The Official Fate of the Jedi: Outcast Discussion Thread

true and when she came out she was also pretty messed up. so that tells us that maybe its safer, but still not totally safe

 

i am begining to wonder if that was mara calling out to allana seems like she got lost going to the netherworld. no way can the exile be alive she'd be 4020 years old. i liked the book. does han have heart troubleor was he just joking?

 

Okay. So how friendly is Outcast? The last Star Wars book I really read was The Unifying Force and that was after reading summaries of the later half of the NJO as I had stopped reading it. I know Jacen Solo fell and went all Sith and was finally killed in the LOTF series but I didn't read it or the Dark Nest series before that. Is that enough to follow Outcast? Would one even be okay with less then that?

Thanks.

 

I think so. I read LotF with only knowledge that the Solo kids were Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin, and I still enjoyed it.

 

That's good to know the events will be talked about at least. Thanks.

 

Can we assume Mara was taught to ghost by Luke?

 

we can do more than assume, in the same novel as the funeral, luke mentioned that they had talked about it.

 

I think they were talking about discorporating (disappearing bodies) not Force ghosts, although I would assume Mara would have known how.

 

Well I?ve finished Outcast and I?m disappointed. In terms of galactic importance nothing really happened, Luke has been exiled, the government is keeping a tighter leash on the Jedi & the spice addicts of the galaxy sighed a breath of relief - that?s it.

The good ?

Luke vs Koro Ziil
The Valin Horn chase
The Seff Hellin confrontation
New force techniques
The speculation on why Jacen fell
The rather competent band of bounty hunters

The bad ?
I found pretty much everything else deathly dull.
Dab needs to disappear (I wouldn?t mind if he brought half the galaxy with him, the characters of this era are so boring).

Random thoughts ?

Ben Skywalker is to good, a Knight at 14 & now he?s getting the better of the Baran Do battle master in combat, even Anakin wasn?t that advanced.

The lightning rod technique has obviously been introduced because the GA are eventually going to place tracking devices on the Jedi.

So it took Luke 2 days to learn the technique opposed to the 3 it took Jacen, cool.

Why did Jacen want Tahiri as his apprentice anyway? She may be hot be she?s useless, Ben & Seff have both punked her.

 

Well I?ve finished Outcast and I?m disappointed. In terms of galactic importance nothing really happened, Luke has been exiled, the government is keeping a tighter leash on the Jedi & the spice addicts of the galaxy sighed a breath of relief - that?s it.

Honestly, if I ever see another "event" book again, it'll be too soon.

 

I agree Char! We have had enough "events" to last us a long while!

 

I'm really glad there was nothing of galactic improtance. Frankly, I cringe everytime they make out LOTF into some big event as it was easily the shortest most pointless war ever that didn't even have a decent conception.

 

What are the books to be about if not events? Short interchangeable Jedi adventures? Kriff, the movies were "event" driven. If Outcast was a tight character piece then I'm happy to have no major galactic threats. Otherwise I want epic and saga in my SW.

 

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor isn't "epic" enough for you?

And yet, simultaneously, it's tiny.

 

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor is definitely sufficiently compact and epic enough and off hand I can't think of anything else like it. It's an EU hybrid of some kind. And it is Stover.

If Mindor was the first book in a series I'd be waiting at my mailbox right now for it's sequel. Mindor unlike Outcast had a great villain. Rather it had a villain. Outcast left me with no burning need to find out what happens next. And it should, I think. It's a lead in to a 9 book $ hardcover $ series.

 

The more time I've had to let the book sink in, the more I think this quote explains what I found lacking in the book. I was hoping the first book in the new 9-book series would start us off with a bang, with a clear-cut enemy already revealed. Instead, there's vague stuff about the Maw, but otherwise no antagonist was introduced.

I wasn't a fan of the LotF series, but I loved Betrayal, because it set the tone for the rest of the series (or should have, if they'd kept Jacen acting cold and calculating, rather than turning him into a cartoon villain) by giving us the first look at Jacen's fall (ie. the antagonist was obvious), as well as introducing Lumiya into the fold. The same could be said of Vector Prime, where the Yuuzhan Vong were introduced, giving us an idea of what the heroes would be in store for for the rest of the series.

IMO, Outcast felt more like a ... I don't know ... bridge novel, between the end of the LotF series, and the true beginning of the FotJ series, instead of the actual first book in the FotJ series.

 

I actually like the fact that they're taking advantage of the fact that all the books are hardcovers to not rush things and to give us a slow build. In the first book, we've got Daala as an obvious threat, and we've got the madness as an obvious problem, and we've got It hanging out in the Maw as a threat, and we've further got Luke's travels, Jaina/Jag, and the Unification Summit set up as ongoing hooks. They're not overexposed or rushed into as threats, but they're there, and there's a fairly clear trajectory going forward while still having room to ramp things up, rather than having a LOTF situation where you go big, stall for three or four books, then start the forward motion back up and draw out the conclusion.

We didn't get a big-bang EVENT! book, no. Instead, we started off with an atmospheric, low-key adventure novel with several threats either lurking in the background or just beginning to stretch their legs in the foreground. To be honest, I prefer it. I've had enough of EVENTS! in this segment of the timeline for a while.

 

There's a lot of new faces here since I took my hiatus. Kinda cool, I guess. I wonder who recognizes me?

In any case, my take on the book:

Aaron Allston's really matured his style. He gets more readable each time I read one of his installments. He doesn't try to force his style of humor into every scene. He knows when to be dark, but he also knows the best place to insert his trademark quippage. The way he handled Valin losing it was actually almost chilling, you could feel the fear emanating from his prose as Valin believes nothing is what it seems anymore (too bad that's gonna happen to Jysella too, but that's an aside).

As for the plot, I'm somewhat intrigued. The way I see it, there is some sort of Force virus infecting the Jedi Knights one by one. It's only going to get stronger, I fear. I don't know what could be influencing the insanity (Darth Krayt?) but the fact of the matter is that the now-insane Jedi are getting pulled into believing that their family and friends are imposters. What's making them that way seems to be a mystery, there's no clear trigger point, as what happens to Valin and (eventually) Jysella shows. It just happens.

As an aside, I feel kinda said Corran and Mirax are getting beaten up emotionally. I'm sure Corran will join the ranks of the insane too, and Mirax will be truly heartbroken then. But that's just a guess I hope doesn't come true. I've been wrong before.

As for the characterization, I really like how Luke and Ben are portrayed. Ben's really starting to come onto his own now that he is no longer under Jacen's sway. He's a really likable character, and Luke is, well, Luke. I found no real inconsistencies.

I still find the Daala development ridiculous but considering how they're setting her up to be conniving and possibly evil I'll accept that.

As for the excerpt, I really like the new writer, she's a step up from Traviss. I loved her Jysella before she made Jysella insane. I kinda wish she didn't do that, the few pages before Jysella lost it made her a really great character. But that's just me.

 

I see one thing that hasn't been lost during my hiatus is my incredible ability to kill threads. Bwuahahahahaha.

On-topic, I think that making the series all hardcover is an asinine decision in this economy. At least some of the books need to be in paperback like in series' past or DR's going to see a massive sales drop.

 

I know, I treated myself to Outcast and really enjoyed it, but I doubt I'll be able to pick up Omen before the paperback comes out, and that could be a whole year away.

 

Honestly, I think there is less to mull with this book. Usually there is some bomb dropped in book one. Outcast is so self contained. Yes, we don't know the future of the Kessel plot but we weren't left cliff hanging.

I think it might have helped if Blood Oath had come out this month as planned. It's a paperback.

 

I enjoyed this book. However, I have to agree with those who commented on having a 9-book HC series during tough times. IMO they should rethink that decision as I am sure sales will suffer as a result.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Being a reader of SW books starting with LOTF and then back tracking to the Old Republic books I was glad to be back in the Legacy era. I do agree with many that the LOTF series was a bit shallow but it's what I started with and am most comfortable with now. Before Outcast, I plowed through MF to catch up on anything of importance. I was happy that this book started off with a quick start having Valin believe there were imposters in his life. I felt the book was smooth all the way to the end. I did, however, have this belief that the Baron Do were the ones that would've ended up being blamed for what attack on the force was mentioned before the release of this book. I can't wait for the next one...


Now it's time to finish LoE.