Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: HEIR TO THE JEDI (spoilers)

5.5/10

The whole "written from Luke's POV" writes like an afterthought and doesn't help the story at all. It's certainly readable, but pretty boring in some spots. Although I did enjoy Drusil, I think rushing in a love interest with Nakari and killing her off by book's end was pointless. As everyone else as stated, inconsequential with little or no repercussions. This book had its moments, but you're better off reading Weapon of a Jedi.

 

4/10.

I did not like this book.

I liked Drusil, she was interesting and I found her philosophising about the Force well done (though I have a slight sense that it stepped on Yoda's toes little). I thought the writing was decent and evocative. I felt the difference between the settings and the worldbuilding was pretty good. There were a number of little details that stuck with me - things like Nakari's mother being a Tootle Fruit. Silly things that bridged the gap between high space fantasy and realism in a well-balanced way. I liked Nakari herself.

So what was the problem? Well, for all the descriptive success, I still felt like the story was a series of disjointed events, held together by a pretty thin plot and series of unlikely coincidences. Like...a bunch of different standalone comic issues. I felt like the subplots were killing time. Like the beast they had to defeat on Rodia or the horror-monsters that bored through skulls. A neat list of events and complications to fill up the page-count. I don't think it had to feel that way. There's certainly something to be said for trying to write a fast-paced adventure with a bunch of different settings. Like trying to evoke the Han Solo adventures all in one book. But this just...doesn't succeed.

Plus the overly convenient coincidences. Will of the Force only gets you so far, especially when it's not philosophically evoked to explain what's going on. Luke just happens to bump into the niece of a Jedi who knew his father? The ship Luke saves at the beginning just happens to have been carrying the son of a contact later in the novel?

And then, of course, the ending. I wouldn't be so harsh if not for that. It would have annoyed me because it was one of the first New EU novels to be released and it was basically everything I feared it would be (lightweight, throwaway OT-era adventures designed not to take any bold steps for fear of contradicting things), but the goal of an adventure serial, the success of the prose and the fact I'd not be opposed to seeing the characters again would have left me thinking it was mediocre, not bad.

The end, though, is stupid. It's a cheap cliche that's course and rough and irritating and gets EVERYWHERE. Seriously, we can be better than killing chicks because it's an easy way to create a sense of drama in a story that hasn't earned it.

As a discourse on Luke's understanding of the dark side, I honestly think the Weapon of a Jedi young readers book did a better job. And to be honest, the idea that this is the first time he's really able to let his emotions free about his aunt and uncle, and about Ben... I completely understand that sometimes human emotion works that way - one thing (maybe a safer thing) opens the floodgates. But by tying it to Nakari...? I feel like it just compounds the crummy iconography of the "beautiful dead girl", her importance as a symbol, not a human, and even manages to stray slightly into Poochie territory - elevating her importance to Luke not by building that importance throughout the franchise and across multiple stories, but by shortcutting our emotions with ~tragic death~, putting her up there with Ben and Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. An interloper.

I was hoping the New EU would be a chance to do better. But apparently we're still following tradition. Sure, not every one was as blatant a use of the "women in refrigerators" trope and in isolation I'm not against some of their deaths, but...has Luke ever had a love interest that didn't die of something other than old age? Mara, Callista, Gaeriel, Shira Brie, Jem Ysanna, Akanah, am I missing anyone?

Oh - wait, Alex Winger, I guess she made it out alive. RUN. RUN ALEX, RUN FAR AWAY.

Okay I'm done.

 

Leia?

 

Shira Brie wasn't exactly a love interest, any more than Tanith Shire was.

 

That's a dubious assessment. They certainly were setting her up to look like one.

Though I guess that yes, Tanith Shire never died.

...One out of seven ain't bad, right?

 

I was gonna say two out of eight, but then I remembered that Mary chick sooooo two outta nine? ?

(But seriously - yeah, I get that Shire Brie isn't a love interest in the traditional sense, but we still count the Bond Girls that are on the bad guys' side, right? Her storyline was propped up with romantic tension. Whenever you point out any broad pattern you can always focus down on each individual example and explain why each one has mitigating circumstances and doesn't quite fit. That's what I was trying to get at when I said I didn't think they were all equal examples or equally awful. But that doesn't negate the broader pattern. Anyway, I'll leave it there, cus I don't wanna derail the review thread further!)

 

I have writen my review on the other thread and I won't grace this book with a repetition...

2/10, it would have been 3, but the "Vader's prosthetics" was the final throw that made it the worse EU/NEU book so far...

 

The first person POV was pretty jarring for awhile, i don't recall reading a Star Wars book like that before (maybe 'I, Jedi' ? Been to long). Given the time setting, not sure how "consequential" the story could have been. I enjoyed seeing a young Luke's thought process as he tries to figure out the force. It was a decent read.

It was very interesting to see Luke fail at performing a mind tick and struggle to move a limp noodle in comparison to another young force user in TFA...

6/10

 

This story takes place between ANH and ESB. It's in first person and captures really well Luke's loneliness while Leia and Han are on their own missions. It reads like the mindset of a young 19/20 year old who's trying to find his place and purpose in the galaxy. I don't usually hear Luke though, but that could be because I have difficulty with imagining/visualizing things that I read. Still, I don't think it always sounds like Luke.

One part though says Ackbar has a "moist charisma" (p. 5, PB). What the kriff?!

The chapter headings made me geek out. They're math and physics related, and pertain to a mission Luke has regarding a Givin cryptologist.

His first mission has him going to Rodia. There, he learns of some of what Anakin and Obi-Wan did in the TCW era (I'm assuming, since I deny anything related to that subseries). Luke even learns Jedi weren't supposed to form attachments, and I chuckled when he essentially shrugged it off. There are times Luke uses the Force a bit too easily for it being after ANH, but there is definitely a learning curve, especially in times of calm. It's a bit akin to what I remember from Splinter of the Mind's Eye, albeit with more background information (as well as that regarding the future). And it's more realistic here, I think.

Until he chats with Drusil. The conversation is fascinating and talks about Luke having an impact on the Force, that size doesn't matter, and that Physics prevents things from being moved with one's mind (so he accesses the Force to move the molecules, etc.). I loved it!
But it didn't make sense with what Luke talks about with Yoda, about the X-Wing being too large for him to move.

Fexian skullborers are horrifying. They're a great semi-sentient species to include since the planets hold some weird crap, but I was so glad when Luke (and his copilot/mission partner Nakari) got away from them.

All of the math makes me giddy (algebra! eigenvectors! differential equations! addition and subtraction!), although some terms and phrases, like the "quadratic formula" and "calculus", are a bit too earthy for me (the former moreso than the latter, since the former could be eliminated, and I think calc's been used in other novels before).
Also: "foiled your plan" made me groan. I cannot believe such a thing is in a Star Wars novel.
Additional words that are strange for me are "salt and pepper" (instead of a general term like 'spices', "cream and sugar" (instead of just sugar), and "firewall" (it was just odd to see this in a SW book). It would be less strange if this was a book written in the '70s or '80s, when the 'verse was smaller. But now there are 6 movies and a few TV shows instead of just ANH, and so they're out of place, out of 'verse for me.
These things alone made me drop my rating by two stars.

Also some things were too repetitious. In one paragraph, the word 'bank' was used thrice.

What Hearne DOES write well though are the flying and 'combat' scenes, since they realistically show Force use, injuries, and the problems that can ensue when a person doesn't fully know the situation they've found themselves in.

If this was a sci-fi novel in Earth-verse, this would be close to a 9/10.
For a Star Wars novel though, written in 2015:
5.5/10

 

"Fexian skullborers" I do not know how I managed to forget them... Really, that was the part when I was totally convinced that the author decided to write a SW novel just to write about these monsters... I almost can hear it: "Gosh, I have a terrific idea about SKULLBORERS!! They are TERRIBLE! Oh, how I'd like to write about them!! But no one will read it! The critics will say that it is not original enough!! What shall I do? Oh, yes, let's try a big fandom, and sell it as a side story! What a wonderful idea!"

The problem is that this side story is almost totally not connected with the main storyline, the Luke Skywalker from those scenes could be anyone else, really, especially the author's avatar, and if the SW fans have problems with the rathars in TFA, what can be said about these skullborers?!

 

Finished this an hour ago and that was really, really good. I looked over this thread and I'm surprised - I thought it would get a much higher consensus rating than it did.

Simple, concisely written prose with long, reflective chapters that allows you to soak in all that is happening. While easy to read, it's nuanced and allows the reader to think about the sub-text behind everything. I also appreciate how it didn't play with the jeopardy of the characters like Aftermath did all too often. The threat was there, but it didn't play with the reader and pretend as if Luke is going to be killed, because we know he wouldn't be. Instead, it plays with the prospect of him being captured and the people around him being killed.

The insight into Luke strengthens his character so much, seeing him experiencing the call to the Dark Side for the first time, and how he fights against it naturally despite the heartbreak of

Spoiler

losing Nakari

was really interesting, as was Drusil's explanation of the Force from a mathematical/ physics standpoint.

The Fexian skullborers are also really scary - I'm not sure if they appeared in Star Wars before this or not in any media but I'd love to see them used in the future somehow, maybe as a torture method by a crime lord or something.

I've got a proper review that I'm in the middle of writing that I'll post at some point, but for now I'll just say it's one of my favourite Star Wars books I've read, maybe even the favourite.