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23 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Tragically anemic finale, 8 Aug 2008
What strikes you most about this final volume of the Legacy of the Force is how little there is to it. Weighing in at a slight 299 pages, Invincible consists largely of two long duels between Jaina and Jacen, interspersed with a pair of subplots involving Ben. The epilogue attempts to tie things up with a couple of quick stitches, a hastily tacked-on conclusion that leaves the nine-volume saga incomplete.
One is left with the impression that the manuscript was completed in a rush. It reads like an extended outline - all plot, no character, no theme. The major event of the book, and perhaps the series, is the death of a Sith. How does it feel when one of these Dark Lords leaves the force? How does it feel to a family member? How does it feel to the Sith himself? What happens to Jacen in the force? Was he redeemed by his last minute thought for his daughter? Does he become a ghost, like his grandfather? What's the reaction on Coruscant? On Corellia? On Korriban? Among the Jedi? How does Luke feel? How about Tenel Ka? Allana? Ben? Tahiri? We can only imagine. Denning doesn't tell us.
Nor does he suggest what it all means. We never knew what Jacen wanted, beyond bringing order to the galaxy. But as the disorder was instigated and exacerbated by the Sith, he dies playing a fool's game. How is one to regard this galactic tragedy? What do the other characters learn from this? How has the Star Wars universe changed?
The political end is given about as much thought as the beginning and concludes in just a couple of pages with a New Galactic Alliance. Once Jacen is gone, all appears to be forgiven and forgotten. One of the central characters of the series, Admiral Niathal, is completely missing from the story. The reigns of state are passed to a character who shows up at the last moment and whose appointment appears to be a set-up for the next series of Galactic Tyrant vs Jedi novels.
Where there was so much that could have been developed, we get instead material that should have been left on the editor's desk, such Jaina and Leia chasing a paddy wagon across Coruscant to rescue Ben. The sequence is made possible by the thinnest of contrivances, the Jedi mind trick, and concludes with no rescue and no discernible effect on the plot.
Equally inconsequential is the introduction of a new force power, one potent enough to stop Jacen with a figurative blink of any eye. Shatterpoint (from the novel of the same name) is an ability once attributed only to Mace Windu, to be able to exploit stress points in any given substance or phenomena. Jacen uses it to crack beskar, a metal impervious to even lightsabers. Jaina learns the power from Luke in a matter of days. But it's never used. If Luke, Jaina and Jacen all have this ability, why bother with space battles and lightsabers? Just burst your opponent's heart, or crack open their spaceship, and the game is over.
I usually enjoy Denning's writing, but he's absolutely flat here. The jokes at the beginning of each chapter was a silly idea. Not only because the jokes are bad, but because they make an obvious and trite point - everyone is innocent at some point in their life - and because they served as an excuse for Denning to not have to make an honest attempt at writing a tragic ending. Invincible has no sense of gravitas, no weight, no heft, no feeling that something worth nine novels has happened. It feels light, hurried, rushed, abrupt and empty.
If you would care for a Star Wars series that rewards reading, try these:
Republic Commando
Hard Contact
Triple Zero
True Colors
Order 66
Legacy
Broken (Vol. 1)
Shards (Vol. 2)
Knights of the Old Republic
Commencement (Vol. 1)
Flashpoint (Vol. 2)
Days of Fear, Nights of Anger (Vol. 3)
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20 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Awful in every way, 2 Jul 2008
Spoilers!!!!
The book starts during a battle, which none of the other books really led up to. The evens leading up to this battle are not explained (or at least not in any logical way). This suddenly changing locations/events continues throughout the book and makes you wonder if little Troy Denning even understands the concept of "timeline".
It is the contents however that make this a truely terrible book, on it's own the book wouldn't even get 3/5 stars, but this book is the last in a series of 9 books, falling into a universe consisting out of over 100 books. Here is a list of really stupid events;
- The imperial remnant suddenly starts invading other sectors on it's own, like Pellaeons successor could/would ever do so after the events of book 8.
- Mandalorian warriors suddenly become suicidial maniacs at several moments in the books. Boba Fett is among those, and after just having some connection made with his granddaughter, he sends her against the sith lord of whom he says up front he couldn't defeat..............
- Luke Skywalker acts like an idiot and a sissy, afraid of falling to the dark side if he kills a sith lord, and the "wise" jedi masters agree with him.
- Jacen suddenly hallucinating without explanation.
- Tahiri acting pretty random, with only half-explanations.
- The supreme epic battle of the series and the universe between the 2 Solo twins...........resulting in a very short battle in which almost no force powers are used or anything. In 1 minute most writers could create a better battle.
- Another weird, stupid, retarded thing is...............making Daala, who hates anything to do with democracy, the new leader of the alliance. Come on, that's just an insult to every fan of star wars.
There were about a few dozen more such loopholes, stupidities etc throughout the book, which is the only amazing thing the author accomplished.................creating such a terrible book with so few pages. Never letting Troy Denning writing anything would be a great service to humanity in general.
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25 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome finale to a great series, 2 Jun 2008
Here it is the final book Legacy of the Force book. It is a hardcover and is Troy Denning's final book as well as the series conclusion. The stage has been set, Darth Caedus faces enemies from all sides. Enemies from his family, his friends, the rebel Confederation and from within the Galactic Alliance. It is a race for the Jedi Order and allies to deal with Caedus before his quest to enforce a peaceful galaxy ends up destroying it. Jaina Solo leads the hunt drawing upon all her Jedi training and the unorthodox techniques of Boba Fett.
In Invincible Troy Denning does an exceptional job of concluding the series. While it is a short hardcover, clocking in at 301 pages of story if you include the prologue, like Inferno it does not waste a single word. It propels the narrative to its conclusion in a fashion that other Star Wars authors can only dream of doing. The story is handled in a way that will disappoint some readers. It really pulls the focus in very tightly in on the critical plot line: Jacen Solo and Jaina bringing him down. It concentrates on this and the resolution of the Sith manipulated war takes a distinct back seat. This in my opinion was inspired as it was as clear as crystal throughout the series that the war was a crucible for Darth Caedus that was brought to its current intensity by Lumiya's careful manipulation. The key to its resolution is and always has been Darth Caedus and with his removal the war could be brought to a halt and resolved through negotiation and explanation. It is because of this that Invincible will suffer from being compared to The Unifying Force which was the finale of the New Jedi Order series and unjustly so. Both Invincible and The Unifying Force are excellent conclusions to their respective stories but their stories were very different and so they are very different books. The plot resolution in fact reminded me of the story telling style used in the Star Wars movies particularly the end of Return of the Jedi where the larger battle around the Death Star while still important, got less screen time as the struggle between Luke, Vader and the Emperor grew more intense. Invincible and to some degree the whole Legacy of the Force series has for me recaptured the pace, style and fun of the films.
Invincible packs in a wide range of locations and characters over the course of the story from the asteroid of Nickel One the home of the Verpine to Coruscant and the hidden Jedi base of Shedu Maad. The introduction of the Imperial Remnant into the war in the previous novel Revelation plays an massive role in the storyline and in the resolution of the conflict and also we get an excellent setup for some plot points of the Legacy comic series by Dark Horse that I thought was great. Ben Skywalker (now a Jedi Knight) as always really stands out and during Invincible we really can see the growth he has gone through throughout this series and what an interesting character he is for the future. He really shines in his duel with the now Sith apprentice Tahiri with his growing saber skills and also the compassion he has obviously gotten from his legendary father. Jaina Solo also is represented brilliantly here with her really becoming one of my favorite Jedi characters. We also get what I found to be a really astonishing surprise at the end in terms of the new Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, one that to begin with I could not wrap my head around. My advice give it a while to sink in and while it still is unexpected and could go wrong it does provide some very interesting dynamics for future story lines. Although this development really would have benefited from more page time either at the end of the penultimate chapter or the beginning of the final chapter.
There is a lot more that I really liked in the book and while some may feel let down in that a number of plot points are left for future books/comics/articles etc to cover. I personally found it appropriate for the end of the first series of the Legacy era. An era that about one hundred years later has the amazing Legacy comic series and an era that does not have an end point. It really left me wanting to know what happens next and how things will join up with the comic series. The story continues in the stand alone hardback Millennium Falcon which is being written by James Luceno out late October. Troy Denning rounds off a thoroughly enjoyable Star Wars series providing action, excitement, laughs and tears. His novels in this series have been very obvious high points and Invincible is no exception. Great stuff.
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