STAR WARS - DARK NEST - THE UNSEEN QUEEN

A Del Rey Books Mass Market Original

Written by Troy Denning

Copyright 2005 by Lucasfilm Ltd.

Excerpt from Star Wars: Outbound Flight copyright 2005 by Lucasfilm Ltd.

In The Unseen Queen, the alien insect Killiks are producing an alien membrosia that is being distributed throughout space, but a dark membrosia is also being produced and the Jedi blame the Killiks for it. Meanwhile, the Dark Jedi queen in charge of the Dark Nest of Killiks tries to get Luke while the Jedi masters become divided as to the best direction of what the Jedi Order should do.

It is sad to see a former Jedi become a Joiner and become a Dark Jedi. I was hoping Luke would break the hold of the Joiners and bring Alema Rar back as a Jedi. Raynar Thul was a lost cause when he became the leader of the Killiks. You also get a glimpse of Jacen as he grows more in the force and touches on the dark side as he is determined to prevent a galaxy wide war. With the Jedi masters divided as to the direction of what the Jedi Order should do, as half of them want to search for Luke, the Galactic Chief of State manipulates Jedi Master Corran Horn to lead the Jedi as Luke and Han are being held hostage by the Killiks.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

THE RADIOACTIVE REDHEAD

DAW Books

Written by John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem

Copyright 2005 by John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem

Cover art by Michael Koelsh

In The Radioactive Redhead, a Zachary Nixon Johnson novel by John Zakour, Zachary Nixon Johnson is the last freelance private investigator on Earth and takes on the job of protecting a pop star singer whose life has been threatened because of her awful musical singing talent, This, despite the fact that her audience goes into nirvana when she sings. Meanwhile, Zach's own life is threatened as he becomes the unwilling target star of an Internet reality show - "Let's Kill Zach."

This is an amusing book with P.I. Zach also dealing with the disturbing fact that his artificial intelligent sidekick changed his personality programming from a bookish man into a hot, sultry lady as an experiment. As much as Zach appreciates HARA, he misses his old friend HARV - besides, his jealous doctor girlfriend keeps breaking his home furniture. Dr. Electra can be even more dangerous than the reality show that Zach is a victim of as she gets upset that all his clients have always been beautiful women while Zach tries to find the killer threatening the beautiful pop singer. Although the book is a cynical version of the media, a lot of it has a sense of truth behind it, especially considering the marketing strategy behind both the reality show, and pop singer Sexy Sprockets fans and concerts. While the media is not normally fatally violent, it does get out of hand concerning Zach. Fortunately he is armed with both a gun and HARA/HARV.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

STAR TREK - THE LOST ERA - THE SUNDERED

POCKET BOOKS
a division of Simon & Shuster, Inc.

Written by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels

Copyrigtht 2003 by Paramount Pictures. All rights Reserved.

In The Sundered, Captain Sulu and the U.S.S. Excelsior is sent on an ambassadorial mission to the Tholians, but is secretly on an intelligence mission to spy on Tholian space. Ambassador Burgess finds about him spying on the Tholians and tells them. As the Tholians engage them, along with their more advanced Tholian energy Web, they run across a mysterious race that is closer to home than they think.

Ambassador Burgess was not a likable character as she goes behind Sulu and Starfleet and tells the Tholian ambassadors what is happening with little apology to Sulu. Even she says her career was finished, although she was determined to stop the war between the Federation, the Tholians, and the aggressive Neyel race. Her solution to establish communications, while unorthodox, did leave you feeling that there is something good about her after all as the Neyal search for their ancient home. Reading about the genesis of the engineered Neyal was a bit sudden as they go from an intelligent peaceful people to aggressive phobic conquerors.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

UNDERWORLD - RISE OF THE LYCANS

Pocket Star Book

A Novelization by Greg Cox

Screenplay by Danny McBride and Dirk Blackman & Howard McCain
Story by Len Wiseman & Robert Orr and Danny McBride
Based on Characters Created by Kevin Grevioux and Len Wiseman & Danny McBride

Copyright 2009 by Lakeshore Entertainment Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Underworld - Rise of the Lycans, a prequel to Underworld, tells the ancient origin of the lycan servant Lucian and his forbidden love with vampire noblewoman Sonja. With the threat of Lady Sonja's powerful vampire leader father Victor finding out about their love and their unborn child, Lucian leads the dangerous lycans and werewolves in a revolt against their noble vampire masters.

A second telling of the origin of Lucian and Sonja, and of Lucian's determination to get revenge after a tragic execution performed by Victor, written by Greg Cox. The story is slightly different than the original origin book Underworld - Blood Enemy. I happen to like the Blood Enemy story better and I think it is more romantic and therefore more tragic as a result. Rise of the Lycans is more of a graphic revolution story than a love story, and the love story is different than that of Blood Enemy although it is basically the same.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

STAR WARS - ORDER 66

Del Rey Mass Market Edition
Written by Karen Traviss

Copyright 2008 by Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.

In Order 66, part of the Republic Commando novels told from the clone troopers point of view, events leads up to the most infamous order in the Star Wars galaxy as Kal Skarita strategically plans to get his clan of elite clone commandos out of the Galactic Army of the Republic. Now how does Order 66 affect their relationship with their Jedi close friends?

The actual order number 66 is part of 150 contingency orders that were never meant to be used, but meant for only the most dire of emergencies: the Jedi have staged a coup and all must be shot on sight. As a clone says to a Jedi general, "you thought we were excellent troops because we obey orders, but when we obey all orders - and these are legal orders - we've betrayed you." The reason the order is so destructive is that the Jedi are so powerful, only lethal force can be used to stop them. As the Jedi have become more of a political force in the Star Wars universe, instead of a force for good, we are not as sympathetic to the Jedi as when we first heard about them in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. In fact, when a Jedi accidentally kills a major character, I felt no sympathy to that unknown Jedi, who to me the Jedi was an insurrectionist. Life after Order 66 by Emperor Palpatine effects Kal Skirata's clan of clones and makes it much more difficult for them to extract themselves from the galactic war, and the newly formed Empire, as the clones mission objectives are to officially search for Jedi escapees. While most of the action takes place on Coruscant, there are some scenes in space as some of Skirita's clones are on other planets and are trying to be extracted for home - including Jedi Etain trying to make it home to her clone husband and son.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND - Demolition Winter

HarperPaperbacks

A novel by Peter Telep
based on the series created by
Glen Morgan & James Wong

Copyright 1997 by Twentieth Century Fox Corporation

In Demolition Winter, Space Marines of the 58th squadron "Wild Cards" are to be trained and inserted onto an alien Chig planet, far from Earth, using enemy Chig bombers to blow up a Chig supply line - but there is more to the mission than what they were told.

This novel of the TV series Space: Above and Beyond, has the 58th on an operation with a silicate, a not human, reprogrammed android, demolitions expert assigned to their squad. With Vanson's unfortunate history with silicates from home, she naturally does not trust the silicate, and his circuits and programming, as she leads the mission to search for the supply lines. They also encounter survivors of another squad who failed to accomplish the mission the 58th are now assigned to, and the reason the survivors failed the mission is shocking. It makes you wonder if you would continue the mission under similar conditions, just as members of the 58th ask the same questions when they find out the news of the mission as they extract the survivors of the mission for court-martial.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.