Star Wars: Legacy of the Force IV - Exile [Paperback]

There is a rule I've heard in several places. The second in a trilogy is always the worst. Now the glaring exception to this rule is the Original Star Wars trilogy, where the Empire Strikes Back was probably the best, but in general, it seems to be true. This isn't part of a trilogy, but each author writes three books, and I'm hoping the rule applies to that too. Why? Because Allston's second book wasn't as good as I was hoping.

That's not to say it's bad! I've rated it 8/10, which is still a high score. It's just not at quite the same level as the previous three in the series. There are three reasons for this, the first of which is the plot.

There is nothing bad about the plot. But there's nothing outstanding about it either. While it did follow on from Denning's "Tempest" rather well, it didn't seem to move the story along in many ways. And in some ways I understand this. In fact, I quite enjoyed reading about the war in a way that reflected real wars, rather than wars which only seem to have battles caused by the heroes/villains. Obviously the Heroes/Villains are involved, we wouldn't see them otherwise, but they generally aren't the driving force of the individual battles - that's the job of the tacticians and other military personnel. So it was good, if not progressive.

The second reason for the slightly lower score is that the different story-lines aren't quite as riveting as each other. In the first book, "Betrayal", I found that I wanted to know about all of the story-lines, all of the characters. Similarly in "Bloodlines" and "Tempest". But in this I found that actually, Jacen's story wasn't very interesting. Han and Leia's was mildly interesting, and Luke didn't seem to really have his own storyline, he just popped up in other people's every now and again. (Slight exaggeration there - he DID have a storyline, but it wasn't a major focus). There were two particularly outstanding story-lines: Alema and Ben. Without revealing too much, Alema's obsession with finding Han and Mara is joined with a new 'partner' and provides a little comedy to the plot, while still maintaining the overall tone, and is also another viewpoint on the situation.

But by far I found Ben's storyline to be superior to the rest. It's the first time we've really seen Ben in this much focus, despite him being quite important in events so far, and Allston does a very good job of writing his scenes. But it's the character development that makes Ben so interesting here. As Jacen's apprentice, he is constantly being tempted by the dark side, and as a teenager he is experiencing growing up. So it's an interesting mix, and I almost wish that Aalston was writing the next book just so that I could see what happens with Ben.

The third thing is rather petty in some ways, and is about two paragraphs from the whole book. Basically, the Author sums up the battle. Now since they're at the end I can't tell them without saying what happens, but I've tried to write a similar thing for the end of the clone wars:

"In the end, the Emperor decided he'd won. The Jedi thought they'd lost, and decided to all go and hide."

Ok, so that "pseudo-quote" probably unjustly, and badly, written. But the point I'm trying to make is that it was just a simple statement of who won. More suited to a report, or dissertation than a novel. If a character had said it, it would have been much more appropriate. It just seemed out of place, and distracted me from the escape a novel can provide. Normally not too much of a problem, but close to the end, it's something I remember vividly.

But as I said, that's a petty point. And overall, there was very little to fault with the novel. I was expecting it to be higher quality, but was in no way disappointed by what it was. I still found it impossible to put down, and would still recommend this series. Next stop: Sacrifice(Book 5).

Exile is the fourth book of the epic Legacy of the Force series written by Aaron Allston, Karen Traviss and Troy Denning. This is Aaron Allstons second book in the series and it certainly kept the standard of quality right up there after the excellent third book Tempest. The fortunes of the Corellian system change dramatically as they go from being alone in their defiance of the Galactic Alliance to being the centre of a Confederation that is being sculpted by the Dark Lady Lumiya from the shadows.

Exile follows a very wide range of characters and really benefits for it. It lets us catch up with some characters we have not seen since the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War such as Lando and Booster Terrik to name just two. The main elements of the plot almost all revolve around the Corellian crisis and Lumiyas involvement in it. Luke and Mara are searching for the Sith Lady while a large group of characters including Han, Leia, Wedge, Corran, Lando and more try to get to the bottom of things visiting such places as Corellia, Gyndine and the Errant Venture. However the most interesting part of the book in my opinion was the plot about Ben Skywalkers mission to retrieve an artifact for his unofficial master Jacen Solo. Which puts the young Skywalker through a dangerous test full of action and moral puzzles and a trip to the planet of Ziost. To go into anymore detail would spoil it and it really gives a good view into Bens head at a very uncertain time in his life. The future possibilities for Ben based on his adventure in this book are something I cant wait to see. Exile also sees Jag Fel play a much bigger role after his mysterious appearance in Tempest.

This book had quite a lot to live up to after Tempest, which I found to be the best book of LotF so far. I was not disappointed; I loved every page of this book and can't wait to read it again. This is a must read book and a must read series. It has a plausible intelligent plot, well written and developed characters and really captures the spirit of adventure that got me into reading Star Wars books in the first place.

I've just finished reading Exile, and after a slowish start I couldn't put it down; it's kind of like Betrayl in that regard.

For me I think the author could have focused more on Jacen Solo, but Ben Skywalker does a good job at keeping us entertained throughout (as the book is mostly about difficult choices he has to make on a perilous mission). It was interesting to see how he reacted to the challenges set for him by Jacen, and makes you wonder whether he too might be dark side material.

We are reaquainted with an old favourite in Lando and Wedge continues to star in his difficult role of Correllian defender, although things get rough for him in this one. Han and Leia are trying to discover whether there is a puppet master controlling the strings and creating war for their own advantage; while Luke and Mara continue to worry about Jacen's influence on Ben (even though they seperated them at the end of Tempest).

The book also reintroduces us to Jag Fel but much of the spotlight is directed away from him and onto the characters I just mentioned; aswell as a couple of baddies.

I wouldn't say it was as good as Betrayl or Bloodlines, but it still really is worth the read and was very good. You get the feeling that this one is the prelude to when all the action kicks off and is sort of setting the scene for later brilliance.