[CaptainCrunch]

I've gone on a streak of re-reading the Star Wars books from the Clone Wars period. Some could be considered Canon some not.

In terms of a quick jolt look at the books.

Darth Plagueis - Covers the period of 70 years before the Clone Wars to the end of TPM. James Lucerno just gets Star Wars, and we get to see Plagueis from his ascension to Dark Lord of the Sith to his recruitment of Palpatine and the rise of the future Emperor, right to the point where Palpatine murders Plageuis in his sleep. Just a really well done book that helps to understand why the Sith beat the Jedi.

Republic Commando Series by Karen Traviss. 5 books that follow a squad of Republic Commandos and their Mandalorian trainer. Its not bad, though Karen is a bit toooo interested in the whole Mandalorian thing. But this book goes from the battle of Genosis right to the events post ROTS with the Commando's joining Vader's 501st. There's a lot of intrigue as the Clones become less like combat droids and more like people and there's a quest to get around their limited mortality.

Labyrinth of Evil - James Lucerno - Just a great book and could be considered to be Canon just because of the events in there. This book follows the hunt for Darth Sidious by Kenobi and Skywalker and Mace. They get so close that Sidious triggers the invasion of Coruscant to get him off world. We get some great background into Grievous and Dooku. The description of the Jedi trying to save Palpatine from Grievous is exceptional, especially since we know that Sidious is Grievous. Lucerno really writes Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin well.

ROTS novel - Love this book as its the way the movie should have been if it had been an hour longer or split into two movies ala Harry Potter. We get a lot of This is what its like to be segments that go into the psyche of the main characters. The one around Vader at the end was heart breaking. We saw how quickly the darkside destroyed the good man that was Anakin Skywalker when he justifies the slaughter of the Clones and when he loses his temper with Padme. The dialogue that I talked about with Vader was incredibly good, especially when he fights Kenobi and tries to get him to flee and go meditate for the rest of his life out of his former friendship. Yoda is really well portrayed too, especially in the fight scene against Sidious when he realizes that the Jedi had lost this war thousands of years ago.

Dark Lord the Rise of Darth Vader Lucerno again- I gush about this book a lot because if you're a Vader fan its an exceptional book and we see that Vader wasn't Vader for a long time as he recovered from his injuries. We also get a lot of Palpatine and see how incredibly powerful he is, not because of the Force, but because of his mind set.

Keobi by John Jackson Miller - The first year for Kenobi on Tattooine, very similar story as we see a PTSD riddled Ben Kenobi, but instead of an interstellar adventure, we see Ben taking on corruption on Tattooine and he runs into conflict with the Sand People. Not quite as strong as the books above, but still a good story.

Death Star - Michael Reeves - If you want to dive deeper into the construction of the Death Star to its destruction its a pretty good book where you see a lot of background characters. Before the Death Star explodes you hear a voice of the gunner saying "Stand by" over and over again. You do get the background story of the chief gunner of the Death Star and why it happened. It the Solo being chased by the Storm Trooper scenes. You learn why the Blast Doors close. You get a lot of Tarkin here and a pretty evil Vader as well. You also find out that Alderaan wasn't the first planet blasted to chunks. Not a bad book, a little dry in places. And they made the Death Star at times a little too luxurious. One of the main characters is a bar owner. But an interesting story is there.