From Vector Prime to Invincible

Xander Vos

Well, around this time last year - I think - I made myself the pledge I'd read my way through both mammoth series, with Dark Nest in between.

Currently I'm sitting on Book 1 of the Force Heretic Trilogy, so I'm well on my way to reading Invincible when it's paperback comes out - which was actually my aim, distracting myself from the temptation to buy the hard cover. Wink

So far I'm really liking my re-read of NJO, and think it's leagues beyond Legacy in every aspect. However, with Legacy knowledge, Jacen's character in NJO takes on a new aspect, especially as the series approaches and then passes Traitor - which is what really sets him up for Betrayal. Liked Traitor a lot more this time around, and I'm really enjoying myself so far.

What dissapoints me is the speed in which the Galaxy recovered from the Vong, especially after Coruscant was so thoroughly destroyed. Ah well, here's hoping to filler books between NJO and DN, or DN and LOTF.

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Time to start again.

Rive Caedo

Hm, yes... I am interested to see what direction they'll go with the original trilogy characters now. There's obviously still a market there. But they've basically hit the point in the timeline where if they go much further Han's going to start die of old age Razz

I think if Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor sells well, we might see more of that. One shot novels at random points in the timeline with tight focuses. I don't think I'd mind that, personally. I still haven't read the last 3 or 4 Legacy of the Force books - partly because I've been told by yourself and others how disappointing the last couple are. It's really unfortunate when you get a lousy ending after 3000 pages instead of 300 Razz

Thank goodness New Jedi Order ended well - if a bit expectedly. A really bad ending after over 7000 pages would have been devastating! I could see myself rereading through certain books in the series - but not the whole thing.
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May The Force Be With Us, Always

Lord Vexen

Rive Caedo

Heheh, no kidding. It reminds me of the old "adventure" books they released way back in the 80's.

"Han Solo and the Lost Legacy" "Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon" being two I can remember off the top of my head.

Even the cover art looks like a throwback to the 80's/90's era. They don't really do those BOOM covers anymore.

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May The Force Be With Us, Always

Xander Vos

Well Stover did say he wanted to re-capture the feel of those early novels.

Definately, I love the idea of that, especially if it's in the same vein as Tatooine Ghost, or Survivor's Quest, where the events won't have a dire consequence for the Galaxy.

Well, when I first read the series, I tended to skip the YV parts because I thought they were boring, (Don't know why Confused

) so when I bought a few more of the NJO books (I'm OCD and therefore MUST have my gaps in the serieses filled in Razz

) decided I'd read through them as a way of keeping myself distracted and not forking out more money on SW books. Razz

Kinda failed when I had to buy Jedi Eclipse and Traitor and probably will have to buy Final Prophecy, and now Dark Journey's literally falling apart, but it's been a fun on-the-side thing - I've been reading about 20 pages before I go to sleep and some mornings.
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Time to start again.

Xander Vos

Reading Joiner King and I'm amazed at all the continuity errors Denning makes - making multiple references to Leia serving in the OLD REPUBLIC, before the rise of the Empire, despite this being written after ROTS where we find Palps declaring the Empire before she was born. He also claims R2s were designed by the Empire, when in fact R2 was in service 13 years before the Empire started. *sigh*

Still, liking this series as the pace is far better as a trilogy than NJO or LotF as mammoth series.
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Time to start again.

Xander Vos

I'm on to The Swarm War now - I took a large break between King and Queen because I kinda forgot to start the new one - and a few of the errors were resolved, such as the R2 dating, but the other stuff still bugs me, no pun intended.

I now have Invincible, so I'm rather tempted to skip right to it, but I'll try and be controlled and actually read through Legacy. Wink

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Time to start again.

Xander Vos

Onto Betrayal now - the only good book of LOTF in my opinion - two chapters in. Kind of amazing it'll end up taking me over two years to read from Vector Prime to Invincible...
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Time to start again.

Rive Caedo

Yeah, I'm fairly certain there's a glowing review of Betrayal from me around here somewhere (the Anakin-bot being the only low point).

And then Bloodlines took that glowing hope and rived it to shreds.
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May The Force Be With Us, Always

Xander Vos

Yeah, Allston did such a brilliant job - I shuddered at reading a joking exchange between Jacen and Mara (He was saying he'd have to exact revenge on her for bringing Ben up to be sharp-tongued and she gestured to her lightsaber saying she could preorder prosthetics for him if he wanted to take a shot) given what's to come - at setting up the series, and then it just ground to a halt.

Here's hoping the lesson has been learnt for FOTJ.
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Time to start again.

Rive Caedo

Considering Legacy sold well enough to justify another nine book series? I'm going to guess: No.

I think Star Wars is far more suited to trilogies than "nonologies" and *shudder* "nonadecaologies" (New Jedi Order).
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May The Force Be With Us, Always

Xander Vos

Agreed. Trilogies and standalones work best.

HOWEVER, I do think NJO worked surprisingly well in comparison to LOTF, having read it through start to finish recently. Only Luceno reprises his role later on, and rather than creating contradictory personalities, it all seems to flow, rather than LOTF where it jumped around, focussing on Corellians, the Mandalorians, then Hapans, and back again.
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Time to start again.

Rive Caedo

Having not finished LOTF - I can't make a full judgment. But I do think that the series itself flowed better and had better characterization - but it still would have worked better as two trilogies than 19 books.

Trilogy One: Victory of the Chosen
Vector Prime (Introduction of the Vong and Chewbacca's death)
Agents of Chaos (Dealing with fallout from Chewbacca's death and elaborating on the Vong assaults)
Star by Star (Fall of Coruscant)

Trilogy Two: Downfall of the Chosen
Enemy Lines
Traitor (including stuff from Force Heretic)
The Unifying Force (including stuff from The Final Prophecy)

We'd miss out on some of the more minor character development. But I think it would have worked much better overall.
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May The Force Be With Us, Always

Xander Vos

Hmm, I guess so. But then you miss out on characters like Droma, the fall of the Jedi on Yavin, Jaina's struggle with the Dark Side following Anakin's death, the setting up of characters for the later series - the Hapans and their politics, for example - and all the nice links to the old EU in the Force Heretics Trilogy.

I dunno, I just can't say I was unhappy with NJO I guess. However, I can say that LOTF could have been a trilogy, with [warning, spoilers for Invincible as far as I know them]:

Spoiler:

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Time to start again.

Darth Samuel · First Hand Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 9128

NJO was great. some of it was weird, but I liked it. Traitor is one of the greatest star wars novels ever written.