Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: FATE OF THE JEDI: BACKLASH (Spoilers)

Backlash, the fourth Fate of the Jedi installment, brings us Aaron Allston's return to the series!

Some rules: rate Backlash on a scale of 1 to 10, supplementing your rating with a review, if you want to (It's not necessary but is highly encouraged). However, please do not rate or review the book until after you've read the whole thing. Thanks.

Go for it.


Some previous review threads:

Republic Commando: Hard Contact, by Karen Traviss
Shatterpoint, by Matthew Stover
The Cestus Deception, by Steven Barnes
Medstar I: Battle Surgeons, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry
Medstar II: Jedi Healer, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry
Jedi Trial, by David Sherman and Dan Cragg
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, by Sean Stewart
Labyrinth of Evil, by James Luceno
Revenge of the Sith, by Matthew Stover
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine, by Veronica Whitney-Robinson
Tatooine Ghost, by Troy Denning
Survivor's Quest, by Timothy Zahn
Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream, by Aaron Allston
Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand, by Aaron Allston
Traitor, by Matthew Stover
Destiny's Way, by Walter Jon Williams
Force Heretic I: Remnant, by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Force Heretic II: Refugee, by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Force Heretic III: Reunion, by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
The Final Prophecy, by Greg Keyes
The Unifying Force, by James Luceno
Dark Nest I: The Joiner King, by Troy Denning
Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen, by Troy Denning
Dark Nest III: The Swarm War, by Troy Denning
Outbound Flight, by Timothy Zahn
Republic Commando: Triple Zero, by Karen Traviss
Legacy of the Force: Betrayal, by Aaron Allston
Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines, by Karen Traviss
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, by Drew Karpyshyn
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Allston nailed this one

Here's my TF.N review.

9/10

 

To me, the sympathetic characterization of Daala is simply illogical. Nawara Ven can't defend Tahiri because of his historical relationship with the Jedi, but Daala can lay the charges despite having once brought a fleet of Star Destroyers to wipe out the Jedi Academy. Right... And she bashes Tahiri like she has any sort of moral high ground over her. The fact that nobody even thinks to point any of this out makes Daala's mere existence a walking contradiction.

Backlash was too light-hearted, often inappropriately so. After all the crazy stuff that happened at the end of Abyss, competing in some Dathomiri Olympic Games was the most important thing for Luke to do. Sure, "Time was on his side", but the fleeting mentions of Vestara throughout the entire Dathomir plot were all that was salvaging it from seeming as pointless as Outcast's Kessel plotline. However, I did enjoy the mystery around her character and the climax on the hilltop, both of which made for some very entertaining reading. Ben was greatly characterized, Luke was wonderfully powerful, and at the very end of the book, a small group of Lost Tribers take out 24 Nightsisters and 18 Rancors in about ten seconds. A great show of how they're actually a force to be reckoned with, and not the diet coke of Sith. The Mando raid on the Jedi Temple was also a fantastic scene that used random normally-super-supporting Jedi very well, and was a great use of Jaina. Like YodaKenobi said, she and Jag did much more in this book than sit around and talk about their feelings.

I'm Ok with Luke and Ben?s search for Jacen clues being over, but why Allston would choose to set the book immediately following that plot?s conclusion amidst a Force-using sect that Jacen definitely visited is beyond me. There wasn?t even a single mention in the entire book of said journey beyond a throwaway line by Daala, and even though they?re more concerned with Vestara now, you?d think that Luke & Ben would realize that they didn?t find all the answers, and would even consider asking the simplest question about Jacen to any of the dozens of Witches they were hanging out with. I mean, did Allston choose to set the entire book on Dathomir just to scream at the readers ?OK, just in case you?re not sure, Luke & Ben?s Jacen-quest is definitely over! Look, they?re on Dathomir and they?re not asking questions about him! Get it????? If Luke & Ben aren?t seeking clues anymore, then why should the reader give a crap about the Witches at this point in time? I mean, seeing them again is cool, and the Sith capturing the Nightsisters at the end was a great twist, but did the majority of the book really have to take place on this planet? There?s so much you could possibly do with Luke & Ben chasing Vestara around and desperately trying to halt her attempts at communicating with her Lost Tribe, but lawl it?s more important for Ben & Vestara to meet and have tension because they?re totally gonna hook up!!

Backlash fails as a standalone book, much like Outcast and Omen did. I appreciate that this series is looking like three acts composed of three books each, but when they?re charging us hardcover prices for every single book, then that book needs to be able to stand on its own and not lean as heavily on its brethren as these FOTJ books are. There was absolutely no resolution to anything Han, Leia, Jaina, and Jag were doing --- yeah, I love that storylines are happening across authors, unlike in LOTF, but that doesn?t have to happen at the expense of each individual book. Not even bothering to wrap up plotlines sells Backlash short as an individual book. Sure, charge us four bucks for a monthly comic issue that?s a chapter in a larger book, but don?t charge us hardcover prices for a book that feels more like a chapter than a book. The goal should be to write good books that can stand on their own, while still feeling like a part of an overarching series. It shouldn't be one or the other.

There were some cool characters, though. Dyon Stadd, for o

 

Average score: 14/2 = 7.00

 

This book... perplexed me. Parts of it were brilliant and pure Allston. Other made me scratch my head and wonder if the galaxy has gone mad.

My thoughts are a bit jostled as the moment, so I will break down the "Good, Bad, and the Ugly".

The Good

Kenth Hamner. Allston, unlike Troy Denning, genuinely seems to respect the character of Kenth Hamner. Acting Grand Master Hamner isn't a fool or a toady, he is a wise Jedi Master who listens to his fellow Jedi and makes tough calls. He is portrayed as a man of action, keen military mind, and a generally good guy. He is VERY pragmatic in his views of Daala.

Han and Leia. Allston gets kudos here as well. Han and Leia are actively participating in restoring good relations between the Jedi Order and the Galactic Alliance. And they actually, genuinely, believe it is the right thing! Having a former Chief of State and retired general performing this duty is encouraging and serves the dual purpose OOU of giving them something meaningful to do.

Wynn Dorvan. So help my Jesus, this guy needs to be the next Chief of State. I cannot think of the last time a government official was portrayed in this light. Maybe Cal Omas in Destiny' Way. Wynn not only continues to uphold the view that the Jedi Order is good for the galaxy and the Alliance, but he has some serious balls when dealing with Daala. His winning line: "You're the officer who attacked Mon Calamari a while back." Best thing of all, he isn't a total jerk about. He states it as a fact that Daala has to deal with. Dorvan also gets kudos for the chapter where he is talking to the Chev Jedi (before said Jedi goes crazy) and mentions that combating slavery in the galaxy is a noble thing for the Jedi and GA to fight, plus it would bring the two parties closer together in a good way. Seriously, make this guy Chief of State ASAP.

Jedi Master Cilghal. Thank you, Aaron Allston. You reminded us that, regardless of whether she is a healer and former diplomat, this Jedi-freaking-Master can kick some seriosu butt. Seeing Cilghal in action, using her lightsaber, was awesome.

Galactic Alliance military organization. I like the various offices mentioned in the book. Chiefs of the Navy, Starfighter, Marines, and Army. Makes the GADF feel nice and organized. Allston has always excelled as Rebel/NR military stuff, so it is good to see him doing this with the GA. He even included a scence with two Aleph-class starfighters. Bravo! Include Mon Cal heavy carriers and Galactic-class battle carriers in the next book, Aaron, and I will die of happiness. Or, at the very least, the Fleet Junkie in me will smile.

The Bad

Nek Bwua'tu. Naval Chief of Operations, not so bad. Having sex with Daala, BAD. However, he does have two partially redeeming line. Speaking his views on the Jedi to Daala, Bwua'tu says the following: "I think that they're basically a beneficial force with the Alliance's interests at heart." He then reminds Daala that the Jedi have a tradition of protecting the galaxy's government that goes back to the early days of the Old Republic. Bothan Thrawn may be irritating sometimes, and gross for sleeping with a 80 year old red head, but I do agree with his views on the Jedi. This keeps ole' Nek out of the "Ugly" category.

Mandalorian attack...that is forgotten. Seriously, the scence ends with the Mandos retreating and the Temple surrounded by security forces. A few chapters later, it is almost like everyone doesn't care about this. Where are the repurcussions, for Pete's sake? And for the love of the Force, attacks on the Jedi (insert facility name here) are getting kinda old now.

Haydnat Treen. The people of Kuat need to vote for a new senator. The woman is anti-aliens, pro-Empire (at least for commerical reasons, ie KDY contracts), and wants to be the next Chief of State. She is a eighty year old woman who is basically Viqi Shesh minus the attractive body and clothes. And why choose a Kuati senator? Why doe we always have to have a prominent Core World

 

Average score: 20/3 = 6.67

 

The Fourth "novel" in the Fate of the Jedi series, Backlash is lightly paced. Considering that it's the fourth book, shouldn't things have picked up pace by now? The obvious answer is Yes. Yes, the pace should have quickened by now, but no. It's author seems very incompetent to pick up the pace, preferring to bore the reader with grating juvenile humor that reduces all the characters from their respective ages to 11 - 16 year old children, as well as sponsoring the Winter Olympics on Dathomir.

THE GOOD

The Coruscant scenes were excellent when not being bogged down by pointless humor, or certain Moffs and Senators staging coups on their Heads of States. The Mando Raid against the Jedi Temple, while seemingly rehashing Abyss's "Mando attack (even though Leia and Han initiated the attack) was more thought out and planned. In the fight, we have veteran Knight, Jaina Solo fighting alongside Raynar Thul (another well known Jedi from the Young Jedi Knight series), Tyria Tainer who hasn't been seen or mentioned since the New Jedi Order's final novel The Unifying Force, and an apprentice called Bandy Geffer (which has got to be the lamest name in all of Star Wars history).

The Mandalorians. Unlike Denning's take on them, they actually felt like a competent threat for the Order to face. The Jedi were not toying with them, nor were they easy to defeat the Mandos. At least this time the Jedi didn't initiate the attack.

THE BAD

All the scenes on Kessel... Oh wait... Silly me: Dathomir. I was confused for a second because both planet scenes were horribly written and served little to no point in the entire story other than to give Allana and adventure, keep Han and Leia preoccupied since it's clear the authors have no idea what to do with them. The Dathomiri games (a clear ripoff of the Olympics) bogged down the story for no clear reason other than to shout at the reader that "Luke Skywalker can trump any Force using sect". It was jarringly irritating and seemed to serve no purpose at all.

Waiting until the very last chapter to bring in the Tribe. I have no idea why it was done this way. Clearly the author could have cut out all the useless jargon on Dathomir, shrunk it down to a couple of chapters, then moved on. But no, that would make sense.

THE UGLY

Han and Leia's arrogance has worn out its welcome. It's as if the authors don't even know how to write tension without making the temporary Grand Master of the Jedi Order look like a cowardly pansy who likes to bend over and take it without lube.

With over half the book given to the subplot (Dathomir scenes) and pointless, baseless, juvenile humor ( a specialty of Aaron Allston's) I have no choice but to give this supposed novel a 2/10.

 

Just finished reading it so everything relatively fresh in my mind.

THE GOOD

All of Allana's parts. Her concern for both her Nexu (most awesome pet ever because it's going to grow up and be a beefed up guard dog for when Allana takes her position as a leader) and Artoo was good. Her little adventure in finding Artoo and her little scuffle with the mechanic. Liked how she was complaining about how nothing was going according to plan like the Saturday morning cartoons that she'd watched.

Liked Luke and Ben on Dathomir, but can see the things they did on the planet as nothing more than filler, but they did put an inroad to Dathomir and they don't have to worry about crossing the Witches when the Jedi decide to put a new learning center on planet. But I can also see that the reason they stayed on Dathomir so long was because they were waiting for Vestara to make her move and contact her people. They couldn't be more pressing because they didn't want to alienate the Witches that were protecting Vestara. I get the games, and I can understand why Luke had to participate (gain personal respect from the Witches present instead of respect from the stories of his previous visit(s)). I think Ben really shined in this part of the story, his showing leadership skills during the attack on the Hill, his investigative skills trying to figure out what Vestara was actually doing and just his overall appearance.

The Vestara and Ben interactions were well done. Her being crafty and Ben taking the bait in their first meeting. But then they have a really great conversation about Truths and Lies, she even brings out the Star Wars standard "From a Certain Point of View". That whole conversation was well done, and just their general interactions were superb.

Overall everything on Coruscant was 10x better than it was during the previous books. The crazy Jedi plot actually moved somewhere. Jaina was superb in the fight with the Mandolorians (good to see Rayner get a good showing against the Mandos), and her interactions with Jag were better and flowed better when they were interacting. Though it probably would've been better if they'd have done something of a follow up on the Mandos attacking the Jedi Temple instead of a cursory the Special Forces being slighted by Daala because she chose the Mandos over them.

Han and Leia were well done. Showed some arrogance at the positions that they had earned throughout their lives, which can look bad at times, but was well done in this book. They showed the proper respect to people who'd you expect (Daala), but showed just how much power they had to a lowly backwater world's Spaceport lackey.

THE BAD

Still portraying Daala as sympathetic, but at least some people are pointing out things she's done in her past and that she's not squeeky clean like previous books had painted her.

The Lecerson and Treen plot. In fact the whole plan for them to take over the Galaxy (though legally and not bloody outside of Jag and maybe a few others). I mean Treen just comes out of left field, was she in any other novel before this one? And now we have people wanting to go back to the good 'ol days of the old Empire, where aliens are repressed and more than likely going to be put in slavery or something similar (relegated to the crap jobs) and humans control everything. She doesn't even want anyone who has more than passing ties to anything alien, and Lecerson is agreeing to it. Though I did find it a little weird (in a good way) about how they went to that Casino dressed as significant figures of the Old Empire.

THE UGLY

What the heck was up with Zekk and his girlfriend? They come to Dathomir to watch over Allana right? It's a little confusing, I understand somethings are better for her to experience without them looking over her shoulder, but what exactly were they doing when Allana was being attacked by the mechanic? Artoo messages them relaying what he knows, and I think they message him about watching what was happening in the hanger, but they don't jump in? What is up with that? If someon

 

I'd give this a 7.5 / 10.

Again, since I liken this to the first-third of Empire (assuming I am correct in the nine-book series being three-books per chapter of a trilogy) -- this would be like The Battle of Hoth through the Asteroid Chase. And that's it.

So yeah, Luke's a doof somewhat and Han/Leia/Droids are awesome -- there's some good combat scenes and the good guys get tossed around a little and not much really happens PER SE. But it's more important about what it sets up and the pieces it gets in motion and, more importantly, where.

Han/Leia/Allana/Jaina/Jag are all dealing with the "Jedi problem" front on Coruscant with Daala at the same time that the Moffs are making a move against Jag and public opinion is turning against Daala.

Luke/Ben are in motion against the real threat -- the A-plot -- and are now theoretically joining forces with the Sith ongoing.

Allies should be hella-interesting.

 

I loved Ben so much in this book. his character has really been fleshed out, and he is quickly rising up as my second fav character besides luke

i hates allana's misadventure , it was stupid, as is Daala.

but i loved the book, i give it a

8/10

 

Average score: 46.4/7 = 6.64

 

This was an...odd...book. Enjoyable, but odd.

Hm let's see. I enjoyed the Luke/Ben plot very much as I usually do. The book started out pretty slow but the Dathomiri segment began to grow on me. Vestara was wonderfully manipulative, and it was great to see another Luke vs. Sith battle. Lots of interesting side characters too: Dyon, Carrack, Yliri, Tasander and whats-her-name. All great characters, Dyon especially. I hope he comes back in later novels. I tell ya, Allston knows how to write quality secondary characters when he wants to.

The Coruscant plot was a mixed bag as usual. The Daala scenes were...awkward? Maybe not the best word, but they left me with a confused feeling. I couldn't sympathize with her at all of course. I actually enjoyed Lecersen and Treen's background plotting, which says a lot since I couldn't stand Lecersen in previous novels. Jag and his story was surprisingly engaging, usually I find him and Jaina totally dull (well, Jaina was still dull in this novel). The overall mad Jedi plot didn't advance as much as I thought it would, but now we have Han and Leia acting as mediators. I guess we'll see where that goes. Speaking of Han and Leia, I loved that we finally saw them become part of the Luke story, at least for a little while. It's been a while since we've seen the Big 3 together. The Allana story was...unnecessary. I really did love that the droids got more attention this time around, but I wasn't fond of them being stuck babysitting for yet another novel.

Allston's trademark humor was there of course. Standalone, I think this was a great novel and very fun to read. But as part of the greater FotJ plot? It was a side-story. Honestly, not much really happened. We learned nothing about Abeloth or the Force Psychosis and absolutely nothing about Jacen's journey was mentioned. Seriously, what's up with that? They better not drop the Jacen plot this early on. This book was a fun ride, but I feel like it was the Tempest of this series. It was 80% filler.

Overall I quite enjoyed this book despite my grievances. Some of the plots were kind of meh, and ultimately it added almost nothing to the overall FotJ storyline, but it was a fun ride and the characterizations were awesome. And that's why I think it deserves an 8/10.

 

I really like Backlash. Not as much as Abyss, but more than Outcast and Omen. I thought the Dathomiri action was really nice to see, I loved Dyon Stadd, I hope Golden uses him in Allies, Luke was good, Ben was good, Daala was ok.

The Mando attack on the Jedi Temple was freakin' sweet. Seeing Raynar back in action is even sweeter. Vestara was excellent, I'm really growing to like her character.

Oh yeah, the Allies preview was freakin awesome as well.

So, overall, 8.9/10

 

Average score: 63.3/9 = 7.03

 

+
Both of the Skywalkers were well written. Not much to say here, they just feel believable, only annoying thing was how he said Luke didn't have enough time to recover, are you kidding me?

Khai in specific and the Tribe of the Sith in general were well written. You kept just getting to like her before being reminded oh, she's a Sith who wants to kill the Skywalkers in cold blood. The tribe actually does some evil stuff successfully in this book, good for them. First few books just had them getting slaughtered by Abeloth, then the Skywalkers.

Not as much of that extremely boring Jaina+Jag garbage. I'm tired of hearing it, just tie the knot and get it over with.

Lerscen plot very slightly less goofy than before. Still pretty pointless but has a chance to evolve into something significant.

-
Dathomiri Olympics were a pretty bad idea, very boring and irrelevant plot element. The Kessel subplot was infinitely more interesting if you want to compare the two. At least that had a point, this one just felt very poorly thought out.

Mandalorians attack Jedi again, with all of the damned mandalorian and Daala action going on you'd almost think Traviss was ghostwriting this series. But naturally Mandalorian attack fails to kill or seriously injure any jedi because Allston doesn't want to deal with that potentially very interesting political mess, he wants to talk about public opinion polls more. That brings me to my next point.

Every time I saw the words Daala, I was tempted to skim until she went away. I am not being facetious. Everything about her plotline either bored me to death or made me curse Traviss for bringing her back from the grave of EU loose ends. You know who would have been a more interesting character to revive? Anyone. I seriously think Trioculus would have made a much better chief of state, all he did was kill some whaladons (and love, unlike Daala he still has a heart), she indiscriminately bombarded heavily populated planets and wiped innocent colonies out for giggles. Her only redeeming quality is the fact that now instead of getting to watch her send countless Imperial navy crewbeings to their pointless deaths, I get to watch her get hammered in the public opinion polls, which brings me to a character I like even less than Daala:

Wynn Dorvan. Public opinion polls public opinion polls public opinion polls, we get it, Daala is a democratically elected leader (I guess), she cares about staying in office. A chapter about Wynn Dorvan telling Daala how the polls would react if she were to use plastic grocery bags rather than paper would seriously not have been that out of place, that is how damned boring everything he talks about is.

But Wynn isn't even my least favorite character. My least favorite character in this book is Pocket. Wynn's pet Chitlik. I know, there were only a few lines talking about him in this book, but if you ask me that's a few lines too many. What is the significance of the rat he keeps in his pocket? Is it some sort of gun on the mantlepiece? At the last minute in the final fight is Pocket going to bravely bite Abeloth in the ass, creating an opening in her defenses and saving the galaxy from her dark hunger? No? Then I don't care. Not to mention the creepy factor of a guy working with a rat named pocket in his pocket, is it housebroken or does he have some ceder chips in there? Pocket is a pretty damn creepy name for a pet too. I could go on and on, but I won't.

6/10 Strictly average on the whole, some stupid characters I don't give a damn about, some stupid plot elements I don't give a damn about, but just enough to keep me from putting it down and doing something productive with my time.

 

Average score: 69.3/10 = 6.93

 

... Of all the things I need to know, this ain't among 'em. Ye gods, what an image!

 

Yeah, I guess Daala got trapped in a dimension where time flows backwards between Jedi Academy and LotF. Otherwise she's what, like in her 70s or 80s? Granted, humans live a lot longer in this galaxy, but Obi-wan was only 57 when he kicked the bucket, heck even Luke is older than that now and he never looks nearly that old in portrayals. That whole falling out with Anakin thing must have really prematurely aged Obi-wan because apparently nobody else in this galaxy ever gets old.

 

This won't be in any particular order, more so will just be random thoughts as they come to me about the novel.

Good things:
-Vestara. I'm enjoying the character. I've read a couple people mention this and I agree wholeheartedly, she was well written in that just when you think she's actually a sweet teenage girl, she shows her true Sith colors and you realize just how good she is at manipulation. More than that, I just like reading any scene she's in. She's got a lot of potential, and hopefully they (the authors) don't waste that potential by either killing her, or suddenly having her fall in love with Ben for no reason other than we need Luke/Mara Version 2.0.
-Ben Skywalker. I liked his portrayal in this novel. I like that he's got an analytical mind about problems, and that he's starting to show leadership qualities. He's also got a sense of humor, though then again most characters show this in Allston novels.
-Luke Skywalker. He wasn't pansied down in this novel. No, he didn't singlehandedly beat every foe he faced with one arm tied behind his back, but he also didn't "lose" any confrontations against opponents he should be able to beat.
-Han and Leia doing something relevant. The Kessel plot was lame, the trip to the zoo was lame. The ... I'm drawing a mental blank about their part in Abyss, but I'm sure it was lame.
-Allston's got a knack for making secondary and supporting characters interesting. The new characters on Dathomir are prime examples of this.

Bad things:
-Daala. Not that the person who was written about in this book was badly written, but the fact that it was DAALA that was written into that part. Right from the get go, it was ridiculous that she was the character chosen to fill the Chief of State role. And while there's more mention of her past acts, people still act like she's a reasonable choice to be in that position. It's like everyone in the galaxy has forgotten everything that occurred before the Yuuzhan Vong war.
-Allana ... ooops Amelia's adventures. Honestly, these parts of the book annoyed me. And the worst part of it is you just *knew* that she'd end up running off into trouble the second that Han and Leia announced they'd be leaving her alone in the Falcon. Sure, they had Zekk and Taryn to watch over her. But how'd that end up? Useless, unnecessary addition to the novel made even more frustrating because of the obviousness of what would happen.
-No mention of the Jacen journey plot, or much mention of the Abeloth plot. I understand they were concentrating on Luke and Ben tracking Vestara, but you'd think they'd at least ponder both major plots from the last novel a bit more.
-No real movement in the crazy Jedi plot. I know it's a 9-book series, but are we EVER going to get headway into what's wrong with these Jedi? I was hoping we'd actually see Valin and Jysella in action at some point in the series, but apparently they've served their purpose until this plot is resolved.

Indifferent:
-Treen and Lecersen's plot. First off, who the hell is Treen and why is she suddenly a key component in this secret plot despite the fact she has never even been mentioned in previous novels? Anyway ... I guess it's just one of the sidestories that doesn't appeal to me.

Overall:
I liked the writing, I liked the characters, but while the story itself was fun to read, it didn't really accomplish much (I seem to be coming away with this same feeling after most of the LotF novels ...) with regards to the main plots of this series.

Score: 7 out of 10

 

8,5/10

+ I thought this book a highly enjoyable read. The plot & pacing is good and forms a captivating story, much independent of FotJ. You constantly find small pearls while reading, often funny ones. The characters are well treated, some very well even (I think Allston always does a good, respectful the characters.) Luke is great here, Luke& Ben are really good together while Vestara is brilliant - and clearly has much more to give in FotJ to come! It was also nice to return to Dathomir in capable hands - I've always thought the planet to be a tad too Tarzan-like but here it was definitely SW, the Tarzan-effect as a little charming twist only. The new characters we met onplanet were generally very good too: especially Carrack, Tarth, Dyon, Tasander, not to speak of his dad. And it was great to see the Big Three together again.

-
Very little happened in that Big Three reunion. I was so glad to see Han & Leia run to Luke's aid like in good old days but I could have used a bit more happening between them. Or perhaps I'm too nostalgic? Then there was Zekk & Teryn? What were these guys doin? I guess they had control of the situation but then the view we got was then a bit too much Allana's 'cos they were very hard to spot! A minor minus is also that the FotJ plot wasn't really brought onwards in this book. That didn't bother me personally but somehow made it impossible for the book to really settle. I enjoyed every part of if while reading, yet now afterwards I can't help but think: "And???"

On the other hand I have to face that this certainly gives me the inclination to buy the next book...

 

This proves that her and Mara were sisters. They both age backwards.

 

But Wynn isn't even my least favorite character. My least favorite character in this book is Pocket. Wynn's pet Chitlik. I know, there were only a few lines talking about him in this book, but if you ask me that's a few lines too many. What is the significance of the rat he keeps in his pocket? Is it some sort of gun on the mantlepiece? At the last minute in the final fight is Pocket going to bravely bite Abeloth in the ass, creating an opening in her defenses and saving the galaxy from her dark hunger? No? Then I don't care. Not to mention the creepy factor of a guy working with a rat named pocket in his pocket, is it housebroken or does he have some ceder chips in there? Pocket is a pretty damn creepy name for a pet too. I could go on and on, but I won't.

hehe, oh I imagine Pocket will turn out to be the evil mastermind behind all the dark plotting in the FOTJ series! Yes, cute inocent little Pocket will uh... Control Daala because he'll be some sort of freaky SithSupreme Overlord with Force abilities mwahahaha! And he'll monologuein the final pages of FOTJ 9 about how he would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those medaling Jedi! Yup, I bet the chitlik is gonna turn out to be the puppet master... hehe kidding of course, but yeah what else is this creature good for. Still laughing at that image of him biting Abeloth in the hind parts! Ah that made my evening! Yeah take that, scary big mouthed betentacled monster lady thingy! Don't mess with the chitlik!

 

Valid point. I have now formed a theory: Pocket is secretly Rokur Gepta, returning as a half cyborg Croke Sith Lord after Lando's brutal squishing at ThonBoka. He survived, and now he's back and more powerful than ever.

Keep in mind, this is the same series in which Daala got to be chief of state, as far as I'm concerned anything is possible at this point.

 

Take it to the discussion thread, please.

 

What did I just say?