Star Wars Chronology: Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 2: Funeral for a Dark Lord!

Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith, #2 (November, 1996)

Buy Tales of the Jedi, Vol. 1

5,000 BBY

*Editor’s Note: Okay, so as this issue starts, Marka Ragnos, Dark Lord of the Sith, has died.  In his honor, the Sith have turned out for a huge funeral procession.  During said procession, two of the other Sith Lords start arguing about which of them is going to take Ragnos’ place as supreme Dark Lord.  This would be Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh.

*Naga Sadow: to be played by Ralph Fiennes.

*Editor’s Note: Yes, the name of one of the Sith Lords is Ludo Kressh.  I’m just going to let that stand. 

*First Blue Glowing Spectre Alert!

*Uh, okay, so the dead Sith Lord appears to his feuding students and tells them . . . NOTHING! The scene ends with each of them saying that the cryptic remarks the Sith Lord spewed obviously mean that they are right and the others are wrong. How did this help exactly? And why did they even stop fighting?

*Editor’s Note: At this point, I really have to bring up the art, which is just fantastic.  I’m no fan of the story stuff here, but this is some amazing art.  The Valley of the Dark Lords, where the funeral is being held, is just breathtaking.  It’s given a full two page spread and I think I could look at it for like half an hour without getting tired of it.  And keep seeing new details too probably.  It’s just a gorgeous, strange piece of artwork. 

*None of the other characters are that great, but Naga Sadow is an interesting villain. He's a slightly more liberal Sith than the others and he's pushing for expansion. The debates are nicely rendered and are probably the best scenes in the book.

*I don't particularly like the designs of the Sith. They're too obviously Satanic in appearance, if you ask me.

*Editor’s Note: So, just when we most expect it, Gav and Jori arrive.  They’re strangely optimistic upon confronting a race of beings that has all the accoutrements of the devil except the pitchfork. 

Kevin J. Anderson, Dario Carrasco, Jr., Mark G. Heike, Bill Black, David Jacob Beckett

* out of **** stars.

*Next time, we’ll hit the next issue of this series and the plot will (finally) really kick in.   

Star Wars Chronology!

Podcasts: 12 Byzantine Rulers!

12 Byzantine Rulers: A History of the Byzantine Empire

Studio: Lars Brownworth

Category: History

 What It Is

Lars Brownworth is a historian who’s written several books, including one called Lost to the West that focuses on the Byzantine Empire, which, according to Brownworth has been overlooked in historical scholarship and is basically one big patch of ignorance for the average person.  In this podcast, Brownworth picks twelve of the Byzantine Emperors and discusses one to an episode (except for a couple that stretch out over multiple episodes).  In this manner, over eighteen episodes (plus a nineteenth episode/teaser for another series he’s done called Norman Centuries), he takes us through the fascinating history of the Byzantine Empire. 

Technical Details

Episodes run between fifteen and thirty minutes.  The podcast is decidedly no frills; the entire thing is simply narrated straight up, in the form of a lecture.  No sound effects, no music, no dramatics, not even an opening theme.  The podcast is complete, nineteen episodes in length. 

What About It

Yeah, you need to download this and listen to it.  Brownworth is an engaging lecturer, with an accessible, warm style.  He captures both the human characteristics of the people he’s talking about and the interesting historical events of the period.  The podcasts aren’t exactly short sometimes, but in each episode, the end surprised me; it never seemed like I’d been listening to it long enough for it to be over.  At the end of a few painless hours of listening to a guy tell interesting stories, you’ll be more knowledgeable about a significant period of history than probably anyone you know.  That would be a win. 

Essential If

You’re interested in history at all.

Avoid like the Plague If

This happens to be your specialty.  More than likely, you’ll find Brownworth’s style frustrating since he’s moving at a rapid pace and therefore not going into detail.  You’ll probably just get angry over all the stuff he’s leaving out.  God, we all know how history majors are *cough*Zaz*cough*. 

Best Entry Point

Here’s an easy one.  Download episode one, Introduction.  Then . . . well, you know how to count. 

Next time, it’s an award winning podcast that I didn’t care for at all.  It’s defunct and, in my opinion, deservedly so.