News! Yes, Dan, I heard your plea. Had I known that anybody actually bothered to read the front page, I'd have kept up with a more regular update program.

I'd better say this before I get too far down the post, because it needs all the help it can get at the moment: visit the Totally Kotor forums! They're great fun but sadly lacking in participants at the moment. I'm sure you'll do the right thing and register and have a chat there.

So, lots to talk about. Yes, I have bought Sacrifice, by Karen Traviss, but no, I've not finished it yet. That's partly down to me slacking off, partly down to my lack of free time, but mostly down to Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. But I finished that last night, so I should be increasing my reading now.

So long as Pokemon Pearl doesn't get in the way much more.


Anyway, so far this book is just as good as the last one from the series that Traviss wrote - which is to say, phenomenally better than any of the others. Aaron Allston and That Other Guy Whose Name Escapes Me are good writers, sure, but Karen writes with such elegance and subtlety. There's not many books in the world that have gripped me more than Bloodlines, the first book she wrote for the series.


I have one bone to pick with the book, though - nothing about what's between the pages, but rather what's on the front. I know you can't judge a book by its cover, and in this case it's literally true.



Here, on the cover of the book, we see a wonderful looking young Mara Jade Skywalker, wife of Luke and mother to Ben, their little ginger offspring. That's all fair and good, and kudos to Luke - because the book's set a full 40 years after A New Hope. Now, Mara was 18 at the time of the first film, which makes her 58 in this book. All I can say is that if Mara looks that good as she nears her sixties, then...well, Star Wars medical tech must be pretty much perfect. As Yoda went to 900, though, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised; except Han and Leia hav aged suitably. Huh.



Perhaps Mara's learned a rare Force technique that nobody else knows; Force Youth. Although that sounds less like a Jedi power and more like a documentary on cosmetic surgery to me...


Well, I'll leave it there for now, but there is more news to come over the following weeks. Reports of Celebration Europe, for one, an announcement about China for another. But if you want less sparse news, remember to head over to the forum!

CA

A long long time ago