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The Empire Menaced: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Dearth Nadir    by Sean Miller Amazon.com order for
Empire Menaced
by Sean Miller
Order:  USA  Can
Aventine, 2004 (2004)
Hardcover, Paperback

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*   Reviewed by J. A. Kaszuba Locke

Apparently Miller wrote this parody for a Master's course in contemporary literature. The assignment title came from: Text into Film and Film as Text: Towards a Concept of Adaptation. It was intended as aggressive appropriation of a movie. Narrated by Dearth Nadir, The Empire Menaced is a parody in dark humor of Lucas's Star Warsİ. Dearth travels on the Dearth Star contemplating his disastrous life - other names in the author's demented characterizations will also be recognizable to series fans.

I found the book boring and distasteful, obsessed with profanity and perverted sex scenes. In this version, Queen/Senator Mandala molested young Anykind and the author suggests that their later romance was an act of revenge on his part, that slave-master W'at'O was an 'Islamic jihadist', Chi-Gong had a past with Anykind's mother Shmear, Kobe-San was not the man portrayed, and that Dearth Nadir serves as his own therapist. If you do decide to read this pulp fiction spoof, I recommend keeping a 'Dick-Tion-Airy' close at hand. Though the writing runs smoothly in places, it then turns into a bunch of mish-mash words, which leave the reader asking, "What did Miller say?"

In the last section, the book reverts to a kind of psychological and sociological diatribe, charged with dark insight and meaning. I could not help but wonder if there was more than one author, and personally was more amused by the animated grocery store wars spoof circulating on the Net.

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