Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: ABYSS (Spoilers)

I still don't understand how you guys rate your Star Wars books. On a scale of 1-10, a score of 5 would be an average Star Wars book. Yet I see almost nothing but 9s for Abyss, which means you guys think this book ranks up there as one of the best Star Wars books published to date.

That's being said, this book was mediocre at best. Certainly better than Omen, but that book didn't set a particularly high bar. Denning is a much better writer in general than Golden and at least his writing is interesting, so I enjoyed reading the book much more than Omen.

I will echo some of the previous comments that the Coruscant scenes were much less tedious than Omen. However, what was actually accomplished by these scenes? By the end of the book, two more Jedi went crazy, Han and Leia are mad at Jag, the Jedi are taken off planet, the Jedi Order is still doing nothing, and Daala has hired Mandalorians. In what direction were any steps taken that advance the overarching plot?

This is a problem I've had with this series so far, and to a some extent with the previous multiple-book arch. These books lack a central issue or plot point that is resolved or advanced by the end of the book. It's more just a bunch of stuff that happens.

Whether it's intentional or not, I feel the authors and architects of this overarching plot feel that because there are multiple books, it is unnecessary to have a central issue to each book and adequately and fully deal with it in the book while still advancing the overall story.

And even the stuff that happens lacks an adequate payoff. I found the Maw, Sinkhole Station, Mind-Walker stuff as interesting as the next person. But what did we learn there? Nothing more than a bunch of force-sensitives were drawn to this place because some unbelievably powerful being is lonely. And I'm sure people will respond by saying answers are given while new questions arise. No. I'm sorry. It took a whole book to show us that this powerful being has deep-set eyes, long golden hair, and stubby, tentacled arms. That should not take a whole book, that should take a chapter. But instead, we are treated to this description about six times.

And what about this Mind-Walker stuff? Do we get any explanation what it is beyond a higher plane of existence in the Force? And the creativity is extremely poor here. The Font of Power? The Depths of Eternity? The Pool of Knowledge? Give me a break. Vigo's the Carpathian's Mountain of Skulls, Castle of Pain, and Throne of Blood is cooler than this lameness; and that is from Ghostbusters II and no one liked that movie. Anyway... after Ben and Luke travel across the Mountain of Faith, in the Valley of Fear, and through the Jungle of Doubt, do we ever get anywhere? Noooooo. What happens? We're told, it doesn't really matter where the stupid Mists of Forgetfulness () lead. Well alright, I'm glad we spent half the book on it.

And my last gripe, I'm so sick and tired of these lame@$$ philosophical Force discussion authors force on their characters' conversations. "It's not what you fear, it's the cause of your fear..." Again, give.me.a.break. The problem with this, is that none of these authors are working with a philosophical basis about the Force from which to make such statements, let alone any statements. And with all the moral relativism regarding the Force that has been so popular with authors these past years, we end up with this trite, cliched nonsense. Nothing but statements that attempt to sound deep but in reality are shallow and meaningless. It's like I'm watching 'Mystery Men' again and The Sphinx is trying to teach the heroes: "He who questions training only trains himself at asking questions."; "When you care for what is outside, what is inside cares for you."; "When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you will head off your foes with a balanced attack." LAME. (In 'Abyss' ? in 'Mystery Men' it was hilarious.)

Anyway, I've said my peace. It was an OK Star Wars book. It lacked a story line that was central to the book and failed to adv

 

Pros: Interesting Luke/Ben subplot finally delivers on potential; Spot-on characterizations; Series plotlines finally start to come together

Cons: Poorly written dream sequences; Denning continues to demonstrate a weakness for describing action sequences; Techspeak crutch used to arrange scenes

After reading Omen, the Fate of the Jedi series left a bad taste in my mouth. Now, after Troy Denning?s Abyss, I?m happy to say the series appears to be back on track. In the first two books, it was clear that LucasBooks were trying to fix some of the issues that plagued their first attempts at large story-arcs (of the 9+ book variety); mostly regarding continuity errors, sloppy characterizations, and dropped plotlines. It was easy to see that each book had a specific start and end-point and the author was responsible for navigating between the two. This structured approach felt unwieldy in the first two books, possibly a result of the authors not being given enough plot to fill a 350 page book with or creative struggles on the author?s part. It might be the fact that the overarching plotlines are finally starting to intertwine, but Abyss felt like a fully developed story rather than 3 unrelated novellas that simply occupied the same chronological space in the Star Wars Universe. The characters all have something interesting to do, rather than visiting the galactic pet market or teaching sages the importance of living life to the fullest or whatever one-dimensional storyline was used to bridge the predefined end points for Han, Leia, and Luke.

The Luke/Ben plotline specifically was a huge improvement over previous entries and very interesting in its own right. Retracing Jacen?s journey to various Force-wielding cultures around the galaxy sounds like a very intriguing story on paper. However, the first two entries came and went with only minor amounts of ?galaxy-building? development or Force philosophy leaving only a massive amount of wasted potential behind. With the Mind Walkers, a secretive sect hidden amidst the galaxy?s largest Black Hole cluster, Denning delivers on that original potential, fleshing out a strange and possibly ill-intentioned group of Force-users that inhabit an equally mysterious space station. In previous books, the Luke/Ben story was a glaring weakness. In Abyss, Denning has improved it into one of it?s strengths.

The second plotline concerning the ?Jedi-sickness? plaguing young Jedi Knights continued as well. This was one of the most intriguing parts of the first two books and Denning managed to add some much needed momentum to the story after it started to crawl in Golden?s Omen (10% of the book involved two characters going to dinner). The multi-faceted Jedi/Republic/Empire/Press conflict continues to develop as loyalties change and additional incidents occur. The third plotline is Sith being Sithly. Which doesn?t disappoint, although they aren?t quite as evil as they possibly should be. Clearly, all three plotlines are related but this is the one that is really going to make things interesting in the books to come. Overall, the series made tremendous improvements plotwise in this volume.

While I was much happier with the plot advancement of Abyss, it still had some stylistic problems, albeit not nearly as many as Omen. Where Golden was a Star Wars ?noob? still finding her voice, Denning is a seasoned Star Wars author. He gets what Star Wars characters do and don?t say (at least pre-Phantom Menace characters anyways). The majority of the dialogue and galaxy-building is strong aside from Denning?s tendency for tech-dumping. Inventing ?mirfields?, ?wallscopes?, and other technologies for a single scene is more lazy writing than anything else. Rather than trying to come up with an internally consistent reason for the situation he wants to write, Denning resorts to ?new technological advancements? to introduce a conflict. It doesn?t help that these buzzwords never really get explained and don?t make much sense from any of the context clues. This is most likely compounded by Denning?s apparent

 

Average score: 266.93/32 = 8.34

 

The Luke and Ben stuff was the best of the three books. Ben was solid here, I really enjoyed him here and I felt like he was kind of my in to the story the way Luke was when Luke was younger and still trying to figure things out. Now Luke is so beyond all that it's hard for me to relate to him, but Ben is easier to relate to because he doesn't have all the answers. In a way, it makes him a lot more fascinating to read. He's also developing quite nicely into a hero.

Didn't like the way things played out with Ahri and Vestara. I wanted more from that then wat ultimately happened. Ahri didn't even seem like a Sith to me the way he was written and I was kind of hoping for more drama between them at the end if he was going to die. And speaking of the end, I also thought it was kind of weak how the Sith turned against each other to capture Luke. I hope that is the last time we see that otherwise the Jedi are going to wipe the floor with them.

Denning's lightsaber fights are always good, but sometimes it's kind of hard to tell who killed who. I still don't know who cut down Ahri, only that he died. Was it Luke or Vestara? Still, props to Denning for coming up with some cool fights and locations for the fights.

Loved seeing Anakin... and Mara since she was kept so brief. I wanted more out of Jacen and felt really unsatisifed with his character portrayl. That was such a huge let-down.Denning was trying to keep it too ambiguous and I feel like he missed a great chance for some resolution. Also, if Ben tells Tahiri Anakin still loves her... is she just going to wait around to die so she can be with him? Wouldn't he say something like... tell Tahiri to live her life so she can move on? I thought that stuff could have been just a bit better with Anakin and espeially with Jacen.

Jag still bored the heck out of me and I jsut can't help thinking how much it stinks they are trying to force the Empire back into the picture. And the idea of Han Solo and Pricness Leia's daughter marying the new Emperoror or whateveer Jag's title is is totally ridiculous to me. It goes against everything the fought for. An Empire issstil an Empire, even a "noble" one or whatever Jag's is supposed to be. I mean, the Moffs are still there. I hope they don't get married. Tahirir is a much mroe likely and interesting choice. I would rather seeing Jaina leading the Jedi to be honest than settling down as an Emporess (gosh that sounds so boring).

The Sith stuff tended to drag and even though Abeloth was scary (is she supposed to be the devil of the SW universe?) I thought it wasn't too scary as intended because it was essentially monsters vs. monsters (Sith vs/ Abeloth) so it was hard to be too scared for the Sith, if that was Denning's intent and it felt like it was.

I liked the Jedi illness stuff best here but am ready for that whole subplot to take a new turn. The whole Jedi gets sick, Daala wants them, them, Jedi resist is getting old.

Han and Leia were, however, perfect er. Daala is turning out to be a fun little foil. The Mandalorians coming into play... kind of a let down surprisingly. I hope they amp that up. I aso want to know what happened to Boba all his family issue, especially since Traviss isn't writing her Boba novel.


PS SORRY ABOUT THE TYPOS MY COMPUTER IS MESSED UP SO I CAN"T SEE WHAT I TYPE!!

Anyway, I really hope they amp the drama up, which I heard at comic con they were going to do and there was some really mind-blowing stuff they were going to do in the back half of this series. Let's hope that wasn't just talk.

I also hope the Sith stuff becomes more interesting. I would like to see Luke dispatch Vol quickly and the Jedi and Sith have to team up against an even greater threat... something enw and ancient. Because the idea of Sith vs/ Jedi, while it once sounded promising for Luke's NJO, it doesn't seem like something that would have the gravitas it once did... certainly not enough to hold6 more books. There needs to be something new brought to the table, IMO.

Anyway, I give this book a 6 out of 10.

 

Average score: 272.93/33 = 8.27

 

I'm no good, at reviews, so I'm just gonna say this: Mr. Denning needs to realize he can make his point that he doesn't like J/J without writing Han and Leia out of character. I'm gonna steal Hav's system here and average the two sections: 5/10 for Coruscant, 7/10 for the Maw, 6/10 for the total.

 

This book has a few faults and a few new, well writen ideas that unfortunatly I simply have little interest in.

First on the Coruscant plotline, a lot of poor ideas and worse characterization there. I admit I think its very hard for the writers to incorporate this Daala situation. Keeping her as neutral, as in not the villian, might be an impossible task.

For all three books now Leia has seen fit to undermine the entire Jedi Order and I for one am frankly sick of it. I don't dislike Leia, not by a longshot, but she's not a stupid woman. I got so sick of her tirades and POV's in this book its not even funny. She thinks Kenth Hamner is a blind idiot, she thinks the same of the Jedi Council not having the faith or trust in them to make any decision on their own. Leia thinks Jag betrayed the Jaina and the Jedi, whatever.

Then there's all her "Luke is the only one who can ever lead the Jedi" POV's scattered throughout the books...seriously. Add in her obvious mean streak, the blinding of a Mandalorian for spying on the Jedi, yeah that was an intentional and very questionable attack in my eyes.

"Jedi use the Force for knowledge and defence, never for attack" Leia doen't seem to agree. Apparently one doesn't spy on Leia Organa Solo without severe consequences. No wonder the Mandalorians attacked.........Oh and then Han and Leia are surprised they attacked? Really? Leia initiated the violence.

I honestly found myself half expecting Leia to assassinate Admiral Daala and take her place as new Empress of the galaxy. She can toss Mandalorians, who are a block or two away, around with her mind like they are toys.............Last I remember Leia as a Jedi she could barely handle Alema Rar, and Alema subsequently got owned by Jag Fel.

Maybe Leia was the one Jacen saw seated on the throne when he gazed into the magic pool a few years back

The fight between the Jedi and Mandalorians should have been a high point in the book...in fact the Mandalorians should have been present since Luceno set that up in Millennium Falcon...better late than never I guess, but I was hoping for so much more.

There is no point spending half a book bringing in the dealy Mandalorians only to have them come up vastly inferior to Outcast's collection of vandom(now long vanished) BOunty Hunters. Jaden Korr and the mighty and famous Jedi Double A, toy with the Mandalorians like they are no threat to anyone. Maybe even some of the same Mandalorians that gave the Yuuzhan Vong such a battle in TUF.(If that tall, masculin, blue armored Mandalorian is Baltan Carid )

So I get the message, the Mandalorians are no match for the Jedi, Despite Galidraan, despite Order 66, despite a ton of previous canon both from the films and otherwise. Old Double A can toy with them because they are not a real threat to Jedi.

Look despite my pro Mandalorian stance I hated Darth Caedus getting owned in Revelation. I thought he should have snapped the necks of both Orade and Carid, not get spared by them. I deducted big marks on my Revelation review for that silly scene and I'll need to do the same here.

With the exception of the Mandalorian I think might be Carid, none of them did anything to the Jedi. They couldn't even make their rocket packs work right...........

I liked the Han/Allana interactions very much and am interested to see who this mystery Captain is in the future books.

On Jag and the Imperial sections of the novel, well, there wasn't much again. We got Baxton(though apparently Jag Fel travels with less of a security detail than the Canadian Prime Minister does). Most of Jag's story is off screen, as always only Jaina draws him into the story proper.

Lecersen got a first name but would seem to be pretty much sunk unless he's in league with Daala....and he just still doesn't seem like the same character introduced in Revelation. It's a minor point but something I follow closely enough to notice. Of course thats a critcism of his every appearance since Revelation,[/

 

Thoughts/review of personal interests:

Plot: All of the plots were highly engaging, really made me feel disappointed/eager whenever one plot line swapped for another. For me the Coruscant plot was the most interesting, follwed by the Luke/Ben one then the Sith. Intersting to see the sides becoming more developed on Coruscant (Daala vs Jedi vs Jag vs other?) with some allegiances left mysterious (Dorvan, Tyrr, etc). The Luke/Ben was good because it was new material that was creepy, trippy, and cool at the same time. The Sith plot was a little boring (Sith fighting against each other *yawn*) but really picked up upon their arrival at Sinkhole. Question: was the jungle planet inside of the Maw? I wasn't really sure on that part.

The Jedi: Really liked to see more Jedi shown and developed in the Jedi order, it starts to make up for the lack of side Jedi characters that we currently have. Don't know about Jaden; it was cool to see him, but at the same time it also takes away from Crosscurrent, so I'm split there. It was intersting to see the two apprentices just quit like that- shocking really, and moreso because Han and Leia drove them out. Interested to see what becomes of them.

Mandalorians: Great to finally see them being used since mentioned in MF. However, it seemed like Denning really wanted to correct for issues in LOFT, but did it too much. I like the Mandalorians, but not as super-awesome-super dude nor as galactic sissies. They should be serious soldiers and opponents of the Jedi, not a cakewalk for them (note: I'm not agruing against the Jedi saying that they will pwn Mandos, as the Mandos are probably saying the same thing, but the part where the Jedi were "going easy" on them).

Characterization Ehh, so-so for this book. Kenth was redicously out of character from his intial NJO apperances, imo. Seemed like Denning did't know how to create real tension amongst the Jedi, so he turned to making Kenth the bad guy. Han also seemed rather angry here when not with Allana, don't know what was up there. Hopefully it's much better in Backlash.

As book 3: Much better start to FOTJ than LOFT . Continued plots, characters, and it seems like much better cohesion between the authors- a definate win .

Overall: Abyss was surprisingly fast-paced and more substantial than Omen but sill read pretty quickly (I want more ). Some issues that I hope are corrected in Vortex(?), but mostly I have high hopes for FOTJ and am looking forwards to Backlash.


7.5/10

 

Average score: 291.23/36 = 8.09

 

I found Abyss to be a page-turner. Unfortunately, when I was finished turning the pages, I found I didn't really like the book all that much.

I'm quite bored with the "Jedi goes nuts" plotline. It would be nice to finally have Cilghal make some progress on helping the Jedi who have been afflicted. I think it's rather disappointing that some new Jedi were introducted and Corran's kids were finally given page space in this series, only to have all of them gone from the storyline, either in carbonite or imprisoned with ysalimiri. This means that none of them can really be used or developed in FotJ.

I liked the Han/Allana dynamic. Grandfather and granddaughter make a good pair. But I really think that Leia came across rather poorly. Some of the things she did, particularly to the Mandalorians, seemed borderline dark. If Luke had done the same, the specter of the Sith would have been brought up against him, I think. Again, Leia seems to have been given a free pass.

I enjoyed the Vestara parts. She is becoming a solid character. For the most part, the Sith didn't seem all that powerful, though their more ruthless sides certainly showed. They were as willing to kill a fellow Sith as a Skywalker. I was disappointed that Ahri was killed so soon. I thought he and Vestara had a fascinating relationship.. I wasn't expecting Lady Rhea to be taken out in this book either. I thought Ahri and Rhea were going to be continuing characters for at least a little while yet.

While the Maw parts were creative and rather mesmerizing, unlike almost everyone else, I really don't like the character of Abeloth. She just seems too weird for a Star Wars villain. The mind-walkers were also weird and creepy. I still don't quite understand how they seem to be able to affect the physical world even as they mind-walk. That one guy without the helmet who was trying to shoot at Luke and Ben, for example. I'm really not sure how we're supposed to take all of this. So much of what Luke's guides said to him seemed like they may very well have been lies. They certainly didn't seem to have Luke's best interests at heart, as they kept trying to delay him...meanwhile, his body was getting weaker and weaker.

I also didn't like that his guides kept telling Luke that while Luke was tempted at the Fountain and pool, that Jacen never was, implying that Jacen was stronger, wiser, and more 'in the Light' than Luke.

Maybe Abeloth is controlling everything and everyone here?


The appearances of Anakin, Mara, and Jacen I found disappointing, especially after Luke and Ben both saw Force Ghost Mara in Revelation. Although we don't know what, if anything, Mara said to Luke at that time, it had to have been comforting for Luke to know that his wife *had* Force ghosted. To have Mara now tell him that she has been in anguish over what she had done, would probably hurt him.

I also didn't like that Mara said that Jacen had brought peace to the galaxy. I REALLY do NOT like this retcon. In LotF, Jacen didn't bring peace to the galaxy; peace was achieved AFTER Jacen was dead. It was others who brought about peace; *not* Jacen. It seems as though Jacen's decision to become a Sith is going to be retconned as a sacrifice he made to "save the galaxy" and to keep the "dark Man" vision from becoming a reality. But since we know that "always in motion is the future", the idea of Jacen going Sith to stop a "possible" future where someone else becomes that Sith from happening, doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Of course, knowing Denning's tendency to write a "darkish" Luke, it probably *was* Luke that Jacen saw on that throne of balance, especially since Luke didn't seem to believe Jacen when he told Luke that the dark man wasn't Luke.

I didn't like that Anakin told them to tell Tahiri that he still loved her. I'm not sure that's the best thing to tell Tahiri right now.

So is this all that Force ghosts do in the afterlife? "Reflect" on their past lives? Why would this portal to the afterlife just happen to be in the Maw where Abeloth is?

I know

 

Average score: 296.73/37 = 8.02

 

I found this book to be pretty average. Not bad, not great. As almost everyone is saying, the Luke/Ben parts were far superior. Really, I just want to get my number up here to be counted.

7

 

Average score: 303.73/38 = 7.99

 

5 is my score.

The book coulda been better, but at least it's 315'ish pages were packed. No wasted space, well some space was wasted like no Mando mercenaries POV's or even names( was Baltan Carid there?), but my library got this book way earlier than I think they were supposed to & either no one knew or they weren't interested. I loves my library!

 

I am giving this book an 8. I don't know why the Jedi don't quarantine the rest of the Maw students instead of waiting for them to go crazy one by one? And the Jaina/Jag thing with Leia and Han getting all mad? I don't understand why they are so mad. And finally the Mind Walkers or Mind drinkers. This section was very creepy and I still don't understand if we are supposed to believe Mara, Anakin and Jacen or if they are dark-side illusions. It was a very intriguing, fast-paced book and I enjoyed it, but am hoping for more explanations on the creep-fest.

 

I'll say this for Abyss. It made me want to keep reading. Part of it did, anyway. A third of the way through the series and we're starting to get a look at this greater evil. Things are starting to take shape and it kept me wanting to find out what was going to happen next. I appreciate that, Denning really giving us a mystery and slowly unfolding it as Luke and Ben made it to the always mysterious Maw, page after page of their isolated and eerie journey coming up with more questions each time. That's pretty good storytelling and it's something not normally seen in the usually straightforward Star Wars stories, this deeper look into an unknown power, a spiritual journey not usually explored outside of Stover. I loved it. I loved the creepy, ancient feeling of the miniature Centerpoint. I loved tying all of the elements together, be it the tentacle Ben had felt at Shelter, the voice Allana heard on Kessel, Ship's behavior, and the glimpses of what is apparently the Force's own Eldritch Abomination.

The story of the Sith tribe started out routinely enough but became much more interesting when it began to be tied into the events in the Maw. The Sith are more what we'd expect, though still hanging on to parts of their less violent humanity (or Kehirity). Vestara gets more development and it's great to see the moment, after discovering Abeloth's true form, of realizing she might be losing her sanity just knowing about her true nature.

And Abeloth. Well, she's interesting. I guess at this point one would need someone like her to be able to challenge the man who's become the most powerful wielder of the Force in history. The glimpses we get here are intriguing, whether it be her form seen to Luke and Vestara or the flash of tentacles in the cave, but I have the feeling she'll be one of those figures that will become less frightening as we learn more about her. It always seems to be the way, but I guess that's the nature of things.

The rest of the book, much of the story on Coruscant, was really hit or miss. Some parts interested me, but mostly I'd find myself wanting to return to the other parts of the book. It seems for three books we've had pretty much the same story over and over with just a small step forward in each instance. It doesn't feel like it's getting anywhere.

Han and Leia are good to see and all, but that scene with Han and Allana as well as recently rereading Agents of Chaos made me realize something: do they always have to be together? It seems like they haven't left each other's sides since NJO and I can't help but wonder if that limits their storytelling.

And what the heck happened with Kenth Hamner? Wasn't it not two books ago that he was working with Daala pretty well while still finding away to make the situation beneficial for the Jedi? He seems a little more rigid in this book and the attitudes of everyone toward him seems to have taken a downshift to the negative. What's going on here? It's a bit of a dramatic shift and I don't see how it was a necessary one.

All right, so concludes my disjointed reactions. Some minor quibbles but mostly a book I enjoyed. 8.2/10

 

I enjoyed the book and see it as a great addition to the continuing storyline of FOTJ. Whereas Outcast felt like it was setting up the story, and Omen filler for introducing the Sith tribe as it stands now, Abyss is a good book by itself.

The Luke/Ben/Mind-Drinkers/Mind-Walkers storyline was the high light of the book. Just the overall creepiness of Sinkhole station and the question of how much of it was actually real.

The Sith storyline was overall boring and didn't pick up until they left the planet with Abeloth and met up with the Skywalkers, only to get their butts handed to them. Bad part of the fight is that there were some points where I didn't know what was going on at times, but the coherent parts were very well done. Especially the part where Luke and Ben owning the whole tribe who's only member worth note so far in strength of the force is Vestara.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Allston does with the Skywalker's on Dathomir and if her character sees that the Sith tribe isn't all that great and decides to break off with them, or becomes the Protector that the tribe thinks they are and helps the Jedi destroy Abeloth.

The Coruscant plot is feeling a little old now that it has gone on three books with very little difference in the whole plotline. Oh! A jedi goes crazy, the Jedi want to study them to see if they can help them, Daala just wants to throw them in carbonite, commence the fighting between the Jedi and GAS.

Then the whole thing with Jaina not telling the Jedi about the Mandalorians was handled poorly. Especially the fact that Han blew up on his last child alive for not telling something that should've been common knowledge and then they not clearing the air with Jaina before they left for Shedo Maad. I think this plotline is only because the profic has to push toward the galaxy of the Legacy comic books, and to do that they need to start at least the beginnings of the IK's in this series. So they're pushing Jaina into a rift with her parents so that she would have no reason not to head to bastion and be the Empress to Jag's Emperor. Which is one of the first things I thought of in Outcast when not even out of the first chapter Jag is asking Jaina to come with him to the Remnant and starting her own Jedi school so that she could be with him. So minus a point on that.

Overall this was an enjoyable book that is one of the better Star Wars books I've read.

8/10

Also I'm going to throw this out there for the fact to explain Anakin, Mara, and Jacen. (I enjoyed their parts)

The Anakin, Mara, and Jacen in this book are just flash prints of how they were and the thoughts at the times of their deaths.

Anakin telling Luke not to put so much pressure on one Jedi and to not put one Jedi above the rest because every Jedi brings their own light to the order, and one light shouldn't overpower all the rest that if it dies there's no-one else to take it up. Something that was pressing in on him during his story arcs in NJO, the fact that he was being held up as this hero. Then he tells them that he still loves Tahiri because that was one of his last said thoughts, "Give Tahiri a kiss for me," or something like that.

Mara regrets reverting back to being an assassin and tells them to think about the actions when looking for a result. Because the action of her trying to kill Jacen was another step towards him being a Sith Lord.

Finally Jacen is arrogant because he died believing he had caused the Galaxy to enter into an era of peace. His goal to protect his daughter was realized. He says he forgives Jaina because that is one thing that Jaina needs to hear. He forgives her for killing him without trying to see if she could bring him back. For just going forward with the plan to assassinate him, and not trying to reach out to him. She's still hurting from that.

Mara is more cognizant of their situation because she is able to be a force-ghost. Both Jacen and Anakin are prompted into answering the questions and statements by the Skywalkers, and all their answers are in tune with the

 

Average score: 332.93/42 = 7.93

 

What I liked--

- The cover! Boy does it look good. Leia with a blaster is quite dramatic. Also, red (that shade of red specifically) happens to be my favorite color. I just like looking at it

- Pretty much everything with Ben and Luke in the Maw, the Mind Walkers, and of course the final fight with the Sith at the end. I love how Luke completely owns them all even though he's just woken up from several weeks of immobility. Luke's a badass

- Jaina's distraction while Han and Leia transport the crazy Jedi offplanet was just too good. I love how she, the other masters and Mirax take the GA and Daala completely by surprise and humiliate them. Mirax knocking out that captain? Classic Mirax I also like how Denning set up a possible confrontation between Daala and Jaina in that scene.

- The Lost Tribe of the Sith on that weird plant planet. I always like seeing Sith get slaughtered But I'm not exactly sure what the heck was with Abeloth. She was damn creepy.

What I didn't exactly like--

- Han's attitude toward Jag sort of confused me. He never seemed to hate him before. But then Jaina's never been engaged to him before either.

- Actually, there wasn't a lot I DIDN'T like about this book.

All in all--

I really liked this book. I found it, for the most part, to be exciting, engaging and a satisifying read all around. In fact, I think this is probably my favorite Denning Star Wars book to date.

8.5/10

 

The first two books in Fate of the Jedi were faintly glowing beacons of mediocrity. They weren't terrible, but they weren't good either. Luckily, Troy Denning is here to change all that. Rather than sitting on the fence of blandness like Allston and Golden, he gleefully throws his book into the junkyard of absolute crap, wherein the angry dog of terrible writing has savaged it beyond recognition. Simply put, this book sucks.

The Sith subplot was bearable. The Luke/Ben subplot was somewhat entertaining. But the Coruscant plot... dear God, the Coruscant plot...

The first two books were pretty good about maintaining consistent characterization, but Denning has screwed it up to a degree not touched by the worst of Legacy of the Force. The two worst offences are Javis Tyrr and Kenth Hamner.

Javis Tyrr was introduced in Omen, wherein he was a rather self-centered but at the same time ethical and highly professional reporter trying to make a name for himself. Denning has replaced him with an unprincipled paparazzo slinging around all the mud he can find, and selling his services as a scandalmonger to the highest bidder.

In both Outcast and Omen, Kenth Hamner was a competent, experienced Jedi master doing his best to lead the Order in a time of crisis and in the absence of Luke Skywalker. He was honorable, kept the Order?s interests and the interests of the Galaxy as he saw them in mind while dealing with political and mystical crises. Between Omen and Abyss, however, he was apparently replaced with Keenth Hamner, a defective clone who is obsessed with usurping the authority of an absent Luke Skywalker, while shortsightedly bungling all his responsibilities.

The rest of the cast are terrible as well. They aren?t characterized so much as caricatured. Every single character has their personality cartoonishly overblown, and everyone has apparently had a partial frontal lobotomy. That?s the only possible explanation for the idiocy they display. I mean, seriously, the conversation that led to the Solos talking to the Council about Daala hiring Mandalorians essentially went like this:

?Hey, we need to get in there.?

?No can do, Master?s orders.?

?But it?s really important.?

?Okay, tell me what it?s about. Then I?ll tell the Council, and if they think it?s important, I?ll let you in. It?ll take like five seconds, and you?ll have plenty of time to inform the Council of whatever it is. It?s not like they?re putting their decision into action in the next ten minutes.?

?Five whole seconds? That?s far to long. How about instead, you walk way over here, turn your back to the door you?re supposed to be guarding, and have a conversation with me while my wife hangs out by the door.?

?Sounds innocent enough.?

?Blah blah blah I?m distracting you.?

?What-- Oh, hey! She?s going in there.?

?Yeah. We just totally fooled you. Nya-nya nya-nya.?

?What the hell! I said I?d give them the news! You?d have gotten in anyway!?

?Yeah, but then we couldn?t make you look like an idiot in front of your former master. We don?t like you.?

?Dammit.?


Also, we have the Lost Tribe. The only really good part of Omen was Golden?s take on the Sith. Now, the Sith have made good antagonists for SW as a whole. Their philosophy and ruthlessness make them ideal villains. After a while, though, you have to wonder why nobody with a red lightsaber ever thought to themselves ?Gee, what with all our constant backstabbing and infighting, we decimate our own forces to the point where it?s child?s play for the Jedi to wipe us out. What if, and I know this sounds crazy, we could maybe try --just try-- not killing each other every chance we get. Maybe we could, you know, keep the whole competition/meritocracy thing, but keep it within a structured societal and military hierarchy, and avoid fatalities.?

Golden took this essential problem with the Sith, and answered it with the Lost Tribe, wherein they keep the general Sith philosophy, but maintain

 

Wow, Rebel; sorry you didn't like it. But thanks for taking the time to post -- and thanks to everyone who has commented!

-- Troy

 

Can I give an 11/10 to RebelJoseWales' review? Very funny & oh so true! I lol'd, I 'd, I wanna do a ROTFLMAO.
-Tricky from TheForce.net

 

Average score: 342.43/44 = 7.78

 

I'm going to have to give this one a 6/10.

I did enjoy this book and the interesting plot lines it has set up, but for me I think I just got lost in Denning's description of things. I'm not sure if he is over explaining things but I find myself re-reading certian parts in his books to make sense of what is going on. That definitly dampers the experience. I just can't seem to connect with the story like I do with Allston's work.

 

Average score: 348.43/45 = 7.74