Both Seinar and Tarkin were two old dogs playing silly young man games, while Anakin and Obi Wan just wandered around on the Sekot planet and not much was done except the whole seed partner thing was a bit rushed. So what was the whole point in the novel anyway besides landing on the Sekot planet?
I think "introducing Zonama Sekot to the EU so it doesn't just come out of nowhere in the late NJO" was a big point of Rogue Planet. It also gives an idea of what Anakin and Obi-Wan (as well as Tarkin and Sienar, who will both become important players down the line, especially Tarkin) were doing at the time. In hindsight, though, it's pretty clearly a Prequel-era NJO tie-in.
I had hoped at the time it would serve as a lead-in to a Clone Wars/Dark Times-ish story elaborating on Seinar and Tarkin's roles during the rise of the Empire, seeing is without them, Palpatine's Empire as we know it in the OT would be incredibly different (politics, physical force, its distinctive "style," etc).
That could have been the novel Death Star. Tie it into the Clone Wars/Dark Times and then tie it into the NJO.
I would expand on this by saying that the majority of the problems found in Rogue Planet are also found in most anything Greg Bear's written in the last two decades or so. he writes novels primarily as a vehicle for his ideas, often about odd theoretically plausible biology - in the case of Rogue Planet that's Zonama Sekot - not about any of the events that actually happen during the course of the story. I read Rogue Planet in fairly close temporal proximity to reading the novel version of Blood Music, also by Greg Bear, and was struck by the phenomenal similarity between the two works.
Rogue Planet was ok but really what was the point of all the stuff that went on. Anakin had more seed things than Obi Wan, their seed partner ship thing took a long time to be made, then there was Seinar and Tarkin two old men playing silly games between each other about Sekot. I also was expecting the Sekot planet to do a manifestation of Qui Gonn to Anakin or Obi Wan or something. Also Vergere's message was nice but not needed too. You could tell right away the Vong happened then she went with them to get them away from the Republic and the Jedi so a war doesnt start or whatever
I thought the point of Rogue Planet was to show an Anakin who was already weirder than he was in AOTC, trying to show off his racing skills using the GFFA equivalent of trash cans. Beyond that I certainly saw no point.
Its point was to introduce the Potentium Perspective to confuse the **** out of readers that conflated it with Vergere.
The point was to show Anakin and Obi-Wan's relationship developing as they went off on a spiritually impactful adventure, and to show Tarkin and Sienar helping bring the New Order about.
I would had preferred something with orginal characters by the same author, but these characters sell. The smuggler alien was really interesting, i hope we will see her again.
Eh I couldnt stand any of the Sekot planet's residents. That and the stupid Blood Carve bounty hunter. He couldnt even do his job right
The point was to show us that Obi-Wan was always uncomfortable around Anakin, that Anakin was always uncomfortable with his own power, that Tarkin was always a megalomaniacal leader with delusions of grandeur and the Raith Seinar was one paranoid son of a barve. *It's very ironic that this thread was created, as I just found Rogue Planet in a used bookstore for $4 and read the whole thing for the first time in over a decade. I thought no one would even remember this novel.
well. after reading Survivor's Quest a few years ago and after buying all of the paperbacks of the New Jedi Order book series, I finally now bought and read Rogue Planet and currently still in the beginning of Outbound Flight. Rogue Planet's not a bad novel. Half of it is ok while the other half feels like a poor mans version of the last two New Jedi Order novels that had Luke on Sekot. The Blood Carver bounty hunter, he was ok but kind of pathetic. He didnt do his job right. He was like Greedo in a way if you look at it.
The point was to finally have a Star Wars EU novel with genuine literary merit that you wouldn't be ashamed to recommend to the most well-read person you know. They succeeded.
I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not. I was waiting for you to slap everyone in this thread and yell "THE CHARACTERS WERE THE POINT YOU FOOLS!"
I only read it once, and I remember I found it boring. It got a bit of hype for being the first piece of post Episode I EU lit, I remember that. I should go back and re-read the thing.
That's not saying much. The best part of The Approaching Storm was the characters all stripping down to their underwear. And Luminara doing a dance on the backs of some bovine-type creatures...in her underwear. And Anakin singing. Which means Disney might adapt it into a musical.