Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 8) by Karen Traviss Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 8)
Book Review: Terrible Focus and Character Development
Summary: 2 Stars
The first and biggest issue with this book is that in a series titled "Legacy of the Force" (emphasis on Force) Traviss spends at least half of the novel playing out Boba Fett's relationship with his grandaughter and long lost wife. This sentimental driveling is not only completely out of character for Fett it is incredibly boring, and caused me to put the book down in boredom a few times for the first time since the Black Fleet Crisis series. Perhaps Traviss thinks she is getting at some deep philosophical point, or indicating a deeper message that we can apply to the Jedi's struggle's, but if she is it is hopelessly lost in her ascinine character development. As far as I can tell the only thing the Mandalorians are doing is diverting focus and drive from what might have been an extremely engaging battle, both physically and politically over Fondor.
The poor character development is not just a problem with Boba Fett but throughout the entire novel. The actions of the Jedi make almost no sense throughout the book, and no attempt is made to explain strange turn of events. Luke is almost a non-entity. Somehow 15 year old Ben Skywalker has turned into an adult but 30-something Jaina Solo seems to have reverted to her teenaged NJO self (which is a problem with the series at large though this book amplifies it). It is also incomprehensible to me that Jaina has gone to Boba Fett for lessons in taking out Sith Lords. "Jacen has learned Force skills I haven't so I have to learn skills he doesn't have." Yes...and every Sith ever to roam the galaxy has had Force skills Jedi didn't, and I don't seem to recall Yoda, Mace Windu, Luke Skywalker etc deciding they needed to consult bounty hunters before taking out Sith Lords. The approach was inventive and interesting with the non-Force-sensitive Jag Fel but is absurd and degrading when applied to Jaina. Darth Caedus is disappointing to say the least. **Spoiler Warning** At one point Traviss spends several paragraphs building suspense about how much dark side energy Caedus has gathered and how its threatening to tear him apart and he must expend it and then he does...by creating a simple illusion in the minds of a few people convincing them to lower a shield. She then has the audacity to have several characters comment on how powerful he must be to bring down a planetary shield with his mind. Give me a break. Perhaps the most audacious crime against a character though, is her disturbing slaughter of Grand Admiral Pellaeon. This character has consistently been brilliant at anticipating enemy maneuvers (he was trained by Grand Admiral Thrawn) and yet fails to foresee or guard against Tahiri's unbelievably transparant assassination? Of all characters this one should have been ready to deal with such an eventuality and had ysalimiri on hand. But know, Traviss spends pages talking about how savvy he is and then kills him in the most obvious way possible. That this author was allowed to write the demise of two outstanding characters she clearly had so little understanding for is a disgrace and leaves a foul taste in my mouth.
The third much more minor issue with this book is that it is filled with grammatical errors, some of which are on the part of the authors and some of which are simply poor proofreading. The errors were distracting and irritating.
The only reason I gave this book two stars is that despite the above complaints, it does manage to have some very powerful moments, and hints at great plot elements if you are able to ignore the distracting sub-plot and supplement the poor writing with your imagination.
Book Review: Good read
Summary: 4 Stars
i enjoyed this book and found it to be a good read. i'm looking forward to the next installment.Book Review: don't waste your time on this
Summary: 1 Stars
I think the whole legacy of the force series is just plain pathetic. While the idea had so much power to it - Jacen turning into a Sith Lord, the execution is pathetic. This is specially obvious for someone whose introduction to star wars was thru the New Jedi Order series which was a remarkable one, from idea to story line and its execution.
I have lots of issues with this book, specifically. Number 1, the english grammer is wrong. Just plain wrong! Lot of the sentences are grammatically incorrect. And yes, I do understand the difference between slang and king's english - but even slang is not usually incorrect grammatically. In her attempt to come up with some cool new terms, the author has made a mess of the text.
Then I hated the word caf, tapcaf and the likes! What is this? Thirdly, there is no flow-thru as to how the plot changes. One moment Luke has almost but killed Jacen, and then there is no more Luke for the rest of the battle. One moment Niathial is leading and everybody is on her side, and the next moement, she is finding herself ousted! The author apparentally has no clue how to put a story line together.
I think this was a very poorly written novel. Try reading the novel "Darth Bane - the path of destruction" and you find what a superbly powerful novel would read like.
Book Review: EU Minimalism
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been waiting a long time to review this one and I figured after finishing the Legacy of the Force series last week, it would finally be a good time to post my two cents. I "had a bad feeling about this" book before I read it but, before I get into any of the specifics, I would like to start off with what I dislike about the general direction the EU authors are taking, especially the author of this book. I have read just about all of the EU stuff that gets put out, but it is getting harder and harder to cope with the universe that these authors are painting. From the way it looks I think after a few more book series that present day Earth will have not only surpassed the Star Wars galaxy technologically, but also in have a greater population than the entire Star Wars galaxy. From watching the movies and reading the good EU material out there, I see a Star Wars universe full of grandeur and many technologically wonders. From my perspective the Star Wars universe is one that can be characterized by the following descriptions:
1. A very highly advanced civilization that can produce just about anything and one that is capable of conducting extra-galactic travel, and this level of technology that has been in existence for many millennia
2. A civilization that has the technology to destroy planets and stars with ease and has had the ability to do so for many millennia
3. A galactic civilization that is dominated by non-democratic forms of government in the forms of monarchies, aristocracies, oligarchies, corporate rule, military rule, and plutocracies for the most of its recorded history. (Pre-Republic Civilizations, Planetary Governments, the Old Republic, the Empire, the Hapes Consortium etc...)
4. With the populations, resources and technology available, local and galactic military forces should easily be able put up space navies with tens of thousands to millions of capital ships and armies with hundreds of billions to trillions of troops
5. A galaxy where planetary populations far exceed that of Earth, especially the ones that are city planets!!!! (Taris, Anaxes, Empress Teta and others which I am sure will one day will have terrible population number assigned to them)
6. A galactic culture and society that is not much different from Earth's history (capitalist and Imperial economics, Religion is important part of society, the types of governments mentioned above, etc...)
Instead of what I have listed above many EU authors give me pathetic galactic armies numbering in the millions, space navies of a few hundred/thousand ships, paltry planetary populations, instead of planet killing weaponry the featured military weaponry seem like they could barley match the destructive power of an United States Ohio-class submarine, and weak lefty democratic governments that are usually made to be the so called "good guys" of the story.
Well now that I have that out of the way on to more of the specific on this book. Now I don't really have a big problem with this author's obsession with Mandalorians, but this author in particular continues to lowball Star Wars technology like many of her other EU authors. She has definitely contributed to reducing the galactic population and military strength down to rather sparse levels. In this novel this pattern can be seen when saying that galactic navies are moving to a smaller and more maneuverable ships and fleets. Again from the Star Wars timeline that has been laid out, the technology on display, and with the resources of an entire galaxy, the militaries of the Star Wars Galaxy should be immense in size and should have the power to easily destroy planets and stars.
The next issue I have is that I think non-democratic conservative governments are essential elements any good science fiction/fantasy stories. Monarchies, aristocracies, oligarchies, plutocracies, military rule, and corporate rule make for a far more interesting read than the usual weak democratic governments or other forms of left leaning governments seen throughout this series. In this novel not only do I have to put up with the socialist looking Galactic Alliance, then I got whinny Jedi, and then the author has to give one of my favorite planets, Fondor, a President. A little thing, but it killed me. At the very least could the EU authors go back to having a system like the Old Republic where it is more of an alliance or union of planets rather than a functioning galactic government, thus leaving the sovereignty of individual planets intact.
Another thing that bothers me about this author is how religion is presented in her writings. Now one of the reasons I love Star Wars is that religion and the Force are key elements of the story, unlike a few other sci-fi universes like Star Trek. I would very much like to know more about the other religions of the normal humans in the Star Wars Galaxy, and I hope belief in "the Maker" is rampant. Well being a Mandalorians lover, the author does touch upon the religious belief of the Mandalorians frequently. However, the thing that is weird to me is that it seems whenever a new Mandalorian is introduced we usually get their personal views on the Mandalorians heaven of "manda" very quickly. Usually it is followed by the character thinking how they do not literally believe afterlife, but it's a nice idea. On the other side of things there is also part of the book where Ben Skywalker talks about how as a Jedi, life after death is a known fact and that the majority of Galaxy hold to some sort of religious belief. However, by the end of the book (Spoiler warning) she brings it back in the other direction when Grand Admiral Pellaeon is assassinated and all he sees is blackness as he dies. (End Spoilers) I don't know what the author's personnel beliefs are, but I get way too many hints of atheism in her writing. I mean if I wanted to read about that perspective I would be a Star Trek fan.
One other tiny thing that annoyed me was a statement that Boba Fett makes where he says that all of the wars, since the founding of the Republic, with the exception of the Vong invasion, have simply been a battle between the Sith and Jedi. Though I am not surprised, apparently the author has failed to do a little research to see that there have been other major wars during that time span that have not involved the Sith or Jedi. I know I would classify the Unification Wars, the 1,000 year Pius Dea Crusades, the Alsakan Conflicts, the Tionese War and many other inter-planetary wars as major conflicts. Also without knowing the entire history of the Star Wars galaxy any blanket statement like this should never any used by any EU author.
So all in all this author paints the Star Wars galaxy as a less advanced civilization than it should be, one that is being run by weak lefty democratic governments, she includes atheist overtones in her writing style, and by a having an obsession military oriented race much like the Klingons, it sounds as if this author would be a perfect fit for writing Star Trek novels. So to the company that makes Star Trek novels please take her off our hands.
In the end I give this novel one star only because it is Star Wars and I like the cover.
Book Review: Stretch the series out and hit the suckers for a few more bucks
Summary: 3 Stars
Overall-The book lacks focus and while there are some cool parts most of it was not needed.
Things are boiling down to a showdown between the GA and the Jedi Order and their allies very slowly. Personally I was ready for the final confrontation 3 books ago.
The Macedonian subplot (or Klingons as they are known in the Star Trek universe) still feels like fanfiction and that is probably the most polite thing I can say about it. No I'll say one more thing I don't Fett unburdening himself to his family; its nice sweet and sentimental but that is not why I like the character. I mean seriously what's next is Calista going to show up as a reincarnated dark empress?
In fact other then a glorious last stand by Pellion almost nothing happens in this book. I got the feeling that the authors were as sick of writing it as we were of reading some of this stuff.
A million times I wanted to scream "get to the point already" never in a million years did I think Admiral Dalla of all people would be the redeeming feature of a Star Wars book.