Lit A Cynical Walk Through the NJO

Good for them in that regard anyway.
Regardless I am still curious to see how they would have done them.

 

I'd say I'd rather see Ageless Mara when she's 40-something rather than Ageless Mara at almost-60, like on Sacrifice. Beardless Jacen now and forever peeves me off, and the fact that he has his YJK haircut instead of his incredibly epic TUF haircut...



I am glad that the NJO Jap covers decided against going with Luke's traditional bowl-cut (then again, so did USA's, but Japan did it so much better!), and Han and Leia's aging was well-done. Why Jaina and Danni are in tank tops I do not know...I prefer Jaina's combat suit from the DW Jap cover.



And despite all this, you are correct–these are far better covers than USA's Force Heretic trilogy.

 

Well, finished the re-read of TUF....

Had the entire NJO been on the level of this book, I'd likely have been far more a fan of it. On the one hand you have the Vong and on the other the heroes, who are not at all impaired in fighting their enemy without fearing they will become it. That gives a much more even feel and it makes for a more interesting read.

That NJO was Luceno's outline casts an interesting light on this book, in a way it demonstrates that though you can have an outline, chances are, only the one who wrote the outline will really understand it best. I still think if the redemption of the Vong was the aim, then the Vong shouldn't have been quite so brutally depicted - then again, even Erikson screwed up on this type of plot in The Crippled God, which is testimony to the difficulty of getting redemption stories right. Despite that, the idea that being severed from the Force at a collective and individual level is what led to the Vong becoming so warped is an excellent one, but it is only the start!

Which brings me to the other thing that could not be apparent a decade ago - the sheer scale of the disjunction between this and what followed. The sheer scale of the vandalism that followed TUF really only becomes apparent via a re-read of it! For instance, Coruscant is said to be unsuitable for habitation for decades! Decades !? Did anyone at LFL get that memo? Clearly not. Then there's the way the characters are working well together - clearly too happy, let's divide them all with a civil war! Then there's Jacen, no way does the character depicted as he does here go off the rails in the way he does later save under the most cynical reading imaginable. And with the Empire ascendant in the war's aftermath.... Well, that's a nice set-up for the Legacy comics. Yet having had the Vong begin their path in TUF, next? There is no next! They're gone! Well, until Legacy.

Perhaps one of the most impressive accomplishments of the book is that everyone gets something to do in it, everyone has a part to play and it's very well-executed in the way, though Jaina fans could feel somewhat short-changed at her role in the final confrontation with Onimi. It also strikes a good balance between action and thought, often combining the two most adeptly. Perhaps one of the best twists concerns Alpha Red, something that's both abhorrent yet, as extinction looms, has a certain desperate logic to it, which is one of the best uses of continuity by Luceno, then again that is one of his fortes.

Should DR and LFL have actually had the nerve to allow Luke, Han and Leia to retire after this? Definitely. Han and Leia have certainly been through the wringer repeatedly in this story. Luke has had to see the Jedi Order he revived take 50% casualties, be betrayed by the galaxy it seeks to protect and then, take on Shimmraa and his enhanced warriors, at serious cost. Yes, given all that went on here, it is the time for them to hand matters over. Too bad it didn't happen.

Finally, perhaps the most impressive element of this, is I was able to pick it up and have it ease me into what's going on and has gone on. If SBS is all NJO could be, the good, the bad and the ugly, then TUF is easily the zenith of it, without the bad and the ugly. Instead of having to have imperfect books, we really can have great books free of those defects. There's a wonderful sense of flow and logic to the story, you don't find yourself questioning why characters are doing what they're doing because the reasons are clear.

In short - great work and it truly does deserve its crown as one of the top EU books.

 

The largest problem with the EU for the past decade, which has resulted in extreme cynicism toward continuity and a general disengagement from it for me, is that it seems like the "good authors" are pretty adherent to continuity, while authors like Troy Denning are not. Thus, a lot of the good stuff is constantly being erased by Denning and some others for whatever reason because they don't feel an obligation to respect it, while they introduce their own silly stuff like Daala as CoS and outright subvert other stuff that they're erasing.

You don't see Luceno writing how everyone realized that Daala was a notoriously poor choice for CoS and was immediately recalled in Millennium Falcon, and he doesn't reveal that wait a minute Vergere wasn't actually a Sith and Lumiya pulled a fast one, or that Caedus was actually a clone. He's a good soldier and he works within the existing parameters.

Denning, on the other hand, has Luke completely reverse himself from his conclusions reached at the end of a 5-year, 19 book series after strawmanning those conclusions to start with, transforms the NJO's Yoda into a Sith, turns the NJO's hero into a villain, restores Coruscant, kills off the world brain, and sweeps any relevance the NJO might have had under the rug.

So if the good stuff is getting erased and the bad stuff is being imposed on the good authors who are too professional to turn around and do the same thing, what's the point?

 

For the last decade comics have been the salvation of the EU!

 

Exactly. The thing about Luceno–and to a certain degree, Zahn, although he did some DE sabotage in VOTF–is that they don't whine about how their favorite continuity was ruined; they just cowboy up and go with it. Denning, on the other hand...

"Oh, Traviss' Mandos are better than my Jedi Commandos? I don't think so! I'll kill 'em off. All of 'em. Muahahaha!"

He's petty. He's very, very petty. He does what he wants to do, and if the others do something he doesn't like, well, there's probably a stupid smackdown coming in the near future! Retcons like Mirta in a slinky dress of Daala as Chief of State.

 

Out of the LOTF trio, only Allston comes out of it well - Denning and Traviss? Nah.

 

At least Traviss tried in Bloodlines and Sacrifice. It's more than you can say for Denning. She tries to be like Luceno, including all these references about Boba's past–married to Sintas (which, IIRC, wasn't even completely, 100% canon until that came out), was on Caluula Station, and various mentions of his other backstories–she really did try. Denning, on the other hand, went with what he wanted, rolled over everything Allston and Traviss really tried to achieve, and pretty much just destroyed everything good in Star Wars canon. Not to mention rolling over what Luceno and Stover and the rest tried to do at the end of NJO.

 

Wow, Denning's so bad he makes Traviss look good?

 

It helps that I'm a Traviss fan.

 

Imagine how the EU would be if everyone did what Denning did, e.g. Luceno wrecks Denning's carefully prepared non conclusion to Invincible by having Daala thrown out of office before Millennium Falcon even starts and has Vergere's Force ghost appear and talk to Luke about Jacen and hint he's still alive and Caedus was a clone or a Lumiya Force phantom like the one at the end of Betrayal.

And it escalates from there.

 

PREACH IT MY BROTHER!!!!

 

Yes, I am glad there are good chaps like Luceno and Zahn out there who stick to things even though they don't terribly like 'em. I mean, Zahn wanted to write a post-LOTF Mara/Luke/Ben novel. All he had to do was think up a way for Mara to survive and he could've done so. But he didn't. He stuck to what had happened and dealt with it.

 

I dunno, I kinda wish Luceno did that. It would at least make the absurdity if all these retcons apparent. As it is, Denning is doing it to himself anyway.

 

Years ago, pre-Denning, I humourously sketched an image of the then EU creators feuding like Dark Lords of the Sith, with a clear split between KJA-Veitch and Zahn-Stackpole, but can't really replicate that for the vandalism of the last decade. I still think Zahn inflicted a great deal of damage on VOTF due to his snarking at various stories but at least it was limited to snark. In contrast we have the likes of John and Jan taking care not to unnecessarily affect DR and DR's response practically being: Screw you - with Apocalypse being the zenith of this attitude. Given the evidence of Lost Tribe books and Kenobi and DOTJ, it clearly isn't in place across the whole of DR, but it's sufficient to cause no shortage of entirely avoidable problems.

 

Yeah, there's no reason to be petty–Denning's already showing his own absurdity by continuing down this path blindly. Not killing off Abeloth and making Luke stay alive because the galaxy needed him–and subsequently having him retire–just cement it.

 

So, Refugee. Burned through this one in a single afternoon, the sort of alacrity that told me I really didn’t enjoy it so much as I was just reading it to get it over with. I’m going to put the tl;dr into the header of this review this time: it has the same strengths and weaknesses as the last book, only magnified somewhat due to a change in locations and slight tweaking of plots.

The overall characterizations remain these books’ strongest point, closely followed by Tahiri’s mental battles and Nom Anor’s rise to the leadership of the Jeedai heresy. The plots Luke et al and Han and Leia et al go through are intriguing enough on the surface, but are padded and plodding in execution, and suffer the authors not being James Luceno in terms of research prowess or prose. When you’re A and B plots are both underwhelming and you wind up looking forward to when the C and D plots are mentioned to keep you reading, that’s a bad sign. It makes the book, like its predecessor, one of the weakest in the series so far.

Also, when Baron Fel is not only mentioned but featured in the A plot, but with continuity purposely snarled so his daughter can be kidnapped and have him be in a position to be profoundly grateful, it should be a crime somewhere. Probably punishable by pelting the authors with trade copies of the X-Wing: Rogue Squadron comics. He gets one good line, about being able to count, and that’s literally all he does. No fighting, no politics, nothing.

And that might continue to be this trilogy’s greatest crime. Beyond the padding and tendency to resort to telling without showing, there are many great ideas that are simply not well executed here. Tangling the Ssi’ruuvi and Bakuran politics into the Invasion sounds like a decent enough plot, but the tangled mess of what’s actually on the page is so disjointed and confusing that it’s almost impossible to keep straight who’s on what side until the very, very end of the book.

Having Luke and Mara return to the Chiss in their search for Zonama Sekot, again, sounds good enough on paper, seeing Baron Fel, Syal and Wyn is a treat for EU aficionados, but there isn’t enough to distinguish any of them, or any of the Chiss for that matter, as beings of interest. The Chiss by and large come off as thick-headed and priggish, until the Jedi start doing useful stuff, then they agree to help. That’s another problem I found: the Bakurans fall into the same thing. In fact, everyone seems to mistrust the envoys until they show that they’re actually not out for nefarious reasons, then they immediately start to help them like NPCs in a ‘90s era SNES RPG.

Having the SkySolos earning the trust of a population might be an interesting plot for one of your two main arcs, but putting it in both is the literary equivalent of red tape, meaning we as readers have to clip through layers of unnecessary padding as the heroes work their way through the obstructed and tortuous plots around them. And even that might work if all of the politics and maneuverings around them were at all interesting or worth my investment. They aren’t. I shouldn’t have to work for my enjoyment of a book, Sean and Shane, especially not a book with the words Star Wars on the cover.

We get what seems like an ending that pulls up short of a cop-out with Bakura, as Jaina laments that, sometimes, when engaged in matters of politics and war, things just go wrong, people are hurt and sometimes die, and there’s nothing she or anyone else can do about it. Good returns bad, that might return good in the future. We get a glance into the idea of Balance and how karma is seen in a Star Wars frame. But that seeming-ending turns out to be yet another twist, and the ending is much more conventional and cliché.

Sigh.

The characterizations are, as I said before, strong, but the problem now is that a lot of the characters really don’t have anything to do. Saba is reduced to “hunting” through an old-fashioned library for clues, Mara plays bad cop to Luke’s good cop as the Chiss run them in circles, Danni gets to play with maps and make googly eyes at Jacen, Han and Leia are left to wade through Bakuran politics, Captain Yage and her Imperial detachment are almost completely absent after the first dozen pages, and Jag is largely ineffectual, doing little but sitting in his fighter and waiting for something to happen or someone to explain what’s going on. I’ve never related to Jag so well before this book.

The only characters from the envoy groups that make worthwhile contributions to the overall A and B plots are Jaina, Jacen, Tahiri and, oddly enough, C-3PO. Everything else is done by or controlled by characters introduced to the plot in this book. Jacen is the only character in the Chiss plot who gets to do much of anything aside from playing bodyguard to Soontir, Jaina and Tahiri tag team the Bakura plot in lieu of the adults, and 3PO manages to actually be used for his primary function for once, translating the fact that some of the P’w’ecks are, in fact, Ssi’Ruuvi in disguise. But not until the relentless plodding of the plot has made it basically immaterial.

The folks in Freedom are pretty bland, actually, filling the roles of “la resistance” (the youthful leader, the hacker, the overly-aggressive one, etc) and not doing much else. And, I’m not sure, but I think this book is a wee little bit racist. Out of the entirety of Freedom, the one to betray the rest of them, and Jaina, is the Rodian. The Solos are immediately waving weapons at the ostensibly friendly P’w’ecks, and never trust them right up until their lives are saved. The Skywalkers, as I said, play “good cop, bad cop” with the Chiss, but the Imperial troops under their command don’t even try to understand the culture they’re interacting with, despite having been ostensible allies with them for years.

Tahiri’s rising multiple personality disorder (the artist formerly known as schizophrenia) makes for interesting reading, yes, but it’s also far too delayed in the series. This should have been taking place directly after Anakin’s death, the excuse that it’s tied to the Yuuzhan Vong’s prospects in the war is complete crap. If that were the case, then Leia’s excuse for Riina, that she might be a Yuuzhan Vong but has done nothing to hurt them, falls flat, because her strength and ability to mentally fight against Tahiri is directly tied to whether the rest of her race is succeeding in their mission to exterminate the GA. Whether she’s done something in the past doesn’t matter if her continued existence is dependent on the long-term victory of her species against theirs.

Nom Anor’s plot is the only one I can’t poke holes in, mostly because it’s only in the book a handful of times. His movement is spreading out of the ranks of Shamed Ones and into the lower ranked priests, warriors and other Yuuzhan Vong. He gets an insider into Shimrra’s court, after nearly killing her with his first use of his plaeryin bol in the series I can recall. He’s in his element, manipulating, plotting, planning, gathering a following to himself in a terrifically crafted mirror of his position at the beginning of Vector Prime. At this point, he’s the one saving these books for me, otherwise I’d just dismiss everything and move on to something better.

These books aren’t bad, they’re just bland and lifeless, especially getting away from the Remnant; they remind me, disturbingly enough, of a lot of the post-NJO books when it comes to prose and scope, so flavorless that, in lieu of any sort of controversy, they becomes almost instantly forgettable. I’ll get through Reunion and get back to you all next week.

 

They're filler.

 

The only thing that annoyed me about the Nom Anor plot was that in Vector Prime, his plaeryin bol is stated to shoot liquid poison. Yet here, it shoots a dart injected with poison. My question is, how could Nom see out of the plaeryin bol if there's a big dart sitting on the inside of his pupil? Liquid poison, Sean and Shane. Liquid poison.

 

Continuity bits and bytes. A weakness that really should be a strength, especially with two authors on board.

 

What is everyone's favorite backcover blurb? Force Heretic 1 Remnant is one of my favorites followed by The Unifying Force.

 

I have the trade hardcover for Force Heretic, so could you copy that into the thread for us?

I'm un-ironically in love with Rebel Dream's, if only because it doesn't even mention Wedge:

 

I wonder if the writer of that blurb realized what he or she unleashed.

I get a real 80s fantasy vibe from it. And I feel nostalgic for the uncertainty of knowing where the NJO, and the SW EU, was going.

 

Note that these are the blurbs for the Force Heretic trilogy, so be wary of spoilers. You have been warned.








Remnant
As the bloodied and weary galaxy faces battle once more, the Jeditake on the formidable task of bringing the last of the Empire into the light…
From the ashes of the New Republic—torn to shreds by the savageYuuzhan Vong forces—the newly formed Galactic Alliance has risen, determined to bring peace to the entire galaxy. But first the Yuuzhan Vong must be contained once and for all. And so Luke Skywalkerseeks a world long lost to legend: Zonama Sekot, a sentient planetbelieved to have repelled an invasion by the Yuuzhan Vong decades ago. Deciphering the enigmatic secrets of Zonama Sekot just might turn the tides of this relentless war.
Aboard the Jade Shadow, Luke, his wife Mara, Jacen Solo, and other Jedi head off into the Unknown Regions, where rumors and clues suggest Zonama Sekot might be found. Yet the mission has barely begun when the searchers stumble into a horrific battle. The Imperial Remnant, in retreat from the mighty Yuuzhan Vong, is about to be destroyed. It would seem those aboard the Jade Shadow have little choice but to leave the Empire to its fate. But these are no ordinary space travelers, they are Jedi…

Refugee
Swift and deadly, the Yuuzhan Vong have blasted their way across the galaxy—and now stand on the threshold of total victory. Yet a courageous few still dare to oppose them…
Rife with hostile cultures and outright enemies, the Unknown Regionshold many perils for Luke Skywalker and the Jedi searching forZonama Sekot, the living planet that may hold the key to dealing with the Yuuzhan Vong once and for all.
Meanwhile, on the edge of the galaxy and in the heart of a trusted ally, old enemies are stirring. The Yuuzhan Vong have inflamed long-forgotten vendettas that are even now building up to crisis point. And as Han and Leia journey on their quest to knit the unraveling galaxy back together, betrayal and deception await them…
Reunion
The Jedi move one step closer to saving the embattled galaxy—only to confront a formidable wall of resistance…
The harrowing search for Zonama Sekot is finally over for Luke Skywalker, Jacen Solo, and the others aboard the Jade Shadow. But joy turns to alarm when the living planet sends a defiant message: it refuses to follow them back to a galaxy full of war, exploitation, and misery.
While Luke works feverishly to persuade the elusive planet to reconsider, the Yuuzhan Vong launch a full-scale attack aimed at the heart of the new alliance. Sent to defend a major communications base, Han and Leia find themselves hopelessly outnumbered. Reinforcements are just too far away to help before everything is destroyed. So the courageous pair must now fight an unrelenting battle against staggering odds. Whether they actually survive is another matter…

 

NJO had its flaws, but it's still better than Legacy.