*Warning Spoilers*
I usually enjoy Allston's entries in the Star Wars universe, but since the legacy series I've been having trouble finding ways not to complain about them. Not that I didn't enjoy this book, but I was a bit annoyed by certain continuing themes, the price, and the story isn't anywhere as interesting as NJO and pre-NJO books.
The Jedi insanity plot was annoying from the beginning and now has gotten even worse. At least in the beginning the cause was mysterious, but now we know it is caused by a villain straight out of a made-for-tv horror movie. Seriously wtf is up with the Abeloth. When I first read the description of her I didn't know whether to laugh at the ridiculousness of it or weep for the lack of creativity in finding a new enemy for the jedi. She now has more than one body and is a cannibalistic doppelganger with mega force powers?
This book continues the new tradition of post NJO EU books by ignoring common sense for the sake of trying to push towards the goal of the author. So many of the decisions characters make in the book go against common sense and the characters' personalities. for example: there is one part in Conviction where Corran Horn makes a statement about not going after his kids when they run off because when he was in CorSec they taught him not to get too involved in cases where family was involved or something and that he would let others handle it.... now correct me if I'm wrong but...wasn't there a whole, very awesome, book called I, Jedi where he began his Jedi training and went through a huge ordeal to save Mirax when she was captured... seemed a bit personal and dealt with family then....
They did finally overthrow Daala.... I still can't figure out how they would come to the decision to put her in charge. what with the whole trying to destroy the Alliance every year of her life, trying to use giant super weapons to kill everything that went against the empire, still expressing support for the Palpatine way of rule, and the whole trying to commit genocide against all force users thingy. But yeah she seems a bit impartial and level headed. Put her in charge.
There is just so much uselessness to this book and the other books in this series. Less than half the books advance the plot. This whole series should have been finished after a few books. I wish they'd just go back to writing trilogies and short series. They can't all be a success like the NJO. There was more content in the Thrawn trilogy than all of the Fate of the Jedi books combined.
Positive notes: They do developed Ben's character a bit more, and seem to maintain some consistencies in his personality between authors. Vestara's character is also being developed pretty well throughout the book(the rest of the sith seem to be getting less intimidating though). There was a funny scene when Daala was being led into her cell where Tahiri got to wave at her from across the hall and laugh. Leia gets a good fight scene. oh and Artoo makes a few good puns at C3PO's expense. Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Conviction
Let me say that I like Aaron Alston's previous work in SW, but this book felt like a waste of time. I honestly don't know what's going on with SW books since the end of New Jedi Order. Legacy had some really good reads, but the whole "Jacen turns dark" idea just struck me as out of character and poorly explained. Fate of the Jedi seems to have other characters doing things that don't quite feel natural, and some of the story lines, particularly in this installment, feel forced. And every time you tell me more about Boba Fett, you make him less interesting.
There's some good stuff here. The Leia/Han interaction is top notch, and I like the ambiguity of Vestara's character. But the Abeloth story arc just isn't executed well. We follow the villain from planet to planet, learning far more about the planets than the villain! I could handle that formula for a book or two, but it's tired now. And I didn't think it was possible to make Sith boring, but this book really pulls it off, with the exception of Vestara. The Sith are so static in this novel, you won't need the Force to see them coming.
The last two books in Legacy where strong, and made some of the earlier subpar entries worth it. Hopefully they can pull it off in Fate too.
First off, there are lots of spoilers, so beware.
This book is just a continuation of everything that's wrong with the entire Fate of the Jedi series. They have so many plots going on throughout, that everything is random and disjointed. For the most part common sense has been thrown out of the window, and characters make decisions not based on their sound logic, but instead to propel the proposterous plots. The "crazed Jedi" was a dead give away that this series was going to be crummy. These Jedi who are being mentally affected by an ancient and purely evil being known as Abeloth, conveniently think that everyone else in the world is an impostor. They don't know how they know, but they do. Of course, by the time Conviction comes around, they can somehow differentiate between real people and "impostors", based solely off of which is convenient to keep the story going. But what's that? The Sith are back? Oh boy. Of course, that's not enough for a story line of it's own (sarcasm), so we'll just toss it into the many themes of the FOTJ series. On top of that, since Ben Skywalker is now a teenager who needs a love interest, let's make one of the Sith a teenage girl who happens to get stuck with him and his father on their quest to rid the galaxy of Abeloth. Hmmm, what else can we throw in to this whole pot of "WTF Stew"? Oooh, I know. How about two separate coups against Chief of State Daala (one by the Jedi, and one by pro-Imperial conspirators) and things will surely be fun. Also, the annoying ramblings of Tenel Ka's daughter, an incredibly in depth trial of Tahiri Veila (complete with prison antics), Mandalorian war crimes, the life and times of HoloNews journalists, the love and drama of Jaina and Jag plus Zekk and his new girl, and dozens of other obscure and random themes from the Star Wars galaxy can all be found, crammed into this one series. In all, it is all used to fill up the pages of the books so that by the end of every one, you've really made very little progress and are left scratching your head, wondering how on Earth you got so far off course, and accomplished so very little. - Star Wars Books - Science Fiction - Star Wars - Literature'
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