Archive for the ‘The Unifying Force’ Category

Wayne is back!  And we dive into the force in today’s discussion.  The force, or at least our understanding of the force, seems to be being changed everywhere you look these days across the Star Wars timeline.  With Darth Bane, The Lost Tribe of the Sith, The Unifying Force, Episode I: The Phantom Mennance, The Dark Nest Trilogy, Fate of the Jedi, everywhere Qui-Gon pops up, and of course, the latest Mortis Trilogy in The Clone Wars: The Animated Series, it seems the force cannot be or is not the simple matra taught to us as children on Degabah along side Luke.  One of us are really happy about that and one of us…not so much.  Listen to find out who.

Wayne also takes revenge for me poking a little fun at the Canadian Jr National Hockey team blowing a 3 goal lead in the 3 period by commenting on my Alma Matar’s basketball game against Wisconsin.

As always we have fun, chase rabbits, but somewhere in between, we have some good discussion on the nature of the force and our thoughts on being in a time where the force is being defined or redefined depending on your view.

Thanks for listening, Jesse

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This is a spoiler conscious review of Dark Nest III: The Swarm War by Troy Denning

Books and Series Mentioned

Dark Nest III: The Swarm War

The Dark Nest Trilogy

The New Jedi Order

I just completed the Dark Nest Trilogy, and there was no reason for me to like this trilogy.  There were so many plot points and events that I do not like.  Strike one, I am not big into bugs.  I do not like them in my house, and I do not like them in my stories.  Strike two, as has been well documented on the site, I am not a fan of the unifying force.  There was one scene in Dark Nest One: The Joiner King where Luke drew upon his anger and fear to cloak their ship that turned my stomach.  Strike three, I am not a fan of a hive mind.  That idea has just seemed overdone to me in the Sci-Fi universe.  I did not think that Star Wars needed to go there.  Strike four, there was its total ignoring of Jacen’s sojourn through the universe studying the force that Jacen tells Luke he will do in The Unifying Force.  I was so intrigued by Jacen telling Luke about this plan in The Unifying Force, that was the one thing I was excited to learn about in this series, and it basically ignores it with just a few offhanded mentions.  Strike five, the Jedi council, which seemed finally settled after The New Jedi Order was not so settled and we had to read through another Chief of State vs. Jedi debate.  Strike six, and the most egregious, is Luke on the cover of Dark Next III: The Swarm War shooting Sith lightning!  Let me tell you I still throw up a little in my mouth seeing that.  How many strikes do you get before you’re out?  Through the grape vine I heard about these issues and could see the cover of Dark Nest III: The Swarm War that I did not think that I would ever read it.  I was not interested at all. 

In fact I was so not interested that it took my love for reading on a Kindle to get me to read it.  I have read every other Kindle Star Wars book, and since I live in small town USA, I had to either drive 45 minutes to the nearest book store, or read The Dark Nest Trilogy, and my laziness won out, and I Kindled The Dark Nest Trilogy, and let me tell, no other book, movie or any other form of entertainment has won me over like this trilogy.  There are so many reasons for me to hate this trilogy, but I didn’t…if fact I rank it as one of the best trilogies I have read. 

You may be thinking that my expectations were so low that I could not help, but be impressed by this trilogy, but that is not the case.  This was not about my expectations.  I flat do not like, bugs, hive mind, the unifying force…these are things that bother me, so for me to like things that I do not like, is an incredible writing feat by Mr. Troy Denning, so let’s get to all the things I loved about the final installment of this thrilling trilogy. 

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I am so fired up for today’s episode.  Big Honkin’ Steve from www.geekoutonline.com and www.geekoutpodcast.com is with us for the second part of our discussion on the unifying force…now, we are discussing the idea of the unifying force, not to be confused with the novel The Unifying Force although it is in that novel that Luke puts forth the idea of the unifying force.

For your information, we are both passionately against the concept of the unifying force, and our discusion definitely displays our passion.

Part One of this discusion can be found here.  Listen to it, and all other of Big Honkin’ Steve’s podcast they are gold.

Thanks for listening to us, and for exploring the galaxy with my one page at a time.

Thanks, Jesse

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In an upcoming episode of Star Wars Book Report: The Podcast, I will be participating in a podcast crossover spectacular with Steve Glosson from www.geekoutonline.com, and his podcast Geek Out Loud at www.geekoutpodcast.com.  Steve and I are good friends who love to debate Star Wars, wrestling, and many other geektacular topics.  In our crossover spectacular, part one will be on Geek Out Loud, and part two will be here at Star Wars Book Report.  The impetus for this crossover spectacular was a phone discussion we had on the idea of The Unifying Force as put forth by Luke at the end of the novel with the same name, and this concept of the unifying force goes through to at least The Dark Nest Trilogy and comes up in Legacy of the Force and the Fate of the Force.  This conversation was a blast, and as soon as it is edited, we will give to you.

There was one aspect of the unifying force that Steve and I do not cover in our discussion, and I wanted to address it here. 

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