The New Rebellion

  3/4 of this one was pretty mediocre. Probably didn't help that it was following such an intence trilogy, The Black Fleet Crisis. It bugged me at first that this author ignored things that had happened in past books that should have continued the growth of the characters. And then half way through the book she started mentioning stuff from past books! It was odd, like she'd just read the others half way into writing her's... :-/




Han helps Leia out of the bombed Senate building

   I found the part with the bombing of the Senate building interesting cause this was written pre 9/11 unlike another I have read, (I think it was Labyrinth of Evil) which used 9/11 as the obvious inspiration. Since this was pre 9/11 it was interesting to see a terrorist like attack portrayed when at the time main land America had never been through one. And unlike Laberath of Evil it was not used as a political statement in the story. As Labyrinth of Evil was.

 

 

 I guess a lot of the mediocre parts did help in building to the end. The last quarter was good and really made the book worth reading!

With that said I will now move on to some comments that are spoilers... so look away if you wish.

Where to start... uh, I'll just start somewhere...

 

Nandreeson with his fire breathers revengefully tries to execute Lando

Lando; Well, make that Lando and Han. I got confused after their smuggler friends switch sides so many times! I've yet to figure it all out! Maybe the point was that money will makes simi-good people do some bad things... but that back stabbing started getting old and confusing! And the dragon people? Come on! I don't know if that is a creation of this author or another being Lando and the dragons had history, but they were rather silly. And the way they defeated them was even worse!

Leia; The problem was it was like all she went through in The Black Fleet Crisis didn't happen. She AGAIN is being sent to a vote to the Senate to remove her. After TBFC this is really nothing new! More should have been mentioned about that because it should have naturally played into her character growth.

Luke; OK, right off I can't think of anything much to complain about. It is nice that the Super Jedi idea has finally died. It totally ruined the Luke created in the films. This author did a pretty good job with Luke. I did how ever notice a copy of Children of the Jedi on let's see how bad we can beat up Luke... It did work but it seemed more like copying another authors work then coming up with something original.

Anakin; Awe, I'm liking this kid!

R2D2 and Threepio; I like how they become heroes though I got confused a few time in the part R2D2 was waging war.

Mara Jade; What was going on with this?! She shows up much to Hans dislike to be of no help what-so-ever! She plays no part what-so-ever in saving Luke. One moment she's behind Han. Then the author totally drops her! It's like she wasn't even there :-/ and not mentioned again until they are on their ride back.

Kueller; Ok, now onto the mask. On the front cover there in a disturbing image of a skull. A realistic human skull! The book talks of how realistic it is also. Now check out illustrations of this character and notice all of them show him wearing a mask that looks more like a robot! Hu? Also I in the book it talks about how the mask holds memories but not much else is elaborated on this matter which leaves you wondering what does the mask "remember" and what is the point? How can the mask be used in the future? A lot in this book makes you wonder about things cause they just are brought up but never taken to a conclusion... which bugs me...

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.

Revenge of the Sith

My Copy with holographic cover!

Wow... this book was pretty intense! Really love the authors approach in getting into the minds and feelings of the characters! A very important thing to me. I love depth! Long drawn out battles can be a bit boring partially when there is little depth but this author kept a fairly good pace with the action scenes adding the emotions and mind sets of the players in the scene.
Very different and dramatic writing style with a lot of insights in things there is no way you could spell out well in a movie. Too bad this author did not write a novelization of Return of the Jedi because I think he could do it justice! Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi are my favorites of the films. ROTJ being the top on my list which I have now watched it countless times. The official novel for ROTJ is not very good. I would love to see an updated one now that Darth Vader's story is known!
I haven't seen Revenge of the Sith in a number of years and not nearly as many times as I've seen ROTJ. I don't remember a quarter of this book even being in the movie... guess I'm going to have to go and watch it again now. But that was a good thing that I didn't remember a lot of the movie cause it made the book even better not quite knowing what was coming next.
The author sets a very dark mood with poetry and the book is segmented in three parts with a poem starting each one. The chapters are also named! Something I haven't seen in a book in a long time! In my own writings I have always liked to name chapters... just a personal thing maybe, I don't see it done much.
This has to go on my list of the best SW novels I've read so far!
By the way, I finished it on May 4th... May the 4th by with you! And this is being blogged on the Revenge of the 5th!

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...