The Official The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance discussion thread (spoilers allowed)

<center>Star Wars
The Old Republic
Fatal Alliance
Sean Williams
Hardcover, 272 pages
July 20, 2010

<img src="http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100522044410/starwars/images/thumb/b/bc/TORFACover.jpg/394px-TORFACover.jpg"></center>

Tassaa Bareesh, a matriarch in the Hutt crime cartel, is holding an auction that?s drawing attention from across the galaxy. Representatives of both the Republic and the Sith Empire are present, along with a Jedi Padawan sent to investigate, a disenfranchised trooper drummed out of the Republic?s elite Blackstar Squad, and a mysterious Mandalorian with a private agenda. But the Republic?s envoy is not what he seems, the Empire?s delegate is a ruthless Sith apprentice, the Jedi Padawan is determined to do the right thing and terrified that he can?t, the trooper hopes to redeem her reputation, and the Mandalorian is somehow managing to keep one step ahead of everyone.

None of these guests?invited or uninvited?have any intention of participating in the auction. Instead they plan to steal the prize, which is locked inside an impregnable vault: two burned chunks of an exploded star cruiser, one of which may hold the key to the wealth of an entire world.

But the truth about the treasure is dangerous and deadly. And in the end, Sith and Jedi, Republic and Empire, must do something they?ve never done before, something that all the agents of good and evil could never make them do: join together to stop a powerful threat that could destroy the galaxy?

 

Even though that cover is really close to Darth Bane Rule of Two it still looks pretty awesome.

Wish this book was a paperback, though I'll probably check it out. And I'm in the minority, it seems, who didn't think TFU was that bad. It was better than I expected, not great, but sort of enjoyable. Then again, I read it BEFORE I played the game.

 

can't wait

 

I also read TFU before playing the game, and loved it.

 

You know, on some of these lesser titles I really think LFL is setting themselves up for disappointment by putting them out in hardcover. I tend to be way more unforgiving and critical of hardcovers than I do paperbacks, especially since hardcovers have typically been reserved for the main film characters and their continuing stories.

Just imagine if the X wing novels or the Tales from the Cantina anothologies were in hardcover - as they probably would be today. I really don't think I would have enjoyed them as much.

It's kind of like the different between a really great B movie and a big studio release. If I catch the B movie on video I might enjoy it and consider it a hidden gem. You drag me to the theater to see it, force me to drop my 12 bucks, I'll probably not like it as much.

 

I have zero interest to buy or read this.

TOR, TFU II, are not exciting me at all.

And this is hardcover? Such a bad business decision.

 

Watch it hit #1, Ghost. TOR confuses me. I picked this up after work as I really need a treat of some kind (really rough week) and it's over 400 pages. Lame reasons I know.

As far as TFU II goes, it was hard enough swallowing TFU and I just hate stories with the clones of dead characters. Something a couple of you can attest to. It also wasn't really a novel by my own definition of the word. All that relentless game play. It was death so I'll save on that and Red Harvest.

Please let me get some pleasure out of this book. My hopes aren't high and I didn't want to pay for a hardcover at freakin' all. Remember the days when you'd find and just pick up a paperback? No big risk? No big deal? I remember when at least 4 MMPBs a year were coming out. (sigh)

ETA: Ironic thing is that right after I picked up the TOR book I stopped into my LCS and had the TOR comic taken off my pull-box list. At least that felt good.

 

Got it in the mail earlier this week, but still have just under 200 pages in Stephen King's Under the Dome to finish first. Should be able to get through that this weekend, then I can tear into this. Looking forward to it, and especially looking forward to playing TOR. Anything Bioware related is a win for me. I'm also thinking of starting a series of reviews, starting with this one. We shall see ...

 

Well, I'm two hundred pages in and so far it's...ok...sort of uniteresting characters besides Satele Shan, but we haven't seen her alot yet....I hope something interesting happens soon...even the battle scenes aren't that interesting and you just want them to end.

 

The obvious question: How does it rate compared to Ruins of Dantooine?

 

Great. I'm feeling good about my impulsive buy already.

 

what stores has the book on the shelf, I ordered from booksamillion and they will not ship till the 20th. is there a quicker place on the internet to purchase?

 

Nah, I couldn't do it. I took it back. Haven't even cracked it but something just told me that this one isn't worth $30. That and I just don't trust Sean Williams. It just felt like Death Star all over again. Thick book. Lots of characters. No point.

 

(I posted this in the pre-release thread just before it was closed, but it probably fits better here).

I quite enjoyed this one, although from the plot summary on the jacket I was expecting more of a Star Wars version of the Maltese Falcon rather than how the plot actually developed.

The characters were interesting, some with several motivations, although some of them mirrored Star Wars archetypes from other eras. For example, the lead characters include a female Sith apprentice and a Mandalorian. I was hoping more would be made of the Mandalorian's role, but this wasn't really developed in the second part of the book, although this is justified by Williams as part of the story. I would have liked to have seen a bit more description of characters' appearance, as Williams only really gives hints at what they look like.

The hexes reminded me of mechanical insectoid creatures from other sci-fi franchises, for example Replicators from Stargate, the Sentinels from the Matrix and to some extent the Buzz Droids from ROTS. Their creation, by a miniature droid factory which weaves them from metallic threads, was cool though.

 

Just wanted to add that I think there's a bad mistake in the last chapter - it's set on Tatooine, but the last page refers to a single sun in the sky!

 

It was obviously a stellar eclipse day, with the binary in perfect alignment such that the two stars lined up.

 

Noooooooo! No humorous explanations! We need to be indignant about this! Rant about how an iconic imagery is being ignored! To discuss how this shows that the publishers have absolutely no respect for us! To make good use of the emoticon! Not just make brief fun of it and move on, we need to drag this through the mud and be sure to let them know that we will not tolerate this any longer!

That aside, pity that it's a hardcover. I had hoped to pick it up, but I suppose I'll have to wait for the paperback.

 

No, no -- you must employ both the and the all-powerful to show true frustration these days.

I mean, honestly.




So is this novel a mystery? I'm a fan of that, if that's the case.

Wait... Ruins of Dantooine was a mystery novel too...

 

You know, I'm going to wait to tomorrow to buy and read the book. Cause some of you guys really bring a book down without actually having it. Or like that other guy, I got it, but I got to read this other book. Dude, you didn't get the book and their is nothing that your adding to the conversation. I'll give an opinion after reading the book. I remeber when most of you said that TFU sucked and t turned out to be way better than most other books to include the comics

 

^ I read the Force Unleashed novel and comic and played the game. It is horrible.

 

The TFU novel was the outline of the game script. The game itself had more story then the novel! It was one of the few times I was actually angry after reading a book.



I plan on getting Fatal Alliance sometime shortly. The novels look more appealing then the comic series for me.

 

50 pages in. Not much happening yet, but the characters are starting to come together. Trying to figure when it takes place in relation to Threat of Peace and the Treaty of Coruscant. Based on Shan's age, I'd say it pretty much takes place around the same time as the game. Maybe around 3628 BBY (25 years after ToP).

 

I hate how they use the term "Old Republic" on the cover. At the time in-universe; it would just be "Republic" so either call it that from out-of-universe, or write it as a history and everyone reliving this as a legend or something.

 

Okay, so does this feel like a SW book? Does it work as a SW book divorcing the fact that it's a game tie-in? Bottom line. Is it a good story? How's the pacing?

Keep the feedback coming in.