Legacy of the Force: Invincible by Troy Denning
At last, the final book in the Legacy of the Force series. Taken by itself, I found it to be a fairly good read: suspenseful and quick. I think I read it in less than two days. As a conclusion to a series, though, it kind of sucks. This series had a pretty large scope, with three different authors focusing on different characters. Most of that is ignored, and the only thing that gets resolution is the main thread of Jaina vs. Jacen. It could be much worse, but it wasn't enough. Additionally, the entire storyline of Jacen's turn to the dark side has just made me sad and kind of soured me on the EU. I don't really want to know what happens next. I want, much like Tahiri, to rewind and undo it. I probably will read the next series, though, but mainly because I have no idea what it's about, and this sort of curiosity is what drove me to finally tackle the NJO, after all. I also kind of want to go back and read the stupid but less disheartening early books in the EU. Unfortunately, the library around here doesn't seem to have them. My mom still owns many of them, though, and I doubt she plans to read them again, so...long term borrowing?
Plot summary:
The Imperial Moffs, still more or less on Caedus's side, attack and take over a Verpine asteroid to get back at the Mandalorians, who are allied with the Verpine. This brings Darth Caedus to the asteroid. This, in turn, brings the Jedi, who have agreed to let Jaina be the one to take down Caedus. They meet up with a Mandalorian counterattack, and Jaina infiltrates the asteroid along with a small group of Mandalorians. When they reach Caedus, he slaughters the Mandalorians. But Luke has learned to project himself like Lumiya did, and so when Jaina attacks Caedus, he thinks he's fighting Luke. She is able to cut off one of his arms, but his counterattack knocks her out of the fight. Caedus lets Jaina escape for two reasons: 1) he is preoccupied with finding Luke, who's not really there, and 2) he is using a Sith technique to track the blood that splattered on Jaina from his arm wound. This allows him to track her to the Jedi's secret base. But Luke knows about the tracking technique, so they're ready for him. During the battle, Jaina sneaks about Caedus's Star Destroyer to finish him off. Before she finds him, Caedus finds out the Moffs are planning to release a nano-weapon onto Tenel Ka's ship that will kill anyone with royal blood. Therefore, Caedus is preoccupied with the need to stop the attack before it kills his daughter when Jaina catches up with him. He is also down one arm. And so he is defeated and killed by Jaina. Tenel Ka and her daughter both survive the attack. However, Tenel Ka fakes her daughter's death and sends her to live with Han and Leia for her protection. Also Tahiri is redeemed. And the war ends just because. And Admiral Daala becomes Chief of State for no discernable reason whatsoever.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. When I was a kid, I read and really enjoyed the Young Jedi Knights series. So I've always appreciated that Denning seems to be the only current EU author who actually knows that series and cares about the characters from it. In those books, one of Jacen's character traits was telling bad jokes all the time. He was the more lighthearted of the Solo twins, and honestly, I've never seen his characterization done consistently with this series in one of the mainstream EU books. I buy that his personality changed as a result of the Yuuzhan Vong war, but he was written as very serious even at the beginning of that series. Anyway, Denning opens each chapter of this book with a stupid joke told by Jacen in his youth, and it did effectively make me sad about the destruction of Jacen's character. I'm doubt it would have as much effect on those who don't have that YJK reference point.
2. Another thing is the twin bond between Jacen and Jaina. Until the NJO books, they were portrayed as being very close due to the close Force bond between them, present since before birth. But that bond hasn't been seen in books since, probably, Young Jedi Knights. Denning tries to make it extra sad that Jaina is killing her twin by flashing back to the times when they were close, but it doesn't work because this closeness between them is just a distant memory at this point.
3. One of my biggest problems with this is that Jaina doesn't really come out of it feeling like a big hero. The way the battles between her and her brother are written, it's just that they fight and she just happens to win. Nothing about her in particular or her training with Fett really gives her an edge. It could have been anyone. And it doesn't really come off like there was any particular reason Caedus lost. He just loses. I think the intention was that Caedus loses because he's not focused on Jaina. In their first battle, he's distracted by Luke, and in the second battle, he's distracted by the threat to Tenel Ka and their lovechild. Now, I like that his preoccupation with their safety was a consistent character trait to the end and helped lead to his downfall. But it's not clear enough in the writing. Furthermore, this makes Jaina come off even less impressively because that means she didn't even beat him, really. She just happened to be lucky enough to fight him when he was distracted. There is also some talk that Jaina is the only one in the family that Jacen hasn't tried to kill. I think that should have been played up more and attributed to their twin bond. Something like Jacen unconsciously finds it hard to attack Jaina because he has that tiny spark of goodness left, but Jaina overcomes it on her end because she's Jaina and she's a hardass. But no, it's not really there. And Jaina still doesn't feel like main character material. I think the writers don't actually find her interesting to write, and this makes her uninteresting to read about. But now she's the only Solo kid left.
4. Seriously, the only thing the authors write about Jaina is her undead love triangle with Jag and Zekk. And I'm really tired of it. But I've just recently been spoiled that it doesn't finally die until the end of the next nine-book series. I just...I don't think I can take it anymore. Worse, in this book, there is at least one place where Jaina is actively trying not to choose one or the other. Jaina! Knock it off!
5. Overall, I'm just angry and very sad at the destruction of the Solo family and all the other character deaths in this series. Trying to be "dark" and raise the stakes by killing off characters is a lazy way to go, I think. Mara, Pellaeon, and Prince Isolder are all characters who have been around in the EU from nearly the beginning, and to kill them and so many other newer characters off when you're already planning to kill off Jacen freaking Solo is just too much. Especially when most of the deaths don't even serve that much of a purpose. Isolder's death was almost cavalier. But my main gripe is, why kill two of the Solos' three children? One is bad enough. Two is unforgivable. I know the authorial/editorial plan was somewhat screwed by proclamations from on high, but I feel now more than ever that Anakin should not have died in NJO. Not if they wanted to make a Solo child becoming a Sith into a major plotline.
6. However, I was kind of pleased at how like all of Karen Traviss's Mandalorians were summarily slaughtered. I'm a bad person.
7. Tahiri was not in this series enough to justify her role as evil apprentice in the last two books. Her slide was set up way too early and then she was ignored for way too long. I think they should have focused more on she and Jacen's shared experience as Yuuzhan Vong captives in the war, but instead, they paint it like she only follows Jacen because she's so in love with the dead Anakin Solo and gullible enough to believe that Jacen can somehow bring him back or something. It's just pathetic. And she never seems to have enough dedication to being dark to make the evil things she does believable.
8. Another of Denning's large-ish plot holes: When the nano-weapon targeted to Tenel Ka is released on her ship, he notes that many of her relatives die. But when a nano-weapon targeted to Boba Fett is released on Mandalore, there is no mention of anyone dying there. Am I just completely wrong, or are a lot of the Mandalorians clones or descendents of clones who have the exact same DNA as Boba Fett, thus making them as susceptible to the nano-weapon as his granddaughter?
9. Ch. 2, p. 31 of the eBook version: This is how I feel about Traviss's books:
10. Ch. 2, p. 42 of the eBook version: Han: "Luke, that's got to be your worst idea since apprenticing yourself to Palpatine's clone." Nice pot-shot at one of the EU's worst plotlines. Unfortunately, written by someone who has contributed his own share of stupidity.
11. Ch. 13, p. 167 of the eBook version: Caedus: "Isn't medicine miraculous today? A being is more likely to die of a meteor strike than of old age or disease." I guess that explains a lot about Pellaeon's prodigiously long military career.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Meh. It was a quick read and kept my interest, but it wasn't a satisfying conclusion.
Plot summary:
The Imperial Moffs, still more or less on Caedus's side, attack and take over a Verpine asteroid to get back at the Mandalorians, who are allied with the Verpine. This brings Darth Caedus to the asteroid. This, in turn, brings the Jedi, who have agreed to let Jaina be the one to take down Caedus. They meet up with a Mandalorian counterattack, and Jaina infiltrates the asteroid along with a small group of Mandalorians. When they reach Caedus, he slaughters the Mandalorians. But Luke has learned to project himself like Lumiya did, and so when Jaina attacks Caedus, he thinks he's fighting Luke. She is able to cut off one of his arms, but his counterattack knocks her out of the fight. Caedus lets Jaina escape for two reasons: 1) he is preoccupied with finding Luke, who's not really there, and 2) he is using a Sith technique to track the blood that splattered on Jaina from his arm wound. This allows him to track her to the Jedi's secret base. But Luke knows about the tracking technique, so they're ready for him. During the battle, Jaina sneaks about Caedus's Star Destroyer to finish him off. Before she finds him, Caedus finds out the Moffs are planning to release a nano-weapon onto Tenel Ka's ship that will kill anyone with royal blood. Therefore, Caedus is preoccupied with the need to stop the attack before it kills his daughter when Jaina catches up with him. He is also down one arm. And so he is defeated and killed by Jaina. Tenel Ka and her daughter both survive the attack. However, Tenel Ka fakes her daughter's death and sends her to live with Han and Leia for her protection. Also Tahiri is redeemed. And the war ends just because. And Admiral Daala becomes Chief of State for no discernable reason whatsoever.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. When I was a kid, I read and really enjoyed the Young Jedi Knights series. So I've always appreciated that Denning seems to be the only current EU author who actually knows that series and cares about the characters from it. In those books, one of Jacen's character traits was telling bad jokes all the time. He was the more lighthearted of the Solo twins, and honestly, I've never seen his characterization done consistently with this series in one of the mainstream EU books. I buy that his personality changed as a result of the Yuuzhan Vong war, but he was written as very serious even at the beginning of that series. Anyway, Denning opens each chapter of this book with a stupid joke told by Jacen in his youth, and it did effectively make me sad about the destruction of Jacen's character. I'm doubt it would have as much effect on those who don't have that YJK reference point.
2. Another thing is the twin bond between Jacen and Jaina. Until the NJO books, they were portrayed as being very close due to the close Force bond between them, present since before birth. But that bond hasn't been seen in books since, probably, Young Jedi Knights. Denning tries to make it extra sad that Jaina is killing her twin by flashing back to the times when they were close, but it doesn't work because this closeness between them is just a distant memory at this point.
3. One of my biggest problems with this is that Jaina doesn't really come out of it feeling like a big hero. The way the battles between her and her brother are written, it's just that they fight and she just happens to win. Nothing about her in particular or her training with Fett really gives her an edge. It could have been anyone. And it doesn't really come off like there was any particular reason Caedus lost. He just loses. I think the intention was that Caedus loses because he's not focused on Jaina. In their first battle, he's distracted by Luke, and in the second battle, he's distracted by the threat to Tenel Ka and their lovechild. Now, I like that his preoccupation with their safety was a consistent character trait to the end and helped lead to his downfall. But it's not clear enough in the writing. Furthermore, this makes Jaina come off even less impressively because that means she didn't even beat him, really. She just happened to be lucky enough to fight him when he was distracted. There is also some talk that Jaina is the only one in the family that Jacen hasn't tried to kill. I think that should have been played up more and attributed to their twin bond. Something like Jacen unconsciously finds it hard to attack Jaina because he has that tiny spark of goodness left, but Jaina overcomes it on her end because she's Jaina and she's a hardass. But no, it's not really there. And Jaina still doesn't feel like main character material. I think the writers don't actually find her interesting to write, and this makes her uninteresting to read about. But now she's the only Solo kid left.
4. Seriously, the only thing the authors write about Jaina is her undead love triangle with Jag and Zekk. And I'm really tired of it. But I've just recently been spoiled that it doesn't finally die until the end of the next nine-book series. I just...I don't think I can take it anymore. Worse, in this book, there is at least one place where Jaina is actively trying not to choose one or the other. Jaina! Knock it off!
5. Overall, I'm just angry and very sad at the destruction of the Solo family and all the other character deaths in this series. Trying to be "dark" and raise the stakes by killing off characters is a lazy way to go, I think. Mara, Pellaeon, and Prince Isolder are all characters who have been around in the EU from nearly the beginning, and to kill them and so many other newer characters off when you're already planning to kill off Jacen freaking Solo is just too much. Especially when most of the deaths don't even serve that much of a purpose. Isolder's death was almost cavalier. But my main gripe is, why kill two of the Solos' three children? One is bad enough. Two is unforgivable. I know the authorial/editorial plan was somewhat screwed by proclamations from on high, but I feel now more than ever that Anakin should not have died in NJO. Not if they wanted to make a Solo child becoming a Sith into a major plotline.
6. However, I was kind of pleased at how like all of Karen Traviss's Mandalorians were summarily slaughtered. I'm a bad person.
7. Tahiri was not in this series enough to justify her role as evil apprentice in the last two books. Her slide was set up way too early and then she was ignored for way too long. I think they should have focused more on she and Jacen's shared experience as Yuuzhan Vong captives in the war, but instead, they paint it like she only follows Jacen because she's so in love with the dead Anakin Solo and gullible enough to believe that Jacen can somehow bring him back or something. It's just pathetic. And she never seems to have enough dedication to being dark to make the evil things she does believable.
8. Another of Denning's large-ish plot holes: When the nano-weapon targeted to Tenel Ka is released on her ship, he notes that many of her relatives die. But when a nano-weapon targeted to Boba Fett is released on Mandalore, there is no mention of anyone dying there. Am I just completely wrong, or are a lot of the Mandalorians clones or descendents of clones who have the exact same DNA as Boba Fett, thus making them as susceptible to the nano-weapon as his granddaughter?
9. Ch. 2, p. 31 of the eBook version: This is how I feel about Traviss's books:
"Then I guess this war has accomplished something," Leia replied bitterly... "Boba Fett has grown as a person. And here I was wishing the kriffing war had never started."
10. Ch. 2, p. 42 of the eBook version: Han: "Luke, that's got to be your worst idea since apprenticing yourself to Palpatine's clone." Nice pot-shot at one of the EU's worst plotlines. Unfortunately, written by someone who has contributed his own share of stupidity.
11. Ch. 13, p. 167 of the eBook version: Caedus: "Isn't medicine miraculous today? A being is more likely to die of a meteor strike than of old age or disease." I guess that explains a lot about Pellaeon's prodigiously long military career.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Meh. It was a quick read and kept my interest, but it wasn't a satisfying conclusion.
Legacy of the Force: Revelation by Karen Traviss
Karen Traviss's final book in the series has, if anything, even more pages wasted on Mandalorians that have almost nothing to do with the rest of the series. But at least this time, a major character, Jaina, is actually interacting with the Mandalorians. Yes, since Jaina is slated to fight Jacen in the final book of the series, the authors finally realized they needed to start giving her some space in the book as well. The non-Mandalorian-y parts are mostly one large intricate chain of events surrounding a single battle that fractures the GA in half yet again, and nearly the Imperial Remnant as well. A surprisingly large amount of time is dedicated to Pellaeon, and as a long-time Pellaeon fangirl, I can at least appreciate that he is treated as a major character in his final appearance. All in all, I enjoyed the non-Mandalorian parts enough to call this Traviss's best book in the series, despite the extreme Mandalorian overload.
Plot summary:
Jaina goes off to train with Boba Fett, who gives her the admittedly good advice that because she and her brother know each other so well, she'll have to become someone else to defeat him. Nothing else really happens there, but that doesn't mean like a third of the book isn't spend on Mandalorians. Ben and his Galactic Alliance Guard friend Shevu reopen the investigation into Mara Jade's death and find some evidence that Caedus was involved. Then he, you know, confesses to Shevu for no real reason, so now the cat's out of the bag; Shevu records the confession and Ben plays it for all the good guys. Meanwhile, Caedus has been grooming Tahiri Veila to replace Ben as his apprentice. He also has a plan to reconquer Fondor to send a message to the Confederation. He gets the Imperial Moffs on his side by promising them more territory (apparently they're still secretly hoping to reconquer the galaxy or something? silly Moffs). Pellaeon, however, doesn't trust Caedus or really want anything to do with him, so, in a completely mind-boggling turn of events, he sends a message asking for back-up to none other than Admiral Daala, who has apparently just been out there licking her wounds and assembling a fleet for, oh, thirty years. Daala is portrayed here as some sort of magnificent war goddess, when I don't remember her as anything other than naive and incompetent from her appearances in the Kevin J. Anderson books, but whatever, this Daala is better. Admiral Niathal, the other co-Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, finally turns on Caedus when he doesn't stop bombing cities on Fondor even after they've surrendered. As the GA splits in two, Pellaeon tries to back Niathal and is assassinated by Tahiri instead. But Daala shows up to stop the Imperial Remnant from siding with Caedus. As for main characters from the actual Star Wars films...Luke does some stuff. It's just not important enough to mention here.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. One of the problems I've had with every Traviss book I've read in this series (which is probably all the Traviss books I will ever read), is that she always seems to jump the gun on things. What I mean by that is that if there is some, um, revelation happening later in the book, everyone will seem to know that thing (that they didn't know in the previous book) as soon as the book starts. And then the revelation will happen anyway. But it won't make any sense because everyone apparently already knew. (Another problem I've had is that everyone knows freaking everything all the time. This mainly pertains to the Mandalorians. In Traviss books, everyone knows everything about Mandalorians and talk about them all the time. And the Mandalorians know everything about everyone else. And everyone is surprised by this.) Okay, anyway, in this book, it's Jacen's being a Sith. I don't think prior to this one that people (besides Jacen and Lumiya, etc.) were actually using the word "Sith" in regards to Jacen. But everyone does in this book. So when near the end of the book they hear Jacen call himself a Sith, it's still supposed to be shocking? What?
2. Chapter 1, p. 13 of the eBook version: Ben Skywalker: "I daren't discuss it with Dad." Um, when did Ben start talking like that?
3. So we get confirmation that that one dude who showed up randomly in the New Jedi Order just so he could die, who was hinted as having been Pellaeon's son, actually was. Along with Pellaeon actively speculating that his aide (?), Vitor Reige, also is. Apparently Pellaeon really got around in his day. Well, I guess he is the Star Wars equivalent of a sailor.
4. So Pellaeon is ninety-two in this book. Just in case you, like me, were perpetually wondering just how incredibly old he would have to get before he retired. OH WAIT.
5. There are 21 characters in the Dramatic Personae. Nine of them are Mandalorians. I'm not sure one of the listed Mandalorians is actually in the book. I at least recognize the other names. And yet I can think of two Imperials off the top of my head that weren't listed (though one I'm sure was so as not to spoil the surprise).
6. Oh, God, Boba Fett's fixation on his father is so creepy. Chapter 2, p. 21 of the eBook version: "Boba Fett didn't make a habit of talking to dead men, except his father."
7. Ch. 19, p. 296 of the eBook version. "When [Ben] had thoughts like that, and bile literally rose in his throat, he concentrated on his father and asked if he thought ugly thoughts." Yes, guys. WWLD?
8. I think Traviss really gets fixated on certain ideas and then just doesn't care whether expressing them is appropriate for the character in question. Like Pellaeon had decided that Tahiri was basically serving as Jacen's villip (the creepy little severed-head Yuuzhan Vong communicators), and then later on Mirta calls Tahiri a villip just out of the blue, without having the same context as Pellaeon within which to make the comparison.
9. Oh, hey, so that contrived stuff at the end of the book Sacrifice about losing Ben's respect being Jacen's sacrifice has now been debunked by Jacen, who has now decided that losing Allana was his sacrifice. Not that anybody cares anymore, not even Jacen.
10. Ch. 4, p. 68 of the eBook version: "They said [the Bes'uliik] was faster than an X-wing." So? A-wings are faster than X-wings, too. As are TIE Interceptors. Read your X-wing books, dammit.
11. The whole premise of Jaina going to train with Boba Fett in this book is that Mandalorians, and Boba Fett in particular, are really good at hunting, killing, and capturing Jedi. This was news to me. I mean, I guess from a prequels point of view (it hurts me to have a prequels point of view), it makes sense. But I've never heard anything about Boba Fett hunting Jedi. I used to be a Fett fangirl, and he had a really convoluted backstory before the prequels came out and it had to be retconned. Now...I shudder to think. But that doesn't stop Traviss from trying to ruin him even more with every book she writes.
12. Jaina lists Jacen's skills. Ch. 7, pp. 110-1 of the eBook version. "Telekinesis. I've known him to move star-ships, deflect ion cannon...even turbolasers. He can hear at huge distances with some Theran Force-listening technique. He can create elaborate Force illusions that feel real, he can walk into the past or future, he can control objects like scanners, and he can mind-rub... We can't sense him in the Force...and he can make himself invisible, sometimes." Wow, when you put it like that...well, I think I've already complained plenty of times about the things Jacen can do. It's the same problem the books had in the old Bantam days when Luke was written with unlimited god-like powers. Boba Fett points it out: "If he can stop turbolasers single-handed, why does he need a fleet?" Jaina: "No idea." Great writing! Poke holes in your own argument and then don't patch them. Works every time.
13. Ch. 9, p. 142 of the eBook version: Luke Skywalker: "You've probably heard this before, but it's a trap." Argh. I know they're making a point to include a reference to shooting first in this books. I didn't even bother to mark it down this time, but it was there. If they start another lame running gag...
14. Ch. 9, p. 151 of the eBook version: "No worse than all the head-rolling jokes [Jaina's] father had made about Jango Fett's demise." Oh, yeah, all those jokes. I remember Han joking all the time about this event even though I can't figure out how he would even know about it. Don't you?
15. ZOMG Daala, lol. More like Daala Sue, though. Actually, of all the things I was spoiled about in these books (Jacen going to the dark side, Mara's death, Pellaeon's death), this one made he go "bwuh" the hardest. I thought she didn't show up until the next series of books, though, so I actually was taken by surprise.
16. Ch. 10, p. 177 of the eBook version. "They were approaching the portside brow." Brow? Portside brow? It's not just a typo; she refers to the brow repeatedly. It's like the maser thing from the Dark Nest books. It's probably a real thing, but you just sound stupid saying it.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Nope. But I liked most of this one more than the other Traviss books in this series.
Plot summary:
Jaina goes off to train with Boba Fett, who gives her the admittedly good advice that because she and her brother know each other so well, she'll have to become someone else to defeat him. Nothing else really happens there, but that doesn't mean like a third of the book isn't spend on Mandalorians. Ben and his Galactic Alliance Guard friend Shevu reopen the investigation into Mara Jade's death and find some evidence that Caedus was involved. Then he, you know, confesses to Shevu for no real reason, so now the cat's out of the bag; Shevu records the confession and Ben plays it for all the good guys. Meanwhile, Caedus has been grooming Tahiri Veila to replace Ben as his apprentice. He also has a plan to reconquer Fondor to send a message to the Confederation. He gets the Imperial Moffs on his side by promising them more territory (apparently they're still secretly hoping to reconquer the galaxy or something? silly Moffs). Pellaeon, however, doesn't trust Caedus or really want anything to do with him, so, in a completely mind-boggling turn of events, he sends a message asking for back-up to none other than Admiral Daala, who has apparently just been out there licking her wounds and assembling a fleet for, oh, thirty years. Daala is portrayed here as some sort of magnificent war goddess, when I don't remember her as anything other than naive and incompetent from her appearances in the Kevin J. Anderson books, but whatever, this Daala is better. Admiral Niathal, the other co-Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, finally turns on Caedus when he doesn't stop bombing cities on Fondor even after they've surrendered. As the GA splits in two, Pellaeon tries to back Niathal and is assassinated by Tahiri instead. But Daala shows up to stop the Imperial Remnant from siding with Caedus. As for main characters from the actual Star Wars films...Luke does some stuff. It's just not important enough to mention here.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. One of the problems I've had with every Traviss book I've read in this series (which is probably all the Traviss books I will ever read), is that she always seems to jump the gun on things. What I mean by that is that if there is some, um, revelation happening later in the book, everyone will seem to know that thing (that they didn't know in the previous book) as soon as the book starts. And then the revelation will happen anyway. But it won't make any sense because everyone apparently already knew. (Another problem I've had is that everyone knows freaking everything all the time. This mainly pertains to the Mandalorians. In Traviss books, everyone knows everything about Mandalorians and talk about them all the time. And the Mandalorians know everything about everyone else. And everyone is surprised by this.) Okay, anyway, in this book, it's Jacen's being a Sith. I don't think prior to this one that people (besides Jacen and Lumiya, etc.) were actually using the word "Sith" in regards to Jacen. But everyone does in this book. So when near the end of the book they hear Jacen call himself a Sith, it's still supposed to be shocking? What?
2. Chapter 1, p. 13 of the eBook version: Ben Skywalker: "I daren't discuss it with Dad." Um, when did Ben start talking like that?
3. So we get confirmation that that one dude who showed up randomly in the New Jedi Order just so he could die, who was hinted as having been Pellaeon's son, actually was. Along with Pellaeon actively speculating that his aide (?), Vitor Reige, also is. Apparently Pellaeon really got around in his day. Well, I guess he is the Star Wars equivalent of a sailor.
4. So Pellaeon is ninety-two in this book. Just in case you, like me, were perpetually wondering just how incredibly old he would have to get before he retired. OH WAIT.
5. There are 21 characters in the Dramatic Personae. Nine of them are Mandalorians. I'm not sure one of the listed Mandalorians is actually in the book. I at least recognize the other names. And yet I can think of two Imperials off the top of my head that weren't listed (though one I'm sure was so as not to spoil the surprise).
6. Oh, God, Boba Fett's fixation on his father is so creepy. Chapter 2, p. 21 of the eBook version: "Boba Fett didn't make a habit of talking to dead men, except his father."
7. Ch. 19, p. 296 of the eBook version. "When [Ben] had thoughts like that, and bile literally rose in his throat, he concentrated on his father and asked if he thought ugly thoughts." Yes, guys. WWLD?
8. I think Traviss really gets fixated on certain ideas and then just doesn't care whether expressing them is appropriate for the character in question. Like Pellaeon had decided that Tahiri was basically serving as Jacen's villip (the creepy little severed-head Yuuzhan Vong communicators), and then later on Mirta calls Tahiri a villip just out of the blue, without having the same context as Pellaeon within which to make the comparison.
9. Oh, hey, so that contrived stuff at the end of the book Sacrifice about losing Ben's respect being Jacen's sacrifice has now been debunked by Jacen, who has now decided that losing Allana was his sacrifice. Not that anybody cares anymore, not even Jacen.
10. Ch. 4, p. 68 of the eBook version: "They said [the Bes'uliik] was faster than an X-wing." So? A-wings are faster than X-wings, too. As are TIE Interceptors. Read your X-wing books, dammit.
11. The whole premise of Jaina going to train with Boba Fett in this book is that Mandalorians, and Boba Fett in particular, are really good at hunting, killing, and capturing Jedi. This was news to me. I mean, I guess from a prequels point of view (it hurts me to have a prequels point of view), it makes sense. But I've never heard anything about Boba Fett hunting Jedi. I used to be a Fett fangirl, and he had a really convoluted backstory before the prequels came out and it had to be retconned. Now...I shudder to think. But that doesn't stop Traviss from trying to ruin him even more with every book she writes.
12. Jaina lists Jacen's skills. Ch. 7, pp. 110-1 of the eBook version. "Telekinesis. I've known him to move star-ships, deflect ion cannon...even turbolasers. He can hear at huge distances with some Theran Force-listening technique. He can create elaborate Force illusions that feel real, he can walk into the past or future, he can control objects like scanners, and he can mind-rub... We can't sense him in the Force...and he can make himself invisible, sometimes." Wow, when you put it like that...well, I think I've already complained plenty of times about the things Jacen can do. It's the same problem the books had in the old Bantam days when Luke was written with unlimited god-like powers. Boba Fett points it out: "If he can stop turbolasers single-handed, why does he need a fleet?" Jaina: "No idea." Great writing! Poke holes in your own argument and then don't patch them. Works every time.
13. Ch. 9, p. 142 of the eBook version: Luke Skywalker: "You've probably heard this before, but it's a trap." Argh. I know they're making a point to include a reference to shooting first in this books. I didn't even bother to mark it down this time, but it was there. If they start another lame running gag...
14. Ch. 9, p. 151 of the eBook version: "No worse than all the head-rolling jokes [Jaina's] father had made about Jango Fett's demise." Oh, yeah, all those jokes. I remember Han joking all the time about this event even though I can't figure out how he would even know about it. Don't you?
15. ZOMG Daala, lol. More like Daala Sue, though. Actually, of all the things I was spoiled about in these books (Jacen going to the dark side, Mara's death, Pellaeon's death), this one made he go "bwuh" the hardest. I thought she didn't show up until the next series of books, though, so I actually was taken by surprise.
16. Ch. 10, p. 177 of the eBook version. "They were approaching the portside brow." Brow? Portside brow? It's not just a typo; she refers to the brow repeatedly. It's like the maser thing from the Dark Nest books. It's probably a real thing, but you just sound stupid saying it.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Nope. But I liked most of this one more than the other Traviss books in this series.
Legacy of the Force: Fury by Aaron Allston
This book is very much a part of a series. It actually doesn't introduce much story. Most of its time is spend wrapping up storylines and setting things up for the last two books in the series. There are basically three small storylines, and two of them are wrap-ups, while one of them is a new conflict introduced and resolved in this book. They're all given about equal weight. It makes the whole thing seem like it doesn't have a real storyline, and if you remember my criticisms of many books in the NJO series, I don't like it when books don't have a strong main storyline. This one is still mostly well-written and has its requisite Allston funny parts. I just wish it had more of a purpose of its own.
Plot summary:
Alema Rar has learned how to do Lumiya's Force projection technique, allowing her to harass Han and Leia across the galaxy. Han and Leia plus the Alema-hunting group of Jaina, Jag, and Zekk decide that means she's probably hanging around Lumiya's old hideout, so they sneak onto Darth Caedus's Star Destroyer to pull records from his shuttle so they can find it. Once they locate it, they go there and fight Alema. Jag is the one who kills her, while Zekk frees the special Sith ship she also had taken possession of after Lumiya's death. Meanwhile, Caedus has given up on Tenel Ka after her refusal to support the Galactic Alliance at the end of the last book, so he kidnaps their daughter Allana, the only person left in the galaxy he cares for. The war between the GA and the Confederation heats up, with tactics becoming more and more brutal. So, of course, the Corellians have managed to hack the potentially planet-destroying Centerpoint Station enough to allow them to fire it. Consequently, Caedus decides to try to capture it, while the Jedi decide to destroy it. Kyp Durron and a scientist who used to work on Centerpoint Station but turned spy sneak aboard and sabotage it, making it destroy itself when next fired. Simultaneously, a larger group infiltrates Caedus's Star Destroyer again. A small group including Luke and Ben fights Caedus to distract him, while another group including Leia rescues Allana. Caedus, in a fit of anger after losing his daughter, uses the Force to kill a young lieutenant on his ship. Han and Leia realize Allana is their granddaughter. Jaina decides to go meet with a mystery person to help prepare her to take out Caedus.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. So I really hate Jacen in this book, but I can give props to Allston for handling him pretty well. For instance, there are parts where Jacen knows he's not feeling the right emotions, that he should feel bad about something and doesn't. He recognizes that Allana is the only person the galaxy that is really a person to him, and everyone else he doesn't care about. Allston even has other characters annoyed at how childish Jacen often behaves. So I can appreciate that the reasons I hate him were intentional, and I'm sure hating him is not the wrong reaction.
2. But what's up with Jacen's powers? I've been annoyed for books now that he can apparently time travel, but now he can will himself to have visions of certain people and what they're doing in the present? I don't think anyone else has displayed powers like this in the other Star Wars books I've read.
3. I'm also annoyed at the handling of Tahiri. She's been mentioned here and there during the books doing things for Jacen, but what does she do the rest of the time? Is she really a follower of his or does he just call her from time to time? Why do the authors keep forgetting about her? I've read enough of the next book to know she's important enough there that it doesn't make much sense she's been mostly absent so far.
4. And since I don't really have much to say about this book overall, here's some funny: Ch. 14, p. 112 of the ePub version: Wedge: "The fate of galactic civilization might someday hang on an intelligence network consisting of this guy I know." That's far from the only funny, but most of them were longer conversations and hard to quote effectively.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Meh. It's not a bad book, but it doesn't have much in the way of a standalone story. It's most just ties up loose ends.
Plot summary:
Alema Rar has learned how to do Lumiya's Force projection technique, allowing her to harass Han and Leia across the galaxy. Han and Leia plus the Alema-hunting group of Jaina, Jag, and Zekk decide that means she's probably hanging around Lumiya's old hideout, so they sneak onto Darth Caedus's Star Destroyer to pull records from his shuttle so they can find it. Once they locate it, they go there and fight Alema. Jag is the one who kills her, while Zekk frees the special Sith ship she also had taken possession of after Lumiya's death. Meanwhile, Caedus has given up on Tenel Ka after her refusal to support the Galactic Alliance at the end of the last book, so he kidnaps their daughter Allana, the only person left in the galaxy he cares for. The war between the GA and the Confederation heats up, with tactics becoming more and more brutal. So, of course, the Corellians have managed to hack the potentially planet-destroying Centerpoint Station enough to allow them to fire it. Consequently, Caedus decides to try to capture it, while the Jedi decide to destroy it. Kyp Durron and a scientist who used to work on Centerpoint Station but turned spy sneak aboard and sabotage it, making it destroy itself when next fired. Simultaneously, a larger group infiltrates Caedus's Star Destroyer again. A small group including Luke and Ben fights Caedus to distract him, while another group including Leia rescues Allana. Caedus, in a fit of anger after losing his daughter, uses the Force to kill a young lieutenant on his ship. Han and Leia realize Allana is their granddaughter. Jaina decides to go meet with a mystery person to help prepare her to take out Caedus.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. So I really hate Jacen in this book, but I can give props to Allston for handling him pretty well. For instance, there are parts where Jacen knows he's not feeling the right emotions, that he should feel bad about something and doesn't. He recognizes that Allana is the only person the galaxy that is really a person to him, and everyone else he doesn't care about. Allston even has other characters annoyed at how childish Jacen often behaves. So I can appreciate that the reasons I hate him were intentional, and I'm sure hating him is not the wrong reaction.
2. But what's up with Jacen's powers? I've been annoyed for books now that he can apparently time travel, but now he can will himself to have visions of certain people and what they're doing in the present? I don't think anyone else has displayed powers like this in the other Star Wars books I've read.
3. I'm also annoyed at the handling of Tahiri. She's been mentioned here and there during the books doing things for Jacen, but what does she do the rest of the time? Is she really a follower of his or does he just call her from time to time? Why do the authors keep forgetting about her? I've read enough of the next book to know she's important enough there that it doesn't make much sense she's been mostly absent so far.
4. And since I don't really have much to say about this book overall, here's some funny: Ch. 14, p. 112 of the ePub version: Wedge: "The fate of galactic civilization might someday hang on an intelligence network consisting of this guy I know." That's far from the only funny, but most of them were longer conversations and hard to quote effectively.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Meh. It's not a bad book, but it doesn't have much in the way of a standalone story. It's most just ties up loose ends.
Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston
In my oh-so-humble opinion, the best Star Wars authors are
1. Timothy Zahn
2. Aaron Allston
And that's pretty much it. The only other one I would even consider putting on the list is Michael A. Stackpole, but even he is so far behind these two that putting him third on the list is disingenuous.
So in ranking the Star Wars books, I would generally put all of Zahn's first and all of Allston's second and move on. But that's not completely accurate because Allston's first four Star Wars books, all part of the X-wing series, are so good that I would put them ahead of some of Zahn's. (i.e. Allegiance, Choices of One, probably Survivor's Quest. Maybe Outbound Flight if we're being objective, but, ha, like that would ever happen.) The X-wing series had nine books. The first four and eighth, written by Stackpole, are the Rogue Squadron books. They're mostly about how the Rebellion captured Coruscant about three to four years after Return of the Jedi. These are pretty good. For Star Wars books, they're great. But the other four, written by Allston, are worlds better. Books 5-7 are the Wraith Squadron books, about an outfit of misfits put together by Wedge Antilles to do the sorts of missions other groups couldn't do--tricksy deep undercover stuff. Eventually Wraith Squadron becomes an intelligence outfit and continues to operate through the Yuuzhan Vong war, showing up in Allston's two books in the New Jedi Order series.
So when news came sometime last year that there would be a new X-wing book, and that it would be a Wraith Squadron book, the initiated couldn't be happier.
I finally finished this book last night.
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So, yes, not as good as the originals of course. But still definitely worth reading. But you've got to read the first three Wraith Squadron books if you haven't. You won't regret it.
1. Timothy Zahn
2. Aaron Allston
And that's pretty much it. The only other one I would even consider putting on the list is Michael A. Stackpole, but even he is so far behind these two that putting him third on the list is disingenuous.
So in ranking the Star Wars books, I would generally put all of Zahn's first and all of Allston's second and move on. But that's not completely accurate because Allston's first four Star Wars books, all part of the X-wing series, are so good that I would put them ahead of some of Zahn's. (i.e. Allegiance, Choices of One, probably Survivor's Quest. Maybe Outbound Flight if we're being objective, but, ha, like that would ever happen.) The X-wing series had nine books. The first four and eighth, written by Stackpole, are the Rogue Squadron books. They're mostly about how the Rebellion captured Coruscant about three to four years after Return of the Jedi. These are pretty good. For Star Wars books, they're great. But the other four, written by Allston, are worlds better. Books 5-7 are the Wraith Squadron books, about an outfit of misfits put together by Wedge Antilles to do the sorts of missions other groups couldn't do--tricksy deep undercover stuff. Eventually Wraith Squadron becomes an intelligence outfit and continues to operate through the Yuuzhan Vong war, showing up in Allston's two books in the New Jedi Order series.
So when news came sometime last year that there would be a new X-wing book, and that it would be a Wraith Squadron book, the initiated couldn't be happier.
I finally finished this book last night.
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So, yes, not as good as the originals of course. But still definitely worth reading. But you've got to read the first three Wraith Squadron books if you haven't. You won't regret it.
(no subject)
On July 25, 2011, I saw Rasputina for the third time (and at the Bluebird Theatre for the second time). But because it never rains when it could pour, this was another double-booked evening. Timothy Zahn was in town for a book signing! So we put priority on that. It was good. He basically just opened it up for questions, and there were some good ones. I got Choices of One, Outbound Flight, and Blackcollar signed. The 501st was there. I bought a fantastically detailed German grammar reference. Many good things. And then we rushed across town, and it took longer than we expected. But we ended up arriving after the opener had finished playing and before Rasputina had started, so...perfect!
Except I was extremely tired. I had moved on Wednesday the 13th, gone on a business trip the entire next week, and then this was the next Monday. Yeah. I was so tired I didn't really care if we made it to Rasputina. And I probably enjoyed the concert less than I should have accordingly. I don't have any pictures. I actually don't remember much about it. They had another new drummer, and this one actually used a drum kit. And here's the setlist:
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One thing I appreciate about Rasputina as a live band is that they change up their setlists. There are only three songs they've played at all three concerts I've been to, and more that I've only heard once than that I've heard more than once.
As for this setlist, I remember at the time thinking, "Oh, good, since I'm so tired, they've decided to play all their most boring songs." Looking at the setlist now, I believe that may have been unjustified. But I will say this: I was super-happy to hear "In Old Yellowcake" and "A Retinue of Moons/The Infidel Is Me" again. Those are two/three of my absolute favorite Rasputina songs, and I missed them last time. The setlist also seems to be well-balanced between their six albums.
So you know how I usually write way too much in these? I have nothing more to say! Now you really understand how tired I was, haha. But I'm glad I went and suffered the resultant compounding sleep deprivation.
Except I was extremely tired. I had moved on Wednesday the 13th, gone on a business trip the entire next week, and then this was the next Monday. Yeah. I was so tired I didn't really care if we made it to Rasputina. And I probably enjoyed the concert less than I should have accordingly. I don't have any pictures. I actually don't remember much about it. They had another new drummer, and this one actually used a drum kit. And here's the setlist:
( Collapse )
One thing I appreciate about Rasputina as a live band is that they change up their setlists. There are only three songs they've played at all three concerts I've been to, and more that I've only heard once than that I've heard more than once.
As for this setlist, I remember at the time thinking, "Oh, good, since I'm so tired, they've decided to play all their most boring songs." Looking at the setlist now, I believe that may have been unjustified. But I will say this: I was super-happy to hear "In Old Yellowcake" and "A Retinue of Moons/The Infidel Is Me" again. Those are two/three of my absolute favorite Rasputina songs, and I missed them last time. The setlist also seems to be well-balanced between their six albums.
So you know how I usually write way too much in these? I have nothing more to say! Now you really understand how tired I was, haha. But I'm glad I went and suffered the resultant compounding sleep deprivation.
Legacy of the Force: Inferno by Troy Denning
Anything is refreshing after Traviss, but this is not a good book. It's not even a good book by Denning standards. It seemed very fragmented and kind of slow. I think what I'm really trying to say is that it was not well-paced. Denning's bad habit of skipping large chunks of action and filling in the reader after confusion has set in reared its head to no good several times in this book. But the real problem is that, while there are lots of characters doing lots of different things in this book, none of the characters have very much to do, so it's hard to get very involved in their struggles. For instance, Jaina goes to the Jedi academy and finds out it has been taken hostage. But the next scene she's in is the fight to free the academy, and the next scene after that, she's already somewhere else. And Denning was really reaching for something for Han and Leia to do, but I guess they can't be absent from two books in a row. It really feels like the middle half of this book is missing. There's a beginning, and then there's an ending, but the ending wasn't built up enough for it to feel like a worthwhile climax.
Plot summary:
The Confederation has gained more support and is poised to attack Kuat to open up a path to Coruscant. If the Galactic Alliance defeats them at Kuat, the war will be over. Darth Caedus, formerly Jacen Solo, takes Hapes's last fleet away to fight in the battle. He also sends troops to hold the Jedi academy hostage, to force the Jedi to fight for him. But the Wookiees are holding out, locked in a discussion over whether to lend their fleet to fight in the battle. Han and Leia crash the discussion to attempt to persuade the Wookiees not to support Caedus. Ben tries to stay close to Caedus so he can get revenge for his mother's death. Part of staying close to Caedus means believing his accusation that former Chief of State Cal Omas arranged Mara's murder and attempting to fake killing him. Omas cooperates, except for the "fake" part. When Luke finds out that Ben has apparently assassinated Omas, he is furious and withdraws Jedi support from Caedus, heading off to Kashyyyk to try to convince the Wookiees to turn against him as well. Caedus retaliates by attacking his hostages at the Jedi academy, but Jaina, Jag, and Zekk just happen to be around to stop things. Not before the body is disturbingly high, though. Caedus then goes to Kashyyyk. When the Wookiees refuse to turn over the traitors (i.e. the Solos and the Jedi), Caedus starts firing on Kashyyyk from orbit, setting wildfires in the forest that blankets the planet. Ben takes advantage of the situation to attack Caedus, but fails to kill him and ends up being tortured by him instead. But Luke comes to everyone's rescue, sneaking aboard Caedus's ship to sabotage its turbolasers and stop its firing on Kashyyyk as well as to rescue Ben. He and Caedus fight, and Luke almost kills Caedus, but Ben stabs Caedus in the back, and Ben's darkness shocks Luke out of finishing the fight. The Confederation shows up to rescue the Wookiees, and Caedus's fleet is trapped. But then the Hapans shows up--except that Han and Leia have finally convinced Tenel Ka to turn against Caedus, so Caedus's fleet is really trapped. Meanwhile, Alema has decided to continue Lumiya's work of supporting Caedus. She does this by taking blame for Mara's death and by tracking down a large group of secret Sith, who, it turns out, don't really want to help Caedus that much. She shows up in the Sith ship as the deus ex machina that allows Caedus's fleet to escape.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. Jacen has, in this book, begun to refer to himself in private solely as Caedus. I'm happy to follow suit, since the character called "Jacen" hasn't really been Jacen anyway, just some other character they came up with and decided to slip into his place so they could have the plot. Yeah, that's one of my biggest beefs with this series--I just don't buy Jacen's transformation. I would choke much less on this series, I think, if the bad guy just had someone else's name. I'm sure they intended the use of a Solo kid to up the tension, but it just makes it feel so contrived. I think the biggest problem is that Jacen was captured and tortured by the Yuuzhan Vong, yes, and his journey to the dark side supposedly started with being taught by Vergere, but he was a hero at the end of NJO. Then we are told that he goes away for five years to study the Force, and when he comes back, he's already almost completely amoral. So it's like he went from 25% dark side to 90% dark side between two series. But then I remember being fairly happy with how Allston handled Jacen in the first book of this series, so maybe it's just that the other authors have made him too evil? I don't know. I'm just not convinced.
2. When I started this book, I was really annoyed at Ben for not doing anything about his suspicions of Jacen. At first I thought he didn't realize it was Jacen and was incredibly stupid for not seeing the evidence laid out in front of his face. When it became clear he did suspect Jacen, I was annoyed at him for not telling anyone. I'm less annoyed now. A large part of it was that Ben was not 100% sure it was Jacen and had no hard evidence, and to get hard evidence, he had to stay close to Jacen. This I'm okay with. It's frustrating but fairly smart. The other part of it was that Ben wanted to take out Jacen himself, and that part I'm less okay with. Ben is kind of awesome and kind of scary.
3. I like that they chose to portray Caedus in this as having almost a guilty conscience. It's really more paranoia than guilt, but he keeps worrying that people have discovered he killed Mara, overreacting with paranoia that people are coming to get him, and sometimes even hallucinating it. It's not particularly well done, but I'm glad they did it, since Caedus is supposed to be doing bad for good reasons and thus a tiny bit gray. Unfortunately, his actions don't support this.
4. I still appreciate that Denning actually writes Tenel Ka, and not too badly, even if he does have her using the Force tofix her makeup hide evidence of crying.
5. Prologue, p. XX of the PDF edition: Tahiri: "I wish I could be sure [Anakin] died knowing how much I loved him." Caedus: "I'm sure he knew. I mean, you did tell him, didn't you?" Wow, cold. Because, of course, she didn't. That said, this is by far the least of Caedus's nefarious deeds in this book.
6. Ch. 1, p. 3 of the PDF edition: "[Jacen] was so accustomed to concealing himself that he did so even around Tenel Ka." *Ahem*, Traviss.
7. Ch. 2, p. 16 of the PDF edition: "[Leia's] son had simply slipped into darkness one day when she wasn't looking, and now, she feared, it was already too late to pull him back." O rly? Thanks for catching up with the rest of us, Leia.
8. Ch. 7, p. 92 of the PDF edition: Han: "Tarfang shot fist." STOP!!!!!! I'm begging you.
9. Ch. 11, p. 134 of the PDF edition: "[Caedus] had always regretted losing his uncle's respect and love--just another of the many sacrifices he was making to bring peace to the galaxy." Um, Jacen's basically been spitting in Luke's face since the series started, so I'm not seeing a lot of regret there. Denning tries very hard to emphasize that Jacen feels regret over the things he has to do for the good of the galaxy, but we're only told this and never shown it. His actions paint him as a complete psychopath.
10. Ch. 20, p. 266 of the PDF edition: "Nothing else could have shocked Luke out of his battle rage--only the sight of Ben slipping so far to the dark side." So, what's the difference between battle rage and the dark side?
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: No. Could be worse, though.
Plot summary:
The Confederation has gained more support and is poised to attack Kuat to open up a path to Coruscant. If the Galactic Alliance defeats them at Kuat, the war will be over. Darth Caedus, formerly Jacen Solo, takes Hapes's last fleet away to fight in the battle. He also sends troops to hold the Jedi academy hostage, to force the Jedi to fight for him. But the Wookiees are holding out, locked in a discussion over whether to lend their fleet to fight in the battle. Han and Leia crash the discussion to attempt to persuade the Wookiees not to support Caedus. Ben tries to stay close to Caedus so he can get revenge for his mother's death. Part of staying close to Caedus means believing his accusation that former Chief of State Cal Omas arranged Mara's murder and attempting to fake killing him. Omas cooperates, except for the "fake" part. When Luke finds out that Ben has apparently assassinated Omas, he is furious and withdraws Jedi support from Caedus, heading off to Kashyyyk to try to convince the Wookiees to turn against him as well. Caedus retaliates by attacking his hostages at the Jedi academy, but Jaina, Jag, and Zekk just happen to be around to stop things. Not before the body is disturbingly high, though. Caedus then goes to Kashyyyk. When the Wookiees refuse to turn over the traitors (i.e. the Solos and the Jedi), Caedus starts firing on Kashyyyk from orbit, setting wildfires in the forest that blankets the planet. Ben takes advantage of the situation to attack Caedus, but fails to kill him and ends up being tortured by him instead. But Luke comes to everyone's rescue, sneaking aboard Caedus's ship to sabotage its turbolasers and stop its firing on Kashyyyk as well as to rescue Ben. He and Caedus fight, and Luke almost kills Caedus, but Ben stabs Caedus in the back, and Ben's darkness shocks Luke out of finishing the fight. The Confederation shows up to rescue the Wookiees, and Caedus's fleet is trapped. But then the Hapans shows up--except that Han and Leia have finally convinced Tenel Ka to turn against Caedus, so Caedus's fleet is really trapped. Meanwhile, Alema has decided to continue Lumiya's work of supporting Caedus. She does this by taking blame for Mara's death and by tracking down a large group of secret Sith, who, it turns out, don't really want to help Caedus that much. She shows up in the Sith ship as the deus ex machina that allows Caedus's fleet to escape.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. Jacen has, in this book, begun to refer to himself in private solely as Caedus. I'm happy to follow suit, since the character called "Jacen" hasn't really been Jacen anyway, just some other character they came up with and decided to slip into his place so they could have the plot. Yeah, that's one of my biggest beefs with this series--I just don't buy Jacen's transformation. I would choke much less on this series, I think, if the bad guy just had someone else's name. I'm sure they intended the use of a Solo kid to up the tension, but it just makes it feel so contrived. I think the biggest problem is that Jacen was captured and tortured by the Yuuzhan Vong, yes, and his journey to the dark side supposedly started with being taught by Vergere, but he was a hero at the end of NJO. Then we are told that he goes away for five years to study the Force, and when he comes back, he's already almost completely amoral. So it's like he went from 25% dark side to 90% dark side between two series. But then I remember being fairly happy with how Allston handled Jacen in the first book of this series, so maybe it's just that the other authors have made him too evil? I don't know. I'm just not convinced.
2. When I started this book, I was really annoyed at Ben for not doing anything about his suspicions of Jacen. At first I thought he didn't realize it was Jacen and was incredibly stupid for not seeing the evidence laid out in front of his face. When it became clear he did suspect Jacen, I was annoyed at him for not telling anyone. I'm less annoyed now. A large part of it was that Ben was not 100% sure it was Jacen and had no hard evidence, and to get hard evidence, he had to stay close to Jacen. This I'm okay with. It's frustrating but fairly smart. The other part of it was that Ben wanted to take out Jacen himself, and that part I'm less okay with. Ben is kind of awesome and kind of scary.
3. I like that they chose to portray Caedus in this as having almost a guilty conscience. It's really more paranoia than guilt, but he keeps worrying that people have discovered he killed Mara, overreacting with paranoia that people are coming to get him, and sometimes even hallucinating it. It's not particularly well done, but I'm glad they did it, since Caedus is supposed to be doing bad for good reasons and thus a tiny bit gray. Unfortunately, his actions don't support this.
4. I still appreciate that Denning actually writes Tenel Ka, and not too badly, even if he does have her using the Force to
5. Prologue, p. XX of the PDF edition: Tahiri: "I wish I could be sure [Anakin] died knowing how much I loved him." Caedus: "I'm sure he knew. I mean, you did tell him, didn't you?" Wow, cold. Because, of course, she didn't. That said, this is by far the least of Caedus's nefarious deeds in this book.
6. Ch. 1, p. 3 of the PDF edition: "[Jacen] was so accustomed to concealing himself that he did so even around Tenel Ka." *Ahem*, Traviss.
7. Ch. 2, p. 16 of the PDF edition: "[Leia's] son had simply slipped into darkness one day when she wasn't looking, and now, she feared, it was already too late to pull him back." O rly? Thanks for catching up with the rest of us, Leia.
8. Ch. 7, p. 92 of the PDF edition: Han: "Tarfang shot fist." STOP!!!!!! I'm begging you.
9. Ch. 11, p. 134 of the PDF edition: "[Caedus] had always regretted losing his uncle's respect and love--just another of the many sacrifices he was making to bring peace to the galaxy." Um, Jacen's basically been spitting in Luke's face since the series started, so I'm not seeing a lot of regret there. Denning tries very hard to emphasize that Jacen feels regret over the things he has to do for the good of the galaxy, but we're only told this and never shown it. His actions paint him as a complete psychopath.
10. Ch. 20, p. 266 of the PDF edition: "Nothing else could have shocked Luke out of his battle rage--only the sight of Ben slipping so far to the dark side." So, what's the difference between battle rage and the dark side?
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: No. Could be worse, though.
Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss
I think this book could have been good if someone else had written it. Interesting things do happen in this book. Big, important things. So why does it feel like more than half the book is filler in which nothing happens? Because Karen Traviss wrote it, of course. This is only the second book of hers I've read, but it shares the same traits that crippled the previous one. 1) Waaaaay too much time spent on the Mandalorians. I could forgive this if they actually had a large part to play in the plot. But no. The rest of the galaxy is going to hell, so let's spend more time on the daily life of the Mandalorians! 2) Half the book is introspection. For every paragraph of action, there are at least two paragraphs of talking, and for every paragraph of action or talking, there are at least two paragraphs of introspection. And it's so repetitive. It's not only that the introspection itself tends to cover the same topics again and again. I swear she actually spends half the book recapping the other half of the book, which, itself, contains recaps of the rest of the book, until it becomes this endless spiral of characters stuck thinking and talking about the same things ad nauseum. If you could just cut out all that crap, what would be left would be an interesting story.
Plot summary:
The Galactic Alliance is effectively ruled by a triumvirate: Cal Omas, Chief of State; Admiral Niathal, Supreme Commander; and Jacen Solo, head of the secret police. Jacen continues his rise to the top by introducing a law with slippery language that effectively gives him the power to change the law at will. Then his secret police overhear Omas agreeing to a clandestine meeting with Dur Gejjen, current prime minister of Corellia--i.e. the enemy. Jacen sends Ben to assassinate Gejjen at the meeting, which he does. This has surprisingly little impact on the story except to disillusion Ben further. When Omas returns, Jacen arrests him personally, and he and Admiral Niathal step into the power vacuum and declare a temporary military government. Sometime afterward, Ben overhears Jacen talking to Lumiya in his office, and they clearly are clearly working together. Through all of this, Mara has finally stopped sticking up for Jacen and come to her senses, so when Ben brings her the information about Jacen's relationship with Lumiya, she decides to take him out. She almost succeeds. But Jacen kills her instead. Lumiya takes the blame, and Luke kills her. But Ben knows that it wasn't Lumiya because he was fighting Lumiya at the time of Mara's death. Furthermore, Ben suspects Jacen because he showed up for no good reason just after Ben found Mara's body. And the loss of Ben's admiration due to Mara's death is Jacen's great sacrifice of something he loves that enables him to become a fully fledged Sith lord. Oh, and there's this other subplot relating to Mandalorians taking up half the book. Most of it is a complete waste of paper, but the things that may be important in Traviss's next book are a) the Mandalorians are rearming and it freaks everyone out; b) Boba Fett's cloning-induced advanced aging is cured; and c) it turns out Boba Fett's dead wife isn't really dead. No, she's frozen in carbonite. Goody.
Various impressions and thoughts:
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Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Heck no.
Plot summary:
The Galactic Alliance is effectively ruled by a triumvirate: Cal Omas, Chief of State; Admiral Niathal, Supreme Commander; and Jacen Solo, head of the secret police. Jacen continues his rise to the top by introducing a law with slippery language that effectively gives him the power to change the law at will. Then his secret police overhear Omas agreeing to a clandestine meeting with Dur Gejjen, current prime minister of Corellia--i.e. the enemy. Jacen sends Ben to assassinate Gejjen at the meeting, which he does. This has surprisingly little impact on the story except to disillusion Ben further. When Omas returns, Jacen arrests him personally, and he and Admiral Niathal step into the power vacuum and declare a temporary military government. Sometime afterward, Ben overhears Jacen talking to Lumiya in his office, and they clearly are clearly working together. Through all of this, Mara has finally stopped sticking up for Jacen and come to her senses, so when Ben brings her the information about Jacen's relationship with Lumiya, she decides to take him out. She almost succeeds. But Jacen kills her instead. Lumiya takes the blame, and Luke kills her. But Ben knows that it wasn't Lumiya because he was fighting Lumiya at the time of Mara's death. Furthermore, Ben suspects Jacen because he showed up for no good reason just after Ben found Mara's body. And the loss of Ben's admiration due to Mara's death is Jacen's great sacrifice of something he loves that enables him to become a fully fledged Sith lord. Oh, and there's this other subplot relating to Mandalorians taking up half the book. Most of it is a complete waste of paper, but the things that may be important in Traviss's next book are a) the Mandalorians are rearming and it freaks everyone out; b) Boba Fett's cloning-induced advanced aging is cured; and c) it turns out Boba Fett's dead wife isn't really dead. No, she's frozen in carbonite. Goody.
Various impressions and thoughts:
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Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: Heck no.
Legacy of the Force: Exile by Aaron Allston
I...I don't know what to say. This is the first Allston book ever to let me down. The first half was delightful, and I grinned most of the way through it, but I think it just got dragged down by the need to juggle too much story at once. I don't think that's all Allston's fault--after all, the way these long series work is that the next book in the series is being written before the previous book is finished, so Allston was locked into fitting in a certain amount of story. But too much story, told in a too-fragmented way, made the last half of the book hard to follow and hard to get involved in.
Plot Summary:
Lando helps Han and Leia get the Millennium Falcon fixed after Jacen tried to blow it apart in the last book. While they're waiting, they take another ship and head to Corellia to try to find out who was behind the assassination attempt on Tenel Ka. Inevitably, they end up having to make a quick exit and meet up with Wedge Antilles, who has just been fired as Corellia's supreme commander due to his refusal to support assassinations. They all head to the Errant Venture, a gambling ship run by an old friend, where they try to dig up some useful intelligence. Alema Rar, who is still not dead, tracks the Solos to the Errant Venture, but Jag Fel, with the help of Jaina Solo and Zekk, um, whatever his last name is, are on her trail. A large group of Jedi set a trap for her, but she escapes, only to show up a couple of chapters later and escape again. Lumiya aids Bothawui and Commenor in joining Corellia and driving away the Galactic Alliance blockade around the system. More planets follow, forming a Confederation. Jacen tries to crash a supposed Confederation conference, but it's a trap. He escapes thanks to his parents and the Skywalkers. Not that he thanks them. Meanwhile, Lumiya and Jacen send Ben on a fake mission to retrieve a Sith amulet to test whether he's ruthless enough to become a Sith. He fails by rescuing a little girl, and Lumiya, unknown to Jacen, orders him killed, but Ben manages to find an ancient Sith ship and escape.
Thrawn mentions:
I'm going to omit this section from now on unless there actually is one.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. Ugh, Alema Rar, get out of my books! Die already! This is getting ridiculous. No, wait. It's already beyond ridiculous.
2. Ch. 2, p. 23 of the paperback: Allston finally addresses Jacen's personality in the Young Jedi Knights books. It doesn't change anything about his baffling personality in these books, but it's a nice gesture.
3. Ch. 3, p. 31 of the paperback: Kyp Durron: "I suppose the closest equivalents you have in the world of government would be court jesters or the free press!" Hahaha! Kyp, let's just pretend you showed up during the NJO and forget all about those Jedi Academy books.
4. Ch. 8, p. 99 of the paperback: It's moments like these that make me wish Allston wrote all the Star Wars books. Well, moments like these and everything else.
6. Ch 16., pp. 244-5 of the paperback: Possibly my two favorite pages in the book, even though they're surprisingly irrelevant in the grand scheme. Tycho Celchu gets to show up. Hi, Tycho! We get the information that they actually let Pellaeon retire. OMG. Well, I would be more happy if I wasn't spoiled for the rest of this series. *shakes fist* And Tycho mentions Bel Iblis! I was convinced everyone had forgotten about him. Wookieepedia tells me I'm overreacting, but it certainly felt like everyone had forgotten about him. And apparently I feel the same way every time he's mentioned.
7. When the action in the book starts to pick up, moving toward the final battle, we leave Han, Leia, and Lando on the Errant Venture with a bit of a cliffhanger on page 212. We don't get back to them until page 268. 56 pages. The book is only 337 pages long. 16% of the book between the two times we check in with the Solos. And when we get back to them, they're in a completely different location with no mention of how, when, or why they got there. This kind of thing is why the last half of this book lost me. I'm going to choose to believe that the book was long, and some sloppy last-minute edits were made. And that leads me to...
8. I think one of my main problems with this book is that a sideplot about Ben that starts about halfway through the book gets a lot detail and attention while the other plot threads are getting large chunks left out of them to try to cram everything in. Ben's story is important, but it's not balanced with the rest of the book. It's like Allston has tried to give 10% of the plot 40% of the pages. We check in with the Solos for a page or two while they teleport around, but we get to hear about Ben's entire day. But the larger problem is that there's just too much going on. This is what broke most of the books in the New Jedi Order, so I'm not happy to see that whoever is planning these things hasn't learned their lesson. The books in the NJO that actually worked for me were the ones that focused on a relatively small group of people. The writers in this series are trying to cover the main plot while giving attention to their favorite groups of characters, and while I'm always happy to see Wedge especially, I'm not sure that the authors shouldn't have been restrained. Allston is now trying to juggle the essential characters along with Wedge and family (his favorites) and the characters that Denning brought in (Alema, Jaina, Jag, Zekk). There just isn't room. Wedge and his family are dropped halfway through the book when the Ben plot starts up. Jaina, Jag, and Zekk only get about ten pages to themselves. Crazy Admiral Klauskin gets about the same, and he's just a plot device.
9. And the other main problem with the book is just the plot of the series as a whole. It's incredibly contrived. It's supposed to be about Jacen's slide into the dark side, but he's pretty well slid, and he's spent the last two books mainly fretting over who he's going to have to kill to become a Sith, which doesn't make for compelling story telling. But even worse is the civil war storyline. I cannot believe that the Galactic Alliance, with the power of countless planets behind it, either could not or would not quash Corellia's rebellion before it spread to other planets. And if so many planets were unhappy and agreed with Corellia that every action against Corellia really risked a balanced civil war, then they should have realized they needed to bend on the issues that were driving these planets away! It's like they are trying to be as authoritarian as the Empire was without the ruthlessness that allowed the Empire to enforce their rules. The New Republic was painted as pitifully ineffective during the Yuuzhan Vong war, but the Galactic Alliance is even worse.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: The first half, if quips are entertaining to you and you can bear quitting a book halfway through.
Plot Summary:
Lando helps Han and Leia get the Millennium Falcon fixed after Jacen tried to blow it apart in the last book. While they're waiting, they take another ship and head to Corellia to try to find out who was behind the assassination attempt on Tenel Ka. Inevitably, they end up having to make a quick exit and meet up with Wedge Antilles, who has just been fired as Corellia's supreme commander due to his refusal to support assassinations. They all head to the Errant Venture, a gambling ship run by an old friend, where they try to dig up some useful intelligence. Alema Rar, who is still not dead, tracks the Solos to the Errant Venture, but Jag Fel, with the help of Jaina Solo and Zekk, um, whatever his last name is, are on her trail. A large group of Jedi set a trap for her, but she escapes, only to show up a couple of chapters later and escape again. Lumiya aids Bothawui and Commenor in joining Corellia and driving away the Galactic Alliance blockade around the system. More planets follow, forming a Confederation. Jacen tries to crash a supposed Confederation conference, but it's a trap. He escapes thanks to his parents and the Skywalkers. Not that he thanks them. Meanwhile, Lumiya and Jacen send Ben on a fake mission to retrieve a Sith amulet to test whether he's ruthless enough to become a Sith. He fails by rescuing a little girl, and Lumiya, unknown to Jacen, orders him killed, but Ben manages to find an ancient Sith ship and escape.
Thrawn mentions:
I'm going to omit this section from now on unless there actually is one.
Various impressions and thoughts:
1. Ugh, Alema Rar, get out of my books! Die already! This is getting ridiculous. No, wait. It's already beyond ridiculous.
2. Ch. 2, p. 23 of the paperback: Allston finally addresses Jacen's personality in the Young Jedi Knights books. It doesn't change anything about his baffling personality in these books, but it's a nice gesture.
3. Ch. 3, p. 31 of the paperback: Kyp Durron: "I suppose the closest equivalents you have in the world of government would be court jesters or the free press!" Hahaha! Kyp, let's just pretend you showed up during the NJO and forget all about those Jedi Academy books.
4. Ch. 8, p. 99 of the paperback: It's moments like these that make me wish Allston wrote all the Star Wars books. Well, moments like these and everything else.
"Leia's two doors down, with two strange men," Wedge said.5. Lando's in this book, and it makes me sad that Allston never wrote Lando before. Clearly they were made for each other. To wit (Ch. 8, p. 103 of the paperback): "No! My hair is black. Well, gray-black. This just isn't it. I still have all my own hair."
"How do you know they're two strange men?" Mirax asked. "It might be Han and Luke."
"Han and Luke are two strange men."
6. Ch 16., pp. 244-5 of the paperback: Possibly my two favorite pages in the book, even though they're surprisingly irrelevant in the grand scheme. Tycho Celchu gets to show up. Hi, Tycho! We get the information that they actually let Pellaeon retire. OMG. Well, I would be more happy if I wasn't spoiled for the rest of this series. *shakes fist* And Tycho mentions Bel Iblis! I was convinced everyone had forgotten about him. Wookieepedia tells me I'm overreacting, but it certainly felt like everyone had forgotten about him. And apparently I feel the same way every time he's mentioned.
7. When the action in the book starts to pick up, moving toward the final battle, we leave Han, Leia, and Lando on the Errant Venture with a bit of a cliffhanger on page 212. We don't get back to them until page 268. 56 pages. The book is only 337 pages long. 16% of the book between the two times we check in with the Solos. And when we get back to them, they're in a completely different location with no mention of how, when, or why they got there. This kind of thing is why the last half of this book lost me. I'm going to choose to believe that the book was long, and some sloppy last-minute edits were made. And that leads me to...
8. I think one of my main problems with this book is that a sideplot about Ben that starts about halfway through the book gets a lot detail and attention while the other plot threads are getting large chunks left out of them to try to cram everything in. Ben's story is important, but it's not balanced with the rest of the book. It's like Allston has tried to give 10% of the plot 40% of the pages. We check in with the Solos for a page or two while they teleport around, but we get to hear about Ben's entire day. But the larger problem is that there's just too much going on. This is what broke most of the books in the New Jedi Order, so I'm not happy to see that whoever is planning these things hasn't learned their lesson. The books in the NJO that actually worked for me were the ones that focused on a relatively small group of people. The writers in this series are trying to cover the main plot while giving attention to their favorite groups of characters, and while I'm always happy to see Wedge especially, I'm not sure that the authors shouldn't have been restrained. Allston is now trying to juggle the essential characters along with Wedge and family (his favorites) and the characters that Denning brought in (Alema, Jaina, Jag, Zekk). There just isn't room. Wedge and his family are dropped halfway through the book when the Ben plot starts up. Jaina, Jag, and Zekk only get about ten pages to themselves. Crazy Admiral Klauskin gets about the same, and he's just a plot device.
9. And the other main problem with the book is just the plot of the series as a whole. It's incredibly contrived. It's supposed to be about Jacen's slide into the dark side, but he's pretty well slid, and he's spent the last two books mainly fretting over who he's going to have to kill to become a Sith, which doesn't make for compelling story telling. But even worse is the civil war storyline. I cannot believe that the Galactic Alliance, with the power of countless planets behind it, either could not or would not quash Corellia's rebellion before it spread to other planets. And if so many planets were unhappy and agreed with Corellia that every action against Corellia really risked a balanced civil war, then they should have realized they needed to bend on the issues that were driving these planets away! It's like they are trying to be as authoritarian as the Empire was without the ruthlessness that allowed the Empire to enforce their rules. The New Republic was painted as pitifully ineffective during the Yuuzhan Vong war, but the Galactic Alliance is even worse.
Chapter Synopses:
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Recommended: The first half, if quips are entertaining to you and you can bear quitting a book halfway through.
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Way back on November 30, I saw Epica again at the Bluebird Theatre in Denver. With no scheduling conflicts, we actually got there in time to see the whole show, and all three openers. I'm sorry, but three openers is ridiculous. Additionally, I didn't enjoy any of the openers because they were all real metal, and Epica is as heavy as I take my music. Epica is sometimes heavier than I take my music.
Anyway.
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I would see Epica again, totally. But I wish they would bring fewer openers. Or less heavy openers. Or both. I didn't get home until after 2 a.m., and I had to work the next day.
Anyway.
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I would see Epica again, totally. But I wish they would bring fewer openers. Or less heavy openers. Or both. I didn't get home until after 2 a.m., and I had to work the next day.