Dark Tide II: Ruin

  Part two, Dark Tide: Ruin following Dark Tide: Onslaught by Michael A. Stackpole. He is also the author of I Jedi. Really not sure how I feel about this author...  does things I like, dose things I don't... and he has to have some form of first person speaking even when written in third... I came across one reviewer of this book who really disliked this (I lost his blog but I'll add it if I run across it) but I can't say I dislike it, more like I think it's just a little awkward to the flow since most other authors don't do.
  According to Wookieepedia this was first planed as a trilogy but the last two where combined. Good move, I don't see how you could get two books out of this and not drag it out too long. (I, Jedi might had been better split up though!)
  I remarked on the style of painting on Dark Tide; Onslaught. This one too has an impressionistic style. According to Wookieepedia the cover shows a ship that was planed to be in book two but apparently didn't make the final cut... yeah... after finishing the book I still was confused with the cover... now I know it wasn't just me... They kept talking about the planet that very few were allowed to actual set foot on... my best guess was that thing in the picture was where they lived... but still, that still didn't seem right! Why they chose to put a cover picture of something that isn't even in the book.... just, why?!

____Spoiler Alert________

   Some where I missed where Wedge Antilles broke up with Qwi Xux who first showed up in Jedi Academy Trilogy. I had been wondering what had happened to the two. It must have been covered in a X-wing novel, which I haven't read any of the X-wing books.


  First Chewbacca and now another loved character is lost... Well, this character is fairly new. He showed up I believe in Spector of the Past (correct me if I'm wrong on that) Elegos A'Kla of Caamas was a very interesting character. If I remember correctly, it was said even the Jedi looked up to this race's wisdom. It just feels a little too soon to kill him off. Have to say he went in a very memorable and disturbing way though. It gave us an insight on this Yuuzhan Vong and their twisted since of honor.

"These bones here, I present to you so you may know the proper way to venerate fallen Yuuzhan Vong warriors." -Shedao Shai
 
  And yet, Elegos A'Kla did seem to die without meaning and his killer dies to make room for a worst enemy to take over. And Corran finds himself walking on the line of the darkside.

Dark Tide I: Onslaught

  This is the first book of two. This is just a continuation of Vector Prime by another author as I am guessing most of The New Jedi Order series will be. This one is written by Michael A. Stackpole author of I, Jedi. Stackpole has this knack of picking scenes in which he stops and describes in great detail that I don't understand why! This happened a lot in I, Jedi and I noticed it in this one as well but it was better then I, Jedi.
  For some reason they changed up the style of artwork on the cover. Very impressionistic.

  Not much I can say without giving much away from here... fair warning.




Battle of Dantooine

Spoiler Notes;

After killing Chewy in the last book, they did their trick. I really thought they were going to kill another one off in this one with Corran Horn! I was pretty convinced they had by the end of that chapter.

Jacen dropped quite a bombshell on Luke. I did not see that coming either, an interesting twist though it's pretty obvious he will continue on as a Jedi, partially after he up and runs out on his uncle after thinking he had a vision.

  How Anakin got the Alien on Dantooine to understand the bargain to bring them firewood is beyond me cause I read that scene over and over again and I could not figure out what he was telling him! And speaking of that tribe, what happened to them? Anakin sent them away but did they make it? Did the Vong find them? They were dropped from the story after that... maybe they will show up later.

“I placed quite a burden on Anakin, didn't I, by giving him that name." –Leia Organa Solo

  Anakin was given his name against Han's wishes for a Han Jr. in the graphic novel series Dark Empire which is the first Expanded Universe book I got my hands on. I have wondered since why Leia named him Anakin! Other then in Dark Empire does she do anything that shows she truly embraces who her father was or forgives him in anyway. Tatooine Ghost is as close as she gets to seeing her father as anything close to being human. And now at last it is questioned why Leia named Anakin after his grandfather! I'm surprised it took this long! I wish there had been a book where it gave the reaction of everyone when they found out about the Skywalker twins and who Darth Vader were! Cause you know, that would have been interesting. In the Truce of Bakura Leia is struggling with the fact that Vader was her father and at that point in time only Luke and Han knew.
  So her reasoning is that she is trying to redeem her father's name... I guess that's a fair explanation but I think it would have been better had they brought this up way before now! You hate your father but you name your child after him... well, I'm glad someone finally tried to give a good reason for this at least.


  Great, I don't have the next book! So... until I can fix that little problem I think I'll backtrack again by reading Slinter of the Mind's Eye I found a copy of not long ago with Survivor's Quest.
 

I, Jedi

My copy

For the past 6 months I have been writing reviews on Pinterest on each book I read in the Star Wars series. Since using pinterest is a bit hard on my phone and I have now discovered they have put a limit on text! I found this blogging app for my new Android so... hi blogger world :-) I'm not much of a blogger btw, I doubt few are even gonna read this.... but here goes... ;-)
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I, Jedi was quite a change from the past books I have read in the SW Universe. Mainly because it was writen in 1st person through the eyes of Corran Horn who throughout the book changes names quite a few times!
I'm skipping over the X-wings books right now. I may later go back and read them but I'm sticking to the orignal charictors right now (plus stories about X-wings sound so boring... I could be wrong, I haven't read them yet) this book seems to be a mixture of both. oddly and I was surprised by this, the book back tracks in time retelling the story of Champions of the Force through Corran's eyes. Then continues on from there with Corran's story. I had a bit of a time keeping up with it at points, mostly when they strayed from the main charictors but that may be due to I have not read the X-wing books and not that farmilar with all the charictors in those. I may have to return to this book again one day after I've read them.
Biggest complaint, LUKE why do some of these authors have such a hard time capturing the personality? This author did better then the last but not much.
This book was also the longest I have read at around 600 pages. I have to wonder why the author dwelled on some events in the story and skipped quickly over others. I couldn't quite figure it out.... Lastly this author is more based in reality... haha... which was a tad annoying because I enjoy reading to leave it and join another. Questioning things in the SW world that I hadnt thought about in a realistic way. Some things were thought provoking... I like the one about looking at yourself in the mirror....

 

My copy with my SW bookmark