Legacy of the Force

[SOCL]

I tripped across a few spoilers for it.

 

They weren't good ones.

That, unfortunately, does not surprise. Karen Traviss is the author...

[tacoJoemeru]

Aye. She is by far now my least favorite author to ever touch anything remotely connect to Star Wars.

 

Someone could write a book stating Jar Jar was a Sith and behind the overthrow of the Republic and be better.

 

My opinion of course.

[DarthTofu]

Meh, I still like her style, even if you all don't think it works. I can see where you come from with your hatred for the Mandalorian tangents that don't seem very connected to the story, but I still think she writes strongly. It hit me with some force when Jori Lekauf (sp?) died.

 

I still adamantly oppose letting Troy Denning even look at a computer that's capable of typing. His poor, cookie-cutter characters and pathetic, PBS-style plots have nothing. He tries to compensate for his lack of talent by placing other people's characters in dangerous positions, wantonly killing, and giving everyone a level of intelligence rarely seen outside of microwavable food products. I'll also point out that he totally disregards science on a few occasions- most notably Star by Star. Further, he was the one who went and threw the hated "Evil switch" on Jacen, completely changing his character, and he totally borked up Lumiya- I'm glad he only got to play with her for one book, and I'm really glad his stupid Alema is dead, now.

[SOCL]

I agree, Alema was indeed a festering thorn in the series' side, but a festering, walking wound it was. The Mandalorian side-story is utterly irrelevant (relative to any other subplots in the series) and is, in my opinion, not only completely out of place, but, and because of that, is a dead weight dragging down not only Traviss's novels, but the series as a whole. I have said it once or a thousand times, and I will say it again, it was better suited and could have been better treated in standalone series outside this one. Further, I feel that Traviss's obsession is not only dragging this series, but has made the Republic Commando series a boring exercise in mental masturbation for her--that is to say, it is nothing but Mandalorians and how clones are Mandalorians. There is no coherent plot at work. She is a journalist, and as such is accustomed to real life where the beginning and ending of a tale cannot be seen until the onset of hindsight. This has not helped her in writing, but makes her writing seem like your reading through a series of connected events with no apparent beginning or foreseeable end. For a novel, this is bad...very bad. Honestly, I went from adoring Traviss and her abilities to utterly abhorring them, and I can only hope that Revelation will be her last major foray into the world of Star Wars for fear she will ruin some other culture or race with her artificial, outsider, revisionist POV.

[tacoJoemeru]

The thing that disappointed me the most about Revelations, was the amount of face time major characters got.

 

I mean, compared to Luke, Leia, and Han, Boba and his mandalorian parade practically got the entire book.

 

SPOILERS: Hell, I don't think Luke appeared in person more than four times. And I mean Alema was bad, but what possibly compelled them to bring back Daala? Gilad Pellaeon's death was my least favorite part.

[SOCL]

Wait, Revelation came out today?!

 

runs out the door to the bookstore

[DarthTofu]

... I have to wait until tomorrow. Damn you, well-meaning friends who purchased the book on Amazon but who aren't getting it shipped to their home until after six o'clock! DAMN YOU!

 

... For the record, despite everyone else's objections I still like Traviss the best out of all three authors. Her style of news-esque writing is more realistic in my opinion. You get a feeling for the scope of these events, how they're affecting the entire galaxy. I can see where everyone is coming from with the complaints about her Mandalorian obsession, but I rather like the Mandalorians as a whole- seeing their culture develop beyond the Spartan Spartan culture we saw in KOTOR (Yes, I just used the adjective Spartan twice in the same sentence with two separate meanings) is kind of fun, and they're certainly interesting.

 

Her style of writing does make it harder to foreshadow, granted. Then again, in the real world how much foreshadowing do you see? In particular I liked her take on the GAG- the best and brightest and most loyal doing the worst work. It really got that whole controversy of good vs. good going.

 

I always liked Allston, but he sort of went and got himself bogged down with trying to be new- he broke away from his strengths and, well, to be quite frank, they were called his strengths for a reason. He did a great job of inflicting pain in, say Iron Fist, but I'm not feeling it as much from him as of Fury.

 

Denning... Er, I've made myself very clear on my opinion of that man.

[tacoJoemeru]

Wait, Revelation came out today?!

 

runs out the door to the bookstore

 

Heh, well technically I got it yesterday.

[SOCL]

Wait, Revelation came out today?!

 

runs out the door to the bookstore

 

Heh, well technically I got it yesterday.

Just for the record, I quite literally ran out of my room and down to the bookstore to buy a copy the moment I typed that.

[DarthTofu]

Just for the record I still don't have it due to severe weather... Grr...

[ElvisMiggell]

Oops, ordering it on amazon right now!!!

[SOCL]

Oops, ordering it on amazon right now!!!

And there he is again.

[ElvisMiggell]

Damn Amazon and their 10-13 day wait!

 

I love you too SOCL...

[SOCL]

I love you too SOCL...

It's alright, Elvis. It was honestly meant with friendly affection.

 

Revelation is sitting on my desk untouched, staring at me with those beady yellow eyes. Too much damn stuff to do outside of "fun".

[DarthTofu]

Last I heard my copy is still in Miami. It's been there for three days. It's probably been raped by now. Then again, maybe it'll give birth to Invincible. That one'll probably read like a Crack Baby anyhow...

[ElvisMiggell]

I know SOCL, i just didn't want you to feel it was an unrequited love scenario...

 

Can't seem to find a darned copy of this book anywhere in Croydon, and web retailers in the UK all seem to have delays!

[SOCL]

Here's my bit on Revelation. The first paragraph has minimal to no SPOILERS, only commenting on Traviss' style, but after that SPOILERS follow. Highlight to read.

 

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Traviss once more proves that despite her boasting about journalism skills, they lack what it takes to tell a story. Although the creativity of it all remains and the plot itself is quite good, Traviss lacks the ability to deliver so that even the most dramatic scenes come across as monotone and one gets the impression he is being told facts rather than told a story. It was nice to see Traviss at last reign in her obsession with the Mandalorians, if only be weaving it into the greater tapestry of the series, but even then the Fett subplot continued, though it certainly didn't weigh down this novel to the same degree as Sacrifice. Traviss also suffers from a lack of character development and behavior. All men act the same way in most situations, as do the women, and Mandalorians all behave the same way, and after a time it makes you realize that perhaps Traviss is better suited to stories about clones during the prequel era; ironic because her clone characters have more individualized personalities than the characters she contributed to this series, which makes one wonder just how devoted she was to the entire project. One gets the impression that to her, this was something a side job she had to do and that her true passion lay in the Republic Commando series.

 

SPOILERS FOLLOW

 

As for details within the book itself, the return of Daala was an interesting twist, especially considering the conditions under which she left the Empire back in Anderson's 'Darksaber' (1996), leaving what will become the Imperial Remnant in Pellaeon's hands. It was even stranger to see Pellaeon's death--which was not nearly was tragic or even heart-felt as it could have been, which I attribute to Traviss' dry style--leaving Daala once more at the helm of the Imperial Remnant, or at least the portion in rebellion of the Moffs. It seemed odd to me, at least, that the fleet would follow the Moffs at Fondor and not utterly mutiny and follow Pellaeon's policies, but given the rather confused state of affairs during the Hand of Thrawn debacle, it's possible that like then the Imperial military still lacks a clear command structure and remains unsure to whom they respond. Stranger still was the return of Maw Installation technology, which Traviss seems to have brought to the story in the spirit of the "superweapon of the week" story telling from earlier novels. By now that technology is at least as old as the Battle of Endor and likely to be inoperable, and one has to wonder what's the point of bringing it in to the story other than shock factor.

 

Traviss only makes up for her lack of characterization, inability to be subtle about any character thoughts (saying what your characters think and how they change rather than showing it shows a lack of writing ability), and cliche dialogue through the reigning in of the Mandalorian/Fett subplot and a good story. Still, her delivering leaves something to be desired, and I personally believe that future novels would benefit from having Ms. Traviss outline the story, but let someone else write it. The good story line still garners it a 4 out of 5, but in light of this story brings down Sacrifice to a 3.5 out of 5, the lowest rating I have given any novel in the series.

 

And I can personally only hope that her upcoming Republic Commando: Order 66 is her last foray into Star Wars.

[DarthTofu]

My opinion (highlight)

I have to agree with SOCL for once- I was disappointed by the lack of any real point to the Mandalorians in this one. They show up and storm Bloodfin. Whoopie. Much as I hated Vector Prime, it at least made Chewie's death tragic. It focused on it for a lot longer, and it didn't foreshadow it as blatantly as this one did (Pallaeon watching his own funeral procession practicing- come on!

 

The whole thing with the Bloodfins was overdone, too. I didn't care for it at all.

 

All-in-all this is one of the worst in the series. I really think that from Inferno on out it's been sort of a bust. Fury was decent, but it dragged at times, and Zekk or Jag really ought to have died to make Jaina that much more focused on getting her brother. I still rank Inferno as the worst book in the series, but this one is a close next-to-last.

 

Then again, I still have twenty-five pages to go. Maybe it'll get better when I get through those last twenty-five pages. I hope so, but I doubt it- I'm really sick of the whole "Oh, my, we don't know for sure whether or not Jacen killed Mara!" plot line.

 

The one big redeemer that Traviss had for this one was her use of Jacen. The other two authors have been making him out to be a cruel madman who enjoys harming others. Traviss has made him what he's supposed to be- a man who can understand every last bit of what he's doing, and who thinks that it's the only way for him to bring order to the galaxy.

 

Now if Allana and Tenel Ka will just come into play some more in the next one... eh, I dunno. So, who thinks Danni might be coming back with Zonoma Sekot and the Vong?

 

Okay, those spoilers done, here's an overall question: What the hell was the deal with Tahiri being obsessed with Anakin still? Yes, he died and she loved him, but this was like twelve years ago! She ought to have moved on by now! She's a grown woman in her late twenties- it makes no sense that she'd still care so much about a dead kid from over a decade ago! In fact, it's creepy that she would care that much.

[SOCL]

Okay, those spoilers done, here's an overall question: What the hell was the deal with Tahiri being obsessed with Anakin still? Yes, he died and she loved him, but this was like twelve years ago! She ought to have moved on by now! She's a grown woman in her late twenties- it makes no sense that she'd still care so much about a dead kid from over a decade ago! In fact, it's creepy that she would care that much.

I think your last sentence is the point, Tofu. Besides, she was young--very young--when Anakin died. It's not surprising at all that it would have severely traumatized her, especially since it was also her first love. This isn't a particular unusual reaction. Look at the way Traviss has Boba Fett obsessed with his father--he was very young and saw the only love in his life killed directly before him.

 

MINOR SPOILERS follow:

 

As for Jacen, I don't think riding on the "He's not crazy, just doing the wrong thing for the right reasons" bit can work any more. The man has given himself fully to being a Sith and I believe that part of that evolution involves beginning to lose touch with reality. At first Jacen gave himself to the Dark Side in order to accomplish certain goals and such, but the more and more he does it, the more and more he feels he has to do it, and thus we get Darth Caedus, who is not Jacen. This is a new character, a Sith Lord, willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish a certain goal. That idealistic goal Jacen had in time becomes more and more jaded and increasingly distances itself from his original idea. This, though he may not realize it, he is going mad in a slow, painful process. Traviss explains this quite well in the last chapter or so.

[DarthTofu]

With Fett I feel like that was more because only his father was ever a "close" relation. He never had anyone in a remotely similar position to his father, and few were willing to help him. Tahiri, though- she had the Solos and Skywalkers to help her through it. Eh. Moot point, I guess.

 

So far as Jacen goes, I totally agree that he's migrated from his original goal- but I can see his logic in getting where he is. The old Empire was actually not all that bad from his perspective... Just a tad cruel.

[tacoJoemeru]

Slight spoilers:

 

What surprised me was that 90% of the GADF didn't revolt once he started Vader-promoting his officers or after burning Kashyyyk, both are quite Vader-like. Obviously the galaxy has short term memory problems.

 

Tahiri just seemed to go crazy once he starting flow walking her back. She was hardly consumed by grief during or after the war.

[SOCL]

Obviously the galaxy has short term memory problems.

Short memory? Try 1993 and 2003. Operation Gothic Serpent and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and that's only ten years.

[DarthTofu]

It's been forty years since Yavin, and the Vong are a rather strong new memory. A whole new generation that pretty much grew up under freedom is holding onto the galaxy, now- by a combination of not remembering the Empire and not having actually experienced it, they're willing to let it come back.

 

Titch, from Betrayal, is a prime example of this.

[ElvisMiggell]

Which is fine, except that longevity seems to be an issue.

 

Luke Han and the others are all getting on a bit, and despite the poor health coverage that Fett has received, they're all still going at it like ripe healthy 30 year olds... and that includes non-force sensitives.

 

And yet we keep being told that there are 'new' generations...

 

Exactly how long is a human supposed to live in this galaxy?!?

[SOCL]

I think I remember reading somewhere (and I think it was Traviss, actually ) that "fifty is the new forty" or maybe even "the new thirty"!