Tucson What Recent Star Wars Novel Have You Read? What was there about it that you enjoyed?

I finished 'The Swarm War' last night. If it were not for the little side-story with Luke, I would not recommend these books for anybody. The main portion of the plot was completely useless. Troy Denning knows how to write emotions into his characters, but he cannot write a battle sequence. This entire book was one giant battle. I am now about 100 pages into the new Leacy of the Force book, and can say that the events in the entire Dark Nest trilogy have little or nothing to do with what happens in this book so far. All of the major character developing things that do happen in Dark Nest are reviewed in 'Betrayal'. I haven't read 'Star by Star', but now I have to. Before you start Dark Nest, make sure you have read through Troy Denning's other two SW books. Those two books are highly referenced here in this trilogy.

As I said earlier in this post, I am about 100 pages into the new Legacy of the Force book. This is definately one of those SW books that if you have never read a SW book in your life, don't even think about picking this one up yet. You definatley need the knowledge of what happens in the books between 'Truce at Bakura' and this one. This book references past events a lot (so far, 'Starfighters of Adumar', the Corellian Trilogy, and a NJO book I haven't read yet). I don't really now what to think about this book, but will provide my input about it when I am done.

 

Well, I finished 'Betrayal' earlier today. I don't really know what to say about this book. It moves slow in some places, and (at times) a little too fast. The ending is realy fast, and you have to slow down in order to understand what is going on with the various plots going on. As I said in my previous post, this book is not for someone that is just starting out in the EU. You really need to know everything there is to know about Corellia, as well as the story of Lumiya. Aaron Allston provides some background to the events and people he references, but not enough to fully know what is going on. Overall, I have to say that this book wasn't bad, and it left me curious to read the next one, but I don't know how to feel about where this series is going. Oh well, guess I have to wait for the next book in the series to come out.

 

Thank you Tim for all of this helpful info. I am just finishing up Rogue Planet, and then starting Approaching Storm, it may be a while before I read the Swarm Wars, though I already have the whole trilogy, and as for Betrayal, I still have to finish NJO before I can even think of beginning this book. I will continue to look to you for your thoughts.

 

I just finished reading Rogue Planet, Approaching Storm, and Hard Contact!!! all in the last two days.. I really really enjoyed Rogue Planet, from the very beginning it jumpstarted with excitement.. I did find the premise of how they create ships rather over the top.. and a minor plot hole about how obi wan discusses the death of Qui-gon... but a good read none the less, and gives some insight into Anakin and his future problems.

I had a hard time with Approaching Storm, I did like it.. but some of it was rather boring just the same.. I really enjoyed how it went a bit in depth to other Jedi, meaning the storyline with Luminara and Barriss was very enjoyable.. and seeing further development of Anakin continues to help the future of his story along. There is no major kick in gear near the end that other Star Wars novels have.. I can normally pin point the denoument and then the excitement of the page by page turn of the story.. there was none of this nailbiting excitement with this book though.

Republic Commando:Hard Contact really hit home, I can easily compare it to some of the books I have read about Vietnam, though obviously not as graphic... one thing I can say is that if you enjoy war novels that discuss the tours and excursions that soldiers take in their everyday lives then you will enjoy this book.. The expanding thoughts of the clones brings whole new meaning to the lives of the clones.. and you realize that they too DO have emotions and things they care about.. I am eager to start Triple Zero now.. I know that the book takes a drastic turn.. and I will hopefully manage to read the whole book and report what I think on it tomorrow.

 

I just finished Triple Zero.. what a great read.. there was not a bad spot in the whole book, the whole thing was great from the get go...I would have to say of all the books I have read lately this one is the highlight.. it gets to the guts of what is really going on.. and politically it does shadow Earth Conflicts.. what are they fighting for.. why, for what.. is there a future for any of them.. the fact that they know they are being used, that they know they deserve more.. but they can't imagine their lives in any other capacity.. even when given the option of something better they can't consider leaving a brother behind to fight alone, they all have an uncertain future.. but a strong grasp on their reality.. and what it means to be who and what they are.. and they are proud of their heritage I will say This book was totally different from any other SW book I have ever read, perhaps because it is about Clones.. and I have to say.. after reading this book I feel calling them Clones is blasphemy.. they are men, and soldiers and they risked their very souls for someone else's war, and they were never given an option to fight or not to fight, yes.. granted it is just a book, made up fiction...but it reads like an American Historical Journal of War..... I felt that Hard Contact read like a Vietnam war story.. and Triple Zero is even better than Hard Contact was. If anyone wants to borrow this book I can lend it out to you.. but I don't want to lose it, I will definitely want to reread this one again and again.. I hope everyone else likes it as much as I did.

 

Started and finished Shatterpoint yesterday, a great book, another page turner if ever there was one.. I don't want to give too much of it away.. but it is very telling of the future of obi wan and anakin and what is to become of the republic's future.. but yet obi wan and anakin are not in the book except to be mentioned by Mace in his mind.. It was a change to see a story about Depa Billaba and her story, I had wondered how/why she was replaced on the Jedi Council.. and now I know..

what a future this book shows Mace and the Jedi through the adventure he has in the Al'Har system.. I am hoping they (Matthew Stover or some other author)go back in time and write a book that further discusses Mace's homeworld and Kar Vastor as well as showing Mace when he was on Haruun Kal as a younger man, learning about his culture.. and then definitely to see the very beginning of how Haruun Kal came to be the home of the suspected crash landing of a Jedi starship so many years ago before Mace or Kar Vastor ever came into being... they could make this book reminiscent of survivor quest and outbound flight.. which follows suit to the whole OT and then the PT.. I would love to see the story of the beings that Mace came from.. that would be a great book.

Anyone else read this one yet.. or getting ready too..

 

I read this book a little while ago, and overall I enjoyed it. Can't wait to get the next book, but I agree that I don't really like where the series seems to be heading... The only thing that irks me is Jacen. In New Jedi Order he was such a softy, but now, Sith!?!?!??! Also, did they forget about Jacen's daughter?? Something has got to happen on that front. Soon. And this Lumiya...yeah, I've barely heard of her before, so her appearance wasn't all that dramatic to me.

 

I finished the Cestus Deception and Yoda: Dark Rondevous, along with the first two NJO books, have to say I am doing a lot of reading, I really have enjoyed all four of these books and am now enjoying book three of the NJO series.. I was not expecting to feel the loss of Chewie as much as I did.. I think that might have something to do with that I see the persona of Chewie as being Jack.. and so I feel a bit strongly about having seen Chewie/Jack shaking his fist at Dobido the moon as it crashed into Sernpidal, and have to say I am glad we still have Chewie amongst us, and that I do believe it possible that the Enterprise beamed Chewie and others aboard their ship before the moon hit.. I do believe there might be a good fan fiction story there in fact!

 

I'm currently reading Legacy of the Force: Betrayal and all I can say is wow! I don't recommend reading it unless you've read the NJO and the Dark Nest trilogy because that gives all the frame work.

So yes, in order to read this book you must read 22 books before it.

 

Which is why the Dark Nest Trilogy, Betrayal, and Bloodlines are all sitting on my book shelf unread.. because I still have books 10-19 of the NJO to read before I can read the ones I do have.... sigh.. I am going crazy trying to find copies of the NJO right now...

 

Look on ebay and also look on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. They both have Used books on there and I've never had a problem. Also, the library does have copies of all the NJO books.

 

I think I have a library bill again.. so I won't be able to check any more library books out till I return the ones I have and pay the fine.. I am returning the books tomorrow most likely.. but it depends on the fine if I can afford to pay the whole fine now or a little bit at a time.

As for ebay and amazon.. shipping kills you.. bookman's is great at $3.50 +/- a book.. but right now I have exhausted their supply of NJO that I need.. hopefully by next month the fine will be paid.. or bookman's will have more NJO on the shelf.

 

I finished reading Survivor's Quest the other day. That was a good one! Moral of the story: the Chiss are awesome.
Throughout the book, they kept referring to some great evil that was lurking in the Unknown Regions...are they referring to the Killiks here??
On to Bloodlines now and a 71-year old Boba Fett who is still traipsing around the galaxy. I'm only a few pages into it, but when did Boba Fett get married and have a kid?? The book talks about this like it is common knowledge from waaay back, but I don't remember it from any previous books.

 

Kat I'm not sure. It may have been in a comic book. I just finished it. Whoa! All I have to say is Whoa!

I'd also like to say that Karen Traviss did a great job with this book. Even though it took me awhile to read it I was savoring every detail. Considering I'm not fond of other female writers in the SW collection of literary talent, I'm very impressed with her.

 

I finished reading Bloodlines last night, and Whoa! is a very accurate description. I think this book has the most cold-blooded killing of any Star Wars book I have ever read. And Jacen...Karen Traviss did do a great job, I was almost agreeing with him for once...then came Ailynn, and Tenel Ka and Allana. I think I nearly screamed.
Best line of the book: "You should learn to shoot first, Solo." I was laughing my head off (not at what was happening though).

So, to describe the book in one word: shocking

 

Speaking of books, what ever happened to the TFF library idea?

 

NabooLady is in charge of it. Anyone who wants to donate books to the library just has to bring them to the meeting and give them to NabooLady to loan out.

 

Ok, I'll try to remember when I show up (hopefully I'll get vacation during the time of the December meeting).

 

Anybody read Darth Bane yet?

 

I think Anakin Vader has

 

We just got Darth Bane. But I'm about to skim back through Labyrinth of Evil for our bookclub meeting.

LotF: Tempest is due out soon.

 

I can't wait to read Tempest!

 

Yeah, I have. I lent it to Cat about a month ago, but she never got arount to reading it before she left. So I'm not sure, but I think she has it over there.

But anyways, the overall book as a book is not all that great. As a story, it was pretty good. Unfortunately, there are a lot of timeline-errors, for example the book mentions Vaapad. In my opinion, the author has read a lot of books, and has taken on the standard format of writing, but unlike other authers, there are no idiosyncracies (sp?). He pretty much has a whole bunch of good writing elements and sytles, only they don't really fit together. You can easily tell that the writer is the same guy that wrote for the KotOR games. However, like I said, the story is pretty good. The author just needs to get his facts straight.

 

I gotta borrow them clone books from someone, the ones by Karen Travis

 

Hey Folks!

Charlotte just had its first Book Club meeting and we discussed Labyrinth of Evil. You all are welcome to come join in the discussion:

http://boards.theforce.net/charlotte_nc/b10067/25349619/p1/?3