The JC Lit Reviews Special: FORCE HERETIC II: REFUGEE (REFUGEE spoilers)

Unlocked and bumped by request.

 

wow.

Just this one? Just the middle one?

For a second I thought this was something knew that I had completely dropped the ball on!

So I guess the question on everyone's mind is...

Why?

But then that will hopefully be answered via the requester who did the requesting.

ero, the best question to ask would be:

Who?

 

Because I already put my thoughts for Part I in the Review forum before it shut down.

BTW, thank you Havac. And onto the book...

Overall, a pretty good read, though nothing really jumps out at that lifts the story into "spectacular" territory. Like the last book, the walk down memory lane with Bakura and the Ssi-Ruuk as well as an up close and personal look at the Fel family and the time spent with the Chiss was welcome. I found all three story lines, in fact, to be fairly interesting. I enjoyed the conspiracies within conspiracies on Bakura, even if that story did seem to drag on a little, the search at the Chiss library (with actual books!) for Zonama Sekot, though the threat of rival Houses and the kidnapping of Fel's daughter seems a bit tacked on. And I find that Nom Anor's continued efforts to return to power as engrossing as before. Like any solid middle chapter, this one competently moves the stories forward, though in some cases it seems in very small ways, and also in that very tradition has a very cliffhanger-like ending. Nom Anor's new spy and all the possibilities that gains him, Tahiri's unknown state, the probable location of ZS. I look forward to finding where these stories go, even if I was somewhat disappointed that there was less closure than I'd hoped. Then again, closure is what the final part of a trilogy is all about.

At times, especially toward the end, the book really started to show that it was written by multiple authors. The climax felt... unfocused I guess and a bit anticlimactic. I remember turning the page and being completely surprised that I'd already reached the epilogue. Here's hoping that the big finale delivers where this middle chapter didn't quite do so.

And just an observation here, but like Vector Prime, the authors' more than usual affinity for exclamation points kind of jumped out at me. Oh, and Jacen's line "Vergere wouldn't have lied to me," is one of the most unintentionally funny lines I've seen in a while.

7/10

 

Average score: 286.75/38 = 7.55

 

four years later...