Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: DARK NEST III: THE SWARM WAR (spoilers)

Counting 66 ratings: 443.65/66 = 6.72

It's nothing personal . . . but Bart did cheat us from booting him, remember?

 

Wow. There's a ton of hatred for this book. How sad.

 

Unlock and bump.

 

Counting the reviews, I believe this is actually the 65th, not the 67th.

But anyway...

Any of the problems I had getting into TUQ seemed to be gone when I read this book. Maybe I just found the material more enthralling or the pace quicker, but for whatever reason my interest in this book was higher than the last and I came away thinking that this is probably the strongest of the three books of this trilogy. It has no trouble bringing the action, though with many of Denning's books, I sometimes have trouble wrapping my head around his descriptions. In the end, though, this book, and the trilogy in general seem to have one, grand purpose and that's to transition the characters from the end of NJO into LOTF. I'd say that it mostly succeeds in that regard. Leia's a Jedi Knight, Luke's reshaped the Order a couple of times, Jacen seems to be on a path that one would expect takes him into LOTF, Tahiri seems to have a "special relationship" with him that at least in theory should naturally progress into the future books, among other things. If we don't get to see so much of where the war left the galaxy, it seems we're getting to see it in the characters, which I'm somewhat happy with. Seeing that these are the only stories in a decade's worth of time in the Star Wars universe, I would like to see more stories set in this NJO-LOTF stretch, though.

I think something that really makes me think that this is more a bridge than a story within itself is the lack of resolution the final book in this trilogy seems to have. The very last line has a very serialized "tune in next time" feel to it. Questions about Jaina and Zekk and the condition of their link linger, where the Jedi and the GA go from here, what results Omas' spying on Luke will yield, Leia's issues with Luke's decision, the future relationship between the Chiss and the rest of the galaxy. It definitely gives a "where do we go from here?" feeling to it, which I think could only work for LOTF's benefit.

I will say this for the Swarm War, it's one of the less straightforward conflicts we've seen in Star Wars, where most seem to have two powers, one bad, one good, just going at it, without our guys trying to maneuver what they think will be the best solution. Then again, how many three-way conflicts have we had in Star Wars? Probably more than I'm remembering, but I digress.

The book has its flaws, like any book would. Telling us how brilliant that Bothan admiral was rather than letting us see it, the Jedi suddenly powerful enough to stop B-Wings in mid air (don't remember them doing that...), Jaina's story seemed a bit out of place to me even though it was right in the midst of the titular conflict, and others. Some parts of the novel seemed to focus a lot more on plot than character which has its place, but I think the book and trilogy overall was a tad too plot-driven.

It was better than TJK, but only just. 7.6/10

 

1/10

Before I get into my rant about why I absolutely disliked this book, I'll say that the writing style was actually fairly reasonable.

Unfortunately, the plot just bugged me in the same way it has for this entire trilogy. I'll freely say that I was biased by the first two books in the set, but it took me several months just to convince myself to even read this.

One of my big beefs with this books was the amount of time and effort it spent on the Big 3. If GL wants to keep them around, that's his choice to make, but I have been getting frustrated by the lack of development and action going into the other characters; one of my favorite parts of the NJO was that it brought out younger generations that had to deal with different challenges and problems than their parents' generation. The issue with always bringing in one of the Big 3 to save the day is that there is so much known and writen about them that there is little room left really for creative interpretation, and we don't get anything too surprising.

Luke's move to become the "dictator" of the Jedi was surprising, but it seemed to instantly erase the entire debate about the moral code of the Jedi that I found interesting in the NJO. Although I admit that he hasn't taken it quite that far yet, it feels uncomfortably close to the "either you're with me or you're against me viewpoint." That fact that almost all of the Jedi actually agreed just bothered me even more.

I thought that the entire idea of the hive mind was really interesting, and was actually one of the more redeeming qualities. However, what bugged me was who they chose to put into it. As with the last two books, it feels like they're abandoning almost all of the other, newer, characters for the sake of the YJK generation again, even though all of them have changed drastically since then. We've seen Jaina as an extremely independant person, but we don't see her fighting to get that independence here. Although it is interesting to note the fact that she is willing to fight for what she believes in--pure Jaina--her character has been completely butched by the way she fights.

To be brutally honest, I just don't like Zekk anymore, and this book doesn't help. He was great in YJK, because he had a unique storyline and a unique character. In NJO, we didn't really see him a lot, but he was essentially a hangers-on. In this series, it just feels like Denning is using him as an excuse to drag Jaina into the next. Plus, his insistence on the love triangle with Jaina is just getting old, especially as Jaina has made it fairly clear to him that she's not interested. For me, he's one of those characters whose presence can only be cured by his absence, and it will stay that way until he gets some backbone and a purpose other than being part of the J/J/Z love triangle.

I am disappointed not to see Kyp in here other than him being the verbal sparring partner for Corran. He was partners and good friends with Jaina in NJO, and I just can't see him leaving her with the Killiks without really trying to get her away. One of the big themes of the Star Wars books is that people are willing to fight for friends and family, and for what they believe in, but I don't see Kyp doing that here.

There were two characters in this book that I loved (and that got it its 1 in rating): Saba and Jag. Denning did an amazing job with Jag's characterization, and one of the few pieces in this book that I really enjoyed reading was the final dogfight with Jag. Saba is Saba; it felt like, characterwise, she was one of the few that was being moved ahead rather than simply getting their character butchered.

Truth be told, I probably wouldn't give over a 7 or 8 to a book that pairs Jaina with anyone but Jag that is set in the NJO or after, but this is just being ridiculous in hashing over the entire Zekk affair one more time. Overall, a very disappointing end to the trilogy, and a disappointing book as a whole.

 

I loved everything about this book.

Denning's prose is swift, his construction sound, and his sense of Star Wars uncanny.

9.5/10

 

BTW...

Average score: 461.75/66 = 7.00