Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: TRAITOR (Spoilers)

are we allowed to rate a book 12/10?
*looks at Caine*

 

"Rise my friend." aka *bump*

Anyway, Traitor is no. 19 on the Amazon.com Top Seller list right now. How high do NJO paperbacks usually get on this list?

 

If we are I'm chaning my vote

 

No no, anything > 10 = 10 for the purposes of this thread

 

Counting 71 reviews.

JC Lit Average Rating of Traitor = 645.79/71 ~ 9.10/10

 

Fairly high ratings for Traitor, as I feel it deserves.

Tan'elKoth

 

I give it a 10/10, damn it was a good book!

 

10

 

Forget what happens to Jacen in this book. You haven't known true pain until you've just finished one of the most incredible reading experiences you've ever had, only to attempt to log on to these boards to discuss it, only to find your internet connection has just been royally screwed.

But fortunately, it's finally back now. It's a bit difficult to finally write a review after so long, especially after finally catching up on everyone else's opinions and finding so much has already been said, but I'll give it my best shot.


Well, to sum up my reading experience, I went in with huge expectations, became so absorbed in the book in the first five minutes that I completely forgot about those expectations, and finished up literally not knowing whether Traitor had blown those initial expectations away, or slashed them to ribbons, or something in between, or what. I almost don't know just what to think of the book. One thing is certain: it completely blew me away. What an experience! I'm still having trouble shaking off the adrenaline rush I got from the ending.

As GoldenVeila said, it does lose that escapism feeling that SW has traditionally had, and that's probably my major complaint about the book. I'm not sure how I feel about any of the other SW books now, or even the movies, for that matter. Traitor was very, very different, and it really sheds a new light on things, and made me see a lot from a different perspective. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about that. Suffice to say that because of this, I didn't enjoy the book quite as much as I thought I would. It doesn't mean it was any less good; it just wasn't quite as fun.

That said, though, as dark as it was, as different--and at times, disturbing--as it was, it was still a blast. Stover's characterizations--wow. Jacen went on a real hero's journey in this book, and us readers were privileged enough to accompany him. Just where that journey ended up remains to be seen--as many have said, it's really up to DW to shed more light on this--but it was amazing. I've never read anything this thought-provoking or intense. I think I'll have to check out some of Stover's other work eventually, if only so I can experience that awesome adrenaline rush again.

I really empathized with Jacen throughout this book, and that's saying something, because I'm very attached to the character and he went through things and wound up doing things that I never thought him ever capable of doing. But he's been to the (so-called) dark side and back now, and somehow I like him possibly more than ever. I can only chock that up to Stover's aforementioned gift with characterization. Probably the only one I didn't like was Vergere's. She was undeniably cool, but never once was I able to get even an inkling of what was really going on in that featherbrain of hers. Needless to say, that, along with some of her questionable actions in this book, made her significantly harder to empathize with than Jacen. She was very interesting in Traitor, and I can at least trust her now, I think, but I dislike her as much as I ever did.

Ganner was awesome. There's not really much more to say. I was really sorry to see him go, but wow, what an exit. "None shall pass"... you know, even the names Ganner and Gandalf are similar--if I didn't know any better, I'd wonder if the latter had been reincarnated. Anyway, it was an incredible scene, possibly my favorite in the book. The other potential candidate would have to be Jacen's battle aboard the seedship, destroying the durhyams and facing down dozens of Vong with those amphistaffs. Of the non-action highlights, I enjoyed the scenes in the crater and the conversation with "Anakin" in the remains of the Solo family apartment the most.


It's really hard to rate this, because I'm torn between how much I liked it and how good it actually was. I don't think any other SW book is ever going to come close to topping this one in terms of quality (recently someo

 

10/10

 

It was really quite a fun read for me. I give it a 9/10!

Don't kill me...

 

Counting 76 reviews.

JC Lit Average Rating of Traitor = 694.54/76 ~ 9.14/10

 

Thats beyond insane.

 

That a book ranks over a 9 on these boards?

*shrug* Didn't one of the EL duology rank over 9?

JMA

 

Yeah, Rebel Dream got a 9.18, but so far Traitor has half again as many ratings or so.

 

And there definitely hasn't been any other SW book that has managed to garner perfect 10 ratings from so many people.

"Impressive... most impressive."

 

Wait till Destiny's Way.

I really have my hopes up for that book.

 

I finished Traitior a few days back,but i don't remember if i voted it. 10/10 definitly, if i only had time to read it again. Definitely best NJO thus far.
" and now for something completely different....." Anakin1607, how's your opinion of jacen changed after traitor?

 

You know, I had my hopes up so high for Traitor, that I was actually worried that no book could live up to it. My worry came from the movies (EP1 and Ep2) which have just not lived up to my expectations. They are great movies, and really well done, but I just don't feel like they fit in with the other SW movies. Where is the philosophy, where is the hero's journey, where are the depth and bredth of emotions?

Oh, they're over in Matt Stover's book!

Wow. all I can say is wow! This book blew away all my expectations! I read in some of the other board that Matt Stover had to pursuade DelRey to let him do a book with just Jason's journey. I am so glad they went along with this. Again, I was worried with the lead-up to Traitor: not having heard from Jason in months both in real time and in the GFFA, it gave us all a long time to contemplate what was happening to him. But the book really went far beyond anything I hoped for! Amazing!

One thing I laughed about was that other readers said they couldn't put the book down. I had just the opposite reaction, I kept having to stop, re-read sections, and then just set it down and think about it for a while. It was too instense for me to just sit and read it all at one time.

What an amazing journey for Jason. Traitor took a character that I always liked, but felt kind of sorry for with his daily moral dilemmas, and made him a character that I really love and respect.

Best book in the series. Again I am glad Matt convinced DelRey to let him make a really unique book in the SW canon.

10/10

 

An amazing book. It had the kind of depth to it that I've always craved from a Star Wars book. I give it a 10/10.

 

One of the best iv read ina a long time!! 10/10

 

I give this book a 9/10 . . . mainly because I hate to see Ganner leave the fold. But this was a really excellent novel. I enjoyed it alot.

I'm sure alot of people might complain that this book doesn't "feel" like SW. They might say that it is too dark and is lacking in the humor department. And maybe it is. But this still didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel. IMO, Traitor is like an extended version of the "Luke training on Dagobah" scenes from ESB film. Imagine if Luke's training with Yoda were extended to novel-length. I'm sure it would be alot like Traitor. It would probably be just as dark as Traitor . . . and just as cool.

 

Counting 81 reviews.

JC Lit Average Rating of Traitor = 743.54/81 ~ 9.18/10

 

Caine - I don't suppose for comparison you could say what the other boox scored or drop me a link to those threads? I'd be interested to compare them...

 

that sounds horrible, Balance_Point. luckily, i was too busy to notice i couldn't get on the boards to discuss Traitor.