Force Heretic #1 Remnant

    After a bit over half way through I'm at last sold on the New Jedi Order Series! It's turning out to be pretty awesome! Sadly, I'm also missing the next book in this trilogy, Force Heretic. Since I have been unable to get my hands on the next one I have gone back and reread parts of a number of books. Where I am now, really makes the past books much more interesting. They did a really good job on this series! Unlike a lot of the novels before were stand alone and written in a somewhat random order. The New Jedi Order is obviously planned out even though a number of authors were involved. This makes it possible to keep a coherent story going! THANK YOU! Actually they are bringing a number of story lines from pass books into The New Jedi Order, tying up lose ends.
   Force Heretic is written by two authors Shane Dix and Sean Williams. Have not seen that done before in the Star Wars EU.



Spoilers/Thoughts:

   As for story: As it is now something is happening to Tahiri, nearly a member of the Solo family due to her relationship with the youngest Solo, Anakin. You can clearly conclude that she in her dreams is being chased by two beings.

 Questions: Who are they? Or more like who and/or what do they represent and how real are these dreams? Do they represent the past, future, or actually happening for real?

   The best I can come up with is the being with a face that is her face is her but a changed her, possibly the person the Yuuzhan Vong created for her to be..... the lizard... well, hmm... Anakin? Could some part of Anakin still be around? When she talks to Jaina she tells her he is trying to kill her... what?! I've read and read over again and can't figure out where they are going with this.

    We do know as I noted with Traitor that Jacen sees Anakin in a much higher pain level then he is. That made me wonder if Anakin in some way still being held by the Yuuzhan Vong. But why he would be chasing Tahiri in her dreams wanting to kill her I don't know. In Traitor Anakin (real or not) keeps showing up to save his brother. We are also seeing there is a way to sense the Yuuzhan Vong through the force but not through it... In Destiny's Way Jacen actually tries to show Tahiri how to do it being she had a slave implanted in her as well. He believes that perhaps it is the reason he has this ability. The result is not what he hoped. Tahiri feels nothing... or did she and denied it? In Remnant she feels that she will be hated for what is happening to her. She knows Jacen can sense them as well so why would it scare her since that is what Jacen was trying to do. So many unanswered questions!!!


Solo children's last mission

   Then there is Jaina. This girl has issues. It's understandable that she lost it when she believed both Anakin and Jacen were dead. Before it was known that Jacen was alive she went into a state of despair. Being shocked when learning he was alive she feels guilty that she was responsible for losing contact, blocking him of a way to reach her as she tipped to the dark side. Jacen has a much better reason for not reaching out to her. She would have looked for him if she had known he was alive which is what the Yuuzhan Vong wanted. But Jacen has reasons other then this for not contacting her, as she is, he's ashamed as well at how close he got to losing it. These two have some healing to do.

Destiny's Way

 

 

 

   The Theme of The New Jedi Order is can we kill at least one important character a book? I'm going to have to test my theory and make a list!
 

   I will spare you the spoiler. This book compared to Traitor it is really not good. But being Traitor is the best Star Wars EU I have read... it's a hard book to follow. I don't understand why most of the books published in hardback are not the best ones in the series!

 

   In this one we do learn more about Vergere and at last Jacen is reunited with his family. But emotional depth is an afterthought to this author which is such a disappointment.

    At one point they decide to "Knight" the younger Jedi. What is the point in this?! They have been listing them as "Knight"s the whole time... they just up and say, hey we should "Knight" these kids? What about the older Jedi like Corran and Kyp? They don't get to be knighted?!

   Second, why is Luke saying things he doesn't even know what they mean himself... it's kind of weird/creepy... Sounds like Jaina's going to be having a hard time ahead of her by what Luke said at her Knighting.

The New Jedi Order: Traitor

   I have been looking forward to reading this one. Not because of the author but because I wanted to read what happened to Jacen. He's been missing for a while now.

   After reading a few pages I put the book down and in awe wondered, "who wrote THIS?!" It was completely different then any other New Jedi Order books I have read thus far. But, I slightly recognized the style, but could it be... I couldn't remember the name. It's been a number of years since I read The Revenge of the Sith. But I recognized the ability of this author to take a story to another level. I was right the author is Matthew Stover.

   Most of this story is about Jacen. I read on Wookieepedia that it was the first Star Wars EU to not have an appearance of an original character. It also claims this is the shortest. My paperback copy is 292. Dark Journey is close at 301.

    We are now learning more about this bird like alien named Vergere. Vergrere now claims she met Jacen's Grandfather when he was a child. But did not know of his fate with the dark side.

  Some ideas she shares with Jacen sound Jedi'ish but some stuff she comes up with sounds like it came straight from the darkside and is confusing the day lights out of Jacen. She seems to want to save one minute and turn him over to the Vong the next!

  The Jedi who has a history of reckless adventures Ganner enters in the story with rumors that Jacen Solo is still alive and takes on a personal search to find him believing if he is still alive it could make a differance in the war and help turn Jaina around from her Dark Journey.

   I don't understand why he goes to Jaina about Jacen. They had all been together when Jacen's death supposedly happens. Jaina does admit that she never told her mother what the Vong put him through before he died. She believes that they kept him alive just to hurt him and does not want to hurt her mother who still has hope that her son is still alive. So Ganner goes out on his own.

   One interesting point struck me. Is Anakin really dead? I mean, I think he is and at one point Vergere remarks that it is unknown if the dead can still feel pain after thier death... In the beginning of the book Jacen sees his brother in a much deeper level of pain then he.... He also knows about Jaina's slip into the dark side before he is cut off from the force. So... is Anakin really in pain... dead, and/or capture in someway by the Vong and being held by them. Where was the author trying to go with this... I don't have answer.