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Overall, I’m really enjoying this. But the occasional hefty doses of misogyny-as-comedy are a bit harder to take.

Chapter Eleven: King of the Apes.
Yeah, so Tarzan fights his way to ape supremacy and begins looting weapons from a nearby village he’s discovered. Too bad Burroughs gives more character depth and humanity to Tarzan’s apes than to the human residents of the jungle.

Part Three: The Wasps’ Nest. Fifteen: Down in the Front Yard.
Everything seems so pleasant and happy. Except we get a huge metaphor for Jack’s mind right here at the front. You think the nest is dead and safe. But there are actually still wasps inside about to get you.

Chapter Four. Rather enjoying this. The comedy plays differently in audiobook form than on a TV show.

Twenty-Three. Pleasant surprise as a TOS character showed up recently.

Chapter Nine: Created Equal.
Thomas Jefferson was a hypocritical asshole.

Twenty-One.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Lightning-Struck Tower.

Eight: Birthday. Chapter Nineteen.
One of the more bizarre passages of this book. The phenomenon of giving birth has become this weird object of religious fanaticism.

The protagonist deftly avoids, and then longs for, matrimony.

Chapter Ten

Chapter Twenty-Three: Horcruxes.

Chapter Nineteen: Elf Tales.

Chapter Sixteen: A Very Frosty Christmas.

So far, not bad. Several disparate characters. And interludes that appear to be one-off vignettes giving backdrop to the changing post-Jedi world, rather than contributing to the main narrative. But I’m enjoying it so far, more than last time I tried to read it.

Chapter Four: The Story of the Bald-Headed Man

Two.
Solid period work with believable characters. And there's an Egyptian character whom Rice does not reduce to stereotypes but rather values as a person of a different culture living in very ethnocentric America. This is the Anne Rice I love.

Chapter Seven.
Agent Starling is reeling from her encounter with Lecter and trying to use the experience constructively.

I rather enjoyed this book. Darth Vader and Palpatine are definitely secondary to other protagonists, which is not quite what I was expecting from the title and cover, but it works. We are able to see how they respond to rebellion (not THE Rebellion yet), and we do get some good insight to their interaction and Vader's inner mentality. I would have liked to see more of them rather than the Twi'leks, but I enjoyed it.

I rather enjoyed this book. Darth Vader and Palpatine are definitely secondary to other protagonists, which is not quite what I was expecting from the title and cover, but it works. We are able to see how they respond to rebellion (not THE Rebellion yet), and we do get some good insight to their interaction and Vader's inner mentality. I would have liked to see more of them rather than the Twi'leks, but I enjoyed it.

One of my problems with Tarkin was that the main plot was exceedingly simple and felt exceedingly padded out. Contrastingly, this plot is also basically simple so far, but only on the surface. The intricacies and multiple engaging character dynamics have made it a rather enjoyable read.

This book is intense. The main players are Darth Vader, Palpatine, and Cham Syndulla. Lots of Force talk from a Dark Side perspective, and focus on the slavery endured on Ryloth.

Chapter Nine: The Half-Blood Prince.
The main hook of this year’s mystery comes along.