Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Abyss [Hardcover]

A great read, most enjoyable. The only bad part about the series? That the next book isn't out until March 2010!

Finally this series has something beginning to resemble a storyline. I thought it would never happen. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the writing as much as I did with the previous two books, or even Denning's own books in the previous series. So I'm not sure whether to be elated that something is finally happening, or disappointed in the writing. It didn't stop from reading until I'd finished though.

While I enjoyed the previous books, they didn't really have a driving force behind them. But now we're finally starting to see groups have objectives. And some questions with a bit more substance than "What's Going On?". There are two women and a force presence, who seem to be important, but for what? What's going to happen with the lost tribe of the sith? What's going to happen between Daala and the Jedi now that (Sarcastic Spoiler) something has happened.

Admittedly, these don't appear until towards the end of the book, which means that for a long time the plot is as aimless as the others. It feels like that, while the series does start slow, the stage has finally been set for this "epic" story. In truth, I feel that it would have been much better served by squashing the first three books into one, and going from there. Maybe a trilogy. I'm starting to think that the nine-book series is just because it worked before, not because the story needs nine books. And that disappoints me somewhat. I'm not as excited about the next book as I was in Legacy of the Force, and now that I've read all three authors in this series, I feel just in saying the story is just not as good.

Maybe that will change. Luke finally knows about the Sith, so maybe it'll get better now.

The characters in this book are okay. They seem to have suddenly all got much better at dealing with the ill jedi, and I'm quite disappointed that a lot of this stuff seems to have been glossed over. I don't like the Jedi Council in this book. Master Hamner suddenly seems to be almost a "bad guy", when in previous books he was a nice person, doing his best for the jedi order, Master Cilighal is barely in it, although in charge of the ill. Master Sebatyne is annoying. Master Katarn isn't bad, but again, isn't really in it. And some of the other characters just don't match up to who they have been in previous books. Some of them are characterized quite well - but wrongly. And that's the problem I had with the writing. it doesn't match the others in the series well enough. it's like reading a different story. It seems the only character that is continued well from Omen Alanna. Unfortunately, I didn't really like how wise she was in that book, and the same is true here. I'm quite disappointed.

Denning's descriptive language isn't the best. "In the Jade Shadow's forward canopy there hung twin black holes" is a lie, they are ahead of the Jade shadow. I had to re-read that several times. I also didn't like the description of the main room of sinkhole station as a serving bowl. It was a fairly long metaphor, and "bowl-shaped would have sufficed.
Finally, he keeps using words, particularly slang, that I've never seen in the star wars universe before (Maybe this is just ignorance on my part), and then having to explain them. Or worse, not explaining them. In a similar vein, it seems every little trick has to have a name - the "Shling Slide" or the "Toydarian double flip flop" (Exaggeratted silliness - slightly). The first of those isn't explained at all, but it's apparently something to do with persuasion. The second is just a pointless way of saying "yes" to Allana's statement. it takes about a page. To be fair, those are the only two I can think of - but they both annoyed me quite a lot,

In writing this review, I think I've come to the conclusion that it just isn't up to the standards I expect from a Star Wars Book. It gets +1 for it's additional plot, but loses points for the unnecessary terms, the poor descriptions, and the misalignment with the first two books. On the plus side, some of his ideas were pretty neat - a particular journalists method of spying for example. I really hope the next one goes somewhere.

The third book in the Fate of the Jedi series finally delivers. The first two installments of the 9-part series were just a trifle boring, but Troy Denning has put the series back on track. Rather surprising actually, as his contributions to the Legacy of The Force series were actually of rather mediocre quality (Traviss and Allston supplying the better parts). This novel puts me more in mind of earlier highly enjoyable books by this author, like Tatooine Ghost, the Dark Nest Trilogy, and Star by Star.

There are three intertwining plots of which two have become intertwined, while the third remains focused on politics and media. The first, the journey of Luke and Ben, is the most interesting one in this book, as they meet up with a couple of "Force Ghosts" (I can't call them force ghosts in the traditional Star Wars sense of the terms, as they are somewhat different than for example Obi Wan)representing characters of the past. Including Mara, and for me that was a big bonus as she has always been my favourite EU character. I truly miss her presence in all the books, since Sacrifice, so it was good to have her included again even if in a rather insubstantial form.

The second plotline, the activities of the so-called lost tribe of the Sith, also was nice as the characters involved were behaviourally well set up, and for the most part acted as Sith should - even if they don't know the Rule of Two because their customs stem from a somewhat earlier date than that particular Sith Dogma. The fight between the Skywalkers and the Sith band was somewhat unrealistic, but hey, we do always want the good guys to win, so it's okay. And at least Luke does remain exhausted.

In the third plotline, the fight between the Jedi and Chief of State Daala is continuing, with the stakes getting much higher, although still too much politic's are involved. But at least even here we get some true action, not just youngsters becoming deranged. And, the Jedi find a way to use the media to their own advantage, and that is good too, as until now they were just detrimental to their cause. So, all-in-all some great reading here.

Of course, the evolvement of the relationship between Jagged, Jaina, and the rest of the Jedi and her parents was also of interest to me. It looks now as if somehow there are still a lot of things that can prevent the marriage from happening after all. Not in the least because of a certain incompatability of loyalties and the priorities regarding those loyalties. We will see, although it would be a pity if it won't work out. The readers haven't seen the relationship develop during the course of the New Jedi Order series, than decline and seemingly end during the Dark Nest Crisis, to rise up again during the LOTF series, to be struck down once and for all in this series. But, that doesn't have to happen, it's still an open question, leaving something for the next author to work on.

In summary: the series finally has started off to become interesting, the plotlines contain more action, and there are enough questions left to make me sign in for the next installment.