Taral Books and Comics

Having covered the adventures of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and then the adventures of Sith Lord Darth Maul, I am now in the final stage of my "Prelude to Episode I: The Phantom Menace " coverage.  In this post, I will cover a handful of stories that did not fit elsewhere, specifically: Darth Plagueis  (novel by James Luceno , 2012) Jedi Council: Acts of War 1-4 (comic by Randy Stradley , 2000) Republic  1-6 (comic arc by Jan Strnad , 1998-1999) Prelude to Rebellion parts 1-6 Vow of Justice parts 1-3 Starfighter (video game by LucasArts , 2001) I read the two comics in Omnibus: Rise of the Sith .  I read Darth Plagueis in hardcover and played Starfighter on my PC, having just purchased it from GOG.com.  It is worth noting that, at the time " Republic " was simply called " Star Wars "; it was renamed Republic in its 46th issue in 2002.  I will be referring to it as Republic in all of my posts, to differentiate it from other co...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am dividing all stories leading up to Episode I: The Phantom Menace into three parts, the first two thematic and the third a bit arbitrary.  I've already covered all stories pertaining to Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi.  For this, my second post, I will cover Darth Maul.  Specifically: Restraint (short story by James Luceno , 2011) Darth Maul: Saboteur (short story by James Luceno, 2001) Maul: Lockdown (novel by Joe Schreiber , 2014) Darth Maul 1-4 (comic by Ron Marz , 2000) Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter (novel by Michael Reaves , 2001) End Game (short story by James Luceno, 2014) I read the comic miniseries in  Omnibus: Rise of the Sith .  I read paperback editions of Maul: Lockdown and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter , the latter of which contained both Restraint and Darth Maul: Saboteur .  I read End Game in the second edition paperback of the Episode I novelization.  I'd like to note that this was t...

By this time, I've read every Star Wars Legends story that was set centuries or more before any Star Wars film.  We covered the formation of the Jedi Order in Dawn of the Jedi , and we saw countless wars between the Jedi and the Sith in Tales of the Jedi , Knights of the Old Republic , The Old Republic , and Knight Errant .  We learned the history of the Lost Tribe of the Sith .  We saw the culmination of those wars, the end of the Sith as we knew them, and the start of a new period of Republic stability.  Now we move into stories set close to the Star Wars movies. There are a lot of stories set in the years leading up to Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace .  In order to organize them effectively, I've separated them into three segments.  The first will deal with stories featuring Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, two of Episode I's protagonists.  Specifically, we will discuss the following: Jedi: The Dark Side 1-5 (comic by Scott Allie ...

I recently finished watching The Clone Wars TV series, and knowing what I do about the show, I opted to consume what other Canon material was available pertaining to the cartoon. The Clone Wars began airing in 2008 following the theatrical release of a tie-in movie.  It aired for five seasons until Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 (the deal was completed during the fifth season).  All Lucasfilm projects were stopped at that time, including work on The Clone Wars and several other TV shows in development.  At this time, a sixth season was partly completed, and seasons seven and eight were almost completely written. Lucasfilm agreed to put the finishing touches on 13 season six episodes and release them on Netflix.  Furthermore, two four-episode arcs whose audio work had been completed but had only been loosely animated were put on Youtube.  Four unrecorded episodes were adapted into the Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir comic miniseries by Dark Horse ...

In the final moments of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Yoda and Mace Windu discuss the fact that the enemy recently defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Sith, but that "Always two there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice."  But the Sith we had seen in stories set earlier (written both before and after) featured entire empires of Sith.  At some point, the Sith way changed from being empires of many down to only two individuals.  The stories I read for this post (below) chronicle that transition and the Sith Lords that brought it about. Darth Bane: Path of Destruction (novel by Drew Karpyshyn , 2006) Jedi vs. Sith 1-6 (comic by Darko Macan , 2001) Darth Bane: Rule of Two (novel by Drew Karpyshyn, 2007) Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil (novel by Drew Karpyshyn, 2009) I read Jedi vs. Sith in the Trade Paperback format.   Path of Destruction and Rule of Two I read as paperback novels, while Dynasty of Evil was read as a hardcover novel.  Ther...

While on a recent holiday, in which there was a lot of air travel, downtime, and extended periods where my daughter went for walks with my parents, I was able to buckle down and read some New Canon Star Wars comics.  Specifically: Star Wars 13-25 + Annual 2 (by Jason Aaron , 2015; Annual by Kelly Thompson ) Darth Vader 13-25 + Annual 1 (by Kieron Gillen , 2015) Vader Down  one-shot (by Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen, 2015) This was the start of a crossover, which also included Star Wars 13-14 and Darth Vader 13-15) Chewbacca 1-5 (by Gerry Duggan , 2015) Obi-Wan and Anakin 1-5 (by Charles Soule , 2016) All of these comics were read in digital format on Comixology. Final issue of the Vader Down crossover, featuring the main casts of both Star Wars and Darth Vader .  Image from Wookieepedia. Story: Vader Down was a crossover in which the main casts of Star Wars and Darth Vader met on the planet Vrogas Vas. Vader tracked Luke Sky...

As I continue my chronological read-through of Star Wars Legends books, I want to now discuss the Knight Errant series: the adventures of a lone Jedi, stuck fighting many insane Sith in their home territory. For this write-up, I read the following material: Knight Errant: Aflame 1-5 (comic by John Jackson Miller , 2010-2011) Knight Errant (novel by John Jackson Miller, 2011) Knight Errant: Deluge 1-5 (comic by John Jackson Miller, 2011) Knight Errant: Escape 1-5 (comic by John Jackson Miller, 2012) I read the comics as issues and the novel in paperback.  There was a 0-issue distributed at the "Celebration V" convention in 2010, but it was not made widely available, and was essentially a condensed version of issue 1.  A short story, called Influx , was once posted online but has since become unavailable. Cover of Knight Errant novel. Image from Wookieepedia . Story: Knight Errant follows the story of Kerra Holt, a Jedi Knight who has been trapped b...