Review: Star Wars (FotJ #3): Abyss by Troy Denning

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss

Star Wars (FotJ): Abyss
Troy Denning, read by Marc Thompson
Random House Audio, 2009

I’m am really enjoying the entire Fate of the Jedi series perhaps even  more then I enjoyed those first Star Wars I read way back in the 8th grade.  I don’t know if 8th grade me would agree.  He would likely balk at the idea of 70 year-old Han Solo raising his grand-daughter or a slightly younger Luke Skywalker on a state-enforced (i.e. exile) father/son road trip through the galaxy; I mean what kid wants to read about old people?  Well, 26 year-old me is finding the more tangible weight of the Skywalker and Solo clans’ personal and political histories/legacies to provide a surprisingly enjoyable aspect of Star Wars fiction that I’m not certain was always present in the past.

Further more Fate of Jedi seems more willing to discuss the dichotomy and relationship between force sensitive individuals and the force blind; especially with how the latter perceive the former.  The best part is that both sides manage to have valid points: the Jedi’s (especially the Solos/Skywalkers) constant and blatant subversion of law for their own needs is not necessarily congruent with the ideals they espouse while, at the same time, Daala’s opinions of the Sith-are-just-evil-Jedi-and-we-need-to-control-the-Jedi mentality is obviously wrong.  Both sides are obstinate and seem unwilling to communicate in a meaningful way, a fact compounded by the Force-based psychosis that is plaguing the Jedi order and lending credence to Daala’s claims of the “Jedi Menace.”  For the reader actions from both sides, with the growing threat slowly being uncovered by Luke and Ben Skywalker, casting the whole situation as an giant train wreck occurring in slow motion.

Of course Abyss expounds on that threat in two ways that further sold me on this series:

1.)  It has tentacles.

2.) It is referred to as an Old One.

Lovecraft, welcome to a galaxy far far away….

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.