Troy Denning's Dark Nest trilogy (spoilers allowed)

i;m not going to be picky. i'm in the "as long as its better than NJO" group. i haven't bought an NJO title in a year, but have been getting them from the library

 

I can see where you are coming from in saying you hope it will be better than the NJO, but the NJO isn't that bad, give it another go you might be surprised. What do you hope will be in any future novels?

 

Big up!!

 

Let the liscense go back to Bantam

 

Never!!!!

 

Qonas wrote:

>>Denning is definitely the breakout new author from the NJO, he's more than proven capable of joining the ranks of Zahn, Stackpole, and Allston....ok, maybe not Allston. <<

Hey, what do you have against Allston? His Enemy Lines duology in the NJO were actually the best written books in the second half of the NJO, together with Traitor. The guy is funny, knows his continuity and also how to write a compelling story and compelling characters. I´m still miffed that Czulkang Lah was killed, while his incompetent son was allowed to live on.

Magnus

 

On the contrary, I found his puns unhomourous and quite plain. I've never laughed or smiled whilst reading them, and, until coming here had no idea they were witty with people.

And there is something about his writing style, something that is just a touch off. It's hard to find words, but it's like reading a sentence that should have been longer. It's like he stops too early. That's just his way of writing.

I thought Wraith Squad was far longer than it should have been, Iron Fist was fine, and Solo Command even better. But SOA was plain pointless, just an excuse to have another Wedge show really. No end of book climax there. Quixotic natives allowed him to continue his usual simple writing and not immature cast.

Enemy Lines was a mixed baggage, whose books didn't bother to even end decently. Stand was pure filler, and pure nonsense. Disappointed to see the Lusankya wasted, but hey, Supers are poping up all over the place, aren't they? Nyax was created with such drastic limitations to his character that speech wasn't even possible. It was a joke. Of course if you're 3, tall with six sabers sticking out of you you're an abbatoir for Vong warriors.

It was shocking to see Luke allowed to do so much in the books!

I know he has a strong fan base here, and respect that. I don't dislike his SW books at all, just not my preferred writer, that's all.

 

How about a New Sith Order, maybe returning to the golden age of the sith when there were more than just two. I would also like to see the temptation of Ben by the dark side. He is, after all, a Skywalker and he could become a powerful asset to any Sith Lord.

 

It would be nice to Del Rey to bid and re-acquire the title, they have done a very good job imo.

The most logical place to go is for Luke and Leia to discover more about their past, and to learn the full story of what happened in the PT and before. I wouldn'nt bet against an old council member from the PT turning up either somehow.

I'm with the fans that would like some more x-wing books, with the Thrawn years up until the Vong times covered, then onto Wedge finally re-uniting with his sister.

 

My fear is they will jump way far ahead......but Denning could bring a certain young Jedi back.....and I am wondering where this thread will go when that last NJO book comes out.
Reb

 

It is interesting. But Post NJO...is it directly after, or set serveral years after, in which case it just might be about Ben. Though I hope not. I hope it's more about Jacen and Jaina.

 

"How about a New Sith Order, maybe returning to the golden age of the sith when there were more than just two"

I hope not. The Sith were supposed to have died out with Vader and the Emperor. I've never liked the fact that they came back after RotJ (Marvel Sith Lords and the cloned Emperor). Also, DelRey had to steer clear of dark siders for the NJO beause Lucas wouldn't allow it.

I think it will mostly be the aftermath of the Yuuzhan Vong war, though it's a trilogy, so there's got to be some new bad guy running through the three books. Perhaps TUF will give us some clues...

 

I like the idea of jumping ahead quite a few years, allowing Ben to take center stage right off the bat. If you think about it, the old guard characters like Luke, Han and Leia have never had a moment's peace since the beginning of A New Hope (except for the five year lull between Vision of the Future and Vector Prime). I think it is only reasonable to let them catch their breath and finally, truly, transition into the background. Their characters have nowhere to develop anymore--even the suggestions of folks on the board who wanted to see Luke and Leia find out more about their parentage had that wish granted with Tatooine Ghost. Han has had little to do since shortly after the Thrawn series, though killing Chewie and getting some great dramatic grist from that calamity did wonders to make Han interesting again, however briefly. I think letting the universe calm down a bit would make sense from a broad narrative standpoint--it just makes sense that eventually, even just for a while, there would be a break in hostilities. We don't need books about the day-to-day reconstruction of the galaxy, though that work clearly has to be done in the wake of the devestating Vong invasion. I would love it if the first post-NJO book came out and announced, opening crawl-style, that it has been 15 years since the Yuuzhan Vong invasion was thwarted. Make some big leaps in the story--have Jaina married, maybe expecting kids with Jag; have Jacen take Luke's place running the day-to-day operations of the Jedi temple. Maybe the inciting incident is that Luke disappeared completely several years earlier and no one knows what became of him (like Paul Attraides did in Children of Dune) so that his legend takes on messaianic proportions--we as readers know we'll eventually see him again, but in what context and when? And what will he be like when he turns up? Has he turned to the Dark Side, or did he leave because he knew a great evil was coming and he needed time to prepare? Something like that would really be a great inciting incident to rope people in and allow for a 'new era' to begin, rather than just picking up right after NJO ends.

The Empire is played out, and I really like the direction they've gone with Pelleon, so I wouldn't like to see the Empire resurgent, especially if they do so because whole star systems, hungry for centralized leadership, suddenly forget the atrocities of Palpatine's Empire just twenty years earlier and go running back to them. I have no problem with the Sith making a reappearance, but I think it should come from a far-outside source. I don't believe Palpatine would have trained someone new outside of his master-apprentice relationship with Vader. For all the 'Hands' and various Dark Side associates Palpatine supposedly kept (a ridiculously bloated number, by the end of the Bantham run), he should have at least adhered to the 'always two there are, a master and an apprentice' rule. Anything outside of that would seriously undermine Anakin Skywalker's sacrifice in killing himself in order to kill the Emperor. The EU has already committed the unforgiveable error of bringing Palpatine back (repeatedly) as a clone--they should leave Palpatine's Empire and his branch of the Sith alone--it's dead because Anakin and Luke united killed it--that's the saga, leave it be. I wouldn't mind seeing them go back to the Tales of the Jedi era to bring out some new villains--maybe some Sith remnant survived on one of the Golden Age of the Sith worlds and now, united under the rule of a mysterious new leader, they are ready to stage another invasion of the Republic, just as they did 5000 years earlier. That could be cool.

 

I saw a website that had an unofficial "Behind the OT" video, and in it Mark Hamill stated that if GL did a sequel, he'd have Luke as an Obi-Wan figure to a new generation of Jedi, and whereas the OT is about the son saving the father, the sequels would be about the father saving the son. Since we aren't going to have sequels, I'd like to see that in the novels. All the pieces are in place for it. And being that the galaxy is in disarray as it is in the Clone Wars, it will be easy to lure Jedi to the dark side and have conflict. That would be cool.

 

I saw a website that had an unofficial "Behind the OT" video, and in it Mark Hamill stated that if GL did a sequel, he'd have Luke as an Obi-Wan figure to a new generation of Jedi, and whereas the OT is about the son saving the father, the sequels would be about the father saving the son. Since we aren't going to have sequels, I'd like to see that in the novels.

But Luke has already gone to the Dark Side once in Dark Empire. People going to the Dark Side and turning good at the end is an overused plot device.

 

(As Luke retires to a more advisory role to the New Jedi Order, Anakin and Tahiri Solo lead these new Jedi through the trials and tribulations that comes with rebuilding an entire galaxy ravaged by the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

Meanwhile, the Sith led by Dark Lord (Lady) Lumiya are poised to take advantage of the perceived calm and reveal themselves to the Jedi once more.)

I love that idea plus some of my own. It takes place 19 years after end of the NJ books.
Ben is Jacens apprentice. Mara Jade is killed by Dark Lady Lumiya and she turns either Kpy Durron or Jaina Solo to the darkside and takes as her apprentice. Meanwhile Ben and Luke are sent to the planet of Naboo and they meet the queen who in fact is Dorme's granddaughter and she tells them about Padme and Ben falls in love with her.
Luke and Liea are marked for death by Lumiya's list.
Wedge dies in a space battle as well as Lando. Jacen also is head of Rouge Squadron.
If Han does not die in the last NJO book he will die in one the new books as well as Boba Fett.

 

No Hydra,
Ben goes to the Dark Side, and like Luke did with Vader in ROTJ, Luke does again with Ben. I don't want Luke to go to the darkside. We could have a duel like in ESB with Luke trying to lure Ben back to the light, but Ben injures his dad, and Luke REALLY has to fight, and imparts on his son what the Dark Side can do, having been there, but he flees. That is what I see

 

Skip forward about 20 years. Jedi Master Jacen Solo and Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker have a thrillogy together.

The duo is sent, by Master Luke, who is now the head of the Jedi Council, to search the galaxy for Jedi artifacts, historical documents, facts, and even new force sensative beings to be trained. While on their travels they stumble upon a group of force sensatives who are trying to rebuild a New Sith Order.

Established on a planet that lies outside the galaxy, untouched during the VONG vs GFFA. Through various circumstances, Jacen and Ben find themselves on the planet, trying to escape, without being sensed.

The trilogy could come to a close with either Jacen or Ben escaping and the other stays behind and a huge Jedi vs Sith battle. No GFFA help, strickly a Jedi vs Sith. I would like to see a new on seater Jedi Starfighter introduced.

Who knows, maybe even Kenner or Hasbro will wake up by then and start keeping up with the books, because after the final prequal movie, its over!

Hey, let me know what you think. If the Denning doesn't want to write it, maybe someone else will!

 

A possibly interesting idea:

The Vong somehow made it through the Galactic Barrier (or what ever it was called) At some point after the war is over, the GFFA learns how to do this, either from the remaining Vong or on their own. Then the Jedi send some of there best to explore the galaxy that the Vong origionally came from in an attempt to discover why the Vong were invisible to the Force to begin with. I am assumeing that this doesn't get cleared up in the last book by ZS, but i think that would deffinatly be a new plot line for the serries to take. The New Republic/GFFA has always been on the defensive/receving end, I think they ought to actually go and explore somewhere new.

 

To expand on what I said before, I would not like to see a SIth based on anything that Palpatine had done, or even the rule of two. We should see the sith as they were thousands of years in the past, which is a group similar in size to the jedi order. Maybe the new trilogy could tell the story of how a sole Dark lord attempts to revive the golden age of the sith. Jedi versus the sith, that's how it should be.

 

Can't say I'm too crazy about the idea of the heroes going off to explore someplace totally new, like another galaxy or something--Star Wars is too firmly rooted to the planets we already know from years and years of established continuity. To bring up something silly, the old Buck Rogers TV series 'jumped the shark' when all the heroes packed into a big spaceship and started wandernig around the universe looking for trouble. The story was originally primarily about Buck and the Earthings fighting off the invading army of aliens, not about wandering around the universe. Again, I think Star Wars has to have certain elements to make it Star Wars--by the same token, there are certain things it shouldn't have, like exploration for it's own sake--that's Star Trek territory and doesn't feel very Star Wars-y. To my mind, Star Wars is about rebellion, dark side versus light and the bonds of family. To me, the best idea so far is the one that has an aged Luke trying to lure his son Ben back from the Dark Side, but only if the story plays out over a loooong time--make Ben establish a power base so that he becomes a real force to be reckoned with, not just a mad dog who needs to be put down. In my opinion, the EU needs to stick with the format of the extended story arc--Bantham did the villain-of-the-week thing to death.

And people keep mentioning Lumiya as a possible villain--but wasn't she shot dead in the last issue of the Marvel series? I guess she was a cyborg at that point and might have survived, but that's a pretty obscure and poorly-developed character to hinge a whole storyline on.

 

My hope is that the post NJO novels will be more cohesive than Bantam but not necessarily a giant story arc like the NJO. I hope they keep the Personae Dramatis; that was one of the best technical things DR did with SW.

 

Wasn't it something Stackpole introduced?

Anyway... IMHO, the important thing is that they do something that's genuinely STAR WARS... which, to me - and to everyone, I suspect - means recapturing the balance established in the OT...

I'm not really sure I know how to sum it up... I think the basis of it is Jedi, Skywalkers, and the Empire, in any arrangement...

I'm not sure what term can cover Ewoks, Jabba's Palace, Cloud City, and the Mos Eisley Cantina, but there's that as well... seeing the parts of the GFFA that aren't in any tourist guide, I guess...

And then there's George's distillation of genre styles, motifs and plots... which has been matched by no-one except Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez... and with a PG ceritficate and an unpretentious accessability, too...

I guess that, for all that the continuity of the EU is important, what matters most is that the post-RotJ EU is a continuation of the story of the Star Warriors, as told in the films...

Actually, scratch that. It's in the title. It's the story of the Star Wars, set against the unimaginably vast backdrop of the sea of stars, but told through focusing on the individual lives of an evolving cast of characters, both archetypal and human...

But I think it's something that they managed to get right in the NJO... if there was a problem, it wasn't so much that they pushed the envelope as it was that they let their desire to push the envelope dictate certain aspects of the plot...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I think Dening is a good author for this series. I rather enjoyed his style of humour- maybe it tailors more for British rather than American humour- maybe. Atleast they don't have Luceno doing any more books- I was sad that he got UF. I find he uses way too many adjectives that are uncommomly used so I find myself reading a dictionary more than the actual book with his works.

 

if they skip way far ahead and make a storyline involving ben skywalker i will shoot myself.

im sorry, but the saga can only go on for so long before it just gets old.

besides, if ben is anything like his dad, he wont be that interesting of a character...just a pacifist hermit who wants peace yet sits on his butt and assumes that the force will make that happen all by itself through some sort of peaceful means.

yeah, cause thats it...