Review: Star Wars: Omen by Christie Golden (audio)

Star Wars (Fate of the Jedi Book 2): Omen by Christien Gold, Narrated by Marc Thompson

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Omen

by Christie Goldman

Read by Marc Thompson

2009, Random House Audio

The first volume in the Fate of the Jedi series, Outcast, marked my first foray to the Star Wars Expanded Universe since the death of Chewbacca in R. A. Salvatores’ Vector Prime.  Outcast, and now Omen, are taking a slower more subtle approach to storytelling that one would expect from a Star Wars novel.  Like Outcast before it, Omen has no large scale space battles, no real swashbuckling adventures but focuses instead on creating an air of tension, mystery, and suspense.  Though perhaps one might say that the real focus of this story, and perhaps the entire Fate of the Jedi series is that of the Solo and Skywalker families.

Review: Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Outcast (Audiobook)

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi Book 1: Outcast
Aaron Allston
read by Marc Thompson
Random House Audio, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve read, let alone listened, to a Star Wars novel.  I think I stopped somewhere back around Vector Prime when I was generally frustrated with the direction of the current story.  Turns out I’ve missed quite a bit.  Most importantly is the recently finished Legacy of the Force series that deal primarily Jacen Solo’s reign as Darth Caedus and the war to unseat him from power.  As such Outcast might have been easily called Aftermath (both titles are, in my opinion, equally applicable).  All the events here deal with the repruscussion of Jacen’s actions as Darth Caedus and Luke Skywalker’s actions in defeating him (namely his decision to break the Jedi Order away from the Gallactic Alliance midwar and turn them into a more independent and neutral force).  Confused yet?  It isn’t too hard to follow and I found it fairly easy to slip into the post-war almost Nuremberg like atmosphere of the novel.  So easy in fact that I almost didn’t want to stop listening.

Review: Contagious by Scott Sigler (Audio)

Contagious

Scott Sigler

Random House Audio, 2008

Read by Scott Sigler

Infected was one of my surprise favorites when it came out in April of 2008; its cringe inducing scenes of self-mutilation caused several near misses on my daily commute.  Contagious picks up not long after Infected’s ending and continues the battle of Margaret Montoya, Dew Phillips, Clarence Otto, and “Scary” Perry Dawsey against the mysterious blue triangles.  While Contagious lacks some of the more horrific elements that made Infected such a fun read the B-move action sci-fi vibe more than makes up for things.  More impressions after the jump…