Book Review: Poirot Investigates (1924) by Agatha Christie

Posted on 13 May 2024 by Great Books Guy

“Appearances are deceptive, they say…” (22).

As the third official book in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot series, Poirot Investigates offers a charming, concise collection of short stories showcasing Poirot’s unrequited “grey cells” and his unparalleled “method” of sleuthing. In total, there are fourteen short stories in this collection, many of them feature tales of mysterious disappearances, jewelry heists, murders, stolen inheritances, ghostly superstitions, and even the kidnapping of the Prime Minister of England. The indomitable Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard makes a few cameos in these stories alongside Poirot, and throughout them all, Captain Hastings comes across as his usual slightly stultified self with a tone of exasperation and resentment toward Poirot. Whenever he attempts to “help” solve a case without Poirot’s presence, he seems to only unwittingly ruin the case or cause further mayhem. As a somewhat frivolous comedic relief character (and also ironically the narrator of the stories), Hastings frequently comments on his old-fashioned social and political views, and often expresses a subtle degree of mild contempt for Poirot’s brilliance. In addition to Hastings, there are a few other familiar faces in the Poirot universe who have cameos in these tales, such as Mary Cavendish who was featured prominently in The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Generally speaking, I would submit that these short stories are not canonically vital to the casual Poirot reader. While they offer a string of charming, intriguing, mostly low-stakes mysteries, Poirot Investigates simply doesn’t carry the same gravitas as Christie’s longer works, like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) or Murder on the Orient Express (1934). With that being said, Poirot Investigates comes highly recommended. Interestingly enough, three of these short stories first appeared in the American publication of this book (“The Chocolate Box,” “The Veiled Box,” and “The Lost Mine”), they weren’t published together in the UK until Poirot’s Early Cases was published in 1974.

As one final introductory note, Poirot Investigates continues to examine the character of Poirot as an investigator who also has a deep sense of propriety. In one case, he decides against revealing a woman’s indiscretions to her family, and in another he freely decides to break-into a house under false pretenses and ransack the place in order to solve a mystery. While Poirot represents a mix of a Socratic inquirer and Enlightenment rationalist, he is also deeply in touch with common sense and moral awareness in each situation. He seems to see a hidden world of “cause and effect” in these case, one that is entirely foreign to a man like Hastings.

I’d say my favorite short stories in this collection include “The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb,” a spooky tale and fascinating examination of superstition as well as the extent to which Poirot considers himself to be a superstitious man; “The Kidnapped Prime Minister” for its high-stakes international mystery concerning the disappearance of the Prime Minister of England; and other stories like “The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim” and “The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan.”

#1 The Adventure of the “Western Star”

Popular actress Miss Mary Marvell arrives at Poirot’s flat to speak with Poirot and Hastings about a trio of ominous threatening letters she has received from a “Chinaman” seemingly about her prized jewel “The Western Star,” purchased from a Chinese man in San Francisco. She has been referred to Poirot by one Lord Cronshow after Poirot solved mystery of his nephew’s death. She is married to film actor Gregory B. Rolf, and while typically keeping the jewel in a safe at their hotel, The Magnificent, but tonight they plan to take it to Yardly Chase where she plans to film a feudal piece with Lord and Lady Yardly. The Yardlys have another Chinese stone known as “The Star of the East.” According to legend, when the Stars if the East and West meet again, they shall return un triumph to the god.

Next, Poirot departs and Lady Yardly visits the flat (sent by Mary Cavendish, the wife of John Cavendish who appears in Agatha Christie’s earlier Poirot novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles) but Hastings believes he can serve her inquiry without the presence Poirot –“I, too, possess the deductive sense in a marked degree” (12). He unwisely reveals all the details from the conversation with Mary Marvell from that morning. Later at Yardly Chase, as Lady Yardly leaves to get dressed, all the lights go out and suddenly a scream is heard as the group finds Lady senseless on the floor with a crimson mark on her throat and the prized necklace wrenched away. The necklace was dropped and the “Star of the East” diamond is missing as Lady Yardly believes she saw an embroidered robe and pigtail believes it to be a “Chinaman.” The next day, Mary’s jewel is stolen from her hotel room, as well.

What happened here? Agatha Christie brilliantly weaves this tale together with elements of suspicion as well as mysterious supernatural elements (like visiting the Yardly Chase estate on the next full moon), however it is also a quintessential example of a story filled with “Orientalist” prejudice.

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot rather easily solves this little caper, no thanks to Hastings who is apparently in a “fog.”As it turns out, three years ago Rolf had an affair with Lady Yardly in the United States and blackmailed her into giving him the prized diamond so that he might pass it along to his wife as a wedding gift. Now, Lady Yardly’s husband, who is in debt, has been wanting to sell the diamond, thus Lady Yardly has been demanding it back from Rolf. And so, it was Rolf who concocted this elaborate scheme about two diamonds of the “East” and “West” in order to secretly return the diamond to Lady Yardly. He also painted grease at the corner of his eyes to appear to be more Chinese (in an unfortunate flirtation with racism). Of course, the ever-clumsy Hastings played a role in this plot when he accidentally revealed some of the truth to her. Once again with Poirot we learn that method is key –Hastings simply does not understand the art of secrecy, the need for esotericism. Hastings ends the story “fed up” because Poirot has “gone too far this time.”

#2 The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor

Poirot has been called away to investigate a case for the Northern Union Insurance Company –Mr. Maltavers was found dead “slightly past the prime of life” at his Essex estate Marsdon Manor, but he bought a fifty-thousand-pound life insurance policy a few weeks ago. There was a suicide clause in the policy: that if he killed himself within a year the premiums for his young wife would be forfeited. Poirot’s old friend Alfred Wright has summoned him to investigate.

They question Dr. Bernard who is eager to be rid of them. Reportedly, Mr. Maltravers died of an internal hemorrhage. Then a mysterious man named Captain Black arrives and Poirot begins to have his suspicions.

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot discovers that it was actually a bullet that caused Mr. Maltravers internal hemorrhage, however he is not convinced it was a suicide. Poirot stages a ruse based on the popular ghost stories about Marsdon Manor wherein a friend dresses up like the late Mr. Matravers and enters the house in the dark while pointing a finger at his wife. In terror, his wife admits to killing her husband. She compelled her husband to acquire a life insurance policy and then while out hunting with a rifle, she playfully convinced him to place the gun in his mouth himself and then pulled the trigger.

#3 The Adventure of the Cheap Flat

Hastings was spending the evening with an old friend, Gerald Parker, when conversation turned to flats –in particular a deal on a flat in “Montagu Mansions” in Knightsbridge rented by Mrs. Stella Robinson and her husband. Why were they able to rent such a cheap flat? Is it haunted as the rumors suggest? Or is something wrong with the flat? Hastings attempts to solve the mysterious situation –“I rather wished Poirot had been there. Sometimes I have the feeling that he rather underestimates my capabilities” (48).

But when he brings the story to Poirot the following morning, Poirot decides to take up the case since he suspects something nefarious…

Spoilers Ahead

From Inspector Japp, Poirot learns of American naval plans stolen by an Italian named Luigi Valdarno who passed them to a spy for Japan, a striking woman with auburn hair named Elsa Hardt before Valdarno was killed. Elsa and her accomplice then fled to the United States. As it turns out, Hastings’s friends were given a cheap flat and were being targeted by an Italian gang, believing Mrs. Stella Robinson was Elsa Hardt. Poirot exposes the real culprits and reveals that the plans are being held in a cat before he meets of Mr. Burt of the United States Secret Service. Not unlike a Hitchcock film, this rather innocuous story of a cheap flat turned into an international espionage tale solved by Poirot and his “grey cells.”

#4 The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge

“After all… it is possible that I shall not die this time” murmurs Poirot as a convalescent influenza patient (recall that Hastings previously suffered from the disease as described in The Mysterious Affair at Styles). “Once more shall I be myself again, the great Hercule Poirot, the terror of evildoers! Figure to yourself, mona mi, that I have a little paragraph to myself in Society Gossip. But yes! Here it is: ‘Go it –criminals—all out! Hercule Poirot –and believe me, girls, he’s some Hercules! –our own pet society detective can’t get a grip on you. ‘Cause why? ‘Cause he’s got la grippe on himself!’” (63).

Then, Roger Havering, son of the fifth Baron of Windsor, arrives. He explains that his uncle, Harrington Pace, was murdered last night in Derbyshire at a place called Hunter’s Lodge, a hunting property. When Hastings arrives in Poirot’s stead, Inspector Japp is also on the scene. A mysterious bearded American is suspected because he entered the house and the gun room. Poirot sends a telegram requesting that Japp arrest the housekeeper, Mrs. Middleton, right away before it’s too late! But sadly, it is too late. She has vanished. Havering’s wife, Zoe Havering, describes how Mrs. Middleton was recently hired, only three weeks on the job, but the agency has no record of Mrs. Middleton. In defeat, Hastings returns to London.

Spoilers Ahead

Back in London, Poirot reveals the truth –Zoe Havering was a former actress and it was actually she who dressed as a housekeeper in the shadows (there was no Mrs. Middleton) and Roger Havering was in on the murder because he was set to inherit his uncle’s vast fortune (also Poirot highlights a discrepancy with the murder weapon, a revolver). But in the end, even though Poirot and Hastings could not act further in the case, justice is served when Roger and Zoe Havering are killed in an Air Mail crash. “’The wicked flourish like a green bay tree,’ I reminded him.’ ‘But at a price, Hastings, always a price, croyez-moi!’”

#5 The Million Dollar Bond Robbery

Hastings begins by noting an influx of bond robberies recently when Miss Esmee Farquhar stop by to discuss the theft of Liberty Bonds on the transatlantic oceanliner Olympia. She is engaged to Mr. Philip Ridgeway who is in charge of bonds when they were stolen. Appointed Mr. Vavasour, general manager of the Scottish and London Bank. Someone tried to sneak into his safe on the ship and by the time they arrived in New York, the bonds were missing.

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot discovers that another ship, the Gigantic, left Southampton around the same time and arrived slightly earlier than the Olympia. Mr. Vavasour’s compatriot pretended to be an invalid on the ship, made the obvious break-in markings, but stole the bonds back at the bank and sent them on the Gigantic while giving a dummy files to Ridgeway to carry over the Atlantic. He has been at home with bronchitis as a cover for his theft!

#6 The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb

Hastings described this adventure as one of the most “thrilling” and “dramatic of his many adventures with Poirot. It concerns a strange series pf deaths after the opening of the tomb of King Men-her-Ra, believed to be one of the shadowy kings of the Eighth Dynasty when the Old Kingdom was falling to decay, following the discovery of the tomb of Tutankh-Amen by Lord Carnarvon, Sir John Willard, and Mr. Bliebner of New York within the pyramids of Gizeh (not far from Cairo).

Shortly thereafter, Sir John Willard died quite suddenly of a heart attack, then Mr. Bliebner died of acute blood poisoning, and a few days later, his nephew shot himself. The “Curse of Men-her-Ra” spread like wildfire in the newspaper, spawning renewed superstitions. Within this context, Lady Willard, widow of the late archaeologist, contacted Poirot and asked to meet him at her house in Kensington Square –fearful of all he supernatural rumors swirling around, she fears for the life of her son, an Oxford man who intends to take his father’s position on the archaeological dig. Surprisingly, perhaps to assuage Lady Willard’s fears, Poirot admits to accepting the “force of superstition” himself, and he wonders if the counter-efforts against black magic in the Middle Ages might not necessarily be inferior to our modern age of science. Do we believe Poirot? He is carrying a book called The Magic of the Egyptians and Chaldeans.

Hastings and Poirot travel to Egypt by way of Marseilles to Alexandria and on to Cairo (Poirot is apparently a terrible traveler) where they learn that another person has died, this time of tetanus. After meeting the crew onsite, at night they witness a strange non-human shadowy figure of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of departing souls.

Spoilers Ahead

In the evening after receiving his chamomile tea, Poirot discovers the murderer is actually Dr. Robert Ames, the onsite medical practitioner, who finagled his way into inheriting wealth from the deceased. And regarding the question of supernatural superstitions, Poirot admits to Hastings that he merely believes “in the terrific force of superstition” which can be taken advantage of by clever liars like Dr. Ames.

#7 The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan

Despite Hastings being slightly annoyed at the fact that Poirot does not take him too seriously, Hastings invites Poirot to a weekend at the Grand Metropolitan because “a change of air” might do him good. And when they arrive in Brighton, “All the world and his wife seemed to be at Brighton. The dresses were marvellous, and the jewels –worn sometimes with more love of display than good taste—were something magnificent” (110). Across the room, they spot Mrs. Opalsen donning many large jewels, she is the wife of a rich stockbroker who made his wealth in the recent oil boom.

However, soon Mrs. Opalsen’s prized pearl necklace is stolen despite the supposed presence of Celestine, the French maid, and the chambermaid. When the pearls are found hiding in Celestine’s mattress, she is detained for the robbery. But Poirot remains unconvinced…

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot suspects that the pearls have been planted in Celestine’s bed, and he successfully uncovers a plot between the chambermaid and the valet, involving a duplicate key, and in the end, it is an undusted adjoining room that gives away the secret (along with a card with fake fingerprints on it). As the story concludes, Poirot reveals he has been given a small financial reward from Mrs. Opalsen.

#8 The Kidnapped Prime Minister

“Now that war and the problems of war are things of the past, I think I may safely venture to reveal to the world the part which my friend Poirot played in a moment of national crisis,” so says Captain Hastings. This story takes place back when “peace by negotiation” was a popular mantra, during World War I, as Hastings was given a recruiting job after being invalided out of the army, when Mr. David “Fighting Mac” MacAdam, Prime Minister of England. We find Hercule busily mopping his grey suit with a sponge –“Never was there a dandy such as Hercule Poirot.” Then suddenly two men arrive: Lord Estair, Leader of the House of Commons, and Mr. Bernard Dodge, a member of the War Cabinet and a close personal friend of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has been kidnapped in France, while bandaged at the head, and there is a vitally important Allied Conference occurring tomorrow (Thursday) in Versailles. Also, there was a recent attempt on his life and his chauffeur O’Murphy has also disappeared. Is this the work of German agents?

Along the way, Poirot and Hastings encounter an old friend, Detective Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard and this sets up a friendly competition between Poirot and another man from Scotland Yard, Major Norman. After a lengthy period of time using his “grey cells,” Poirot returns to England where he believes he can better solve the case. Why?

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot discovers that the Prime Minister never actually left England, he was kidnapped from Windsor to London, chloroformed by the “clever linguistic” Captain Daniels (MacAdams’ Secretary). Both the Prime Minister and his chauffeur O’Murphy were drugged and replaced by substitutes, bound in bandages to France. Later, David MacAdam is also found. A short time later, the newspapers report on a successful Allied Conference, in particular a rousing speech by David MacAdam.

#9 The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim

Poirot and Hastings enjoy tea with their old friend, Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard while they discuss the news of the strange disappearance of Mr. Davenheim, senior partner of Davenheim and Salmon, well-known bankers and financiers. He went out walking one morning and simply disappeared. How could this happen? Poirot discusses three types of disappearances: 1) the most common is a voluntary disappearance 2) the much-abused “loss of memory” case 3) murder and a, more less, successful disposal of the body.

Can Poirot solve the mystery? For this, he will need to use his “method” of rigid scientific calculation, seeking the truth “within, not without.” Poirot intends to solve the mystery without leaving his chair –Japp bets him a fiver he cannot. That day, Davenheim was scheduled to meet with a speculator named Lowen who held a grudge against Davenheim, but Davenheim disappears shortly before their meeting is scheduled and his private safe is robbed, filled with bonds, money, and his wife’s jewelry collection. Naturally, Lowen is arrested under suspicion. However, Poirot inquires as to whether the Davenheims occupy separate bedrooms, and he asks about a trip Davenheim made to Buenos Aires… and a petty criminal named Billy Kellet comes to light for pawning Davenheim’s prized ring (Kellett is arrested) and Mr. Davnheim’s clothes are found in the lake near his house. What could have happened to Mr. Davenheim? Was he kidnapped or murdered by Lowen? Was his wife involved? Or was Billy Kellett part of the plot?

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot surprises everyone by accurately predicting the Davenheim and Salmon bank failure. As it turns out, Davenheim was secretly embezzling funds from the bank and using the stolen funds to buy bonds and jewelry, hiding them in his safe, and he changed his appearance significantly and took on the identity of Billy Kellett in order to get arrested and be escape suspicion while awaiting his chance to start a new life with the funds he took from his own safe (he set-up Lowen to seem guilty). The spare change of clothes were deposited in the lake by Davenheim himself.

In the end, Japp gives Poirot a five-pound note per their agreement.

#10 The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman

In early June, a friend and neighbor, Dr. Hawker, drops in on Poirot and Hastings for a discussion of the frequent use of arsenic poisoning in recent crimes when his housemaid Miss Rider suddenly bursts into the room. She has received an urgent call for help from a man named Count Foscatini in Regent’s Court who claims “they have killed me!” Dr. Hawker brings Poirot and Hastings to Foscatini’s flat where he had been meeting with two allegedly foreign men, only to find Foscatini “stone dead” still clutching the phone. First, Poirot visits the kitchen and then inquires about Foscatini’s manservant named Graves and one of Foscatini’s dinner guests, Signor Ascanio. What happened here?

Spoilers Ahead

As it turns out, Foscatini was blackmailing Signor Ascanio but it was Graves who killed his employer (one of the revealing clues is the curtains which are left open). Poirot passes his solution on to Inspector Japp who proves Poirot to be correct.

#11 The Case of the Missing Will

Miss Violet Marsh, a tall businesslike woman calls upon Poirot (Hastings amusingly confesses to not being impressed with her since she is a “New Woman” and Hastings is something of a traditionalist simpleton). Miss Marsh explains she was an orphan, her father’s elder rother Andrew emigrated to Australia and became rich by means of land speculation. Both her parents died by the time she became a teenager and she was taken in by her uncle Andrew who returned to England. However, he disapproved of her decision to get an education (like Hastings, he was disapproving of the education of women). He died about a month ago, and left behind a strange will in which he leaves his estate Crabtree Manor to Miss Marsh for one year during which time can prove her wits, but if she fails the test, the estate will pass to various charitable institutions.

Poirot and Hastings then endeavor to hopefully discover another will which might undo his rudimentary one giving Miss Marsh only a year outwit him. They travel to Crabtree Manor in Devonshire and speak with the housekeepers, Mr. and Mrs. Baker. In the late Mr. Marsh’s study, Poirot finds an orderly desk with a key and an empty envelope. From here, they learn that workmen were hired to conduct work on Mr. Marsh’s furnace, but when Poirot and Hastings look in a cavity only to find a burnt copy of his will. What could have happened?

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot discovers that hiring the workmen was merely an elaborate distraction and the overriding will is actually published in invisible ink on the envelope on his desk. Miss Marsh has proven her wits by hiring an expert like Poirot.

#12 The Veiled Lady

With no interesting cases of late, not even a case of jewelry theft on Bond Street, Poirot laments that criminals are beginning to fear him –when suddenly, a veiled lady arrives at their flat. She is Lady Millicent Castle Vaughan, recently engaged to the Duke of Southshire. She once wrote an indiscreet letter to a young soldier who was killed in the war. Now, she is being blackmailed by Mr. Lavington, who threatens to reveal the letter to the Duke unless Lady Millicent releasees a large sum of money. In accepting the case, Poirot and Hastings find her letter concealed inside a Chinese box in a wooden log in the coal bin… but is this the end of the story?

Spoilers Ahead

Inside the Chinese box, Poirot reads Lady Millicent’s amorous letter but in another chamber of the box he finds a pair of jewels. Inspector Japp steps out of Poirot’s room and arrests Lady Millicent for the Bond Street jewelry theft. Poirot says he knew she was a fraud right away by the shoes she was wearing, revealing herself not to be a woman of class.

#13 The Lost Mine

The delightful short story concerns Hastings over-drafting his bank account, and he considers investing in Porcupine Oil Wells while Poirot prefers not to consider speculative investments, as exemplified in an award he received of Burma Mines Ltd., one hundred miles inland from Rangoon. In this case, a member of an enterprising Chinese family, Wu Ling, travels to England to meet with the board of the company, but his body later turns up in the Thames. At this point, Poirot is called in to investigate by Mr. Pearson of the corporate board, and he is joined by the insufferable Inspector Miller. What happened here?

Spoilers Ahead

In a rather simple mystery, the culprit is shown to be Mr. Pearson and Poirot was granted fourteen thousand shares in the Burmese mine as repayment for solving the case. The lesson for Mr. Pearson is to be conservative with his investments. This is a charming, albeit simplistic, framed mystery tale told as a recollection by Poirot.

#14 The Chocolate Box

On a cold, windy night, Hastings asks if Poirot has ever failed a case, to which Poirot responds with a story from long ago in Belgium in which he investigated a French deputy named M. Paul Déroulard. We learn that Déroulard inherited an estate from his late wife, but then died himself shortly thereafter. This took place during the raging conflicts between Catholics and Protestants (Poirot was/is Catholic). Suspicion turns to a poisoning via a chocolate box, but did Poirot actually make a mistake in solving this one?

Spoilers Ahead

Poirot turns to another man, M. de Saint Alard, whom he accuses for the poisoning of Déroulard, but strangely Déroulard’s elderly and infirm mother confesses to the crime due to her accidental mix-up of items, and she dies a week later. Apparently, it was an accidental killing.

Christie, Agatha. Poirot Investigates. Vintage Books, a division of Random House LLC. New York, NY, 1925 (republished in 2021).

Book Review: Darth Bane: Rule of Two (2007) by Drew Karpyshyn

Posted on 13 May 2024 by Great Books Guy

“Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.”
-The Code of the Sith

Written and published over the span of five or six months, Drew Karpyshyn’s sequel Darth Bane: Rule of Two continues the gripping, cinematic, dark anti-hero’s tale established in Darth Bane: Path of Destruction. Initially, Del Rey Books intended for Darth Bane to be a single book, and for James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis to be the next book released in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but Del Rey Books apparently changed their minds and quickly rushed out a Darth Bane sequel (hence why the cover artwork for Darth Bane: Rule of Two by John Van Fleet is a strange computerized graphic image, rather than a more impressive piece of artwork, except in the original Chinese edition for some strange reason). At any rate, this savage, ruthless, disturbing Star Wars trilogy explains the intricate lore behind the Sith practice of the “Rule of Two,” or the dark side practice of always pairing two Sith together –a Master and an Apprentice– in contrast to the Jedi who work together in large groups via democratic groups like the Jedi Council. For the Sith, there is always “one Master and one Apprentice; one to embody the power, the other to crave it.” Darth Bane: Rule of Two begins right where the previous book left off –on Ruusan shortly after the detonation of the “thought bomb” which destroyed almost all Force-using beings in the area. Darth Bane and his new apprentice, a ten-year-old curly blond girl named “Rain” who now goes by the Sith name “Zannah.” Together, Bane and Zannah head deep into the subterranean tunnels on Ruusan to witness the remnants of the thought bomb –a floating orb filled with the suffering voices of all the Jedi and Sith killed in its wake. However, in the cavern, Zannah stumbles upon her cousin Darovit (also known as “Tomcat”) who survived the explosion and also wandered into the cave. Darovit grew up “Rain” and another cousin named “Bug” on the small world of Somov Rit, under the guardianship of “Root” before he was recruited by the Jedi into the Army of the Light by General Hoth and sent to Ruusan for battle. Inexplicably, Darovit survived the explosion (the thought bomb only affected those most attuned to the Force), and now, he is embittered and resentful of the Jedi. We meet him descending into the cave on Ruusan to find the floating remnant of the thought bomb which still contains the bodies of the victims of the explosion, their spirits condemned to unending suffering –touching the orb nearly drives Darovit mad. When he first spots Darth Bane, Darovit attempts to fight him, but Zannah quickly uses the Force to mutilate and utterly disintegrate his hand, saving his life but leaving him limp and bleeding on the floor of the cave as she departs with her new Master.

One of the central questions in the book concerns the extent to which Zannah will secretly reveal herself to be a compassionate, sympathetic figure, or if she has now committed herself fully to the egoism of the dark side. Will Darth Zannah betray her Master? Can she be converted by the Jedi? She is given a harsh training regimen by Darth Bane, including abandonment on Ruusan, Zannah learns to fend for herself, boarding a shuttle and remorselessly murdering all the Republic figures operating the vessel. Her goal in this novel is to grow her power and learn as much as she can from her Master, Darth Bane.

Meanwhile, Darth Bane pursues several shadowy quests in this book. At the start of the book, he is plagued by visions of Qordis and Kaan, the “Brotherhood of Darkness” Sith Lords he killed in the previous book. First, Bane finds a book kept by Qordis featuring a compilation of the history and teachings of Freedon Nadd, a great Sith Master who lived three thousand years ago. Freedon Nadd was a Jedi who turned to the dark side as the apprentice to Naga Sadow, the former ruler of the ancient Sith Empire (he survived for six hundred years). Perhaps the surviving teaching of Freedon Nadd can help Bane overcome his dark visions. He reads a note scribbled in in the book in Galactic Basic: “Seek the tomb on Dxun” (Dxun is the oversized moon of Onderon filled with catlike creatures in its jungles as well as huge flying drexls in its atmosphere). And when Bane crashlands on Dxun after being distracted by haunting visions, he finds the tomb of Freedon Nadd which houses a prized Sith Holocron, but inside the tomb of Freedon Nadd, Bane is attacked by thousands of tiny parasitic crustaceans with impenetrable shells called “orbalisks” that leech onto his body, forming an impenetrable armor around him. The acid-excreting orbalisks feed off the dark side of the Force, and they also amplify the power of the dark side in him and, as parasites who sink their teeth into the skin of their host, they cannot be removed without killing Bane. They serve as a painful curse on Bane throughout the rest of the book as he gradually forms a symbiotic relationship with the creatures from knowledge imparted by the Holocron (Bane learns to wear a protective helmet over his head and special gloves at night in order to prevent the orbalisks from growing over his face and hands). When Zannah crash-lands on Onderon, she runs into the “Skelda clan,” a hostile band of “beast riders,” until Darth Bane swoops to rescue her in on a flying drexl from the moon Dxun. Thus begins their new series of adventures together.

And what is Bane’s vision for the Sith now that he has vanquished the Brotherhood of Darkness and taken on a new apprentice of his own? As he tells Zannah, “We cannot live in isolation, cut off from the rest of the galaxy while cowering in fear. We must work to grow our power; we will need to interact with individuals of many species across many worlds” (25). Instead of building a standing army like Lord Kaan, Bane decides to wreak havoc on the Republic by encouraging rumors and half-truths from the shadows, unveiling a convoluted tapestry of deception and destruction.

“He believed in the power of the Force, but he also believed in himself: He was more than just a servant of prophecy or a pawn of the dark side, subject to the whims of an inevitable, inescapable future. The Force was a tool he had used to forge his own destiny through strength and cunning. He alone among the Sith had truly earned the mantle of Dark Lord, which was why he alone among them still lived” (3).

In addition to the Darth Bane and Darth Zannah narrative arc, we are also given the perspective of the Old Republic and the Jedi in this book –Johun Othone is a temperamental young padawan of the late General Hoth within the Army of the Light. He is knighted by Valenthyne Farfalla (his padawan braid is sliced off) and he is asked to serve as a personal guard for Chancellor Tarsus Valorum (as a member of the Valorum family, he is a distant relative of Chancellor Finis Valorum in the Star Wars prequels). Valorum is a controversial figure because he hopes bring about an end to the war between Jedi and Sith, and inspire a rebirth of the Republic through legislation approved in the Galactic Senate, particularly the “Ruusan Reformation” which calls for disbanding the Army of the Light and ending the war against the Sith.

Ten years later, Zannah has grown into a powerful Sith, she wields a small double-bladed lightsaber. She has infiltrated the Anti-Republic Liberation Front, a separatist group on the wealthy world of Serenno. The leader is a person named Hetton of the Demici house, and Zannah’s is a member of the group, a Twi’lek known as Kelad’den (or “Kel”), a rare red-skinned Lethan Twi’lek. Zannah deceptively persuades the group to launch a failed murder attempt on former Chancellor Valorum, but when it backfires (the assassins are all killed by Valorum’s personal guard, Johun), Zannah is blamed, she is brought before the group’s leader, Hetton, before she easily massacres everyone in the Anti-Republic Liberation Front except Hetton. Hetton was trained by a Duros assassin and bounty hunter named Gula Dwan, who was later killed by Hetton before he poisoned his own mother. He has been accumulating resources and former students of the Sith Academy on Umbara –eight assassins in total—and in an effort to partner with Zannah, he suggests they join forces and attack Bane together, and for Zannah to take Bane’s place and train Hetton as her apprentice. However, when they arrive at Darth Bane’s camp on Ambria, Zannah betrays Hetton and his assassins.

By now, Bane is struggling to solve the mystery of Holocron creation, he starts to believe the orbalisks are hindering him. Bane heads to Tython where he finds the remnants of Belia Darzu’s an ancient Sith Lord, whose experiments, rusted technobeasts have been abandoned while worshipping an ominous Holocron in the center of a temple, but as he enters, Bane is infected with a technovirus via a cloud of nanogene spores. When he arrives, Bane battles all manner of abominations, such as living droids as well as a rancor armed with centuries-old shoulder cannons, and numerous other horrendous creatures. Meanwhile, Zannah is sent to Coruscant to research in the Jedi Archives how to safely remove the orbalisks from Darth Bane. Is this all just a concocted scheme devised by Zannah to weaken her Master? She goes undercover as padawan named Nalia Adollu, but inside the Jedi Archives, she accidentally bumps into Darovit (or “Tomcat”) who had been wandering as a hermitic healer on Ruusan before being compelled to return to Coruscant by the Jedi Knight, Johun, in order to explain his story of witnessing a new Sith Lord named Darth Bane and his apprentice, Darth Zannah. Johun had been dispatched back to Ruusan to construct a monument in honor of the fallen Jedi on Ruusan.

In the end, they all convene on Tython where a giant battle explodes in the temple of Belia Darzu. The hideous, unrelentingly gory fight leaves several Jedi hacked to pieces, decapitated, or dismembered, including Johun and Farfalla. However, Darth Bane is also left mortally wounded which leads Zannah to quickly elicit the help of the healer, Caleb, on Ambria (he was featured in the first book), only now he has sent his daughter far away (i.e. she is no longer hiding in the secret bunker he has constructed beneath his hut) –but why would Caleb continue to reside on Ambria if he has already sent his daughter away and wants nothing to do with Bane? Anyway, Caleb helps to heal an exhausted Bane, and Darovit makes one last attempt at bringing Zannah back to the light side. But while Zannah briefly toys with turning Bane over to the Jedi in order to save his life, instead Zannah decides to hide with Bane in Caleb’s hidden underground cellar while driving Darovit insane with horrifying mental phantasms as a distraction for the incoming Jedi (she also kills Caleb). In time, Zannah and Bane quietly escape and she vows to surpass him and then kill him one day in the future.

Darth Bane: Rule of Two explores more of the fascistic impulse among the Sith Lords –Darth Bane describes equality as being a perversion of the natural order, it binds the exceptional to the weak. The politics of the Darth Bane makes Rule of Two an intriguing read in the Star Wars universe, but the immensely dark, violent, evil themes in this book make it an essential classic of the Sith. I particularly enjoyed learning about the ancient Sith Lords, like Freedon Nadd and Belia Darzu (even Exar Kun is mentioned at one point). There are several scenes of Force-mental-compulsions in this novel, which raises all sorts of ethical concerns (particularly when Zannah implants ghastly torturing visions within the minds of her enemies), and the introduction of the orbalisks adds a new layer of complexity to the Expanded Universe, not unlike Timothy Zahn’s creation of the Ysalamiri.

Aside from a few minor quibbles with this book, and the obvious fact that Darth Bane Path of Destruction (the first book in the trilogy) is the better novel, this sequel is still a top-notch Star Wars novel despite being rushed through publication. It offers a wild, brutal, disturbing adventure that expands upon the history of the dark side of the Force during the fan-favorite era of the Old Republic. Thus far this trilogy comes recommended from me to Star Wars fans.

Other Notes:

Irtanna flies a ship called the Star-Wake which was donated by an anonymous benefactor on Coruscant, a product of the Tallaan shipyards with a “Class Twelve hyperdrive.”
In Valenthyne Farfalla’s quarters are grand artworks that would not have seemed out of place in the museums of Alderaan, as well as a bedframe made of timber from wroshyr trees on Kashyyyk.
Health stim shots are used to help Bane’s body to rejuvenate itself.
The ancient Dark Jedi Exar Kun was rumored to have found Nadd’s tomb, as well.
Johun was born and raised on Sermeria, an agriworld in the Expansion Region between the Inner and Mid Rims of the galaxy. His parents worked on a fam a few kilometers outside Addolis.
The chancellor on Coruscant is Tarsus Valorum. He proposes the “Ruusan Reformation” which calls for disbanding the Army of the Light and ending the war against the Sith.
Neeks are a reptilian herbivores on Ambria. Zannah is tested, learning to control one with the Force.
Emissary-class shuttle (like The New Dawn) and new Cygnus-class shuttles, or popular consular space cruisers. Later, Bane acquires The Mystic, a Sienar-designed Infiltrator series ship customized with a Class Four Hyperdrive.
Other followers of the dark side on other worlds include the Marauders on Honoghr and Gamorr, and the Shadow Assassins of Ryloth and Umbara.
The Umbaran Shadow Assassins have gone into hiding since the fall of Kaan. “Force Pikes” are the traditional weapons of the Umbaran Shadow Assassins.
Belia Darzu was a Dark Lord of the Sith who reigned over two centuries ago, a student of Sith alchemy, a Shi’ido in life, a changeling species whose members were capable of shifting theirappearance, it was said she learned the secrets of mechu-deru, the ability to transform the flesh of living beings into metal and machinery. She used this power to create an army of technobeasts: organic-droid hybrids bound to her will. She also allegedly discovered the secret to creating Sith Holocrons. There is speculation that all her archives are stored on Tython, a Deep Core world.
Planets in the Deep Core are shrouded in myth and legend. Some accounts suggest that the Jedi visited Tython during the era of the “Great Hunt,” three thousand years ago to cleanse it of the fearsome teretateks, monstrous creatures that fed on the lifeblood of those sensitive to the Force. Much older legends identify Tython as the original birthplace of the Jedi Order over twenty-five thousand years before. According to the tale, priests and philosophers of the world had the ability to draw upon a mystical energy they called Ashla, a power that represented all compassion and mercy in the universe. They were opposed by a rival group that drew their strength from the Boga, the manifestation of raw passion and pure uncontrolled emotion. A Great War ensued and the worshipers of Ashla proved victorious. The first Jedi Knights supposedly evolved from the survivors of the war, creating the first lightsabers in their initiation ceremonies. More background on this ancient age can be found in Tim Lebbon’s Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void.
Typically, planets like Ruusan have climate-controlled conditions but the thought bomb created an invisible maelstrom of dark- and light-side energies capable of permanently altering the planet’s weather patterns. Ruusan has three sister moons and two twin suns.
The words “kriff” and “kriffing” are examples of profanity used in this book.
In the Jedi Archives on Coruscant, there is a long row of busts of “The Lost,” or twelve individuals who willingly set aside their vows they had sworn upon becoming Jedi Knights and chose to leave the Order.
Tarul is a delicacy wine beverage, typically on Naboo.
Battle meditation is used by the Ithorian Jedi Master Worror Dowmat.
The Japrael sector (also known as the Onderon sector) is mentioned as a place where Bane and Zannah abandon a ship.
In this novel, we learn about a Twi’lek known as Kelad’den (or “Kel”) a rare red-skinned Lethan species of Twi’lek.

Karpyshyn, Drew. Darth Bane: Rule of Two. Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, NY, NY (2007, republished in 2008).

This sequel is dedicated to Drew Karpyshyn’s parents, Ron and Viv, and his younger sister Dawn.

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Shogun (2024) Series Review

Posted on 11 May 2024 by Great Books Guy

“The year is 1600. For decades Portuguese Catholics have richly profited from trade in Japan. They have kept its whereabouts hidden from their sworn enemies – the European Protestants. In Osaka, the reigning Taiko has died, leaving behind an heir too young to rule. Five warrior lords are now trapped in a bitter struggle. All of them seek the title that would make their power absolute… Shogun.”

Based on James Clavell’s classic work of historical fiction, Shogun is a masterful miniseries that begs to be watched all the way through in one sitting. Shogun consists of ten concise episodes, each unfolding in a slow-burn plot concerning political intrigue and espionage, religious warfare, and a delicate network of diplomatic alliances and enemies. It also highlights the “clash of worlds” between Portuguese and English, Catholic and Protestant, Japanese and foreigner, as well as delineations between family members, clans, and loyalties to a particular feudal Lord. Shogun offers a richly woven narrative that allows us to see both the moral victories as well as the flaws of each character –this is more a tale of politics and culture than a simplistic narrative of heroes and villains.

In the early 17^th century, a Dutch trading ship called the “Erasmus” crashlands off the coast of Japan. Its twelve surviving crewmen –mostly Protestant Englishmen—are starving and have been without water on the open ocean. They initially set out with five ships and a crew of over five hundred, but now all that survived is a single vessel (the elderly captain decided to take his own life). And this theme of suicide plays an important role throughout the series –what does it mean to have a “good death?” When is it right for someone to control his own fate? At any rate, Protestant England is at war with Catholic Spain and Portugal, the latter of whom have carved up Asia and claimed the resources, land, and people as their own. The Erasmus was loaded with heavy weaponry, such as canons and guns, and given a covert mission to raid and plunder any “Papists” they might find (as detailed in the ship’s “rutter” which describes a detailed list of all Catholic bases in Asia).

The pilot of the Erasmus is an Englishman named John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis). He steered the ship through Magellan’s Pass and through a dangerous tempest before arriving in Japan. Upon arrival, the twelve survivors aboard the Erasmus are imprisoned by Japanese “barbarians” and one is burnt alive in scalding water. The men have been taken captive by a local warlord named Lord Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano), lord of Izu, who seems keen to quickly confiscate the Western weapons and ship. Meanwhile, John Blackthorne (who is called “Anjin” or “pilot”), manages to find himself in a privileged position among the Japanese through a mixture of his own luck and cunning (in time, he earns the respected moniker of “hatamoto”).

Unbeknownst to Blackthorne and the rest of the crew, they have stumbled upon a deeply fraught fragile political situation that currently threatens to unleash a new dark age across Japan. It has been a year since the ruling Taiko died and, in his shadow, a five-member council emerged of regents. The five regents are: Lord Kiyama (a man whose faith in Christ is guided only by his greed and ambition), Lord Sugiyama (descended from the richest Samurai family in Japan), Lord Ohno (a feared warrior whose affliction of leprosy led him into the arms of the church); and these three are all in the palm of Lord Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira), the most powerful member of the council and keeper of the castle in Osaka. Lastly, Ishido’s chief rival is Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), a wily secretive political strategist who descends from the historic Minowara clan who once ruled Japan during the days of the shogunate. At the moment, the three regents and Lord Ishido are eager to undo Toranaga’s power (he has arranged six marriages and has doubled his fief). He has been summoned to Osaka where he will likely be voted out and executed. Lord Toranaga’s death would make Lord Ishido the most powerful leader and likely opportunist who might one day become shogun.

However, the sudden arrival of the “barbarian” Englishman, John Blackthorne, introduces an element of chaos into this political tinderbox. Blackthorne’s presence exposes Lord Yabushige’s wavering commitments to Toranaga as he secretly confiscates the Anjin’s ship and all of its weapons, gold, and silver, before Lord Toranaga immediately takes them all back. Toranaga meets face-to-face with Blackthorne and decides to keep him around in order to irk the three Christian regents on the council and hopefully turn them against Ishido –Blackthorne’s presence serves as a sharp point of conflict between Protestants and Catholics, and he proves to be the savings grace for Toranaga. Blackthorne also reveals the locations of secret Portugese military outposts surrounding Japan, such as one in Macao. Thus, Blackthorne serves as a disruptive force to the burgeoning instability and power grab unfolding among the Japanese feudal lords, as well as the quiet exploitation the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries have been foisting upon the Japanese in exchange for their vast riches.

When the Englishmen first arrive in Japan they are confused by the society in which they have accidentally infiltrated –an orderly, hierarchical, fiercely timocratic community with the ever-present threat of the need to commit ritual seppuku for the sake of honor. Socially-based gender expectations are rigid, and, in true aristocratic fashion, life is a work of art. Everything from drinking tea, to “pillowing,” and even the spontaneous construction of poetry serves the greater purpose of preserving honor. Geographically, earthquakes are frequent in Japan –a fact that first terrifies the Englishmen, but offers a glimpse into why the Japanese view of life is merely a passing dream, a mere opportunity for a vision of beauty from a state of impermanence. In addition to earthquakes, there are also wildfires that threaten to burn through Japanese cities at any time. Blackthorne learns that their homes are built with an eye toward easily being uprooted and conveniently transported elsewhere.

Throughout the show, Blackthorne gradually learns to see the Japanese not as “savages,” but rather as a deeply ordered culture with a different view of life and death than is found in Christian England. For example, at one point a character asks to commit ritual seppuku and to end his bloodline through the act of killing his infant son, for the simple faux pas of speaking out of turn. At any rate, in time Blackthorne falls in love with his translator, Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a Catholic convert with a sordid past and a tumultuous relationship with her husband –her boorish husband nearly dies midway through the show. She has been wanting to end her life for years in order to avoid dishonor, but has been prevented from doing so by Lord Toranaga. Her loyalties are often blurred between her commitment to traditional Japanese heritage, on the one hand, and her new Christian religious conversion, on the other. In the end, despite having converted to Christianity, Mariko makes the heroic decision to sacrifice herself for the sake of her true lord, Toranaga. The end of her life divides the council and significantly helps to bolster Toranaga’s prospects for regaining his political support against the Christian faction. As the show concludes, Yabushige is forced to commit seppuku for his traitorousness and Toranaga prepares for war with Ishido while Blackthorne salvages the sunken Erasmus with plans to build a new fleet. Shogun is an incredible period piece –an impressive, meticulously crafted series with a rich political tapestry woven throughout its episodes. Mercifully, this is not an agenda-driven show. It does not attempt to portray the Europeans as exclusively rapacious, vicious, imperialists; and neither does it fall prey to the current trend of portraying a native culture, such as the people of 17th century Japan, in predictable Rousseauian “noble savage” caricature-esque fashion. Instead, all characters in this show are portrayed as individuals filled with nuance and contradictions. And politics is shown to be a constancy across human life, whether in Japan or England, wherein political dilemmas are parallel ith one another, and the only true victors are the wily, deceptive, cunning survivalists like Lord Toranaga (I took note of the fact that Toranaga bears striking similarity to Odysseus in the Homeric epics). I will say, this show is far more crass and vulgar than I remember the original James Clavell novel being, however I would like to re-read the book again in the future to get a truer picture. At any rate, Shogun is an astounding series and it comes highly recommended from me.

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Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) Film Review

Posted on 11 May 2024 by Great Books Guy

Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) Director: Steve Binder

“Happy Life Day!”

As an aspiring Star Wars completionist, I decided to watch the “Holiday Special,” a hilariously bad, awkward, surreal, cringeworthy made-for-television movie featuring the main cast from the original film — Mark Hamill (sporting eyeliner for some reason), Harrison Ford (who quite evidently wanted nothing to do with this project), Carrie Fisher (who was apparently inebriated the whole time), Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and even James Earl Jones as Darth Vader. But the whole movie is little more than a bizarre patchwork of re-used footage from the movies, spontaneous musical numbers, and constant pauses for characters to watch video transmissions of cartoons and even a softcore Wookie call-girl performance. Suffice it to say this variety hour of a Star Wars program is utterly abysmal.

Sponsored by General Motors, the central premise of this “movie” concerns the Millennium Falcon racing home to Kashyyyk (the first appearance of the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk) so that Chewbacca can celebrate “Life Day” with his family –with his wife Mala, his father Itchy, and son Lumpy. But this is as far as a plot goes. Littered throughout this cornball parody there is a performance by Jefferson Starship, a lengthy circus interlude, various fake intergalactic advertisements and television shows, a four-armed robot speaking during a silly science fiction version of a Julia Child cooking show, an elderly man (who is apparently a robot) breaking down during a faux informercial, and even a cartoon sequence involving Luke Skywalker (along with Threepio and Artoo) trailing Han Solo and Chewbacca who are searching for a mystical talisman, and along the way they encounter Boba Fett –amazingly, this was the first introduction of Boba Fett into the entire Star Wars universe! There is also a return to the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine where an oddball humanoid takes his drinks through a hole in the top of his head. And even a Wilhelm Scream can be heard when Han Solo tosses a stormtrooper off the upper balcony to Chewbacca’s home! In the end, Han and Chewbacca return to the Wookies in time for “Life Day” and Carrie Fisher sings a jarring, hilariously awkward song in honor of “Life Day.” Now I see why George Lucas announced that he wanted to take a sledgehammer to every remaining copy of the “Star Wars Holiday Special.” In 2006, Harrison Ford said he never watched it; in 2010, Carrie Fisher admitted she had a copy of it at home just so she could play in order to chase guests out of her house; in 2018, Mark Hamill claimed to have never seen the whole thing; and in his 2019 autobiography, Anthony Daniels eloquently dubbed it a “turd.”

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