Hello everybody, Zak's back once again with a triple book review this time. I'm going to be reviewing 2001: A Space Odyssey, X-Wing: Rogue Squadron, and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.

First up is 2001. This is the first time I've reviewed a non-Star Wars book on this site, but I figured since I was already doing a double, I might as well make it triple.

I had never seen the movie before I read the novel, so luckily I had no prior knowledge of what was going on. The first half of the book, aside from the primates, didn't seem anything like what people said the movie was about, but it was good, and kept me rollling through. The rest of the novel, while a bit odd, was probably the best I've ever read in the Non-Star Wars Sci-Fi genre. Then, I saw the movie, which I understood after having read the book, but the others watching with me didn't, even though they had seen it twice before. If any of you haven't seen the movie, but plan to, I reccomend you read the book first.

I know I say this on every book review, but Rogue Squadron has become one of my four favorite Star Wars books, along with Outbound Flight, The New Rebellion, and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. I guess the reason I liked it is the way it built up the characters, having previous rivalries and prejudices, and after Lujayne dies, they become a single, working entity, aside from distractions from Corran and Jace's ego. Corran's romance with both Erisi and Mirax was a bit confusing, and I was hoping he would choose Erisi in the end, but oh well. This book reminds me of the 06 movie Flyboys, and some of the connections are actually listed on the blog entry I made about the movie. Look through the archives and you should find it.

The thing I liked most about Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter was the way that Michael Reaves switched from character to character. From Darsha's perspective, it made the reader feel sad about Master Bondara's death, then confused about her feelings for Lorn. From Lorn's perspective, you begin to dislike the Jedi in the same way that Outbound Flight makes you hate them, and he had a rogueish, hopeless personality that you can't not love in a book. Also, his relationship with I-Five was excellently displayed. He is one of the few characters that have died that I was sad about even after finishing the book. From Maul's point of view, I half wanted him to kill Lorn, because of the other books I've read from his perspective, but I still wanted Lorn to survive. Maul cheated on the last page.