Shiny Shelf has published my review of Star Wars: Death Troopers, the recent horror novel (yes, horror!) that takes place in that galaxy far, far away. Hit up the link and let me know what you think!
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Review: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Omen
Omen is the second in the nine-book Fate of the Jedi series of Star Wars novels. This entry is authored by Christie Golden, her first outing within the Star Wars sandbox (after having a number of Star Trek and Warcraft novels published, among others). In Omen, Luke and Ben Skywalker continue to retrace the footsteps of Jacen Solo’s (later the Sith Lord Darth Caedus) five-year journey in learning from various Force-using cultures in an attempt to understand his fall to the dark side. This time their trip takes them to the reclusive Aing-Tii, in a dangerous region of space in which their perceptions will be challenged and Ben will confront some personal demons. Meanwhile, another Jedi inexplicably goes insane, further straining the tenuous relationship with the Galactic Alliance government. And the culture of a long-missing tribe of Sith is explored from the point of view of a young apprentice coming of age during their re-emergence.
Omen is an entertaining novel with a few problems. I have to admit, I was skeptical of Golden being involved in the new Fate of the Jedi series. I read and disliked her first two Star Trek: Voyager relaunch novels, and the word of mouth on the following two novels did not fair better, so I skipped them. Admittedly, I have not read much of her material (due to my impression from the two novels I did read), but I was going to give her first Star Wars novel a chance. As such, I was impressed; Golden’s first outing is full of solid writing and pacing, an interesting character in the form of Sith apprentice Vestara (featured on the cover), and a firm grasp of the main characters.
Golden stumbles a bit in the beginning, in the scene with a younger Jedi and her close friends. There’s a lot over-emotional filler here, and brought to mind previous criticisms of Golden’s “hyper-emotional” writing. Thankfully, this doesn’t last long, but if her intention was to establish how close these characters are before Things Go Wrong, it misses the mark. Golden begins a strong run with the Skywalkers’ journey, displaying the Aing-Tii as an intriguing species with unique uses of the Force. The scenes between Luke and his son Ben are some of the best in the novel, bringing to light what makes their relationship complicated. The plot falters somewhat, however, with the “schism” the Aing-Tii are facing. The storyline is just too under-developed and the resolution too contrite to come off as satisfying. The Jedi storyline is also something of a disappointment; for the second straight book, we have Jedi going insane and little headway being made in discovering an answer. I’m not saying it should have been revealed already, but the scenes amount to a lot of chasing and putting innocents in peril. The entire scene at the “zoo” was the plot at its worst; the cliched “Let’s take the children to see the animals; what could possibly go wrong?” A lot, clearly. Add to this a Chief of State who (yawn) wants to hold the Jedi down and a public whose (yawn) sentiment is turning against the Jedi again… never mind the fact that they tend to repeatedly save the galaxy (the Yuuzhan Vong War was not that long ago…). It strains the credibility of the plot.
The most interesting - and probably divisive- part of the novel is the storyline featuring the lost tribe of Sith. Golden does a great job of tracing the previous two years of their history, detailing the culture and establishing the Tribe (as they refer to themselves) as an entity. The problem lies in the books using yet another Sith threat. The previous series, Legacy of the Force, saw the rise of Jacen Solo as Sith Lord Darth Caedus, as well as his fall. During the same series, we saw a couple of appearances by the new Sith order, the One Sith (from the Star Wars: Legacy comic book series, which takes place 90+ years after the events of Fate of the Jedi), hidden on their home world of Korriban. Whereas by the time of Legacy the new Sith number has grown to be in the thousands, during Fate of the Jedi there are only thirty or so of them. So now we are presented with yet another, different Sith threat, descended from the crew of a ship that crashed 5,000 years ago (whose origins are being chronicled in a series of free eBooks).
This is problematic in the sense that it seems like overkill; the Sith have been very popular in the prequel trilogy of movies and in the Legacy comic. It is understandable that the novels want to cash in on this and provide their own Sith threat. The problem here is that they had already developed one in the form of Darth Caedus; killing him off at the end of Legacy of the Force was a mistake, as they could have re-used him down the road to menace our heroes and give the books a Sith threat, since the Legacy comics establish that the new Sith order remains hidden from the Jedi until 85 or so years after the current time frame of the novels. But with Caedus dead and the One Sith hidden, introducing a third Sith faction is potentially overdoing it. However, a lot of effort is being made into developing the Tribe and giving them a unique identity, and Golden does an excellent job in giving us an inside look at their culture. I personally like the Tribe and am waiting to see where the story heads; I have a suspicion that they will wind up joining with the One Sith to fatten their ranks. Time will tell.
Christie Golden’s Star Wars debut is a fair success. The Skywalkers interaction is top-notch, and the Sith Tribe is fascinating. If it weren’t for the lackluster Jedi plot and fizzling out of the Aing-Tii storyline, this novel would score higher. Also, 240 pages of novel for a hardcover is ridiculous. In this economy, you cannot expect fans to be happy paying $27 for a hardcover with a thin page count. Golden’s debut is good, but not worth the full price of admission. I don’t mind, however, since I found the novel for $10 (with free shipping) on eBay; if you paid anything close to full price, you paid too much. Page count and price aside, Omen is a decent, yet frustratingly great in places, flawed addition to the Star Wars mythos, and I look forward to her follow-up.
Rating: B-
Review: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1 - “Precipice”
Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1: Precipice, is a free eBook (which can be downloaded from StarWars.com) that ties into the current 9-book series, Fate of the Jedi. Precipice, written by comic book scribe John Jackson Miller (current author of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series), begins to flesh out the backstory for a group of Sith who will play a part in Fate of the Jedi (though, it seems, unrelated to the other group of Sith currently in hiding and who will play a large part in the comic Star Wars: Legacy, set 90+ years after the events of the novels). Set 5,000 years in the past, Precipice details how a crew of a Sith ship, Omen (curiously enough, the title of the next Fate of the Jedi novel being released next week), find themselves stranded on a remote world, and the initial set of challenges that they face.
Precipice is a short tale and does its job well: namely, introducing the principle characters and conflicts. Miller’s succinct prose does the trick, doing what it has to and, while not particularly vivid, simply works. Given the space, there isn’t a lot of time to develop the main character, Korsin, but given what we do see, he is not the typical power-mad Sith, and the setup for future installments has me eager to read more.
It is easy for the hardcore fans to get sidetracked with the cries of “another Sith group?” and allow that to affect their enjoyment of the meta-story that is Fate of the Jedi. With Precipice, we see that the editors are looking to build a rich story around the series, and I hope that The Lost Tribe of the Sith is able to pull it off. Relax and enjoy the ride- it looks like this story is being given a depth that was not achieved in Legacy of the Force. If it makes the novels all the more richer for it, than I’m all about it. Besides, for the price of free, how can you turn it down?
Rating: B
“Star Wars: The Old Republic” Trailer
How is it this thing looks better than a lot of the Prequel Trilogy? Either way, the trailer for Bioware’s upcoming Star Wars MMO looks amazing. Considering Bioware’s reputation for high quality games, this will most likely be my next MMO.
More versions of the trailer (including ones in HD) can be found here.
(Found via Geek Tyrant)
