Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force) [Mass Market Paperback]

The penultimate installment of Legacy of the Force gets off to a slow start, has far too much material that doesn't drive the plot, but is nevertheless one of the more interesting chapters in the series.

While you might not notice it among the large number of pages devoted to the Mandalorians, a few things actually happen in Revelation. The Imperial Remnant and Joint Chief of State Niathal turn against Jacen, a lovable EU character bows out while another one shows up literally out of nowhere to save the day, the Skywalkers and Solos finally wise up to Jacen, plus there's one of Legacy's most suspenseful space battles. Amongst all the happening, you'll also find the most genuine writing of the series, including what has to be one of the most touching scenes in the Extended Universe.

The first half of the book is rather plodding. A large part is written as a police procedural, with Ben out to gather forensic evidence necessary to convince his family (and prove to himself) that Jacen killed his mother, Mara. While unnecessary for the reader - we knew Jacen was the killer before we even read the fifth chapter, Sacrifice - a solid presentation of the facts is required for the Skywalker and Solo families, who, as a Mandalorian healer remarks to Jaina, have "been hoping that [Jacen will] see the light and [won't] have to do the dirty work."

Unfortunately for the series as a whole, there's been far too much material on the Mandalorians, material largely irrelevant to the main plot, and that's especially so in this volume. The editors at Del Rey should have suggested a side-project for Traviss where she could have developed the material more fully and without having to try to find ways to justify its inclusion here. The ostensible purpose for the Mandos in this volume is Jaina's search for a method or means of capturing or killing her twin brother Jacen. She goes to one of the galaxy's most feared Jedi hunters, Boba Fett, who fits her in armor, shows her how to use a metal blade, but most importantly teaches her the need to be someone else: "A nasty Jaina. A crafty, cheating Jaina. A bounty-hunting Jaina." The training itself doesn't require that many pages. What does is concluding the drama of Boba Fett and tying up loose ends from Traviss' Republic Commando series, both of which happen to fit neatly into the thematic foundation of the book, if not necessarily the plot. The revelations include Boba's poignant sacrifice for his wife, a Jedi disclosing his true identity, Jaina's calling, Mara's murderer, and a Sith's coming out.

Once all the preliminaries are out of the way, the second act is a page-turner featuring one of the most unusual space battles of the series, in which not one but two new players and two new fleets join the fray. The Galactic Alliance is riven mid-battle by a defection, and the planet being targeted becomes the planet from which a new alliance forms up against Jacen, driving him home to Coruscant to make what will most likely be his last stand in the final volume, Invincible.

The extended epilogue tidies up the Mandalorian saga with the most sincere and genuine writing of the series. This is perhaps the only Star Wars novel that ever got me choked up. And not once, but twice within the last 20 pages. The hardened mercenary unburdens himself, opens his heart and finds himself accepted, taking the first step to winning back the love and the family he had quietly cherished for more than 50 years. The Jedi deserter Gotab has at last a chance to explain himself to a fellow Jedi, to stop hiding and at last be welcomed within his adopted community for what he is, and not what he has pretended to be. Jaina learns to look outside herself, finding a reason and a will to do what 's necessary to take care of her evil twin brother. And in the last two pages, Traviss delivers the most understated and touching scene from the Star Wars Extended Universe, a quiet ending with Ben and Luke in the still of the Endor night. Read it and weep.

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I have read every book of the series so far, and usually within a day or two of its release. I have overall enjoyed the series, and Traviss' work has been the strongest of the series, especially the pushing forward of the Boba Fett/Mandalorian arc which has been handled primarily by Traviss. I have fixated on the Mandalorian story and Traviss adds to the lore of the bounty hunters like no one I have read before.

(Going to try and do this spoiler-free)

However, when Traviss adds to the other ongoing arcs, the story begins to fall apart. Revelation is more crime drama then anything, and there is no tension in the story since the reader knows 1) who did it and 2) why he did it. Having the characters in the story "figure this out" is unnecessary because in truth, it makes no difference to what the protagonists must do in the end. The seven novels preceding this one have painted the character of Jacen Solo as a combination Vader/Palpatine with most of the galaxy realizing what he is becoming. The fact that one more act was committed by this man, from the characters point of view, makes it more necessary to capture and or kill him?

Also, there is the inclusion of the Imperial remnant that seems like it is out of left-field. A bulk of the novel deals with Admiral Paellon and his dealings with the Moffs. I think most of what the Empire could have been stated with far less exposition. In fact, the overall theme of the Legacy series is beginning to be wittled away with all of the niggling side arcs which appear out of reference. Yes, there needs to be other events to move the story forward, but I think the Empire storyline is not necessarily important in the grand scheme of things. This could totally change in the last novel, but I think what the readers are looking for in the last novel is a very focused story about the Skywalker/Solo family struggle and do not want to be distracted by the GA, Imperial Remnant, Confederation, GAG, etc.

I really feel that Revelation is unnecessary and a lot of exposition is thrown in to make this a nine-part story. I won't throw any additional spoilers out, but I really feel that the authors of the entire series are given specific plot points that are to be included in every novel, and the revelation of this plot point had already been done in earlier novels. And again, the characters have the same choice to make whether or not the plot point was revealed to them at all.

Kudos on the Boba Fett/Mando story. Neatly done, and as much as the Mandos are the anti-heroes of the Star Wars universe, you can't help but empathize and understand what their cultural philosophy is and where it fits in with the Galaxy. Since no other novelist really went into the Mando world, I fear that this is the last we will necessarily see of this arc.

I don't recommend this novel to anyone other than readers of the preceding novels. I think you will have the same sense of "wow, this isn't very good" and "was this novel really necessary?" that I did, and I am a complete and utter fool when it comes to everything Star Wars.

I don't often take the time to review any of these books, but after finishing Revelation, the seventh installment in the Star Wars:Legacy series, I felt compelled to vent my frustrations. I don't like to utter anything besides a kind word unless it can be helped, but during the course of this book, I found myself shaking my head, rolling my eyes, and generally asking myself, "Are you kidding?", and felt I needed to post something, if only to find out whether anyone agrees with me, or if I'm the only one who's starting to wonder when the Star Wars EU went from interesting space drama cut in the mold of the original films to meaningless adventures featuring 'characters you always wished you could know more about' like Boba Fett and Admiral Daala.

First off, what is the obsession with Boba Fett and the Mandalorians? All of a sudden they are the talk of almost every character in the galaxy; I think Ben even makes a reference to Mando children (in one of the earlier novels) and their culture - which heretofore nobody in the SW galaxy knew anything about. All of a sudden, this fierce fighting culture is being considered by everybody and their nephew to be the definition of strength and technology. Beskar iron - previously unmentioned in any of the SW novels - is more coveted than Tibanna gas. I don't buy it. I also don't buy that a few handful of Jedi wouldn't be able to take all of the Mandalorians at once; but instead, the author paints this as absurd, because Jedi overthink and clearly are no match for the fighting skills of these supreme warriors. Last I checked, a young, fairly inexperienced Jedi named Luke Skywalker beat a seasoned Boba Fett in their brief battle over the Sarlacc.

Which leads me to my next point. Whether the author does so deliberately or not, any mention of Luke's battle against Jacen is completely ignored. Plenty of references are made to Mara's battle against him, but for some reason the fact that Luke beat Jacen to a bloody pulp is casually omitted. I only say this because Troy Denning and Aaron Allston seem to agree on something that Karen Traviss doesn't - like it or not, Luke Skywalker has come the closest to beating Jacen Solo and probably wouldn't need the likes of Boba Fett to serve as a special combat mentor. All of this might be premature since the final book hasn't been released yet, but we'll see what happens. I just don't understand why Luke is the Grand Master of the Jedi in some books, and then treated like a weak-willed shadow in any of the books written by Ms. Traviss.

Additionally, I don't understand why so many words were spent detailing such little events. More time was wasted on Boba Fett and Sintas Vel than on Darth Caedus himself, who continues to be a disappointment as a villain. I can't remember the last time his fearsome GA won a major offensive. His revelation consists of telling a few trusted confidants that he's a Sith Lord, and asking them what they think about it. When will he do something besides justifying his destiny to himself and musing over what it means to be a Sith? And if he is supposed to be so fierce and powerful as everybody is making him out to be, then I don't understand why a few Mando commandos posed any threat to him. I didn't in the least bit care for the fact that Carid, one of the many forgettable Mando's, shot a bolt right into Jacen's knee. Jacen should have crushed the man without a second thought. What kind of an all-powerful villain is this, who can't even handle one armor-wearing mercenary? I just don't buy it. I think Ms. Traviss likes Boba Fett and his comrades too much, and in that regard, believes that they can do the impossible.

Also, and this has been said in one of the earlier reviews but it bears repeating, far too much time was spent following Ben's investigation into a subject that all of the readers knows the answer to. A quicker and more subtle means of discovering the truth of Mara's killer would have been a lot more rewarding than seeing Ben piece everything together and reveal his findings to Luke, Han, and Leia, with only ten pages left in the second to last book. If Jaina is already training to fight Jacen and Luke is supposedly going to avoid going after Jacen out of fear of turning to the Dark Side, then finding out the truth about Mara's death is a moot point so late in the series. Anyway, I could be passing judgment too quickly; like I said, the final installment is still to come. But this book should have been so much more.

This series isn't terrible. I enjoy Allston's work (when he spends less time making every character into a comedian)and I think Troy Denning creates the best and most vivid lightsaber duels out of any of the SW authors to date, but I was hoping that Revelation would bring the galaxy to the threshold of the dark jeopardy that Darth Caedus was supposed to threaten, and instead, our villain is still playing politics, our heroes are near invisible, a ghost resurfaces from the past for no reason other than to make us say, 'Oh yeah, Admiral Daala, I remember her,' and the son of Luke Skywalker gets awarded 100 pages to find out something that we already knew, only to tell people whose reaction we barely get a chance to gauge because Ms. Traviss doesn't want to spend too much time away from Keldabe. I think Troy Denning has his work cut out for him with the final book.