Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: CORUSCANT NIGHTS III: PATTERNS OF FORCE (Spoilers)

Average score: 166.75/22 = 7.58

 

I just can't get into this book, after 58 pages I'm setting it aside for now. Tell me it gets better!

 

Well, I finally slogged through this. I'd have finished it earlier but, having learnt secondhand that Vader didn't actually get to put Jax (or any other Jedi) down, a lot of my enthusiasm for the series dwindled. In the end, however, I didn't have any problems with the final confrontation, since Vader was portrayed appropriately - though it was something of an anti-climax.

Also, Kaj's power levels were incredibly annoying. Made even moreso by the fact that there wasn't even a whit of explanation for them. Certainly, I've sort of justified it all in my head... but I'd much rather have not had to. I mean, why did he have to be untrained? Couldn't he at least have studied beneath some psuedo Vima-De-Boda-a-Like? He's not remotely a Gary Stu but... if he's used again, I hope to chaos that he was actually some sort of mindwiped sleeper agent of Vader's (or the Emperor's!) all along.

This series just doesn't work set in 19BBY, either. It's not just the references to "twenty years" or "two decades" that do it, either. It's the 14/15 year old Jax reflecting on the fact that, had he arrived on Coruscant before the Empire took over, he would have been trained as a Jedi (nope, too old mate). It's Tesla being a second generation inquistor (okay, we can pretend that his Jedi Master turned inquistor, but it's not what was intended - clearly). And, ultimately, the fact that this feels like a galaxy that has been the Empire for a long time.

Still, for all the things that annoyed me, there was a lot I liked. But given I gave the previous two books a 10 and a 9, I had hoped this book would do more for me.

Anyway, yeah. I'm too lazy to do a proper review: 7.0

 

I agree: the last installment was a bit of a let down, comparatively. And I really enjoyed the first two. But I like how it ultimately ended, and I enjoyed the series as a whole.

It has actually inspired me to pick up Shadow Hunter, er, eventually.

 

Average score: 173.75/23 = 7.55

 

p79: "They wanted to make an example of him - show that they were the leaders now."

A situation which would only be made more unlikely by setting the book closer to ANH.