Book Review: Star Wars Fate Of The Jedi: Apocalypse - Troy Denning

In the stunning finale of the epic Fate of the Jedi series, Jedi and Sith face off—with Coruscant as their battlefield. For the Sith, it’s the chance to restore their dominance over the galaxy that forgot them for so long. For Abeloth, it’s a giant step in her quest to conquer all life everywhere. For Luke Skywalker, it’s a call to arms to eradicate the Sith and their monstrous new master once and for all.

In a planetwide strike, teams of Jedi Knights take the Sith infiltrators by swift and lethal surprise. But victory against the cunning and savage Abeloth, and the terrifying endgame she has planned, is anything but certain. And as Luke, Ben, Han, Leia, Jaina, Jag, and their allies close in, the devastating truth about the dark side incarnate will be exposed—and send shock waves through the Jedi Order, the galaxy, and the Force itself.

STAR WARS Expanded Universe books are fickle creatures for me. Sometimes they suit my mood and other times they don’t. I have mentioned in previous SW Book Reviews that I feel that the 9-book series they’ve done have been mostly long-winded and padded, really affect pacing and the overall narrative. This is to the degree that I actually SKIPPED the 7th and 8th books in the series and jumped straight to the 9th (and final) book, Troy Denning’s STAR WARS FATE OF THE JEDI: APOCALYPSE…and I’m none the worse for it as the things I needed to know I caught up on over at Wookiepedia. Is that a disservice to the other two authors’ of the series? Certainly. Do I feel bad about it? I suppose a little, but whenever I feel that way my brain clicks onto the fact that a quick 10-minute perusal of the synopses of those two books at Wookiepedia told me everything that happened in over 600 pages worth of material. That’s a lot of filler as far as I am concerned, and this series and the LEGACY OF THE FORCE series before it are known for such padding. So I skipped some of it.

This is a terrible way to begin a review for a book I actually loved.

Sorry.

APOCALYPSE was one of the best SW EU books I’ve read in a very long time. Whether that was because of plot threads that were tied up that have been going since the Dark Nest Crisis (2005), or because of the finale-like action set pieces, or simply just because there was a definite feeling of “moving forward” occurring in the pages, I don’t know. All I know is that Denning had me rapt from page one until the closing chapter 440+ pages later.

Note: Beware, as the last book in a 9-book series, this review is going to have some minor-to-heavy spoilers. Unavoidable.

So basically this book wraps up exactly who Abeloth is, and I was a little stunned and impressed to find out how she ties into the overall STAR WARS universe; that she ties into the strangest episode arc of the 3rd season of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS where Anakin and Obi-Wan visit a strange world called Mortis where three very powerful force beings (A Father – Balance, A Daughter – Light Side and a Son – Dark Side) live. The Father is dying and asks Anakin to take his place as Balance (who obviously refuses)…it turns out that Abeloth has to do with them, and they have more to do with the Force as a whole than previously thought. Jedi Grand Master Luke recalls hearing the story from Yoda and after checking it out in the Jedi Archives on Coruscant finds the mission his father and Obi-Wan undertook did indeed take place. This also ties into what Jacen Solo (prior to his turn to the dark side and death) found out from the Killik’s who simply referred to these beings by different names, but the mythology was the same of a Son and Daughter at constant war and the father who kept them in balance.

Basically Denning has not only tied this story into the past (and other SW media) with the above points, but also has Jagged Fel and the Imperial Remnant tied into the future as well (the LEGACY comics which take place 137 years ABY), leading me to believe that Jaina and Tahiri may be the first of the future Imperial Knights (Red-Armored Jedi who defend the Fel Emperor)…who knows. Still, it's nice to know that the people behind the curtain at LFL take continuity into things when ideas are raised.

We also finally get the public reveal of Allana Solo as Tenel Ka and Jacen Solo’s daughter (instead of the masquerade as the elder two Solo’s adoptive daughter Amelia) thus making her VERY strong in the Force and Hapan royalty in line for the throne. But naturally she’s also in line for another throne…one of balance. I think it will be very interesting to see a more grown up Allana training as a Jedi and taking up the mantle of hero from her grandparents. Ben and Vestara get an ending I wasn't expecting and it was kind of refreshing since I assumed that they would follow a certain path with their relationship than how it ends up. Which brings me to my last story point, the Jedi have finally (in a council decision) decided that the best thing for the Jedi Order is to separate themselves from the Galactic Alliance and leave Coruscant (for the academy training world of Shedu Maad) to its own devices and political squabbling.  I like that a great deal and see it as a long time coming since the New Republic and the subsequent Galactic Alliance have never fully trusted the Jedi and why would any group stay and defend people who didn’t trust them? I think Luke has the right idea in making the Jedi become a more autonomous entity beholden to no one but themselves. I’m also really ready to return to the Jedi Academy type locale. That was one of my favourite things about the Academy when it was on Yavin 4, that there was nothing else going on there. No political infighting, just Jedi training. Love that. It will be a welcome return to see the new fresh Jedi rise up and become knights and not have to worry about what is going on with the Order.

Denning has done an incredible job wrapping up the plot points that truly needed wrapping up. There are some complaints that there are still open threads left hanging at the end…but then that only means we’ll be seeing more of our friends in future. I don’t mind those open threads, because like anything of this type of story, enough was solved for me personally in the end and it’s always nice to have things to look forward to that connect to the past.

The one thing I am looking forward to the most: The squad of Ten Jedi Knights who are sent out to find the wandering planet of Mortis and hopefully the Force-imbued dagger that can kill a celestial. That’s going to be very Outbound Flight-ish methinks.

If you’ve been reading this series, then APOCALYPSE should satisfy you much more than INVINCIBLE did in the last series. A great book, and definitely one of the best Main-series books I’ve read since the NJO.

Book Review: Star Wars Heir To The Empire 20th Anniversary Edition - Timothy Zahn

I’ve read a significant number of STAR WARS EXPANDED UNIVERSE (henceforth referred to as SW: EU) books in my life. Chunks of the NEW JEDI ORDER series, the entire LEGACY OF THE FORCE series and now the FATE OF THE JEDI series, with a few scattered standalone’s in there as well. What I have never done though, is gone back to the early post-RETURN OF THE JEDI books, most significantly, Timothy Zahn’s THRAWN trilogy beginning with HEIR TO THE EMPIRE. In fact, I have never read Zahn in the SW universe at all. This is a sad thing, seeing as how I just finished the recently released 20^th Anniversary Edition of HEIR TO THE EMPIRE, and it totally blew me away. I realize now why so many people had given Zahn the crown to the SW: EU Book Universe, as he crafted a story that was not only worthy of the movies, but also totally gripping and character-driven. I had only meant to read the first bit as I was reading another book at the time I picked it up at the store, but my eyes were so glued to the pages that I didn’t stop reading till I was finished. So let’s review it shall we?

The original copy of this book came out in 1991. STAR WARS had been off the world stage for nearly 7 years, and though nostalgic people like myself who have always loved STAR WARS still kept it alive in our hearts, there hadn’t been any real new media in that universe in that long. I actually remember the book coming out and I remember (having been only fourteen) having to wait for it to come out in paperback so I could afford it on allowance. When it finally came out in that format I bought it, but I had yet to become the reader I am today, so it sat on my shelf looking pretty and I always wanted to read it but never got around to it. Actually at some point I lost the paperback my hard-earned allowance had gotten me, in one of the house-moves after my parents split. I had moved on and it wasn’t until 1999 when the first NEW JEDI ORDER book VECTOR PRIME came out that I decided to sink my teeth back into STAR WARS, partially of course because THE PHANTOM MENACE was about to debut and STAR WARS fever (which hadn’t been seen since 1984) was back with a vengeance.

So here I am entirely remiss, having glossed over Zahn’s contributions until now, and when I saw the 20^th Anniversary Edition for HEIR I dropped my coin down and bought it.

One thing I should note: This version is completely annotated (in the margins) mostly by Zahn himself, but also a few notes from others who were involved in production. It’s like watching a DVD with the commentary track on, and lead me to my ONLY issue with the book. This version might be tougher to read for a person who has never read HEIR before, simply because the annotations (whilst not overwhelming) kind of take you out of the narrative sometimes (not always). So while I was totally fascinated by the commentary and insight into the makings of the book, AT TIMES it took me out of the narrative a bit. This would, of course, be much less jarring to a person who had already read it, so it’s not a huge thing, and as much as it jarred me a bit it wasn’t enough to displace me completely and with a bit of concentration I was able to stay on track mostly.

The story is amazingly well-realized, and one of the very first things that leaps out at you from the pages is the status of the galaxy five years after Endor, the Emperor’s demise, and Vader’s (Anakin’s) redemption. I remember feeling after the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI in 1984 how the galaxy was saved, the Rebellion succeeded and now they could get to the business of setting things right and peaceful, tied up in a nice little bow. What I never even thought about was that with a war that was as widespread as the Civil War was that defeating the Emperor and Vader would only be the beginning, and that the war itself (with the significant remnants of the Empire still around) would realistically continue for years to come. Some fifteen years in fact, after the victory at Endor before the Empire would be completely defeated.  So here we have Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie et al., five years after Endor, attempting to manage the fledgling New Republic from the Imperial Center (Coruscant – named by Zahn) with Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar and a council of high ranking Rebellion echelon, whilst around them the sectors of the Empire are doing everything in their power to revive their Empire after its head had been cut off. Enter Grand Admiral Thrawn, a Chiss (blue skin, red eyes) commander with a knowledge and command of battle surpassed by few, who takes his Star Destroyer, The Chimera, in search of ways to advance the Imperial cause. In this case he’s looking to expand his fleet of ships, as well as digging into a cache of experimental weapons and technology left by Emperor Palpatine on the planet Wayland. There he meets a Dark Jedi (the term Sith hadn’t been anything more than a Moniker Vader had in the Original Trilogy) who had been set to watching the Cache and seems a little less than stable. While Thrawn’s plans include building his fleet and defeating the New Republic, he also sees a way to recruit this Dark Jedi, named Joruus C’baoth, into service by promising to deliver to him both Luke and Leia (and Leia’s as yet unborn twins) to freely turn them to the Dark side and his own nefarious purposes. C’Baoth agrees and rather impatiently waits for the Skywalkers to come to him on another world.

What’s great about this story is that Zahn KNOWS these characters, and writes them with aplomb making them interesting and adding a few movie-isms in to make them even more recognizable. One feeling I got as I read it is that this IS STAR WARS. I could easily see how this might have followed JEDI as a film; it has great dialogue, action sequences, and even a few mysteries. It also had some new characters, like smuggler Talon Kaarde, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Captain Pellaeon, and most especially Mara Jade. To me Mara Jade has always been good (in the books I’ve read with her in them she is a good Jedi), so getting to see her as a distraught, angry and sometimes vicious Emperor’s Hand is an absolute treat. The first scene she shares with Luke is electrifying and you can certainly see why she stayed as such a prominent character in later novels. Thrawn is also impressive and is VERY well-crafted so much so that Zahn mentions that he got letters from servicemen in the US Military who said that they would follow him into battle. That’s high praise for the fictional character. Thrawn is so smartly drawn that he always seems a step or two head of our heroes, and that added a level of realism that I wasn’t expecting. Vader, in comparison, acted on impulse and passionate anger a lot of the time, but Thrawn on the other hand is cold, calculating and brutally efficient. The characterization across the board in fact, from the classic fan favourites to the new characters, is top notch and exists on a level I never thought was possible in the SW:EU. This guy just writes these characters so well that it makes me equally upset with myself for not having read his books till now.

As an opening chapter in a trilogy, this book is a fine example of storytelling, and an even finer example of where the STAR WARS universe went after that film in 1984. It has a number of great action sequences and even ends with a great space battle featuring everyone’s favourite Rogue Squadron leader Wedge Antilles.

As you can see by the picture, the hardcover 20^th Anniversary Edition is gorgeous brushed silver with the Imperial Cog logo embossed on it, and I want to even note that the title on the inside page has been adapted to the STAR WARS title representation which looks really sharp. The annotations, as I’ve said above are wonderfully informative and ultimately fascinating, including Zahn waxing on the various things that he talks about having only JUST slid by the prequel’s latter information (which would come 8 years later), thus only a few odd things REALLY would require any major ret-conning.  Most of the instances are so well worded as sentences, or are said by certain characters that they can get by without needing ret-conning, which I am sure was nice for Zahn. We all know Lucas likes to tinker, so it’s nice to see that a bunch of Zahn’s inventions (like Coruscant) made it into the prequels and that offhand ideas like Rogue Squadron would become so huge in the SW: EU later on. There is also included a new short story (CRISIS OF FAITH) which takes place within Mara Jade’s past and fits somewhere into his latest books about her, ALLIEGANCE and CHOICES OF ONE, that I didn’t read simply cause I haven’t read those other books yet, but I will come back to it once I have done so.

If you are a STAR WARS fan at all and haven’t read these books yet, they are not only considered canon by Lucasfilm, but are a rollicking good time and one that shouldn’t be passed up. For those who HAVE read them, and already have the old paperback copy, I would HIGHLY recommend picking up this new edition not only for the gorgeous cover art, but for the incredibly interesting annotations inside. I am REALLY hoping that next year they will do a 20th SE version of the second book DARK FORCE RISING (and hopefully follow that a year later with one for THE LAST COMMAND) with annotations, but I have to sheepishly admit I could not wait to find out what happened, so I ran out and grabbed the old paperback copy of DARK FORCE RISING. I’m already 100 pages in and it’s already sizing up as good (if not better) than HEIR.

So I guess to Timothy Zahn I want to say THANKS for writing such a splendid novel, and sorry it took this STAR WARS fan so very long to get around to it.

Go out and get this book now, as it is well worth your money.

Book Review: Allies (Star Wars: Fate Of The Jedi #5) - Christie Golden

The FATE OF THE JEDI series, the second 9-Book/3 Author series, (with events that mainly began in the previous 9-Book series LEGACY OF THE FORCE) has a few of the very same problems that the previous one suffered from, but thankfully has a few things that distinguish it from that one as well, improving the overall story.

What was great about Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy was the concentrated effort by one author (arguably one of the best in the SW: Expanded Universe of books) to write a sequel trilogy to the original films that had the spirit of those films, but strode into its own direction and blazed new paths and ideas. In that same vein the NEW JEDI ORDER series was 19 books long and had 13 authors all bringing something interesting to the table and that series, while quite long, didn’t flag and stall as much as the new 9-Book series do.

So here I am at the middle of the series, just having finished the 5^th book ALLIES by Christie Golden and just like in the previous series the middle is weighed down by repeated ideas and action, boring political side-plots that don’t really gel with the overall narrative. What it seems wasn’t learned from the LEGACY books was that Jacen Solo’s plotlines were damn near horrible when he was politicking instead of being Sith-like. Here we have the equivalent of that in the continuing presence of Natasi Daala as the Chief of state of the Galactic Alliance. She has a role, but here I start to see just how much padding she is. This combined with the still unresolved “Crazy Jedi” plotline, even though we know the source of the crazy makes for a slog of a read. Even the presence of her assistant Wynn Dorvan isn’t enough to make her plotline interesting. She makes stupid decisions, schemes, plots and does things that any normal politician would have been fired or lynched for long ago and nobody says boo. It’s become more than annoying at this point.

It’s not all bad though, as Golden’s skill lies in her ability to write a fun back and forth between Ben and Vestara. The romantic subplot between them is decently written and has the proper voice, so she definitely has that going for her.  My only issue with that though is that I think after what he dealt with concerning Jacen’s fall, Ben would be MUCH more leery of Vestara as a Sith than he appears to be, and I don’t think puppy love trumps Sith’s being Evil.  That’s a personal gripe though and not one with the author herself.

The plot moves along with similar devices for all involved as the previous volumes and only adding the team-up between Jedi and Sith pulls this book out of the repetitive hell it could have been.  Overall fairly written and executed, but at what point is it just more of the same? This is the issue with these 9-book series. I am POSITIVE that they could be told in 3 books and be REALLY good, 9 is just too many.

Everything continues to move towards a head on Coruscant. The inevitable confrontation between the parties involved is seen as forthcoming but it never reaches any kind of fruition. Therefore it feels like simply more pieces moving on the board with nothing big happening.

I’d like to mention something else. For some reason these three authors especially like to use Original Trilogy personalities for EVERYTHING.  Need a ship, or anything to do with seediness or smuggling? Call Lando. Seriously, when Lando showed up in this one I audibly groaned. This is an open note to the authors currently working in the SW:EU and the future authors who might do so: Stop feeling the need to add Original Trilogy characters to the fray just to connect things on a tongue-in-cheek level! If Luke and Ben are looking for a ship that can navigate the Maw and handle the damage it might take…why is Lando the one who automatically DEM’s the right ship? When everything connects on these levels it starts to become ridiculous. Why not take the time to introduce fresh characters with motivations we can’t guess? The reason Lando himself worked in EMPIRE was because even though he was a friend to Han his motivations were unclear and in the end he sort of had to betray them. That added an extra depth to EMPIRE that is refreshing in storytelling. If the main 6 Original Trilogy people show up in EVERY volume it begins to smack of uncreative. They don’t NEED to.  Like in Allston’s BACKLASH before it, there was no reason why Han, Leia et al. had to show up on Dathomir. They were DEM of the highest order IMHO. That’s not to say it wasn’t fun, but these EU authors need to realize that the point is to expand things and don’t be so utterly dependant on the veterans. Give us some new people to care about. To me this is the key reason that EU books like KNIGHT ERRANT, CROSSCURRENT, DARK ALLIANCE ect. get better reviews than the main FOTJ type series….it’s because there is more FRESH MEAT to be had. If you keep telling me stories that ALWAYS revolve around only Luke, Han, Leia, 3PO, R2 and Lando…things are going to get stagnant.

That said, I’ve heard that this series starts to pick back up at the end of the 6^th book Troy Denning’s VORTEX and that in the 7^th book CONVICTION things start to move forward again so I am looking forward to that, and the ultimate conclusion of the series.

The best news that recently surfaced is that the powers that be at Del Ray have taken fan and reviewer comments to heart. As such, the next series arc is going back to the duology/standalone/trilogy by various authors structure of the NEW JEDI ORDER series which isn’t a moment too soon as I feel the 9-Book series structure is not only tired but just doesn’t work as it requires too much padding and not nearly tight enough to make it worth the time.

ALLIES is a decent effort that I enjoyed bits of (mostly Luke and Ben’s plotline with the Sith), but overall came in at the mediocre level that will be one of my least fave efforts in the series.

Cover Art: Star Wars Fate Of The Jedi: Ascension

I'm a big fan of this series, and for the most part I've liked the cover art (the art for the 2nd OMEN is my fave)....

...and I REALLY dig this one!

I've only read up to BACKLASH (will be getting the next few for my Kindle soon), but I assume that is Ben and Vestara on the cover. These covers are nice, not too much, not too little. The tonal values in the colours chosen are just right.

Upcoming: Star Wars: Heir To The Empire 20th Anniversary Edition! (AKA everyone's fave SW book)

I’ll probably catch some heat for this admission…especially considering all the Star Wars EU books I HAVE read…but I have never read fan-favourite, critic-favourite, Timothy Zahn-penned, it happens right after Return of the Jedi, HEIR TO THE EMPIRE, nor its two sequels DARK FORCE RISING and THE LAST COMMAND. Nope. Never did it. I don’t have a reason really, except perhaps that my reading skills weren’t up to snuff enough in 1991 to stomach of a whole trilogy of YA/adult novels at the tender age of fourteen.

Thankfully, Lucasfilm and Del Ray come along 20 years later and provide me with a shiny, sparkly, gorgeously covered Anniversary Edition. I love Limited and Anniversary Editions. The

y are always awesome.

The book, for those who are curious, is set to drop in June of this year and features the cover below. I look forward to finally reading this series and seeing what the fuss is about.

 

Book Review: Star Wars Fate Of The Jedi Backlash by Aaron Allston

Note: So as to avoid spoilers, I am not including the synopsis as I usually do.

There is, in the acknowledgements for this 4^th book in the Fate Of The Jedi series, mentioned of the fact that author Aaron Allston suffered a heart attack and a subsequent quadruple bypass while on the promotional tour for the first in this series that he wrote OUTCAST. A terrible and nasty thing to have happen to anyone, I just wanted to start this review by saying that we are all glad he pulled through.

BACKLASH is, like I said, the 4^th book in a 9 book series. It is at this point in the last series that the books started to follow a pattern and a rut that it didn’t get out of till the final volume. Thus there was a lackluster aspect to that series because of that. I won’t say the same here. All three authors have one book (of their three each) under their belt and the stage is pretty much set, so we can go onto the action and plunge the story forward right? Well, yes it does.

One of the nice things in this book is that a few of the old tropes from the first two books (starting the book out with another Jedi going insane, or having the Skywalkers going to yet another place that Jacen went to before going bad only to discover something else needed solved there) are thankfully left behind as book starters, as it is clear that they would have been trying for a fourth book to begin thusly. Allston MOSTLY avoids this altogether in the book. His first few chapters are quite evenly distributed between all his plot threads and characters, which was a great way to go about the opening. What else is good is that we basically pick up where we left off, Skywalkers hunting down young female lost tribe Sith Vestara Khai, Solo’s offworld keeping the insane Jedi’s in the transitory mists away from the reach of Daala and her GA cronies, a dangerous Moff and Republic Senator plotting to even send Daala down a dark path in the hopes to unseat her, and Imperial Remnant COS Jagged Fel continues to get undermined and doesn't know who is trying to kill him.

The Skywalkers and Solos come together in this one, on the Force-sensitive-heavy world of Dathomir and while trying to swindle Vestara away from female Dathomiri witches fall into a tribal war and end up fending off attacks from the enigmatic dark side Nightsisters (you’ll recall Clone Wars-era assassin Assaj Ventress was one of those). Allana who is alone in the Falcon with C3PO and R2D2 (although she is being watched unknowingly by old Jedi Knight Zekk and his wife) spends her time proving her Solo/Skywalker heritage which was a clever way to ease off the dark tension that builds everywhere else in the novel, while at the same time growing Allana as a character. On Coruscant, the embattled Jedi are finally starting to be viewed by the public with a bit of sympathy and Daala and her cohorts attempt every avenue to turn that tide of sympathy to themselves. I think that this is the book where Daala stops making good decisions. She actually sends a company of Madalorian Commandos against the Jedi Temple. Stu-pid lady.

Allston has all his traits present here and it fires on all cylinders, but I think goes far to trump even his normal efforts.  The pace is clean and easy. The action is nicely spread out and there is even a nice sized battle to revel in. The addition of Dathomir and the Nightsisters is clearly a calculated one, as those characters have only recently shown up in the Clone Wars TV series, and this will show that watching that or reading this will give both TV and book fans more insight into them. A clever move on the authors (or Del Ray’s) part indeed.

The standouts in this book are clearly meant to be Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai. He, a young Jedi reared by the grand master of the Jedi, and she a Sith apprentice reared by an altruistic sect of Sith who are untainted by the acidic “rule of two” relationship that the Sith were always assumed to have until the Lost Tribes’ appearance in the galaxy. This really does stand out and is one of the new threads that I was hoping would get explored. I think Vestara is bound to show that there is a grey area when using the force and Ben is bound to find it out. She is wonderfully fun and coy every time she is onscreen and is included in a nice twist that I certainly didn’t see coming. She is orders of magnitude better than any other recently introduced Post-RotJ villain because Christie Golden spent most of OMEN showing us her upbringing and the world she was raised in, and then Allston spends this book with her hiding everything in a great way.

One last thing I want to mention. There is a trials/contest portion with activities, running and other challenges in the book and what is nice is that it is done in passing. Those events happen, but serve as a backdrop for, in one case Ben having a discussion with Vestara. I was over the moon that I didn’t have to sit through Luke beating a Dahtomiri witch as the whole plot of the chapter. Well done indeed on Allston’s part.

What stands out most is that abandonment of the somewhat formulaic nature of the two first books, and it looks like Allston plans to follow Denning in that idea of "let’s do stuff we haven’t done before". I love that this series is still pleasing me on that level.

The books stands as a MUCH better volume than the first Allston wrote for this series OUTCAST, and is a real crowd-pleaser. From the minute the Solo’s join the Skywalkers on Dathomir and the story really gets going and the action ramps up, this book gives Troy Denning’s previous effort ABYSS a run for the best of the series so far. BACKLASH is not a perfect Star Wars book, but it and the book before it (the aforementioned ABYSS) are in the running for the best Star Wars EU books I have read in a long, long time. You won’t be disappointed.

eBooks: Free Star Wars eBooks from Del Ray!

Hello all. Hope all your Christmases were good, and you aren't too stuffed full of turkey to have a bit of a read. Or maybe being stuffed and only being able to lay down and breathe heavily will lend itself to your reading. Either way, the written word is your bud, your friend, your dark master...

...speaking of dark masters...

Over at Suvudu you can find the first 5 volumes of the Star Wars: Lost Tribe of The Sith eBook series to download completely for free!

I can personally vouch for the current series of Star Wars books as being very good and ups the ante significantly on the previous series. This eBook series is KIND of a companion series.  It takes place 5,000 years before the first Star Wars film (OT) and concerns a sect of Sith that crash land on the planet Kesh and are stranded there. Instead of trying to get offworld though, they instead decide it is better for them to build and grow their ranks, train and master in the force, so that when they finally emerge they can begin a glorious Sith empire. The way it connects to the current books series is that the Fate Of The Jedi books (reviews for the first three books are HERE, HERE, and HERE respectively) finally see that emergence of Sith from Kesh into the galaxy to find it overrun with Jedi instead of Sith.

Anyways, I think it's pretty nice to be able to read these eBooks completely free, and I look forward to reading them myself.