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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
This is for the audiobook...
Fun if at times over the top dramatic, but then again, this is very much a radio drama performance. It is interesting the things other people aside from Lucas thought of for the Force and powers of its users.
Fun if at times over the top dramatic, but then again, this is very much a radio drama performance. It is interesting the things other people aside from Lucas thought of for the Force and powers of its users.
06/01/2016: Finished Dark Empire I (3.5*).
It's interesting, coming to one of the earliest monuments of the old Expanded Universe/"Legends" series, to see where people foresaw the Star Wars story going after the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. Both Dark Empire and its near contemporary novel, [b:Heir to the Empire|216443|Heir to the Empire (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy, #1)|Timothy Zahn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398253847s/216443.jpg|1133995], establish that Han and Leia are married (an event which would not be novelized until [b:The Courtship of Princess Leia|821010|The Courtship of Princess Leia (Star Wars)|Dave Wolverton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401659364s/821010.jpg|806845] in 1994), and Leia is pregnant. The deminished Empire remains the enemy, and though it is powerful it has its own difficulties, in Dark Empire I, the Empire has split into several factions of warlords (believable). It is perhaps a little frustrating that the plot revolves around the resurrection of the Emperor and the threat of the Dark Side (the word "Sith" has not yet been used); nonetheless, as in The Force Awakens, the remnants of the Empire continue to pump their money and resources into ineffectual weapons of mass destruction, which the rebellion/Republic must take down.
The most interesting feature of Dark Empire is that in this version of a Star Wars future one of the first items on the agenda is the training of Leia as a Jedi. As the early-'90s text states: "Leia Organa, wife of Han Solo, already a mother of two, is, above all things, a Jedi Warrior!" (p.19). It wouldn't be unsurprising as a Twitter bio and it's a strange list of priority identities (which notably doesn't include Princess), but the narrative continues to emphasise that Leia must also undergo training as a Jedi if she's to escape the lure of the Dark Side. Despite everything going on with Luke and the rebellion, it's Leia's story which takes priority, even if it does somewhat revolve around her pregnancy.
The art betrays Cam Kennedy's work for 2000 AD; but it also has the unmistakably Star Wars richness of detail to the worlds. It's a style that I like quite a bit, personally, although it is certainly subject to taste. The limited colour palette adds to the darkness of the story, again, though, it could be off-putting.
Overall, the story feels like a continuation of the Star Wars story; there's little sense to the necessity of the story, but it's a worthwhile contribution to expand a universe and stands up even after that universe has been added to (and wiped out).
10/01/2016: Finished Dark Empire II (3.5*)
21/01/2016: Finished Empire's End (3*).
The ending came a lot faster than I was expecting, like they thought they were going to have ten pages more. The final moments are actually the best -where the Empire's obsessive building of weapons of mass destruction leads to them destroying themselves . But, overall, the art is less good, the story rushed and weak, and a bit of an anticlimax.
It's interesting, coming to one of the earliest monuments of the old Expanded Universe/"Legends" series, to see where people foresaw the Star Wars story going after the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. Both Dark Empire and its near contemporary novel, [b:Heir to the Empire|216443|Heir to the Empire (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy, #1)|Timothy Zahn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398253847s/216443.jpg|1133995], establish that Han and Leia are married (an event which would not be novelized until [b:The Courtship of Princess Leia|821010|The Courtship of Princess Leia (Star Wars)|Dave Wolverton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401659364s/821010.jpg|806845] in 1994), and Leia is pregnant. The deminished Empire remains the enemy, and though it is powerful it has its own difficulties, in Dark Empire I, the Empire has split into several factions of warlords (believable). It is perhaps a little frustrating that the plot revolves around the resurrection of the Emperor and the threat of the Dark Side (the word "Sith" has not yet been used); nonetheless, as in The Force Awakens, the remnants of the Empire continue to pump their money and resources into ineffectual weapons of mass destruction, which the rebellion/Republic must take down.
The most interesting feature of Dark Empire is that in this version of a Star Wars future one of the first items on the agenda is the training of Leia as a Jedi. As the early-'90s text states: "Leia Organa, wife of Han Solo, already a mother of two, is, above all things, a Jedi Warrior!" (p.19). It wouldn't be unsurprising as a Twitter bio and it's a strange list of priority identities (which notably doesn't include Princess), but the narrative continues to emphasise that Leia must also undergo training as a Jedi if she's to escape the lure of the Dark Side. Despite everything going on with Luke and the rebellion, it's Leia's story which takes priority, even if it does somewhat revolve around her pregnancy.
The art betrays Cam Kennedy's work for 2000 AD; but it also has the unmistakably Star Wars richness of detail to the worlds. It's a style that I like quite a bit, personally, although it is certainly subject to taste. The limited colour palette adds to the darkness of the story, again, though, it could be off-putting.
Overall, the story feels like a continuation of the Star Wars story; there's little sense to the necessity of the story, but it's a worthwhile contribution to expand a universe and stands up even after that universe has been added to (and wiped out).
10/01/2016: Finished Dark Empire II (3.5*)
21/01/2016: Finished Empire's End (3*).
The ending came a lot faster than I was expecting, like they thought they were going to have ten pages more. The final moments are actually the best -
Dark Empire I is very good, the rest, not so much...
So I vaguely recall reading some of this when it first came out in stores, picking it up and paging through it, and being blown away seeing the Emperor back, and Luke falling to the Dark Side.
This story got a lot of attention recently due to events in The Rise of Skywalker, I finally got around to reading this all the way through.
It uh...it was okay. I don’t mind the emperor coming back through clones. Maybe this is me growing up with Saturday morning cartoons. Cobra, Megatron, Shredder, the Joker, they always come back, and heroes have to keep stomping them. Price of Freedom is eternal vigilance! Luke becoming Palpatine’s apprentice didn’t bug me either, since it was obvious both Luke and the Emperor were playing each other. Heck, (spoilers for Last Jedi I suppose) I wish Rey had tried a similar move with Kylo Ren! And boy, after seeing what happened in the sequels I loved seeing this version of Luke striving to bring back the Jedi order and looking optimistic as he found new recruits across the galaxy. Heck, I liked Leia and Han as the rough and tumble married couple, and seeing Leia beginning to explore her Jedi powers.
But...there was a lot of bloated and overblown stuff as well. Oh no the World Devastators are SO MUCH WORSE than the Death Star! Luke gets a love interest! BAM she’s dead! I almost laughed. I honestly got a little weary and felt like I was forcing myself to get to the end. In hindsight you could have ended it after part 1 and called it a day. But...a fun ride. The artwork I can give or take. So...3 stars.
This story got a lot of attention recently due to events in The Rise of Skywalker, I finally got around to reading this all the way through.
It uh...it was okay. I don’t mind the emperor coming back through clones. Maybe this is me growing up with Saturday morning cartoons. Cobra, Megatron, Shredder, the Joker, they always come back, and heroes have to keep stomping them. Price of Freedom is eternal vigilance! Luke becoming Palpatine’s apprentice didn’t bug me either, since it was obvious both Luke and the Emperor were playing each other. Heck, (spoilers for Last Jedi I suppose) I wish Rey had tried a similar move with Kylo Ren! And boy, after seeing what happened in the sequels I loved seeing this version of Luke striving to bring back the Jedi order and looking optimistic as he found new recruits across the galaxy. Heck, I liked Leia and Han as the rough and tumble married couple, and seeing Leia beginning to explore her Jedi powers.
But...there was a lot of bloated and overblown stuff as well. Oh no the World Devastators are SO MUCH WORSE than the Death Star! Luke gets a love interest! BAM she’s dead! I almost laughed. I honestly got a little weary and felt like I was forcing myself to get to the end. In hindsight you could have ended it after part 1 and called it a day. But...a fun ride. The artwork I can give or take. So...3 stars.
If I could give this book 2 and a half stars, i would. It was ok, and it had potential to be better. I guess I should've realized that it was mainly fanfic as opposed to a true continuation of the Star Wars story. In that regards, it served it's purpose of exposing the audience to characters much loved and loathed and furthered the story only a little.
I was hoping for more a continuation and less fanfic. It would have made for a more interesting read if the Emperor or Boba Fett wasn't involved, and it would've been nice to see how these characters were affected by years upon years of war. It didn't seem to affect them, really. I did appreciate the focus on Leia and the new Jedi were entertaining, but I wasn't attached to them, really. Overall though, it was a little bit bette than ok.
I was hoping for more a continuation and less fanfic. It would have made for a more interesting read if the Emperor or Boba Fett wasn't involved, and it would've been nice to see how these characters were affected by years upon years of war. It didn't seem to affect them, really. I did appreciate the focus on Leia and the new Jedi were entertaining, but I wasn't attached to them, really. Overall though, it was a little bit bette than ok.
As I delve into the Expanded Universe/Legends series of Star Wars media, one of the things that I've come to appreciate is just how interconnected are all of the various works. This isn't like the Star Trek franchise, in which novels, comic books, and other creations exist as stand-alone material unrelated to one another outside of the occasional author-driven character: the works that were created as part of the Expanded Universe were meant to fit together to build exactly what the title implies. I discovered this by reading Timothy Zahn's Hand of Thrawn duology, which references not just his earlier Thrawn trilogy, but subsequent events in the Dark Horse Comics series of Star Wars comics. Intrigued, I decided to do some research, which led me to the highly praised Dark Empire series that was Dark Horse's inaugural publication for the franchise.
After reading it, though, it's hard to see how it earned its hype. Set six years after the battle of Endor and a year after the events in Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, it depicts that New Republic's struggle against a revived Emperor Palpatine, who survived his seeming demise at the hands of Darth Vader through a contingency plan involving cloned versions of himself. Now restored to the leadership of the remnants of the Empire, he launches a renewed series of assaults on the New Republic involving mobile automated factories known as "World Devastators" that attack their targets by consuming them and using their resources to produce yet more forces for the Empire. Yet Palpatine's greatest weapon is the New Republic's best hope: the Jedi knight Luke Skywalker, who accepts the Emperor's offer to join him in wielding the power of the dark side against his former friends.
Skywalker's turn to the dark side is easily the freshest thing about the series, and while it plays out in predictable ways it's not without its moments of suspense. The problem is that, having resolved the storyline (and given all that followed I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the whole Luke-as the-Emperor's-apprentice thing doesn't stick), the company had to figure out something else when the popularity of the comic led to the commissioning of the sequels that make up the other two-thirds of the collection. Here the quality falls off quickly, as the World Devastators are succeeded by yet another planet-killing weapon (an early example of how the franchise gets stuck on this concept) while Luke discovers scattered Jedi that he recruits to build a new force of knights. The action quickly degenerates into melodrama, as Luke and his friends in the New Republic fight off a series of gambits thrown at them by an increasingly desperate Palpatine, who by the end of the series is little more than a cartoonish villain appearing up in a lame disguise so he can kidnap an infant.
Yes, you read that correctly: by the end of the series, the shadowy leader who dominated a galaxy-spanning empire with Sith apprentices, fleets of Star Destroyers, and millions of stormtroopers is reduced to abducting babies in person in order to realize his schemes. It's a silly use of a character so fearsome that J. J. Abrams felt it necessary to bring him back for Episode IX of the series, and one that raises the question of how these comics came to enjoy the stature they did among Star Wars fans. For while they're necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the canon of the Expanded Universe, the stories themselves really don't measure up to the best the franchise has to offer.
After reading it, though, it's hard to see how it earned its hype. Set six years after the battle of Endor and a year after the events in Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, it depicts that New Republic's struggle against a revived Emperor Palpatine, who survived his seeming demise at the hands of Darth Vader through a contingency plan involving cloned versions of himself. Now restored to the leadership of the remnants of the Empire, he launches a renewed series of assaults on the New Republic involving mobile automated factories known as "World Devastators" that attack their targets by consuming them and using their resources to produce yet more forces for the Empire. Yet Palpatine's greatest weapon is the New Republic's best hope: the Jedi knight Luke Skywalker, who accepts the Emperor's offer to join him in wielding the power of the dark side against his former friends.
Skywalker's turn to the dark side is easily the freshest thing about the series, and while it plays out in predictable ways it's not without its moments of suspense. The problem is that, having resolved the storyline (and given all that followed I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the whole Luke-as the-Emperor's-apprentice thing doesn't stick), the company had to figure out something else when the popularity of the comic led to the commissioning of the sequels that make up the other two-thirds of the collection. Here the quality falls off quickly, as the World Devastators are succeeded by yet another planet-killing weapon (an early example of how the franchise gets stuck on this concept) while Luke discovers scattered Jedi that he recruits to build a new force of knights. The action quickly degenerates into melodrama, as Luke and his friends in the New Republic fight off a series of gambits thrown at them by an increasingly desperate Palpatine, who by the end of the series is little more than a cartoonish villain appearing up in a lame disguise so he can kidnap an infant.
Yes, you read that correctly: by the end of the series, the shadowy leader who dominated a galaxy-spanning empire with Sith apprentices, fleets of Star Destroyers, and millions of stormtroopers is reduced to abducting babies in person in order to realize his schemes. It's a silly use of a character so fearsome that J. J. Abrams felt it necessary to bring him back for Episode IX of the series, and one that raises the question of how these comics came to enjoy the stature they did among Star Wars fans. For while they're necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the canon of the Expanded Universe, the stories themselves really don't measure up to the best the franchise has to offer.
Not a huge fan of the art in the first two sections, and the style made it hard for me to read, but it was interesting to see the beginnings of Jacen/Jaina/Anakin Solo. I've become more intrigued with the Extended Universe mainly because it's now considered moot.
Needs more Lando. Everything needs more Lando.
Needs more Lando. Everything needs more Lando.