Lit Reading NJO...Again

At least she survived. Wish her and Gavin would have met again though.

 

Funny, I have some of the X-Wing comics but not "Isard's Revenge". But I remember that at the end of "Onslaught", there is a passage, where Typho Chelchu and Wedge Antilles are announced as "some old guys" or likewise to Gavin Darklighter before entering his office. And the very same day I red "X-Wing - Masquerade" where I saw that "old guys" in color, when they were younger.

I now started to make a list, which covers every major event in the books to avoid being lost after reading too many NJO-Books, when I'm looking for something particular like I did recently.

 

Agents of Chaos may or may not require you to read AC Crispin's Han Solo trilogy as well as Michael P. Kube-McDowell's Black Fleet Trilogy beforehand.

 

I mean, Black Fleet rules so that's not too bad.

 

AC Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy is good too.

I have just finished Rebel Dream.

It ends on more of a cliffhanger than other books. With Luke and his crew on their way to the old capital.

Still Emperors hammer was a good trick.

I do like how Jaina came out of her depression and found a reason to live.

On to Rebel Stand

Good opening, nice to see Wes again.

I like Lukes crew on Coruscant, the Vong stuff is good.

I am surprised that they don't do more with Tahiri, given she speaks fluent Vong.

 

I'm just reading "Balance Point" by Kathy Tyres. I skim-read the cheesy summariy-like Intro.
Then the worlds Tynna and Gyndine destroyed. What? Wanted the Yuuzhan Vong not to use Tynna as agricultural supply base in "Jedi Eclipse"? It doesn't make sense.

Leia to Tsavong Lah: "That you took this planet (Duro) and this settlement is totally illegal!" FUNNY!

The music during the planned sacrifice of Leia at Duro: Priestess Vaecta (I suppose) & Band - live on concert at Duro.
Drums and that crusty harp to make a dark, dreadful sound and rhythm. What Kathy Tyres meant to appall readers sounds like a really cool gig. ♬!
We definitely need some Yuuzhan Vong music!

 

Finished Remnant, and boy was that a slog. Much like the Vongcast episode, I concur that the lack of chapters makes it very difficult to read in segments, and it ended up taking me almost 3 weeks to get through. I found the equal weighting for the plots particularly tough when it came to the space battles at the end as both groups have a companion ship, and it became difficult to remember who was with who and where.

Tahiri's side plot seemed tiresome particularly out of seemingly nowhere. I really don't think there are many redeeming elements of this book except perhaps Nom Anor's story line, which is sowing the seeds for the endgame (which I suppose Luke's quest for ZS is doing as well). Leia and the others are just doing a Bantam era tour which doesn't excite me much.

4/10

 

Reading Jaina's "Dark Journey" I had a similar feeling the other way around. Khalee Lah did vanish into a seemingly nowhere. We don't know if he really used that technical "abomination" to let himself blown up by his own people or if he did escape. At least I don't find any trace of Khalee Lah later in the books, nor did his prominent father did mourn his loss like he did regret Czulkang Lah's death two books later. Strange.

Also the last sentence about the former Warmaster in "Rebels Stand"."And then Czulkang Lah was dead". Could Aaron Allston not have put this in a more epic and delicate manner? Just imagine, Anakin's death in "Star by Star" would have been handled like this.

In "Rebels Dream", Danni Quee suddenly has blue eyes instead of green, when she was introduced in "Vector Prime". But to speak with Timothy Zahn in "Outbound Flight", even stranger things had happened in Star Wars universe regarding eyecolor-change, see Saw Gerrera's azure blue eyes in TCW changing in "Rebels" to green and in "Rogue One" to dark brown. But maybe Tam Elgrin's eyes are just deuteranomalous, i.e. green weak.

Sounds like Rose and Finn at Canto Bight, eh. There are several episodes like this in the books. Of course you can find some valid reasons they have to be told but still the feeling of blandness remains.

 

Danni is a minor enough character it would pretty easy to forget those sort of things especially with author changes.

As for Khalee Lah, I think he can be safely presumed dead.

Speaking on that note-can anyone give a listing of abandoned subplots, Chekhov's guns or anything of that nature in the NJO-in a 19 book series originally intended to be 29 books, there were always going to be plot threads that went nowhere, and things referenced and introduced that were forgotten about.

 

@ Danni Quee: For she is present from the very start until TUF, for me she is not a minor character. I feel her to be the counterpart to Nom Anor, for she spent some time with the Yuuzhan Vong and therefore fledged into an expert for that species counselling the Alliance, being appalled by and attracted to the YV likewise. Like Nom Anor was the expert for the infidels in Tsavong Lah's and later directly Shimrra/Onimi's service. Also Nom Anor was appalled by and attracted to the unbelievers in a twisted way. But unless Nom Anor, who hesitated in TUF to make the last step to get in touch with the victors of history on another than enemy-spy level, Danni Quee saw her migration to Zonama Sekot as the fulfillment of her early dreams to welcome an extragalactic species to dwell with it side by side and to get to know each other in peace.

@Khalee Lah: In my head canon he overcame his hurted pride. He escaped with Neeka Sot and they gave a grand-son.
(Icon of Tsavong Lah by CDS-03 on deviantart.com)

 

now half way through Rebel Stand.

I like Han and Leia tricking the pro-vong candidate, into getting herself runout of town.

Their capture seemed pointless, though. Nothing seemed to happen.

Also Vikis plan is going well, nice to see Vong scheming behind religion, very real thing to see.

the stuff on coruscant is a nice bit of world building and lord Nyax is interesting.

So far I am liking it.

 

I liked the idea of Lord Nyax though I think the number of lightsabres popping out from his body was ridiculous. Though the idea of blades like embedded in his arm was nice. Like... as new lightsabre designs go, it was unique at the time.

I always liked when we got a look at Yuuzhan Vong society. Like the politics and stuff. It gave more depth to them, I thought.

 

Popping out of his forearms ala Wolverine or Baraka is fine. It was the knees and elbows and wherever else that pushed him over the line of the ridiculous.

Kind of like the some of the Vong really. Bristling with protrusions to the point of total impracticality.

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To be honest I haven't noticed much. I guess Droma was somewhat abandoned?

 

Droma found his family on Duro and thus his story did end. Han and Leia did re-unite and thus there was felt no other need for keeping Droma in the story line any longer.

 

What I love about the NJO is, that it is one of the very few pieces of lit that truly get the role of the Jedi. Early on Luke experimented still with his order, trying to fashion it between KOTOR/TOTJ era order and Prequel one. But the Jedi soon repeat some old mistakes, like some going to attack the Vong back, others more feel like battle meditation generals to the non-forceuser forces of the Republic and allies. But where it matters most, the younger generation shows the older Jedi these flaws and together they overcome them and position the Jedi more in a neutral spot, protecting the weak while seeking a peaceful solution after having learned more about their enemy. In the end they manage to achieve this even with Zonama Sekot, internal struggles among the Vong as well as only taking out the troublemakers. Redemption, tolerance and acceptance are a key element in the NJO endgame despite all that had transpired and been lost.

Pity later series otally mistreated the Jedi and anything learned from the NJO.

In a way Tahiri was the Bridger of Legends. She'd been humand and yet Tusken in her childhood, Jedi and Vong during he war, Killik Joiner and Jedi, Sith and Jedi... always at home between opposing forces bridging them and essential to give others understanding of both perspectives.

Had her stories continued, I wonder what else she might have bridged that way. Many see her become an Imperial Knight and that would fit her bridging Jedi and Imperial roles once more.

Given the convoluted history of Ania Solo in Legacy, one pet theory at the time was that maybe Tahiri is her ancestor, together with Anakin Solo, whose genetic material may have been preserved/found somewhere. Originally taken to clone him but that never happened, so Tahiri could use it to give herself a child they never had. Sure, its odd and many would roll their eyes and complain, but it might work.

At least that way Allana can stay on the Hapan Throne of Balance and not loose it to have a mysterious ancestor lineage for Ania Solo. Though that'd mean that probably Hapan and Imperial Solo lines merged down the line like true royalty weirdness.

But back to the NJO: In a way the Dark Nest crisis was a mirror of the NJO story. At first Jedi squabble and make errors, some Jedi are deeper tied to the enemy (Joiners) and ultimately the dark Nest is taken out and rest of Killiks survive as Jedi save the day and both the enemy as well as their allegiant governments. Only that the Dark Nest Trilogy took a darker turn for Jacen as well as few others.

Given many theories of fans who did not like characterisations talked about replacement of characters with clones, I wonder what one can make of it. I mean, we had HRD Replica Droids already made of some characters like even Jaina if I recall right. So who else who they missed to destroy. LOTF joked about the many ways to bring back Anakin Solo but never did. DNA samples and cloning among them. Riptide and Crosscurrent books even and full on clones of some older generation heroes in one of Thrawns lost Unknown Regions cloning testcenters, complete with clones mingling and having offspring in pairings the EU did not have with original characters. Who knows if some younger clones were made too of Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, Tahiri and Tenel Ka, etc. too. Given cloning tech is no secret, Hutts may even use it to make clones of public figures or celebrities for their own sinister displays. Genetic material, hair samples etc. are easy to come by. All the hints in the EU tied together into an imposter story arc may have been fun. Maybe for Sword of the Jedi that sadly is cancelled. One Sith using all these methods to replace people?

I wish we had gotten a resurrection arc that brings back Anakin Solo for Tahiri. The real one, no cheap copy.

 

A clone imposter arc after FOTJ? I can dig it.
At least Anakin was able to get a message to Tahiri.
And maybe she is the one who picks up Anakin's saber on Kashyyk?

 

If they came out and said all the heroes were clones from Dark Nest onwards I would be fine with it. Would explain why everyone is so dark.

 

So, I want to get my copy of The Unifying Force signed, how can I get it to James Luceno to get it signed?

 

I hear if you say his name three times at midnight on a new moon while looking in a mirror he will appear behind you.

I hear this also works on Kevin J. Anderson, so he spends every new moon dressed to the nines in case anyone ever summons him. No one ever does.

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I do wonder, what the series would have looked like if it had been the originally planned 29 books instead of the reduced 19.

 

If I met Troy Denning, first thing I'd ask is (spoilers for LOTF)

Spoiler

why the hell did you write the scene with Tahiri putting her hands into Ben Skywalker?!! She was 28, he was 15!!!

 

There are a lot of questions I would ask Troy denning.

One being

Spoiler

Why did you think it would be a good idea, in terms of narrative, character or theme for Jacen to turn dark. Did you see any rationale or hint of this, being a likely or appropriate trajectory for the character after the NJO. If so, why and can you explain so? If not, why did you advocate so intently on jacen going dark?

 

Can't find the original interview, but according to a post in this thread :

Spoiler

Then the e-mail soliciting ideas arrived, and the answer became clear in my head. Vergere must have been Sith. (Well, okay, I had secretly begun to suspect that much earlier, perhaps even way back in the NJO. But it could no longer be denied.) Vergere was a Sith. That was why she had corrupted Jacen with her nonsense about “the shameful secret of the Jedi” and “there is no dark side.” (Page 167 for those in the know.)[ph1] Because everything she told Jacen was a lie.

Vergere was a Sith.

Doesn't directly answer the question, but it might at least give an idea what his thinking was.