Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two

Star Wars
Darth Bane
Rule of Two
by Drew Karpyshyn

This is the second book written by the author about Darth Bane, the Sith Lord who made the Rule of Two. In the first book you saw the downfall of the Sith from a large group down to just one. This book picks up where the previous book left off. Darth Bane is now training his Apprentice to one day replace him as the Dark Lord of the Sith. On top of this he is trying to collect all information on the Dark Side of the force that he can and is starting to meddle in the affairs of the Republic so that one day down the road the Sith will take over. Meanwhile, the Jedi are asked to step down now that the war with the Sith is over by the first non-Jedi Chancellor. So the book covers the beginning of Bane's education of his apprentice and also sets up the changes in the Jedi that we see later in the timeline.


Expand review to include spoiler information

I really enjoyed powering through this book. It was fast pace, probably more so due to the authors limited writing time on it, and had some decent intrigue. Bane's young apprentice is a young girl named Rain that he finds in the midst of some Jedi she killed. But she gives up the name of her youth for Zannah. In her journey which covers a decade in this book you see her go from a reluctant apprentice into a most willing and deceitful apprentice. You see this in how she treats her cousin, Darovit (Tomcat). In the fist meeting after her apprenticeship begins she cuts off her cousin's hand to save his life as Bane would have killed him. By the end of the book in order to save Bane she makes her cousin insane and enraged so that the Jedi would no choice but to kill him. By doing this she also makes the Jedi believe they have killed the last Sith Lord thus keeping herself and Bane hidden once again.

This book also chronicles the life and death of some Jedi. Leave it to happen in a book about a Sith Lord to put a lot of time and background in on some Jedi only to have them slaughtered the Bane and Zannah. With such a setup I won't delve into them too much.

Bane during this book first starts out by testing his new found apprentice by abandoning her on the planet he found her and giving her the task of making it in 10 days to another place where he would meet up with her. He did this one to test but also so she wouldn't be around while he went looking for the Holocron of a dead Sith Lord. In his attempt to find the Holocron he becomes infected by these parasites, Orbalisks. He soon discovers that these creatures feed on his Dark Side energy but in return he gains more strength, healing abilities, armor and a greater strength in the Dark Side. However, as the story progresses his apprentice gets him to start doubting that the trade off is all good. Because for some unknown reason Bane cannot construct a Holocron of his own. Each attempt ends in failure. That is until his apprentice stumbles upon an unlikely source for information of the Dark Side. A noble, Hetton, of a minor house is trying to start a movement to overthrow the Republic but when Zannah meets him he knows what she is and wants to become her apprentice. She as any good Sith Apprentice would do gets him to attack Darth Bane with his Force Assassins. She figures either Bane goes down or Hetton does either way she wins.

Bane of course is the victor and with this new information gained from Hettons resources they find where a Holocron exists that may have information on creating Holocrons. So Bane goes after that and sends his Zannah to the Jedi Temple to do research on removing the Orbalisks.

All in all it's a decent book with a great story line, I mean who doesn't want to read about the Sith doing their thing. I hope he writes more in the Darth Bane series.

I'm still not feeling I'm doing that great of a job in my reviews so feedback is welcomed.

Next Up: Star Wars: Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight

Star Wars: Death Star

I got to thinking and figured I should start posting reviews of books as I finish them. I greatly enjoy reading so figure I should share that joy. Being this is my first book review in awhile it will be a bit short and hopefully outside what is already known from the movies doesn't spoil any of the book. Any feedback on the review is greatly appreciated so I can get better as I do these.

The latest book I just finished is Star Wars: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. This is the third Star Wars book they have collaborated on and they have also collaborated on a few other books. One of those other books is one I need to put on my reading list, along with suggesting it to my friend Bar, just based on the name "Thong the Barbarian Meets the Cycle Sluts of Saturn". With a name like that you know it's got to be funny or at least you'd hope so! Both authors have also authored alone one Star Wars book as well both of which I've read. Steve Perry is currently a book reviewer for The Oregonian, so those of you in Oregon may have heard of him that way.

This book covers the Construction, Shakedown and Destruction of the first Death Star as seen in Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. The story is told from the point of view of the Empire and people 'working' for the Empire in the Death Star. Along the way you meet a group of characters who's lives seem so very disconnected but through the telling story they meet up for an interesting take on what happened inside the Death Star right before the end. You get to meet the man who actually pulled the switch on Alderaan. Everyone's favorite villain Darth Vader is of course a re-occurring character throughout the book.

Normally knowing the outcome of a book before you even start reading it is not a good thing. However, for me knowing the outcome of what happens with the Death Star seemed to enhance the entire reading experience with this book.

"That's no moon. It's a space station."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

For anyone who is a fan of the Star Wars movies, even if it's just the classic Episodes, this book is a must read.

Next up: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two

First Week Of Stay At Home Dad

Well the first "week" of being a Stay At Home Dad has come to a close. Well guess it was more like three days really versus five. Anyway, semantics aside let's get into how the week went.

The Wife returned to work for the first time in about 4 months this last Tuesday. So it was to be my first time being alone with my son for more then just a few hours. Heck it was the first time either of us has. Anyway, currently our sun is sleeping through the night most nights. He goes to bed between 8:30pm and 10:30pm and getting up around 4:30am and 7:30am most days. However, sometimes he gets up a bit earlier. He's also only napping most times between feedings for about 45 minutes to 2 hours. His daytime sleeping is still mostly in our arms as he doesn't always go down in his bassinet during the day without waking up within 10-15 minutes. He eats about every 2 to 3 hours during the day and he lets you know when it's time with that good set of lungs he got! Well that's the background on where things are with him now.

The first day for me was more an issue with it being in my head that "oh know it's my first time alone all day without any help". That made me a bit antsy and worrisome to start out with which made me a bit tired very quickly. However, my son was so good that day for the most part that it all went rather smoothly with the exception where I scared him into a blood curling scream. I figured out in the middle of the day that you tend to take on the temperament of your kid. I was changing him when he had been crying for the last 10 minutes or so when I went to "shh" him. Unfortunately due to being amped up it came out about 20x the volume I would have like to have used. D'oh! Well that scream just made me feel like such an ass for doing it that I got a wee bit depressed. Not quite as bad as the day I nipped him with the finger nail clippers but still it was a big bummer that on my first day I caused my kid to scream bloody murder. The Wife came home around 3pm which is way earlier then her normal time used to be.

The next two days went really well other then some minor crying, which was usually over being tired or hungry which is understandable, things went real smoothly. The Wife came home around 4pm each day so it was better then I thought as she used to not come home until around 7pm most days. As it was also her first "week" being away from her child I think she came home not only to make it easier on me but also she was missing him.

On Friday she decided to work from home which made the day a real breeze as there were two of us there again for the day. So for things that come up if I needed it she was there to help. I'm grateful for her taking that day off as it gave me a rather easy first "week"

We'll see how the next week goes!

2 Months and Counting

Well it's been 2 months plus now and the kid is packing on the weight! Below is a picture taken on his two month milestone with Mom.




He is sleeping by himself a lot more now. Some nights are better then others though. One night we'll get a nice 3 or 4 hour sleep window which makes us feel real good. But the norm is usually that long sleep happens early evening instead. D'oh! Most nights we'll get a hour maybe two out of him. Which for Dad isn't that good since it takes me an hour or more to fall asleep. I've always had problems getting to sleep unless I was just completely exhausted and even then sometimes it takes a while. Mom on the other hand drops off to sleep as soon as the head hits the pillow. Damn that makes me envious! So for me it's usually a little sleep through the night until morning when Mom takes him downstairs then Dad gets a nice long sleep. Thank you Honey!

He's also started to become real fussy. If he's not eating or sleeping he's usually Mr. Grump with the exception of a few windows of time where he'll play. The last few days, he just got shots for his 2 month Well Baby which might be causing this new behavior, he screams bloody-murder when you set him down to unwrap him. We're really hoping this phase goes quickly. The doctor said usually the fussiness like this will go away after 2 and half months or so. We can only hope.

All these things make me a bit worried as the day is soon approaching of Mom heading back to work and me being home alone. It's real nice now with the exception of errands and appointments we're both around to deal with the Munchkin. Soon though it will be the Gelfling and Dad show. Hopefully we can get a good sleep schedule set by then and get him into his room at night, well I have to convince the Wife on that one. This will help both me and the Wife. Me so I'm good to go come the morning time and for the Wife so she's not dead tired at work. I can at least get in some cat naps during the day when he sleeps so not too bad if I don't get that much sleep. The good thing is he'll be 3 months by the time she goes back to work so hopefully we get things somewhat set into a pattern by then.

Well until next time enjoy the following pictures of me and my Son.


Dad and Son catching some Zs

Dad catching a uppercut to the old noggin!

Memorial Day Weekend

Well we had a busy, fun and pocket emptying Memorial Day weekend.

To kick the weekend off early my Brother-in-law, his wife and the Nephew flew in Friday morning. It's been since the shower since we've seen them. They came down to check out their nephew. After they got here me and my BIL went out for some shopping chores. First up I needed his help with looking at TV's and Blue-ray disc players. With his help I got a good idea of what to look for for when we decide to got that way. Then it was off to Lowes to pick up a Barbecue. After doing some looking and deciding we picked one up and then had the fun task of trying to load it into the Trailblazer! Well after some trial and error we got it in. Then got it home and hooked up! Whoot now we can barbecue! As they had a long day with getting up early and traveling down here with an almost two year old they headed to the hotel to call it a night.

The next day they came over in the morning and we hung out for a bit. Then they kicked the Wife and me out for some alone time. So we headed out for Lunch at Over the Border, a Mexican restaurant we go to down here. After that we went over to Best Buy to look for movies, games and such. Well we get there and while I'm looking for a game that my friend gave me a gift card for the wife comes over with a bunch of Blu-ray movies. I'm like you're already buying Blu-ray but we don't have a player. That's when she got that smile I know oh so well. Well needless to say they didn't have the game I was looking for but we did pick up a new Samsung Blu-ray player. Got home hooked it up with the BILs help and watched our first movie in HD! Whoot! That night we christened the BBQ with a London Broil with Corn on the Cob! Hmmmmm delicious!

The next day we had to head over to Sacramento to have a Baby Shower with my family members down here in California since it didn't make sense for them to go to the one up in Portland. My two Aunts put it on. Not to worry my BIL and family had some family and friends to visit as well that day. Back to the party. My Son got to meet his last Uncle, another Grandpa, two great-grandparents, some great-aunts and great-uncles, and many cousins of some type or another! The whole cousin thing gets confusing. Like what is my Mom's Cousin to my boy or my Cousin's kid to my boy? Very confusing so we'll just stick with Cousin for all! Well it was a great get together and no shortage of people willing to hold the boy! So he had a great day. Plus we got some good stuff for him as well. Afterwards we drove home and met up with the BIL and family for some Pizza and to bid farewell as they had an early flight in the morning.

Well the shopping for the weekend wasn't quite done. I was looking in the paper and found the Best Buy ad and noticed they had one of the TVs my BIL suggested while we were there for like $620 off. Plus they were doing 3 years no interest. Well since we had jumped in and picked up the Blu-ray player figured we needed a bigger and better TV for it! Well since we had also recently gotten our tax refund we felt that we deserved the upgrade as well! So we now have a new TV stand and 52" LCD Samsung HDTV! Whoot! Man things have never looked this crisp and clean before even normal TV jumps out at you with better image quality! Putting the new TV stand together was a nice long project! But well worth it!

Well below are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy.


Me with Son and Nephew

Brother-in-law, His wife with my Son

My Brother with my Son

Wife and Family

More Family, Son with his Grandma

Lego Mania!

On the Gamecube a few years back a game was released called Lego Star Wars. I bought it for being a Star Wars game more so then for a Lego game. I had some worries that it would be too kiddie of a game. But was that further from the truth. It was such a great game I'm not even sure where to begin describing the game.

Lego Star Wars is set in Episodes I-III of the Star Wars movie franchise, of which I'm a huge fan of all the movies. So you start out with just two playable characters of Obi-Wan (Padawan) and Qui-Gon Jin aboard the Trade Federation ship. Oh and you are the Lego version of them! Sweet! When you blow things up in the world, oh by the way did I mention everything on the screen is made of Legos, they shatter into their the core Lego pieces and spit out collectible Lego studs. As you progress through each chapter of each episodes you unlock more playable characters and earn studs to buy things with. Also, after completing a chapter you can the go back and play in free-play mode which allows you to switch between more characters then the story play mode. And you'll need to in order to find everything you need from a chapter some things are only reachable by certain characters.

A few months later they released Lego Star Wars for Episodes IV-VI for those who like the classic better. It's game play was the same with maybe some upgrade character interaction stuff. But still a great game! For the Wii they released both games as a combined game. I haven't picked it up as I don't know if there are any changes to the games I have and can play via my Wii.

Well just this last week the released Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii. I naturally picked it up. It's great just like the Star Wars versions. Here Indy's got a whip instead of the force and a lightsaber. But the game still rocks especially running form a big Lego ball that's rolling at you! I've only played the first chapter and ran around the holding area a little bit so far. Tough to get too much grinding in yet with the little one! But I'll try!

Wii Excitement

Well as many know I was one of those fools who waited for hours in the wee hours of the morning to pick up a Wii when it was released. The system is an absolute blast and I have seen even the youngest of children having fun with the basic games that come with it. Bowling is a blast as is the golf game driving range. Since the release I have bought a few games here and there. Of course the classics Madden, Zelda, Metroid made it into my larder of games and all are fun. I'm a big golf person so Tiger Woods made it too and it is fun, and frustrating, to swing the controller in a mostly realistic golf swing. I played that game almost everyday for months on end. Ever since the first Tiger game came out I've been hooked. Well now just recently a new game has come out that is also a classic good time Mario Kart! For the Wii the game comes with a wheel that you insert a Wii controller into to give you a better driving feel then trying to just turn the controller. Man is it a blast!

The game is much like all the other incarnations in that you have the standard 50cc, 100cc and 150cc selections. And so far I've only done the 50cc you have your standard circuits of Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special. with at the start only Mushroom and Flower being playable. These are new tracks just like with the past versions they always update and create new tracks. However, there are also two other circuits available Shell and Banana with two to be uncovered. These circuits have tracks from all the old versions. They have been updated graphically of course but take you back in time to learning all those old tracks.

On top of the new courses and being able to relive the old courses you now have your choice of three vehicles when you make your character selection. This is cool as you can pick a type that works better on certain circuits and tracks. Each one has different stats. Also outside of the old classic carts there are now motorbikes to race too! I haven't gotten to those yet as they are for 100cc and 150cc. But can't wait for it.

The coolest feature of all is the ability to play online! Yes that's right you can race against people in your friend list, regional area or even world wide! I've only done this a couple of times and have gotten my ass handed to me but it was loads of fun to race against 12 other people instead of computer controlled opponents. You can also do timed events that you can then see how you rank versus your friends, regionally and globally. There are even tournaments you can enter. Online play allows up to 2 people per console to play online. This make it an even better game for me since I've moved away from all my friends who play vids with me. Now if I can just get them to pony up for the system and game! Come on guys and girls you know who you are!

Well that's it for now.