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Topic:
The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/1/04 6:23am
Subject:
The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
- Date Edited:
1/15 4:16pm (2 edits total)
Edited By:
Havac
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Sorry I'm late with this one. I've been out of town.
But you all know the drill:
Rate THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE on a scale from 1 to 10. Please don't rate the book until after you've finished it. Thank you.
Also, please supplement your rating of THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE with a few words (or a lot, as you see fit).
Links to previous review threads, in case you missed 'em:
Shatterpoint
Tatooine Ghost
Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
Traitor
Destiny's Way
Force Heretic I: Remnant
Force Heretic II: Refugee
Force Heretic III: Reunion
The Final Prophecy
The Unifying Force
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"This will be our reply to violence:
To make music more intensely,
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More devotedly than ever before."
- Leonard Bernstein
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Jedi_Jason5001
Registered:
Nov '01
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Date Posted:
1/1/04 11:12am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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This book is already out?!?!? Yikes I'm behind in my readings.
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"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" - Phil 4:13
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What does not kill me makes me stronger...physically, mentally and spritiually
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Darth McClain
Registered:
Feb '00
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Date Posted:
1/1/04 6:42pm
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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I would give it an 8.5/10. I really liked it for the most part. However, the begining seemed to take to long. I also wish that a few characters would have been expanded on more, like Inquisitor Loam Redge.
Dusque Mistflier and Finn Dartkrin were pretty interesting characters, as was the Ithorian bioengineer who's name is escaping me right now. Leia, Luke, Han, Lando, and Vader all seemed believable to me. I was glad that Starfighter's Nym got a cameo as well.
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Once a Talon, always a Talon Talon Intelligence Squadron: Book 2! http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=28489742 Tales from the Intelligence Gala! (TIS spin-off!) http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28600431
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/2/04 3:56am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Counting 1 review: 8.5/10
I got the book last night; I'll try to have my own review up by tonight or tomorrow sometime.
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More beautifully,
More devotedly than ever before."
- Leonard Bernstein
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sidious618
Registered:
Apr '03
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Date Posted:
1/2/04 9:50am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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I really enjoyed the book. I liked all of the original characters especially the Inquistor. The ending was a very cool twist but it did drag just a little at times.
9.2/10
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/2/04 9:58am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Counting 2 reviews: 17.7/2 = 8.85
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"This will be our reply to violence:
To make music more intensely,
More beautifully,
More devotedly than ever before."
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/2/04 6:11pm
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Anyone else finished it yet?
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More devotedly than ever before."
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 5:43am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Up. My own review coming sometime today.
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"This will be our reply to violence:
To make music more intensely,
More beautifully,
More devotedly than ever before."
- Leonard Bernstein
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Rogue_Ten
Registered:
Aug '02
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 8:40am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Does anyone else LOL when they see "RoD spoilers" in the title of this thread? 
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burrie
Registered:
May '00
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 10:31am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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I don't get it. 
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 11:40am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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I wanted to like this book. I really did. I'm on record saying I'm looking forward to it more than most of the upcoming CW books. After TUF, I was ready for a smaller, more character-oriented book, and this seemed to fit the bill. And usually when the books depart from the main movie characters it turns out quite well -- in fact, it was quite refreshing to see just a person from GFFA. A protagonist who's not a crack pilot, or a great warrior, or an über bounty hunter or anything, but just a woman trying to live her life. And I like the name Dusque (I assume it's pronounced Dusk?). But ROD just doesn't work, mostly because it just isn't well written. It's fast, sure, and it's not begging to be put down as unrelentingly as the Force Heretic books, which while I was reading them just about bored me to death, but as one of the resident lit fiends, I was literally wincing and cringing my way from page to page, because from the evidence presented here, Voronica Whitney-Robinson is simply not a good writer (I must admit to being quite interested to find out what "with Haden Blackman" means. Did he actually do any of the writing here, or is his name on the cover because of his involvement with the game itself?)
So, when I say it's not well written, what do I mean. Here are some examples:
There's far too much expository dialogue, particularly near the beginning, with characters saying things for the sole benefit of filling in gaps for the reader, and it's annoying.
Speaking of dialogue, it's weak. It doesn't sound right. Tip to all writers: when writing dialogue, read the lines out loud and determine whether they sound like anything anyone would ever actually say. If not, try again.
There are too many characters thrown in just to show up. Luke, Leia, Vader are forgivable, but Han and Lando and Wedge and Threepio and Artoo is just too much. Further, Luke, Leia, Threepio and Vader all felt too out of character. And it's such a busy time for these guys that there's no reason for them to be there. But it was nice to see Nym, I'll say. I do have a question, though: I'm not much of a continuity guru, but since when is there a Rebel base on Corellia so shortly after Yavin?
Similarly, there's too much name-dropping, particularly out of the Galaxies game itself. Why are there Zabraks everywhere? It seems that the only species in the galaxy are those playable in Galaxies, with the exception of a very few who showed up in the movies. And although there's a whole lot of name-dropping, the author betrays a lack of knowledge of the material when she talks about C-3POs walking around, or checking the radar. And "reptavian" is about to join "barve" on the most overused word list. And what's with Dathomir? From CoPL, I got the feeling Dathomir was a very obscure planet that nobody knew about. Then came the early ongoing comics on Dathomir, and I was a little upset about that, but I could forgive it -- maybe it was somehow forgotten in those intervening decades. But now, we have common people with Dathomirian beasts, a common biologist with detailed knowledge of Dathomirian fauna, a rebel and a pirate who've apparently seen some action on Dathomir . . . is there perhaps another Dathomir, remarkably similar to the one in CoPL in all respects except that it's well-known?
There are far too many clichés in the book, and far too many awkward sentences and phrases. For example: "Although he was surrounded, [he] was making no attempt to flee. (99)" Huh? Why is that "although" there? Is it common practice to attempt to flee when you're surrounded by armed troops? Another word for that is "suicide." "His arms fell limply to their sides. (139)" Again: Huh? His arms fell to their sides? Perhaps they fell to his sides. . . ". . .there seemed to be something sinister about it, like unspoken betrayals. (148)" I think this qualifies as the most ridiculous simile since the infamous "He collapsed like a sack of steak knives" from the StarGate novelization. Most of the book is written in unremarkable, bland prose, but there's a good bit of it that just isn't right. And even the paragraphs sometimes flow oddly, too:Even in its style of execution, the Empire had tried to strip him of his dignity. But Dusque had watched how he faced his death with courage and honor.
I'll make them pay for that, she vowed. Make them pay for her watching his death? Make them pay for him facing his death with courage and honor? Obviously the thought is meant to refer to the execution itself, but the way the paragraphs are put together, the thought refers to one of those things. And the literary devices sometimes used, presumably, to increase suspense (e.g. the opening of Chapter Four) are used ineptly enough that all they do is confuse rather than titillate.
Also, the book simply reads, unsurprisingly, I guess, like an RPG. There's a big quest, obviously, but the way they advance on it is very gamelike. OK, they need to get from A to B, but they're lacking key card Z, so they need to go on a dangerous side-quest for someone, rinse and repeat. And references to "weapon powerups (141)" and such don't help to dispel this. Not to mention things like that our characters spend a day running across a planet to accomplish a quest. That's fine in a game, but it jarred me to think of them literally, physically running across that hellish terrain in the GFFA.
The protagonists themselves are, I suppose, acceptable. Finn doesn't seem to have much character at all but is rather just kind of there, a partner and object of sexual tension for Dusque, but I did kind of like Dusque. Not the most compelling character ever, but acceptable. However, their unfolding relationship was just too trite and far too predictable -- as was the "twist" at the end. And what's up with Dusque? Is she yet another Force sensitive character? Or just very very lucky?
In terms of the plot itself, it was fairly straightforward, and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't need every book to be a huge quest of galaxy-shaking proportions. But I was expecting more within the plot. From the blurb on the back cover: "the hardest part of all is figuring out whose side you're on -- and how far you're willing to go to win. . ." I was expecting something slightly more complex than the same old Rebellion good, Empire bad shtick. Heck, the comics are dealing with these issues more effectively than this book.
Also, what's the deal with Holocrons? Weren't they very rare, very obscure Jedi technology? Why does everyone seem to have heard of them? Dusque doesn't recognize a lightsaber, but somehow knows what a holocron is? And why encode sensitive information in one of those artifacts? In fact, why compile a list of high-ranking rebels at all? Isn't that just asking for trouble?
I often refer to Star Wars novels as my guilty pleasure reading, the escapist books I read every couple months or so when they come out, but I guess maybe I've been spoiled by many of the good writers they've been pulling in: Greg Keyes, Matt Stover, Walter Jon Williams are all (or have been, at least) wonderful writers, and many of the others recently are at least from the upper midrange in terms of writing ability, so I've come to expect more from the EU. I hope that the quality of writing, plotting, character development and so forth in this novel is not indicative of what's to come in the EU.
Overall, this was a moderately enjoyable novel marred by bad writing, with nothing to distinguish it -- no particularly interesting ideas, characters, actions, nothing. Between its blandness of content and inadequacy of writing, I'm going to have to go with a rating of 3.5.
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"This will be our reply to violence:
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More beautifully,
More devotedly than ever before."
- Leonard Bernstein
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 11:42am
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Counting 3 reviews: 21.2/3 = 7.07
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"This will be our reply to violence:
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More beautifully,
More devotedly than ever before."
- Leonard Bernstein
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AdmiralNick22
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 12:43pm
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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It was only so so.
There were a few good parts, especially those with Vader or Leia, but the rest of the book just dragged on.
So I give it a 5.
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Mastadge
Title:
Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 12:45pm
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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Counting 4 reviews: 26.2/4 = 6.55
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"This will be our reply to violence:
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More devotedly than ever before."
- Leonard Bernstein
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sidious618
Registered:
Apr '03
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 5:29pm
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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6.55? Ugh. I loved that book and look what it gets.
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But in purple, I'm stunning!- Londo Mollari, Babylon 5
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Raven
Title:
SFF: Books and Comics Mangler
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/3/04 5:36pm
Subject:
RE: The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE RUINS OF DANTOOINE (RoD spoilers)
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The first chapter was pretty strong. Dusque is pretty likable. Luke, Leia, Threepio, Artoo, Han, Vader, and co. were all well characterized.
But I think overall, the book did not live up to expectations. I think that I agree with just about everything Mastadge had to say, and I’ll leave it at that. That things are open for a sequel is pretty obvious.
4/10.
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