Official Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I know. Its that I thought he was saying that Jacen was a good guy because Leto the second was treated like a good guy in those novels. But, personaly, I think he had a bit of a God complex. And so does Jacen-or maybe Jacen has more a Jesus complex: "I must suffer to bring peace to everyone!" Except suffering for him invloves hurting other people. He can be a sadasit and a machosist at the same time!!

Anyway, I find it amuzing that I actualy said something that had to be edited. That's out of character for me.

 

What I'd like to know is whether or not we'll see a consistency in plot between authors. The characters appearing and disappearing are somewhat annoying.

 

I would guess that we see the the use of characters to
become more consistent as the series progresses. At this
point the authors have written their first books without
having the novels of the other two authors at their use.
The continuity problems between Betrayal and Bloodlines
are pretty much the result of this. Tempest may still
have the same problem but I would be surprised if in the
later books the characters introduced - both new characters
created for this occasion and old characters that are
brought in to the plot - by each authors in their first
works would not become common property. Not that they
Allston or Denning would write half their novels about
Boba Fett or Traviss about Wedge, but that characters
will have a continuing presence in the series instead
of disappearing for one or two books without a trace. Same
with subplots in which these characters play a part.

 

I'm afraid that LotF will end up being a trilogy of trilogies instead of one 9 book arc.

 

More like half a trilogy of trilogies and half one nine book arc. Allston with Wedge/Daughter, Traviss with the Boba/Mando's, and Denning most likely with Alema/Saba. Then all three have the Jacen/Ben/Main storyline. However it looks like the Mando storyline at least could be involved with the overal story, maybe the same will happen with the other two.

However Wedge written by Allston and Saba by Denning are never bad things. Same with Traviss and the Mando's for the most part.

 

I agree, having the Mandolorians play a bigger part would be good, esepcially towards the end of the series.

With the way that Traviss left off in Bloodlines, we don't need to see the Mandolorians for a while (to give them time to build up and develop other storylines)

 

Well, seeing as how Boba has a body to dig up and two to bury and some travelling to do to get the bodies so they can be reburied together (iirc, that was the plan), he's going to be busy for days if not weeks. Thus, him being out of the general picture for TEMPEST and EXILE isn't going to seem unusual at all.

I suspect SACRIFICE will pick up with him back on Mandalore after the burial and ready to continue his plot. At the very least we know he's moving around the galaxy doing things while other actions are going on.

 

I just finished the book last and I am left wanting more. I feel as though the book just left off without a fierce ending. I understand that there is the grand-daughter of Fett and that Han and Leia are obviously upset with their son, but I was hoping that maybe the conflict would be a bit more intense. Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

 

Well, there are seven more books . . .

 

I think this puts the authors, all of them, in a bit of a weird place. They both have to satisfy the urge to have a book "end" at the ending, and yet let it flow into the next, as well as not make it feel like a trilogy of trilogies, as well as create a thematic thread running through the entire series while giving B-plots that the reader can fell are resolved. The second book in a 9 book serial series is an odd place to be.

In a way, you have to be the "second" act, the rising action that raises the stakes according to three-act story telling (even though this is a nine book story, three-act storytelling is pretty much the plotting tradition, so stay with me) so that the third book can bring us down with a climax of some sort (and all indications are of some sort of climax, perhaps a battle between Lumiya and Luke) and then the third book has to serve a climax as well as thematically flow into the fourth book to start the cycle again while maintaining b-plots and a meta-arc that runs through the whole series.

Whew.

Granted, not as hard or as prone to that jerky feeling from NJO, but here's hoping that the authors can pull this off together.

It sounds like the books are more in line to follow on one and another now, so with some editorial oversight perhaps all the dominos will fall properly into place.

 

Just recently finished this one. First Star Wars EU book in a LONG time that hasn't been an absolute chore to read.

In fact, i can even say i enjoyed this book. Alot.

Really found the storyline with Jacen, Ben and the Secret Police to very intersting, as was the Boba Fett arc.

It helped alot that Traviss also seems to be the most technically competent writer that has been involved with Star Wars in the past little while. I found her writing to be quite pleasant to read.

Too bad Denning's back with this next one.

 

Just started it last weekend. I was assured there was action/excitement, so to sarlaccs to anyone who betrayed my trustful innocence.

 

Essentially, you have three acts to the series. Each act is made up of another three acts. Each of those acts must have three acts.

Yes, it gets complex.

 

If nothing else, it's going to be an interesting ride along the way, I've no doubt.

 

Jacen, you fool.

I'm reading Star Wars EU again after a long time. I stopped at NJO and read the first book of that Denning trilogy.. but I just continued.

This is sad. The way it has progressed. It's Vader all over again. The writing is great but I'd rather see a different story line. To see the universe break down like this again, all over. One good thing is, Ben is being a 13 year old with his rebelliousness but his head seems to be screwed right. I reckon he'll come good.

Wow, this is all very weird. To see Jacen fall.. shocking.

Saddening. I hope it is not totally Vader all over again. I'd hate to see that.

 

I'm going to copy and paste my posts from the official site forums that I made a couple of days ago --- it's a long one. But here, I can do it in one post.

I just read Bloodlines.

Don't throw things at me! I have a perfectly valid reason for waiting so long. See, at the beginning of August, I began reading The Shadow Rising. Book Four of The Wheel of Time, a whopping thousand pager weighing in at 393, 823 words. 270 or so pages in, it was off to school, to do a two-day leadership conference for incoming students to the University, followed by two weeks of all-day training to be a Don in residence (though we're called "Community Advisors" where I'm from), and then our school's Welcome (Frosh) Week, a 23-day adventure of epic proportions. Then school properly starts, and I don't find myself reading The Shadow Rising again until I'm riding the Greyhound Bus home for Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving, early October).

So, with school going on, where you don't find time to read as much as you'd like to, I read chapters here and there until finishing it a day or two before coming home for the Winter break, last week.

So I just read Bloodlines! And I'll start Tempest tonight. And then I'll strategically read, so that I can start Exile on time... Anyway, onto the Blood.

One of my favourite parts of the book were the narratives written from Ben's perspective. Though it may have been iterated a little too much that he didn't understand adults (in blunt terms, that is), his coming to terms with the galaxy around him was written very well. This is the best characterization of Ben we've seen since he was born.

His interactions with Barit Saiy were enjoyable to read. But what happened to Barit Saiy? It kind of seemed like his storyline was abandoned. Captain Shevu noted that he had disappeared, and was worried that he had disappeared, and then there was no more mention of him. I hope that Karen has plans for him in Sacrifice, and that he wasn't merely forgotten. I would love to see more interaction between Barit and Ben in the future.

Boba also had some great characterization. I'm debating with myself whether or not there was too much Boba, though. With the amount that he was in the book, it would be easy to hold that opinion, but there was still quite a bit concerning the GA-Corellian crisis that wasn]t about Boba. I'll settle for there being a just right amount of Boba, but if he shows up that much in Sacrifice, it'll be too much.

On the subject of Boba: There were some great nods to previous works involving Boba. That is, the mention of Fenn having been sweet to Leia, and the 360-degree view in Fett's HUD, which I believe was introduced in Daniel Keys Moran's The Last One Standing. However, I'm thinking it more likely that Karen got that from an essential guide, as when Fett mused that there had never been a rivalry between he and Han Solo, that contradicted pretty much all seventy pages of The Last One Standing. Fett hated Solo, with a burning passion, until they encountered eachother in 15 ABY. Heck, Fett found out where Solo was, and hunted him down, with no bounty- or money-induced motive --- he wanted to kill Han. I also love the line from said tale, where Leia is trying to get Fett to join the Alliance:

Leia: "You're just like Han."

Fett: "I am nothing like Han Solo."

That wasn't the only contradiction of previous works with Fett, either --- remember the scene in The Unifying Force where Han and Leia see Fett without his helmet, and Han swears he recognizes the man, but he can't remember where from? Well, it's said in Bloodlines that Fett ventures into public without his helmet for the first time in his adult life. OK, so maybe he didn't consider Caluula Station to be "public". But then it's stated that Han has never seen Fett without his helmet on.

I don't want to be quick to jump to conclusions here, but I have seen a multitude of posters on theforce.net state that Karen doe

 

His interactions with Barit Saiy were enjoyable to read. But what happened to Barit Saiy? It kind of seemed like his storyline was abandoned. Captain Shevu noted that he had disappeared, and was worried that he had disappeared, and then there was no more mention of him. I hope that Karen has plans for him in Sacrifice, and that he wasn't merely forgotten. I would love to see more interaction between Barit and Ben in the future.

Barit Saiy could just stand for all those people that "disappear" under oppressive regimes after having been captured by their secret services. Traviss could have plans for him, but I think that it is still most likely that he was killed. By Jacen, on his orders or by some minion of his acting on his own. Finding out this could be a part of "awakening" of Ben to the truth about Jacen.

 

I think that was the whole point of Saiy. He just Disappeared as so many did in South America in the 1980's.

There's a chance Ben will keep hunting him down, but I think he'll just be "lost in the system" and never really resurface again. Which makes his fate all the more disturbing.