Sth Bend, IN Star By Star (SPOILERS)

This thread contains spoilers that you will NOT want to know if you ever plan on reading Star by Star, or any of the New Jedi Order books, for that matter.



Here is my typical short review of the book:

The Good:
The book kept me engaged the whole time. I can't remember any time when I got bored with it and found something else to keep me busy. In fact, the only time I put this book down was early in the morning when my eyes couldn't stay open any longer. It kept me interested through all 600 pages.

The Evil that emanated from Viqi Shesh at the end was awesome. She really went all the way, with a supreme lack of conscious. She would make a wonder dark Jedi if she was force sensitive.

It was interesting that they Skywalkers tried to hide their negative feelings from Ben. I don't remember the Solos doing that...maybe Ben will be a good kid

Anakin's "burn-out" at the end was awesome. The imagery of it really reminded me of Luke's battle with the two Vong in one of the earlier books. I loved that he was so full of the force that it was actually pouring out of him, glowing. It is interesting that he didn't fade into the force though. Possibly going to come back? You bet.

The Vong-Slaying robots were awesome!

Jaina's turn to the dark side was cool. The force lightning was even cooler. The fact that Verger deflected it with a lightsaber was the coolest.

Vergere rocks. I wanted to know more about her, and I was glad this author indulged a little. The whole "is she good/is she bad?" thing was cool. I can't wait to see what other skeletons she has locked up in her closet...


The Bad:
The series seems to have lost the mysticism of the Vong. Now they are easy to chop down, thud bugs are easy to bat away, and warriors aren't to be feared unless in numbers. In Vector Prime and the following four books, the Vong warriors were just as formidable as the Jedi. Now they are just really tough. It seems every blow landed in a sweet spot, under the armpit, the neck, etc.

The battle meld was cheesy. Why even keep it up if it leads to more negative emotions? The relationships between the Jedi strike team was poorly done; the jealous girlfriend, etc. He kept going back to the fact that they all had negative emotions. It got old really fast.

The Voxyn we cool at first, especially the "crunch" when it chomped on the Jedi...but then, it seems like they found out too much info about them, thus they lost their appeal and fear factor. The Jedi tore through scores of them in the warrens, with ease. Sure, they got hurt, but the Voxyn didn't really scare me after that. They just seemed like a one-book monster that would be forgotten soon.


That's all I can think of for now...

Feel free to post your opinions!

 

The Vong Warriors on the ship were not the best they had. More of an honor guard. Also the Jedi have had much more practice fighting them. So I can buy the fact that they were easier to dispatch in this particular instance.

The battle meld was helpful to them because they were always were aware of what the others were doing. It had the problems of the negative emotions though since they were an untrained group. They were never quite sure how the others would react. And you notice that the meld was dropped anytime it was beginning to impair them.

I also loved Lando's new robots. I just wonder how he got the expertise to design and build them in less then a year. Unless it is simply a modification of a deisgn from his graveyard. They never really explained how he got them, just that he was selling them.

Anakin's burnout was especially interesting for me. Remember Imperial Survivor and Daala winning? A little funny that she was the winner of our game and there was a tie-in with Star by Star to her final defaet. In <spoilers for DarkSaber> Daala's fleet was removed by another Jedi, Dorsk 81, also surrendering himself so completely to the force he burned out. <End Spoilers> I know it is a stretch but I found it funny.

For Vergere <Spoilers for Rogue Planet> remember that she is a Jedi of the Old Republic.<End Spoilers> Most interesting how she is playing both sides.