Shadow Hunter and Other Tales

I've been listening to a lot of Star Wars audio books since the beginning of the year. Most are average, but some have been really entertaining.

Attack of the Clones: This is one of my favorite Star Wars audio books. The sound effects are good, the narrator is skilled at mimicing a lot of the familiar characters' voices, and the script of the movie is really fleshed out. There's a lot of extra stuff added to explain what Shmi Skywalker's life was like after she married into the Lars family. I also liked the scene where Padme's nosy older sister presses Padme for details about her "boyfriend," Anakin. Padme's sister did a lot to encourage Padme to get involved with Anakin, so I wonder if she'll blame herself when Anakin kills Padme?

Cloak of Deception: This one was very forgettable. It's a pre-Phantom Menace story which shows how Chancellor Valorum was manipulated into levying the tax on the free trade routes that ultimately plunged the whole galaxy into war. The one bright spot in this novel is the appearance of a young Grand Moff Tarkin.

Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire: Based on a video game that became a graphic novel, this trilogy (which includes Dark Forces: Rebel Agent and Dark Forces: Jedi Knight) is kind of a parallel to Luke's arc. Kyle Katarn, the son of a farmer, graduates from the Imperial Academy. He hears that his father was murdered by Rebels, then later learns that the Empire was behind it. He joins up with the Rebels and steals the plans for the Death Star. Later, he frees the souls of thousands of Jedi who were killed in an ancient war.

Through the whole story Kyle is pursuing Jerec, a blind Dark Jedi who is the man who really killed his father. I thought the production quality of the CD's was very good, though the story was too much like Luke's. There was even a ghost Jedi benefactor teaching Kyle to use the Force. I did get a kick out of how Mon Mothma never trusted him and kept telling his girlfriend to blow his ass away if he blinked funny. I told you something was up with Mon Mothma! LOL!

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter: Surprisingly entertaining. There are a lot of POV switches, but they were handled well. This is another pre-Phantom Menace story, this one concerning converging forces on Coruscant trying to find an AWOL Neimoidian who is desperately trying to sell the plans for the upcoming invasion of Naboo. The Neimoidians dispatch a female bounty hunter. Darth Sidious dispatches Darth Maul. A down on his luck Corellian grifter and his droid buddy try to buy the information from the Neimoidian and get Darth Maul on their tail. Then a padawan and her master on a completely unrelated mission save the guy and the droid... It's just crazy. Darth Maul actually has a personality in this book, though he's basically still a Terminator-esque killing machine. I lost count of how many explosions he caused and how many people he killed.

The ending was actually a little sad.

More tomorrow.