Book Review: Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones- R.A. Salvatore

Star Wars, Episode II - Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is hands-down the best novelization of the prequel trilogy. Matthew Woodring Stover did a pretty good job with Episode III and Terry Brooks did the best he could be The Phantom Menace, but R.A. Salvatore really brought this novel to life. He wrote this novel after he wrote Vector Prime and I don't know if he was given the opportunity because of how bad the fan reaction was to the incident (view spoiler)[[spoiler for another book alert] where he was told to kill off Chewbacca in that book (hide spoiler)] or if he was given it for another reason, but either way he pulled it off. Most, if not all, of the deleted scenes from the movie were in the book and they didn't add a lot to the novel, but it didn't detract from it either. It is certainly interesting to see how different authors given scripts by the same man all write uniquely different stories.
However, this does not mean that the story itself is great, just the telling of it. The following is more a critique of George Lucas's script and movie. I've complained in several other reviews of books that come [in-Universe] chronologically before this book, and it will also be a complaint in my upcoming reviews of Clone War era novels- everyone wants to make Anakin evil, or at least to show their own hints of him going to the Dark Side. George Lucas got greedy here too, and wanted to foreshadow it too strongly with (view spoiler)[the death of Anakin's mother being the catalyst for his slaughter of the Tusken Raiders (hide spoiler)]. As the podcast, StoryWonk's Story and Star Wars points out so well, the story of Star Wars is a hero's journey mixed with the dramatic irony of Anakin's downfall. Sure, some foreshadowing might be necessary, but we should not see the hero fail; his flame should not be flickering, but getting too bright. Even so, it happens here and it is a shame, and what adds to that shame is Padmé's acceptance and nonchalance about it. For a better and more thourough review of the shortcomings of the movie, while still respecting it and not discounting it totally, be sure to list to the review by StoryWonk, and their whole series in fact.

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Review: Star Wars: Omega Squad: Targets- Karen Traviss & Dany Pépin

Star Wars Omega Squad: Targets by Karen Traviss

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This short story was turned into an audio production by fans and this is a review of that, as much as it is a review of this short story.
It is really hard to review a short story without spoiling everything. For a short story, this one was good and gripping. New characters were introduced and connections were established quickly. There was a descent twist at the end (view spoiler)[even though it didn't allow the hero main characters to shine as much (hide spoiler)]. Before she had a falling out with the Star Wars Universe Karen Traviss wrote a lot of good military novels.</["br"]>

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Book Review: Star Wars: The Approaching Storm- Alan Dean Foster

The Approaching Storm by Alan Dean Foster
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

SLOW, oh my god this book was so slow!
This first novel (in-Universe chronology) establishes a pattern that existed if not through the Clone Wars era novels, then at least through the ones that were written before the Clone Wars movie and TV series came out (real-world chronology). That pattern is to take a Jedi we are familiar with from the movies and pair him with another one that we wanted to know about and focus on both together. I'm reminded of a common criticism of The X-Files and Supernatural TV shows which was "monster of the week", except here it is minor Jedi of the novel.
In this novel, since there were two main Jedi, master and apprentice, Obi-Wan and Anakin, there are two minor Jedi, master and apprentice, Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee. Like most of the novels surrounding Episode I (and to a lesser extent Episode II and The Clone Wars) the emphasis is on politics. In this novel the dispute is between traditional, nomadic people and modern, urban people. Unfortunately, to make matters even worse, the novel doesn't even deal with the politics of the situation. The whole story is the Jedi trying to get to the nomads and having to overcome nature.
It is sad and surprising because Alan Dean Foster is the original Star Wars author- he wrote as George Lucas's ghost writer for Episode IV: A New Hope's novelization and the first Expanded Universe author, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. And now he's been given the reigns of the new trilogy and given the novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Of the ones of those I've read they have all been very good and so it was surprising that this novel was so slow. The world it describes is complex and interesting, but the plot is lacking.

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Book Review: The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery- Sam Kean

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery by Sam Kean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I try to keep up-to-date on new science books, I usually do this just by browsing my library's new release catalog. That was how I originally stumbled across Sam Kean's first book, The Disappearing Spoon , which was amazing and I was so excited that I was able to listen to it on audio. That book is still one of my favorite science books I have ever read, and I hope to re-read it soon.
Needless to say I became a Sam Kean fan immediately and have kept abreast of his new books [you can read my review of The Violinist's Thumb here]. When this book came out I was disappointed that the audiobook release was delayed. Eventually, it did come out and I finally got around to listening to it, but not until after I met him at a conference a year ago.
Back in January 2015, he was the first Keynote speaker at the SECO conference and I made sure to leave early enough to make it to hear him in time, since his talk was the first thing after registration opened and since I had a long drive to get to the conference. His talk focused on his second book, which I had read, but like all of his books there was a lot of information overload and I was reminded of a lot that I had forgotten. At the end of his talk he took questions, one of which was mine, and I had learned from his webpage that his background was in physics, so I asked him if/when he intended to do a physics book [since he's done: elements/chemistry, genetics, and neurology]. He told me that he was still looking for the gripping and engaging stories like the ones he told in these books, but that he did have a file of stories to expand upon to eventually write that book. He then signed books afterwards, and I got my copies of his first two books signed, and he informed me that the copy of The Violinist's Thumb that I have is the UK edition/cover and we talked casually for a while. One of the few tweets I've ever tweeted came about after that encounter.
Anyway, on to my review of this book. Like all of his others, this book was stellar. He told amazing, surprising, sometimes funny, sometimes horrifying stories, all of which enlightened me about what we know about the brain and what we still have to learn. I was hardly able to put the book down and enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm debating still whether I want a copy for my classroom because of the age-appropriateness of some of the stories, but I did share many things I learned from the book with my students in off-topic discussions we had around the time I was reading it because I love learning and sharing new things. Now the problem is I am left hanging and waiting for another book from him, because the other downside of this one and his others is that it was over too soon.

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Book Review: Outbound Flight- Timothy Zahn

Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Re-reading this book really just emphasized to me how desperately I need to re-read the original Thrawn Trilogy, even though I probably listened to it a hundred times. I know when normal people say they've done something "hundreds" of times it is usually interpreted to be an exaggeration, but I probably listened to the abridged audiobook at least once a month for 8 years. My biggest conflict is that I tend to confuse the Outbound Flight Project with the Katana Fleet.
Anyway, although I love Timothy Zahn's books, this one was a little odd. First, it seems unnecessary to have the extra anchor of Anakin and Obi-Wan on the flight because fans who are familiar with Zahn's other works probably have enough of an anchor already. It is nice to see this storyline woven into the prequels pretty seamlessly because there were quite a few items in the Thrawn Trilogy that were contradicted by the prequels or had to be retconned to fit back in. A surprise to me was that as the Outbound flight reached the Unknown Regions of space that they ran into not only (view spoiler)[the Chiss, but also Mitth'raw'nuruodo [Thrawn] (hide spoiler)]. That half/view of the story was its saving grace because the Outbound Flight itself and Jorus C'baoth were kind of disjointed. C'baoth as a Jedi seemed too unorthodox, which isn't to say that this wasn't allowed or couldn't have been, but it was made quite clear in the Thrawn Trilogy [spoiler for that series coming up], that the cloning process is what made the clone of the Jedi master, Joruus, crazy. In this series the original "copy" is quite crazy on his own already. Overall, though, Zahn tells great, complex stories and he did an excellent job here of weaving together the tales that he has written with the prequels themselves.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Quest: The Master of Disguise- Jude Watson

The Master of Disguise by Jude Watson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book is the worst of the four books in this series that were turned into audiobooks. This however is only partly because of the plot of the book itself. Some of this also has to do with the fact that a recurring antagonist [first introduced in the second book The Trail of the Jedi] comes back, but the series is setup to continue this conflict and the listener is left hanging, unless they want to become a reader also. Beyond that this book was just okay. Master and apprentice are again separated [a common theme], but the story focuses on Anakin and pretty much abandons obi-Wan's plot. There is some interesting lightsaber training by a different Master, and although it is a shame to not see someone like Shaak Ti doing this it does serve to expand the Universe. In the end this book was kid of slow and I was disappointed to me left hanging about the series as a whole.

Check out all my reviews of the audiobooks in this series:


Also shows, Junior Novelization of Attack of the Clones [not reviewed]


1. The Way of the Apprentice,
2. The Trail of the Jedi,
3. The Dangerous Games, or
read my review of the Jedi Quest series as a whole.


View all my reviews

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Quest: The Dangerous Games- Jude Watson

The Dangerous Games by Jude Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has some nice tie-ins to Episode I. As can be seen from the cover, Anakin does a podrace again and someone else (view spoiler) is using his old podracer. The tension and Anakin's altruism are great here and even though he butts-heads with Obi-Wan too much, the reason is Anakin's big heart, which is so similar to Qui-Gon's approach and Obi-Wan's old hesitance with that. Also, different than the first book in this series (view spoiler). I do wish that the book had been able to spend more time focusing on the Galactic Games [essentially our Olympics] than it did, but overall it was a good story and the second best of the audiobooks in this series.

Check out all my reviews of the audiobooks in this series:


Also shows, Junior Novelization of Attack of the Clones [not reviewed]

1. The Way of the Apprentice,
2. The Trail of the Jedi,
4. The Master of Disguise, or
read my review of the Jedi Quest series as a whole.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Quest: The Trail of the Jedi- Jude Watson

The Trail of the Jedi by Jude Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is the worst for Anakin and Obi-Wan butting heads. When we see inside their thoughts [third-person omniscient] we see that they both have doubts, but rather than being open and honest with each other, they keep it to themselves and this drives a wedge between them. That is the point of most of this book, but the point should be the bonding and becoming like brothers. The action is this novel is not what was expected and it is an enjoyable read. We do get to see some team work and bonding and more importantly, we get to see (view spoiler) to give the series a focus on someone other than the Sith for a change. This one is probably the best of the four [audiobooks] in this series, even through I gave the first three 3 stars each.

Check out all my reviews of the audiobooks in this series:


Also shows, Junior Novelization of Attack of the Clones [not reviewed]

1. The Way of the Apprentice,
3. The Dangerous Games,
4. The Master of Disguise, or
read my review of the Jedi Quest series as a whole.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Star Wars: Jedi Quest: The Way of the Apprentice- Jude Watson

The Way of the Apprentice by Jude Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book does a descent job of setting the scene for the series. We get to see Anakin's training at the Jedi Temple and the friendships and rivalries he encounters there. The action is somewhat predictable and the team of rivals approach is also obvious, but the story works well and was an enjoyable read.


Check out all my reviews of the audiobooks in this series:


Also shows, Junior Novelization of Attack of the Clones [not reviewed]

2. The Trail of the Jedi,
3. The Dangerous Games,
4. The Master of Disguise , or
read my review of the Jedi Quest series as a whole.

View all my reviews

Series Review: The Jedi Quest Audiobooks- Jude Watson

Also shows, Junior Novelization of Attack of the Clones [not reviewed]

Possible Spoiler Alert: I am going to attempt to review each of four Jedi Quest books that were turned into audiobooks together at the beginning of the review. I listened to them all in a row and there is little distinction between them in my mind and so I may, without intending to do so, give details away. I believe that the audio productions were all unabridged, but it is possible that they were abridged and there are parts of the story I am unfamiliar with. Following this paragraph is my review of the series, before I touch on my review of the individual book in future subsequent posts. At the end there is a link to the other books in the series that I listened to and reviewed.

My complaint about this, and most novels in the prequel/Rise of the Empire era, is that Anakin is too evil. I understand that in a young adult/children's novel that things need to be more black and white [although I do think that many children can handle more complexity that we give them credit for], but still over and over we see Anakin losing his temper or giving into fear and dabbling in the Dark Side. Also, almost constantly, Anakin and Obi-Wan are butting heads here. After recently re-watching the movies there maybe isn't as much camaraderie portrayed as I thought, but still there is a friendship of mutual respect, if not a father-son or even brother-brother relationship between the two. One of my favorite things about all of the prequels is Obi-Wan's sense of humor mixed with the seriousness with which he takes his duties- his lighthearted smile and quick wit are enjoyable. Frequently, he and Anakin trade jokes and tease or even harass each other. I love this, but over and over again in these books and the others around it there is nothing but tension shown and we don't get the chance to see the close relationship developing. Beyond that I don't have a lot of complaints. Too many of Anakin's peers, and the Jedi in general, are human rather than alien and his age seems to be in flux a little bit- at times Anakin is too mature and at times he is too immature. These books came out after Episode II and so they are written as prequels to that rather than as sequels to the young Anakin of Episode I and Rouge Planet.  Overall, for a YA series the books aren't bad, but see my review of the fourth book for my other complaints/issues about the audiobook series as a whole.


Check out all my reviews of the audiobooks in this series:
1. The Way of the Apprentice,
2. The Trail of the Jedi,
3. The Dangerous Games, or
4. The Master of Disguise.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Book Review: Star Wars: Rogue Planet- Greg Bear

Star Wars: Rogue Planet by Greg Bear
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Although I listened to the abridged audio edition of this book most recently and have listened to that edition a couple of other times, I have also read the print book once [although it took more than one time checking it out of the library to force myself through it].

The last line there should give you a pretty good idea about my thoughts on this book. In fact, I remember specifically reading the full book hoping that maybe something that was cut in the abridgment of it that would make it more enjoyable or understandable, but no- there is a pretty big jump between the middle and the end where things fall to pieces without making much sense.

Even as I re-read it this time I found myself wondering if maybe my mind had wandered too much during my prior readings of it because it wasn't that bad until the end, but once again I was surprised at what a bad turn it took. In fact, maybe that is why I don't like it as much, because it strings you along for a pretty enjoyable ride and then turns on you.

This book was written to be a prequel to the New Jedi Order series with its Yuuzhan Vong invasion. It was interesting, although confusing, to see Vergere and "the far outsiders". It was also interesting to see bio-ships again [this was also done as a lengthy, and disconnected, side plot in The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy with Lando, Lobot and the droids exploring the Teljkon Vagabond]. (view spoiler)[A moving, living planet gives a little more credence to the barely believable construction of the Corellian system from the Corellian Trilogy. (hide spoiler)] My biggest complaint, and this will be a theme through all of my reviews of the prequel/"Rise of the Empire" era novels is that every author wants to foreshadow the downfall of Anakin, and this just becomes unbelievable. For someone to be this terrible throughout, it makes it even less believable that no one saw this coming, or that everyone just turned a blind eye. In addition to that, unfortunately we don't get to see Obi-Wan be the confident Master in this book, although that is probably reasonable at this point in the timeline. Also, a common theme in the pre-prequel [real-world chronology] novels is that everyone wants to claim creation of the Death Star plans which became so convoluted, with Tarkin, Bevel Lemelisk, Qui Xux, Poggle the Lesser, and probably others that I missed all given credit at one point for creating it, that eventually a whole novel was commissioned just to retcon the whole mess. To me, it seems obvious, that authors should have just stepped away from some things and let certain stories be left alone for the movies to address, but often times these extras were written about and it makes little sense. And in the authors' defense, there have been times where they have been directed to do certain things, so maybe this was outside of their control, but it still seems short-sighted. Having said that, this book does a better job than any other in the Legends EU series giving Tarkin some depth of character and background, which was quite revealing to see.

This book isn't the worst in the Star Wars [Legends] Expanded Universe, that honor used to belong to Barbara Hambly, but now I think Joe Schreiber has taken that title away from her with his two horror books, but it comes right up against them.

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Book Reivew: Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace- Terry Brooks

Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Any review of this book has to take into consideration that the author did not write the main story here, but instead was told the story and simply had to flesh it out. With that in mind, I'm going to do my best to limit my criticisms to the book and not to the story, which has its own problems as we know.
This is not the first time I have read this book. After watching a midnight showing of the movie the night it was released I had the next day off of school [I actually had it off, we had a program where if you had a certain GPA you could take one personal day off per quarter- I probably qualified for it 10-12 of the 16 quarters I had in I school, but this was the only time I took advantage of it]. After sleeping in, I drove to the next town over where there was the only bookstore [without my parent's permission because I was using their car] to buy a copy of the book [I'm such a rebel], which had been released about two weeks before the movie. The book was originally released with multiple different covers and I remember debating long and hard about which version to buy, but in the end settled on the same cover as this audiobook, despite Jar Jar being on the back, because it featured Queen Hubba Hubba. I started reading it that afternoon and later listened to the audiobook a few times. In fact, I think that it was probably the first audiobook that I listened to on CD, the first time I saw a dual release of cassette and CD audiobooks [I've been an audiobook fan for a long time], and also the first time I listened to an unabridged audiobook [I remember in the past wondering how I would find the time to listen to so many books if I had to listen to the full-length versions- what a failure of imagination]. Anyway, enough about me and my experiences with the novel and on to the novel itself.
Of all the prequel novels, this one is the truest to the movie. Maybe because this was Terry Brooks's first foray into the Star Wars Universe he chose to not take liberties, or maybe because the story was so different that the past and was somewhat distasteful he decided to just get it done and over with, but overall there are a few side facts added and two extra scenes that were not in the movie or the original screenplay . The book just doesn't add a lot to the movie and so although it is a pleasant read, this is one of the rare times where the movie is better than the book.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter- Michael Reaves

Star Wars: Darth Maul - Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I listened to/read the audiobook version of this novel which is abridged.
This was the first book about Maul real-world chronology, but the second one about him in-Universe chronology. Both of them suffer for the same problem, Darth Maul is awesome, but is not shown to be amazing here.
Yes, movie spoiler if you haven't watched Episode I, Maul does get his ass handed to him [really separated from him] at the end of the first movie. And yes, in this book he is still learning and is not quite as fully skilled yet. However, the gap between this book and the movie is minimal and so there isn't really that much learning that he did here that would help him improve. Unlike the prior book, Maul is weak here not because of restrictions, but because the story focuses on Maul and a Jedi. Inevitably this leads the book to steer you to root for the Jedi and the information broker, Lorn Pavan and his droid. (view spoiler)[And although both die in the end it is not really because Maul defeated them, she sacrifices herself to save others and he ends up getting tricked into giving up the information to Senator Palpatine [whom we know is Maul's master Darth Sidious] before being killed in his hospital bed by Maul. This leaves the droid unaware of his master's whereabouts and he shows up again in several more of Michael Reaves's books, which seems out of place. Also, as long as I'm spoiling things, a complaint about carbon freezing [which is used in this novel]- it is not a common way of storing living people, that's why it was risky to trap Luke in such a way and was first tested on Han in the movies. And yet, carbon freezing has become a mainstay of Star Wars books and graphic novels, there was even a carbon freezing guns in video games. Universes should be expansive and although authors have to maintain the delicate balance of anchoring a story to the known with showing new [unknown] material, while at the same time not contradicting other established facts reusing something like carbonite on people so often just cheapens it and the suspense of Han being frozen. (hide spoiler)]. The story does not go the way you would expect it to and so that it surprising, but overall the book was fairly disappointing.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Cloak of Deception- James Luceno

Star Wars: Cloak of Deception by James Luceno
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read/listened to the audiobook version of this novel, which is abridged.
Like James Luceno's other books he does a very good job of integrating other characters and storylines into his tale. This book is setup to be the prequel to the prequel trilogy. Given that restriction he does a very good job writing a gripping tale. We get to see Qui-Gon Jinn in action before his untimely demise and a lot of good background on the Trade Federation, as well as, why they were allowed to militarize. The Trade Federation isn't the clear-cut enemy yet and so a separate antagonist in Nebula Front lead by Havac Matalis, and yet you find yourself kind of sympathizing with them and rooting for them as well. Unlike so many other novels, where it is black and white for good vs evil, here there is lots of grey as the pieces fall into place. This grey is what Qui-Gon is best at noticing and reading, and yet because he is unorthodox, politicians and Jedi alike are hesitant to see his big picture. Although, like the prequels, this novel does focus on trade and politics, the twist at the end of this book is excellent and still surprising and the story is engaging throughout.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown- Joe Schreiber

Lockdown: Star Wars by Joe Schreiber
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is Joe Schreiber's least objectionable entry into the Star Wars [Legends] Expanded Universe, but that isn't saying much. He writes prisons well, as both this book and Star Wars: Death Troopers show. The problem is that Darth Maul is a badass and we want to see him being badass, but in this book his mission does not allow that. Maul's mission required him to be captures and sent to a prison where he would then not be allowed to use his lightsabers or the Force. This prison specialized in lockdowns during which two prisoners would then be pitted against each other in a death-match gladiatorial arena battle that was broadcast through the galaxy for gambling purposes. This gave Maul lots of opportunities to fight and one surprising battle where he fought a (view spoiler)[Yuuzhan Vong scout (hide spoiler)]. The warden who controlled the battle match-ups had an (view spoiler)[idiot-savant brother who wrote an amazing algorithm which made the tale interesting (hide spoiler)]. The pacing of this book was constantly thrown-off by the random lockdown battles. In the end, it didn't seem to add much to the Universe and it was very predictable on the whole.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Darth Plagueis- James Luceno

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My first impression of this book was that it was LONG, and although it moved very slow at times, it reminded me why I love James Luceno so much. His first book in the Star Wars Universe was the only thing that made me stick with The New Jedi Order series with the Yuuzhan Vong. Luceno weaves together stories that successfully and reasonably tie together many different storylines from other novels and graphic novels. Yet, somehow as he does this he doesn't make the Universe seem smaller, but instead much, much larger. Additionally, he does retconning in stellar fashion.
My biggest complaint about this book is that it really is about Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious and by the middle spends more time focusing on Sidious's story than on Plagueis's. Another minor disappointment was the revelation that (view spoiler)[Sidious broke the Rule of Two by training Darth Maul, which isn't too surprising, but then that he didn't challenge or kill Plagueis until after the events of Episode I and the death of Maul. It did not seem necessary for events to play out this way and instead seemed to be there only to drag out the climax and to make the end a little more surprising when it comes about (hide spoiler)]. Also, not surprising, because the book takes after the prequel trilogy, it focuses pretty heavily on galactic politics and economics. In the end, it is nice to finally have this novel, even if it was postponed for a while, the backstory adds good to the Universe.</["br"]>

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Book Review: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil- Drew Karpyshyn

Dynasty of Evil by Drew Karpyshyn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In the end I gave both the second and third books in this series 3 out of 5 stars, but this book is the better of those two; however, both pale in comparison to the lead book in the series.
(view spoiler)[The annoying side-plot of the orbalisk armor is finally finished in this book. (hide spoiler)] This book has Darth Zannah kind of coming into her own. It also has a near miss between the Sith and the Jedi, which results in a pretty awesome lightsaber battle. It is hard to discuss the book much more without spoilers.
(view spoiler)[Darth Zannah finally challenges her Master and essentially defeats him. It turns out that he possibly transferred his spirit over to her body in his goal to seek immortality. So in doing so Bane does not really die, but instead goes on to possess her. This kind of defeats the Rule of Two idea and also is dissatisfying. Admittedly, it is almost wrong to end a series like this with the death of the main character, and it must be hard for the author to let go of him, but still it was annoying to not have a clean break at the end- especially since it took Zannah so long to finally try to overthrow Bane (hide spoiler)].
It was a pretty good conclusion to the series.

Check out my reviews of each book in the series:
Path of Destruction,
Rule of Two, or
my review of the series as a whole.

Book Review: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two- Drew Karpyshyn

Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book makes it very obvious that this series was not intended to be a trilogy. My first complaint is that this cover is one of the ugliest to grace any Star Wars novel. There are others that are poorly drawn or very poorly Photoshopped, but this one is downright ugly. And yes, I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but this one is pretty bad. What is more, this cover by John Van Fleet does not match the other covers in the series [by John Jude Palencar] and I think consistency is more important than beauty. Not all of the ugliness is the artist's fault however, because the story line includes living orbalisk [hard-shelled bug] armor and the drawing of this makes Bane's appearance more distasteful.

Beyond that the storyline of the orbalisk armor was pretty obnoxious and seemed to be unnecessary. The book also covered Bane's attempts to make a Holocron, which too a little too much time in the book and caused it to focus on Bane's apprentice more than Bane himself for large segments of the book. (view spoiler)[It is kind of obvious that with another book in the series that nothing serious is going to happen to Bane, but even so I still expected his apprentice Darth Zannah to have more of a spine and to stand-up to Bane (hide spoiler)]. This is certainly the worst book in the series, but a necessary bridge between the two if you are going to read the whole thing.

Reviews of each book in the series:
Path of Destruction,
Dynasty of Evil, or
my review of the series as a whole.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction- Drew Karpyshyn

Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the last novel that I have actually read, rather than listened to- I have read other books since, but not any fiction novels. I read it in part because I actually had the time and in large part because at the time it was one of the first Star Wars novels in a long time to not be turned into an audiobook. This pattern, unfortunately, continued for a while and there are several other novels I have not had the chance to read. It was only two years after the series was complete that the audiobooks were released, in digital format only, in conjunction with the release of the book Darth Plagueis . That book had at one point been cancelled [which later turned out to be a postponement] and was replaced in the release schedule by the second book in this series, which originally was not intended to be a series.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book both when I read it and later when I listened to it. It is broken roughly into four parts [the book might only identify three if any]: Dessel/Bane's life as a miner and pre-Sith empire, Dessel/Bane as a soldier for the Sith empire, Bane as a Sith apprentice, and Bane as a Sith Lord challenging the Sith Academy. This is the first book, I've read at least, that explains the classic Star Wars game of Sabacc. Later, Dessel's life as a soldier is impressive and shows not only us, but also the leadership of the Sith that he is Force-sensitive. His training at the Sith Academy is enlightening because we have seen the Jedi Academy/Academies in numerous other books and the Sith Academy in graphic novels and games, but not in a full-blown novel. From there (view spoiler)[Bane becomes more powerful and is recognized as potentially being the Sith'ari [basically the Chosen One for the Sith]. He forms an alliance with another apprentice and challenges his teachers before leaving. He then returns and tricks them into using a Thought Bomb which the intended to use to destroy Jedi, but ended up destroying themselves as well (hide spoiler)], this paving the way for the Rule of Two. It was a little disappointing that the book ended with him picking an unexpected apprentice, especially when it was not originally intended to be anything more than a stand-alone novel, instead of the trilogy it became.

Check out my reviews of each book in the series:
Rule of Two,
Dynasty of Evil, or
my review of the series as a whole.

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Series/Trilogy Review: Star Wars: The Darth Bane Trilogy- Drew Karpyshyn

Out of fear of spoiling the series I'm going to write a review of the whole series together, but unusual for me, I also intend to review the books individually in upcoming posts rather than just together.

First, I should point out that it is odd and rare that an author, who does not write young adult novels, children's books, or graphic novels to have written so many books (in-Universe chronology) in order.  In the Legends series, only the start of Michael A. Stackpole's X-Wing Series ties Drew Karypshyn's four in a row here with the only book preceding these being The Old Republic: Annihilation.  I think that this occurred solely on accident because there is such a large chronological gap between them.  Darth Bane: Path of Destruction was Karpyshyn's start in the Star Wars Universe (and by total coincidence is also the last novel that I actually read, rather than listened to [I have read other books, just not fiction novels], which was shortly after it came out).

Next, there is another odd pattern that starts with this trilogy is a lengthy focus of books on the Sith and Sith Lords as main characters (at least for the audiobooks because there is at least one novel in the timeline that was not turned into audio to my chagrin).  After this set of three books there are two more that focus on the Sith, Darth Plagueis and Maul: Lockdown and there there is only a one book interlude before the next Darth Maul book, Shadow Hunter which end the Sith focus.

Now, on to reviewing the series [possible spoilers ahead]. Overall my feelings about the series are mixed, but generally positive.  There were questions that I had hoped would be answered that were not- mainly after Bane establishes the Rule of Two, how did the Jedi come to know of it?  Having recently played through The Knights of the Old Republic game on the iPad it was surprising to me to find how many cross-references there were.  It was also awesome to see the establishment of the Rule of Two, even if the leak to the Jedi went unexplained.  I have also had the impression that the plan to take over the Republic was established about the same time as the Rule of Two and was a long-game, but only minor hints of that plan are shown and it seems to be much more circumstantial.  Overall, the pacing of the books and the series as a whole is good.  The training of Bane's apprentice Zannah was a delight to see, although her lack of courage to take on her master and the way the series ended was a tad disappointing.  The other big let down of the series is that it is painfully obvious throughout that it was not originally intended to be a series/trilogy- it worked in the end, but would have been alright as a standalone novel.  More details on these thoughts in my individual reviews of each book.

Reviews of each book in the series:
Path of Destruction,
Rule of Two, or
Dynasty of Evil.

Book Review: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation- Drew Karpyshyn

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is a rare book in the Star Wars Universe that does not follow a Force user and so this book was a nice change of pace. It followed Theron Shan, the illegitimate [or at least abandoned child] of the Grand Master of the Jedi Order Satele Shan. He was raised by another Jedi Master and eventually worked for Republic Intelligence as a field agent. The novel is fast-paced, involves infighting on both sides, has very believeable characters who are well-developed. The action, and especially the sequence leading up to and surrounding the climatic battle, is described well, is engaging, and is surprising without being unbelievable. In my mind, it is easily the best novel in The Old Republic series and probably Drew Karpyshyn's best Star Wars novel as well, although I didn't know this until I read the next three books [in-Universe] chronologically.

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Book Review: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance- Sean Williams

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In real-world chronology this was the first book in The Old Republic series to come out; however in the Star Wars [Legends] Universe this was the third in the series after Revan and Deceived [both of which were published the following year in the real-world]. Those two along with the book Red Harvest in-between the first pair and second pair of The Old Republic novels did not have me looking forward to continuing the series and really made me dread the project of listening to all of the Star Wars audiobook novels that I had just started undertaking. So, maybe the bar was set really low, but I think that this book was not only great by comparison, but great in its own right.
I don't love story-lines that follow totally unfamiliar characters, but there were a few minor repeat appearances by characters from other books in the series [which of course, because of how the timelines worked out are because other authors chose to repeat characters from this book] which gave me a starting anchor. I cannot divulge everything I loved about this book without spoiling it, but the "fatal alliance" of the title is an alliance between Jedi and Sith to defeat a common threat to the galaxy (view spoiler)[in the form of a depressed and isolated mother whose daughter was taken to be trained in the ways of the Force and whose knowledge of technology allowed her to create self-replicating robots that threaten to wipe out the galaxy. Masters and apprentices mix and government leadership is jumbled with Mandalorians thrown into the mix (hide spoiler)]. Although, the book was a little slow just before the main battle, it was amazingly enjoyable. It was not good enough to redeem the series of books, but because they were each published with the intent ot being stand-alone novels that loosely tie into the MMO game, it was more than good enough to stand on its own and is hands-down Sean Williams's best novel in the Star Wars Universe.

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Book Review: Star Wars: Red Harvest- Joe Schreiber

Star Wars: Red Harvest by Joe Schreiber
My rating: 1 of 5 stars




It is hard for me to state how much I disliked this book. It was a necessary read to read all of the Legends cannon and unfortunately so near the beginning of the tale. And although this is totally cliche, I kind of wish I could give it no stars, but then that is why I only gave it one.

I vaguely remember reading Death Troopers when it came out. Beyond that I can recall that I was not a fan of it and had a hard time seeing how it fit into the Star Wars Universe as a whole. This is not to say that I don't appreciate random tales that barely, if at all, tie to other story-lines because I do enjoy them. In fact, some of my favorite random stories have been comic book stories that are totally stand-alone. Instead, what bugged me about that book was its tie to horror/slasher fiction and what a departure from traditional Star Wars themes it was. This book, Red Harvest, was worse. At times it was very gruesome and gory; I found the book mildly disturbing and distasteful. I did enjoy there being an intelligent plant, which has been used far to rarely in most sci-fi, and especially in Star Wars, but I'm not sure why there is such current obsession over (view spoiler)[zombies (hide spoiler)]. Not to say that I don't enjoy a good (view spoiler)[zombie (hide spoiler)] story, it just seemed out of place in the Star Wars Universe.

PS- Who really wanted a prequel to Death Troopers anyway, I mean did anyone really wonder, "Where did that disease originate and how did it come about?" as if the explanation in the novel wasn't good enough [scientists tinkering with biological agents].  And this is not the first time that bioagents have been used in the Star Wars Universe, there was the FG36 virus in the Republic Commando series and the Krytos virus in the X-Wing Series, neither of which were presented in such a gruesome way.

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Book Review: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived- Paul S. Kemp

Deceived by Paul S. Kemp

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It is hard to imagine that a book that starts with (view spoiler)[Sith Lords attacking Coruscant and taking over the Jedi Temple (hide spoiler)] could move as slowly and be as dull as this book turned out to be. The story had such great potential and such a great setup, it moved at a very fast, although barely believable, pace and yet somehow failed to deliver. Both Jedi and Sith seemed very weak in this tale and only the smuggler was interesting. I suppose this is what happens when a book is tied to a game where it is desirable to setup a story, and yet not modify the Universe substantially.

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Book Review: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan- Drew Karpyshyn

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan by Drew Karpyshyn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One of the last novels that I read, rather than listened to, was Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn, shortly after it came out because it was not on audio. I really enjoyed it and so enjoying Karpyshyn and the Knights of the Old Republic game series [I've played the original through about 2.5 times, 1.5 on computer and recently on the iPad] I was excited to read a book about Revan. There were times where I wished this book had more of the other characters from the game series playing a dominant role in the story-line, but unfortunately it focused mostly on (view spoiler)[Canderous Ordo and some [but not enough] on Bastilla (hide spoiler)].

This is not to say that you would need to be familiar with the game to enjoy the book, but it certainly helps. Describing the main character was difficult because of the nature of customizing the game- not even the gender was set in stone in the game [although later cannon set him as male] which led to great jokes and rumors within the sequel game that Revan was female. I've gathered that elsewhere some of Revan's physical appearance was canonized by comic books, but Karpyshyn did a good job of leaving most of it open- recall dark hair being mentioned once [which stood out to me because I played the game with him as a bald male], his male gender, piercing [maybe dark] eyes, and tall height. I'm sure that this was difficult for the author to limit himself so much and so it made it impressive.
The story, however, lost its way eventually and ended poorly. (view spoiler)[Just like the marriage of Luke and Mara at the end of Vision of the Future and Star Wars: Union being distastefully followed by Mara being near death at the start of the next (real-world chronology) book to include her, Vector Prime; so having Revan and Bastilla be in a relationship at the end of the game, to the inevitable marriage prior to the start of this book, only for them to be separated most of the book and to end up (view spoiler)[permanently separated, with Bastilla not knowing what happened to him (hide spoiler)]. The whole Sith empire and emperor was weird too, and although the comic books set in this time allow for it, it seems to contradict the expansiveness, dominance, and presence of the Old Republic (hide spoiler)]. The book was slow, but good until Revan was (view spoiler)[captured on Nathema (hide spoiler)], it almost recovered when Revan managed to (view spoiler)[get broken out of jail (hide spoiler)], but took a wrong turn and fell short of my expectations. And, sadly, I think it is solely because otherwise the end would have been predictable or even inevitable and so extra twists and turns were necessary to make it new and surprising, but also displeasing.

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