Books The Old Republic: Annihilation by Drew K

I want to see Satele Shan fell to the Dark Side.

 

Well, that's because you're supposed to roll them both together. Who do you think you are, Ackbar?

 

It appears Amazon read our moaning as I just got an email that my copy has now been dispatched.

Which means they did have the book... odd. There must be something wrong with their stock control system at the moment. It's strange why it's always Star Wars books they can't keep track of though.

 

I definitely have a bad feeling they'll have the Emperor's defeat be in an Operation, too, which will suck for me because I most likely won't experience it (I hate the gearing up that's associated with operations). I might youtube it, though. I've done one Operation, and while it was fun, it's as bit annoying to get one set up.

 

While a fan of the Empire, I don't like the emperor, he's more like a OPS boss than a cool character, also his mind control power is a bad plot device.

 

The only reason I don't mind his mind control is that it gives a few interesting perspectives into Palpatine, since he obviously uses some form of mind control on Luke in DE, and Starkiller in the alternate ending for TFU. Interesting that Palpatine much prefers to coerce his apprentices to his side, rather than Force them; as we see from the Jedi Knight story, and from Revan and Malak's resistance to it, mind control is far from perfect, and can often be used against you.

 

As a fan of Star Wars, I'm sorry to say that but, Annihilation is really an empty book without soul, demonstrated by the sentence that summarizes the whole story in Chapter 29.

" Teff’ith: Jedi Grand Master mom, Supreme Commander dad. Now we get why Theron’s so messed up. So you sending a fleet, or what?"

Go your way, this book is without interest and will give you the impression of having wasted your time.

 

Well I finished read the yesterday and I really enjoyed it. Theron Shan character was different from main protagonist Star Wars character that I have read he didn't have the ability to rely on the force only his skill and wit to get him out of situations he finds himself or jumps in due recklessness and good conscious. I really enjoy his character he believable, not over-powerful, and flawed. I have more thoughts about the book,but I post it later once get my thoughts more together.

 

So he is like Luke in ANH? I read 'Lost Suns' and found him kind of boring. He didn't really change, there was maybe something with woodhouse, the old guy that raised him forget his name, but he didn't change. He started as an important agent for the pubs and thats were he ended up, I didn't get a sense of change the way I got from Teneb Kel, in 'Blood of the Empire'.

Also this story has been told before, a lot, mostly better too.

 

I found the book credible and such. Enjoyable, and finally a credible superweapon that work.

This said, I have a large objection over a key plot point.

Drew rather obviously drew (ah ah) inspiration from World War 2 and Bletchey Park for the key technique to destroy the Ascendant Spear, which is to break the signals of the Enigmas machines-I mean the black cyphers.

And exactly like ''textbook history'' WW2, the Allies/Republic heard that an attack is due on Ruan/Coventry, but do not intercept it because it would break the secrecy of breaking their signals. I found this point jarring

1)The Allies never knew that Coventry was going to be specifically attacked. Besides, any self respecting military would not openly mention the objective even in encrypted channels (for instance, the IJN never said ''we are going to attack Midway'' but ''we are going to attack objective X''

2)There are plently of deceptions techniques used by the Allies/Republican to hide that they had broke the codes (sending a recon fighter in an Imperial system and detect ''by accident'' the fleet. Wire to the secret account of an Imperial officer some credits to imply he sold the data to the Republic. Invent a secret superspy rings known as Lucy. Not to mention that the Republicans have, unlike the Allies, people with precognition and abilities to read minds)

3)The whole ''we need to keep the signals breaking secret'' gig is kinda ruined when the head of the MI6/SIS tells exactly about the plan to a single agent. Who is on an Imperial station. Who is using Imperial channels to communicate.

 

What's your proof that the Allies never knew Coventry was going to be attacked? Because, as far as I know, Churchill did learn from the Enigma decryptions that Coventry was going to be bombed, and kept quiet so the Germans would not realize that the Enigma code had been cracked (so, in a way, it can be said that the Allies as a whole didn't know about Conventry). He deliberately sacrificed a major city of his own people to maintain the secret about Enigma.

Later in the war, the Allies found themselves facing a similar dilemma when they learned through Bletchley Park that Kesselring had considerably reinforced Sicily just prior to their landing there - and like Churchill, Eisenhower decided to keep quiet and not cancel the invasion, or even alert the troops that they would be facing considerably more opposition than expected.

 

I may be in the minority here, but I actually thought this book was quite OK. I expected something more along the lines of Deceived and Revan, which I found utterly boring. This one at least has a decent plot, some slightly original ideas and mostly well-paced storytelling.

Things I liked:
-- a non-Force sensitive protagonist (even though he's mostly random on all other counts) with some realistic impediments like a hurting shoulder and a muscle cramp
-- an interesting superweapon (btw I totally think Star Wars could use more cyberpunk)
-- the Imperial Logistics guy
-- the way this builds on the Lost Suns arc
-- the sense you get of the length of the war up to this point, and of people like Teff'ith "living in" and off the war
-- the length and pacing, and the way it doesn't claim to be more than an adventure story
-- also, two guys fighting Sith in their underwear ^^

Things I didn't like:
-- the way Satele's and Jace's involvement in the battle amounted to practically nothing except some worried-parents bonding
-- the presentation of Ziost as a normal and easily accessible transfer world (as opposed to the glorious archaic ice fortress world of FotSE)
-- Karrid's speech when Gnost-Dural runs in on her. I don't mind clichés overmuch, but that was just too corny.

So all in all I'd put this second of TOR books, right after Fatal Alliance (which I loved). But then, I never played the game (apparently that helps) and I also kind-of-liked Ruins of Dantooine, so I guess my idea of what makes a good Star Wars book might be a little off.

 

Why u no play TOR

 

Coventry is a myth; one UlTRA expert got the story out, but a bunch of other ULTRA people and the historians who have looked into it agree that Churchill knew a raid was coming, but didn't know where. The myth bas survived because it's so pervasive in pop culture, because it's so dramatic and perfect for making a point.

 

me no hae time.

Also, my computer sucks. It's already close to crashing when I run 2 browser windows simultaneously.

 

y u bth spk lk dis?

 

Hmm, looks like I need to do more digging about the Enigma decryptions and the Coventry raid. It certainly wouldn't be the first WW II myth debunked by modern research/accounts (like the once-popular notion that the T-34s kicked the stuffing out of the German tanks at Kursk, when in fact the Germans inflicted many more tank losses than they suffered during that battle).

In any case, I think I would have preferred Annihilation to be the first part of a duology instead of a standalone. For one thing, IMO a lot of characters would have benefitted from more character development.

 

Read the excerpt at the back of Revan....

And there's really a character named MORBO?! Like... MORBO from Futurama..... *le sigh*

 

I was extremely pessimistic about Annihilation after Revan, which I was really looking forward to (LOVED the Bane books--but some of Drew K's writing limitations became increasingly evident in the series).
I was REALLY bored with the beginning, but I have since been presently surprised and find myself enjoying it so far.

 

Revan was pretty horrible.

 

I will probably finish early this week (seems others have already finished). When is the review board going to be posted? I would like to add my review after I finish while my thoughts about the book are fresh.

 

I guess it's not that horrible if you didn't play TOR and didn't roll Empire.

 

demonstrated by a clunky sentence that was uttered by a character who is supposed to speak very bad basic??
That's hardly a relevent "summarizing" sentence to be judging a book on

 

Not to derail, but on the battle of Kursk, it depends on how you count ''tank losses''

In 1943, an awful lot of tanks, especially the very complex German ones, broke down from purely mechanical causes. When a division listed ''200 tanks'', it's extremely rare it meant ''200 tanks that could move right now'', even without ennemy action.

This meant that tanks spent a lot, lot, lot of time in divisionnal repair shop. And you need to add to this tanks disabled by mines, AT guns

What I mean here is that a tank lost because you had to scuttle it because you are withdrawing is as lost as a tank that was destroyed during a gun battle.

So, yeah, technically, in proper tank battles, the German did destroyed a lot more tanks than they lost (in tank engagements) around Kursk.
However, in the end, the Soviets could repair their own damaged vehicles. The Germans had to abandon them.

 

Hey hey hey this is not a WWII thread.