New Books

Xander Vos

Jacen only became the way he did following his 5 year sabbatical. I don't mind that, he was creepy in Dark Nest without being a Sith. Have him return, everyone a bit weirded out by him for a year or two, THEN bring in the Dark Nest... THEN LOTF five years later, making it more like 15 years since NJO, in which time his creepy views have taken a darker turn, Allana's a little older and more in need of real protection than just a Nanny droid.

Have LOTF take place over 4 or 5 years, it can take a while to take down a Galactic Government, more than just sitting in an office with a droid re-wording the constitution. Have brush fires going on through the Galaxy. It can be the new Clone Wars, in fact that's perfect because they're in love with the mirroring crap anyway.

Then instead of jumping into a new epic series, fill out that 4 or 5 year period with books from little known Jedi's POV about the war, have a new X-Wing series, get some Master-Padawan experiences in there, have some common soldier stories. THAT way no one's stepping on each other's toes, and just have a book set every year of the war progressing Jacen's move towards the Dark Side.

Instead of trying to show Jacen's journey with Luke and Ben tracing the journey, have a book about Jacen, a la Darth Bane: Path of Destruction. Then you can leave the new series for much later down the line, and, since it's all hard covers assumably one of the Big Three are gonna cork it, so you make them older, allowing them a "longer" life. Build it up, have an epic series that doesn't feel like everyone hasn't caught their breath yet.

Not only does it make it more realistic - the LOTF war went on for less than a year but was more destructive than the Clone Wars - it also gives them a chance to make more money with more books. Isn't that what they want?

Speaking of, finally watched the CW movie today, those writers seriously needed to be shot. Razz

I mean, I'm 17 (barely) and I've just given a much more credible way of doing things off the top of my head. They PAY people to brain storm this stuff, and they STILL don't get it?!

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Xander Vos

Rule of Two was a brilliant book, a perfect encapsulation of what Star Wars should be. No over-arching menacing drama - granted the book revolves around a menace! - and no end-of-the-Galaxy doom and gloom. The book - trying to avoid spoilers - covers the first ten years of Darth Zannah's Apprenticeship, and some very interesting events along the way, including the fate of several Jedi who have been a part of Star Wars lore for a while. Wink

The book not only capture the character of Bane perfectly, but the character of Zannah was also believable, with the only character I struggled to really believe in was Darovit, who seemed far too whiny to really like. Zannah's doubts about the Dark Side not only made her more believable, but also made her eventual decision to stick with it more realistic.

Karpashyn is really saving Star Wars in my eyes - to contrast with it, I'm about 100 pages into Order 66 and the style and type of story are makign it much more of a struggle to read.

9.5/10 for me. Very Happy

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Rive Caedo

*sigh*

You're going to make me buy the Bane series, aren't you? While I still have Outbound Flight, Coruscant Nights, and Legacy sitting here.

Razz

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May The Force Be With Us, Always

Crozeus

They are simply amazing.
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thedarksithlords.myfreeforum.org

A history lesson:

Xander Vos

Heh seeing mentions of "Master Vos" in Order 66 is really odd for me as I see that as being Xander Vos, not Quinlan Vos, a real character. Razz

And the fact it's a criticism of him only makes it worse... Evil or Very Mad

Pretty good book though I must say, though she's surely being paid to put at least one Mando word on each page... Rolling Eyes

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

I hate Karen Traviss more than Hitler hated jews.

Xander Vos

Why? Agreed, her Legacy stuff is God-aweful, but her RC books are actually quite good. Like I said, now that I've started writing-Mando, I can see where she's coming from and enjoy it a lot more.
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Darth Samuel · First Hand Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 9128

Still, WTF is up with Boba suddenly being all emotion and crap. He was THE definiton of bad*** until she screwed him prison-style. He had no feeling about his father until he was 72 years old. That's the age when you start forgetting crap, not suddenly remembering it. And now he's all concerned about family? Screw that crap, he coulda done that a while ago.

Xander Vos

He's only interested in family because Ailyn Vel and Mirta Gev suddenly appeared, though the constant crying about his father does play on my nerves. Skirata alone is bad enough because he's an emotional baby, the Mandos are meant to be hard-assed no-nonsense conquerers.

Her Boba Fett novel screams AVOID AT ALL COST.

She writes hime well externally, but internally she's a mess.
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Darth Samuel · First Hand Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 9128

I want her to die a horrible death.

Xander Vos

Meh, she's not so bad now that I've gotten used to her. True Colours and Bloodlines are still her weakest showings IMO.
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Rive Caedo

Xander Vos

Hehe indeed. Revelation and Sacrifice were a little toned down. Razz

Untitled Boba Fett novel will be full blown. Sad

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Xander Vos

I recently finished Order 66, and I must say I was far more impressed with this one than any other Traviss book recently - in fact I think only Hard Contact surpasses it in terms of quality. That said, the book only really 'kicks in' at page 375, when Order 66 is executed, but that still leaves about 100 pages of story.

Traviss sets up a logical explanation for the poor aim of the storm troopers, and provides a great transition from the Republic into the Empire. Whilst Skirata still gets on my nerves for being too soft for a Mandalorian, the story itself provided a good enough reason for this to be the case for it to be a major issue.

The links between it and her LOTF books make them far more interesting to read now, as she has now essentially moved her characters to Mandalore, where they will presumably remain until the LOTF series.

All in all 7/10 for me.
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Xander Vos

Finished Street of Shadows, almost finished the next one in the series - Patterns of the Force I think?

Street of Shadows was... different. The language style immediately struck me, although that may have been how it was for the first one, I just may not have noticed because it was a while ago. The plot was interesting, being a murder mystery essentially, and Reaves seems to have taken a lot of fun inventing new characters.

Dating was VERY mixed up though, I must say. With references to the Clone Wars as having been 20 years ago, coupled with statements that Jax is merely 20 and that Order-66 seems to have been a semi-recent event.

I can understand the book being c. 15 BBY, but any later would be odd.

7/10 for me, enjoyable, but not something I'll likely read again too soon, unless I do a big saga read and read Shadow Hunter, Medstar, these ones, and Shadows of the Empire all in one go.

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