Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: REVELATION (Spoilers)

Starts low, builds up, actually gets vaguely enjoyable here and then, ends on a nosedive. That about sumts up my reaction to Revelation...

First, writing style. Revelation reminded me of the moment I first read SbS; the writing just didn't feel right. SbS followed on from EoV, and imo it clashed; to the extent that I struggled to suspend my disbelief. In Revelation, Traviss' writing begins by absolutely grating on me. I can't say what it was, but there was something too... heavy, too dark, too introspective. It just didn't feel fluid enough to be Star Wars, more lumbering and colossal. In the first part of the book, I just started to get fed up. I found myself seriously struggling to read on, for the first time in an SW book.

But reading on was worth it. Oh, sure, there are massive gaffes. The 'Sith' element is mishandled so badly, and inexcusably when there's the Holocron (never mind just using Wookipedia). Frankly, Traviss didn't show much understanding of SW at all there, although (as I'll show) she finally showed a hint of a grasp of the difference between the OT and the PT. Some moments jarred me so much that I fell completely out of the universe; Han Solo making headless 'Jango Fett' jokes? Why would Han know? Why would Han even care? Strangely, it was that moment that shunted me right out of the book. Jaina felt as though she was oscillating somewhere between 'well-characterised' and 'totally misunderstood'. Some of her scenes made me flinch as well.

That being said, as I got used to the style, and gradually phased out some of the blunders, I found myself actually wanting to read ahead. The Mando bits I struggled not to skip over (in fact, I do think I skipped a few scenes pre-Jaina's arrival). Pellaeon as a ladies' man made me wince, and Daala as competent, feared by the Moffs because she's a woman?!? Again, believability took a major hit. But one scene made me cheer; Luke still wants to redeem Jacen. Oh, yes. Finally, an element of true SW - redemption - has arrived in this series, even if it wasn't developed at all... As for Tahiri's 'plot', meh. The scene were Jacen stands dithering over the 'I coulds' made me wince. Hated it.

I think Revelation is a book that could be over-analysed, and isn't meant to be. It's too sloppily-written to be over-analysable. It wasn't as bad as it could've been. 3/10.

 

I'd say a 7/10. I would have gone a little lower, but some parts were really good (Battle over Fondor).

Anyways, I was a little disappointed that the Revelation I guessed was the actual Revelation in the book, but that was to be expected I guess. Book took a while to take off and after the major space battle, dropped off. I do have to say, it will be interesting to see how they resolve the Jacen issue becuase with him on Coruscant and Naithal (sp?) on Fondor, there is potential for a never-ending stand off.

I do have high hopes for Invincible...I believe Niathal (sp?) and the Separatists will join up and it will be Jacen verses basicly everyone. This leads me to believe that the Galaxy will find peace by teaming up and killing Jacen and his army....United against a common enemy and all that jazz. I would hope that, looking back, the Revelation in this book was not that Jacen killed Mara, but that Jacen is the ultimate evil and everyone in the galaxy will have to put differences aside and (hopefully) kill Jacen but I don't know if the authors will go that deep.

This probably needs to be in another thread but...IF JACEN DOESN'T DIE IN INVINCIBLE I WILL BE VERY PISSED!!

 

4/10

I may comment more later, but there were to many issues in this book. A lot of things made no sense, there were a lot of inconsistencies in regard to LotF, NJO, and just basic Star Wars stuff in general.

Not only that, but after reading this book you'd think that there wouldn't even be a possibility of future conflict in the Star Wars universe. Jacen is the reason for all evil in the past and present, and in the future there will be a world where all the enemies of the galaxy will join forces. Daala's Empire, Fetts' Mandalorians, Lukes' Jedi, and Tsavong Lahs Vong...

Oh wait.
Horrible book.

 

It took me forever to finish this book. Star Wars should NEVER extend a stroyline this long ever again...ugh. The only thing I liked in this book was the developement of many Mando characters, Jaina finally getting interesting, and of course, the return of Daala.

2/10

 

As I've stated in previous reviews, Karen Traviss's prose improved by leaps and bounds in "Sacrifice". I was happy to see that continue in "Revelation" because at least it brings out her strengths as a writer, namely her knack for making extreme violence resonate.

Gone are those sentence fragments, and syntax problems that only serve to confuse and eliminate any rhythm.

I am sad to say, however, that Traviss has used her newfound polish to implement elements of the classic unreliable narrator ... which would be fine in a better writer's hands, but I don't believe this was a calculated choice. This development was evident to me in both the story (where she's shown srong tendencies toward this in the past) and in her narrative approach.

The aspect apparent in the story itself has been discussed in great lengths here, so I won't get into that except to say that I really hate this Jaina/Mandalorian thing. I see it as a giant plot device (I can't see where it's going to go) which just doesn't sit well in my stomach. What's worse is that Traviss seems to have hijacked the Mandalorians to use as a sounding board for her dislike of the Jedi. I can't help but see this this way, and I really think it's distasteful.

This makes Traviss herself the worst kind of unreliable narrator: the one with strong biases that eventually get in the way of the story.

The second example of an unreliable narrator is evident in her use of point-of-view. There are times when Traviss's narrator began arguing with itself -- I've seen this used in the past, but one has to be careful, or else it will end up sounding like it did on page 255 of "Revelation": "Tahiri would be his fixer, messenger, and possibly even spy. Possibly? Definitely."

To top it off, there was an amazing amount of typos, and the overall sloppyness led me to believe that, aside from Traviss's shortcomings and biases, there may have been some sort of deadline issue.

I do, however, like Pallaeon, and enjoyed Daala and the Imperials.


2.75

 

No Havoc to be seen so I guess I?ll have to be the trouble causer here.

566.72/98=5.78 average score.

 

I don't think it was as bad as a 5.78. I've posted a review here, and considering its length I'll leave it as a link and not copy and paste it. But as for a score out of ten, I'll have to give it...

A solid seven.

There were a lot of "mehhhh..." moments, but there were also a lot of good ones, and the ones that were good were generally very good. Traviss has improved on some things from her last two LOTF installments (the book had a climax and it was an exciting space battle, the Mando plot was actually relevant), but has digressed in others (where is the overarching storyline? Why were the first 200 pages so tedious?).

I still greatly prefer Allston and Denning's LOTF books --- I gave both Inferno and Fury scores over nine.

 

Then they'll team up with HK-47's droid army and Darth Krayt's Sith order, and at last the galaxy will be ready to face the incomparable might of the True Sith!

Yes, it took them a very long time to get here.

 

I love Karen Traviss as a writer. She can right brilliantly. Her content, however, is abysmal.

I liked Fett's story in Bloodlines. I enjoyed Mando scenes in Sacrifice despite it having nothing to do with the rest of the story. But Revelation is by far the worst LOTF book.

Good:
Daala returns-I quite liked seeing her again and didn't mind that she was competent. I just saw it as Jacen is so incompetent he makes Daala look like Ackbar.
Jaina getting a more prominent role-i've waited ages for this.
Ben-Traviss writes him so well and I enjoyed his scenes with Shevu and Luke.
Caedus-Traviss appears to be the only author who doesn't turn him completely insane (she does a bit, but then he actually is)

Bad:
Mandos-they are so horribly depressing I don't know where to start. the Jedi bashing in this book was a disgrace. How can these trained killers complain about Jedi starting wars and not caring for others when they only care about themselves. They may have gay relationships but they are prejudiced people. So what if GOtab and Venku are Force-sensitive? its not against the law! and Jaina should have kicked their ass anytime. there is no way i feel she needed to learn anything from them-the main thing she learnt Jag told her in Fury. Mirta's reaction time beating a Jedi's. don't make me laugh. Carid wasn't fooled by Caedus's illusion-well he damn well should have been. I hate that a great Jedi Master like Mara can get killed because of it but super Mandos can't. I know Caris is unlikely to know Ailyn Vel but he should at least have been startled by it. I would have been. GOtab is a miserable jerk. the Jedi did not use the clones the REPUBLIC did. Jedi do not run governments, politicians do. I refuse to believe that Jedi are always the cause of wars. Oh and Beviin's line 'You could have been Mando' to Jaina because of Leia and Fenn Shysa sounds like she missed a great career opportunity. She didn't, believe me. She could be miserable forever and DR will make it that way without her having to be a self-pitying mando. and what about Fenn Shysa. I know almost nothing about him and frankly I do not care. For a population of 3 million Mandos have has way too much LOTF time. they're hardly significant at all in the galaxy and they're no better than any other culture. and all this bull about YV war. they were only mentioned in 1 novel the very last in fact. I really think the Jedi did a bit more. And Fett-which Jedi has he EVER killed.? Grievous, Ventress, Aurra Sing and countless Vong (even Jacen really) have killed many more. That rant over!
Characterisation-the good ones are posted above but some were so wrong. In Pellaeon and Tahiri's first scene together it was like I was watiching two completely different characters to the ones I knew. I recently reread Remnant for Force Heretic and the characters in Revelation are unrecognisable. Pellaeon was way too bitter, hated Jedi even though he got on really well with them in Remnant. And it sounds like he was such a slut-loads of sons from loads of mothers.
Sith-1) Everyone knows Jacen is a Sith? I mean, yeah, it took them long enough, but how did they find out. I suppose Ben knew and they should have been able to guess but they were acting like they already acting as if they had hard evidence.
2) the galaxy's ignorance. Traviss took the 'ordinary person's' view too far. Of course they should all know about Sith. Niathal didn't know Darth Vader was a Sith? How did she become an Admiral? And Shevu hasn't even heard the term? How did he become a cop? Surely these vocations require schooling.
Naboo-why, for a planet that doesn't appear, isn't mentioned in the current context, does this planet get mentioned in double figures?
Han, Leia, Allana-Why was this not in the book except for one thorwawy line?
Mara was bad-who the hell cares if she was trying to kill Jacen first? You can't arrest her now can you? She was trying to kill Jacen for the same reason everyone is now so why are they all so shocked about it?

I'm sorry, Karen, I love your writing-I may venture into

 

Well, Traviss hates the Solos most of all. She says that the Solo kids should have been taken away from Han and Leia, by child protective services for being such evil horrid abusive parents. Where she gets this bull, I have no idea. Maybe Sue or Shelley, the most remiss editors in the history of publishing, should let her know that Luke basically scared Leia into giving him her kids. He's also the one that let Jedi use the dark side because Vergere suggested it.

 

1/10 for me the whole mando armor being invincible is just stupid without question. I mean if nothing can effect it blasters, lightsabers then how the hell do they mine it, cut it and shape it. And all of the sudden mandos can easily take a jedi get real

 

Quite ridiculous! Yeah, I read that interview where she mentions the 'horrors' the Solo kids experienced when they were young. What were they? as far as I remember only Jacen and Anakin suffered 'horrors' and they were in NJO when they were teenagers-Jacen was tortured and Anakin was killed. And for someone who loves Fett so much she can't really speak about the Solos being bad parents.

 

Finished it today. Quite frankly I'm appalled. Dont know if all this was stated in the thread before but my reasons for the dislike are as follows:

1) The Mando LOVE! OMG! When I put the book down after finsihing it I actually walked around in a sort of haze for a bit. I went to the kitchen and poured myself a drink all the while thinking about how awesome the Mandalorians are. I mean for about 20 minutes she actually had me believing the Mando are the salt of the galaxy or something and I had forgotten that they were involved with the Sith and even started their own wars numerous times ravaging worlds for some weird ideal of glory in the slaughter.

When I awakened from my stupor I put my mind right and became to simply hate every page of the book concerning Mando and Mando culture and their horrendously idiotic, unappealing, dysfunctional language of which I keep getting lessons the whole damn time. ENOUGH WITH THE BA'BUIR already I don't give a ****

2) Mary Sues... OMG does anyone else get the feeling that Karen is desperately trying to paint every remaining prominent female in the galaxy and those unacounted for (Daala) into the glorious goddesses of divine grace and incredibleness? I mean what the hell? Daala the Great??? ... looser maybe! She lost just about every battle I ever recall her participating in? The first female moff, Pallaeon said? Man the old man's getting senile, he forgot he had one in the Yuuzhan Vong war. THink she was mentioned in the Force Heretic series.

I mean I loved Mara, loved Nomi Sunrider, love Leia... I love a lot of female characters but Karen Traviss badly veiled feminism in her writing is appaling.

3) Caedus shot by that joke of a side character in a knee cap? Boy oh boy has the guy who became one with the force once and learned to force flow fallen far. Or maybe its just because a being of perfection pulled the trigger, a knight in shining armor spawned by a society so pure so glorious, Yoda himself burst into tears because he could not meet the gaze of this devine being.

Over the line.

2/10

 

WOW. Ok so I FINALLY finished the book last night. Oh I got it as soon as it was out, but I got about half way thru and it took me a while to even want to finish it.

I had a feeling how the book would flow and so I did my best to try and be positive about the experience. I went back and read a ton of the very positive views and counter points of Traviss' two previous books before this one came out. However, this book trumps it all. The title of the series simply no longer fits IMHO.

And while I'm giving my humble opinion, I believe that a really good author makes you forget that they wrote the book. You're set off on an adventure within the book. This book felt more like a sales pitch.

The Good:
Thats not to say it was all bad, the space battle was great for the most part! I will also admit that I like the way Traviss can deliver an emotional scene with little dialog.

The Bad:
But that is about where the good stuff ends for me. Sadly my own example of emotional scene delivery was hardly present. I think this thread has already covered anything else I had originally planned to place here.

The worst part for me personally, I use to like Fett. He wasn't my favorite character, but I really liked him. Now I can't stand him. It's simply been too much, and I'm overwhelmed.

If anything good at all can come from this, it's that (and I really hate to admit this) I'm looking forward to reading Traviss' version of Order66. Finally, she can really be let loose and her mando boys and rid the galaxy of alot of those bothersome Jedi. I'd venture to say that her excitement toward being able kill many Jedi with mandos in a book would make even ole' Emperor Palpatine say "whoa there, calm down a bit." It should be an interesting perspective.

I sadly give it a 2/10

I want more EU books, good books! Please, we need them badly.

 

Well, be prepared to be pissed then

The Solos already lost Anakin, I highly doubt Jacen will actually die. He may be redeemed (if Revan can for all of his evil deeds, anyone can) or he will disappear and return again. Remember, Darth Krayt actually mentions him in the Legacy comics...he wouldn't have of done that unless Darth Caedus is around longer than he currently is. If he was to die this quickly, why would Krayt mention him? That wasn't a long enough distraction to keep the NJO away from finding the New Sith Order.....so therefore, the distraction obviously will last longer.

 

As people have pointed out this series is essentially a rehash of the prequels. Since this is most likely the case I think Jacen will win overall but the next series will focus on his redemption much like Anakin's with the original trilogy

 

Yes, and "people" are full of it. A few superficial details and general plot points != rehash.

 

6.3 for me. It wasn't completely appalling. Half the book would have made a decent Republic Commando 5. Jaina's training not quite as bad as expected, but still a little off. Main characters were mostly handled questionably. Some amusing moments, and a couple of delightful continuity tidbits pull it up. Jacen's little wound (can you see something like that happening to Vader on Hoth?) pulls it down. Niathal was boring. General lack of hope in the Jedi and the Republic, compared to utopianized Mando lifestyle.

 

The series does seem to have the flavor of rehash to it. This kind of backs up that rumor that Jacen and Anakin's roles in the NJO were switched because GL felt that Anakin Solo was following Anakin Skywalker's story line too closely. I never did really believe that, but it looks as if that might be true after all.

Who knows though, maybe they will come up with a cool twist in the end. As far as Revelation goes though, it would lead you to believe that it was overall leading up to a PT ending for Invincible.

 

I didn't mean rehash in a negative sense. I meant that there are several similarities between the 2 is all. I for one don't subscribe to what most people think. I'm just making an observation based upon what people have stated on the boards. Personally I think this is a great series and as the man said "the circle is now complete"

 

1/10

YodaKenobi and DS_Emp_Viper among others have already sumarised my own feelings towards this book pretty much perfectly, so I'll try not to repeat their points. The 1 point was for at least bringing the Empire back into play.

Daarla - of all the surviving Imperials to bring back, Travis chose Daarla? The same Daarla who incompetently squandered the last of the Empires major resources against a target of no strategic importance what so ever, before dumping the remaining mess in Pelly's lap? Pelleon sounds in awe of her throughout, why? It was nice to see the Chimaera again though.

We get a new ship! Oh its just a bite-sized Star Destroyer? Great.

Characters acting inconsistently has been par for the course in this series, I've come to expect this from Jacen, but Jaina's sudden change has come out of nowhere. I've never particularly liked her character especially since she became a bug, but she has always been depicted as one of the toughest, most militant Jedi. Here she's letting Mando's boss her around and tell her she has no value as a pilot - she was in ROGUE SQUADRON.

Niathal has made a one-eighty which I don't feel was justified but it didn't bother me that much.

Jacen, at the outset of this series I really liked the way Jacen was depicted, a Force user who would do anything for the greater good. Others called him mad from the start but I had faith that the authors would stand by that characterisation (though I fully expected it would ultimately be proven wrong in context of the universe). I was naive, Jacen is totally inconsistent: suddenly dismissing his feelings for Allana, and suddenly becoming upset that not everyone loves him - he accepted that as a sacrifice that a Sith bringing order would have to accept since the beginning (he had pretty much accepted being unpopular in Dark Nest). The "confession" actually made me laugh out loud, particularly when he said how he should be referred to as Lord, but maybe that was a diliberate moment of humour on Travis part. He just comes across as crazy and out of his league. Not that him being a Sith seemed to come as a surprise or alarm anyone that much.

Jacen should have had a major victory somewhere in the series, instead he's arguablly more incompetent than Daarla ever was, consistently being made a fool of and losing every engagment he is involved in (aside from killing Mara and razing Kashyyyk both of which were pretty stupid moves anyway, though the pale in comparison to the tragic death of Tebut!). He is not a credible threat. The war itself has remained very ill defined, often being referred to a Coruscant vs. all. One of the things that really help the NJO was the maps at the start of each book with the Vong invasion corridor, here we get virtually no written description as to who is fighting who anymore.

I can accept authors having subplots with their favorite characters, even making them seem a little better than they probably should be (I was always fond of Corran Horn), but Travis took things way too far here. The Mando's aren't a subplot here, they've hijacked the entire book. We barely see Luke, Han and Leia let alone guys like Wedge, Allana or the rest of the Jedi order. In itself this would have been bad, but it has NOTHING to do with overall plot and themes of the series. Worse still it's not a good storyline anyway, Boba Fett is a pathetic character, a seventy year old man who hasn't got over his daddy issues. Do we really need to read about his endless wealth and inability to deal with his feelings? Over and over again. I used to like Fett and the Mandalorians, now I would hate them but I can't even reconcile the two versions.

I gave the Jaina training the benefit of doubt, I figured we would get to see her learn to fight dirty, use traps and guile to take down Jacen. Instead she learns a bit of the lingo (useless), how to fight with a metal saber (also useless) and to go into a berserker fury (Darkside). If she does use this to fight Jacen in the final book she is no better than he is.

Caf. Naboo. Oya. Caf. Mando'a.

 

Wow. I'd hate to see the average rating at this point. I think it's a good thing Havoc stopped.

Edit:

Whoops. I see someone is still tallying.

 

589.02/105=5.61, now.