The JC Lit Reviews Special: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: BETRAYAL (spoilers)

Hm, where has my rating disappeared to? I'm rather sure I included it in my review (on 6/6), but it's not there now and it's not been counted. Must have been eaten when I edited the post.
My original rating was a 5/10, but having thought about and discussed the novel at length, I'm even less impressed than I was originally. So: 4/10.

 

425.4/51 = 8.34

 

My sentiments exactly. The title of Episode IV is A New Hope, not "A New Hope that 35 years later is crushed like a bug. It seems like Legacy of the Force is trying too hard to be RotS. And I have a real hard time believing that the big three (Luke, Leia, and Han) would come down on opposite sides. Jacen should know better to trust a Sith with his family's history.

 

I'll give it an 9, I liked it very, very much..

It was a little obvious to me.. (since most of the Jacen storyline is verbotem what ive been saying on the boards the past year) but the writing was good, plot was believable, thier were no scarheads or bugs to be seen, just regular ole Star Wars species. I like the rehash of the Clone Wars this is turning into since I like Civil War, since it creates huge new conflicts, as well as small personal ones.. good good good.

 

434.4/52 = 8.35

 

After Agents of Chaos, there was an amount of time that Vergere spent 'collecting information on the NR' before returning to the Yuuzhan Vong. It's not farfetched she actually spent that time with Lumiya.

Or that Lumiya is actually lying her *** off and she wasn't Sith.

By the way, put down a 9.5/10 for me.

 

9 out of 10. BTW, I'm not sure I understood the future Sith Jacen part. Since when do people (that aren't schizos) take orders from apparitions. Is it possible that Jacen was flow-walking, yet his form was weak since the future has not yet happened? I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it.

 

452.9/54 = 8.39

 

Count me in as 8.8. May or may not return with a longer review. Certainly more engaging than the latter two DN books, and at least half of the NJO.

 

It's a good book, though I really hope this series does something pretty dramatic with the tension they've created in this series.

And by "something pretty dramatic", I mean "wipe Jacen from the face of the Galaxy".

7

 

That's pretty much how I feel.


I don't want Jacen dead. I also don't want him to revert to a completely Luke-ish view, either, though. It'd be interesting to see him eventually stuck on the outside of the family bubble because of his different views, but still trusted to the extent that he might be called upon because of his abilities.

On other stuff:

I have to agree with what's been said about Nelani. Very well done minor character.

Vergere's Sith connection seems almost like an engineered fan-pleaser, like someone else said, but maybe that's just because I've seen so many people arguing that theory here for so long. I really liked Vergere, and apart from the fact that it kind of feels like this was decided on the basis of fan speculation (and I could definitely be wrong about that), I guess it's a cool development. Assuming Lumiya's telling the truth, of course. I like that Vergere saw through Palpatine when Dooku didn't.

As much as I like seeing the old heroes alive and kicking, I can't help but wonder if maybe they push it sometimes when they take control of a situation. Not so much the Jedi, but the way Wedge and Tycho walked all over that security guard. Not that I have anything against Wedge and Tycho, of course. But sometimes I think that Titch was at least a little bit justified in his bitterness. And even if Wedge and whoever else is always right, I don't know that they should always be the only ones who are right. I realize that for the purposes of Operation Noble Savage in the plot, Wedge had to butt in, but sometimes it makes non-vet characters look more incompetent than they probably should.

Other than that, and some awkward dialogue scattered throughout, I thought it was great, and I like that Jacen and Ben were spotlighted. The Big Three are serving a less completely dominant role, which I like. Not in terms of galactic involvement, of course; I mean in terms of who matters most to the plot. Now Jacen is their equal in terms of storytelling purposes. I found it odd that Jaina didn't get that same treatment, though. Maybe later?

 

468.7/56 = 8.37

 

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I wanted to add my review.

My Review

Betrayal has officially replaced Traitor as my most hated EU book ever. The action scenes were OK and Ben's character showed growth but I disliked almost everything else. First off, it seems incredibly stupid of Han and Leia, for all pratical matters, to help start a war. Wasn't their goal in life to make the galaxy better for Jacen and Jaina? IMO, them helping Corellia goes against this.

Even though we heard about Lumiya's involvement a while back I'm saddened to see her. Instead of creating new villains DelRey brings back somebody few people have heard of. What angers me more is that she did absolutely nothing but talk, unless you can count those Force Apparitions that Jacen, Ben, Nelani, Luke and Mara fought. Which BTW, seems ridiculous. If Dark Siders can create such things it lessens the need for them to go out and do the dirty work themselves.

Also, on the issue of Dark Siders this book took lots of stuff about Sith and throws it out the window:

*Dark Side mynocks?
*Vergere was a Sith despite her countless "There is no Dark Side" blabbering?
*Sidious being found out by Vergere despite the other several thousand smarter and better Jedi who never found out?
*Now a Sith has to be mostly organic?
*Lumiya claiming that Sidious weren't true Sith Lords?
*Introducing a Sith Lord who supposedly good?

Why introduce Thrackan Sal Solo again? Surely there were other Corellians who could lead them. Plus, not only does he comes back but he also tries to get Centerpoint Station working again. That is just poor storytelling. The GA should have destroyed Centerpoint before now. Seriously, they got rid of all the previous superweapons but not it?

Nelani was a good character and I hated to see her die. Has death in the EU become overused? I hope that we see too many more meaningless deaths as the LOTF books go on.

One last thing before I give my score: Where were all of the other Jedi? Outside of the Skywalker/Solo clan we only see Corran and Nelani.

My Score: 1.5 out of 10

 

And Thann Mithric, Tiu Zax, Kolir Hul'ya, Zekk, Tahiri, and Doran Tainer. But yea, other than those 13...

 

I won't try to change your opinion of the book, but there are a few things I think you're misinterpretting here.

And, since so few people have heard of her, and since she made so few appearances in the past, she is essentially a new character. She has also proven herself to be a damn fine villainess, and I'm glad that LFL decided to bring her back to the forefront and complete her story arc rather than continuing to pretend the last Sith Lord in the galaxy doesn't exist and creating new characters to fill roles that are too important to be without a history.

And give Nelani a thorough trouncing with her lightwhip, and manipulate the entire course of the story from behind the scenes.

Well, they aren't independent beings. She consciously has to control them and maintain their existence, which is very difficult for her to do. Also, I'm sure that she couldn't cause an army of dark-side mynock phantoms to materialize anywhere she wished. It was probably the dark side energy of Vectivus's asteroid that allowed her to maintain those phantoms for the short time that she was able.

So Lumiya says. We have no way of knowing whether she's lying (which she does a lot of) or not. That said, if she is telling the truth, Vergere being a Sith actually makes some manner of sense. Palpatine himself was saying how "light side" and "dark side" were only terms used to make understanding the Force easier back in Shadow Hunter. Despite her own warped views, Vergere is clearly classifiable as a darksider, and, if she received training in Sith techniques, she could be considered a Sith. Certainly not a Sith Lord, nor even an apprentice, but she could be considered a Sith acolyte, and there's certainly a precedent for those. In any event, Ventress called herself a Sith, but we know she wasn't. Just because Vergere doesn't believe in the dark side (a belief which is canonically erroneous), doesn't mean she isn't a Sith.

Again, we have only Lumiya's word for this. There may be more to the story, or she may just be lying. We don't know yet.

No. See Darth Vader and Lumiya.

I'm not entirely sure she believes this. More likely, I think, she just said it to lure Jacen into becoming a Sith by assuring him that, in doing so, he wouldn't end up like Palpatine. Regardless, even if she does believe it, she's wrong, which, considering she is not a god, she is allowed to be.

Again, only if you trust Lumiya's word, which we have no reason whatsoever to do.

Counterpoint: why introduce a new character when a previously established one with an unfinished story arc is perfect for the job?

 

Unless Luke isn't hissing "That's what the dream tells me," but is speaking normally when he says "That's what the dream tells me" and then hisses afterward.

 

Nelani was a good character and I hated to see her die. Has death in the EU become overused? I hope that we see too many more meaningless deaths as the LOTF books go on.

One last thing before I give my score: Where were all of the other Jedi? Outside of the Skywalker/Solo clan we only see Corran and Nelani.

Isn't Luke supposed to be keeping WATCH of the Jedi? Why hasn't anyone asked about Nelani, last seen with Jacen, officially? Doesn't anyone wonder why she's MISSING? Didn't any other Jedi feel her death? Don't tell me Jacen mind tricked the entire order! He's only 31. Palps couldn't do that until he was in his 40's. Late 40's I'll warrant.

 

Or more proof of why Allston cannot write.

 

Average score: 470.2/57 = 8.25

 

9.4

This is an Upper Echelon SW novel.

My small critiques of it are these:

1) Some moments of forced humor and 2) having to just accept that since DNT Han has become fiercely loyal to Corellia. It's a tad of a stretch.

Other than these minor quibbles this novel gets it right!

 

Average score: 479.6/58 = 8.27

 

Unlock and bump.

 

I'm almost exclusively a comics guy -- Betrayal is the first non-ROTS Star Wars novel I've read in almost 10 years. So I was shocked to find that I really, really enjoyed the book. In fact, the last novel I had read was the first Wraith book by Allston. I wasn't thrilled with it -- I thought humor was nice, of course, but felt that the pacing was disjointed and unappealing.

Conversely, I thought Betrayal's pacing was superb. Events moved along quickly and the timeline was steady and coherent, but scenes like the infiltration of Centerpoint took up a healthy chunk of the book, which made for some great sustained tension.

In general, I felt that Betrayal is an incredibly well-constructed adventure novel. The plot points and character development are mostly handled through action scenes, which is a style of writing that I'm a big fan of. One of the things that annoys me most about Star Wars novels or superhero comics (or other stories in the action genre), is when they turn into talkfests rather than what I feel they should be: stories with action. Betrayal avoided all this pitfalls admirably.

I particularly liked the seduction of Jacen Solo. Even though his arrogance is obviously leading him to the dark side, Allston did a great job of showing how Jacen's thought process led him to make the decision he did. It was believable and chilling. And Nelani's frustrated pleadings were handled perfectly. It's exactly how I would have reacted had I been in her position.

In summary, Betrayal stands up there with the best Star Wars novels I've read, and really has me tempted to read more recent books. I'm still a comics guy, though!

8.5/10

 

While doing my little statistics project, I got different numbers; so, including DancingBrud's score:

479.1/57 = 8.41

 

Holy Crap! I never voted for this!

Suffice it to say, I give it a solid 8. A great book, with vintage Allston humor and great storytelling. Having re-read this novel not to long ago, I can honestly say that it was one of the better EU reads in the last 3 years. Allston bolding attempted to introduce new vessels- Mon Cal heavy carriers, Galactic-class battle carriers, Eta-5's, Alephs, etc.

I wish other authors followed his lead and kept using these ships.

--Adm. Nick