Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: CORUSCANT NIGHTS I: JEDI TWILIGHT (Spoilers)

This SW novel was a pleasure: action-packed, funny, featuring familiar characters, wonderful prose and a protagonist I could root for.

I was pleased and not a little surprised that most of the action takes place - as the title of the series suggests - on Coruscant at night. Only at the very end of the novel do the characters approach true dawn. The macguffin driving the plot of the story was very lame to begin with and ended up being even more lame because it was a ruse. JT jumps forward into the 'dark times.' Vader is the Vader of the OT, Clonetroopers are Stormtroopers, etc. Some have expressed displeasure at this abrupt change. I don't mind.

Reaves' Coruscant is home to many diverse species of aliens rather than the oft seen homogenous Coruscant populated mostly by humans, Rodians and Twi'leks.

I find it very funny that there were more than 500,000,000 Jax Pavans living on Coruscant.

Reaves is a wordsmith. He had me consulting a dictionary again and again. Sometimes his sentence structure is a complex mess of commas but his prose is enjoyable.

In Piell's last stand, Reaves forgets that the dimunitive Lannik Jedi has only one eye.

He also forgets that Mace Windu is Korun: Nick muses that Kar Vastor is the only Korun who honed his Force skills to a great degree. Also, if I remember correctly Mace Windu was orphaned and did not have a real surname so was given the name of his ghosh: Windu. This was a rare occurrence but Reaves says Nick is from clan Rostu. Nick's surname is most likely not the name of his ghosh. For example, Kar Vastor is from ghosh Windu - not Vastor.

I hate to see a Senior Member of the Council taken down by a generic group of stormtroopers - a cameo by an Inquisitor would have been welcome here. I was once annoyed by the large number of Jedi who escaped the purge but then I realized that Order 66 was the beginning of the purge, not the end. These mop-up operations that feature survivors - each of whom believe he or she is the only one - do not annoy me nearly as much since I came to grips with that.

In conclusion, I'm going to attempt to coin a name for Jax's unique perception of the Force: Tendril-Vision. Any takers? Strand-Vision? Thread-Vision?

8/10

 

Average score: 146.42/16 = 9.15

 

I'm not sure we can say definitively that he forgot Mace was Korun. I just think Nick was restricting his statement to the non-Jedi Korunnai.

And I'm hoping that we can lump the Akk Guards together with Vastor in that statement. It's not like Reaves didn't know they existed, given his mention of Iolu wounding Nick.

 

I didn't notice this until you pointed it out. Mildly frustrating.... oh well. Of course, we could always assume that Piell caved and got a replacement eye sometime between his last EU appearance and this book, but that's a stretch.

I find myself wondering if the character was initially not Even Piell, but rather some generic Master, and was changed to be Piell late in the game. Or, maybe Reaves wrote "eye" and "retina" in the singular, and some editor changed the references to plural. Or it's just a mistake on the author's part. I guess it's not too hard to read a book and mentally delete two occurrences of the letter "s".

Still, sloppy.

 

I don't have too much to say about this one. I enjoyed it but it felt awfully light and all of the payoff is being put into the next book but I suppose that's necessary for a three part story. To me, much of this book seemed to be just setup. It was very well done setup but setup nonetheless.

Characterization was outstanding, though. The best I've seen it in ages. Sure, Jax was a jerk but he was obviously meant to be. I-5 was a hoot, though. I love that guy.

All in all, I wanted some more plot but I think that this trilogy will only get better from here on out.

8

 

I enjoyed it this book, perhaps not as much as some others here but I did like it. Reaves always delivers well written books interlaced with plenty of humor and he didnt dissapoint here. Ive never really liked Xizor all that much so I wasnt really crazy about his involvement and the whole droid subplot was kind of silly but overall I liked the book. Im also very curious to see what kind of "issues" Vader has with Jax.

7.5 / 10

 

Average score: 161.92/18 = 9.00

 

I give it a 9.7 out of 10 and I will post my review later. I enjoyed this book very much.

 

Average score: 171.62/19 = 9.03

 

Wow. I just finished the book and I have to give it a 10/10.

I learned a lot more about Coruscant from this book than anywhere else. The characters were brilliant. Vader and Xizor were excellently portrayed. The Factory District (Feral City) was done well enough to be put in a horror movie.

I must admit that when I first heard about the book here I was extremely skeptical. I had decided that I was going to skip this trilogy. I'm so glad I didn't.

I will say that despite some minor flaws (which did not take away from the book at all), this book is greater than all of the LOTF books (with maybe the exception of Inferno).

I still can't believe how good Jedi Twilight was. Teaches me to throw away a trilogy before it comes out.

 

Jedi Twilight was at times an interesting read, at times a real test of my patience. Let me disclaim now that I am not a big fan of Michael Reaves work, whether it?s in conjunction with Steve Perry or not. I found zero enjoyment in the Medstar books, though I was really looking forward to them before they came out.

Death Star was another difficult exercise which I admit I have not yet been able to force myself to finish. Thus when I saw his new book in the stores I was fairly hesitant, but after a week or two of procrastination I decided to give him another chance. The fact it was an inexpensive paperback greatly helped my decision making process.

Near the opening of the book we catch up with Even Piell, who I thought was long dead for some reason. Being that I failed to produce any evidence to prove why I felt the little master was dead it must have been a concoction of my own imagination. Kudo?s to Reaves for dusting Piell off and attempting to give him a fitting end.

Master Piell?s brief appearance in this novel was good, but his death was not. To me Even Piell?s death in this book was right up there with Baltan Carid knee capping Caedus in Revelation. The little Jedi Master apparently stood no chance against five clone troopers. Yeah, OK then??

What started to really bother me next was the use of vocabulary in the novel. I mean I've got an older Websters Dictionary, but words like Antaenen and Vermicular are not even in its pages. Manumitted was, as was Mellifluous, but not Susurrus. How about Gallimautires(If I spelled that right, can?t read my own writing ) or Crepuscular? Heterodoxy anyone?

I guess my point is that I'm picking up Star Wars for simple escapism, not a lesson in obscure words. Reaves gives us many examples of brilliant descriptive language where he doesn't get carried away with the school words . I think he's just trying way too hard to impress someone with his knowledge of language in this book. (Strange I haven't noticed an excessive use of impressive, but obscure language in his other works ).

Next I?ll focus on something I thought was a huge positive and probably saved the book for me. The I-Five character was fabulous and the plot about his sentience hit almost all the right notes, especially when compared to what we know about R2D2 and C3PO. Loved I-Five?s dialog, though I admittedly do not remember much about him from the Darth Maul novel Reaves penned several years back. Might have to revisit that a bit.

Reaves also handles Vader?s personality fairly well, though how he survives at the novels conclusion is very questionable. Xizor and Kaird the Nediji were both interesting as well, even if they seemed to have little to do with the overall story. The Elomin, Haninum, was kinda fun as well as Vader?s aide.

Jax Pavan and Nick Rostu I could take or leave, more likely leave. Jax losing his connection to the Force was interesting until he rediscovered his serenity, then it just became lame in my eyes. He couldn?t touch the Force at times because he forgot how?.I don?t think so. Add in the throw away Twilek Jedi Gunslinger to my disappointment with the hero?s of the book. She was pretty forced and unimaginative.

Another comment I?ll throw in on a sort of technical aspect was the endless name dropping done in the novel. Several spots in the novel point out how humans are everywhere, the dominate species in the galaxy. Yet the only races that seem to live in the Coruscant under city are the aliens. I counted 56 different species named in the book and I probably missed a few, not to mention the many different star systems and droid types also thrown in. I?m not sure if I?m really being critical of this or not, but it did come across more like an Essential Guide to Aliens at times . In addition no character ever sees an alien race they are not familiar with amongst the masses named. Was it good research or simply name dropping? I?m really not sure. The Yevetha and Nohgri did strike me as very out o

 

Average score: 187.62/21 = 8.93

 

Is it bad that I know 6 of those without a dictionary? Never heard of Antaenen, and I suspect that the big one is a misspelling of Gallimaufries, in which case I now know 7. . .

 

Care to elaborate on them?

 

Seedy urban locales. Night-dwelling heroes forced to lurk in the dregs of society. A more personal narrative set around a core group of developed characters as opposed to yet another galactic uprising filled to the brim with a large cast whose individual components all seem like cameos.

I've been eagerly waiting for this book ever since the rough premise was announced, and all of the above elements were reasons why I found Jedi Twilight to be well worth the wait. If fact, that feeling was mostly confirmed a mere nine pages in when I read the following sentence:

The capital of the galaxy had grown from a vast necropolis, as flowers sprout from funerary dirt...

And there you have it. Reaves is an all too rare Star Wars writer who realizes that a little style when it comes to weaving prose goes a long way in terms of creating an encompassing mood and setting that extend beyond the expectedly mundane. The descriptions of Coruscant's darker depths, especially those in the first third of the book in which key players like Jax and Nick scurry through their day to day existence before the primary conflict (dealing with a nicely-rendered, subtle Vader) really gets moving, were appropriately atmospheric and in some cases surprising poetic. These early sequences offered an everyman's view Star Wars that has been all too rare as of late with the sprawling LotF series taking center stage for the last few years. Reaves was so effective in easing along a feeling of day to day life far removed from Skywalker/Solo-style entitlement that I do wish the book would have taken a much longer time for the "main quest" and all its ensuing action to get moving. For instance, the back cover text describes Jax as a man forced to "eke out a living as a private investigator," when in reality the novel itself mainly portrays Jax as a still quite typical Jedi, albeit one forced to keep a constantly low profile. Had a bit more time been given toward the creation of an extended prologue of sorts, I think this private investigator angle could have played out very well. As it was, I fear the private investigator description was more a product of PR branding than an actual plot point from the text.

This might be a shame, but it's a small one. Fortunately, Reaves was good enough to capture a darker, noir-like atmosphere through means beyond surface tropes. Chapter twelve presents this passage in which Jax contemplates what death might truly mean even in the face of Jedi metaphysics:

He could not conceive of how a change so profound could be any more desirable than simply stopping, surrendering to the eternal dark.

This is the type of introspection I love to encounter in Star Wars. Not only does the passage work as a noir-style monologue, but the clashing philosophies of the mundane/fantastic perfectly encapsulate the existential plight Jax suffers in the post-Order 66 GFFA.

Further examples of Jedi Twilight as an idea-based story abounded in I-5's embracement of free will, Nick's nihilistic rejection of the same idea, as well as Rhinann's (metafictional?) commentary on GFFA humanity as one massive gathering that espouses the worst type of elitism and authoritarianism. Towards the latter half of the book I admit to being disappointed that these more theme-driven characters moved into a typical Star Wars brand of action and intersecting pathways, but given this aspect's apparent inevitability and that it was preceded by a more than typical degree of creative prose and interesting characters all caught up in day to day difficulties that extended beyond run of the mill saber-swinging, and I was more than satisfied with the overall result. Jedi Twilight may not have been quite the total exercise in noir (and in turn a departure from the established SW formula) that I wanted, but that didn't stop it from being one of the most enjoyable Star Wars novels I've read since Stover's Shatterpoint.

8/10

 

8/10

A kind 8/10. That's not to say that this book was bad or anything, but on the other hand, it wasn't spectacularly brilliant. It's was...solid. I thought the pacing and characters were good for the most part...I particularly enjoyed Rhinann...disappointed a bit by the minimal amount of Vader though. The protagonists were very likable, which is pretty much the norm for Reaves. I thought, however, that the plot was a bit...murky, really. I mean, I knew what was going on, but the sense of direction just wasn't really there. And it seemed a bit flimsy that the characters were always going "Bug-Eyes. Gotta get him. Master's dying wish." just to keep reminding us.

Another thing that bugged me, although it's not really a legitimate complaint, was the use of aliens. Now, I'm all for using a wide, wide variety of aliens, but nearly every alien that cameos in the book stems from the films. That's just...not putting the "E" in EU, methinks. But whatever, that's just a pet peeve.

Very interested in the Black Sun stuff, Xizor was done very, very well. I've read that people aren't quite sure what the Evasive Action: Prey cross-over is, and, well, it's not really a cross-over at all. In Prey, Drake Lo'gaan mentions that Xizor must be trying to impress Underlord Perhi...which does tie into this, but in a very minor way. I was kinda expecting a bit more myself (no Lonay? Bah.) but it might have been wishful thinking. That ref would have been much more effective if the book had come out when it was originally scheduled, but...yeah.

I must admit, I preferred Shadow Hunter and enjoyed Death Star a lot more than this, but this certainly was an interesting and taut read. And I'm certainly looking forward to the next installment.

 

Average score: 203.62/23 = 8.85

 

I agree. Jedi Twilight was billed as a private investigator story and that's what I expected when I bought it. Instead, I received something very different: The Jedi did little to no private investigating and the reporter didn't do much hard nosed investigative reporting. But Jedi Twilight is what it is. If it had been bad, I'd be the first one ranting and raving that Del Rey deceived and betrayed me. But it was good. Not as advertised and not what I wanted or expected, but I can't complain because it was an enjoyable story.

 

I stated in another thread that Jedi Twilight is the best Star Wars novel since The Unifying Force hit shelves in 2003. I stand by that statement.

This book was phenomenal. The prose was well-crafted and amazingly descriptive--I could feel Coruscant in ways that I have not been able to before. It was quite literally writing that left a permanent tableau in my mind's eye. And I wish the other Star Wars authors (with the exception of Mr. Stover) were capable of half the eloquent and picturesque writing that Mr. Reaves delivered in this book.

The characterization was outstanding. Den Dhur is easily one of my favorite characters now. He is self-deprecating, sardonic, comedic, tragic, and ultimately human in ways that most Star Wars characters rarely come across as--and he's a Sullustan to boot!

And the interplay between Dhur, I-Five, Nick Rostu, Jax Pavan, and Laranth was expertly done. Xizor's return was most welcome. And this book certainly makes Xizor's characterization in Shadows of the Empire and the EU as a whole all the more meaningful. Kaird. Rokko. Even Piell. Vader. Vader's Elomin aide. Everyone in this book played their role and advanced the story in very unique, personal ways.

And that's the other thing. The plot was gripping. I found myself really feeling for I-Five after he reveals to Jax his vow that he took from his father and Jax, understandably, being not just nonplussed about it, but more than a bit irritated with the entire revelation and the entire concept of a droid being as human as I-Five and treated as an equal by Jax's father.

The action scenes were spot on and paced extremely well. And let me just agree with others that the Jedi Paladin is a really cool idea and added to the noir-ish air of the novel. And the terror of Darth Vader and the Empire really came alive in this novel. That's something we haven't seen in a long time. I couldn't help but think of Obi-Wan's lines: "Before the dark times...before the Empire..." the entire time I was reading this novel.

Pure awesome.

I can't wait for Street of Shadows.

Score: 10/10

 

Average score: 213.62/24 = 8.90

 

I think Reaves is a great writer on his own. His use of a thesaurus hardly counts against him. I never found his style pushy or purple in the least. His writing is confident in it's own style and he has an original voice. In Jedi Twilight he spun together a light but compulsively readable chase novel. Reaves not only gave me the first novel since Rogue or Wraith Squadron not filled with PT or OT characters that I loved, he managed to make Darth Vader the BA we've missed for so long.
I love the cast he has assembled. Each character was a joy to read. I can't help but contrast the optimism of Coruscant Nights with the pessimism and ongoing sadness that is Dark Times Comics. While I enjoy both, Jedi Twilight made The Dark Times fun. Much more fun than say, Invincible was. Why am I as optimistic about the future of Jax Pavin and company as Luke's Jedi Order? I know I shouldn't be.

All in all, 8.7/10

 

9.5/10

 

Average score: 231.82/26 = 8.92

 

Average score: 235.82/27 = 8.73