I've had trouble in the past trying to follow the Star Wars Universe. The sheer volume of books, comics, games, and everything else makes it virtually impossible to keep track of everything. I certainly gave up when 2-3 books every month were published back in the late '90s. I just couldn't afford it. And the comics I kept buying kept piling up, and I used the backlog I had as an excuse to stop buying (always with the intention of buying the trade paperback that collected the stories).
But over the past two months, I dove into the expanded (non-movie) universe in a big way. Let's start with some books:
It started last Spring, when I read some great books that were accessible to someone who'd been away for years like I had. And then, last Fall, I read the first of the Legacy of the Force books: Betrayal. I wrote about it here:
http://teameck.blogspot.com/2006/08/disturbance-in-force.html
I didn't give away the big spoiler in my original post, but it's been six months, and in order to explain the next two books, I need to reveal the big betrayal.
Spoilers follow...
At the end of Betrayal, Jacen Solo ran into former Darth Vader apprentice Lumiya with his cousin Jedi apprentice Ben Skywalker (who eventually was knocked unconscious) and fellow Jedi Nelani Dinn and decided he needed to turn her in to the authorities. Lumiya told him to search the future to see what would happen if she was arrested, and Jacen used the Force to create visions of him arresting Lumiya, and, in each one, he eventually killed his uncle Luke. He decided he could not arrest her. When Nelani decided to arrest Lumiya herself, Jacen overpowered her. When she admitted defeat, Jacen hesitated and then killed her. He later wiped Ben's memories of events that had happened prior to his injury and decided to follow Lumiya's teachings of the Sith order to get a better grip on events that are beginning to happen in the galaxy.
Pretty ballsy stuff for someone who has become a major character in the Expanded Universe.
The next two books on the Legacy of the Force series are Bloodties by Karen Traviss and Tempest by Troy Denning. Due to them somehow becoming available at the same time from my library, I read them back-to-back over a three week span, so they've kinda become merged together in my memory.
The two books show Jacen's further descent into the Dark Side of the Force (all while trying to do it for a larger good, just as his grandfather Anakin attempted). His power is growing by leaps and bounds, and while he still believes Luke is the strongest in the Force, It's becoming pretty obvious that Jacen will soon surpass him due to some Dark Side tricks he's learning. Once he completely gives himself over to the Dark Side (he's still trying to ride a fine line between Light & Dark), he just may be unstoppable.
Meanwhile, his parents (Han & Leia) and sister (Jaina) think he's gone insane (and secretly fear he's gone over to the Dark Side). His uncle Luke is too afraid to think of the worst-case scenario. His aunt Mara wants to believe that Jacen's still good, if only because he's training her son, Ben. Ben knows something is "off" with Jacen, but he still trusts him-- and Jacen's never steered Ben wrong. So while we've got a galaxy-wide problem with Corellia trying to defect from the Alliance, and Jacen's commando unit trying to keep them from doing so, there is also a strong familial element to the storyline.
I'm pretty wrapped up into the storyline, and I can't wait to see how it all sorts out (figuratively; literally, I've got a year or so before all the books eventually get released). It's not a real big secret, so I'll mention it here (it's announced in an ad in Bloodlines, anyway). Jacen will take on a Darth name in a book coming out this year.
As a side note, there was a fan contest at http://www.starwars.com/darthwho to come up with the best Darth names for Jacen, and either the fans didn't get it-- or they're much more subtle than Mr. Lucas. You see, the fans came up with names like Darth Acheron, Caedus, Judicar, Paxis, Taral (these were the five finalists), which all have some meaning to them that aren't obvious words in the English language. I find it really funny that Lucas created such overtly dastardly names for his Sith Lords: Tyrannus, Bane, Maul, Sidious, Plagueous. "Vader" is really the only name that doesn't sound like something destructive from first hearing it. I think it's pretty funny that the fans are not smacking the galaxy over the head with a name like "Darth Annihilate" or "Darth Decimate", or (my favorite) "Darth Bad Guy", but maybe that's just me.
Anyway, we'll learn what Jacen's new Darth name is in the fifth book: Sacrifice, due out in May.
Back to the books...
Bloodties did have an initial drawback: a side-story on my least favorite character, Boba Fett. But there was an upside: Fett's clone body is rapidly deteriorating, and he'll die within a year. But I will admit, I found the overhyped bounty hunter a good fit to the story.
The series seems to be pulling out all the stops now that George Lucas is not going to be playing in the post-original trilogy sandbox anymore. A couple of minor characters die, and some others surprisingly turn up when not expected. They really are making some plot moves that will change the galaxy far, far away forever.
Check it out.
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