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Of all of the longer EU Star Wars series this one was at least the most interesting. Still way too convenient and predictable. but the entire SW universe is.
Hi, this was just as was described in the purchasing area. A great read as well. Thanks.
While the overall story is pretty good, this could have been done in 3 books instead of five and been a lot better. Boba Fett is clearly a character which Karen cares a great deal about, and writes with loving austerity, and in your face bravado. The problem with the series, of course, being each writer has their own 'pet' characters, and Wedge probably wont be picked up again until Aaron Allston takes over, and Boba most likely will be hung on a hook to dry until Karen picks up again as well. Even her action sequences seem out of sync with the story, and it would seem that one of the major conflicts the characters face is getting Karen Traviss to understand what is happening with their plight.This is just sub-par work for Karen Traviss.The plot itself has some much desired movement, even though a lot of it has to do with major events with the Mandalore, but that does not even begin to touch the level of escalation involving the war and our main characters. It is not that this book did not attempt it. Why is style so important.
Well, style is what makes Karen Traviss a very good author. Her trademark style is her attention to characterization, and making characters feel real. Yes, I'm five books deep into the series, and remain underimpressed. Not something you want happening five books in.Not impressed. Now, this fact dissolves when dealing with Boba Fett (which I feel like she has in her pocket to pull out when needed). The other characters, while undergoing some intense and personal moments, toil away with long (multiple pages without dialogue) vaguely written passages which manage to describe little or nothing, occassionally dipping into the political, or just the plain abstract. But a necessary evil.
This really shook me. Endless subplots with a few twists, and a dilute main story has a lot of readers anxiously awaiting some good developments.Book five of the Legacy of the Force series, Sacrifice, makes some effort to attend to the main plot, while completely sacrificing style. This discontinuity makes the whole tale suffer.Overall, while the plot movement was impressive, the poor writing by Karen was more so depressive, and so we drop down to a meager 3 stars. This book had several attempts at characterization which fell flat, largely to bizarre, unrelatable writing. The girl who wrote Bloodlines, who made each and every character come to life for me, is now making me feel like I am watching the story unfold in the distance, with a large void between me and the characters. I can only hope we go up from here, because this book, which should have been a overwhelming five star book, to get this series up and over the proverbial hump, was so underwhelming, I feel a little disenfrancised from the whole series. Barely recommended.
Ben is sent on his own special, emotionally challenging mission: specifically, assassinating Gejjen. Again, I was struck by how easy this all seemed and was surprised, once again, that the Galactic Alliance allowed Jacen's act to pass. So, while the death of Mara was satisfying and a great asset to the plot, the death of Lumiya just didn't feel right. Her eventual demise was inevitable, but I don't know that now (and by Luke's hand.especially by an out of character Luke) was the right time for it to happen. However, I do feel that they might be dragging it out a little too much.
The story flowed nicely from one plot element to the next. Traviss does a fine job at making the son of Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, former unofficial apprentice of Jacen Solo, and Jedi protégé seem more human and relatable with his reactions to the events that unfold around him. It just seemed ridiculous that the Galactic Alliance would be stupid enough to pass the act without seeing the possible outcomes.the whole thing practically screamed "danger." Has the Galactic Alliance really become so stupid. His decision to visit them during the political turmoil he has caused was, to say the least, rash, but I found to be realistic given his recent mental state. Overall, this is probably one of the best books of the series so far.
While there isn't a lot of action and parts of the novel are slow (but not necessarily bad), the character moments are great, some highly significant events and deaths take place, and we get to see our favourite Mandalorians once again. There wasn't a lot of action, but the build up and the few action scenes at the end were fantastic. He succeeds (as is to be expected), but leaves the experience emotionally scarred, which is made worse when he overhears Jacen talking to Lumiya. Perhaps it is because I don't fully understand politics and frankly find them to be a bit boring, but this didn't really make sense to me. Much of Sacrifice is devoted to character building and really getting into the characters' heads to see how everything is affecting them and how they're being changed by their experiences, which is always a nice little break from the typical action-packed plots of Star Wars novels. However, it almost feels like they're stealing the spotlight from Jacen, Ben, the Jedi, and the plot that really matters.
Seeing as I read this book a couple of years after it came out, I already knew the overall outcome and which main, good character died. As someone else mentioned, the Solo kids have practically been butchered in the AU so far (Anakin was killed, Jacen was turned, and Jaina has been written into obscurity), so it's nice to see that attempts are being made to give Ben a solid character. It was refreshing to see something not turn out as fully expected. I enjoyed the Mandalorian story.both in this book and Bloodlines. Jacen's sacrifice ended up being a twist that I certainly didn't see coming.
Not long after this, the first major quirk of the novel (to me, at any rate) came into play. The Mandalorians find a large amount of beskar, which they use to their advantage by making a super-ship and forming an alliance with a nearby planet. As with Bloodlines (Traviss's first book in the Legacy of the Force series), the focus is primarily split between two groups: Jacen, Ben, the GAG, and the Galactic Alliance (with brief appearances made by Luke, Mara, Leia, and-barely-Jaina) and Boba Fett and the Mandalorians (who end up getting a lot of screen-time.maybe a little too much). In a sense, Jacen is humanized by his various inner battles and decisions made because of his internal struggles. Jacen continues with his evil plot, eventually ousting Omas and seating himself and Niathal in the command seat of the Galactic Alliance, made legal by his political act. It would be great to see the two stories mesh at some point, if only so the Mandalorian plot can really become relevant. It also felt like it happened too fast given the significance of the event.
Traviss certainly knows the culture well and writes it convincingly enough to intrigue the character, and since Boba Fett and his people have largely been left out of the more recent Star Wars novels, I'm always pleased to read about them. I enjoyed the fact that Traviss took the time to develop Ben's character a bit more, making him mature too fast and attempt to deal with all he's seen. The moments leading up to her death were well written and gripping, making her final moment all the more satisfying. I fear that the events will eventually become stale.
It is affirmed by the ship that Ben does not have the potential to be a Sith and can, therefore, not be Jacen's apprentice. However, I didn't know how that death was reached, what other events were taking places, which of the other characters (if any) met their end, and, since this is a Karen Traviss book, what Boba Fett and the Mandalorians were up to. Somehow, Jacen manages to finagle a political act that more or less allows him to do whatever he wants, including legally overthrowing the current government and inserting his own with him at the top. I only hope something more happens to bring the two plots together.
It seemed like Traviss was trying to tie the Mandalorian plot line into the grand scheme of things by creating the alliance between the Mandalorians and Roche, which, while I was glad for the attempt, felt like a weak tie-in. I appreciated that Traviss gave the reader an idea of how difficult Jacen's relationship with his family is and the pain that being away from them causes. And of course, while all this is going on, Boba Fett and the Mandalorians are doing their thing. I was pleased with the turn of events. Despite the stupidity of how Jacen was able to seize control, I'm interested to see how this will affect the rest of the series, as it is an interesting little twist. Sacrifice picks up right where Exile left off, with Ben returning to Jacen in the Sith ship. Boba Fett finally comes into contact with Jaing Skirata and eventually receives the cure to his aging problems. Spoilers follow.
It just didn't feel right that Luke would let himself go like that, regardless of the situation. One such example is his decision to visit Tenel Ka and Allana. I mean, do we really need nine books to cover Jacen's turn to the Dark Side (more if you count the Dark Nest Trilogy and the later NJO books). While it was great to see something big and unexpected happen, the manner in which it happened seemed very off. Overall, I was satisfied with the book's outcome and the various conclusions reached, but it was very slow in spots; not necessarily bad, just very slow. As for the Legacy of the Force series so far, my interest in it has been renewed.
As of now, the things that tie the Mandalorians with the rest of the plot are small and haven't played a huge role. The second death, however, was a bit more unsatisfactory. Regarding who actually died, I was glad to see her go.
I know that Mara is a favourite character to some readers, but I've personally felt that she was a mistake that needed to be rubbed out from her introduction to the Star Wars universe. From there, a lot of Jacen's inner turmoil is based around his assumption that he must kill Ben as his ultimate sacrifice to becoming a Sith Lord. Vader's beginnings, fall, and redemption all fit into six movies.does Jacen honestly need nine full-length novels.
I feel that the other authors of the Legacy of the Force series don't fully capture Jacen's relationship with his daughter and wife.they seem to make him rather cold and uncaring towards them, which I find to be a bit unrealistic. Yes, a main character died, but the "sacrifice" ended up being something that ran deeper than that character, something that was far more important to Jacen. I began to doubt it after Exile, but the events in this book were surprising and significant enough to rekindle my hope in the series.
This is the comeback the series needed after the disappointment the last book was.
Reaching the midway point in this storyarc, GAG Colonel Jacen Solo and Admiral Niathal set into motion their 'legal' takeover of the Galactic Alliance by having the Corellian Prime Minister assassinated by Ben, and through sneaky legislation, Cal Omas is deposed as Chief of State of the GA. The Boba Fett secondary story was actually rather useless and seems to be here just because Traviss has to include her favorite subject, Boba Fett and the Mandalorians. By the end of the book, the Skywalkers and Solos, sans Jacen, seem to be re-uniting which may make Jacen's prophesized sacrifice the biggest gamble of his journeys.Also included in this book is the eBook, A Practical Man, Karen Traviss' pre Yuuzhan Vong e-novella about Boba Fett.
By the end of the book, a member of the current Jedi Council is slain and Jacen takes his biggest step to becoming a Sith and brandishes his new title of Darth Cadeus. Prior to the trip, there was much more internal struggles as Ben must debate why he personally was needed to pull off the assassination of Corellia's Prime Minister and how he must deal with the sacrifice of one of his friends. The secrets behind the scenes begin to break as Ben finally realizes what Jacen is willingly becoming and Lumiya figures out Jacen's parenting of Tenel Ka's daughter.
Overall, this whole book was a bit slow until Jacen heads for Hapes Cluster, then all the action takes off. Elsewhere, author Karen Traviss continues her love affair mission of re-establishing the Mandalores and Boba Fett to a feared power in the SW universe. We see little of Han and Leia and just a tiny smidgeon of Jaina, which is refreshing as we don't have to force every character into the story.
The tension between Jacen and Niathal, the co-Chief of States now, begins to show cracking points. Mediocre for the most part but could be the big turn around point for this storyarc.
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