Taral Books and Comics

This past Saturday, I was sitting in our basement TV room watching Youtube while my wife was enjoying the latest show she found on Netflix in another room.  I decided to browse the video feed of Vi Hart, who usually makes videos about maths, music, and virtual reality. In this one video, which I had seen years ago but not watched since, Vi Hart describes twelve tone music, also called atonal music.  She refers to the importance of shared context, and how context (for example, imagining a background piano accompaniment) helps interpret and understand the music.  She also compares it to strangers singing their favourite pop hit on the bus -- they head the background, but you don't and it sounds meaningless -- or coworkers telling you about TV or sports you don't watch.  Without the context of background music (or an understanding of the TV show or sport) being presented, it is literally meaningless.   It's a long video, but the music and lessons in it are ...

The next item on the Star Wars Legends Read-Through list was the Lost Tribe of the Sith series of short stories.  These stories detail the history of the so-called " Lost Tribe ", a splinter from the original Sith Empire that survived, hidden from galactic history for over five millennia (appearing the Fate of the Jedi novels, which I will read in several years).  It also served to address inconsistencies between how the Sith were depicted in the Tales of the Jedi comics vs. how the Tribe appears in the Fate of the Jedi novels. For this post, I read the following: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice (short story by John Jackson Miller , 2009) Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn  (short story by John Jackson Miller, 2009) Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon (short story by John Jackson Miller, 2010) Lost Tribe of the Sith: Savior (short story by John Jackson Miller, 2010) Lost Tribe of the Sith: Purgatory  (short story by John Jackson Miller, 2010) Lost Tribe ...

In addition to my Star Wars read-through, I'm slowly working my way through three sets of X-Men comics: Comics from 2008 and later (which I'm referring to as "modern" in this blog); Comics from the 1990s and eventually early 2000s; and Comics being discussed on the Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men podcast (which I will not be writing about). The 90s read-through began years ago.  I've previously read through storylines such as Fatal Attactions , Bloodties , Phalanx Covenant , the Wedding of Cyclops of Phoenix , Legionquest , and Age of Apocalypse , as well as the Road to Onslaught . I've also read Warren Ellis's Excalibur run (issues 83-98 so far) and much of Generation X (1-17 so far) and Wolverine from this era (87-100), as well as several solo series that I wrote about here.  I'm currently working on the Onslaught event. When the Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men podcast reads a book that I already own (which is happening more and more...

I'm taking a break from the chronological read-through of my Star Wars Legends books to further explore the new canon novels (the ones that are fully consistent with the new movies.)  This post will be about the stories taking place in the immediate aftermath of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: Aftermath (novel by Chuck Wendig , 2015) Aftermath: Life Debt (novel by Chuck Wendig, 2016) Aftermath: Empire's End (novel by Chuck Wendig, 2017) Battlefront : Battle of Jakku (downloadable video game mission by EA Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (DICE), 2015) Shattered Empire 1-4 (comic by Greg Rucka , 2015) Cover of Aftermath .  Image from Wookieepedia. These stories are meant to conclude the story of the original Star Wars trilogy by tying up any loose ends that might exist.  At the end of Return of the Jedi , while the Emperor and Darth Vader were both dead, the bulk of the Empire and its mighty fleets and armies remained largely intact, albeit leaderle...

This blog post has exactly one purpose: to showcase the reading order I'm using for my Star Wars books and comics. I may periodically repost this list as it changes. A few quick notes about the list: I am colour coding it to differentiate between novels, comics, games, etc.  While my original goal was for this to be a chronological readthrough, I've opted to rearrange some things so I can read them thematically.   While the list of novels and comics is fairly comprehensive, I've picked and chosen a limited amount of other media: TV: including the original Clone Wars cartoon.  I am slowly working my way through the canon Clone Wars cartoon.  Excluded other TV shows. Short stories: only included ones to which I have easy access (i.e. printed in the back of novels that I own). Young Reader books: only included ones that have significant impact on the overall plot (Boba Fett, Junior Jedi Knights, Young Jedi Knights).  Video games: only included ones wit...

I have reached a very large multimedia project in my Star Wars Legends Readthrough: The Old Republic .  These stories were centered around a video game of the same name, but included numerous novels and comics as well, mostly set beforehand. Game cover of Star Wars: The Old Republic .  Image from Wookieepedia. I'll be discussing a total of twelve titles here: The Old Republic: Revan (novel by Drew Karpyshyn , 2011) The Old Republic 1-6 (comic by Robert Chestney and Alexander Freed , 2009-2010) The Old Republic: Deceived (novel by Paul S. Kemp , 2011) Red Harvest (novel by Joe Schreiber , 2010) The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (novel by Sean Williams , 2010) The Old Republic: The Lost Suns 1-5 (comic by Alexander Freed, 2011) The Old Republic (video game by BioWare , 2011) The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel (video game expansion by BioWare, 2013) The Old Republic: Annihilation  (novel by Drew Karpyshyn, 2011) The Old Republic: Shadow of Re...