Books

Star Wars: Jedi – Battle Scars Review

David Hogan2 Comments

As a big fan of the first Jedi game, Fallen Order (Review HERE!) who’s really looking forward to the sequel in Survivor I was also looking forward to this book, set in between the two games. I thought it would be a fun side quest that might even has a small ripple effect on the next game (key word small, I wasn’t expecting people who play the games having to have read a novel to understand the next game or anything) Sadly it ended up as one of the worst books I’ve read in some time and not only does it have little to no effect on Survivor but the characterisation is off in the book so it barely feels like its part of the same canon. Oh well! Can’t win them all, let’s take a look so I can then forget about it.

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Star Wars: The High Republic – Convergence Review

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Kicking off the shorter Phase 2 of the High Republic era (well, in terms of the things I have time to read, it actually kicked off with a YA book…) is Convergence, and boy it… really doesn’t do much. I mean, I enjoyed it, two warring planets see a Romeo and Juliet scenario happen with their heirs, all while the Jedi are caught in the middle, but it felt like a fun episode in the middle of a TV series that doesn’t connect the wider series narrative. With only one more wave of stories to come in this shorter phase I can kind of see where it might be going, but I’m currently not convinced that we needed to jump back in time a few hundred years for this much content… Well, anyway, let’s take a bit of a closer look!

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Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith Review

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A rare Star Wars non-High Republic Canon novel review! Yes filling in a gap is always pleasing as a fan (hell it’s one of many reasons I love Big Finish and their audio Doctor Who productions) so setting a novel in between Episodes 6 and 7 that goes a bit deeper into the backstory of Rey, how and why Luke and Lando tracked Ochi of Bestoon and generally show a bit more of the galaxy at this time made it irresistible to me. Happy to say that although it was perhaps overly long it was a really fun read. Let’s take a closer look!

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Star Wars: Legends – The Last Command Review

David Hogan3 Comments

It’s time to complete the much loved (and now non-canon, or at least “in the Legends timeline”) Thrawn Trilogy with “The Last Command”. Now I’ve enjoyed the books so far but felt they haven’t quite lived up to the hype I’d heard of them, no doubt brought about by being the first official continuation of the films released in the early 90s. Still, how does the final third of the trilogy compare? Does it go out on a high note? Let’s find out!

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Star Wars: The High Republic – The Fallen Star Review

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The third and final book of “Phase 1” of the High Republic series arrived and certainly put their best “Empire Strikes Back” foot forward in giving the villains a big win and leaving things a little grim for our heroes. I can say that without spoilers due to the title of the book and all the cover art / posters that have been going around showing Starlight Beacon burning and crashing kind of giving that impression before reading it… Let’s take a look at “Star Wars does a disaster movie” shall we?

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Star Wars Legends: Dark Force Rising Review

David Hogan3 Comments

Carrying on from the look at “Heir to the Empire” a few months ago I continued onwards to Dark Force Rising (and finished it just in time for the new High Republic book to come out!) The middle story in the Thrawn Trilogy does what all good middle chapters do and moves the story on enough to keep things interesting but any kind of resolution to any of the introduced characters is left for the finale. Want to know more? Read on!

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Star Wars Legends: Heir to the Empire Review

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I remember when I was still in school and one of my friends had the “Thrawn Trilogy” of Star Wars books and him telling me “what happened after the films”, at that point referring to just the three, possibly with Episode 1 on the horizon. I was interested, they sounded good, but at that age I’m afraid to say reading a book just wasn’t something that interested me. Fast forward a few decades and I thought to myself “I’m enjoying these High Republic books, maybe I should go back and experience the original sequel trilogy now we have an actual one” … So here we are! My first dip into the “Legends Timeline” on this blog, and my first time reading Heir to the Empire. What was it like? Very good, funnily enough…

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Star Wars: The High Republic – The Rising Storm Review

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The High Republic era continues (or continued at this point given how late this review is, but whatever…) as the next major novel arrives in “The Rising Storm”. It shifts focus away from the Beacon and some of the characters featured in “Light of the Jedi” and instead shows us a whole new crisis and focuses on some of the side characters from the previous novel alongside entirely new ones, overall expanding and fleshing out the cast as the story moves forward. Plus plenty more Nihil, which is always fun! So let’s take a closer look…

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Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World – Volume 3 Anime UK News Review

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As if there isn’t enough Bleach content on this blog at the moment I look at the third and final part of the epic-length light novel series for Anime UK News, the review can be found HERE. It fills in some continuity gaps and reveals some interesting backstory and lore, but it might not have been worth the two previous books to get there…