Category Archives: Star Wars

Conviction: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

  By admin | May 12, 2013 - 9:58 pm | , ,
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Conviction: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

by Aaron Allston

Like the rest of the series so far, there are several storylines running through Conviction. I wish it was written more like New Jedi Order, where the storyline would continue but there was a focus on one or two of the characters in every other book. We’d have Jacen’s story or Anakin’s story or Han’s story. Here, we have everyone’s story.

Tahiri’s trial comes to an end. Han, Leia and Allana go to Klatooine. Allana goes off on her own little adventure when she’s left behind on the Falcon. This kid never minds anyone and always lands herself in huge danger. No one ever gets upset with her for it and her grandparents don’t ever learn. At least they didn’t leave her with C3PO as her caretaker this time. But really, what good is a babysitter who won’t tell her what to do? The author could find a better way of freeing her from adults than surrounding her with spineless babysitters or droids and making her out to be somewhat of a defiant brat (not her fault). Every time the story got to her, I had to put the book down.

Luke, Ben, and Vestara keep looking for Abeloth. That was actually somewhat more interesting. Callista makes her way back into Luke’s life. I’ve never been a fan of her whole reason for being; but what happened to her in Conviction was so unexpected, it blew me away. I believed it. I felt it. It saved the book for me enough that I can grant it 3 1/2 stars.

Platinum Pets Star Wars 3/4-Inch Nylon Collar, Chewbacca Design

  By admin | May 10, 2013 - 9:08 pm | , ,
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Platinum Pets Star Wars 3/4-Inch Nylon Collar, Chewbacca Design

The Platinum Pets Chewbacca collar is a very nice, well-made collar. It’s lightweight with a plastic buckle, a metal D-ring, a plastic slide buckle for size adjustment, and a plastic loop to prevent the size from slipping.

Everything you see on it is printed on, from the stitching to the metal rivets to the metal plate stamped “Chewie My Co-Pilot.” It matches the Chewbacca leash perfectly. I like it.

Vortex: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

  By admin | April 16, 2013 - 9:35 pm | , ,
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Vortex: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

by Troy Denning

Fate of the Jedi is finally moving along and what an adventure it is. While I beat myself over the head over why Ben would be enamored by Vestara, their story takes some surprising twists. From Tahiri to Jaina to the Horn children to Luke and the Sith, we begin to find answers. But wait, there are three more books! This is how it should be. Give us something to hope for, to hang on, to dream by. It’s . . . a story! Great job, Troy Denning!

Allies: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

  By admin | March 29, 2013 - 8:51 pm | , ,
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Allies: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

by Christie Golden

Finally, Fate of the Jedi takes off. There’s a story, and it’s not the same story as the books before it. Luke and Ben make a discovery. Okay, aaack. I can’t believe it. She was bad enough the first time around. How dare they bring her back. Still, it’s a story. It unfolds. There were times I wanted to keep reading. And there’s a small cliff to fall off but somewhat of an ending, which I think all books in a series should have. There’s hope that the rest of the series will follow. I’ll now happily download the next book.

Backlash: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

  By admin | March 19, 2013 - 6:21 pm | , ,
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Backlash: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

by Aaron Allston

Unlike New Jedi Order, Fate of the Jedi is off to a very slow start. Backlash is the fourth book of the series and I’m still waiting for it to begin.

The strength in this series remains with the maturing of the relationship between Luke and Ben. Allana’s portrayal is still very one dimensional, while Han and Leia’s role as grandparents is unrealistic. Go to Dathomir where Luke is in trouble and leave her in the Falcon with C3PO to babysit? Please. What happened to their common sense?

The political problems are convoluted, as usual. I don’t see why they have to be. They just are.

Basically, everyone visits Dathomir and leaves. The end.

Abyss: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

  By admin | March 7, 2013 - 7:38 am | , ,
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Abyss: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

by Troy Denning

I’m a big fan of Troy Dennings, but Abyss was just okay for me.

Luke’s wanderings with the Mind Drinkers felt just like that – wandering. I suppose if that’s what it is and that’s what it felt like, then Denning did a good job of it, but it was just so aimless.

Finally, we get to see where the story of the Sith is taking us. For the longest time, it just felt like a whole separate storyline. It looks like Luke and Ben may get some sort of answer to their quest . . . maybe.

Han and Leia are busy dealing with the crazed Jedi and Daala’s people, while Jaina is torn between duty to Jag or her parents and the Jedi Order. As it has been up to this point so far, Luke and Ben’s story take center stage and is really much more interesting because of the focus on their relationship as father and son.

It feels like Denning is dragging his feet on the story so as to set it up for the next book. For the most part, it is a slow moving book. The whole series thus far is stuck in a time warp. I’m liking some of it, but it could be better.

Outcast: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

  By admin | February 15, 2013 - 10:42 am | , ,
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Outcast: Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi)

by Aaron Allston

Luke Skywalker is arrested, Valin Horn loses it. What more could go wrong? Gripping from the beginning. I truly enjoyed Outcast. Unlike most Star Wars novels, there were battles but no all-encompassing final showdown. I very much liked the pace.

The Galactic Alliance takes a stand against the Jedi and the story splits into three subplots. Each is very much separate from the other. One of them could have been excised, but it was otherwise great.

HAN AND LEIA ON KESSEL

I will start with the weakest of all the storylines. Han and Leia run off the Kessel to help Lando save it from seismic destruction. None of this makes much sense. Why would Lando call on Han and Leia? They are not seismologists or any sort of specialists who one would think up first for the job. Lando could just as easily explore the tunnels of Kessel himself. Why does he sit back and have his friends do it?

Leia has risked her life for many things, but never to save a planet that is pretty desolate and could easily be completely evacuated. She’s dragging a reluctant Han along – so very out of character. They bring Allana with them, a child they are supposed to keep safe.

And somehow, Leia and Han discover something Lando, in all the mining he’s done on Kessel with all his machinery and manpower, had never found.

How Lando convinced all the old rebel pilots to risk their life and limb for this is beyond me. It is a risky mission with so little regard for their lives. “. . . your warhead will not be set to explode on contact. It will go off on timer. Sometimes, though, it will be on impact. We’ll try to remember to tell which is which.” Try??

VALIN HORN

This is much more interesting. Valin Horn has gone delusional. There is nothing more dangerous than a crazy Jedi, so the government gets involved. Jaina, Jag, and Tahiri go on a mission to rescue him, all the while dodging government spies.

LUKE AND BEN ON DORIN

Luke is banished from the Galactic Alliance and leaves to follow Jacen’s footsteps, learning where he might have been lead astray. Ben accompanies him and their first stop is Dorin, where they meet the Kel Dors. This is really the most intriguing subplot.

Luke and Ben don’t really know what they are going to find. They learn things we thought they all already knew – how to disappear from the Force. We have to assume that it’s not the technique Jacen taught Ben. Why that would be, I am not sure. It is the only weakness of this storyline.

I am otherwise in love with this part, because Luke and Ben spend a lot of time together where we see them interacting as father and son.

OVERALL IMPRESSION

The book ends with Luke learning from the Kel Dors the potential fate of the Jedi, which opens the way for the rest of the series.

I am very excited about what is to come. Excellent job, Aaron Allston.

Millennium Falcon: Star Wars

  By admin | January 29, 2013 - 10:12 pm | , ,
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Millennium Falcon: Star Wars

by James Luceno

If you think this is a story about Han, Leia, and Allana, you’re wrong. Millennium Falcon is really and truly a story about the Millennium Falcon. Han, Leia, and Allana go searching back in time, meeting and interviewing each owner previous to the last. Meanwhile, Jadak, one of the first owners, traces the ownership forward in time, trying to track down the Millennium Falcon. Every time either character meets an owner (who all happen to be alive and cognizant) that person reminisces and we hear a long tale about how wonderful the Falcon was to own. Everyone has a story. Everyone was in love with the ship. Take notes, because it gets tedious.

Much of the story feels contrived. Everyone seems to be connected someway, somehow. Everyone is interested in the ship.

It’s a very light story. When lives are in danger, the characters focus on things no one would ever think of, like a trying to win a bet. Han lands on a Yuuzhan Vong formed world that is falling to pieces, putting everyone’s lives at stake, because his seven year-old granddaughter wants to find treasure. Luke is in a heap of trouble and Han and Leia laugh it off.

You won’t even believe the ending. There is no point to the story. If you absolutely love the Falcon and have to know everything about it, this is the book for you. If you yearn to see character development, growing the relationship between Han, Leia and Allana, think again. They don’t even make that much of an appearance. If you completely skip this book, you won’t miss much.

Crosscurrent: Star Wars

  By admin | January 7, 2013 - 10:32 am | , ,
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Crosscurrent: Star Wars

by Paul Kemp

Crosscurrent is the first book I’ve read that feels completely removed from the Star Wars universe. It’s an okay story. I did not care for the melodramatic tone in some scenes. It actually pulled me out of the story so that I noticed the words in print instead of the mood of the setting. Writing need not be overdone. Subtlety is a good thing.

Too many other problems to mention them all. I’ll just go over the main ones.

LIGNAN ORE

There used to be a thing called the Kaiburr Crystal that pretty much everyone willed out of the Star Wars universe. Paul Kemp now brings something back in the form of Lignan ore, that not only gives Dark Force users power, evil emanates through it and nudges good people over the edge.

Seriously, if this thing existed 5000 BBY, the whole universe would have been overrun with Sith. There wouldn’t be anything called Jedi. Saes wasn’t the only one who knew of or had the Lignan ore. What happened to the rest of the stuff?

TIME TRAVEL

The first few chapters yank the reader back and forth 5000 years. Would you know it but technology wasn’t so different back then. Ships can fly, the language is recognizable, and lightsabers look the same, except the old ones are connected to a power pack. I suppose if they can fly through space, there’s not much left to improve.

Guess what? When you go through hyperspace with a bad hyperdrive, you travel through time. You’d think that would have happened more than once in 5000 years, right? I mean, this is the only time it’s ever happened so that everyone is surprised?

KELL DUORO

This was a character that should never have been written. He needs Jaden’s soup? No one else’s soup, just Jaden’s?

If a creature like Anzat ever existed, even if rare, he would be so terrifying, that everyone would know what he is and what he looks like. Even on a place as primitive as Earth, we know of the Lochness Monster and Big Foot. You can be sure we could identify it if one ever showed up.

But no one knows what the Anzat is, what he can do. No one is afraid until it is too late.

LIGHTSABERS

It’s pretty much been established that Force sensitives must be trained. As a rite of passage, the kids build their first lightsaber, which isn’t easy. They could explode if not done correctly. So how is it that Jaden built one as an untrained kid and the clones built a whole slew of them with neither training nor access to materials?

And those clones sure were sure good at using the Force. Jaden was nearly bested by a totally untrained one.

They’re very smart clones. Never having set eyes on a ship, they know how to fly them.

FORCE LIGHTENING

I’ve never seen Force Lightening leak through the fingers of Jedi-wanna-turn-Sith as much as I’ve seen here. Both Jaden and Relin are cursed with this problem. Seriously, do they not have any control? Jacen never did it. Luke never did it. Not even Vader did it. Feeling the pull of the Dark Side absolutely does not cause Force Lightening to leak from the fingers . . . except for Jaden and Relin.

THE END

Um, I’m going to do something I haven’t done since I resolved to read all the books from 0 ABY onward in chronological order. I’m going to skip the next book.

Invincible (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 9)

  By admin | January 5, 2013 - 3:04 pm | , ,
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Invincible (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 9)

by Troy Denning

Lots of battles in Invincible. It is the finale, after all.

Troy Denning began each chapter with a joke Jacen told when he was at the Jedi Academy. It was an effectively brilliant literary device. Every chapter, we are reminded of the sweet Jacen, the innocent Jacen, the boy who would do no harm. Contrast that with the events in the war and it brought great sadness.

I would have preferred fewer battle scenes so that the main ones would have more impact, but Jacen’s final battle was full of the raw emotion that I would expect. I felt the impact of what followed.

The ending begged for more trouble in future novels. I’m not sure that was the best that could be decided. The conclusion ought to feel like a conclusion and not another opening to a cliff. It was still a much better ending than New Jedi Order. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the story. Well done.