Jedi Council Forums - The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)

Post Reply | Active Topic Notification | Previous Active Topic | Next Active Topic

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 - Previous | ~~Next~~ | Reload

Author	Topic: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
Havac Title: Lit Mod of War Registered: Sep '05	Date Posted: 6/25 6:40pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	Average score: 483.65/62 = 7.80 -----signature----- "Is there a captain's hat involved in this?"
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
Ulicus Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 7/3 11:31am Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers) - Date Edited: 7/3 11:34am (2 edits total) Edited By: Ulicus
	I enjoyed the book but I have to admit that this is mainly because I forced myself to only accept the events of LotF happening in "broad strokes" (I won't link to TV Tropes ) and pretended that Daala was a different person whose entire history had been retconned. Though there were some really great bits, there was a lot of "meh" to munch on too. (Usually anything that carried over from LotF) Ben as a 16 year old Jedi Knight is ridiculous - in part because it means that his becoming a knight at 14 hasn't been jettisoned - and his whole "A Grand Master needs an apprentice that is a rank higher" made my roll my eyes pretty hard. That said, I actually liked Ben for the first time... ever, really. Which is saying something. He was an insufferable **** all through LotF. The whole Tarc/Tahiri thing made me want to vomit, though. Seriously. Can they either let Tahiri MOVE ON and find someone totally different or bring Anakin back (not as a ghost possessing Tarc's body)? Ideally the former but I wouldn't cry bloody murder if they went for the latter. I will probably buy the entire series (I think the books will look nice on my shelf) but, frankly, I think that LotF has ruined this era almost beyond repair. FotJ shouldn't have been set afterwards, it should have replaced it -- with the entirety of LotF being explained as one of the visions Jacen had on that asteriod before he stuck Lumiya down and stayed true to the light. So yeah, it was a well written, fun read but it came with a lot of LotF-related baggage that spoiled it. 6/10 -----signature----- This is an imaginary story... aren't they all supposed to fit together, though? An animated cartoon about Obi-Wan and Padawan Anakin would have made more sense. Recipient of Golden Ewok™ and Golden EwokTrooper™
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
Havac Title: Lit Mod of War Registered: Sep '05	Date Posted: 7/3 1:58pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	Average score: 489.65/63 = 7.77 -----signature----- "Is there a captain's hat involved in this?"
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
DarthIktomi Registered: May '09	Date Posted: 7/3 5:31pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	Lord_Vivec posted: The Bad: 1) Kenth Hamner. Now I don't hate Kenth Hamner, but I don't think he's a good choice for interim grand master. I know Kyp and Corran have too much baggage right now for being the leader, but I think Cilghal or Kyle would have been better choices. Cilghal, yes. Kyle, maybe for teh lolz. Kyp and Corran also need to balance each other out. Giving either one of them the Grand Master title would upset the balance of the council. It's pretty much like Fox News and your campus's local anarchist paper: They'll disagree with each other on principle if nothing else.
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
JonCrites Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 7/8 6:25am Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	While most everyone is reading or finished with Omen, I just finished Outcast yesterday . I think this book was a mixed bag for me. I have to agree with other reviewers that the first third was very exciting and that when the plot splits up it kind of lost momentum. I actually thought all the stuff with the Baren Do Sages was actually really cool. And in regards to Jacen it does show us something about him even if indirectly; he could not sniff out the reality of the 'deaths' and if he did why didn't he do something about it like Luke and Ben? I would rate this 7.5/10
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
Havac Title: Lit Mod of War Registered: Sep '05	Date Posted: 7/8 1:40pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	Average score: 497.15/64 = 7.77 -----signature----- "Is there a captain's hat involved in this?"
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
MistrX Registered: Jun '06	Date Posted: 7/22 3:52pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers) - Date Edited: 7/22 3:56pm (1 edits total) Edited By: MistrX
	I finally got a hold of this one and finished it last week. Not a bad way to start the latest series, but it doesn't really set itself apart, never rising above and beyond the expected. The scale does go down a bit, and like Millennium Falcon that's kind of refreshing. For once, the entire galaxy is not on the brink of destruction and there's not yet another galactic war. It actually reminded me more than a little of Betrayal. There was some of that adventure, though without an equivalent of the Jacen storyline from that book, this one is lighter and more fun. Then again, even more than Betrayal this one feels like it's lacking something of substance, though it's hard to nail down what. It's clearly a set up for what's to come, most especially the plot line on Coruscant, which is resolved the least of the three main plots that take up the latter half of the book. Even so, it's probably the thread that I enjoyed the most. For one thing, seeing as it takes place on Coruscant and deals directly with the status of the Jedi Order and the GA government under Daala, it gives the best picture of the state of the post-LOTF galaxy, at least as far as the Core is concerned. Getting to see the institutions' and the characters' status and the ways they had to deal with the fallout of Jacen's reign is one of the things I'd been looking forward to seeing. Not only that, but the plot itself, following up from Millennium Falcon and the activities of Seff Hellin, were the most exciting in the book. While the stakes are never that high, it still flows well and made me wondering just what would happen next and what Jaina and co. would be finding. Throw in giving some of the other Jedi Masters, such as Kenth and Cilghal, some real voices and perspectives for once and you have what is my favorite part of the book. Speaking of Daala, her new level-headed demeanor didn't really bother me. Yeah, she used to be a genocidal maniac, but that was 30 years ago. It seems age (and maybe some corrective brain surgery) gave her a little wisdom and sanity. What didn't make sense, as many have already pointed out, was her calling Luke out on things like Kyp and Luke not really having a counter, not even internally. It still makes no sense that she would be the CoS now, but that's not Allston's doing. I wonder how long we'll have to deal with it. I was glad to see Luke and Ben heading off to Dorin to learn from the sages. I find the idea of getting to "see" Jacen's journey and the various Force-using cultures and movements to be a fascinating idea. The execution here, though, felt somewhat lacking. While I enjoyed getting a look at the Kel Dor and learning things we already knew about the sages, the entire underground plot was kind of underwhelming. It seemed that the mystery of the Sages was pretty much revealed at the beginning and the underground sequence was really just there to give Luke and Ben something to solve. It was there just to give them something to do. That said, Luke's characterization was some of my favorite in a while. He's the powerful, wizened Jedi Master we all expect him to be, but he has a bit of that Yoda-like humor and mischief to him. And, of course, he was always in control of the situation. It's probably a good thing that he's out of the way at this juncture. The Kessel plot was probably the most uneven of the three, IMO. It does have some entertaining and intriguing bits, whether it's with the parade of known characters and old faces (yay for Nien, Hobbie, and Rhysati! Honorable mention to Nawara Ven, though that's an entire other storyline) or the way the characters were wrote. The encounter Allana has was interesting and I was disappointed to see that not followed up upon (more set up, of course). I started getting into it when I thought the thing with the bogies was going somewhere, but it didn't. Much of it seemed to be about Han's fears of Kessel and the energy spiders, but in spite of the impact that was meant to have, it still rang somewhat false to me. All in all, entertaining but still there was something lacking. 7/10 -----signature----- We are well and truly forked
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
Havac Title: Lit Mod of War Registered: Sep '05	Date Posted: 7/22 6:09pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	Average score: 504.15/65 = 7.76 -----signature----- "Is there a captain's hat involved in this?"
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
rhonderoo Title: Former Head Admin Registered: Aug '02	Date Posted: 9/21 1:10pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	The fact that I am just now finishing this book despite having started it when it came out should tell you something. Wow. I don't dislike Allston, but I'm not one of those EU folks that will say anything he does is superawesomefantastic, either. That said, this book was a letdown even though I didn't have high hopes for it. I literally skimmed pages (over half the book) the first time I "read" it, and made myself go back and read word for (sometimes excrutiating) word before reviewing, hoping to feel different. I didn't. The good parts like Luke and Ben's portion (which were pretty few and far between) went by too fast, and got a bit muddled and tripped up in the storyline, like Allston wasn't sure where he was going even as he started the paragraph. And the bad parts, drug on...and on...and on. The Baron Do piece is just bad. Bad. Particularly now that I'm reading Omen and am liking Golden's interpretation of the Aang Tii. Marvel comic set into novelization, zany bad. I didn't follow their story and nothing Allston did could make me want to know more about them. Jaina and Jag were too "cute" and basically read as Han and Leia v.2.0 in their dialogue. And speaking of Han and Leia... their characterization is pretty bad. I had higher hopes for this book based on the reviews I was seeing, but just can't force myself to give it anything in the "good" zone, which would be above a 5. So it's a 3.5 for me. -----signature----- DT421 FYI: You don't deal with me. I deal with you. Damned right the Jedi's fire has gone out of the universe. I was the bad-ass Class C extinguisher who snuffed them. - @darthvader (Darth Vader on Twitter)
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History
LittleMissNightsaber Registered: May '09	Date Posted: 9/21 1:25pm Subject: The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: OUTCAST (Spoilers)
	Outcast was the best out of the three books so far. But I skipped the H/L subplot since it got so boring. The scene with them in the cave last years. I skipped the last few parts of them. The Allana part was good however. Luke and Ben= I give it a 9 -----signature----- When I was ten, shamelessly dressed as Luke Skywalker ~I can't hold on to me Wonder what's wrong with me?~ Lithium, Evanescence
	Post Reply \| Quote Reply \| Active Topic Notification \| Private Message \| Post History

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 - Previous | ~~Next~~ | Reload