Books

Star Wars: The High Republic – Trials of the Jedi Review

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Well, here we are, some four and a half years after I posted the review of Light of the Jedi we have reached the end of the High Republic… at least as it was planned out as there are clearly more stories to be told in this era (and not including the last Marvel comic story arc and the comic epilogue, I’ll review them when they’re on Marvel Unlimited…) Still, what of the Nameless, the Blight and Marchion Ro? What of the Jedi characters we’ve all come to love, like Avar Kriss, Elzar Mann, Bell and Burryaga? How about the rivalry between Porter Engle and Abediah Viess? So many questions, and to my relief, so many extremely satisfying answers! Let’s take a look…

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Star Wars: The High Republic – Seeds of Starlight & Haunted Starlight Review

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So these two audiobooks appeared as free Audible downloads over the past few months, and while I don’t normally bother with the really young aimed material the fact they didn’t cost anything, were written by High Republic classic George Mann and the knowledge that they deal with the Drengir plot thread while the rest of the Phase III High Republic stories are obviously focused on other things I decided to give them a go. How was it? Well… it was certainly squarely aimed at the younger audience, I’ll say that much, but there was some fun to be found, especially in the second story. Let’s take a deeper look!

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Star Wars: The High Republic – Tears of the Nameless Review

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Now I don’t normally read the YA novels of the High Republic, not because of some snobby turning my nose up at them thing (have you seen some of the other stuff I cover on this site?) just a lack of time thing, but given the large gap between the core adult novels and hearing that “Tears of the Nameless” has some key connections to the overall High Republic storyline I decided to dive in to the admittedly long-as-hell novel, and although there were some parts that I felt could’ve been trimmed it was overall a really good read and full of yet more enjoyable High Republic storylines new and old. Let’s take a look!

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Star Wars: The High Republic – Temptation of the Force Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Phase III of the High Republic continues, at last. “Temptation of the Force” was a good read and leaves things in an interesting place heading into the era’s grand finale, shame that the next and final book isn’t out until spring next year! Arrgh! Oh well, this book sets some things up nicely and moves Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann forward in a really interesting way, so let’s take a look!

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Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future Review

David Hogan6 Comments

When being in a Final Fantasy mood in the run up to Rebirth coincided with having a gap in my “book to read in bits before bed like some sort of old man” schedule I decided to give this Final Fantasy XV book a go after a reader commented about it (which was handy because I completely forgot it existed!) “The Dawn of the Future” is actually a novelisation of the final DLC story, “Episode Ardyn” as well as the three that were planned to come after it but were cancelled. What’s interesting is those three comprise a “What if?” scenario that leads to a completely different ending, giving the whole book a unique feel, though if you’re not already a fan of XV it’s safe to say you’ll be lost! So let’s take a look…

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Star Wars: The High Republic – The Eye of Darkness Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Phase III of the High Republic finally arrived with “The Eye of Darkness”, reuniting us with the cast of the original Phase of the era after a series of prequel books that, to be fair, I did enjoy a lot more than I thought I would. Still though, I was waiting to reunite with these characters and see what’s happening with the Nihil and Marchion Ro and I’m happy to report that for a book whose objective it was to set the scene for the big finale it did it very well indeed. Let’s take a look!

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Star Wars: The High Republic – Tales of Light and Life Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Tales of Light and Life is a collection of short stories set both during Phase 2 and just before Phase 3, making this sort of an epilogue and a prologue at the same time, and like all short story collections there are some good ones and some bad ones, as well as some really quite pointless middling ones. Still though, I love me some High Republic so I couldn’t pass it up, even if it was mysteriously not available on the UK Kindle store unlike the rest of the series… Anyway! Let’s take a look!

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Star Wars Legends: Darth Bane – Path of Destruction Review

David HoganLeave a comment

While looking for something Star Warsy to read before the next phase of the High Republic I thought that now I’ve read the Thrawn Trilogy what else from the old Legends canon have I always wanted to read? Then I remembered the Darth Bane Trilogy, specifically this first book which depicts the downfall of the Sith and how the infamous “Rule of Two” was created. Obviously who knows how much if any of this book will eventually “count” in the new canon beyond Darth Bane being the man who created the Rule of Two, but who cares? This is far from the first franchise with more than one timeline I like, so let’s take a look at the first bit of Old Republic media on this blog!

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Resident Evil: City of the Dead & Underworld Review

David Hogan2 Comments

As I mentioned in my previous post reviewing Welcome to Raccoon City I’d ran out of games to review alongside it, so I thought I’d instead pick up the next two RE novels which includes an adaptation of RE2, so it sort of works? Well, not really, but hey, why not? Underworld is another novel-original story so it’s another box ticked in my accidental bid to review every RE story at some point, so let’s take a look!

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Star Wars: The High Republic – Cataclysm Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Phase 2 of the High Republic comes to what can only be described as an “epic” conclusion with Cataclysm, a book that against all odds has become one of my favourites in the series. I bemoaned that Phase 2 decided to go backwards into the past instead of continuing the Phase 1 storylines and characters, and while even at its end I don’t really see how it was necessary, given how much I enjoyed this book and the characters introduced across Phase 2 I’m happy it happened. Let’s take a closer look!

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