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

I'm plumping for 5/10 - and I'm only being that generous because Golden is trapped by the format of this series so doesn't deserve to be blamed for all the faults.

Where Golden strikes out on her own - which essentially means introducing us to the Sith on Kesh - I was intrigued. It's getting bit grating that yet another Sith threat no one knew of has to be created. But hey, we need villains. Also, at times here, and in other sections, it reads like she's targeting a younger audience - Wes's review says it reads like a Young Jedi Knights novel, and I'd probably agree if I'd read any - but that doesn't mean it's not well done. There are some nice touches elsewhere, too, especially in some of the Ben/Luke scenes.

But in other places, she loses me. Some of it is use of language - and yes, I am old school on this, but it does bug me no end. For example, professional writers really shouldn't be guilty of tautology. Nor should their editors: "Erstwhile" and "former" in the same sentence? "Likely" and "probably" in the same clause? It's just poor. Really poor. Starting a sentence with "too"? Clumsy. She even uses two synonyms to contradict each other when describing Luke and Ben's search of the Aing-Tii's sacred relics: "The process was hardly a swift one, but it went fairly quickly."And this after telling us the two Jedi were facing a daunting task to touch each and every relic collected over millenia and piled up in two large rooms. Just atrocious.

Elsewhere, it's silly errors in the plot. Like when Han and Leia first visit Seff Hellin, we're told he is in a cell surrounded by ysalimiri. Yet Leia can somehow "recognize his feel in the force." Neat trick that no other force sensitive has ever been able to pull off. Unless I missed it in an earlier novel, I'm guessing this is just a mistake on Golden's part. Oops

Or there are what struck me as weird omissions: Yoda apparently sent Jorj Car'Das to the Aing-Tii years before. Yet Luke never asks his hosts about how they knew Yoda, the master he retains a strong fondness for. Odd.

Ok, maybe I am nit-picking too much for some of you. But much of this shows gaps in planning/reviewing/editing that can undermine a book

But let me grouch about the bigger picture I alluded to at the start: the series format. I can see why the conceit of having three sci-fi authors collaborate on a series and write three books each appeals. But after reading the first two books of the series, and the last series where Jason becomes Caedus, I reckon the nine-book format should be scrapped.

The way it is being used for these stories is sub-par. Each author, understandably, wants to stamp his her her own imprint on the series. As a result, though, a good, well-paced plot suffers as each feels the need to show his or her own skills at describing the Star Wars universe and the action therein. I want the latter, of course - that's why I read these things. But I most especially want a well-constructed plot.

In this series, especially, though, it feels far too much like writing by numbers: Jedi illness - check; Luke/Ben visit to non-Jedi force users for one purpose with a not-especially taxing unexpected subplot thrown in to fill a few pages - check. Find something, anything for Han and Leia to do even though it's pretty boring - check.

Some of the plot devices are clunky - Ship; the caricature journalist; the visit to the Farm, or whatever it was; the Aing-Tii relics so that Kesh Sith somehow become aware of Luke and Luke becomes aware of the Maw...

It just feels, well, hackneyed and forced. And it makes the overall narrative for the series, so far at least, far too slow. There is nowhere near enough progress in each volume to warrant it being a separate book. The Caedus Nine suffered from it, too, but not as badly.

I loved Heir to the Empire. Fantastically constructed, great plots, all the characters were developed well, even ones we already knew. And at the end of each one I wanted more. There's little if any character development in this series - in part that's because most characters have bee

 

Average score: 132.05/17 = 7.77

 

Got it and read it today.

First off, others have noted that this is a short book. It's true. It's ridiculously short. Now, I'm not one for padding books out with filler just to find stuff for characters to do. So if it's a simple story that can be told without filler, that's fine. But this goes beyond simply being a lean story into being a story that does have more to include, that's asking for more material, and doesn't have it. The story is done a disservice by the length. Luke and Ben have an entire series of adventures tracking stuff down which aren't given any detail at all. I'd like to see at least one of those to get some idea of what they were actually doing. Moreover, what is Jaina doing this whole time? Surely she didn't organize Darkmeld solely so that they can sit on their collective behind. What are they doing, besides taking Jaina out on dates? Are they gathering information? Are they studying Seff? Are they spying on Daala's staff? They ought to be. Let's see it. That tell-but-don't-show attitude undercuts the entire novel. What were Luke and Ben's lessons like? We got some idea of that in Outcast -- we get no idea here. Everything is glossed over, cut down, left out. It's not a writing style that rewards the reader or serves the story at all.

Speaking of writing style, Golden's doesn't wow me. It's simple. Occasionally, there are good bits, bits that show she's a professional who knows how to create a little mood and punctuate a scene, and then she's brutally abusing dialogue for clunky exposition and creating a lot of sentences that are just plain awkward. Seeing how much work she's done as an author, I'm surprised her prose is this stilted, clunky, and mediocre. Just really mediocre.

Golden does have her good features, though. Characterization is generally good. Luke and Ben are spot-on, reminding me strongly of Allston's excellent portrayal of them. This is clearly someone who's read the previous work and used it to inform her characterization and be true to it. I'm impressed. The other characters are likewise good. I didn't notice any major out-of-character moments, which is a good feat for an author new to the universe (hell, it's a good feat for an experienced author). As long as I'm on the topic of reading the previous work. Golden's obviously done that in regard to general continuity as well as characterization. The continuity is good, and references are used well, appropriately, and to help enrich the story. I'm impressed in that regard.

Golden also does have some good scenes. Jaina and Jag's date was a humorous bit of misdirection. The scene at the Livestock Exchange was innovative and creative; action that was genuinely interesting and new and that took advantage of the setting. It wasn't the same old lightsaber duels or dogfights or speeder chases or gun battles. It was a wonderful callback to the off-the-wall, pulpy action you'd get from Daley and some of the Bantam EU. A pulpy action setpiece that's not so much spawned from the big plot -- Jedi perform a commando raid on a space station, on a spaceship, on a fortress; fighter pilots fight the big battle for control of the planet; fleets clash in the big climax -- as from the author having an interesting idea for an action setpiece and saying, "Yeah, let's make that happen."

Vestara and the Tribe were interesting and original; Golden did very well when dealing with them and I think they show great promise.

Overall, however, the book just didn't thrill me. It wasn't exciting or tense. Even the Livestock Exchange scene was underplayed. Outcast was a quiet book, with little overtly happening, but Allston had me hooked. He's a great writer who knows how to keep me turning pages. He keeps the book exciting and interesting. This was kind of dull. I think it comes from Golden's dull, tell-not-show prose.

I was interested to see Golden enter the universe. I like fresh blood. I'd hoped she'd be good. But this was a thoroughly disappointing show. Hopefully, it's the result of the book being rushed (it certainly felt like a rushed product) and in

 

Average score: 138.75/18 = 7.71

 

Those were disasters?

 

Unmitigated disasters. Bad writing, bad plots, bad characterization . . . but this isn't the review thread for those books.

 

Wow, you guys aren't liking this one much. I'm about 60 pages in and I have to say that I rather like it.

 

I have to say, I'm really surprised about the accolades this book is getting. This is poor, poor storytelling. Everything that could have been interesting in this book is told to us rather than shown to us.

Regarding the Aing-Tii, we're told a prophet came to them, told them something would happen, it didn't happen, and now they have a rift in their culture...the end. Oh yeah? Who was this prophet? Where did he come from? What did he say would happen? How are the lines drawn between the Aing-Tii? Who is on what side and why? What does each side believe as a result of these events?

Regarding Ben and Luke, we're told that they both learned these special Force techniques. We're not shown how the Aing-Tii teaches these techniques. We're not shown how Ben or Luke learn these techniques, how they might have struggled with them, how they perceive such alien concepts. Nope. At the end of their time with the Aing-Tii, Ben's been a good student and knows the technique and Luke surprises us by snatching the stun stick away. Ok then. Thanks for telling me. Finally when they leave, what else are we told? Luke and Ben learned a lot about Jacen. Oh really? What?!? Because I didn't see anything that they learned about Jacen. Who is buying this. "Thanks guys. We really learned a lot about you and about Jacen." That's it??? Really? Come on, people.

And let's talk about these missions that Luke and Ben conduct with the Aing-Tii searching for artifacts. Huge potential here. Exploring the Kathol Rift, showing us strange and alien planets we've never seen in the Star Wars universe before. Opening up that region of space that has intrigued us for the past 15 years. Nope. We're simply told that Ben and Luke help them find these artifacts - most of them useless. And what do we find out after Ben and Luke examine all of them? They're not special at all - the Aing-Tii have been wasting their time. And what happens when they're in the shrine. We're told there's lots of stuff in there and they spend a lot of time looking at it all. Lots of potential here too. A chance for Ben or Luke to exercise any latent psychometic powers to read the objects. Where did they come from? What's the story behind them? Nope. They just wander around, and a coupe sentences later they've looked at them all and they're done. Yeah, that was real interesting.

And let's talk about this rainbow view of the Force. It was mentioned back in the Hand of Thrawn duology and it's treatment here is extremely cheap and shallow. There are so many lights in the cave! ... like a rainbow... Seriously? If you want a truly excellent treatment of different ways of experiencing the Force, read Michael Reaves' Coruscant Nights trilogy. Instead we get reiteration of how its like a rainbow without any interpretation of what that might mean. It's shallow, and we, as fans, should demand better.

Now let's talk about the treatment of the Sith. This was actually the best thing about this book, but in the end falls to the same criticisms - we're told what happens rather than shown. This is the first time these Sith get off their planet and use the opportunity to start building an armada. Yet for the first ship they attack, do we get to see the Sith attack occur? Do we get to see the Sith's first battle with regular galaxy folk? Nope. We're simply told that the battle occurred and they got their first ship. Then we're told they attack and acquire a few more ships. Half a page later they have their armada. Oh really? Hmm. I dunno, to me, that sounds like it would be pretty interesting to read. How the Sith attack the ships, the battles with their first victims - all big potential for interesting, exciting stuff to read. But nope. We just get told about it.

And how about the livestock fair? The biggest one in the galaxy, people come from all over to showcase their cool and awesome animals. And what do we get: nerfs, banthas, rontos, dewbacks, rancors, reeks, and nexus. Huge opportunity to introduce new animals or expand on lesser known animals. Where is the creativity? It's as if the book doesn't e

 

I read Omen today, in a 2.5-hour stint at the bookstore. It was... well, criminally short. As some on this board have said. I should also mention that spoilers made it seem even shorter, given that I already knew many of the "plot points" that were going to happen.

On the one hand, a lot happened. Luke and Ben visited the Aing-Tii, learned cool stuff, and discovered more about Jacen. Hamner starts losing control over the Jedi, but he ends up showing Daala some spine. Han, Leia, Jaina, and Allana see another Jedi go insane, in addition to Jysella at the beginning. Stuff happens with Jag and Jaina.

But I don't feel like a lot happened. There were a lot of references to continuity, but at times I felt that some things, like the Codex, were name drops rather than productive contributions. Luke and Ben learn stuff, but we never see them in that process. Likewise, the visit to the animal fair didn't really get them anywhere. *Another* Jedi goes insane, sure, leading up to the significant resistance to Daala Hamner and the Solos put up, but it just seemed... pointless. The Sith on Kesh were interesting, but... I don't know. I wasn't that engaged by their stories, and I felt like I was reading a background profile, considering that the vast majority of the Kesh scenes happened two years before the novel (would this put Ship's arrival on Kesh at the LotF?).

Perhaps the problem here is that I came in expecting something different than what Golden gave us. If I get around to reading Omen a second time, I'll likely look at it with different lines. Ben flow-walks and finds out stuff about Jacen, yes, but that didn't really fit in with the rest. In hindsight, the Luke-Ben plotline was really about their relationship as father and son, and not solving a problem together as it was in Outcast. Given the similarities to Outcast, where the Aing-Tii had a "problem," just like the Baran Do did (even if they didn't think they had one), I think I expected the story to talk about Luke and Ben solving that problem and unraveling a mystery. While they did solve it, there was so little emphasis on it that by the time they got around to solving it (entering the Embrace), the novel was almost over. I was shocked when I hit page 216, because I knew the book was only 236 pages long and couldn't believe that things could be considered "almost over" then.

Along the same lines, while the animal fair set up the fourth "case" and events important to the Jedi Order, it also had a strong personal sense. The most significant effect for me was that Allana thought they had a sort of duty to the nexu's kids.

Likewise, the parts on Kesh weren't really about the Sith building up for a massive assault on the Jedi. It was about Vestara and her relationship to her society, her family, and Ship.

That said, not all of Omen's flaws can be explained away by viewing it in a more personal light. The timings seemed odd, for one thing. Luke and Ben seemed to spend days if not over a week in the Kathol Rift, while all the Solo family basically does is go to the zoo -- a one-day affair. Then, there's a bit of buildup on Jag/Jaina, and they go on a mission/operation -- to do what? What are they doing, given that there are no wayward Jedi to beat Daala to? There's also the matter of Ben "realizing" that Luke thought they might not be coming back, and the veiled threat that the Aing-Tii could easily have taken out the Jade Shadow. Were we supposed to take this seriously? It struck me as, "Sure, stuff could go wrong," but it never put me in fear for the Skywalkers' lives. Even the attack with the stun weapon seemed out of place and surprisingly non-threatening.

I just felt that there were so many details that were glossed over, and that there were some things Golden wanted to write about -- relationships -- and some things she had to stick in for the sake of the series (Ben flow-walking and seeing Jacen, for instance; supposedly major, but given only what, half a page?) and for the sake of continuity/refe

 

Average score: 146.75/20 = 7.34

 

I made a comparison of prices for my review: at 250 pages (minus 14 for Abyss preview), Omen retails for $27. Star by Star, 606 pages and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Star Wars novel at the time of publication, was released as a hard cover also and retailed for $26, a dollar less.

Quantity definitely doesn't make for quality; in Omen, the page count was filled with nostalgic references and a lot of catch-up mixed with "telling" rather than "showing." It shouldn't take almost half of the novel for Luke and Ben to finally go looking for the Aing-Tii. It's even more disappointing to discover their mission with regards to Luke's debt to society is fruitless, just like in Outcast. If, at the end of the series, Luke and Ben's journey is nothing more than an extended bonding session culminating in the realization that no amount of studying will reveal why Jacen turned dark, or where he turned, only that he did and the only thing to do now is monitor the warning signs in other Jedi, but golly son, wasn't that fun and aren't we the best of friends now? then I'm going to be irritated.

Exploring relationships is great, but it doesn't take 9 books. Although, I suppose it does if each release is going to rival for the Shortest Hard Cover Star Wars book Ever and the authors persist in taking painfully slow steps in any one direction.

Omen is short, the words should have more momentum, more conviction, more gravitas than they do. It would make the book worth the $27 retail price tag.

 

I have to agree with both opinions completely. I mentioned this a while back in the OMEN thread, that the entire scene (Daala pulling up in a limousine speeder within moments of the incident, her annyoying drone of an aide pulling out a PODIUM fore crissakes and delivering a largely pointless and out-of-character speech) was poorly written and extremely difficult to understand (I had to sound out the words and go over each sentence nearly 3-4 times before I could finally pick through it all). Overall, I felt that it hurt the novel -- in my eyes -- in a largely irreparable manner. To be frank, I was sort of hesitant to offer this opinion, as it seemed that most posters quite enjoyed the entire novel, including the style and its ungainly sentence structure. I was glad to read both YodKenobi and Havac's reviews, as I found both opinions mirrored my own, especially in regards to the style.

However, I felt that as I continued along, the dialogue got slightly better and the sentences weren't so... fan ficcy-like. It felt like a completely separate novel to me after that point, with Jysella's incident and Daala's speech both seeming to have been written by a different author entirely.

I do have to agree that the whole "Unit" scene was very nauseating. As I mentioned on a few other threads and forums, I was very apprehensive about this novel ever since reading the excerpt for it in the back of OUTCAST, as it included the prologue that featured Dician (a prologue, I might add, where just about everything written seemed to have been copied and pasted directly from Allston's FURY; namely Dician's retort regarding Leia being a disgrace to the "noble Sith name Skywalker," her description of the pilot Wayniss and the Hapan sensor officer, the whole theme about being "perfect," just to name a few), and the next chapter which details Jysella's incident. As YodaKenobi mentioned, I just couldn't shake the whole mushy, saturday-morning-cartoon feel of it all, and found myself actually feeling relieved that Jysella caught the Madness and tried to kill the rest of them. It was that bad.

The Luke/Ben scenes weren't as bad as the rest. True, they were short, stilted and felt very rushed -- namely because it felt as if going to the Kathol Rift only succeeded in accomplishing the obvious; finding out where Jacen went next. The rest was fillerella from then on, with the only reprieve being the mysterious attack against Luke while he was asleep. I was intrigued by how the assailant seemed to materialize out of nowhere, attack the most powerful Jedi ever, and then just simply disappear. It was a very gleeful reminder to me that Luke is far from being invincible, and that he still can be surprised... which then perfectly sets the mood for ABYSS, where we now know that Vestara and Rhea will be traveling to intercept and kill both Ben and Luke. Sounds like the perfect novel for Denning to tak

 

I don't even get what's so special about Jacen. Doesn't Luke have a good idea what sends Jedi over to the dark side yet? And why they are so dangerous once over there?

 

Average score: 151.25/21 = 7.20

 

I find that I'm very ambivalent about this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed the book while reading it. The continuity from Outcast was great; the characterizations were spot-on; many references to past EU history was used well; and nothing really annoyed me as was so often the case with the LotF books. Golden obviously did a lot of research too. On the other hand, when I was finished, I realized that not all that much actually happened in the book, and most of what happened was told to us rather than seen on-page. And, as others have said, this book was FAR too short and could easily have been longer (and SHOULD have been longer) if some of the ideas had been developed into action scenes. There wasn't much action in this book at all.

I really liked the Luke and Ben interactions and enjoyed what little we learned about the Aing-tii. I felt we should have learned a lot more though about what the Aing-ti actually believe; about their Force skills; and their culture. I didn't understand the philosophy of the "Rainbow Force" very well at all. I wanted to see Luke and Ben's lessons. I think they would have been fascinating. I also would have loved to see a couple of their missions to find the artifacts. We could have visited some new worlds and learned some things about other cultures and civilizations. It was a wasted opportunity.

I was also disappointed that Luke and Ben didn't really learn anything of value for the Aing-tii from touching the artifacts. I thought it was kind of silly that Luke basically had to tell the Aing Tii that they were on their own, and needed to make their own decisions because he and Ben hadn't discovered anything that would help them from the artifacts. It was a letdown.

Ben's flow-walking was something of a letdown too. While I enjoyed reading about what he saw and heard, the conclusion that Ben came to didn't seem to jive with what he heard and saw. The whole time, Ben was thinking that the Jacen he saw during his flow-walk wasn't dark; he was still a Lightside Jedi. Yet, Ben somehow decided that Jacen couldn't be saved at that point; that he was somehow already on the inevitable path to Sithhood. Huh???

I'm guessing though that Flow-walking will prove to someday be a valuable skill for Ben, as it almost seemed as though the Force wanted him to learn it, over his father's objections.

Speaking of flow-walking, it didn't seem that what Jysella was doing was really flow-walking. Shouldn't she have actually BEEN there rather than just seeing what was happening in the future if she was flow-walking? Or was she there and I just didn't understand that?

The Lost Tribe was interesting, though I really think there are too many Sith in the Star Wars universe. (How is it that Luke and the rest of the Jedi can't sense these Sith, especially after they started going out and attacking ships ???) Vestara and her family seem almost like regular folk, as do most of the other Tribe members. So, *are* they "Sith-lite", or is it just that we weren't given the chance to really see them in action as they acquired their ships that they don't seem all that menacing?

Vestara actually seemed like a nice kid, but later in the book, we hear that she had killed many people in dozens of ways. I think this would have had more of an impact if we could have seen her killing someone first-hand. I would have liked to have seen her training too, both with Ship and with Lady Rhea. I do think that the tell rather than show style that permeated the book was it's greatest weakness.

I didn't really like the Jaina/Jag scenes all that much. Even the proposal seemed a bit off. Then again, I guess I'm disappointed that they *are* just going with the obvious and putting Jaina and Jag together, once again to match up with Legacy. I really would have liked to have seen Jaina end up with someone else for many reasons, but also for a surprising, refreshing twist.

Some other random comments:

* I enjoyed both Jaina and Leia's acions at the animal exhibition.

* Darkmeld ended too abruptly. I was expecting this

 

Average score: 158.25/22 = 7.19

 

This is a tough review for me, because I'm torn between enjoying what was in the novel and what was not in the novel. But I'm finding it difficult for me to explain in detail (kind of like the novel, heh), so I'll break things down into point form ideas, and indicate what I liked and disliked about the various plots, characters, etc. presented to us, the reader.

-Luke and Ben visiting with the Aing-Tii. This could be said about pretty much the entire book, but it was like we got a rough draft version of the Aing-Tii quest, but not the fully detailed one. What was presented, I enjoyed. But there were just too many things that weren't fully explained, and as others have already commented on, there was too much "tell-not-show". I was hoping to actually read descriptions of both Luke and Ben learning these new techniques, rather than just being told at the end of their stay that both had learned them. I also was hoping that the rift, which caused that unknown assailant to attack Luke in his sleep, would be expanded on. Everything just seemed to occur "off screen", and then we're told the outcome after the fact. In a way, I think this visiting the Aing-Tii was enough material to have filled out an entire book, rather than just as one-third of this novel. So in conclusion, I liked the premise for this, but not necessarily the execution.

-The Tribe of the Sith/Vestara Khai. I actually really enjoyed most of these sections, at least the early parts. I thought the character of Vestara was interesting and had potential, and what we saw was a girl/woman who wasn't your typical "I will kill everyone in my path, muahahaha!" Sith. Much like the rest of the novel, however, I was hoping for more actual descriptions of her training, her growth as a person, and perhaps the change in her from her almost naive first appearance at the beginning of the book, to one who'd learned a lot about the Sith ways and who was now murdering dozens of individuals during Sith raids. She just seemed to go from a relatively driven by not homicidal girl, to a cold-blooded killer. And it was done "off screen". Perhaps if the page length weren't so short, this could have been expanded on, and the transition not so sudden.

-Animal Exhibit. I'm not sure where I stand with this. It was one of the parts of the book that I found rather "meh", mainly because I'm just not a fan of Allana, and because reading about the Solos spending the day at a zoo isn't my idea of fun reading. And what's with Han and Leia sort of getting the "leftover" plots? In Outcast, they had that tediously boring Kessel thing, and now they spend their time at a zoo in order to appease their granddaughter and try and find a pet for her? What happens in Abyss? Do Han and Leia get attacked at the grocery store, after we're forced to read two chapters of them bickering over whether to buy vegetables first?

-Jedi Insanity. This kind of goes with the above, since Natua Wan's bout of insanity occurs at said zoo. But I'm enjoying this plot line as a whole, but not enjoying how not much time is being spent on a resolution to it. It was interesting at the beginning, but now the scenes are becoming repetitive. Jedi starts off normal, Jedi blinks, Jedi sees a bunch of imposters, Jedi runs amok. Now that they've already turned a few Jedi insane, I hope they concentrate more book time on what the sane Jedi are doing to fix things. I guess I'm just hoping for more balance between seeing the Jedi turn insane, and seeing the efforts being taken to cure them. Right now, we see page after page of the Jedi becoming insane, but no real follow up (other than Cilghal apparently being the only one working on a cure) to it.

-Darkmeld. Most boring part of the book, since all it was was Jaina and Jag trying to slip the press to have a quiet date. As others have said, it would have been interesting to read about what the members of Darkmeld are doing to counter Daala's actions. And yippee! Jag asked Jaina to marry him. Boring.

Overall, despite some

 

I liked the interactions but the entire plot with Luke and Ben should have been explored more. Luke never really gets any confrontation anywhere he goes and I mean philosophical. He's reduced to one liners. He says this and that is wrong but does he expand on it? No. Do we see the things he goes through in the codex? No. Does Ben really explore flow walking? No. He's in pain from things and cuts himself short and for Luke it would be a great tool to learn more about the Jedi Order's past, but NO NO NO, he doesn't care. Then why are they there? Luke is almost a ghost in this book and that bothers me, why is so dominated by Ben's lead all the time? Is it because he is used to it, it's comforting for someone else to take the lead? Red hair?? Because he's not Mara and it's not his job to be Luke's motivator. He's Luke's child, not equal.

Han and Leia: Either stay home or leave Allana with someone else. She's boring and now so are you two.

Jag and Jaina: Boring. Pompous. Conceited. Deserve each other.

The Jedi: Why do they keep making the same mistakes? The OJO and they beating they get ever six years for the last 40 isn't enough? Why don't they get over Coruscant and break out on their own?

I wanted to love this book, but After getting a chapter as an e book, it' seemed thin. Not worth a hard cover price, and even a PB would have been more substantial. Sometimes Jude Watson had more depth than this in much thinner smaller books.

6.5 out 10. This has nothing to do with Golden's style, and she's new, so I blame Lucas Books. They have the editing pen.

 

I posted this on my blog at yetistomper.blogspot.com but I'll repost it here.

20 words or less: Mediocre Star Wars novel that takes no chances while slowly progressing the overall plot of Fate of the Jedi.

My Rating: 5/10

Pros: Avoided mistakes of Legacy of the Force, no glaring continuity errors

Cons: Mostly a set-up novel, overly cutesy at times, poor execution of Luke/Ben subplot, weak page count.

The Review: If I were judging Omen by itself, I would give it a 3 or a 4. But Fate of the Jedi appears to be trying a more serialized structure than Del Rey?s two previous SW series so it's hard to distinguish one book separately from the series. Fate of the Jedi is really putting the ?opera? back in ?space opera.? Rather, I?m going to focus on its role within the series. There are the overarching threads that began in Outcast and continue here but aside from a very poor sub-plot featuring Luke and his son Ben there are no internal plotlines that get resolved by the end of the book. Young Jedi continue to go crazy with the mysterious Force sickness, Jaina and Jag continue to investigate what could be causing it in the face of government pressure, Luke and Ben continue to retrace Jacen?s five year sojourn, and Leia and Han continue to do nothing of importance. The book felt like a continuation of the series but it didn?t do anything that necessitated it as separate release from that of Outcast, especially given the fact that fans of the series waited 3 months to get a meager 236 pages.

The only new information or plot development that we really gott was the introduction of a Sith remnant that had been marooned on the planet of Kesh for the last 5,000 years. Recent developments in the SW universe had set in motion a series of events that ended up with an ancient and sentient Sith ship locating the planet and allowing the Sith castaways to escape the planet. This was one of the more interesting plots of the book but it felt strange that it was introduced in this book rather than the previous one. It?s almost as if the series planners decided there wasn?t enough plot to carry a 9 book series without filler so they decided to introduce another plotline to boost the still low page count.

Other the insane Jedi plotline, which is interesting but extremely slow paced, the other characters have very little to do. Han and Leia took their granddaughter to buy a pet. Seriously? This very predictably started out as a mash-up of all of the creatures ever witnessed in a Star Wars film (rancors,rontos,banthas,etc.) and even more predictably turned into a fairly boring action sequence when the creatures get loose. The probability that Han Solo dies from being attacked by that large cat species from Attack of the Clones is so small that C-3PO couldn?t quote me the odds. Han and Leia are stuck in a character limbo where they can?t be killed off but they also can?t be fade into retirement; either of which would apparently upset the fanbase more than just making up ridiculous, implausible ways to give them something to do. But I can?t blame Christie Golden for making nothing out of nothing. She?s writing in a set series and she has to work within what she has assigned.

What I do blame Golden for is the lack of delivery in Luke and Ben plotline. She was giving the Aing Tii monks to develop, a mysterious Force sect that can use the Force to teleport, time travel, and who knows what else. There was so much potential and all of it ended up wasted, with the Aing Tii being extremely boring and developed as well as Michael Bay plot. There was a brief thread about a mysterious prophet that was interesting at first but that thread ends up being very poorly resolved with a conclusion straight out of an after school special. This wasn?t too different that the Baran Do (another Force sect) plotline in Outcast which didn?t do much other than give something for Luke and Ben to discuss and resolve until they figured out the next stepping stone in Jacen?s journey. They could give these

 

Average score: 176.75/25 = 7.07

 

6.4/10 I liked it.. but I mean it was a VERY short read.. 4 hours and I was finished. Would anyone else want a couple 700+ page epics in this series?

 

Well, I don't know what to say that others haven't already said. I'm grateful and slightly impressed by the excellent continuity and characterizations, both from Outcast and the EU in general. I liked most of the subplots and the general direction this story is moving in. It would have been very near perfect if it had been a part of a longer book, but the low page-count does make you feel that the story became rushed. And for this reason I will only give it 7/10.

 

My only problems with Omen was the length (WAY too short, especially for a hardcover) and the grammatical errors, which were enough to jolt me out of the flow of the book. Though these apply to most of the books since the first NJO. You'd think by now this wouldn't be an issue, but it is, which does irritate me.

I really do wish there'd been more to Luke & Ben's visit to the Aing Tii.

Overall, solid plot & characterizations, but lacked something (can't figure out what) to make it "WOW!"

8/10

 

Average score: 206.15/29 = 7.11