Week XII: The Gothic Revenge of a Jedi

Welcome back Lanzothians!

This week I did a lot more reading than usual. I was dealing with a lingering sickness at the beginning of the week, and took a few days off of work to recover. Whilst recovering, however, I ended up finishing the Count of Monte Cristo, which I’d started back on February 1st. That was my February behemoth classic that I didn’t end up finishing by the end of February. I did read quite a few books last month, and simply just kept putting off reading about the Count. I don’t know what made me do that though, because I was in for quite the treat during the second half of the book. I’m glad I moved my original March behemoth classic, Les Miserables, to June, after school gets out for summer, and swapped it with Bleak House by Charles Dickens. This book is just over 800 pages, about the size of Les Mis. It is a Gothic mystery focusing on a long unresolved court case. I started it a few days ago, and I think it’s good so far, I’m looking forward to getting to the meat of the story.

Now that the public school I work at is on spring break for the next two weeks, I’m going to read more, and maybe try to finish Bleak House by April, so I can begin my April behemoth on time. I’m also going to dedicate more time for writing. I obviously haven’t written much for Mortimer in weeks and I’m kicking myself for that. I’m going to plan to use this time to get back on track and hopefully get into a daily rhythm of writing, even if it’s for 20 or 30 minutes a day. I just need that consistency so that I can finally finish a book in a reasonable and ideal amount of time.

Of Writing

This. This is what I wrote this week.

Of Reading

#30 Star Wars: I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole

Here is the next Star Wars book on the Legends timeline. Reminder: the Legends timeline includes all books pre-Disney, published prior to 2013 – many in the 90s and early 2000s. Between the Legends and Canon (post-2013) timelines, I’ve now read 178 Star Wars books – Adult, YA, Junior, and Children’s. Though there are quite a few that I’ve skipped in the Legends timeline that I now own physical copies of, I will go back and read those over the next few months. Many of the Legends books were released as abridged audiobooks, meaning they cut out most of the text, leaving a skeleton story, so many of the Legends books I’ve read have been fully unabridged audiobooks – without going too far into the timeline, since there are so many that weren’t recorded as unabridged or simply not made as an audiobook altogether.

Because of this, I do feel like some of the stories I have recently skipped, like the Jedi Academy Trilogy which immediately precedes I, Jedi, would have added a bit more depth to the overall storyline. We follow Corrin Horn in a first person POV as he joins the Jedi Academy Luke has started up on Yavin IV to train up enough to save his kidnapped wife, Mirax. In the X-Wing series, Corrin, a Rogue Squadron pilot, discovers he has Jedi heritage and is Force sensitive. While on Yavin IV, he runs into a temple where he discovers a Sith spirit a named Exar Kun who desperately wants Luke dead, and tries to make a deal with Corrin to in order to save his wife. Out of the goodness of his heart, he declines the offer to spare Luke’s life. Later, Corrin decides to leave the academy as he disagrees with how Luke runs it, and goes back home to Corellia to talk to his step-grandfather, Rostek Horn, to learn more about his biological grandfather, Nejaa Halcyon, who was a Jedi.

I did get lost in the story after this as it started to jump around a lot. The trip to Corellia under a fake identity felt a little strange and out of place, but under stable as he wanted to learn about his Jedi heritage, but then he took on a tertiary identity to infiltrate the Invids, an infamous pirate group and participate in raids and learn more about how to rescue Mirax. Once he joins the Invids undercover, I just felt like the story lost its consistency with him training to be a Jedi. Additionally, Mirax was hardly mentioned throughout the entire middle of the book, almost like she was forgotten about while he was on these crazy missions as an Invid pirate.

I was excited to read this, but I feel it came up short. I’m going to rate this a 5.8/10. It seemed to me to have regular inconsistencies, and lacked traditional character development. Before moving forward in the Legends timeline, I’m going to go back and read some titles I haven’t gotten to yet. I’ll read Mandalorian Armor, the first in the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, which takes places directly after The Truce at Bakura, which is right after Return of the Jedi. And because I only own book one of that trilogy so far, I’ll jump ahead to Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, which comes right before the X-Wing series, which I’ve read most of. Then I’ll proceed with X-Wing: Isard’s Revenge (book 8), then The Jedi Academy trilogy, in that order. These are sandwiched between the Heir to the Empire trilogy, which I just finished rereading last week, and this week’s read, I, Jedi. Yes, it’s confusing. Yes, there is a lot of overlap. And yes, I’m following an accurate timeline.

#31 Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Oh, this one was so good! I couldn’t believe I’d never gotten around to reading this vampire classic. Predating Dracula by more than 25 years, Carmilla is s shorter tale and of a female vampire. If you’re unaware, vampire stories tend to include themes of desire and sexual desire between the vampire characters. In Dracula, the desire was between men and women (Dracula and Mina, or Dracula and Lucy), whereas here we have Carmilla and Laura. It’s interesting to note that this desire can shine light on queer inclusion, but at the same time, can be perceived as a “social contagion” and written from a conservative point of view.

The story itself is both creepy and intriguing, with Carmilla coming to the castle after being in an “accident” and her “mother” convincing Laura’s father to care for her for a few months while she’s is away. Carmilla and Laura are close in age and become friends, but unbeknownst to Laura, Carmilla is secretly a vampire. It is assumed that Carmilla bit Laura when she was six and as they seem to share to same memory of the occurrence, but Laura has no idea. There is a spine-chilling scene where Laura is in bed and sees a black mass pacing around her and then turns to see dark figure of a girl standing before her bed. The black mass was Carmilla in cat form, but it’s never explicitly stated. The way that Le Fanu writes the horror into his story makes you want to grip the arms of your chair.

I’m going to rate this book an 8.8/10. I wouldn’t say it’s near the tip top for me, but it is executed well and is properly spooky, and I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a short vampire story.

#32 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The cream of the crop. The greatest revenge story ever told. Dumas, my liege, you’ve out done yourself. I know, I’m more than 180 years late. This is both the longest singular book I’ve ever read, and yet one of the best stories to ever cross my path. I don’t know if I can truly say everything I want to say about The Count of Monte Cristo in this book review. Unlike many books where some side quests feel like unnecessary filler, every page in this 1200 plus page colossal classic is completely and unequivocally necessary to both the revenge plot of Edmond Dantes and his and other’s character developments. If you’re unfamiliar, The Count of Monte Cristo revolves around the life of Dantes and how enacts revenges upon his “enemies”. At the beginning of the story, he is about to wed the love of his life, Mercedes, when he is whisked off to prison – on his wedding night – for an unspecified amount of time. Four men in his inner and outer circle conspire against him due to unrestrained jealousy and supposed political scandal. For nearly the entire time Dantes is in prison he is unaware of why he was put there, and without trial.

14 years later, he escapes with the aide of fellow prisoner and mentor, Abbé Faria, and discovers wealth unmatched by anyone in Europe. I say this for anyone wanting to read it without spoilers. After escaping, he spends more than 10 years intricately developing his revenge plot against Danglars, Fernand, Caderousse, and Villefort. There are so many other characters that are critical to the story, such as Albert de Morcerf, the son of Fernand and Mercedes; Valentine de Villefort, daughter of Gerard de Villefort; Maximillian Morrel, the son of M. Morrel, the former boss of Dantes; Franz d’Epinay, a friend of Albert’s and unwanted fiancé of Valentine; Haydee, Luigi Vampa, Bertuccio, and many others. All of them intricately woven into the tapestry of revenge strung by Dantes. Some of them unwittingly on his side, some of them unfortunate victim’s on Dantes’s path.

The way that that Dumas weaves everything together makes you gape in wonder at the complexity of the story that is so perfectly executed. I could discuss the perfection of this book for hours, but if I did so here, I’d reveal so much and I’d rather you just go and read it for yourself. The was one of the easiest 10/10 ratings I’ve ever given. If you don’t recall, I constructed a new 1-10 ranking system several weeks ago that describes the reasons for each rank. If you’ve read it, earning a 10/10, or even a 9 or 9.5/10 is difficult to do. I only have a few 10/10 books on my list, and this one here made that so effortlessly. I also finished this just in time for the new PBS adaptation of the book, so I look forward to writing a book-to-screen exclusive review for that. I already cannot wait to reread this masterpiece in the future.

#33 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Another spooky classic for the week. This one was exciting but not necessarily transcendent for me. The story revolves around a governess who arrives to teach two young children, Flora (8) and Miles (10). After arriving she sees the figure of man watching her from high up on one of the towers. Then, later, she sees his face staring in at her from a window. Terrifying, really. This is Peter Quint, the former valet of the estate. Later, she sees an apparition on the other side of the lake where she is with Flora, looking at them from across. This is Miss Jessel, the governess’ predecessor. Both are ghosts. Both keep appearing. And both are in contact with the two children. Throughout the story the governess talks to the housekeeper, Ms. Grose, to learn who these people are and why the children are acting strange, and why might they be in contact with the ghosts of the estate’s past.

The story is creepy, and chilling, and doesn’t really smack in you the face until the very last page. The horror of this story is purely psychological, relying on suggestion and implication rather than outright gore. The ambiguity in the story is also intentional. We, as the audience, don’t know for certain whether the ghosts were real or imagined by the governess, since she’s the only one we witness seeing them, and then children constantly deny every seeing the ghosts. There is also some ambiguity regarding possession towards the end of the novella, but I won’t spoil any of that here.

I’m giving this story a 7.8/10. I thought it was very well crafted, and very engaging, but it does not surpass other horror stories I’ve read. I’d still recommend it to others as a classic horror novella, and would never oppose teaching this at the college level, if I ever get the opportunity.

#34 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

A final spookster to end the week. As I read both a decently sized Star Wars book and a third of The Count of Monte Cristo, I treated myself to some short horror novellas throughout the week to give a bit of spark. Can you believe I’d never read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow before? Even my partner was astonished. This was a quick read, but with such a satisfyingly ambiguous ending. Did Ichabod Crane really survive and become a judge on the other side of the country? Was Brom Bones actually the Headless Horseman all along? Who’s to say!

I thoroughly enjoyed this little story and the adrenaline that Irving gives you when Ichabod is being chased down the creek by the Headless Horseman, only for him to throw his (pumpkin) head at him! I would give this story an 8.2/10 out of satisfaction, enjoyment, and thematic presence.

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I’m currently reading several books: The Library: A Fragile History; Star Wars: Outlaws: Low Red Moon; Star Wars: Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon (nearly done); The Prince; The Illustrated Man; 1984; Crown of Midnight; and Bleak House.

If you’d like to read any of my reviews from this year so far, I have them all linked below:

Science Fiction: Saturn’s Monsters; The Time Machine; Starship Troopers; The Martian Chronicles; Project Hail Mary; A Meeting with Medusa

Dystopian: Anthem

Fantasy: Prince Caspian; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (full-cast production); Throne of Glass; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (full-cast production)

Star Wars: The Mask of Fear; X-Wing: Wraith Squadron; X-Wing: Iron Fist; Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter; X-Wing: Solo Command; The Courtship of Princess Leia; Star Wars: Tatooine Ghost; Star Wars: Heir to the Empire; The Jaws of Jakku; Dark Force Rising; The Last Command; I, Jedi