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One of the best of the old EU!

Revisado: 04-24-24

It has been about a decade since my last run through I Jedi, and while I remembered placing it quite highly among the old EU, it seems to have aged well and perhaps appeals even more to me now that I'm at a different phase in life.

The first person narrative, which is more common to pulp westerns and young adult stuff, seems like an odd way to write a Star Wars story, but I really think it works. Corran comes off as a unique character, with likes, dislikes, quirks, ambitions and real problems that real people have, such as impending fatherhood and balancing homelife and career. Sticking with a single protagonist also saves the book from the old EU's worst feature; an obligatory inclusion of more legacy characters in C or D plots that don't add much to the tale.

As a fan of Anderson's Jedi Academy series, I don't mind saying that this was perhaps a better presentation of much of the same material. Even though a retelling of a tale from a different character's POV smacks somewhat of fan fiction.

The descriptions of the Jedi training process were really enjoyable, and the extrapolation upon the light and dark side of the universe being present in all moral choices is, to my mind, hitting the core of what Star Wars is supposed to be about.

Thompson's reading was as per usual, the best presentation of the SW lore you can ask for. The only downside was Elogoss' really loud snuffling noise preceding his dialogue. It sounded identical to my dog snuffling at the bottom of a door he's shut out from, and I don't remember Elogoss speaking like that in the Hand of Thrawn books.

All in all, a lengthy but highly enjoyable Star Wars adventure. Highly recommended.

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Two Western Adventures, one okay, one excellent.

Revisado: 02-21-24

Herein follow two tales, not one, but as both are "Trail to" titles, they've been paired together.

Trail to Peach Meadow is kind of mediocre, not Louis' best work for sure, but still entertaining. It follows Matt Bastion, a buckskin wearing frontier phenom who has been adopted by a gang leader, and trained since birth to be the ultimate outlaw, while undertaking no crimes. The story is his choosing what to do with his great skills and talent, and in what direction his moral compass points him. It's not bad.

Trail to Crazy Man, is known better these days for it's movie adaptation "Crossfire Trail". In my opinion this story is Louis at his peak, and is on par with some of the Sackett books. Rafe Carradec, a soldier of fortune, escapes after being shanghaied aboard a freighter, and sets out on a quest to help a dying shipmate's wife to keep their property. There's fieldcraft, history, interesting villains, and the L'Amour special; kickass fistfights. Fans of the movie who haven't read the book will be surprised, as they vary quite a bit. The plot moves along logically, and Ann Rodney, the female lead, is given a decent amount of characterization and role in the tale. It's very good, in the opinion of someone who has read the majority of the L'Amour collection.

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The Little Tyrant That Could!

Revisado: 02-14-24

If there's one takeaway to be gleaned from Walker's adventures; it's an appreciation of the power of confidence! The idea of the drive, charisma, and alternately; narcissistic and deluded viciousness it takes to decide to mount a completely private attack on a foreign nation and attempt to become potentate is truly staggering. I kept thinking; "Man, the balls on this guy." The shenanigans that Walker and friends got up to in South America were far more fitting of that of Norse chiefs in the Dark Ages, or something from the Golden Age of Piracy rather than less than 200 years ago.

The book is nicely researched, and tries to explain the virtually inexplicable; what makes a slightly built, stuffy, and scholarly guy suddenly decide to become Emperor of an as of yet unformed South American union of nations? The battles and skirmishes, as well as the geography and river systems of the campaign are well explained, and the main players are characterized from their letters and historical accounts.

Something hinted toward, but not greatly explored is whether or not Walker was truly acting on his own, out of self aggrandizing adventure, or whether some Mephistophelian society like the Knights of the Golden Circle or something similar were whispering in his ear prompting these wild takeover attempts?

Overall a great read, about a truly intriguing, but not very good guy.

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Great History, Blustery Philosophy, RE Lee's Blog

Revisado: 01-31-24

I feel like I could both go on forever about my feelings on this book or make an brief summation, so I'll go for the latter in favor of brevity. Parts of it I truly loved, and were intriguing looks at pivotal moments, and the philosophy of historical figures which seemed gleaned from really intense research. Other parts were truly dull.

RE Lee was a brilliant warrior, who under the tutelage of Scott, built the skill base and reputation that would launch his more famous career in the later rebellion. But he's not a very fun guy to hang out with as far as a protagonist goes. He's intentionally joyless, naive, and stuffy, all flip sides of the extreme attentiveness to duty that makes him so effective. I feel like giving him a foil, a "Watson" if you will, who is more likable and easier to identify with would help characterize the man even better. More time spent with Longstreet, Grant or Beauregard would have livened the story up. The sections that featured Winfield Scott, in my opinion, were the highlight of the book.

A more sympathetic character on the Mexican side would have been intriguing as well. Santa Anna was kind of a nasty dictator by almost all perspectives, and his parts of the text are pure mustache twirling villainy.

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Uneven High Adventure in the EU

Revisado: 01-16-24

The second half of the "Hand of Thrawn" I felt was more enjoyable than the first, it's more even pacing benefiting from all the painstaking political psy-op setup from the previous book. The villain's plot is realistic, sinister and well thought out, and you see heroism and cleverness from most of the heroes in countering this. Cultivating political infighting through deepfake documents, proxy wars and false flag attacks seem more than relevant for our times, and appear to be just as complicated to solve in fantastical deep space.

In terms of plot construction, a few characters were not very well used, their plot lines being run abouts that go nowhere; our dear Captain Solo in particular. For such a beloved character, he unfortunately contributes about as much as Chewie, who is left out of the plot entirely. Following Wedge and Corran as they bumble hopelessly as intelligence agents, only to be shown up and replaced in that plot by an octogenarian rando. If you've read I Jedi, you know Corran is a Jedi, a Detective, a fighter pilot, and a master of disguise. He's probably the best possible choice to solve that plot line, but Zahn portrays him as stuffy and awkward. Kaarde's Kardas plot seemed like that was going nowhere too until the (spoiler alert) telekinetic monk ex machina.

A few things about the performance were wonky. Thompson is mostly great as usual, and does a great job with the principal characters, it's some of the direction choices that fall flat. For instance, I know Zothip is a pirate, but his 18th century pirate caricature accent could easily have launched into a rendition of the Spongebob Squarepants theme. "Arrr ye ready kids!?" The echoes in Luke and Mara's part were played up too much. Most of the time they're speaking at conversational tones, which wouldn't make an enormous echo even though they are in a cavern. Finally, a minor nitpick; Corran Horn just has the wrong voice. The accent Thompson assigned him makes him sound like MacGregor era Obi-Wan, but Horn is a Correllian, like Han or Bel-Iblis, and would likely therefore have a gruff neutral American accent.

All in all I'm very happy to go back and read these beauties again, especially unabridged! It's sometimes rare when you pick up something you remember as being great from your childhood and find that it still is.

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Anachronism; A book on swordplay read by AI.

Revisado: 01-16-24

A surprisingly intriguing offering. I hadn't read the Liancour treatise, but had only seen it referred to by Hutton. If you don't have a very firm grasp on fencing terminology, specifically French fencing, this will be extremely hard to follow. If you are in the target audience however, there is a lot of wisdom and historical insight here.

Liancour speaks repeatedly of what is now called the "appell"; is a loud stomping of the foot used to provoke a reaction during a standoff moment in a bout. I have seen it employed and always wondered where that idea came from.

I was dubious when I saw the book was read by AI, however, I have heard far worse performances from subjects purported to be human!

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Star Subterfuge rather than Star Wars

Revisado: 11-08-23

This one brought up a mixed bag of feelings for me, though overall I would unreservedly say I enjoyed the listen. Marc Thompson does great voice acting, especially for the legacy movie characters. They all sound like themselves, to credit both Zahn's writing and Thompson's acting. That said, I don't think the voice they selected for Corran fit very well, he sounded much like Obi-Wan, as opposed to Han, or Bel-Iblis, who have the same background and home as he does. And Major Tierce sounded so much like Peter Serafinowicz, (a British actor who usually is a villain in Simon Pegg shows), that I couldn't see him as anyone but.

This book is heavy on the Aurubesh C-SPAN, spending lots of time in Senate Hearings. While it's tiresome, this is necessary to flesh out the plot, which seems like a masterclass in asymmetrical warfare. That's one of the best parts of this book, the Empire, which can't match the Republic in fighting strength, now fights smart and dirty. False flag attacks, stirring up racial and economic tensions, and angling politicians to gridlock the Republic's political process to slow any meaningful response. In a way, that's scarier than a big cannon floating in space because it's abstract, and harder to fight against. Large parts of the book really drag as the villains go about acting like CIA operatives on an overthrow mission and the Republic senate bickers, but it makes the premise smarter and more intriguing . It also drives home the frustration our protagonists have trying to protect the vulnerable democracy they have tried so hard to set up.

The character of Shada struck me as if Zahn wanted to use Mara Jade in two different plot lines, forgot he sidelined her with an injury, and made up an extremely similar character to take her place. She's a femme fatale ninja assassin who wears a jumpsuit, has a tragic bitter backstory, and speaks all her lines through clenched teeth.

I bought Vision of The Future to go with it, and will be proceeding on to that.

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1/3 Horse Race, 2/3's Unburdening of Soul

Revisado: 04-03-23

This is the chronicle of a somewhat troubled, but highly observational and soulful young lady who undertakes the adventure of a 1000 mile horse race across Mongolia. I expected more waxing poetic about the landscape and the horses, but that was me projecting my own feelings about the outdoors and the equine race. To me they are simultaneously adventure and relaxation, fulfilling both roles as needed. The horse itself seems to mean something different to Ms. Lara, like an outlaw of yore; it's an escape vehicle, though on a metaphorical level that she needs to break out of what seems to be a stuffy and unhappy childhood. However, her appreciation of the land, the history, and the horse shines through in it's own way.

The adventure of the great race is fully present, described somewhat self deprecatingly. The author sees herself in a comic farce more than as a player in a great epic, but she nonetheless triumphs. And beset with what I would call a nervous disposition, this seems to bother her, as if winning disrupts her octagonal piece in a round hole self image.

I greatly enjoyed the book, and the mental exercise of riding along on the journey. Wherever the author is, I hope she's in happier times, and has come to terms with herself and the world in a more comfortable fashion. Most of all, I hope she's still riding, but because she truly wants to.

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Well thought out Range War

Revisado: 03-29-23

Rock Bannon, line rider and plainsman, becomes a protector and guide for a band of emigrants making their way to new homes on the frontier via covered wagon. This sparks a romance with the lovely Susan Crockett, and a rivalry with a verbally adroit villain, who manages to lead the good folk astray.

L'Amour's knowledge of history, the wilderness, firearms and horses really shines through, and anyone with experience in these areas can very easily find themselves plunged into the story. VR before VR. The give and take tension between settlers and the early cattle barons is a very well documented reality of the western frontier, and a nuanced view of the various perspectives makes this story more realistic.

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Kilkenney doesn't do pushups, he pushes earth down

Revisado: 03-29-23

As a lifelong Louis L'Amour fan, I feel I can identify when he's writing on all cylinders, and when he's occasionally phoning it in. One symptom that you're not getting L'Amour at his best is a tendency to rattle off a Forrest Gumpesque list of famous western characters. It happens multiple times in this text; "So and so is tougher than Tom Smith, faster than John W Hardin!" ETC. It might help set the mood for some people, but for the historically inclined, many of the people that are referenced in these rants were not particularly famous in their day and age.

You can still feel L'Amour's passion for the history and love and understanding for wild places that the story takes place in, but the pulpy invincibility of Kilkenney, the absurd body count, and a couple of red herring villains place it well below the likes of the Sackett books, Lonesome Gods, or The Californios .

The narrator does a decent job, but pastes on the western accent a bit heavy.

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