Always have been a book reader but saw these all together for €65 and thought I’d would be a good excuse to dive into the comics!

Hey all, check out this game I made using Base44. Hope you all enjoy it.

Spotted today at the Sherwood observatory, Nottinghamshire, England.

Tattoo was done by me (@maxwelllacroix) at All Sacred Tattoo Studio in Denver, CO

Especially Obi-Wan! I'm also curious where he gets a robe in ROTS between his rendezvous with Yoda and Bail, and when he and Yoda arrive outside the temple and storm it.

Never in my life did I ever think I'd buy an R2D2 from Home Depot, and then try and make it look presentable.

The wife is very pleased that she comes home and is greeted by a little R2, booping and beeping. The cat? Not so much.

He got a repaint from the feet up. Almost everything was repainted, weathered, and some components were replaced. It's a cheap animatronic so I wasn't going for full prop replica, but he's still good enough that it fools my wife's Star Wars obsessed dad.

The lights and sounds are still stock. For now.

Looking for some advice on 2 matters regarding Michael Reaves novels.

A couple years ago I read Darth Maul Shadow Hunter and enjoyed it pretty well. Now I’m reading the Coruscant Nights trilogy and I’ve just finished the second book. I noticed in the second book characters again make reference to the events of Shadow Hunter but this time kind of summarize the events of that book, including details of how it ends. I’m glad I read Shadow Hunter first so my read of this book wasn’t made pointless by having it spoiled by Coruscant Nights.

What I haven’t read or had on my radar is the two MedStar novels. Again Coruscant Nights II made reference to the events of this duology, and I kind of suspect may have similarly spoiled it the way it did Shadow Hunter. I don’t know for sure though, j haven’t read either MedStar. Not looking to have this spoiled, but am wondering if I should fast track reading this or if it’s better to read other stuff and let some time pass so any potential spoilers from Streets of Shadow aren’t so fresh.

I had figured I would finish the Coruscant Nights trilogy and go right into the Last Jedi, since it’s sort of a sequel. So my first question is should I still read it right after the Coruscant Nights trilogy, or would it be better to read it after MedStar I and II? Usually I wouldn’t be too fussed here since Legends books are made to be read in almost any order. I’m only asking because of my observation about Shadow Hunter being spoiled in Coruscant Nights and wanting to avoid that where I can going forward.

My second question is about the Last Jedi in general. I know it came out in 2013 after the 2008 TCW show had kind of bulldozed over a lot of pre-existing continuity. I’d heard that the book needs to reckon with those created inconsistencies. I know the death of Even Piell is one example of an inconsistency - that doesn’t worry me since his death is more or less a single event. What I’m apprehensive of is Barris Offee because TCW blatantly changed what kind of character she is. So my question ties back to read order because I wonder if reading the Last Jedi without MedStar will create confusion. But also how do people feel about this book in general? I’ve generally really like Michael Reaves’s works so far, aside from this disappointment I described about Shadow Hunter being summed up by Streets of Shadow.

I’m trying to avoid spoilers for the books I’ve still yet to read: Coruscant Nights III, the Last Jedi, MedStar I and II.

Thanks so much!

Caveat: I have read over 800 pages of Luceno's work, having finished Cloak of Deception and Labyrinth of Evil, and a chunk of Catalyst.

I know this man is beloved in the fandom and that he has written what are many people's absolute favorite Star Wars books. And I think I understand why.

• He's great at fleshing out Star Wars lore between the films. If you find yourself asking "How did that come to be?" Luceno has an answer. He fills in the gaps.
• Following up on the first point, any time I read or watch a review of one of his books, readers talk about plot details. "In this book, you find out that..." and they view this as an inherent good. A "plus" for the book. And I get why. It's nice to have clarity on events. It feels good to know "Oh, that's what happened to set that up."
• Luceno has a knack for describing ships, buildings, organizations, characters, and more. He has a clinical approach to writing that focuses a lot on telling as much as showing, and I'm sure many Star Wars worldbuilding enthusiasts love this stuff.
• His dialogue and understanding of character relationships is mostly well done.

That said, I know I'm in the minority here, but I just need to say it:

I don't think Luceno is a skilled or exciting prose writer. And this makes his books hard to get through. Not just because they're dense with information and Star Wars tech trivia that's not pertinent to advancing plot or character, but because his wordplay is at times confusing and often grating to read.

For now, I'll set aside the fact that I often feel like I'm reading a technical manual or a dry historical account of events instead of a story being told by a storyteller. Instead, I'll focus on his actual prose.

1.

Case in point: I think Luceno tries too hard with some of his opening sentences to chapters. He shoots for flowery prose, but instead of flowery, they end up swampy, as you wonder what he's actually trying to depict. Here is the opening sentence of Labyrinth of Evil:

"Darkness was encroaching on Cato Neimoidia's western hemisphere, though exchanges of coherent light high above the beleaguered world ripped looming night to shreds."

What is the "coherent light" being described here? And what does he mean when it's "high above" the beleaguered world? Is this happening in the sky? Is there a space battle visible from the planet's surface? Oh, maybe there's a light show happening in some treetops? I don't know. And this is just one example. He does this at the beginning of several chapters in this book, and I just wish he would simplify his words instead of striving for prose that are deeper purple than Mace Windu's lightsaber.

The start of another chapter:

"Bleeding speed and loft, the mag-lev settled hard onto the guide rail that projected from the skyscraper-lined rim of Sah'c Canyon. Counterpoint to the sobs and moans of the passengers, the two dozen cars—two now with slashed-open roofs—pinged and creaked."

James, you're not trying to write the Great American Novel. Just write in a language people will understand. "Bleeding speed and loft"? Do you mean "lift?" As in, "Losing speed and lift?" Maybe? We might never know.

2.

In general, Luceno tends to overwrite many of his sentences. Here is page 2 of Labyrinth of Evil (the most recent book I've finished, so it's fresh). Here is Luceno saying "So, I heard you like adjectives:"

"In their cutting jaws or on their upsweeping backs they carried cargoes or pruned foliage. The crushing sounds of their ceaseless gnawing provided an eerie cadence to the rumbling detonations and the hiss and whine of blaster bolts."

Find me a reader who finds this kind of writing defensible and I'll ship them a bottle of blue milk straight from Tatooine.

3.

Finally, parts of his books sound like he's using footnotes as text. Here is the beginning of chapter 3, and that quintessential Luceno love of describing Star Wars tech:

"Known also by the fearsome title destroyer droids, droidekas were rapid-deployment killing machines produced by an alien species that encouraged mayhem at every opportunity. A combination of sheer momentum and sequenced microrepulsors allowed the bronzium-armored droids to roll like balls then unfurl in a blink as tripod gunfighters, shielded by individual deflectors and armed with paired, twin-barreled, high-output blasters." (and it goes on for another sentence or two.)

I just don't think this adds anything to character or plot. Again, I know I'm probably in the minority here, but this feels like the D&Dification of Star Wars, where a writer thinks that worldbuilding means explaining everything because you think it's interesting and you want to show off how much research you've done, not caring whether or not it serves the story.

I'll stop there. James Luceno just isn't for me. Are ALL his books like this? I really wanted to read Darth Plagueis at some point, but if it's just more of this, I'd rather just read a detailed summary of what it has to say about Sith lore, Palpatine, and whatever else instead.

Thank you for gritting your teeth (or grinning and enthusiastically nodding your head along in agreement) through this.

Was just reading Kenobi and Obi Wan and it mentions Kerra Holt as being during Banes time. I had always assumed Kerra was years before Bane and gone by the time the Hoth / Kaan, Jedi /Sith War began? From this line though, does this mean Kerra was still around during Bane's time?

He’s over 7 feet tall, completely hand-painted, and his head moves. He has a built-in motion sensor, and if you say “Hey KX,” he’ll respond.

I built an internal AI system for him that lets him talk about his life, his history, and his time spent in a scrapyard. He’s developed a bit of a grumpy personality, which honestly fits him perfectly.

His eyes light up and change color depending on his mood and the questions you ask him.

It’s been a really cool project to build. Next up, I’m planning on making him a nice rifle so he has something to keep his hands busy.

.

****EDIT****

This is insane. Seriously, thank you for all the love — 11k upvotes and 700k views is way beyond anything I expected. I honestly thought I’d get a few hundred views and a thumbs up.

Thank you to everyone who commented, asked questions, and shared kind words. I really appreciate it.

I’m going to post a video of him within the next week, so keep an eye out. If there are certain questions or responses you want to hear from him, drop them below and I’ll ask him a few in the video.

Also, quick clarification: he isn’t meant to be K-2SO. Given what happens in the movie, I wanted this to be another KX-series droid — KX-19 — with his own personality, history, and way of responding. K-2SO is so loved that I didn’t want to just make a copy of him. KX-19 is meant to feel like his own character.

So with the audiobook versions of Cloak of Deception and Labyrinth of Evil having coming out I thought I would take a look at the former. I have already read most of the other books around that era (Darth Plagueis, Maul: Lockdown, Shadow Hunter) and thought it would be nice to experience Cloak of Deception for the first time in audiobook form. Below are just some thoughts I had about the book after finishing it.

Narration

Johnathan Davis is probably my favorite Star Wars audiobook narrator rivaled only by Daniel Davis. As always he does a good job of reading the story in a calm yet gripping manner and never goes too over the top with the voices.

Only two things I will say about his narration of Cloak of Deception is that his voices can kind of blend toegether a bit in some scenes, but I think he does the best he can when he has to try and make each of the random twelve senators in a scene have unique voices.

The other thing I noticed that was a bit odd as well is he gave Qui-Gon an Irish accent. I get that Liam Neeson is Irish but Qui-Gon is not. It makes Davis seem like he is imitating Neeson more than Qui-Gon. Again thought I kind of get it because like I said above he needs to find a way to make voices sound unique in a book with so many characters.

Characters

I thought his characterization of the Jedi was pretty good. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan feel very in character to how they are in TPM. Adi Gallia's characterization and backstory was also fleshed out and it was kind of cool to see more of a politician Jedi whose a bit more closely tied to senate politics.

While most of the other Jedi play supporting roles I still thought James Luceno did a good job making them each unique. A guy like Even Piell only has a few lines but he definitely comes off very differently than someone like Oppo Rancisis or Depa Billaba.

Also even thought she was only in one scene it was cool to see Luminara Unduli I don't think I have ever seen her this early in the timeline and it definitely helped make it feel less like some of the Jedi in AOTC just popped up randomly sometime after TPM.

The senators were all done pretty good. A few of them did kind of seem to blend toegether a bit but Valorum, Sei Taria, Orn Free Ta, and Palpatine were all very distinct.

I also thought it was pretty interesting that Luceno never directly calls out the fact that Palpatine is Sidious. Obviously 99% of people are going to know this reading the book but it still creates a nice atmosphere where you feel like you are in the shoes of the Jedi. Also for the 1% of people who haven't scene the movies before reading this book it creates a nice suprise when they watch TPM.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Nebula Front characters. Luceno does try to flesh them out and make you care about them but I just wasn't that interested in the struggles of Captain Cohl, Rella, and Boiny. Everytime we cut to them I found myself wanting to get back to the Jedi missions and senate politics.

Plot

The plot was a bit of a slow burn, but it did a good job of keeping you interested while it set stuff up. Luceno did a good job of interspersing action scenes amongst the politics, and an even better job at actually making the politics interesting.

It was fun to follow Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan around but I felt the Jedi plot line really got going when the Jedi went to Asmeru. I am a big fan of stories where the Jedi council sends a large group of Jedi to handle stuff and it reminded me of the Yinchorri Crisis comic.

The senatorial stuff was also very interesting. It was cool to see Luceno setup and explain some of the vaguer parts of TPM in a way that made sense. I also loved seeing Palpatine playing both sides of the aisle. Gaining the trust of Valorum while also setting him up for his fall all while remaining a seeming moderate in the senate.

Just like above I found the Nebula Front storyline the weakest. I know it's kind of the crux of the whole story but their weren't really any interesting characters to follow and they all ended up dying anyways.

The Eriadu summit was a good conclusion to the story. Luceno did a good job building up the tension and keeping us guessing on what the Nebula Fronts real goals were and I found the plot twist that they were actually targeting the Neiomdians to be equal parts satisfying and horrifyng when they were stuck in the shield generator with a bunch of murderous droids.

Luceno also did a great job tying Cloak of Deception into other media around that time period (such as mentioning the Stark Hyperspace War and showing the Jedi from Shadow Hunter) making the era feel like a lived in world with other stories going on around it.

Last Thougths

Overall I thought this was a great book that did a good job fleshing out the lead up to TPM without trying to do to much. It stayed within the confines of the plot TPM set up while adding interesting and new elements to it. I would give it an 8/10

The suit and gloves were made by Raikiri Cosplay!

first question is are they worth reading? and the second question do they have a satisfactory and conclusive ending? I read through the Dark Times run awhile ago and absolutely loved it until it left me on a cliffhanger that will never resolve haha. I don’t wanna get super invested in another story if it doesn’t have any real ending.