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crack_van2009-05-31 03:48 pm
malabud.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2009-05-31 03:48 pm
Entry tags:
Lean On Me by Kenya Starflight (PG-13)
Fandom: STAR WARS OT
Pairing: Gen
Length: 16,000 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Websites: Kenya Starflight's FFN Profile, Me, Myself, & Vader, kenyastarflight at deviantART
Why this must be read:
I've made no secret of the fact that I enjoy good Luke-Vader fics that deal with their relationship as father and son. Kenya Starflight has written several excellent fic in this genre, and this story is no exception.
Set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the fic's premise is that Darth Vader has disappeared. The Alliance, deciding that a missing and possibly independent Vader may be more of threat to them than an loyal-to-the-Empire Vader, sends Han Solo, Chewie, and Luke Skywalker out to discover what happened to him. The short story that follows leads up to Luke discovering his true heritage and the repercussions thereof.
One note on characterization: The Emperor is far smarter in this fic than he is in the Return of the Jedi movie, in my opinion. He spends ten years carefully leading the father down to where he is ready and willing to embrace the Dark Side, but he only spends a few hours with the son on the second Death Star and expects him to fall just like that? In this fic at least, he spends a little more time on the plan and the setup, but I digress.
Well-written and well-characterized, this short fic is a fast and good read. You will definitely enjoy it.
* * *
Legend had it that the last time the sun had managed to break through the cloud cover that eternally enveloped the planet of Jabesh, the indigenous tribes had decided it was the end of the world, panicked, and committed mass suicide, leaving behind an entire nation’s worth of ghost towns.
Whether or not the legend was true, it at least prepared the listener for two of Jabesh’s main features – the seemingly endless overcast days and constant rainstorms, and the spectacular ruins that dotted the planet’s sole continent, overgrown with greenery but still almost entirely intact.
The shuttle Amalthea touched down in a cobbled courtyard that was surrounded on three sides by tangled, feral jungle and on the fourth by a magnificent building that seemed to be a temple of some sort. Jabesh was an archeologist’s haven despite its endless torrents of rain, and regular visitors to this region jokingly referred to the courtyard as “Temple Spaceport.” The courtyard was so frequently used by arriving ships that only a petition from the Galactic Ancient History Preservation Society kept entrepreneurs from installing modern docking equipment and making a quick credit.
But the Amalthea carried no archeologists, and its passengers cared little for ancient history. Theirs was a more pressing mission, with a more tangible goal.
With a hiss the shuttle’s gangplank lowered, and the gleaming steel boots of the Dark Lord strode across the rain-slicked cobblestones, crushing the greenery that had wedged up between them. Close behind came the cautious tread of stormtroopers, their every sense attuned to the jungle and ruins. Rain sloughed down from the iron-colored sky, pouring down black and white armor until the metal shone with a high gloss.
Vader paused to regard the abandoned temple, heedless of the rain even as it dripped from the edges of his domed helmet and soaked into his cloak. Except for a haze of green moss and ivy on the stonework and a toppled column on the left side of the doorway, the building was intact. It wasn’t difficult to puzzle out the forms of the major deities of the vanished natives – lizards, serpents, turtles, and larger and more exotic reptiles were carved into the stone. Images of snakes and lizards wound around the columns and pillars, and twin statues of fierce bipedal reptilians flanked the open doorway. A winged draconian gargoyle crowned the peaked roof of the temple, and even the cracked, vegetation-rimmed cobblestones under Vader’s feet had been carefully crafted to resemble the plates of a turtle’s shell.
He turned and motioned for the troops to close in. Why a fugitive Jedi would choose to conceal himself in the temple of an extinct race of snake-worshipers was beyond his understanding.
Lean On Me
Pairing: Gen
Length: 16,000 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Websites: Kenya Starflight's FFN Profile, Me, Myself, & Vader, kenyastarflight at deviantART
Why this must be read:
I've made no secret of the fact that I enjoy good Luke-Vader fics that deal with their relationship as father and son. Kenya Starflight has written several excellent fic in this genre, and this story is no exception.
Set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the fic's premise is that Darth Vader has disappeared. The Alliance, deciding that a missing and possibly independent Vader may be more of threat to them than an loyal-to-the-Empire Vader, sends Han Solo, Chewie, and Luke Skywalker out to discover what happened to him. The short story that follows leads up to Luke discovering his true heritage and the repercussions thereof.
One note on characterization: The Emperor is far smarter in this fic than he is in the Return of the Jedi movie, in my opinion. He spends ten years carefully leading the father down to where he is ready and willing to embrace the Dark Side, but he only spends a few hours with the son on the second Death Star and expects him to fall just like that? In this fic at least, he spends a little more time on the plan and the setup, but I digress.
Well-written and well-characterized, this short fic is a fast and good read. You will definitely enjoy it.
* * *
Legend had it that the last time the sun had managed to break through the cloud cover that eternally enveloped the planet of Jabesh, the indigenous tribes had decided it was the end of the world, panicked, and committed mass suicide, leaving behind an entire nation’s worth of ghost towns.
Whether or not the legend was true, it at least prepared the listener for two of Jabesh’s main features – the seemingly endless overcast days and constant rainstorms, and the spectacular ruins that dotted the planet’s sole continent, overgrown with greenery but still almost entirely intact.
The shuttle Amalthea touched down in a cobbled courtyard that was surrounded on three sides by tangled, feral jungle and on the fourth by a magnificent building that seemed to be a temple of some sort. Jabesh was an archeologist’s haven despite its endless torrents of rain, and regular visitors to this region jokingly referred to the courtyard as “Temple Spaceport.” The courtyard was so frequently used by arriving ships that only a petition from the Galactic Ancient History Preservation Society kept entrepreneurs from installing modern docking equipment and making a quick credit.
But the Amalthea carried no archeologists, and its passengers cared little for ancient history. Theirs was a more pressing mission, with a more tangible goal.
With a hiss the shuttle’s gangplank lowered, and the gleaming steel boots of the Dark Lord strode across the rain-slicked cobblestones, crushing the greenery that had wedged up between them. Close behind came the cautious tread of stormtroopers, their every sense attuned to the jungle and ruins. Rain sloughed down from the iron-colored sky, pouring down black and white armor until the metal shone with a high gloss.
Vader paused to regard the abandoned temple, heedless of the rain even as it dripped from the edges of his domed helmet and soaked into his cloak. Except for a haze of green moss and ivy on the stonework and a toppled column on the left side of the doorway, the building was intact. It wasn’t difficult to puzzle out the forms of the major deities of the vanished natives – lizards, serpents, turtles, and larger and more exotic reptiles were carved into the stone. Images of snakes and lizards wound around the columns and pillars, and twin statues of fierce bipedal reptilians flanked the open doorway. A winged draconian gargoyle crowned the peaked roof of the temple, and even the cracked, vegetation-rimmed cobblestones under Vader’s feet had been carefully crafted to resemble the plates of a turtle’s shell.
He turned and motioned for the troops to close in. Why a fugitive Jedi would choose to conceal himself in the temple of an extinct race of snake-worshipers was beyond his understanding.
Lean On Me