to the Jedi Code, of which the fourth precept is “There is no death, there is the Force.”

*WELL OKAY ACTUALLY THAT WAS NO HELP AT ALL.

*So, here’s something that I found really amusing about this one in a meta way. I am using three timelines in conjunction on this project and while there are certainly moments where the timelines disagree with each other, there is surely no story about which the three timelines are as violently divided as they are on this one.

*In my “baseline” timeline, or the default one, Rob Mullins places this story at 25,783 years before A New Hope. He calls it, in a note on the entry, “A surreal amalgamation of images,” which works for me. He then states that he believes it to be a mythological telling of the foundations of the Jedi religion, which is why he places it here. He sees it, then, as a myth about how the Jedi order began and, since we don’t really have any serious information about that beginning yet, we place this story here as the best representation yet. Okay, I suppose in some ways this works; the story ends with the opposing figures in balance with each other, so I suppose the rationale is that the moment when the Jedi Order began was the moment when balance and order came to a disordered and chaotic galaxy.

*Joe Bongiorno over at The Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline, on the other hand, places it at the very, very end of his timeline, just before a batch of public service announcements released in the late seventies to tie in with the movies, released, that is, in this galaxy, where Artoo and Threepio had apparently stumbled. So, here’s the question, and I may be putting words in his mouth a bit, but it appears to me that Joe’s perspective seems to be that the story is some sort of apocalypse. It comes after Storyteller, by far the oldest story in the GFFA, and just prior to the beginning of Star Wars bleeding over into our own galaxy. Is The Fourth Precept about the apocalypse that ends the Galaxy Far Far Away? Evidence in support of this? Well, the fourth precept, which gives this story its title is about death and how the Force survives even death. Is this about how even in the death of a galaxy, the Force remains in balance?

*DinoJim splits the difference over at this Star Wars Timeline Checklist. He puts the story in a separate list from his main timeline and labels it Infinities.

*So, this is either a creation myth of the Jedi order, the story of the apocalypse of the GFFA or it didn’t actually happen at all. Frankly, I’m going with the third option.

*I mean, okay, I’m not going to be a total grump. I will admit that the art is quite spectacular. But this is a story that forces you to ask if pictures, completely devoid of narrative context or emotional resonance, is enough for you. I say no. Your mileage may vary.

½ out of **** stars.

Stephen Martinire

 

I can't wait until you get to KotOR II.

As for Visionaries, well... It had some cool art (The aftermath of the Clone Wars art), and the Grievous, Maul, and Sidious stories were neato, so... eh, half of it was good.

 

What up with absoluteknave.com? Is it down or something? I haven't been able to access it for weeks.

 

It is down, actually. I've decided to move it to a more stable hosting platform. I have had tremendous difficulty with the host I was using being unable to provide some pretty basic things, so I have decided to just make the site a Squarespace site, where there's a lot more stability and a lot more security. At least so far. It's now at http://absoluteknave.squarespace.com. Design wise, there's a lot to do yet, but I'm getting some content up slowly. I hated to pull up stakes where I was, but it finally became clear that Bluehost wasn't going to be able to provide me what I was looking for. I got over my fear of having the added content in the website address and just went ahead and moved to Squarespace, but I haven't really gone for a big unveil yet (not that it'll be that big when it does happen!).

 

Cool. The new site looks nice. Looking forward to seeing you resume Indy using the new timeline hosted by dinojim: http://www.dinojim.com/Cultural/ChronologyHaven/Indiana_Jones.html.

 

I never responded to that, did I? Yes, that is awesome and I will be doing that at some point. Looks great.

 

For anyone who cares, I am slowly reposting my reviews from this thread to my own site. Here is the Star Wars Chronology. I hardly have any reviews up there, but I'll eventually get them all up and everyone will have access to them, whether this truncated posts thing gets settled or not.

 

I'm interested. I'm currently reading the Jedi Quest series (very, very slowly, since I can't handle more than 15 minutes of it at a time), and finding it excruciating. I miss your Jedi Apprentice reviews; felt like someone was suffering along with me.

 

Probably be a while; I'm going to be focusing on trying to get a substantial number of the ones I've already posted here up on my personal site for the time being.

Jedi Quest was better than Jedi Apprentice at least.

 

Indeed. It's eight books shorter than JA.

 

That's definitely one thing. But it was also better written. I actually really loved a couple of the JQ books. The podracing one was just really bleak. And I thought Ferus was actually a genuinely well-sketched, surprisingly deep character.

 

I think I remember the Podracing one. Was that in the first half of the series? I resumed the series after dropping it for months. The one I'm currently reading, The School of Fear, is a drag to read, but I think that's more because of Jude Watson's writing style than the plot itself. Her method to writing dialogue drives me insane, particularly the way she has her characters conveniently explain things in short, simple sentences. Absolutely maddening.

It is too bad that Jedi Apprentice was so painful to get through. I actually really love the premise of a series set in times of peace, starring Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon traveling the galaxy, righting wrongs. I just don't like it so much when they run into a pair of siblings every single book.

 

Yeeha! I'm starting to repost my reviews of The Golden Age of the Sith.

 

Jedi Quest was painful for me. I grew tired of seeing Anakin fail miserably with horrible consequences. Give the guy a break!

 

I remember that I only read the first two or three Jedi Quest books. I was convinced that Granta Omega was a Vong scout (because of the whole can't-be-sensed-through-the-Force thing). Imagine my disappointment when I learned the truth.

 

Okay, so this is in no way a replacement for new reviews, but I've decided to post some of the old reviews that I previously posted in this thread. I'm reformatting, editing, etc., as I post them on my personal site, so I thought I'd post some of those revised reviews in this thread. I guess this is doubly cool since you can't even read the original posts now, due to the truncation. One day, one glorious day, I will have new reviews for this thread. Until then . . .

Xim Week: The Despotica (Part II: The Pirate Prince)



25,130 BBY

*So, way back, six years ago, when I started this project, the first story I reviewed was The Golden Age of the Sith. And I sort of made fun of the fact that it was 5,000 years before the movies. I thought that was kind of silly, that they would think we would necessarily be interested in something so far out of the main story.

*So, one of the first sentences I wrote in this huge project was, “Was this trip really necessary?”

*Well, that was 5,000 years before the movies. This is over five times farther back than that. From 5,000 years before A New Hope to well over 25,000 years before it. Oy.

*So, this one doesn’t appear on Rob Mullin’s timeline. So, I’m slipping it in here at the place where it appears according to Dino Jim’s timeline. This is also, I think it’s worth mentioning, still Pre-Republic. The Old Republic hasn’t yet been founded.

*Now about 11,000 years before this, the Force was canonized in a sort of Nicean Council on Tython. Then about 10,000 years after that, there was a massive war on Tython over the use of the Force and the establishment of the Jedi Order after that war was completed.

*So, when this story was written, the Jedi Order had only been established for a little over 500 years. The Old Republic would be founded about 130 years after this story was written. Are we getting a picture of how far away we are from ‘modern times?’

*Anyway, this story is the second part of a four part series published on Hyperspace that attempts to deal with the legend of Xim the Despot, who you may remember from Han Solo & the Lost Legacy, in which Han and company were seeking Xim’s hidden treasure trove and had to deal with his, oddly still functional, war-droids. The Despotica purports to collect various works written about Xim the Despot. This is the oldest one.

*So, The Pirate Prince, written by Lyechusas of Argai is an epic play in the Greek Tragedy mold. It tells the story of Xim and his servant/friend, Oziaf, returning from a years long campaign of conquering and pillaging.

*Xim returns home to find that his father, Xer, has taken a new consort, Indrexu. Xer also reveals that Xim is not, as he believed, an only child. It turns out he has several brothers.

*Xim stalks off stage, murders them all, returns, kills his father and takes Indrexu as his consort. The end. Well, with his War Robots serving as a little Greek Chorus to put a tag on the play.

*So, let’s say a few things.

*I have long lamented the fact that the EU has lost some of its original fire. Even in the Bantam Era, I say a lot, the writers were allowed to experiment and just do some really crazy things. This led to a lot of failures, but also a lot of great successes.

*I think the establishment of all the letter grades of canon has sucked some energy out. Star Wars Tales, I have said, was the last bastion of this kind of free-thinking, fascinating, epic failure. When Tales folded, I said we would probably never again see a failure on the level of a Melvin Fett or a Planet of Twilight.

*The reason this is a bad thing is that it means we would also never see a rousing success on the level of A Death Star is Born or Into the Great Unknown or George R. Binks or L. Neil Smith’s Lando trilogy. We were being protected from the undeniable specter of absolute failure. But at the cost of never trying for great, outside the box success.

*Well, I’m forced to revise my estimation of all this because it seems that Hyperspace, which not surprisingly has no folded, was a bastion where this kind of extremely conceptual, loose limbed experimentation was allowed. Because I thought I’d never read a failure as dumb as Planet of Twilight again. And I haven’t. But this is pretty close.

*To understand why this story is so damned stupid, allow me to define what a ‘failure,’ really is. It’s actually a success, just a success founded on a totally wrong headed idea (or, perhaps, a series of them).

*For instance, Planet of Twilight, since I’m using that one . . . was that a failure? No, actually, I think it was exactly the book that Hambly wanted to write. The Hutt Jedi? She wanted that there. The mutated cockroach villain? That’s what she wanted. The idiotic reversal of Daala on the last page of the book? Her idea.

*So, really, she succeeded. It’s just that I can’t fathom her reasons for wanting to succeed in this way and, I think, neither could any other real Star Wars fan.

*So, The Pirate Prince? What does it set out to do? Very simple high concept? “Greek Tragedy in Star Wars.” That was the entire pitch, I’d say. And it’s a serviceable pastiche on Greek Tragedy.

*It’s just that the idea of doing Greek Tragedy like this in Star Wars is so utterly dunderheaded as to defy explication.

*Well, okay, let’s attempt explication.

*First of all, Kogge attempts to make us buy that Greek Tragedy is an acceptable style of writing in a society in which people have interstellar space travel, efficient war droids and an early form of suspended animation. Okay: *BULL**** ALARM*

*You see, I am loath to say this, given how perniciously I feel that CGI has effected the world of filmmaking, but it’s true. Art and technology develop in tandem. If the Ancient Greeks had been in possession of spaceships and robots and hibernation facilities, they wouldn’t have written that way.

*We are nowhere near the level of having interstellar travel of the type pictured here, nor of war machines like Xim’s droids, nor of suspended animation. And yet, already, in our culture, Greek Tragedy has become a stylistic throwback. It’s already aged out of relevance now so why does Kogge think a much more advanced society would still be practicing it?

*This is not to say that I don’t enjoy reading Greek Tragedy. The Oreisteia by Aeschylus stands as a profound achievement, particularly in the Fagles translation, and some of the Oedipus cycle too. But it’s not the way we write now, because our society’s technology, and therefore our aesthetics, has evolved.

*Secondly, it feels like Kogge and whoever else brainstormed this ‘idea,’ probably feel very proud of themselves for being so creative as to try to put Greek Tragedy’s stylistic flourishes in a Star Wars setting.

*But, to the degree that Revenge of the Sith attempted anything, it attempted a Greek Tragedy.

*Do you really think that it was only ratings considerations that led to the younglings being murdered off screen? Nah. That was a conscious reference on Lucas’ part to the styles of Greek Tragedy. But did everyone speak in verse? No. This is how Greek Tragedy works now; we use it as a reference point, we update it, but we don’t write it straight. Which is how Lychusas of Argai would have done it too, if he’d actually existed, instead of being created by someone who clearly doesn’t know as much about Greek Tragedy as he thinks he does.

*Also, I can’t tell you how cute the bits with the War Droids acting as chorus read. You can almost feel Kogge smirking about that bit of brilliance, using droids as a chorus.

*NEWSFLASH: That is exactly how Lucas has been using droids SINCE 1977! He didn’t have Threepio and Artoo stand in a line and spout weird poetry; he had them act as a modern version of a traditional Greek Chorus.

*So this is neither as creative nor as well thought through as Kogge probably thinks it is. He’s essentially just doing exactly what Lucas has already done and doing it in a way that makes no sense.

*Hyperspace has closed down you say? Wonder why that is. I mean, with ‘exclusive’ stuff like this, you’d think it would go forever.

*BULL**** ALARM*

*None of this addresses the central failing of this story which is that I could care less about Xim the frigging Despot. I mean was anyone begging for this? I ask you. I don’t think so.

*So, it succeeds: it’s a solid pastiche of an old school Greek Tragedy starring Xim the Despot. But it fails since Greek Tragedy shouldn’t exist in the GFFA at this point and Xim the Despot isn’t interesting in the slightest.

* out of **** stars.

Michael Kogge

*Next time, we’ll keep moving down DinoJim’s timeline by taking a look at an early slice of Jedi history from Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. Join me next time for Dark Jedi and a Jedi’s name that secretly hints at the EU’s attitude toward the fans!

Original Post

 

I remember really liking the first couple of Apprentice books.

 

Another repost!

Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force: Dark Jedi



25,000 BBY

*This short story can be found in Jedi Vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, the book by Ryder Windham. This is the first time we’ll be looking at something from this book, but far from the last.

*So, I guess everyone is familiar with the basic premise of this book. It’s a gorgeous folio sized book with loads of full color paintings. It purports to be a historical record, cobbled together from various holocrons with sources as varied as Tionne Solusar and Palpatine himself. It is an in-universe work.

*So, the third section of the book is given over to The Dark Side. This section, titled Dark Jedi, is the first section of Part Three.

*The third section has been entirely put together by Tionne Solusar. So, she speaks briefly about the origin of the term Dark Jedi and how it isn’t the same thing as a Sith.

*She doesn’t bring up what exactly a ‘Grey Jedi’ is. You remember when that one dude said Qui-Gon was a Grey Jedi? Was it in Stark Hyperspace War? Or Acts of War? I don’t
remember. Somewhere. Was it the Wookiee Jedi from Acts of War who said it? Someone look this up for me.

*So, then we get a three page story (large pages, double columns) about what Tionne says is the very first Dark Jedi in recorded history.

*This dates from around 25,000 years before Yavin. This is around the time of the founding of the Republic. It is about a hundred and thirty years after the last work we looked at, The Despotica’s Pirate Prince.

*The story is narrated by Sar Agorn, “a most unusual being, an apparently bulbous, soft creature who lacked limbs or facial features, and had greenish gases continually surrounding his form.”

*So, your basic blogger?

Sar Agorn, Jedi Master & Slimer's third cousin

*I kid because I love.

*Anyway, this is the story of when Sar Agorn found this young Force Sensitive candidate name of Cope Shykrill in the outlying Corellian Sector. They take him back to train him, but this Jedi named Nuck Lyu begins to wonder if all is as it seems with young Cope.

*Nuck Lyu? WELL THE SAME TO YOU BUDDY

*So, then Sar Agorn comes upon Shykrill telling a shadow story to three other young trainees. He’s using his hands to make figures on the wall and telling a story about two brothers, one good and one bad.

*Agorn begins, strangely, to envy Shykrill’s hands and his ability to tell a story. Agorn is disturbed by this reaction and leaves quickly.

*Twenty-three minutes later (that’s an oddly specific interval, don’t you think?), screaming is heard. Upon arriving at the scene, they find Shykrill and two of the trainees covered with blood. The third trainee has apparently slashed them with a long blade. As the Jedi converge, the trainee with the weapon screams that the shadows are in his head and then he slits his own throat.

*So, let me just say here that in my ideal Star Wars project, an epic long form television/movie series, this would definitely be an episode of the series. It would all be leading to this bravura scene.

*Anyway, the three trainees die. Shykrill survives. After Shykrill recovers, Agorn confronts him about the events of that horrible night. He asks Shykrill if the shadows speak to him. Shykrill says that they do and that he knows that they spoke to Agorn as well that night, spoke to him of envy.

*Shykrill then tells Agorn that he and the shadows are the two brothers of his story. Agorn asks if he is the bad brother or the good one. Shykrill says this is irrelevant and that it is time for Agorn to join the shadows.

*Luckily, Agorn has Nuck Lyu standing by. As Shykrill tries to assume control over Agorn with the Dark Side, Nuck Lyu attacks from the rear and beheads Shykrill.

*I gotta tell you, Nuck Lyu’s method of dealing with the Dark Side just kicks the ass of Mace Windu and the prequel Jedi. “Cope Shykrill, it is not my duty to inform you that you are under arrest. In fact, you are already dead.”

*Agorn investigates and finds that Shykrill had a twin who died mysteriously when both the boys were very young. He muses on the shadows and wonders if they came from within Shykrill or from some other source. He ultimately decides that he does not want to know. The shadows have, for the moment, been dispelled and that is enough.

*So, this is a very brief little story and hardly significant in terms of the larger arc of the timeline. But still I enjoyed it. It’s a perfectly crafted little horror tale and its rife for expansion in some format. The storytelling scene and the horrific aftermath of the story is great drama, told with economy and skill.

*If all the little sections of this book are as good as this one was, then I’m going to enjoy Jedi Vs. Sith very much.

Ryder Windham

*** out of **** stars.

*Next time, we’ll jump up about five hundred years to find out about the next major event in the rise of the Dark Side. We’ll be reading the story that directly follows this one in Jedi Vs. Sith, The First Dark Legion. Join us for that one.

Star Wars Chronology!

 

Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force: The First Dark Legion



24,500 BBY

*So, this follows directly after the Dark Jedi section we talked about last time. It’s the second section in the third section of Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, which we talked about last time.

*This one is also introduced, briefly, by Tionne Solusar and then, like last time, we get a straight up historical record. This takes place some 500 years after Cope Shykrill and his head parted ways. Also, this is about 400 years after the Jedi officially joined the Republic.

*So, Tionne indicates that there are few details about the period we’re about to look at. It’s called the First Schism and it is the first time when the Jedi Order organized as a group to do battle with a group of Dark Jedi who had broken away from the Jedi.

*First and only time.

*This group of Dark Jedi called themselves the Legion of Lettow and they were led by . . . aha! General Xendor! As in “Minions of Xendor!”

*So, Tionne then presents us with an account of the battle of Columus where the Legions of Lettow were finally defeated. The account is a recording made by a young Padawan named Danzigorro Potts as he was dying in the aftermath of the battle.

*In a detail I absolutely loved, Tionne says that three operas have been based on the life of Danzigorro Potts.

*So, this one is shorter than the last one, maybe two pages all told, what with all the illustrations that break it up and such. Anyway, this Padawan Potts relates that the news has been received that Xendor is dead. Potts is glad to hear that the Dark Side users have finally been defeated. There is static on the line; Potts attempts to make a grand statement about the Force, but can’t quite pull it off.

*Then he says that he killed one of his best friends in the battle. She wasn’t a bad person, he says; she just didn’t like all the rules of the Jedi Order. Maybe none of the Dark Jedi were really bad people, he says.

*Then he says that for five hundred years the Jedi have had relative peace. He wonders if the Jedi need an enemy; if they don’t have one, he muses, perhaps they turn on each other. He notes that it is getting cold. The recording ends.

*Quite a moving death scene. But it’s hard to take someone named Padawan Potts seriously, you know?

*Well, this one wasn’t as good as Dark Jedi. Maybe the opera is better.

Ryder Windham

* ½ out of **** stars.

*Next time, we’ll go back to the Despotica for more of the story of Xim the Despot! Join us next time for Xim at Vontor!

Star Wars Chronology!

 

Another repost!

Xim Week: The Despotica (Part III: Xim at Vontor)



15,762 – 15,609 BBY

*So, we previously looked at The Pirate Prince, which was Part II of The Despotica, a Hyperspace series. This is Part III.

*As you might notice, Xim at Vontor dates at almost 10,000 years after the First Schism. We’re making time now!

*So, a brief introduction notes that it’s been over 10,000 years since Lyechusas wrote The Pirate Prince. Xim at Vontor is written by a guy name of Peshosloc, who was a writer/director of holodramas. We are told that Xim at Vontor is still considered a great holodrama.

*We are only given excerpts, not the whole thing.

*So, whereas The Pirate Prince was written in the Greek Tragedy style, this one is written in screenplay format.

*So, as our story begins, we are reintroduced to Xim, Indrexu, the consort he took from his own father at the climax of The Pirate Prince, and Oziaf, Xim’s assistant/companion. The Third Battle of Vontor is just winding down; Xim is stomping the living hell out of the Hutts.

*Then we discover that Jaminere, Xim’s aide de camp (or something) is having an affair with Indrexu. They are plotting to kill Xim at this big victory banquet. All of Xim’s ‘allies’ are in on this as well.

*So, the banquet arrives and I was really sort of expecting the whole point of this story to be that Xim was aware of their treachery and he was going to turn the tables on them in some fantastic, clever way.

*But I was wrong about that. The treachery blindsides him and, long story short, Xim gets shot in the head by Jaminere. Jaminere and his fellow traitors take their leave.

*The wounded Xim drags himself to Oziaf’s workshop. One eye has been completely destroyed by Jaminere’s blaster shot.

*Then, in what would obviously rival a scene from the Saw series were this actually filmed, Xim forces Oziaf to replace his destroyed eye with a droid’s eye. The scene description is fairly graphic. Xim remains conscious throughout the operation.

*Xim remarks on how wonderful it is to see as his war droids see. He tells Oziaf he wants the other eye replaced. Oziaf says the other eye is perfectly healthy and does not need replacement.

*Xim frigging pulls his good eye out of its socket and squishes it in his hand. The scene description tells us that ‘vitreous humor’ squirts in all directions. Oziaf replaces the other eye.

*I could see this being a movie.

*The final scene is of Xim and Oziaf arriving at Lord Tion’s secret lair. Xim is aware that Jaminere, Indrexu and the other traitors are inside the lair. Xim vows that this very day, he will have his vengeance. And then the story ends.

*What the . . . .

*Okay, well, I guess it’s just the excerpts and maybe we get the story of his vengeance later or something.

*Well, this one was quite a bit better than The Pirate Prince. As I say, it was in screenplay format, which works better than Greek Tragedy, as you may recall from my savaging of The Pirate Prince’s faulty premise.

*Anyway, this story actually surprised me a couple of times. I was shocked that Xim was entirely taken in by the treachery of his underlings. And then the eye replacement scene was pretty well a shocker since I really didn’t know any details about Xim prior to reading these two stories.

*The last scene is oddly grafted on. It is obvious to me that Xim at Vontor should have ended with the replacement of Xim’s second eye. His final line in that scene, “Their world is my world now,” is a great climactic line for a story about how Xim’s humanity began to be subsumed by electronics. It would have been a killer ending.

Michael Kogge

** out of **** stars.

*Next time, we’ll make some more time. We’ll move approximately 8,000 years on up the timeline to talk about the second great schism of the Jedi Order. Join me next time and we’ll talk about The Hundred-Year Darkness.

Star Wars Chronology!

 

Repost!

Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 1: Into the Unknown



Buy Tales of the Jedi, Vol. 1

5,000 BBY

*Okay, so our main characters are flighty siblings who map hyperspace routes after their parents die. Needing money fast, they do a quickie that results in the loss of a supply ship. This could just as easily been a passenger freighter or something . . . We're supposed to like these people?

*Editor’s Note: So, they need this money because they’re having their ship repared by Aarba the Hutt. He refuses to give them the ship back until they actually pay him.

*It is nice to see a Hutt that isn't greedy and even extends credits. He's the most likeable character in this book. How often can you say that about the Hutt?

*Why do all female characters in this universe wear evening dresses slit up to their thigh all the time?

*Editor’s Note: It strikes me, going back over this review, that the correct question is actually “Why don’t all women in this universe wear evening dresses slit up to their thigh all the time?”

*Editor’s Note: Okay, so this ship that was destroyed because of Gav & Jori’s horrible job at mapping hyperspace lanes . . . unfortunately for them, it’s a ship that belongs to Ssk Kahor, a Trandoshan crime lord. So, he sends some thugs after them to beat them up or maybe kill them. Couple of Jedi name of Odan Urr and Memit Nadill intervene and drive off the thugs.

*Okay, so at this point, the lightsaber is powered by a pack that you carry on your belt? Interesting . . .

*Editor’s Note: Or has this been retconned somehow? It strikes me that it probably has.

*Okay, Odan-Urr is probably the most likeable, if only because he seems a lot like me. For one thing, he'd rather just stay with his books.

*Editor’s Note: So after that close call with the thugs, they decide to get off planet. So, they steal their ship back from Aarba and, under hot pursuit by the bad guys, they take a wild stab and leap blindly into hyperspace with no idea where they’ll end up.

*Just once I'd like to read a story where someone takes a blind leap because they have nothing to lose and then they fail utterly, dying in the process.

*Editor’s Note: Seriously, how awesome would that be? Like the main characters like take a desperate leap and then they just die and you realize that they’re not actually the main characters. What a trip.

Kevin J. Anderson, Dario Carrasco, Jr., Mark G. Heike, Bill Black, David Jacob Beckett

* out of **** stars.

*Next time, we’ll hit the next issue of this series and introduce this era’s main villain.

Star Wars Chronology!

 

Is there anywhere on the Internet to legitly print off The Depotica and all the other Hyperspace Exclusive that aren't available on Suvudu?

 

Key word being "legitimate," I do not believe so . . . others may know better than I do.

Here's another repost:

Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 2: Funeral for a Dark Lord



Buy Tales of the Jedi, Vol. 1

5,000 BBY

*Editor’s Note: Okay, so as this issue starts, Marka Ragnos, Dark Lord of the Sith, has died. In his honor, the Sith have turned out for a huge funeral procession. During said procession, two of the other Sith Lords start arguing about which of them is going to take Ragnos’ place as supreme Dark Lord. This would be Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh.

*Naga Sadow: to be played by Ralph Fiennes.

*Editor’s Note: Yes, the name of one of the Sith Lords is Ludo Kressh. I’m just going to let that stand.

*First Blue Glowing Spectre Alert!

*Uh, okay, so the dead Sith Lord appears to his feuding students and tells them . . . NOTHING! The scene ends with each of them saying that the cryptic remarks the Sith Lord spewed obviously mean that they are right and the others are wrong. How did this help exactly? And why did they even stop fighting?

*Editor’s Note: At this point, I really have to bring up the art, which is just fantastic. I’m no fan of the story stuff here, but this is some amazing art. The Valley of the Dark Lords, where the funeral is being held, is just breathtaking. It’s given a full two page spread and I think I could look at it for like half an hour without getting tired of it. And keep seeing new details too probably. It’s just a gorgeous, strange piece of artwork.

*None of the other characters are that great, but Naga Sadow is an interesting villain. He's a slightly more liberal Sith than the others and he's pushing for expansion. The debates are nicely rendered and are probably the best scenes in the book.

*I don't particularly like the designs of the Sith. They're too obviously Satanic in appearance, if you ask me.

*Editor’s Note: So, just when we most expect it, Gav and Jori arrive. They’re strangely optimistic upon confronting a race of beings that has all the accoutrements of the devil except the pitchfork.

Kevin J. Anderson, Dario Carrasco, Jr., Mark G. Heike, Bill Black, David Jacob Beckett

* out of **** stars.

*Next time, we’ll hit the next issue of this series and the plot will (finally) really kick in.

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