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

Something one could say about Conviction is that things happen. Now, that may sound obvious, but that’s not something that before this book we could take for granted in the Fate of the Jedi series. At least not for every plot going on simultaneously. Overall, I enjoyed it. For once, the Luke, Ben, and Vestara story was not the highlight for me, though I did like that they revisited Nam Chorios and the continuing interplay between the two Skywalkers and their momentary Sith ally is still interesting. There are a few good ideas here, particularly after Vestara takes a certain action that Luke finds appalling but that may have been for the greater good, something Vestara herself brings up. There are a few moments like that, and I enjoyed the back and forth that they brought up.

Coruscant’s story gets a lift this time around as the Jedi vs. Daala saga reaches a major turning point and the actions of everyone there didn’t strike me as complete idiocy like they did in the last book. Back again is Lecersen and co.’s grand conspiracy to overthrow the GA and restore the Empire, something that itself gets some steam, as well as Tahiri’s trial finally coming to an end! Huzzah! For the most part, the story moved well, I liked the twists and turns, and Allston’s characterizations provide the characters voices that seem right and natural.

The book does, however, expose many flaws in the FOTJ series as a whole. As the plots throughout the book unfolded I found myself happy and yet frustrated at the same time that it finally seemed the various plots on Coruscant were moving forward. Daala overthrown! Tahiri convicted! Two of the conspiracy members in a position of power (the GA triumvirate, no less, seemingly an idea that survives or gets resurrected in Legacy). What I realized was that there was absolutely no reason this should have taken seven books. They didn’t have enough story or progression to expand this into a nine book series. It’s completely unnecessary. Star Wars doesn’t need to be and never should again try to be such a large series in one arc. As LOTF and now FOTJ show us, it just doesn’t work. Even the Vong War had only five hardcover books meant to be the epic chapters of that story. Making Fate of the Jedi as long as it is was completely unnecessary and the overall story suffered for it. The fact that something actually happened on Coruscant and with Tahiri’s trial after books of seemingly little progress may have made this book seem better than it really is, but that’s hard for me to say. Oh, and Valin and Jysella’s madness just seems to… end. Not really sure what the point of that was. As it is, Conviction stands well as a solid chapter in the FOTJ saga and finally a welcome indication of progress and things to come.

One more thing. I LOVED Leia’s quick battle with the Lost Tribe guy. Nice way to showcase that yes, this is also the daughter of Anakin Skywalker in a way we don’t see all the time plus an interesting way to show a death. I had to reread Dei’s final scene before I realized what exactly had happened. 7.75/10

 

Average score: 226.25/35 = 6.46

 

Fate of the Jedi books are very hard to evaluate. The books, taken as standalones, often work acceptably well. This is especially so in Allston's case, as he's the only author in the series who seems to have any idea what he's doing. Taken as a series, however, I have never seen a book series so atrociously mismanaged. It's just remarkable how badly handled FOTJ is. The authors and editors went into the series without a clear plan, and boy does it show. Plot points repeat endlessly, the overarching plot is a disaster . . . it's just embarrassing how badly planned and executed this series is.

As a result, it's very hard to decide how to evaluate a book that's part of such a failed, awful series, and of course can't quite hold up its responsibilities as part of a series because it's too mismanaged for any of the books to do their parts, but on an individual level is executed decently, though not perfectly, by Allston.

Allston does a lot of stuff right. The writing is funny and light and it feels like we're seeing the actual characters for once; I can't tell you how relieved I was to see Corran Horn actually being a detective. Leia kicking Sith ass is a great moment for her, and I enjoyed the childish adventures of Allana. That plotline also had great droid banter and the best Threepio we've seen in a while. I loved getting a new, promising non-Jedi character in Javon Thewles. There was great use of existing characters like Kyp, the Solusars, and MAYOR SNAPLAUNCE, too. Allston always shines with the characters. The Luke/Ben/Vestara plot was extremely satisfying, too. Allston always writes those characters well, it was tremendous fun to go back to Nam Chorios and get an update on the planet that built really well off POT (and featured MAYOR SNAPLAUNCE), and the plot functioned well, with a mystery aspect, solid action, a nice final twist, and Valin and Jysella tying in.

The problem, of course, is that the plotline was utterly pointless. For the fifth book in a row, Luke gets into a scrape with Abeloth, defeats her, and then has to chase her to another planet when she runs. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It's endless variations on the same goddamn thing where nothing ever actually happens. It's disgusting. It's offensive, honestly. It perfectly epitomizes the series' inability to find anything to do with the half-baked sliver of a premise it decided was enough to start publishing a series based on.

The Coruscant plotline, as nonsensical and awfully-conceived as ever, actually manages the illusion of progress by finally ending Tahiri's trial and even having her break out of prison in the same book (breathtaking!) and finally knocking Daala out of power. The problem is that the execution is awful. The conviction perfectly highlights the problem with the plotline; Tahiri actually did become evil and murder Pellaeon, so when she goes all mopey and defiant at the idea that she could be held responsible for her evil actions because she doesn't think she deserves to be punished, it's horrifyingly repulsive. "I killed Pellaeon . . . but I shouldn't have to answer for it because I don't want to!" That's absolutely nothing you can get behind. It would be one thing if the jury came back and cleared her and the process of justice said, "Hey, we're not going to hold you responsible for this because of the circumstances." But when you have the jury come back and say, "No, you're guilty of murder for the time you became evil and murdered a guy," how do you then have the character go, "This is so unjust!"? It's the same ugly protagonists-are-always-righteous moral blindness that so infects the series.

And that, of course, strikes in the coup, where the Jedi, for no particular reason, suddenly lock up Daala and take over the government. It's awful, it's underjustified, it's just plain bad. It's compounded by the cynicism of scenes of Jedi figuring out how to get the best PR benefit out of it. Jesus Christ. It's an awful way to short-circuit the argument about the Jedi's role, it makes Vortex make even less sense than it already did, if that's even possible, by showing Jedi in and out of the Temple, it has Kenth's horrifyingly bad funeral scene . . . it's just bad every way you look at it. And it's made even wackier by Daala's POV, which I just can't figure out -- she's an insanely vicious, brutal dictator who's incredibly good at self-justifying and getting Wynn Dorvan, repulsive toady extraordinaire, to think she's SOOOO HONORABLE, who's apparently resented by the population now but what the hell was this insane psychopath even doing as the COS to begin with if she's this unreformed but if she's the person she thinks she is why is she so cartoonishly evil and how does this story even make sense I don't even know. But God, I want Wedge Antilles to just beat the **** out of Wynn Dorvan so badly now. He issues orders for Daala to have Mandalorians massacre freedom-fighting slaves because it's inconvenient for her politically to have slaves freed outside the GA, but oh he feels bad about it because he's such an okay guy and he doesn't like issuing the orders even though he does and he thinks about resigning. But then he stays on with the coup team so that he can help defend Daala because she's SO HONORABLE GUYS. What a scumbag. I cannot believe that they made this guy Chief of State. He's a piece of ****. It's like kicking out Nixon and replacing him with Haldeman and Ehrlichman. But oh, it's okay, because he was Daala's corrupt evil bagman but he felt conflicted about it. Cry me a ****ing river. Ugh. This is the best conception of a political hero figure they can come up with?

The actual slave revolt stuff that gets Han and Leia out of the house and doing something actually important and relevant is decent, and I like that it brought Tenel Ka into the story briefly, gave Leia a badass moment, gave Han an awesome moment, let us see good Threepio, gave us smartass punning Artoo, and featured a wonderfully ridiculous Solo-child plot for Allana that didn't depend on lax parenting.

In the end, it remains true that Allston knows how to deliver a fun adventure that feels way more like Star Wars than anybody else working on the series can muster, but even he can't save the awful plot points he's given here and it's one of his most disappointing efforts in that regard. It's also a book crippled by being part of an absolutely dismal series. Even with the points Allston gets for being far and away the best author on the series and turning in a book that is in large part fun and highly readable, I can't give this book any higher than 5/10.

 

Average score: 231.25/36 = 6.42

 

Man I can’t even remember this book, though I recall a few amusing parts at least, especially C3PO and that Droids Right Movement were at least was fun, and it actually makes the whole Planet of Twilight thing scarier then Planet of Twilight itself, still it really doesn’t go anywhere and especially the trial just drags it down hard, why she was not just speed trialled, lined up and shoot by the Remnant is beyond me to this day (not that I am for such things in RL, but it is what the Empire would demand to be done). Havac perfectly sums up the rest and like Golden with book #8, Allston just clearly had given up on FOTJ at this point.

Also 5 of 10

 

Average score: 236.25/37 = 6.39