i’ve never played a pencil and paper roleplaying game (RPG)—just ones for Xbox. in 4th or 5th grade, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) became popular among my guy friends and i wanted to play, too. unfortunately, it involved too much math, in my opinion, so that was the end of RPGs for me.

that was like, 28 years ago. since then, Wizards of the Coast, the same company that produces D&D, developed the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. i never made efforts to look for people who play this, and i’m still intimidated by the math (what can i say? i can’t add as quickly in my head as most people and i have to count on my fingers). however, Brian recently came across someone looking to start a Star Wars RPG group, so we signed up. i don’t think Brian’s as interested as i am, but he says he’ll give it a shot.

anyway, this book explains the rules and how to create your character and stuff. we missed the first meeting, which was this past Saturday because Brian’s folks were visiting, but the guy said that they’d mainly just be creating their characters. well, i am VERY excited about this.

i’ve already decided that my character, a purple-skinned Twi’lek named Zyluur Sorena, is going to be some type of space cowgirl. her ex-boyfriend was a total spice addict who owed his dealer credits. he didn’t have the money, so he sold Zyluur into slavery to a slimy Hutt. this was a few years back. anyway, she managed to escape from the slimy Hutt’s palace, but by the time she made it back to her homeworld, the slimy Hutt had his henchmen kill her entire family. now she…um…well, i don’t know yet. :P

Brian and i started watching this Friday night, but i couldn’t remember a lot of the character backgrounds and events from Ocean’s 11 (because of the ECT), so we watched that instead as a refresher. it gets better every time.

so late last night, we put this one on, which isn’t as good. it didn’t have as many great lines, you know, lines that make you laugh out loud. it seemed harder to follow, too. i wouldn’t say it was totally horrible and it had its moments, but i was definitely disappointed.

this is the third volume in the What’s Michael? manga series. Brian also brought this to the hospital for me, and like the previous one i read, it cheered me up.

the only other book by Dostoyevsky that i’ve read is Crime and Punishment, which is one of my favorites. the problem i’ve been having with this version of The Brothers Karamazov is the translation. i can’t remember who translated my copy of C&P, and since we just moved recently, i have no idea where Brian packed it. i tried looking it up here, on Amazon, and on the Borders web site, but couldn’t find it. or if it is listed on any of those sites, there’s no image of the book cover.

once i dig it up, i’ll pick up a copy of BK by the same translator of the C&P that i own. one of my nurses (i was just released from the hospital today) recommended the one published by Penguin Classics.

Brian brought a few of these to the hospital for me to read, and they helped battle the depression—actually made me laugh out loud a few times, so that was cool.

here are stories written and drawn by the artists who worked on Episode III, and are also related to Star Wars. you kind of have to see this to believe it. it’s reallly cool.

since i’m going through ECT myself i thought it would be good to read books written by people who have also had ECT. wrong. Martha Manning is a psychologist herself, so i thought she’d have some really good insight into her experience. nope.

the book is in diary form, but the thing about it is the whole thing is written in present tense! very annoying.

although this is a kids’ book, it’s pretty good. Jude Watson also wrote the Jedi Apprentice (that had young Obi-Wan) and Jedi Quest (with young Anakin) series. this is the 4th book in this series and takes place after Episode III. Ferus Olin, who’s an adult character and was a Jedi with Anakin during JQ, ended up leaving the order. now that there aren’t any Jedi left, he’s using what Jedi abilities he still has to try and help people.

i forgot to add that Allston describes Zekk as “slightly younger than Jaina” (p. 28), when in actuality, i believe he’s 2 years older than the Solo twins. i swear i read this in an earlier novel, but i can’t remember which one. and of course, most of my books are packed now, for the move.

Betrayal is the first of a 9-book series called Legacy of the Force. the rest of the volumes will be published between August 2006 through 2008.

i would have liked this a lot better if there wasn’t too much going on. although the central figure is Jacen Solo, all of the other events surrounding his particular path are also important. thus, the story and by extension, the readers, end up planet hopping all over the galaxy. in fact, that’s how Allston divides up subsections of each chapter—by where they take place. for example, the first chapter starts with something happening on Coruscant, then there’s a transition to something taking place on Adumar, etc. it’s easy to get lost.

although there are numerous subplots-all of which are very good-i wanted to be able to read more about the characters in those parts of the story. since the next book will be written by a different author, i hope we’ll still get to see some of these “minor” characters because they’re so interesting.

it isn’t necessary to have read every single book/comic that takes place between Episode VI and Betrayal, but i highly recommend that people read The Corellian Trilogy first, which includes Ambush at Corellia, Assault on Selonia, and Showdown at Centerpoint.