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

No ones read it yet? Is it also out on audiobook too?

Okay, here I go.

Golden did a superb job with the history, background of characters, use of said characters, and knowledge from the EU. So well in fact, that this is being posted after my third read-through of the novel. Though lacking in length, it is in no way bad. The Coruscant scenes flowed well from Allston's first book, the Aing-Tii and the Lost Tribe of the Sith flowed together well enough that I practically drank them in. All-in-all, you'd think I'd rate it high, but no, sadly, somethings just weren't up to par.

CONS: misspellings and grammar uses DO NOT COUNT. As with every author dipping into the SWEU, it is hard. It was the few endless pages of prose that got to me. Yeah, I know. It's not something that would bug average readers, but as a writing-minor in college, it bugs me.

PROS: The Aing-Tii flowed off the page as graceful as when Timothy Zahn wrote them in Vision of the Future. There was such gracefulness about them and their order and they way they were handled. The Masters Council and Masters themselves FINALLY seemed like themselves (Kyle acted like Kyle, Kenth being a bloated windbag, Corran and Kyp arguing against Hamner's decisions) it all felt very real. Daala was... intriguing to say the least. She never seemed forced or bland.

All in all: 9.9/10

I've read it a week ago...^^

Normally, I like to write reviews "fresh out of the book", but in this case... I'll have to make an exception.

Omen was impressive. Not so much in the overall story, that flowed well from Outcast, with all the same melancholy undertones and hints of "death announced". But in the characterization and the little touches and hints, the foreshadowing and the subtle promises of things to come. The Coruscant parts were nice, so much politicing, so many plots, sharks moving under the surface. The annoying reporter was a great touch. A classic sleemo, intent only on messing things up, with no thoughts for the consequences.

The same with the look into Daala's inner circle. You can almost feel the secret agendas underneath all those polished words. The comparisons to the actions of the Empire were also well placed, dropped only where they fit. Since I'm a big fan of a) Allana and b) everything that shows normal life in the GFFA, I was enchanted with the scenes at the Animal Show. And the return of Chitlicks from MF, where it was promised they'd become a fad. Allana seemed very grounded to me, especially when she looked at the nerfs and then talked about eating them - unlike city kids today who often can't bring the neat packages of meat in the supermarket and the living breathing cow together in their heads.

The Lost Tribe was also well developed, especially with their ideas about the Force, about attachment, about their role in the universe. Vestara's development from eager kid to stone cold killer took me by surprise in its ruthlessness. Sith suffer from the problem that they might get "designated antagonists" (see TVTropes), but here there were always little touches sprinkled into the description that yes, although they managed to build a civilization, they are still backstabbing .... Sith. Also, the description of their grand fleet put them into perspective. I doubt the will be the principal antagonists here - two dozen ragtag ships against the GA and the Empire? So not happening. But they will be a very credible threat to Luke and Ben.

Which brings me to the plot tht stole the scene. Yes, Ben and Luke once again solved the problem of a foreign civilization, but they also unearthed some interesting hints. As with the Baran Do, the Aing-Tii's problems started after Jacen had come and gone... It will be interesting to see if Jacen's trip continues to make things worse wherever he went...

Last, but not least, it seems like the "Destroyers" from the Keshiri Legend, and the precursors that drove the Killiks from Alderaan are one and the same - This series finally might give a face to them, I hope. So, Omen worked very well at continously spining plotthreads, introducing a new one and strengthening the hints dropped so far, without changing the feel or tone of the narrative.

8.5/10

parially from the Outcast thread:

Yeah. That was short. It just kind of smacked into me at page 236. I hadn't factored in the Abyss preview. I don't think this book is a tough call. Golden did well. She had a handle on the characters and rhythm of a SW book. It was lacking at least one subplot to lengthen the book. An action driven plot perhaps. Han, Leia and and gang go to a petting zoo? I actually liked the short sequence but that's all they're given? Not that I want them galavanting to some moon having a (seemingly) irrelevant adventure as in Outcast.

I like the development of the Force-Crazy plot but I have to ask myself, why break out The Lost Tribe now? It looks like the Jedi are self-distrusting quite well on their own. But we have a bevy of plots and none of the Mandolorian. All good things.

I thought the Aing-Tii plot was better and deeper than the Baran Do adventure but in the end Luke and Ben kind of brought another stagnant Force culture to make some choices about adaptation. I'd like Luke and Ben to find a group that challanges Luke Skywalker. He's breezed through the Baran Do and Aing-Tii material like Einstien in eighth grade remedial math.

I really like Vestara. She reminds me of Nen Yim. I like this Sith. They seem more ancient and less like vampires. Less comic book like. The One Sith is great for Legacy but I'm glad they're gone from The FOTJ playing field.

Though it wasn't a page turner, I drank in everything Golden gave us of that group and local. What little she did give us.

A thoughtful and fun if not criminally short hardcover. Seriously, a book this short should have been priced at TCW hardcover price or ideally it should have been a paperback.


I'm really starting to hate the number rating system. It's so flawed (as you'll see). So I'll give it a 7.5. One more subplot at the same level of writing would have easily put it well over 8. ETA: Which I admit is a lame way of rating a book.

My complete jumbled review can be found here --- my only real criticisms of the book concerned its length. There weren't enough pages in order for Han, Leia, Jaina, and Jag to have a plot of their own beyond a vague epilogue to Outcast and a trip to the zoo. If the Kessel plotline had been cut out of Outcast or severely reduced, there's no reason at all that Outcast and Omen couldn't have been one book. For one, it would have been an ~400 pager, with enough storyline to justify it being a hardcover, and for two, the storyline of this book followed so well and smoothly from the last one, that it honestly wouldn't have felt like two stories in one. As well as Omen was written, there just wasn't enough meat in the sandwich to justify me having paid $32 CAD at the deli for it.

And it wasn't even the case that this was a book which was perfect in its short length, like Inferno --- there was no climax. Save for the two Jedi-going-insane scenes, there was no real sense of danger at all.

Those gripes don't at all concern the quality of Golden's writing, though. Her writing was very good. Characterization was wonderful, which must be quite the difficult task for someone new to this Universe, what with dozens of books of baggage to take into account. Golden seemed to have a really good grasp on the EU, and it was clear that she had done her homework. It seemed pretty clear that she has read Legacy of the Force. And not just a summary, but actually read the nine books. Similarly, this book was chock-full of references to very specific events from Outcast. The plot was also a direct continuation of what happened in that book. That's wonderful, and very non-Travissesque.

Everything about the Aing-Tii plotline was wonderful. I could go on about it for paragraphs --- in fact, I did, if you click the link I posted above. It was better than the Baran Do plotline from Book One in every way possible, and I ate up every bit of it hungrily. Om nom nom. Really, really good stuff.

I think that the book deserves a solid... eight point... three. Which is quite a bit better than the 6.8 I gave Outcast.

Here's my TF.N Staff Review

1.2/4 works out to 3/10.

I didn't like it much.

Harsh.

You make good points, but... competitive for the worst SW book ever? Man, that's harsh.

I did notice the awkward dialogue at a couple of points, such as this speech by Jaina:

Jaina grimaced. "While I am delighted beyond belief that I no longer have an official observer following me into the refresher --- particularly not one who looks like my dead younger brother --- that doesn't mean we're not all being watched. One journalist in particular seems very keen on chatting with Jag and me. Trying to ditch him is like trying to shake a mynock off the hull."

When has Jaina ever had diction that proper?

But I disagree about the date scene reading like a bad fanfiction. To me, that scene diamonded the entire media subplot of the book, showing just how hard it is for the SkySolo family to live normal lives, and what lengths they had to go to have something as simple as a private date. I was, however, a bit miffed that that was all that Darkmeld did in the book.

I also disagree that the Aing-Tii plot was more pointless and disappointing than the Baran Do plot, but I think all of our disagreements are a matter of personal taste. I'd love to discuss them more in-depth with you in the discussion thread proper.

But really, man --- 3/10? Harsh.

YodaKenobi wrote a great review. I like the 3/10s. They tend to even out all of those 9.5s.

Worst SW novel ever? I don't think so. I gotta agree about the Jag and Jaina stuff. It's been a nightmare in both Outcast and Omen. No writer can fix those two short of just marrying them and ending it.

The background to the Lost Tribe was given in the free e-book by John Jackson Miller.

I know The review was actually written a long time ago, and I didn't want to integrate the Miller stuff in because I thought it best to review only what was in Omen. What I said is, "it's not clear which Sith these are" in the book. That wasn't a criticism, just an observation.



As for the grading, anything I rate over 5 is a positive score, anything below 5 is negative. If it's above five that means I liked more about it than I disliked and vice versa. I know a lot of people tend to only score things between 7-10 (and some people think it's an insult to go any lower) but I like to use the whole scale. Otherwise, everything ends up roughly the same and rating these books becomes even more meaningless than it probably already is.

It's what makes sense to me

And not to play mod here, guys, but if you want to discuss this (which I'm happy to do) we should probably move it to the Omen Discussion thread. Don't want to derail the review thread

Like many other fans, my main problem with this book is it's length. The shortness of the book makes much of it feel rushed, and does not give the amount of time to each seperate plot of the book.

Still, I enjoyed the book a lot. Christie Golden has a nice style of writing that I feel fits well with a Star Wars novel. She handles the characterization as well if not better than other authors have recently. It also flowed very well with Outcast, and because of that so far FOTJ seems like one story, where as LOTF felt disjounted by the second book.

The book was broken down into three plots. The first was the GA/Jedi rift caused by the Jedi psychosis. While not receiving the amount of page time needed to really expand on this plot, I felt it was still handled rather well. I enjoyed seeing the POV from Jysella and Natua Wan. Reading what they are seeing, and how the pyschosis works was enjoyable. The couple of action scenes, one at the Temple, the other at the Zoo were quick, but well written. Omen adds to what is becoming a nice sub plot so far in FOTJ. I hope that it continues to entertain in the rest of the series.

The second sub plot, was the Tribe. A new Sith order, or should I say an old one. We dont know too much about them yet. However while like most Sith they crave power, you also see that their time alone on Kesh has made them dofferent from your typical, power crazy Sith. You see that while they try and put attachment aside, they still have it, and go back to it after their training. Vestara is an interesting character and could be a good villain if portrayed well in future books.

The third and final sub plot is another continuation from Outcast. Ben and Luke Skywalker trying to find out what happened to Jacen Solo on his 5 year journey. Visiting the Aing-Ti we get to learn about this mysterious culture which we have heard about since The Hand of Thrawn. I truly enjoyed learning about these beings from the Rift. Seeing Ben and Luke interact with them as well as each other was very enjoyable, and I like how this journey while testing them is bringing Father and Son even closer together. This is by far my favorite plot of both the book and series. I especially enjoyed the flow-walking where Ben realized that no matter what he did, Jacen was already starting down the dark path at the beginning of his journey as he was 'broken' by then.

This book has left me excited for Abyss, which I hope can continue the strong start to FOTJ. I have high hopes for this series, which I must admit I didnt after book 2 of LOTF.

I give Omen:

8.75 out of 10

Before I get to the numbers, I think I'll focus on some points ...

PRO: The flow from Outcast to Omen is quite well done. Things aren't so out of control in characterization (and more on that in a bit) as they could be at times in LOTF; the plot's consistent from book to book; and there's changes in the characters (Daala's getting antsier; J/J move forward; Ben's making progress in dealing with the really messiest parts of his past).

* Corran getting ready to go old-school on bad-Imperial backside. YES.

* Ben being more of a realistic teenager. He wants his answers and he wants them now; he's willing to call Luke out, even if he gets burned in the process. And when he does get his hand burned, he doesn't whine about it - he gets his emotions out and deals with them. There's some macho there, but not too much.

* The new/old Sith. They might seem tame, but they're also ruthless when it suits them.

This isn't the wasteful blood-sacrifice-and-fetish routine on Korriban; these are people who allow themselves to care, without making excuses that "oh, well, light-side weakens us."

Are they dangerous? Absolutely. They're sneaky, in a very Palpatine sort of way, instead of the GWAR of Maul or the skeevy creepiness of the Sith religionists.

That, and even if more Sith cooks spoil the dark side soup, at least there can be backstabbing and fun in the kitchen.

* "Mind Drinkers," the Maw, and the Elder Thing. With Denning writing. Oh yes.

* The proposal. Oh thank you. Finally.

And it was rather a Jag type of proposal. A lot of stiffness, a little humor, a moment of happiness.

* Aing-Tii? Codex? Kathol Rift? Jorj Car'Das? Win.

CON: There are some definite "yeahbuhwha?" points, to be sure:

* "You've got two, we've got two?"

No. Just - no. Darkmeld shouldn't have been exposed. The plotline's closure felt too soon, and quite honestly, too blunted.

And leaving the Horns carbonited while two semi-no-name Jedi seethe in the Temple basement?

You don't play ball with crazy semi-ex-Imperials. Unless they replace Darkmeld with Rogue Squadron, Daala's machinations are going to be grating by book 7 or 8, I fear.

* Dab (evidently) being dropped like a hot potato. There was some serious "oh, boy, Daala's batting Tahiri around like a cat with a catnip mouse" potential there.

While Mr. "I've-got-one-moral" Sludgefeed hologuy was at least carrying forward Daala's manipulations (even if he's not on her payroll), it's not the same. Hopefully we'll see more of Dab.

* While I still like how Ben dealt with seeing Jacen, the conclusion he reached seemed ... forced? Presumptuous? Tying off a plotline way too soon in the series?

Maybe I'm reading too much into his reaction. Book 2 just seems a little too soon for the answer to be "well, Jacen was determined, so over time he got dark."

* Winter the chauffeur. Er - no. Just, no.

Now, if it's revealed she was secretly monitoring GADF comlinks from the parking lot, looking for dirt on Daala ...

* Luke teasing Ben about not having more friends.

Farmboy, you sent him off at age 8 with his crazy cousin for a father figure.

Evidently, the coping gene came from the Jade side of the family.

* Aing-Tii initial greetings. Two words: Personal. Space.

Overall ... I'd give it a 7.5. With an especial nod to Ms. Golden for what, IMHO, is a good first SW novel - and appreciation for her doing a good job of keeping things moving.

I am really loving this book so far, and I'm about halfway through. I'd like it to be longer, but the writing and characterizations are fantastic. In fact, after slogging through a Stover book, with all of it's WAY TOO LONG ramblings and GFFA versions of expressions... let's just call it "wordiness", CG's writing was a breath of fresh air and I greatly anticipate her next work.

I thought her handling of the "Force Craziness" was much better than previously handled, and actually interesting (it was a turn-off in the last book).

The Sith stuff feels fresh and exciting.

BEST NEW STAR WARS AUTHOR.

9/10. (-1 for length).

This is, by far, the most enjoyable SW book I have read since SBS, and may be better once i have given it some time and reread it.

My only complaints are length(and price pertaining to length), and the lack of shown reactions to a major development between two characters.

So I Righteously Hitherto give this a 9.7/10

Overall, I give Omen by Christie Golden 9/10 stars. A great first novel for Golden in the Star Wars Universe.

Pros:

*There was a very smooth transition from Outcast

*The Han/Leia/Allana trip to the livestock show was a fun peek into the normal life of this family (at least until the Force-crazy antics began). The description of the livestock show reminded me of our own Denver livestock show in January.

*The Luke/Ben plot was great. I especially liked the humor. It seemed very similar to Allston's writing here. I felt that there was some foreshadowing of Luke's death, both in his own POV when thinking about one day seeing Mara and Obi-Wan and Yoda again, and from Ben's POV when he is troubled by the signs that his father is aging.

*Jaina and Jag are finally engaged! I hope we don't have to wait for 5 books for the actual cermony.

*Carryover from Outcast where Jaina ponders the breaking point of Corran and in Omen even Luke foreshadows Corran either breaking down or breaking loose.

Cons:

*I must say I am a little tired of reading about Vestara's long, brown tresses. It is mentioned everytime she is described. Reads like a romance novel.

*The Lost Tribe doesn't feel very sithly to me, more like Sith-lite

*Ben's eyes are BLUE not green!

7.5/10

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It flowed well from Outcast and the narrative flowed well. I did enjoy Luke and Ben with the Aing-Tii, as well as Han/Leia/Jaina on Coruscant, but would have liked to see more than just the Solos/Skywalkers saving the da again.

I understand that they need a real enemy to distract Luke from the One Sith, since the political fights obviously are only temporary. But a second group of hidden Sith? They are apparently close enough to shipping lanes to acquire a fleet with no one noticing, but no one can sense a growing population of Sith that is not actively trying to remain hidden? I'd think Luke would have sensed something by now, or even Caedus or Lumiya to seek out allies.

I did enjoy Luke and Ben with the Aing-Tii, as well as Han/Leia/Jaina on Coruscant, but would have liked to see more than just the Solos/Skywalkers saving the da again.

Somethings are starting to come together, with Luke and Cilgal both looking at the Maw (and the Mind Breakers), but they're just drawing out the series.

Overall a decent read, but mostly filler; this series should have been condensed into a trilogy, not spread out over 9 short books.

I completely agree! I wrote out a full review here, but overall, Omen was okay.

Luke and Ben stole the show again, I'm never impressed with Jag and Jaina. Theirs is a romance I've never really understood or cared for. Call me uninspired, but I don't see the chemistry!

I'm pretty bored with the Sith so reading about yet another group of them was a let down, but it was weird that just when they got a whiff of Luke, a potential enemy/threat, they were distracted by something shiny and collectively decided to go off and hunt Ship instead.

The book was way, way too short. I can't believe this series is 9 books, all hard cover. They should have made it either a large trilogy or a 5 book release. There's hardly any action in both this and Outcast--the same things happen in each book. For comparison in the review, I found my copy of Star by Star. It retailed for $26 at 606 pages, no previews at the end. Omen was 236 pages plus 14 extra of Abyss preview and retails for $27. Inflation, anyone?

I didn't have any problem with Christie Golden's writing. She was pretty accessible and I think she's a good addition.

Typos usually don't bother me, but I noticed Jaini now has an apartment on Coruscant...

Rating: 7/10

Even though the fight with Jysella had taken only "a couple of minutes" outside of the Jedi Temple before her arrest, a speeder with Daala shows up just as the GA forces are slapping cuffs on her. Aides immediately spring out and assemble a podium for the Alliance's Chief of State right there in the street so that Daala can give a speech about how dangerous the Jedi are. The effect is almost comical, creating an image of Daala cruising around the city at all hours with her podium in sections at the ready, just waiting for another Jedi to go nuts.

And it doesn't stop there? Golden does the same thing with any jokes, telling you about the joke before the character involved makes it, preventing anyone from finding it funny and adding another layer of repetitiveness (Not that they were really funny anyway. They?re jokes like ?teenage boys eat a lot!? Ha ha ha?).


Exactly what a review should be, YodaKenobi. Well done. Thoughts expressed ans supported, not vague gushing or whining. And if those two points are any indication alone, I'm assured in my decision to overlook this series.

I thought the book okay. I was impressed with CG and how she handled all the characters. However this pg count really hurt the book.

7/10

*The Han/Leia/Allana trip to the livestock show was a fun peek into the normal life of this family (at least until the Force-crazy antics began). The description of the livestock show reminded me of our own Denver livestock show in January.

I like how they remembered kids really like animals.

*The Luke/Ben plot was great. I especially liked the humor. It seemed very similar to Allston's writing here. I felt that there was some foreshadowing of Luke's death, both in his own POV when thinking about one day seeing Mara and Obi-Wan and Yoda again, and from Ben's POV when he is troubled by the signs that his father is aging.

Yeah, but I don't think Luke's death will happen "on-screen".

*Carryover from Outcast where Jaina ponders the breaking point of Corran and in Omen even Luke foreshadows Corran either breaking down or breaking loose.

His kids are going nuts. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up skirting the dark side.

*I must say I am a little tired of reading about Vestara's long, brown tresses. It is mentioned everytime she is described. Reads like a romance novel.

Yeah, I hate when they do that stuff. I like Mara, but one more "red-gold"?

*The Lost Tribe doesn't feel very sithly to me, more like Sith-lite

Well, they had to form a stable society, something Bane's Sith never had to worry about.

Finished last night. Enjoyed it but it was too short as others have said.

In fact, It felt like an abridged Book on Tape to me. There was a lot of "Telling" and not "Showing." For example, can we get an extra chapter or two of the Lost Sith using their old school Sith Powers to build their fleet? Have we had a single space battle? How about Ship doing cool stuff? I like that the series is slowly building but it's going a little too slow. Great characterization but I could use a tad more action? Where is Wedge and the Rogues in all of this? Lando? Surely the Jedi have some friends who can do some of this for them. Winter gets a 5 second Cameo? You don't have to be a Jedi or be dating one to be useful.

Also, what's with Luke's "We got nothing for ya...sorry." I was expecting a revelation of who the "Prophet" was leading to their decision. Is that something from the Comics I am not aware of? It seems thrown in without any resolution. Now I don;t expect Luke to solve everone's problems but throw us a bone.

But even considering all of that I still enjoyed it.

7/10.

Overall, Omen represents a fine first novel by Christie Golden and an excellent addition to the Expanded Universe.

When reading the novel, one of the things that struck me first was the depth of Ms. Golden's research into previous EU material. Ranging from the Codex to more recent events such as Ben's quest on Ziost, Golden manages to effortlessly interweave Omen's storyline and characters into the Star Wars mythos, and does so in a way that feels very true to both the universe, and the characters themselves.

Often in tie-in universes, authors make the effort to cite previous novels, but this sometimes falls through as the references come across as little more than name-drops and needless background. With Omen, that's not a problem. Golden only uses background in the story as necessary, and only then when it feels like the logical progression of the character's thoughts. The example of this I enjoyed the most was when Ben hears the word "embrace" and recoils with the memory of his torture at the hands of Jacen in Inferno. This reaction was completely unexpected and represented a nice tie-in to a past event, but also was completely in-character for Ben and it didn't feel like a "name-drop" in order to make the story appear to have better continuity.

Golden also does this with other point-of-view characters as well (including a scene that I really enjoyed where she describes the history of the Jade Shadow as Ben's thinking about Mara), and it really helps to give the characters an added level of in-universe depth.

Aside from the author's obvious care and research when writing the story, there's a lot of other things to like about Omen too. Every character seems to act like they should, and even more so, their actions seem in keeping with how the characters were set up in Outcast. Han makes sarcastic quips in places where he should, Luke and Ben have a realistically friendly-but-occasionally-antagonistic father-son relationship, and even Daala, near the end, shows signs of her old hotheadedness, something that seemed to be missing from earlier characterizations of her in this era. It never feels over-the-top, but the characters tend to act overall as I felt they should in this era, with glimpses of their old selves coming back in moments where they should have.

Golden also doesn't hesitate to introduce new characters to the EU, something that I can always admire coming in from a new author. All of the Jedi she created for this novel were interesting, and the Lost Tribe of Sith is a fascinating take on the often-used Sith Order. I thought that Vestara and Rhea were excellent characters--particularly Rhea's chilling speech to Vestara about how she would have to lose everything to gain everything, and I find myself really looking forward to the advertised (at least how I interpret the jacket flap) duel between Luke and Rhea in Abyss.

The main critique I have of this novel is that it could have showed more, and I really wish it had, of both Luke and Ben's time with the Aing-Tii and especially Vestara's training under Rhea and the early Sith raids. Though I've really enjoyed FOTJ so far, I wish there were more space battles shown, as that to me is part of the essence of Star Wars. Still, though, it seems from the blurbs that Abyss will take care of that.

Overall, there's a lot to praise about Omen, from the writing to the characters and their acting in a believable way, to how at-home Christie Golden appears to feel in the Star Wars universe in her debut novel. A few more scenes about the Sith and the Aing-Tii and this novel would merit an even higher score, but nevertheless I feel it earns a 9/10.