FAN NOVEL'S HERO TURNS OUT TO BE AUTHOR'S NAME SPELT BACKWARDS; MIRROR EXPERTS 'NOT SURPRISED THIS WEEK'

Readers of ENCORE Book 1: Keep the Lights On, the Star Wars fan novel serialised weekly in the Imaginarium since October 1, have noticed that its hero, Namren Nammas, carries the author's own name, backwards.

In a week in which Mr. Samman recognised himself in a movie villain, linguists call this "the most on-theme thing that has ever happened in fan fiction." One reader reports holding chapter three up to her bathroom mirror and "getting quite a fright."

The novel follows Nammas from the fifth episode of the Clone Wars' final season to Order 66: the stretch in which a young Jedi slides, one choice at a time, towards the dark side. The author has written elsewhere that Vader "didn't fall all at once. He slipped." Local historians add that the slip had nothing to do with who held the high ground, "whatever Obi-Wan tells people at parties." The book's own promise is gentler: "The familiar history remains. We're simply watching it happen from somewhere else."

Galactic historians say watching a fall from the side is the safest way to see one. "You know how it ends," said one. "You keep the lights on anyway. That's the whole title."

New chapters arrive weekly. Readers are asked not to read them backwards.