The Blog of The Matteus

Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 8)

Karen Traviss

Well this certainly was not the best or most exciting novel in the LOTF series, but it was still a pretty well written novel.  The mandolorians were well written and it was interesting to see how they interacted with an (enemy) of sorts in Jaina Solo. I think they came away respecting her, and her respecting them. My only real problem was that they made the mandolorians too strong. Yes they are excellent mercenary types that have an interesting almost samurai lifestyle. They have their honor of sorts, farming and family are very important to them. But Karen Traviss made them into Jedi killling machines. I don't have any trouble  with the best of them defeating a low or even mid level jedi, but they should no tbe able to defeat a Jaina Solo let alone a Jacen Solo. I have no problem with them suprising Jaina . Fett suprised her with a powerful punch because he knows how not to broadcast his emotions in the force. (nice tool) They were just writen a little overglorified thats all. The Jedi are the heroes not the mandolorians.

Besides that i did like the investigation Ben and Shevu worked on together, proving that Mara was killed by Jacen. To Ben's sorrow Mara though was not a victim, and the evidence pointed to that fact.

Palleon was pretty cool and for the most part well written.He dies in the end of the book but it was his time i think. But everyone was calling him "Gil" Thats crazy!! I don't have a problem with one person doing that like even Daala, but no one else should be able to call him by that shortname.  Another interesting little plot was when Fett brought Sintas ( his dead wife) back from Carbon Freezing. That is a bit of a tragedy tale, and i feel sorry for her that she married a deadbeat like Fett, but i don't care enough about Fett to feel much for the tragic story there. I just don't.  Jacen Solo's fall to the dark side was a brilliant, tragic idea and it worked too... until now. All of a sudden what made him the most interesting read in this series is long gone, replaced by a stupid sith lord, who is unable to keep things going without lumiya. It was so complelling, this story. Jacen Solo becomes a sith to save the galaxy; the reluctant, tragic, hero/villian. But he has not been written so well since inferno, and even then nothing as good as exile. I can only hope Denning saves this series in the end. It had such promise. It should have been Denning, Allston and  Luceno or Stover. KT just doesn't have it. She is a good writer, but not with Jedi or force -related affairs. She did a fine job with Jacen in bloodlines, but she has been flagging since. I did think she did a wonderful job with mara in that fight in Sacrifice. i was very upset and emotional about it, but she gave her a warriors' death, too bad though she had Mara fighting with the dark side again. Anyway.................. back on track. Tahiri has become a complete tragedy and waste. What a promising, brilliant njo character she was. Now she is a sith apprentice thta has no value. She does not even sound like Tahiri. (note to all authors) YOU CANNOT WRITE WHATEVER YOU WANT AND SLAP A NAME ON IT AND THAT BE THAT CHARACTER. You can't do that. You just can't write lines for luke, and it be luke. you must stay on target with how those characters were written in the past. We are not stupid. Congrats, LOTF:Writers, you have ruined a great many characters of late.

At least luke is pretty cool in this book as well as in Inferno. Luke cooked up an imaginary fleet with a master level fallanaasi illusion that even somehow fooled Caedus, and then preceded to take his ship apart with the force, piece by piece. Cool stuff, but they don't want luke to kill Jacen for some reason, so they make him play with Jacen, but not really hurt him. Thats not very realistic. Luke should have ended it right there. But no they had to safeguard Jacen with invisible  protectors so Jaina can do the deed in the next book,;like that is realistic .

The book was actually pretty good, but had some real errors, and so has the whole series of late. Still if Denning can save the day in the next book i will call this series a success.

This novel receives a 3 stars out of five rating by me.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Above is a trailer of the groundbreaking game from Lucas Arts. The game is scheduled to come out on July 29th, unless they push it back yet again. Also their is novel with the same tital, and there will be miniatures, action figures and more in this large multimedia project. here is a link to more info.

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