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

This had been one of my favorite books in the series so far. Lots of content and story.

I'm not sure why people are so confused about Vestara's flip flopping. She was genuine in her Jedi conviction. And she loves Ben. But it is really hard to undue a lifetime of cultural heritage in such a short time. So I find her conflict both interesting and appropriate.

Some really great moments here...some that have stood out more than most in the series: Budding love; The Khai battle; and I actually cheered when the Empire of the Hand cavalry showed up....to name a few.

The Empire is almost becoming the good guys now.

Again, I find myself looking forward to see what will happen next.

8.5/10

 

Ascension was very much a mixed bag. There were moments of greatness (Jag acting like a leader, Tahiri getting a real second chance), some very cool callbacks to the EU (Krayiss II, Khar Delba, etc.), mentions of classic characters (Rieekan, Tycho, Gavin) ...

And then there was the disturbing scene with Ben and Vestara. It could - should - have been handled in a much different manner, but instead Ben's behavior was written off when it should have been called out. He's never been shown to act like that before, and it's not good Jedi behavior - or good behavior at all, period.

Vestara turning against him in the end was believable, but not for the right reasons - Ben was acting thuggishly stupid, and Vestara thinks, "Oh, I'll never be satisfactoraly Jedi enough for him, so that's why I'll return to being Sith."

As messed up as the Sith Tribe was (is? I suspect they're not going to recover after what Abeloth did to Tahv), and as many issues as someone like Vestara could have ... she's being written poorly here at the close. And Ben was just out of character in that scene.

I can't go higher than a 3 out of 10 for this one.

 

This isn't a review because I have not read the book & here is why...

I have bought every SW EU book since R.A. Salvatore's excellent Vector Prime (well, every book since using in-universe chronology).

19 in the NJO series
3 in the DNT
9 in LotF
7 in FotJ...

Now I have given up.

The NJO series was superb, not without some flaws but overall the stories were compelling, unpredictable, dark & interesting. A broad cast of characters were picked up, developed, moved on to a different place without ever changing the fundementals of who they were. There was consistency from the authors (mostly) and a story that unfolded in such a way that you rarely had "WTF!!!???" moments. 9/10

DNT was a bit meh... reasonable in places, mostly just odd though. Not very memorable. 6/10

LotF was poor, very poor. I bought every book in the hope that it would get better, it didn't. 4/10

FotJ has been poor but whereas LotF was a steady 4-6/10 each book, FotJ started well-enough introducing Abeloth who seemed to be an interesting character. Unfortunately the series has been plagued with bad characterization, repetitive stories and plot-lines that don't add up... In short, it has been full of those afforementioned "WTF!!!???" moments. I'll name a few.

Daala accepted as Head of State
Kenth Hamner killed by Saba
Saba as leader of the Jedi
Saba as part of the triumvirate leadership of the galaxy
Jedi staging a coup
Luke claiming that various people are beyond redemption
Boba Fett not yet requiring assistance to take a piss

Then there are the forgotten characters who get token mentions...
Kyp Durron (surely he of all people should have had some issues with Daala)
Corran Horn (my favourite character has been left to rot in these last 2 series)
Lowbacca
Zekk
Jaina!!!

All these characters have basically done nothing for 7 books, the only light in the tunnel being that I think Vestara has been developed well and is an interesting character. Ben's development has been stuttering for a while and full of a few too many WTF moments.

Having now read these comments by Christie Golden regarding her 1st Drafts (and thus Del-Rey's acceptance of said drafts) I will not be buying any more Del-Rey books unless they are standalone novels that come well recommended by the community.

 

Average score: 95.6/19 = 5.03

 

I have to hand it to Christie Golden. Somehow she managed to write a book that sprinted through a slew of sub-plots yet felt like by the end no real progress had been made in the overall story. And in this same book, she also tied up two giant loose ends with a incredibly disappointing brush off the shoulder of a few sentences. I almost can't wrap my mind around how all that co-exists.

There are moments of good storytelling punctuated by repetitive phrasing (It seems every time someone refers to Leia's arrest, they have to say "ludicrous charges up to and including spice smuggling." And every time Bramsin's death comes up it's also mentioned that it was due to natural causes and shortly followed by word of Treen's hasty departure). I lost count of how many times the narrative explains something only to have it re-explained in the dialogue (often with the same phrasing) just a few lines later. All of it made me unable to tell if Golden is just lazy or she thinks her readers are stupid.

The premise of multiple conspiracies crossing paths had potential, but ultimately it just got crazy... and a large body toll. The Lecersen group conspiracy was actually pretty intriguing but got too graphic for me. For example, we could have strung together what happened with Jaxton and the blaster without him being instructed where to put it and what it tasted like. And that torture scene? Surely she did not have to go that far to get a point across. Add in the non-handling of the domestic violence episode, the weird stuff coming out of Jag's mouth (Golden even admitted in an interview that she has trouble getting into his head), a promising but glossed-over Imperial space battle, and illogical events (like characters being in two places at once, or talking to two different people in different ways at the same time) and it makes for a very difficult-to-get-through read.

In summary:

1/10

 

Average score: 96.6/20 = 4.83

 

Ouch.

 

I hate to do this but I too have to give this a low rating. I'll give it a 2/10 since the first bit of the book seemed interesting. But then as others pointed out in just becomes a rush to the finish line interspersed with events that are ultimately unbelievable. And that's saying a lot given that we're reading about Jedi, Sith, the Force and a semi-sentient spaceball with batwings.

I would analogize it with the indie movie "My Name is Khan" which starts off in the first hour and a half as an examination of religious tension within a family trying to find it's way in a post 9/11 world before devolving into Rain Man meets Forrest Gump.

Political intrigue needs to be just that, intriguing. Except in this book, and arguably in the series as a whole, plot points are just made and the reader is supposed to swallow it as believable. The motivations that are cited are just too simplistic, especially considering what's at stake if these plots fall apart. The Moffs are power hungry ok, but then Golden goes out and has them dialogue essentially saying I'm in it for the power! Which, given galactic history no one in their right mind wants to be in charge of this mess, since it's almost a guarantee that they'll be administering some type of galactic wide war.

I'm annoyed because when you take a series and name it "Fate of the Jedi", you're expecting that the series is going to be handled more seriously. I've always had issues with the alternating author approach, and now ever more so with this series. Having a novice at the wheel of what arguably should be an important part in the overall history of the SW EU is a slap in the face to those of us who are loyal to the franchise. I just don't see how after this book Apocalypse ties it all up and makes it a memorable series in the positive.

My biggest gripe is that the plot seems like something a highschool kid put together. You have cheesy unbelievable relationship dynamics between Ben and Vestara, and about one inch deep subversive plots. I don't know this on top of the Blue Ray changes to ROTJ make me sad for Star Wars.

UPDATE: Also blowing up a moon and then making it a shield? REALLY!?!?!

 

Average score: 98.6/21 = 4.70

 

5/10

All I can say is Golden does not appear to have a clue about how real or Star Wars technology works. The one thing that miffed me and stuck all the way through the book was here reference to "stacks" of datapads... Really? You would think in a galaxy where ships can go faster than light speed, they would be able to put a bunch of data on a single device. Do I need a different Kindle or iPad for each book or App I want to run???? NOT. I know this was in the beginning of the book, but this set my tone for reading the rest and I never was able to dismiss this.

The split stories were ok, but some stuff seamed rushed in a lead up to the final book. The take over of the Galactic Senate again is getting real cliche in the SW universe.

 

I'm normally not this harsh of a grader but this is the worst SW book since Karen Traviss' "Revelation" from way back when. What is it with DR 9-book series with bad book 8s?

The thing that got me is that the first few chapters, dealing with the Lost Tribe, are actually pretty carefully written. This was good stuff, and made characters (who are unfortunately killed off) later more layered. And then it all goes to pot.

Basically, I get the impression that Ms. Golden spent several months carefully crafting the opening chapters and then went "OH SHAVIT DEADLINE". The developments that happen for the rest of the novel aren't necessarily bad developments by themselves (though some are cliche such as the Galactic Senate takeover which has been done to death in SW). The problem is that the developments fall flat because Golden charges through everything faster than a Matthew Reilly novel, there's no time for any impact, or any emotion. It gives the feeling of "get everything not dealing with the final battle out of the way ASAP". The result is a lot of Flanderizations, especially of the Imperials, and the events, many of which are actually damn important, don't come off as believable.

I don't want to dislike this book, but unfortunately I do. The positives compared to the last book 8 is that Golden doesn't seem to be actively spitting at us in the face, she just couldn't put everything together, unlike Traviss who seemed to revel in annoying us all. Plus, again, the first few chapters was good stuff but unfortunately rendered meaningless by the end of the novel.

Ultimately, the book should've been twice as long to accommodate the events within. This essentially means the novel was doomed from the outset, but it could've been better if Golden didn't have so much on her plate and had the time to put things together properly. The end result is a rushed piece of work. And those never end well.

3/10

 

Average score: 106.6/23 = 4.63

 

I though this book was ? without a doubt ? Golden's best work. I'm glad she saved her best effort for last.

That's not to say the book doesn't have its problems: The narrative wonders at times, and ?though GREATLY improved in this outing ? the prose still stumbles here and there.

The trouble spots in the narrative don't manifest as much as they could because Golden did an amazing job with point of view in this book. Even in the slow areas, she really crafted the characters well, and that glimpse into them went a long way in smoothing over the rough spots. Her strength here even made the Moffs interesting, and I've never found them a particularly fascinating group.

It seems to me that Golden is finding her Star Wars feel. I hope she gets more opportunities in the universe.

8.5/10

 

Average score: 115.1/24 = 4.80

 

I would have never thought I would ever say this again about a post-rotj book, but I am definitely struggling through this one... I don't know if it is the negative aura the series have on the internet that has affected me, or how awesome Crisis of Faith is in comparison and the reminder that there is still good stories to be told like in Choices of One (however minor flaws it may have), or if Ascension is just this bad; but not since Children of the Jedi a SW book had bored me so much. Not even Revelation.

There is one thing for sure, which is that I won't be spending 20 bucks for Apocalypse unless it gets excellent reviews.

 

This. Was. Epic. Plain and Simple. Star by Star-epic. Destiny's Way-epic. The Unifying Force-epic.

Haven't felt such tension while reading a book since - praise heaven - a Matthew Stover novel. I have no idea how I'll manage to avoid the spoilers for Apocalypse.

10/10

P.S. Still makes no sense outside the context of the series and the beginning of the whole FOTJ could still be condensed to achieve better overall quality.

 

I've enjoyed the FOTJ series immensly this far and like Golden's writing - but as so many others I had a problem with the rushed pacing in Ascension. The book should have been three times thicker, then it just might have worked out. And it was such a pity we had to rush here since tehre were so many great stuation where the story really cuold have unfolded; the Sith planets, the Ben/Vestara characterization... The latter was where the story should have taken more time too...

Still, I'm not sure that's Goldens fault - surely the conetents must have been part of the team desicions?

And assuming she had to include all she did, she did a remarkably god job doing it decently. While I could have dwelled longer almost everywhere, I don't think anything fell flat. I even think the Corsucanti part of the plot (that has been the weakest part of the series)was very good here.

Didn't like the slapping scene, though. I know things like that can happen in even a good relationship - but they happen too often in unhealthy relationships - we don't need to see heroes do it in fiction. At least not in a genre like this.

8/10

 

I want to state something before I start my review of ?Fate of the Jedi: Ascension?, you can?t polish a turd. The editor?s and the powers that Be have wronged the writer Christie Golden by having her debut as a Star Wars EU writer be in this series, as they have wronged the character of Ben Solo by having his debut as a ?grown? character is Legacy of the Force.

Christie Golden makes an effort to tie up the conspiracies, plot threads, and total mess that is the plot of Fate of the Jedi, and she tries to do it in an entertaining manner, but I seriously doubt any writer could have made it good, and Golden doesn?t.

The best way to describe the pace and plot of this book is clumsy. It starts out well enough trying to establish character, motivation, and empathy for Gavar Khai and Sith society in general, so that we feel something when Abeloth wreaks havoc on them for no reason other than ?it?s what she does?.

Gavar slowly goes crazy when he sides with Abeloth because?it?s what he does.

After this the plot and pace become scatterbrained and poorly paced speeding up and slowing down like a caffeine addled teenager in an afternoon New York rush-hour traffic. There is a massive kill off simply to tie up loose ends, the Lecersen conspiracy kills each other off or they are killed off by the Sith on Coruscant because there is nothing else left for them to do.
The Sith ( the lost tribe faction) is found to have spent time (3 years? worth or so) infiltrating aspects of the senate and media despite the fact none of them existed in any social records up to 3 years ago, and the Lost tribe didn?t have powered flight let alone computers.

But hell why let things like logic and established fact get in ways of small things like the plot.

Dalaa somehow summons a warfleet, because it?s not like fleets of ships who?s only job is to blow up other ships, don?t need things like supplies, money to pay its staff, and money for the things that go boom.
And it?s not the imperial remnants ships because they kriffing hate dalaa.

Oh and the ?Empire of the Hand? and empire based on information gathering as stated in ?Specter of the Past? & ?Vision of the Future? now have Chiss made/styled Star destroyers, that appear out on now nowhere.

I guess Daddy Fel appropriated Chiss taxpayer money to foot the bill for this fleet, making nepotism amongst heroes not just endemic to the Skywalkers.

The Jedi Act like Morons, the Skywalker/Solo clan act like Morons, the Senate are criminally incompetent morons. And Abeloths plan is to make everyone in the cosmos love her?by force.

And Ben is a dupe(Nothing new there) and vestra is a Yandere?a masochistic yandere.
I just saved you 409 pages of ?what the hell??

There is a Trope called ?Unfortunate Implications??that should have been the title for this book.

Fate of the Jedi: Unfortunate Implications, because of what it pretty much says the Jedi are a militaristic cult of super powered individuals, trapped in a cult of personality to Luke Skywalker who protects a government of Criminal Incompetents to preserve the status quo of always needing rebellion era characters to save the galaxy from itself.

No one could have saved this book, no one could have saved this series, it is that bad. I don?t blame Christie Golden, I blame Matt Fraction, Joe Quesada, Alec Alonso, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, because only an alliance of that level on incompetence can be the reason of the tripe we have before us!

4/10

 

Average score: 137.1/27 = 5.08

 

I finally got around to reading this and finished today. I felt, first of all, like the ending was just kind of abrupt. There was no real crescendo to indicate the end was coming... and perhaps this is because I was reading it via Kindle and my progress bar said I was 75% of the way through but when Vestara resolves to give been as much of her heart as she can until they inevitably become enemies and she will kill him when that happens... nothing felt like "this is the finale" and thus I was left very unsatisfied just from that alone. Never mind all the frustrating problems throughout. The beginning of the book felt not like Fate of the Jedi but Fate of the Lost Tribe of the Sith. Which would actually be fine, IMO, because Golden did seem to give a great deal of attention to writing the Lost Tribe(much like Karen Traviss put all her effort into the Mandos in LOTF) and it makes me think that perhaps she would have been better off writing a trilogy of her own that detailed the emergence of the Lost Tribe from Kesh and their infiltration into the Galactic Alliance and its worlds over the course of 3 novels and their encounters with lesser Jedi along the way. Leaving the SkySolos and Abeloth and anything to do with her and the Lost Tribe to Troy Denning in what should have been the FOTJ trilogy. And Aaron Allston could have penned a series of Rogue/Wraith novels intertwined with FOTJ. A similar format probably would have worked for LOTF. Allston writing Rogues, Traviss writing Mandos, neither of them touching the Caedus/Skywalker storyline that probably would have been best handled by Troy Denning alone. The last 20 books(DNT, LOTF 1-9, FOTJ 1-8) have obviously taken part in a storyline that Troy Denning has masterminded and the only ones that have been consistently well-written and truly compelling, despite having subject matter that is frankly pretty bizarre, is the Dark Nest Trilogy. A sole endeavor by Mr. Denning. His vision would have better been realized had LOTF been 3 books written solely by him, and FOTJ the same. The Legacy Era would have been better served by empowering Denning to write the main thrust of the opening period of the Legacy Era and giving Allston and Traviss and Golden an opportunity to write what they wanted to write amidst that setting or even setting up certain elements that Denning, perhaps, didn't want to set up. The Lost Tribe, for instance, is not something that I recall he has spent much time on developing in his books... but Golden has, and perhaps that should have been left to its own series for her to elaborate on.

Golden seems startlingly unfamiliar with the EU and the cultural and technological elements of it. Datapads, as many have mentioned, shouldn't be stacked on desks. It was even more surreal to read that considering I read the book on what is a real world equivalent of a datapad, the Kindle. I know how many documents, books, audiobooks and music files my Kindle can store. The idea that I'd ever need to have multiple Kindles stacked on my desk is baffling. Add to that the fact that I can get an iPad, the Kindle Fire, or another similar tablet computer that is in essense a super datapad and is far more capable than my Kindle... stacks of datapads just becomes increasingly ridiculous.

Or how about the use of "hacker" instead of "slicer." That bothered me.

And the over-use of social drinking. I just don't care about Imperial wine drinking or what have you. Far too much of that.

3/10

 

Average score: 140.1/28 = 5.00

 

I'm not even sure I can give this a score. I mean, the entire thing is just one giant clusterkriff of confused plots, confused characters, confused dialogue, confused action sequences, confused deus ex machinas, and confused confusion.

I mean, case in point? Luke Skywalker, as part of his big diabolically clever plan to lure Abeloth and the Lost Tribe out of hiding, secedes the NJO from the GA and has them leave Coruscant... and then can't figure out why they can't find them on Random Sith Planet #438. When the plan was to get them to head to the now-undefended Coruscant.

And when they do take over Coruscant in the Jedi's absence, it's supposed to be some giant surprise.

....wha?


That's basically Fate of the Jedi: Ascension in a nutshell, right there.

1/10. Only because I can't give it something more befitting its befuddled status like a Q-/10

 

Average score: 141.1/29 = 4.87

 

I finished Ascension and found it to be a very quick, enjoyable enough read despite numerous errors in editing and even plot(I got the impression Kyp was in two places at once at the one point, manning his Stealth-X incase the SHIP tried to make a get away and joining the Jedi strike force on the surface - on well, If anyone could do it its Kyp.)

I really disliked the simplistic way which Luke forgave the whole Saba/Kenth deal. That had so much potential for drama and I still believe its a lot more multi faced than "everyone was doing what was right". I think arguements can be made for both sides and logically not every Jedi would come to the same conclusion.

I really enjoyed the Imperial Space battle(despite all the Tie Destroyers flying around), it presented Jag and his faction as strong while not belittling Daala and Lecersen. Admiral Vitor Reige , The Bloodfin , Empire Maker , Chimaera , Getelles still a backwater Moff , Empire of the Hand , I could go on. It's always great to see an author actually taking an interest in the Empire.

So I guess in a round about way Gilad Pellaeon is responsible from the birth of the Imperial Knights?

One thing Golden really did that I liked was the many, many references to the history of the EU. She touched on multiple plot points from LOTF, stuff from Jedi Academy, stuff from Planet of Twilight and more. In all honestly I felt like this book meshed more with Planet of Twilight than the previous book which visited Nam Chorios did.

Certainly I think the series would have been better served if the Sith infiltration of Coruscant had been launched several books ago. Also Golden does such a great job with Vol, only to toss him away in an equally poor manner. I finally thought I found a Lost Sith worth more than a bag a marbles.............and he was gone just as fast.

There are a lot of flaws but all in all I think this was the most entertaining book of this series by far. Golden is the only author in this series that really moves her plots along with some purpose and thought. If her novels had a bit more polish and much better editing I think she would really excel.

8.5/10

 

Average score: 149.6/30 = 4.99