About a day or so ago I finally finished the Star Wars novel series I’ve been reading. The series, Star Wars: Legacy Of The Force, is nine books long and tells the story of Jacen Solo’s fall to the Dark Side.

The books:
- Betrayal
- Bloodlines
- Tempest
- Exile
- Sacrifice
- Inferno
- Fury
- Revelation
- Invincible

The three authors who wrote the series were Aaron Allston, Karen Traviss, and Troy Denning. They alternated books, each getting three books in the saga.

     The series was very well done. The pacing was slow in the beginning, but picked up towards the end when the action got intense. There was big space battle sequences, Jedi vs. Sith duels, political drama, and major character development. I loved it, and I’m glad I took the time to go through all of them. I’m going to start another series soon, but probably one that takes place earlier in the timeline. For now I’m going to read One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey.

May the Force be with you,

Zach

(Based on the book & film Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton)

“If you’re gonna lead people you have to have somewhere to go.”*
There’s so much I’ve learned,
yet so much I still don’t know.
I want to help my brother be his own man.
He aspires to be me,
a man he doesn’t understand.

Our father lives off of welfare and bar tabs.
Our mother lives in California.
My brother can’t live up to my reputation in this town.
I can’t live it down.

I have acute perception.
I’m colorblind.
Sometimes I lose my hearing.
Maybe I’m crazy.
I’m gonna take these fish to the river.
Promise me you’ll leave this town and see the ocean.

*The Motorcycle Boy to his brother Rusty-James

     I loved this book when I was a kid. I discovered it after I read The Outsiders, Tex, and That Was Then This Is Now. S.E. Hinton is one of my favorite authors, and seeing how I don’t have many favorite “true” authors she probably holds the number one spot on that list. I say “true” cause most of my favorite books are graphic novels (not to downplay the talent of comic book writers at all), but she’s the only author of actual novels I ever really followed. I loved all of her books when I was younger and need to get copies of them again.

     But back to Rumble Fish.

     I loved it when I was younger but didn’t really understand the overall message. I just took it as a couple of brothers who liked to fight and were outcast, which is similar to me and my brother without the fighting. Motorcycle Boy and Rusty-James have a broken home family structure, and internal issues they battle daily, and those two conflicts hit home with me. Obviously divorce, single parent homes, and alcoholism are much more apparent today but that’s another point for another time. Now that I’m older I see that Motorcycle Boy just wanted his brother to want a better life for himself. He had given up on gang fights, and booze and wanted his brother to do the same. My brother and myself have never been in gangs, and we don’t drink but I do hope the best for him. I try to be a better example and instill moral values in him. We’re both good at being like each other, I want us to be good at being ourselves. This book and the film based on it mean a lot to me. Matt Dillon and mickey Rourke are so young but still so talented. The film didn’t get good reviews, or make a lot of money, but I like it. You should check it out. It’s on Netflix.

Peace, love, and God bless,

Zach

P.S. And who could forget a young Diane Lane!? She is so beautiful. So stoked I have a pretty red head in my life.