Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Tempest by Troy Denning

Review by Dan Tres Omi

Omi's Note: I apologize for our tardiness. I purchased the book when it was released and while in the middle of reading it, lost it. I refuse to repurchase the book since I originally bought three copies. We thank you for your patience.

Like the Yuuzhan Vong war series, having multiple authors presents several problems. There will be a few minor continuity errors but those can be overlooked. The main problem is that of character development. For example, in Bloodlines, we find Jacen Solo to be this uncaring military type. In Tempest however, he is the father who does all it takes for his daughter. In Betrayal, the reader can clearly see the parallels between Anakin Skywalker and Jacen Solo. Even though the similiarities are there, the reader is convinced that Jacen is doing things differently. In the subsequent books, it seems as if Vader was never Jacen's grandfather. While in the first two Legacy books, people like Admiral Nianthal and other notables have bigger roles, in Tempest they are rarely mentioned. Maybe those characters will be explored again when the previous authors write the next book in the story line. Yet many new characters were introduced who were very interesting.

Although I enjoy Allston's writing, I have to admit that he already fudged the storyline. Jacen Solo sends Lumiya to confront Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker. I found this confrontation to be a bit early. Luke already assumes that Lumiya is responsible for everything and has no clue about Jacen Solo's Sith training. He assumes that Jacen is leaning towards the dark side but has no understanding of how deep he is in it. Although this is a good idea, I felt that giving Luke more chase would have broaden the plot.

Finally, there is a coup attempt on Tenel Ka. I grew tired of all the political ramblings and plotting going on. This wasn't just a coup de 'tat in the palace, this was a full fledge civil war. Even the Republic was brought in to assist with the Corellians on the side of the coup leaders. Denning does a wonderful job of describing the capital ship battle in the Hapes Consortium. Denning balances this with three memorable lightsaber duels.

One problem that I have with the Star Wars Expanded Universe is the reluctance of the writers to leave some characters dead. Alema Rar returns virtually from the dead. One wonders how many near deaths one can survive. She is now terribly deformed and insane. She serves no purpose but to annoy the reader. She is dead, leave her alone. Unfortunately, she survives death twice in this book.

Another annoying problem is once again, Han Solo and Princess Leia escape a heavy bombardment from capital ships in the very old Millenium Falcon. Again, they lose power to shields and even have a hyperspace drive leak. Despite all of this, they manage to get away again. This time I thought the Falcon was cooked for sure. The irony is that Leia piloted the ship. I guess she is a good a pilot as Han Solo now. We do learn that now the Solo's are double agents. The only person who does not believe this however is Jacen when he learns that his parents were involved in the assassination attempt on Tenel Ka and their daughter.

The writers did something right when they re-introduced Aurra Sing to the story. I don't understand why Jacen Solo did not kill her as he would have in the previous book. If he would send his Sith master to kill his uncle, I don't understand why he would not kill someone who hated Jedi and tried to kill his daughter twice. I assume she will be returning in future stories. Despite its flaws, Tempest is a must read. The fight scenes and the space battle surely compensate for everything else.

Been a long time.... again...

I promise, we won't let it happen again.

coming up

1. book reviews on :
a. Star Wars Tempest
b. Star Wars Path of Destruction

until then enjoy the clips



oh yeah a Ken Burns inspired Battle of Hoth documentary.. really dope...

Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines by Karen Traviss

Review by Dan Tres OMi

Don't get me wrong, I really dig Karen Traviss. Her work with the Clone troopers in Triple Zero and Hard Contact stands out amongst the several authors who write for the SW Expanded Universe. The writing she has done for Star Wars Insider is superb. Yet Traviss falls way short of her previous work in Bloodlines. Boba Fett has always been gangsta. The fact that GL used Temuera Morrison as the face and voice of the universe's well known bounty hunter makes it even more gangsta.

The highlight of Bloodlines is the fact that we finally get into Fett's head in a 1st person sense. Previously, we only walked with Boba Fett in the third person sense in books such as the Bounty Hunter Wars which in themselves are great books. The downside of this is that now Fett is 70 years old. The crazy thing is that he is still collecting bounties despite all the money he has made in the past. This makes no sense whatsoever and I think is outside of Fett's thinking. Traviss tries to maintain some realism as she describes the pain Fett feels as he climbs a wall, holds a gun, etc. It's just ridiculous to picture a 70 year old man who has his body battered for decades chasing bounties and escaping death several times over still trying to fight folks young enough to be his grandchildren. I think learning about Fett in the 1st person sense is just too late at this point.

What bothered me about the Bloodlines story is that we learn more about Fett's earlier marriage, his daughter, and granddaughter. Traviss does a good job introducing all of them to new fans but the ending was just too obvious. All of a sudden, Fett has a heart. What happened to the cold hearted bounty hunter we have come to know and love? It reminds me of Wolverine in X3. Fett is also the Mandalore. Yet he does not act like it. He refuses to learn the language and culture yet he is the Mandalore? What gives? Personally, this story should have been kept out of the Legacy of the Force storyline.

Jacen Solo continues to follow the path his grandfather took. His steps are frighteningly similar. Solo actually time travels via the force to the raid on the Jedi Temple led by Anakin. These scenes bring everything home. Solo wrestles with his logic and contrasts his turn to the dark side to Anakin's fall. Solo makes some wonderful observations. He places himself in the council chamber when young Anakin first encounters the members. He does not understand why the Jedi Masters delegate the responsibility of teaching Jedi techniques to Anakin to Obi Wan since most agreed that he was the Chosen One. Solo also notices the Jedi's arrogance.

Luke Skywalker continues to baffle me. He knows that Jacen is the cloaked figure in his dream yet does not confront Jacen. As a matter of fact, he spends a great deal of time avoiding him even though Jacen continues to violate several Jedi codes. This makes no sense at all. One would think that as the Jedi Master of the entire Jedi order, Luke would either question or suspend Jacen from the Jedi Order. Solo also makes some moves that seem childish instead of sinister. To be honest, I find that Luke and Mara are insane to continue to let Ben train under Jacen. Having your 13 year old child break into people's homes in the middle of the night is not my idea of proper apprenticeship.

Jacen uses some storm trooper tactics to arrest and deport some Corellian citizens. He makes several political and military allies in his plan to attack the Corellian system and destroy their military. He even brings Ben Skywalker along for the show. Many people quickly make the comparisons to his grandfather. Jacen is given control of a secret police ala Hitler's SS and they make their moves raiding houses and quelling riots and demonstrations. We are introduced to Jori Lekauf, the grandson of a Lekauf who served under Darth Vader (also someone Vader had an attachment to). Lekauf is even proud of that fact. Ironically, we learn that several people had no issue with the Empire and their tactics.

My next question is since when do Jedi drink coffee?

Despite the fact that the book is part of a series, one must read it. Overall, its not worth the cover price (the cover however is dope). I think that Traviss' writing style centers around the military. Everyone is given this military work over. All of a sudden, Solo is this tough as nails officer when during the Yuuzhan Vong war he was anything but. Even during the Killik war, Solo was the loner who seemed to operate best outside of any formal organization. This is where Traviss fails. Her strength is writing about military outfits, battles, etc. When it comes to debating about issues of the force or child rearing for that matter, Traviss falls short.

Name the Newest Sith Lord!

Do you want to give Jacen his Sith name? Darth ______ !
well you can...Del Rey is having a contest which will allow the winner to have his Darth name used in the upcoming book Sacrifice by Karen Traviss...
YOu can go here for more details or check http://www.starwars.com/darthwho to get in.

let's get cracking...

Getting back to the future can't buy happiness

a piece by robot doomsday guru DANIEL H. WILSON as featured in New York Newsday... real interesting..

September 13, 2006


The future was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free utopia - a place where a grown man could wear a spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the servant robots, the flying cars and the hover boards we expected?

Oh, and that reminds me, where's my flippin' jet pack? Visionaries such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells long ago spun wild tales of space flight and underwater adventure. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback introduced the first science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, with the motto: "Extravagant Fiction Today: Cold Fact Tomorrow."

By the 1960s and '70s, the Apollo moon missions made a lunar landing look like a trip to the beach. And don't even get me started on "Star Trek" (celebrating its 40th anniversary) with its tantalizing holodecks, transporters and universal translators.

Every pulp sci-fi tale was a promise of a better tomorrow, yet today zeppelins the size of ocean liners do not hover over fully enclosed skyscraper cities. Despite every World's Fair prediction, every futuristic ride at Disneyland and the advertisements on the last page of every comic book, we are not living in a techno-utopia. Or are we? (click Here)

Noticias...

It's been a minute, but you see the treats...

1. if you don't know the latest installment of the Legacy of the Force series is out. It's called Bloodlines and is written by Karen Traviss (check the interview here). it focuses on Boba Fett and Mandolares during this crisis. It should be dope.

2. Speaking of Boba Fett, there is an e novella written by Travis that takes place during the Yuuzhan Vong wars. you can go here for it...

3. Star Wars Legacy 4 preview aqui...

Post Clone War questions....(part I)

1.What ever happened to Kar Vastor?

Kar Vastor was a Korrunai that Mace Windu encountered on his home planet. He was a powerful force sensitive who was not actually a dark sider but used the force for selfish reasons. I use selfish loosely because Vastor was a product of his environment. He saw his family murdered by off worlders and was left in the harsh jungles of Haruun Kal. In this situation no one lives but Vastor was able to survive for one year. He was very strong in the force and actually beat Mace Windu in combat. He is also like Mace Windu, one of the last survivors of the ghosh Windu. He was captured by Windu and arrested. He was taken to Coruscant to await trial. That is the last we heard from him.

2.Nick Rostu

Nick Rostu was another force sensitive Korrunai that Mace encountered on his mission to his home planet. He was a guide for Mace Windu into the jungles of Haruun Kal. Windu inducted him into the Grand Army of the Republic. I liked his character. He was spunky and very useful in a fight. He was severely wounded but survived. Mace later mentioned him in his archives and stated he was on Coruscant in a medical facility.

I hope someone brings them back.

Chad Vader

this is too funny. i had to show this one...

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Betrayal by Aaron Allston

Review by Brother OMi aka Dan Tres OMi..

The story takes place several years after the conclusion of the Yuuzhan Vong war. The Galactic Alliance (as seen in the Dark Nest series) is near the tipping point. Several planets are on the verge of seperating and the Chief of state, Cal Omas, is bearly holding things together. The New Jedi Order under Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Grand Master (see the Dark Nest series), seems to be maintaining its presence throughout the galaxy. Of course, there is much animosity towards the Galactic Alliance and the NJO because of the actions taken and percieved to have taken during the Yuuzhan Vong conflict. This is the backdrop for the Legacy of the Force storyline. The reader can see how any move by any one of even small importance can tip the scales and plunge the galaxy into chaos.

The story centers on Jacen Solo with a nice emphasis on Luke and Mara Jade's son, Ben Skywalker who is now 13 standard years old. Jacen, whose relationship with Luke is rather strained, continues to train Ben as his padawan. It is a perfect fit since Jacen does not place any restraints on Ben and coupled with his philosophy of the Force, gives Ben the benefit of the doubt and allows him to take his lead. Ben's character is wonderful. He is less worried about impressing his parents or living up to their name. He just doesn't want anyone to consider him a child. He is not portrayed as an all powerful chosen one either but his maturity in the Force shows. Allston does a wonderful job on Jacen and Ben.

What I have always liked about Allston is his focus on military matters. So yes, those of you who remember him from Enemy Lines I and II in the Yuuzhan Vong series will see much more action on that level. So the reader will find battles between capital ships, clever stunts pulled off by seasoned pilots, and even some tricks by Wedge Antilles and others. DId i mention that Wedge Antilles makes an appearance?

Allston does not leave out the political intrigue. The politics in this book are harrowing. Diplomacy is employed by both sides as the Galactic Alliance (GA) tries to maintain peace while the Correllians continue to scheme, build up their military, and entice others into joining their cause while shaking hands with the GA. This reminds me of how the Japanese continued to negotiate with the US while invading other countries before 1941. The GA knows what is going on (like the US did with Magic) but tries to settle everything at the negotiating table.

What makes the political intrigue even more crazy is the fact that there are members of the GA military who are Correllians. Their loyalties are questioned. One such individual is Syal Antilles, the daughter of Wedge. She joins the GA using a changed name and quickly becomes an ace. Wedge is back on Correllia but is kidnapped by the GA and escapes. This adds more to the game.

New Jedi Knights are introduced and several more are brought back. it is good to see Corran Horn again. Some Republic era jedi are mentioned as well. THe end is a suprising twist as a Jedi is murdered by another murder. We also see someone turn to the dark side (and it isn't a minor jedi either).

My beefs?

Okay, the Millenium Falcon doesn't make another near death escape from a Star Destroyer (well actually it does but from several fighters). I just feel that Han Solo can't be that lucky. I also feel like dude is just too old to be running around. I could see if he is a jedi since they last longer and maintain much of their strength through the force. Please, someone retire Solo.

I enjoy Gilad Pellaeon. I really do, but he is cutting close to 80 years old. I mean, if they killed him off here, i would have dug that but come on. As much as I like Wedge, he has to be close to 90. He has fought since the Rebellion and I am sure he just wants to retire.

No Kyp Durron? I feel that Durron is a great character who was never fully developed. He was just background in the Dark Nest series where as during the Vong war, he was considered a rival to Luke. It would have been great to bring him back to the fold.

Thrackan Sal-Solo, even though he is not the main villain (obviously he is under someone's influence), is such a sucker. Even during the Centerpoint Crisis, he was not a formidable opponent. In the GA, he is considered a sham yet in the Correllian system he is like Jesus Christ (okay, poor analogy but you catch my drift... actually not a bad analogy come to think of it). Allston doesn't explain how he came back to hold power after the Ylesia debacle where the Vong pretty much punked him.

The book is a must read, however. Allston wrote, in my humble opinion, two out of three books of the Vong series. When discussing the force, this book is second only to The Rise of Vader book.

how about in spanish?

In Rebuttal... showing some love for GL

Omi's note: Okay, so you caught me showing George Lucas some love. YOu gotta give dude props, though.

According to Ron Howard: "The concept of Star Wars confused studios when he first tried to explain it to them. This sort of approach also makes George a really interesting problem solver. How many people think the solution to gaining quality control, improving fiscal responsibility, and stimulating technological innovation is to start their own special effects company?" -- found in the foreword of The Cinema of George Lucas.

This is in relation to a previous post i did from an article on starwars.com aqui.

I stumbled upon the book The Cinema of George Lucas. It's a pretty good read. It shows the evolution of his several scripts, how he put his folks on, and how he continued to flip it. I admired Lucas because he was always able to put one up on Hollywood. Where other directors have just quit or been whiteballed, Lucas has flipped it, made loot, and retained creative control.

I have always heard of how difficult it was for him to pitch Star Wars. the Book however goes through the motions. Several of the movie houses (Warner Brothers, MGM, etc.) were feeling American Graffitti. Yet Lucas approached them with a package. He wanted to sell American Graffitti with Star Wars. For those of you who study film, you know you have to study American Graffitti which casted Ron HOward and help to create the spin off of Happy Days (which Howard starred in and later directed and produced for it). It was a box office hit. Still, 20th Century Fox still flaked on Lucas with the though for Star Wars which immediately ran amuck of its budget. That turned out to be a hit. Lucas has been gunning ever since.

To say that Lucas has ruined movies is a farce. If anything, he has continued to push the envelope and assumes creative control. I will admit that everyone else has taken from him when it comes to merchandising (he was one of the first writer/directors to ask for rights to merchandising for his movies...at the time the movie studios did not understand this).

If dude from Salon.com did his math, he would know that the concept of blockbuster movies comes from the Reagan era Arnold Schwarzeneggar/Sylvester Stallone movies where the body counts were high and TNT was used like paper on wall street. That was when we began to see more and more action movies being made that try to top each other. Lucas on the other hand stuck to mythmaking and epic space dramas.

For SW fans, the book is a must have. It shows the evolution of the director and media mogul straight from his college years. It also shows the clique of directors that he studied with. Now it makes sense how they all made movies that were outside of the box (Howard, Coppola, Steinberg aka Captain Genocide...)

One more treat... then we return to our regularly scheduled program

I don't have cable so i did not see it when it initially came out.. so check it now...enjoy...

While perusing myspace....

A brother by the name of "Daddy Vader" requested me as a friend on Myspace. At first I was skeptical.. then I checked his page and clicked on the link. I had to share it. It is the funniest ish I have seen a minute. I think its one of the best Star Wars parodies out there. After splitting my wig laughing, I had to add him on.

So enjoy...

something we should discuss

I found this on a Star Wars blog: (big up Darth Morbus)

Did Star Wars Ruin American Movies?

Relevant to this blog is the link below, which is a cached link I found in a Yahoo search for an article I read long ago. For some time I actually agreed with this assessment until I saw Lucas' documentaries accompanying the first DVD editions of the original trilogy. To be sure, the writer of the below-linked article delivered a jolting, brutal assessment of Lucas as a director and creative thinker. Fans will not like it but for the sake of argument and in the interest of presenting both sides of an argument, I recommend reading it before you continue to my blog.

http://www.salon.com/jan97/starwars970127.html

Years ago, a critic named Charles Taylor accused George Lucas of ruining American moviemaking. He slammed him for making Hollywood feel like it absolutely had to make the ultimate, million-maximizing blockbuster every time it set out to make a film. There could never again be a significant presence of true artistry in commercial filmmaking. It certainly seemed, and often still seems, as if this is indeed the condition today.

Remember Vin Diesel's Richard B. Riddick? David Twohy made a movie featuring this character called 'Pitch Black', on nearly a shoestring budget in a very short period of time in Australia, creating a highly derivative but enjoyable classic that spawned a legendary sci-fi action hero. Pitch Black was an independent classic. The next time Twohy made a movie around Riddick, he moved his apparatus to America and Hollywood, turned it into an 'epic' and made an over-the-top-blockbuster-Hollywood-by-numbers film. This is simply how it's done in America.

This is, in my opinion, what ruined Star Trek films for the vast part. For me, the best Star Trek films were the ones that were essentially silver-screen episodes: Star Trek II and III. Many people pan III, but I found it action-packed with interesting characters and possessed of an interesting plot. After these two films, in many ways they returned to the Hollywood syndrome (supposedly inflicted by Star Wars) of the first Trek movie ('The Motion Picture', which was essentially a lengthy pan-shot of the refurbished starship with some uninspired dialogue thrown into a bad rewrite of a classic series episode about a wayward probe coming home). (What's worse, because III had successfully gotten away with blowing up the Enterprise, it became a habit. What are the odds, sci-fi fen, that the featured starship in the next Star Trek movie is utterly destroyed?)

Trek movies are now universe-saving affairs instead of simply interesting, mind-bending situations with great character development. It's all entertainment now without much meat to the matter. No wonder people stopped going to these movies; it's surprising that Paramount is going to risk making another one in the near future.

The other component of the complaint is that there are now only a few basic types of movie that get made. One of these is of course the ubiquitous romantic comedy; personally, I'm absolutely sick of seeing the ads for these. I never go to see them. The last one I saw (rented) was 'When Harry Met Sally', which was entertaining enough, but it was fluff nonetheless. I don't have the money or the time to waste on fluff, and from the look of the advertising these things are getting worse. If I see actors I like appearing in them I get disillusioned; the last one I gave up on because she succumbed to the lure of making one of these commercial pieces of excrement was Christina Ricci. She's such a better and more interesting actress than Britanny Murphy or Goldie Hawn's daughter (can't remember her name), who apparently can't succeed in any other kind of movie.

Did Star Wars really do this? Is George Lucas really to blame for this? For certain there is a longstanding problem with Hollywood creativity, but let's take a hard look at what the problem really is.

Hollywood was created by the Mafia, much as was Las Vegas. It is an absolutely profit-driven, greedy enterprise wholly owned by artless corporados who have built their fortunes on formula, manipulation and negative social attitudes. They have projected imagery and ideas on the American consciousness that have helped break down the autonomy of our peoples' minds and imprint them with terribly negative attitudes, or at least needlessly augmented them at times when we could have altered them in time to eliminate much suffering in this country. Hollywood did absolutely nothing, for example, to combat Jim Crow, if you don't make too much of the film adaptation of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' with Gregory Peck.

To go on, the Hollywood studios are assembly lines, machines that spit out movies, and its product is brimming with poison. This is what George Lucas wanted to escape when he took his independent tack with Star Wars, to make his creation something that he, the creative entity, would control instead of the rich evil corporate bosses in Hollywood, even 20th Century Fox.

So, when Hollywood started increasing the money-laden, blockbusters-only FORUMLA factor in its productivity, was it truly acting differently than it has in the past, and was it truly emulating Lucas or Star Wars? Did Lucas let a genie out of the lamp?

I would say that the idiot-moguls at the Hollywood studios took the wrong cue from Lucas and saw a formula where there was only inspiration and a combination of classic and innovative techniques. One has only to look at Lucas' making-of documentaries accompanying the most recent (at this writing) rerelease of the original Trilogy to understand that Lucas was not and is not hampered by the Hollywood mentality. He has nothing to do with the Hollywood mentality, which has absolutely no bearing on his creative product beyond the fact that it is as different from Hollywood's tripe as he can make it. That is the only gravity Hollywood has on Lucas or his creations. He wants to be different from them.

The idiot-moguls decided, in their money-talks-artistic-values-walk 'wisdom', that they were going to duplicate, in some manner regardless of genre or style, the financial success of Star War by aping and mimicking the outward trappings of its success. They could not see into the heart of Lucas' production machinery and did not care. They figured they could mimick what they saw: a BIG, cataclysmic story on a big screen with BIG locales, BIG, iconic characters and an action-packed plot with BIG effects and, most of all... BIG PROFITS. They could not see Lucas harkening back to the storytelling values of yore or the hearts of any of his characters, or the mystical qualities of his fictional universe.

Hollywood misunderstood what they saw in Star Wars and simply tried to reverse-engineer its success, and turned up all thumbs. They did not care about artistry and therefore could not begin to approach that of Lucas; their few talented and avante-garde directors who did have vision did not share the leather chair with the moguls, so the presence of people like Steven Spielberg and David Lynch is an anomaly.

If only these directors held the power in Hollywood instead of the CEO types!

I probably don't understand enough about how the Hollywood studio system works to completely and correctly explicate this topic, so I invite others to continue with their insights, here. Please help me to illuminate the truth about this issue. GO!

Some Star Wars treats...

I know some of you stated you could not get this on your DVD player. I couldn't either. Thank the maker for youtube

Even Mutants can't beat the Sith...

This just in...

"X-Men: The Last Stand" took in almost $45 million on Friday and landed in the history books. It is now the second highest opener of all time, right behind "Star Wars: Attack of the Sith."

heh heh...

--------------------

Another banger...

Rick Callum states that the television series for SW MAY NOT go on television. It might be podcasted thought. He also states that the entire SW saga will return to the silver screen in 3D.


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ALso.. hoping you guys get it soon...

Betrayal Online Chat on Tuesday! That's this Tuesday, 30th May, starting at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific, Midnight UTC, and 1am British Summer Time.It's on irc.holonet.org, channel #eu.

see you there?

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OH yeah, one more thing...

These guys at the New Jedi Order Encyclopedia... check check check...

A good joint to read

To get a real background on what Lucas is doing, one should check out Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. And if one follow's Campbell's script, one would see how Lucas used the same format as in any other myth. The Crisis, the hero, the journey, the near death experience, the resurrection, redemption, and triumph. THe same happens here. Lucas flips it however and gives us a story then gives us the background.

Billie Wheelz and I discuss myths in every conversation we have. we discuss the significance, relevancy, and the reproduction of it. Let's admit it, Lucas has created a genuine American myth based on other stories. We can't front, that's dope. I would prefer he put it on paper first but oh well.

My man Pharoan let me watch this joint: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. Its now on DvD. It's very academic but mad jewels on it. So if you can fathom reading Campbell's 600 page tome, this is good too.

I know we have brought this up before, but its interesting to look at it from that perspective...

The Legacy series (Darkhorse comics) and the endless possibilities...

Amadeo kept bringing something up that we actually did not know about: The Legacy series from Darkhorse Comics. It takes place 100 years after the events of the New Jedi Order series. We are introduced to Cade Skywalker, a descendant of the Skywalker clan. Dark Horse is being hush hush about it. Of course, we have a peek here...

I started a short story on a Jedi but it takes place in the pre Clone War era (matter of fact, right at the Genosian arena in Ep II). I never thought of going past the NJO. but i think this is dope.
enjoy and please leave comments.

Been a long time... we are still here

I know it has been a while. We apologize once again. everything we promise is in the works. On that note here are some updates...

Is it me? Or is George Lucas a money starved cat? (then again, i always knew this...)

This September: Original Unaltered Trilogy on DVD. Yes, yes ya'll. The original unaltered joint on DVD so we can spend even more money. To be quite honest, one can tell what was altered from the original when one watches the updated versions. I guess these won't really be collector's items. But here is the article...

Video games.. killing it...

Two more video games will be released. I know, we don't review video games on here. Sorry about that. Even though i own a few SW games, I am not a big gaming buff. Here is the trailer for Star Wars Empire At War: Forces of Corruption . Basically, it focuses on the underground smuggling network that we often hear about. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is just like the other LEGO's game but with the Original Trilogy...

Ill interview...

Rick McCallum , producer for the second Trilogy, has a nice interview right here. He states that the animated series will come first and then followed by the live action one.

Clone war chick...

Karen Traviss Interview here...

I hope you enjoy these treats....

The Art of Star Wars, Episode III by Jonathan Rinzler

Review by Dan Tres OMi (Brother Omi)

There are several books from the SW universe that we miss here at Star Wars for Colored Folks. Billie Wheelz, X-man, and I can't get to all of them. It seems as if everytime I turn around, a new one pops up. I stumbled upon this one by accident. Normally, I keep very far away from this genre since it seems to be a marketing ploy on the part of the Hollywood types. Then I forget, this is Lucas, a marketing genius in the fact that he gets us to buy stuff but we always learn that's well worth its weight in gold.

The Art of Star Wars, Episode III by Jonathan Rinzler, considered a coffee table book by many, is well worth every penny. The Art... is a SW trivia buff's cornucopia. There are pages of sketches, paintings, and other artists' renditions that never made the cut. It demonstrates Lucas' creative freedom and the ability he gave his artists to brainstorm.

The artwork is breathtaking. The scenes that were cut makes one wish the movie was longer. There were several versions of Kashykkk and Mustafar that were cut. There were several pieces of storm trooper armor that were never used. There were storylines that were removed (such as Boba Fett's revenge where he kills Mace Windu). The artists in the Lucas camp were even going to let Mace Windu live!

There are several treats that I could let out of the bag, but I would rather let the reader learn about them on their own. THe book is highly suggested but not needed to keep abreast of what is going on in the SW universe. It could be used to win those SW trivia questions.