Agents of Chaos Discussion

Agents of Chaos
Hero's Trial
Jedi Eclipse

by James Luceno

Well I just finished Jedi Eclipse last night, and thought I would open a discussion of these books.

Things I liked about Hero's Trial
- The Elan/Vergere story line. It was nice to see a female Vong. I think Luceno did a great job writing the YV.
- Droma was a great new character. The space battles where Han, Droma, Vergere and Elan were escaping reminded me a little bit of ANH. Total strangers trying to escape enemies.
-Chewie's funeral was great. It really closed things.
-I was glad Mara was finally cured.

Things I did not care for in Hero's Trial
-At times the writing was a bit slow. There was a lot of description of things and such which I found to be a little boring.
-This book was very different from the first three NJO books. Jacen, Anakin, Kyp, Jaina, Ganner had either no role or a very small role. I actually missed them as well as missing Danni. It got away from the youth and brought back a moody Han Solo.

Overall: I loved this book, not as good as Stackpole's Duology, but a good one.

Things I liked about Jedi Eclipse
-I liked the parts where Skidder was trying to fool around with the Hutts and the Vong.
-The Ryn and Droma were great characters.
-The droid revolution was classic
-The Senate politics were real good, a nice mystery ending, leaving us wanting more.
-The Hapes parts were interesting for me because I have never read The Courtship of Princess Leia.

Things I disliked
-Killing Skidder seemed pointless. He was just starting to get interesting when they killed him off.
I would have liked to see his character progress a little bit more.
-I will be the first to say it, but I dislike when the SW books have these ultimate super weapons. I did not care for the Centerpoint storyline.
-I like the Hutt storyline.

Overall: It was an okay book. In the end not much happened in my opinion.

This Duology was good, but not as good as the Dark Tide or Vector Prime.
The writing was confusing at times.
Sometimes a lot of time was spent on nothing.
Okay books.

-Seldon

 

First time around I found them very slow, average books. Not a patch on Luceno's Cloak of Deception.

Second time around I loved them both. They're great, rip-roaring adventures that sow the seeds for what is to come. The moment when Thracken pushes Anakin out of the way is a brilliant one, and Droma is a great character. I also liked seeing Han develop throughout this series, and Threepio was fun too.

 

I thought them better, than VectorPrime or the DarkTide-Duology. Stackpole either creates a story with uber-fighters or his plots suffer from minimalism and most times, they do both.

 

Hero's Trial is a great book. It brings to mind some of Han's more whacky adventures in his younger days. I didn't really care for Jedi Eclipse though.

 

Yeah, I liked Hero's Trial a lot more then Jedi Eclipse.

 

I think Agents of Chaos I was the first NJO book I read. Then I began from Vector Prime, but skipped HT after Dark Tide II. So I'd forgotten most of the story by the time I re-read it last month. And I'd forgotten what a great book it was.

Though I haven't read them yet, the Han Solo Adventures books are definately an inspiration for AoC. Luceno said himself, he wrote the duology as a tribute to his late writing partner, Brian Daley - author of the Han trilogy. There seem to be a few in-jokes in AoC for readers of that earlier trilogy, most of which I missed. However, the character of Han is superb, and even draws on some of Harrison Ford's other action hero characters ("It isn't the years, it's the parsecs" springs to mind)

Droma was a great addition, and while he can't replace Chewie, the banter between him and Han is great. While I found the repetition of Han's catchphrases annoying the first time round, I enjoyed the trip down memory hyperlane the second time.

With this duology, Cloak of Deception and The Unifying Force, Luceno has cemented himself firmly in my mind as one of the best SW authors around. High hopes indeed for his Episode 3 tie-in.

 

Yes I forgot all about when Han was talking about "fortune and glory" in Hero's Trial. It reminded me a lot of Indy's conversation with Willy and Short Round from The Temple of Doom.
Nice connection there.

-Seldon

 

One thing I didn't like in HT was the apparent collapse of the NR military's fighting of them.

Last thing we see in DT is the Jedi being blamed for Ithor. Yet wouldn't the destruction of such a world act as a rallying cry for a ruthless counter-attack? Apparently not.

Several posters have advanced the theory of a Vong blitzkrieg between DT-AOC which does explain the situation, but it shouldn't be needed in a series that claims to be more realistic. DT showed the NR using techniques that evened the field and then are rarely seen again, such as use of an Interdictor to occupy dovin basals while a couple of SDs unload on it. Only the stutter-fire seemed to be retained.

It seems the NR leadership was content to allow the Vong the initiative, when even a xenophobic slimeball like Fey'Lya knew enough of war to know you don't allow the enemy the initiative unless you want to court defeat.

I won't start on the H&L fiasco.

Of the two HT was better than JE but the duology suffered due to the plots it had foisted upon it.

JB

 

I think this duology flowed well with Dark Tide.

I just missed the characters of Dark Tide,
Pellaeon
Jacen
Anakin
Jaina
Corran
Ganner
Danni

I would have just liked to see more of them, or to see them at all.