Star Wars Legacy: Fight Another Day

Legacy #32-33

Some minor changes to how I'm going to be running these articles. First of all I'm taking away the "Updates and Review" from the title, as that is fairly self-explanatory, and instead I'm adding the story arc title. I'll cover the issues arc by arc, grouping two and four parters together and treating one-shots separately and give you the titles of the issues.

I'll start with some updates.

Sith Updates

Vul Isen

Species: Givin
Sex: Male
Homeworld: Korriban
Position: Scientist
First Appearance: Legacy #32 (Fight Another Day, part 1)






Vul Isen is a fully fledged force-using member of the One Sith order under Darth Krayt. His talents, however, are not in combat or powerful force use, but in Science. He combined his knowledge of science with his use of the force to create new techniques and tools to serve the order. He had good relations with Darth Wyyrlok, and under his guidance created a water variation of a Sith Leviathan to destroy the Mon Calamari. He also had experimented with toxins and bio-weapons, but none were suitable for the task. Interestingly his field meant that he did not earn a "Darth" title and instead of the usual black gear he wore a standard Imperial military uniform in his work.

Plot

This issue returns to the planet Dac, where the Mon Calamari race have been enslaved and are being exterminated by the Sith forces on the planet. An Imperial underwater assault team find a colony of hiding Mon Calamri and begin to hunt them. But the Imperials are counter-attacked by the Mon Calamari ranger, a secret fighting force using their own weapons and ships. They drive off the Imperials with the aid of Treis Sinde, the Imperial Knight, who stayed behind to help the resistance.

Darth Azard meets up with Vul Isen and together they summon and command the Sea Leviathan and test it's power on a group of Mon Calamari captives. They then send it off in hunt of the resistance. A scout group encounters the monster and reports back to Treis and they formulate a plan.

The Leviathan tracks the rangers and a group of refugees to a crevasse and begins to attack them. But Treis uses the force to summon a number of Devilsquid, a monstrous native Mon Calamari beast, to attack the Leviathan and drag it down into the depths. They disable the Sith's underwater craft and escape to fight another day.

Another great story from the Legacy team, I want to do a few more posts covering the characters and setting of Legacy, but I've a few other things I want to catch up on too. Hope you enjoyed this.

SF Masterworks # 20 - A Scanner Darkly

I'm trying to catch up on some lost blogging, following up on posts I haven't done for a while in case they get lost, so I'll start off with a book review from the masterworks series, of which I have read a scant few, mostly by Philip K Dick - here is another.

















One of the most bewildering of PKD's already bewildering collection of novels, and yet one of the most powerful. This one doesn't reach as far into the future as most of his novels, there are none of the usual precogs, martian colonies and androids that are the author's hallmarks. Rather we only jump a few fictional years ahead to a future where Substance D, a narcotic in a league above all current ones available.

As last time - I'll post up a more concise summary than I'm able to conjure from a summary of the series at SFSite.com

"It follows the story of Officer Fred, an undercover narcotics agent who is so deeply undercover that even his superiors don't know his street identity, Bob Arctor. Consequently, Fred is given the task of monitoring Bob.

The problem is, Fred/Bob isn't sure which side he is on anymore, since he more than half believes in the drug culture lifestyle he has been living. Furthermore, he is so messed up on a dangerous psychotropic hallucinogen called Substance D, that he is losing touch with... well, everything. The literal scanner of the title (seeing "through a scanner darkly") is a holographic scanner set up in Bob's house. When Fred watches the replay of the scanner tapes, he is soon unable to figure out what Bob is up to, having forgotten he is monitoring himself."

This book has the most impact as it relates most closely to the author's life and the impact of drug abuse on him and his friends. It ends with a moving piece from the author detailing how they were like kids playing in the road, and no one told them about the danger, following this is a list of many of his friends from that time who are sick, in institutions or lost along the way.

Not always the most exciting read, but certainly one of the most moving.

SF at the Movies - May/June/July 09 + Word out to my people

Well it's been a long time since I've posted here and an apology again to all r4eaders who expect to actually see something here on a regular basis. Things are starting to return to normal and with the holiday season approaching I anticipate more time to dedicate to the blog. You'll know about these already, but I like to keep up traditions and so here are the contents of my latest 'at the movies' post.

Star Trek

Released 08/05/09












A movie taking us back to the lives of Kirk, Spock and the original cast brought back to life by a new cast and a new director. J.J. Abrams seems to want to put his stamp on everything and Star Trek is the latest brand to succumb. The movie was bold and daring and made good use of the character's quirks without pandering to the typical self-referential dialogue these types of films go for. The plot was exciting and dramatic, and the enemy was intense. The whole 'enemy from the future' angle was very fitting to the genre, but I did find the whole alternate timeline it throws up a little bewildering from a fan perspective - still very enjoyable though.

Terminator Salvation

Released 21/5/09












The latest addition to the famous franchise took us right into the scenario only glimpsed in the previous movies - the war between humans and Skynet. The setting and the casting were very well done, you got a real sense of the impact of the war on the survivors and a glimpse into more groups than just the resistance. John Connor was well placed as an enigmatic soldier, but not yet the leader figure he would become. The inclusion of Marcus Wright, a terminator who thinks he's human, and the reintroduction of Arnie via CG made this film a non-stop action thriller well worth seeing, and a worthy follower of the Terminator saga.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Released 24/06/09












Not necessarily the best of the movies out, but certainly one of the most enjoyable. The movie starts with a force of Autobots, allied with the U.S. Military taking out Decepticons hidden on Earth. We see Sam, the hero of the first movie, heading to Uni, but as he goes he finds a piece of the allspark, which burns information into his mind and attracts the attention of a powerful figure - The Fallen who sets a plan and raises a Decepticon army and resurrects Megatron to fight the Autobots to get his hands on a power source that will make him invincible...and destroy humanity. Very, very entertaining.

OK - enough of that, I've a feeling I missed something, let me know if that's the case. Lastly I'd like to put the word out for some of my readers who are following the blog on Facebook and on here. Most are personal friends of mine but it's been good to know that other people read this blog so I'd like to thank:

Cleo and Clayton - who have been following the blog for a while now

Chrissy for commenting and for reading - you can read her excellent blog, chronicling her TV-watching adventures HERE

Jayson for being my first follower on Blogger - read the best and latest Sci-Fi news at Nerdvana

And...erm...Hockey HotChicks, I'd like to thank er...them too!