Agents of Chaos 2: Jedi Eclipse

  The best part of this book was the preview of Balance Point by Kathy Tyers at the end... hmm... James Lucendo, still not a fan...

  I guess a lot happened in this book but it had little to nothing to do with the book before it, Agent's of Chaos I: Hero's Trail even though this is suppose to be part 2! One thing it did have in common was at the end there is a scene that goes through what you just read... but it really wasn't needed in this one. I was able to keep up with events for once.

  A lot of stuff ties in with previous books going way back.


Cover are of Lightsabers from the Young
Jedi Knight series where Tenel Ka
loses her arm

  First off, and yes again... The Courtship of Princess Leia. At last the guy Leia ALMOST married returns to the picture. Leia goes to Hapes to ask them for help with the coming invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong. Isolder now married to the Teneniel and having one Jedi daughter with one arm, Tenel Ka who apparently must have been in one of the junior novels or something due to the fact they speak of an event where Jacen cut it off and I completely have never heard that before. Unless they are doing to her like with Mara sick with no back story. Last I heard of the child Luke was giving some prophetic spill about what great things this child would do... I did not like The Courtship of Princess Leia. So is it my luck that the new films will be completely written around The Courtship of Princess Leia??? I mean this book inspired some of the stories in The Clone Wars TV show! WHY?!?! Anyway... getting back on topic...
   Ok, now I know (through a Google search that yes, her arm was cut off in one of the Young Jedi Knights books. ways to get adults to read a kids book? lol....
  While Leia is in Hapes Han in continuing to search for his new friend's family who has most likely either been capture/killed by the Yuuzahn Vong or made it to a refugee camp.

Ziro the Hut from The Clone Wars

  Ah, speaking of The Clone Wars, this book explained the Drag Queen Hut, Ziro! Turns outs Huts are both male and female! Who knew?! Well, somewhere I missed it at least. So... at some point in Jabba the Hutt's life he was female?? But wait... didn't Jabba have a baby in The Clone Wars? Was Jabba female at that point? I'm getting confused... I'll leave it at that....

  Now we are brought back to the The Corellian Trilogy with Anakin and Jacen. A war on morals are heating up and even Han's cousin is playing a part.

Agent's of Chaos I: Hero's Trail

  And now another by James Luceno's ... he also authored Dark Lord The Rise of Darth Vader and Labyrinth of Evil Yeah, not a fan...
  This book was pretty dull the first half but it did pick up at the end. Mainly the story is about the Yuuzhan Vong attempting to exterminate the Jedi by slipping in a female Yuuzhan Vong  priestess Elan claiming to want to defect. She's actually carrying a toxic poison waiting for the right time to release it. At the same time Han goes his own way to the dismay of his family and the Wookies that want to take over Chewbacca's Life Debt.
  The author seems to want to show off the fact he knows all the novel VERY well. Some stuff must have been in the X-wing books cause I didn't know what they were talking about and it sounded like stuff I should have.

  I really don't have a lot to say about this one. So straight to the few Spoiler notes I can come up with...
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  What on earth is a "familiar"?! You go through this whole book yet never get an answer to this question. Maybe that will be answered eventually or maybe it doesn't matter but this creature goes along with Elan to kill the Jedi yet in the end she goes out of her way to save Mara. If she is such a compationate being how has she followed along so long with Elan in this plan or did she just have a sudden turning point? One must have to guess she is in some way being held aganst her will. Maybe... kind of hoping more about her comes out in later books.
  Some parts felt like shuffling card keeping up with who was where and why! The funny thing is the
last or the second to the last chapter is an over view of what you just read! I mean, it was nice cause I what I just read was not clear in my head! Normally you need to do this in a sequel but this book did it in the same book at the end!
  Ah, these Yuuzhan Vong! They sound so grotesque!!! The illustration of Elan on the cover just doesn't look horrible enough. She too pretty! And who is the guy at the right? Is that the Ryn, Dorma Han hooked up with? Not the image I had in mind by the description I was getting in the book... maybe it's just me.
  Luke and Mara. This is a strange pair... perhaps only Timothy Zahn should be able to write about them. I think James Lucendo did ok at the end where Luke and Mara see who can drink the tears first and yes, I can see that Luke would try it first and that Mara wouldn't allow him to be that protective of her. The dialogue between then is a bit awkward after she takes the stuff. The sickening sweetness is a little much for the two of them in public.
  Since I disliked the image of Elan on the cover I did a little searching and found a fanart piece that I think is a better likeness.


Elan and Vergere by blue-but-beautiful on deviantART

Dark Lord - The Rise of Darth Vader

Following Revenge of the Sith this novel could have held so much promise of being a great book... sadly this being the second of James Luceno's books I have read I have come to the conclusion that he is not that great of writer. While it had it's moments they were equaled with boring battles and bland story telling... bordering on silly and pointless scenarios and too many characters but not enough quality of characterizations. But at least I didn't have flashback of 9/11 reading this one! (See my review of Labyrith of Evil)

You do get to know a Jedi named Shryne and another called Starstone who survive "Order 66". Others enter the picture but good luck keeping up with all of them and in doing so it is pointless due to very little is said about them other then they are there. Maybe they show up in later books but that is left to be seen.

I will give him this, he did an OK job at transforming Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader. And that's one thing that makes it sorta worth reading. You got to know more then you ever thought (or ever wanted to know) about what it was like to wear the black armor that is so well known.

Fan art I came across on Google.
Captures exchange between Sidious and Anakin.
Not sure what the caption says, looks Russian to me.

It's a thought provoking question on how did Anakin become such a killer... a man who did what he did because he loved someone (Padme) and ended up killing her and on top of that what was his thoughts on his Sith Master Sidious who was the master mind of it all. All this becomes an issue when his son returns later. I'm not sure I can buy all of this author reasoning but I give him a hand for trying.
I was happy to see Luke and Leia do appear in this novel! So does Chewbacca! Another thing making it worth reading.
On the cover it states that this is a "must read"! That's a little over hyped... at least in my option. While it's an OK read I just think this writer is not the best the Star War Universe has seen... sadly, far from it.

Labyrinth of Evil

This comes between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. I have mixed feelings about this book. I know James Lucendo has written other Star Wars novels but this is the first one of his I have read. Some of his way of putting down thoughts I find hard to follow, but that could just be me.
This is a post 9/11 (published in 2005) book and I was surprised at the fact that you could tell! The author clearly used current events and political topics in shapeing and telling his story. It seemed odd for a Star Wars novel and this is part of where my mixed feelings about this book start. I lived in AL in 2001 but today can walk out my front door to the end of the street and clearly see the New World Trade Center. That fact alone unnerves me, so reading something that was clearly inspired by the event brought back bad feelings as I can clearly remember the day watching it on my TV set.
As for the Star Wars Universe part of the book I would say it took reading about half of it to truly get into the story. I find this prequel era confusing as it is... so that didn't help... but in a way reading this may have helped me get some of the story better. I'm looking forward to going on to Revenge of the Sith!
The character of Anakin must be a hard one to write... as I grew up with Han, Leia, Luke... and all (as that was all there was) I have not figured out the personalitys of the prequel movies as well. I appreciated the attempt of the writer to show the soon to be Dark Vader's conflicts with himself and the Jedi way.
So like I said, I was mixed on how I felt about this one and I will leave it at that...