A Real Burning issue – One year After Black Tuesday.

On Monday the 10th of January 2005, I was going through North Shields when I saw smoke in the sky a long way off, and thinking ‘I wonder where that is’, and also that I probably end up hearing were it was a few days after the Fire was put out. Probably just some grass fire somewhere.

On Wednesday the 12th, I was going through North Shields again, but everything had changed.

The Black Tuesday Fires affected everyone in the area, while my parent’s were some of the lucky one’s however, all they lost was a stubble paddock, and the fence’s around three sides of said paddock. But that luck was only because of the fire breaks a neighbour put around his place and a small fire fighter tank my father bought a month earlier.

Everyone in the area knew of someone that was affected by the Fire’s, I even knew in passing one of the people who died – and there’s no real way to describe what you feel after something like that, However after the fire’s I wrote a small line at the bottom of my Fan Fiction profile - it’s not there anymore - but it sums what happened afterwards:

A Fire may burn and destroy – But we will always rise and rebuild from the ashes.

A Dark Lord’s, Dark Warning of a Swarm War’s Ultimate guide.

Well if the Title didn’t give anything away – I’ve got four Star War’s Book reviews.

(The Garfield was a Chrismas gift)

Dark Lord – The Rise of Darth Vader.
James Luceno

Okay I will tell the truth, I am not really a DV fan (I like Anakin Skywalker more than his alter ego), as much as GL say’s that Star Wars is his story (the movie’s anyway ;) ).

In Dark Lord you get a look into Vader’s spilt personality – and the Fact that he’s really lost everything. You also get a look into the life’s of the normal people and some of the Jedi that escaped Order 66.

By far the most interesting things in the book are Bail’s and Obi-Wan reaction’s to Darth Vader and what that mean’s for Luke and Leia (Actually Leia has the most screen time of the two – just being a Baby of course ;) ).

Dark Lord is one of those books that really aim’s at the people that like Vader, and if you like him (and sith in general) this book is a must read and even if you not so keen on Vader, it’s worth checking out.

5/10. It’s a so, so book (I read it out of interest more than the need to). It’s a more of a set the trend for the next books, than a conclusion.


Last of the Jedi #2 Dark Warning.
Jude Watson

Dark Warning is another set up book for what’s to come, and I don’t know if Ferus is going to pull off the role of the role of main character for the rest of the series. However there could be a meeting between Ferus and Vader in the Future, and that should be interesting.

Obi-Wan in a way needed the role in Mission and Warning, to show that he has recovered from the loss of Anakin, the Jedi and Padmé, and is ready to get onto his main mission – the protection Luke Skywalker.

It’s worth reading 6/10


Dark Nest III – The Swarm War.
Troy Denning

Well besides the shock of actually getting a book early for once, Swarm War was a good read.

Luke finally put his foot down on the Jedi and basically told them: If your loyalty is to the order, then it was time to start putting the order first and foremost, if you can’t, there’s the door.

The message didn’t get through to Tesar, Tahiri and Lowbacca – and that’s proved by the fact that they failed to realize that the heads of the colony had to be removed to actually save the Killik’s. It got the Three of them sent on a Dagobah vacation – Tesar and Lowbacca for going behind Luke’s back, and Tahiri for being stupid enough to defend them (sorry, but she should have known that defending them was a bad idea), and then also trying to get out trouble by putting Jacen into the hot water, to no success (it only ticked off Luke all the more).

Jacen’s living in a house of card’s held up only by the secret of his daughter – Allana (that makes two things that I was right about for this series – that the baby was going to be a girl and that the name was going to start with the letter ‘A’) - which led to an interesting scene, of Han, Leia, Luke and Mara trying to work out what the big secret was.

While Swarm War was a good read, the ending fell a bit flat from the fact that there were too many unanswered question’s, while a lot of them will most likely be answered in Legacy, it would have been nice if it had a more rounded of a ending, like in Joiner King.

7/10 for Swarm War, and 7/10 for the whole Dark Nest series.


The Ultimate Visual Guide
Ryder Windham

Well I would say this book is a good beginners book for the people just getting into Star Wars, it gives you the bee’s knees of the whole Star War’s story from the Great Sith War to Star By Star.

Also it take’s you behind the scenes, so it’s a petty good book.

Only problem I had with this book is the fact that did miss out on some of the most obvious plot point’s, that shouldn’t have been missed eg. No mention Ben Skywalker, or the Jedi Knight games.

7/10 the are better books for it’s type, but it is great for Beginners.