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

Ok it's a bit of a cheat, but i got the audiobook from the library. I have a long ride. I was happy with it. It's nothing amazing but a solid and interesting series opener. Lando was also in it, which is good.

8

 

Well, this has certainly been way better than most of LOTF, in my personal opinion. I'm going to go with the standard review format.

The Good:
1) Luke and Ben plot. This was certainly the highlight of the novel. There was a mystery that needed solving, and they were the ones who had to solve it. It was well written, creative, and The Hidden One was a good visualization of how people can get things so wrong.
2) Jaina and team plot. This was certainly the action part of the novel. It was well written and the capture of Seff was well executed.
3) Allana and the Moon Monster. Creepy, a good forshadowing of what may be to come, and definitely a good part of the story.

The Bad:
1) Kenth Hamner. Now I don't hate Kenth Hamner, but I don't think he's a good choice for interim grand master. I know Kyp and Corran have too much baggage right now for being the leader, but I think Cilghal or Kyle would have been better choices.

Not so sure:
1) I didn't really like the Solo plot. It felt as an unnecessary diversion to keep Han and Leia away from the main action. I was expecting something bigger than just groundquakes from a secret lab. But maybe I speak too soon. We'll see if it is bigger than I thought.

Score: Overall, I think this was a great book. Better than LOTF (save Inferno) and definitely in the right direction. So I give it a 9.5.

 

What a letdown!

Starts off awesome. Great concept - Jedi going nuts, Luke arrest, Jag coming to Coruscant and meeting up with Jaina. Everyone working to catch Valin (who I really like, save the whole lame lack of telekinisis thing that he, unfortunately, inherited from his father). So for the first 1/3 it was a real page turner... and then Luke and Ben going off and Han and Leia go to Kessel and the book literally stops.

The Han/Leia thing was soooo boring. Even a few pithy lines from Han couldn't save this plot. I found myself struggling toc are and so what, ultimaelty, if Han overcomes his fears of energy spiders? What is he, 12 years old? It felt like 100 pages of Han and Leia searching the caverns, and it could have easily been cut down to 50 before they decide to bomb the caverns on their own terms -- rather than let Kessel do it itself via groundquakes. And then of course Wedge has to come in. God, please, just leave him alone. He does nothing for the plot anymore. I'd rather see his daughter Syal if we have to read about an Antilles -- she was interesting in LOTF. I use to think I wanted more Lando, but if this is what they are going to do with him, forget it. Let him retire. I will say I'm glad he has a son -- Chance is a cool SW name -- but didn't LOTF tell us it was a girl? I'm pretty sure it did. All in all, this plot wasn't even strong enough for it's own book, let alone be put into the first book of an "epic" new series.

Okay, onto the Luke/Ben pairing. We had the Han/Leia investigation on Kessel and we have the Luke and Ben investigation on Dorin. These dual plots did not compliment each other at all -- both were slow acts of gathering information. Much like Empire, where Luke was training with Yoda, we should have had a plot with Han and Leia that was much faster and exciting. The Dorin stuff took a long time to get through until they went underground to the hidden bunker or whatever (guess that's where Luke and Ben get the idea for the hidden temple in Legacy). I didn't think they learned enough about Jacen and, frankly, I'm afraid we will have to sit through another handful of books with Luke and Ben investigating. Unless they up the stakes -- beyond Luke and Ben getting stuck underground like in this book -- which I seriously doubt anyone thought was actually going to happen -- I'm going start skimming the chapters. I'm so glad I got this book at the library.

I did, however, like Luke being away from the order and I'm super excited to see how they fare without him. Kenth is a little boring as a character, but it was nice to see Corran brought down a peg or two with his son going insane. When Seff, another crazy Jedi, shows up the action finally starts to pick up again. But Seff didn't act like he did in Millenium Falcon, and so I'm confused about the details of the Jedi insanity. Does it effect stronger Jedi slower. It seems Valin (and Jysella in the Omen preview) get it really quick - like one second they are fine, they next they are totally nuts.

Jag and Jaina together trying to stop Seff were okay. But I really, really liked Tahiri and Jag. They have a nice chemisty and a good antagonist relationship that I feel like could slowly start to melt. And Tahiri seems like a better candidate to start up Jag's rival Jedi school - the Imperial Knights -- than Jaina. Reading this book with her as the last of the three Solo kids and also as the Sword of the Jedi, I feel like she is meant for something more. If not Zekk, I'm not even sure she should be with anyone the way she is maturing into her role. However, I don't feel like Allston does a great job with her character. I would love to see someone come and do a great Jaina story like Keyes did with Anakin Solo that made everyone fall in love with that character. Denning did pretty good in Invincible, but the plot of that story (or lack of) overshadowed her so hopefully we get some good Denning Jaina in Abyss (book three of this series).

A couple brief things that bugged me. The lack of Daala. The book needed her to up the tension. While I

 

Average score: 478.65/61 = 7.85

 

Here's my belated TFN Staff Review.

2/4 works out to 5/10 (The math on that one was a nightmare).

 

Now that's a review I agree with.

Seriously. Check out my initial semi-review here; I completely agree that the Kessel subplot was pointless and not exciting, the Baran Do plot didn't accomplish anything and didn't have enough of a Jacen-related conclusion, while everything that took place on Coruscant was great stuff. And the scene where Luke thinks of Daala as honorable made me so frustrated I had to put the book down and go do something else.

I didn't think it was 5/10 bad, though. Allston's writing was still good. I gave it a 6.8. Which is actually lower than what I gave Revelation.

 

Average score: 483.65/62 = 7.80

 

I enjoyed the book but I have to admit that this is mainly because I forced myself to only accept the events of LotF happening in "broad strokes" (I won't link to TV Tropes ) and pretended that Daala was a different person whose entire history had been retconned. Though there were some really great bits, there was a lot of "meh" to munch on too. (Usually anything that carried over from LotF)

Ben as a 16 year old Jedi Knight is ridiculous - in part because it means that his becoming a knight at 14 hasn't been jettisoned - and his whole "A Grand Master needs an apprentice that is a rank higher" made my roll my eyes pretty hard. That said, I actually liked Ben for the first time... ever, really. Which is saying something. He was an insufferable **** all through LotF.

The whole Tarc/Tahiri thing made me want to vomit, though. Seriously. Can they either let Tahiri MOVE ON and find someone totally different or bring Anakin back (not as a ghost possessing Tarc's body)? Ideally the former but I wouldn't cry bloody murder if they went for the latter.

I will probably buy the entire series (I think the books will look nice on my shelf) but, frankly, I think that LotF has ruined this era almost beyond repair. FotJ shouldn't have been set afterwards, it should have replaced it -- with the entirety of LotF being explained as one of the visions Jacen had on that asteriod before he stuck Lumiya down and stayed true to the light.

So yeah, it was a well written, fun read but it came with a lot of LotF-related baggage that spoiled it.

6/10

 

Average score: 489.65/63 = 7.77

 

Cilghal, yes. Kyle, maybe for teh lolz.

Kyp and Corran also need to balance each other out. Giving either one of them the Grand Master title would upset the balance of the council. It's pretty much like Fox News and your campus's local anarchist paper: They'll disagree with each other on principle if nothing else.

 

While most everyone is reading or finished with Omen, I just finished Outcast yesterday .
I think this book was a mixed bag for me. I have to agree with other reviewers that the first third was very exciting and that when the plot splits up it kind of lost momentum. I actually thought all the stuff with the Baren Do Sages was actually really cool. And in regards to Jacen it does show us something about him even if indirectly; he could not sniff out the reality of the 'deaths' and if he did why didn't he do something about it like Luke and Ben?
I would rate this 7.5/10

 

Average score: 497.15/64 = 7.77

 

I finally got a hold of this one and finished it last week. Not a bad way to start the latest series, but it doesn't really set itself apart, never rising above and beyond the expected. The scale does go down a bit, and like Millennium Falcon that's kind of refreshing. For once, the entire galaxy is not on the brink of destruction and there's not yet another galactic war. It actually reminded me more than a little of Betrayal. There was some of that adventure, though without an equivalent of the Jacen storyline from that book, this one is lighter and more fun. Then again, even more than Betrayal this one feels like it's lacking something of substance, though it's hard to nail down what. It's clearly a set up for what's to come, most especially the plot line on Coruscant, which is resolved the least of the three main plots that take up the latter half of the book. Even so, it's probably the thread that I enjoyed the most. For one thing, seeing as it takes place on Coruscant and deals directly with the status of the Jedi Order and the GA government under Daala, it gives the best picture of the state of the post-LOTF galaxy, at least as far as the Core is concerned. Getting to see the institutions' and the characters' status and the ways they had to deal with the fallout of Jacen's reign is one of the things I'd been looking forward to seeing. Not only that, but the plot itself, following up from Millennium Falcon and the activities of Seff Hellin, were the most exciting in the book. While the stakes are never that high, it still flows well and made me wondering just what would happen next and what Jaina and co. would be finding. Throw in giving some of the other Jedi Masters, such as Kenth and Cilghal, some real voices and perspectives for once and you have what is my favorite part of the book.

Speaking of Daala, her new level-headed demeanor didn't really bother me. Yeah, she used to be a genocidal maniac, but that was 30 years ago. It seems age (and maybe some corrective brain surgery) gave her a little wisdom and sanity. What didn't make sense, as many have already pointed out, was her calling Luke out on things like Kyp and Luke not really having a counter, not even internally. It still makes no sense that she would be the CoS now, but that's not Allston's doing. I wonder how long we'll have to deal with it.

I was glad to see Luke and Ben heading off to Dorin to learn from the sages. I find the idea of getting to "see" Jacen's journey and the various Force-using cultures and movements to be a fascinating idea. The execution here, though, felt somewhat lacking. While I enjoyed getting a look at the Kel Dor and learning things we already knew about the sages, the entire underground plot was kind of underwhelming. It seemed that the mystery of the Sages was pretty much revealed at the beginning and the underground sequence was really just there to give Luke and Ben something to solve. It was there just to give them something to do.

That said, Luke's characterization was some of my favorite in a while. He's the powerful, wizened Jedi Master we all expect him to be, but he has a bit of that Yoda-like humor and mischief to him. And, of course, he was always in control of the situation. It's probably a good thing that he's out of the way at this juncture.

The Kessel plot was probably the most uneven of the three, IMO. It does have some entertaining and intriguing bits, whether it's with the parade of known characters and old faces (yay for Nien, Hobbie, and Rhysati! Honorable mention to Nawara Ven, though that's an entire other storyline) or the way the characters were wrote. The encounter Allana has was interesting and I was disappointed to see that not followed up upon (more set up, of course). I started getting into it when I thought the thing with the bogies was going somewhere, but it didn't. Much of it seemed to be about Han's fears of Kessel and the energy spiders, but in spite of the impact that was meant to have, it still rang somewhat false to me.

A

 

Average score: 504.15/65 = 7.76

 

The fact that I am just now finishing this book despite having started it when it came out should tell you something.

Wow. I don't dislike Allston, but I'm not one of those EU folks that will say anything he does is superawesomefantastic, either. That said, this book was a letdown even though I didn't have high hopes for it.

I literally skimmed pages (over half the book) the first time I "read" it, and made myself go back and read word for (sometimes excrutiating) word before reviewing, hoping to feel different. I didn't.

The good parts like Luke and Ben's portion (which were pretty few and far between) went by too fast, and got a bit muddled and tripped up in the storyline, like Allston wasn't sure where he was going even as he started the paragraph. And the bad parts, drug on...and on...and on.

The Baron Do piece is just bad. Bad. Particularly now that I'm reading Omen and am liking Golden's interpretation of the Aang Tii. Marvel comic set into novelization, zany bad. I didn't follow their story and nothing Allston did could make me want to know more about them.

Jaina and Jag were too "cute" and basically read as Han and Leia v.2.0 in their dialogue. And speaking of Han and Leia... their characterization is pretty bad.

I had higher hopes for this book based on the reviews I was seeing, but just can't force myself to give it anything in the "good" zone, which would be above a 5. So it's a 3.5 for me.

 

Outcast was the best out of the three books so far. But I skipped the H/L subplot since it got so boring. The scene with them in the cave last years. I skipped the last few parts of them. The Allana part was good however.

Luke and Ben=
I give it a 9

 

4/10

 

Really enjoyed this novel. I liked it a lot of than the opener for LOTF.

Enjoyed the Luke and Ben interaction in this a lot more than in LOTF and liked their adventure. Luke was a badass when he needed to be but it was also good to see it just wasn't him beating on people with Ben just watching. They were the shinning beacons of this novel.

I have to admit I was spoiled about future plot points so the Han and Leia part did not seem so strange or pointless compared to what Luke-Ben plot and the Jaina plot. Couldn't believe Wes wasn't part of the group on Kessel! Nice little mystery introduced through that with the voice and the true purpose of Kessel.

Still not a fan of Jaina though and I found Allana a pain, but she is just a kid. The Anakin look-alike is something I'm not sure on. The ghost of Anakin seems to get into every novel post NJO it seems, I do wish he would just stay dead and gone.

Even with that I still give it a 9/10.

 

Average score: 520.65/68 = 7.66

 

Average score: 529.55/69 = 7.67