Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 15:02:08 GMT -5
This is where I will review SW novels. My setup will follow a description of the book overview as given on the back cover of each novel, an assessment of its points (story, descriptions, characterizations, continuity, etc.), listings of positive/negative elements, and a ranking system. These reviews will, for the most part, be ordered in chronological order, and I will review virtually every book I have read in time.
My ranking system will be: 10/10- Perfect 9/10- Excellent 8/10- Great 7/10- Good 6/10- Average 5/10- Bad 4/10- Awful 3/10- Terrible 2/10- Painful 1/10- Torture
Comments are appreciated, and if anyone would like me to review a book or recommend a book to me, I am more than open to suggestions.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 15:02:23 GMT -5
Darth Bane: Path of DestructionAuthor: Drew Karpyshyn Series: Darth Bane Format: Trilogy. Book 1 of 3 Era: Old Republic Chronological Year: 1003 BSW4 Overview: "On the run from vengeful Republic forces, Dessel, a cortosis miner, vanishes into the ranks of the Sith army and ships out to join the bloody war against the Republic and its Jedi champions. There, Dessel's brutality, cunning, and exceptional command of the Force swiftly win him renown as a warrior. But in the eyes of his watchful masters, a far greater destiny awaits him. As an acolyte in the Sith academy, studying the secrets and skills of the dark side, Dessel embraces his new identity: Bane. But the true test is yet to come. In order to gain acceptance into the Brotherhood of Darkness, he must defy the most sacred traditions and reject all he has been taught. It is a trial by fire in which he must surrender fully to the dark side—and forge from the ashes a new era of absolute power." For anyone who has read the Jedi vs Sith comic miniseries, this book is a retelling of that story (except less silly), with some details altered and primarily told from Bane's perspective, as opposed to the comic which focuses on the perspective of the Jedi. The book takes place during the latter portions of the New Sith Wars during the multiple Battles of Ruusan. It shows how Dessel progresses from a miner on an unknown, unimportant planet in the middle of nowhere to Bane, a dark sider intent on refounding the Sith Order as a result of what he believes to be failures on the part of the Sith at the time. Positive ElementsKarpyshyn's descriptions, while not spectacular, are fairly easy to follow and explain his point straightforwardly. He has never been one to describe a setting or event from obscure angles or leave details ambiguous. When he makes a point, he makes a point. All of it is direct, which makes the book readable. If you read Jedi vs Sith, you know that the only real flaw in that series was the medieval feel to it. Tales of the Jedi displayed the Star Wars universe in a rather unique way: because the story occurred thousands of years before the movies, the setting was made more ancient. Technology was less advanced, locations/structures were more archaic in design, and other subtle nuances granted it an older feel. Jedi vs Sith aimed for a similar approach, as that was roughly 1000 years before the movies, but it failed miserably where TotJ succeeded. JvS featured art that just looked like it came out of a children's story book; some ships were basically 1700s frigates with rockets on them; there were characters, such as Valenthyne Farfalla, that had hoofs and wings (because fauns really belong in Star Wars...); and other such related magical-esque tones to it...because, you know, everyone knows Star Wars is just The Lord of the Rings with lasers. However, Path of Destruction did away with all that. Farfalla in particular was not described as such here. Although the book never expressly stated it, he seemed to just be a regular human. No fairy-tale nonsense that JvS threw around. That was a notable improvement over the comic series. Bane's character development is extrapolated on throughout this book. He never just woke up one day and decided, "Hey, I want to be a Sith Lord! Prepare to die, Jedi!" No. It goes to great lengths depicting the period and series of decisions and events that brought him to that place. In doing so, it portrayed Bane's motives and how he dealt with his actions. Obviously, Sith are brutal and apathetic beings. Bane, as he had a harsh upbringing, was able to embrace that lifestyle but not without hesitation. There are times when he genuinely feels regret over his choices, which serves to give him some humanity, despite being an antagonistic character (when I say "antagonistic," I mean in the sense that he is a Sith, not in the sense that Bane is the antagonist. He is the protagonist, of course, but in this series, the bad guys are the good guys). There is a considerable amount of time spent describing Bane's thoughts and emotional state at the time, showing discoveries he makes and how he compromises those with himself. This book is what made Bane a favorite Sith of mine, as it explains correlations and contrasts between his past and what he makes himself into. The build-up to Bane's rise to power from a lowly miner on Apatros and his coming disagreements with the Brotherhood has a notable amount of depth to it though, something that many other Old Republic era Sith Lords lack. The story is good. Not much else to say here. JvS, for all its fantasy-like nonsense, was a very interesting series. Despite how childish it looks, it was actually very tragic and well-written. Path of Destruction is no different, though I would label its tragic elements are far less evident as those intricacies were more related to the Jedi cousins. Regardless, the book integrates that series' story into it (more so into the last half of the book) and retains much the same sense that JvS had except with far more emphasis on Bane. The battle scenes are good. Karpyshyn may not be Matthew Stover in respects to fights in his books, but they do maintain your interest. I would say Karpyshyn's fight scenes are among the best out of all EU authors. Negative ElementsKarpyshyn, unlike most EU authors, can occasionally utilize hyperbole. His hyperbole is never to an extreme level, but it generally is just added to say, "Yeah, look how awesome Bane is here!" Example: The novel stated that Kas'im was the greatest Sith swordmaster in history (in fairness, it was from Bane's perspective; so it was really just his opinion, however exaggerated it was intentionally made). Why? So Bane would look impressive fighting him. Is it true? Not at all, as Kas'im has done all of....nothing. Kas'im is just a lightsaber instructor. Another example: when Bane released a telekinetic wave against an enemy, the book went to great lengths to describe how that attack could have utterly destroyed that person physically...but then it never even connected with them directly. So that whole paragraph talking about how it could've killed Bane's enemy is worthless and just a means of hyping up Bane. Is this a huge problem? Not exactly, but it becomes a question of why this is done, with the obvious answer being to show how awesome Karpyshyn thinks Bane is. It also just wastes page time, and it does still garner an eye-roll out of me whenever I see it. This is not to say, however, that Karpyshyn made Bane into this invincible killing machine. Bane can and does suffer losses in this novel series; so by no means am I saying that Karpyshyn wrote him into a Mary Sue or anything of the like. But his hyperbolic descriptions are evident. A few editing errors were made. For instance, during Bane's training, the novel mistakenly states that Bane was studying Vaapad....even though that style was formulated about 1000 years later by Mace and Bulq. The intent was supposed to be that Bane learned Juyo, not Vaapad, but Karpyshyn mixed them up (come on, Karpyshyn). This can be rather misleading for a reader not very familiar with the lightsaber forms. This is a very major complaint and one that I hold for each of the Bane novels: The Jedi in this series come off as un-Jedi-like at times and just appear incompetent at others. In Path of Destruction, this was prevalent but, granted, only present here and there. The Jedi act in a manner of bloodlust, for instance, and are typically shown from the perspective of characters who dislike them, which paints the Jedi in a poor light. Now in fairness, Karpyshyn only wrote about half of this story. So some of the characterization of the Jedi can be attributed to the writers of JvS, and Karpyshyn does write the Jedi in this book as Jedi-like in some scenes as well. So whatever uncharacteristic decision making is done here can be offset by the proper writing of them. My last issue: Why was Revan the person Bane learned from for developing the Rule of Two? What is the point of that? All Revan understood about Sith training was that one master should not have two apprentices. He never even instituted a two-Sith rule in his Sith Order and had other Sith Lords on standby besides himself and Malak. Bane simply took Revan's idea to its logical conclusion: That if a Sith master should only have one Sith apprentice, that there should only be one Sith master and one Sith apprentice. However, there is no reason to learn this from Revan. A better character to have learned this from would be Exar Kun. Kun actually did operate under a pseudo-two-Sith rule. He and Ulic had Dark Jedi follow that, but that does not contradict the Rule of Two so long as the Dark Jedi are not Sith Lords. This just reads like a pointless plug to KOTOR and serves to satisfy Karpyshyn's obsession with Revan, and honestly, it is somewhat annoying. I enjoyed this novel and find it worth a re-read. The pros outweigh the cons, and the execution here is certainly worthwhile, even if it is not the best SW novel out there. Score: 7/10 Good
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Post by Admin on Sept 24, 2011 15:04:39 GMT -5
Do you take requests? I read quite a few novels when I was younger and would love to get a new look at them.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 15:08:17 GMT -5
@k4tz: Sure. If you want something reviewed, just list them.
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Post by Admin on Sept 24, 2011 15:35:51 GMT -5
Now I just need to remember the titles....
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 15:37:56 GMT -5
LOL.
Do you remember what they were about or who was in them?
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Post by Admin on Sept 24, 2011 15:39:28 GMT -5
One had an assortment of bounty hunters on the cover (title included 'Empire,' iirc). Another had the scene where IG-88 escapes the lab, slaughtering all of the scientists. For all I know, that happened in the other book.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 15:45:18 GMT -5
Sounds like either The Bounty Hunter Wars series, Tales of the Bounty Hunters, or Tales from the Empire.
Unfortunately, if it is those, I have never read any of them, but interestingly enough, those are on my read list for some time in the (hopefully) near future. So when I start reviewing Rebellion era novels, I could read those and include them.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 17:04:50 GMT -5
Darth Bane: Rule of TwoAuthor: Drew Karpyshyn Series: Darth Bane Format: Trilogy. Book 2 of 3 Era: Rise of the Empire Chronological Year: 1000 BSW4 Overview: "As the last surviving Sith, Darth Bane promulgated a harsh new directive: the Rule of Two. Determined to put this policy into action, Darth Bane thinks he has found the perfect apprentice. Zannah, though young, possesses an instinctive link to the dark side that rivals his own. Under Darth Bane's tutelage, she will become essential in his quest to destroy the Jedi and dominate the galaxy. But there is one who is determined to stop Darth Bane: Johun Othone, Padawan to Jedi Master Lord Hoth, who died at Bane's hands in the Sith War. Though the rest of the Jedi scoff at him, Johun's belief that there are surviving Sith is unshakable,. But not even Johun could foresee that astonishing new knowledge and power that Darth Bane discovers through Force-induced visions—power that will alter him in ways he could never have imagined." As the follow-up to the first Bane novel, I had relatively high expectations for this book. I had heard before that Path of Destruction was the best novel in the series; so I was prepared for a drop in quality. But the drop was more significant than I hoped. This is still a good book, but it has faults. To be fair, this book was rushed and completed early, which may constitute some of the flaws in it, but for a book where the reader could learn about Bane's preparations for his Sith Order and about Zannah's character, it was a little disappointing. Positive ElementsAs with the previous book, Karpyshyn's descriptions do their job. They tell the story directly, they ensure that the reader understands what Karpyshyn wants to convey, and they are worded fluidly. The book picks up immediately after Path of Destruction, showing the effects of the last Battle of Ruusan with the Jedi and with Bane. The aftermath is described in the sense that the Jedi have a crisis on their hands. Even though the war is over, numerous Jedi have died, and the Sith are, apparently, extinct. The inhabitants of Ruusan have suffered devastation on their world, which have changed the climate noticeably. Bane and Zannah simply need to escape so the Jedi can continue living with the myth that the Sith were all destroyed. Darovit also is given much more time in this book, following up with what Jedi vs Sith left him with. The entire sub-plot with the orbalisk armor and its effects on Bane was decent. Zannah has her own thoughts on how that could affect her challenging him: as his apprentice, she is designated with the task of studying under him until she becomes powerful enough to challenge, kill, and supersede him. But with the orbalisks involved, she wonders if she can do that. The orbalisk armor affords Bane a power amp, as well as virtual immunity to lightsaber damage. The drawback is that it pumps chemicals into him that can cause him to lose control and exhaust him more quickly. The other side-effect is that, because of the appearance of the orbalisks on him, he can rarely travel in public without drawing attention to himself (I don't know about you, but if I saw a giant dude walking down the street with an overgrown beetle attached to him, I would find that a little strange too). As Zannah becomes concerned about her ability to surpass Bane, Bane begins to notice that regardless of the augment in power the orbalisks provide him, they may in fact diminish his effectiveness as a Sith Lord. He and Zannah eventually search for ways to have them removed, which is nearly impossible because of how strongly they latched onto him. Although I find the obsession with attaining more powah annoying (see the Negative Elements section for an elaboration), I did enjoy learning which Sith exactly Bane studied to incorporate into his Order. Path of Destruction did the same, and this book continues with that. It is nice to see flashbacks that Zannah has of exercises she underwent while training with Bane. Her skills are developed here fairly well, and they are radically different than Bane's. While Bane has repeatedly proven to have an affinity for destructive powers, Zannah is more subtle as she practices Sith magic, something Bane himself is unable to utilize. On the subject of character abilities, the battles were more intriguing in this book than in the previous one in my opinion, partly because they were more varied in their factors. Bane and Zannah's manipulations of events and people are noteworthy. Rule of Two displays how Bane first started watching events in the Republic and the Jedi, chronicling every detail so that it could be overthrown when the time comes. Zannah plays a role in this as well. Their strategies are not only directed at the Republic and Jedi though. Without spoiling the book, Zannah managed impressive resourcefulness in the conclusion, further affirming Bane's confidence in her capacity to overshadow him. Negative ElementsUnoriginality. This is one of my most severe complaints with this book. There are myriads of concepts copied over from later works, mainly the prequel era. Examples: When Bane discovered Freedon Nadd's holocron, the holocron described what Nadd looked like physically. Basically, he was a pale-skinned, yellow-eyed, wrinkly, old, spidery man who appears the way he does because the dark side ate away his physical form. In other words, he looks like Palpatine. In what way is this original? Yes, dark siders ravage their own bodies by using the dark side. It happens. But do they look like carbon copies of one another? No. Did Karpyshyn somehow have the idea that mimicking deformities word for word to make characters look exactly alike was a good idea? Well, surprise, Karpyshyn: it wasn't. Another example: There was a dark sider named Hetton who was a count of Sorenno (Count Dooku, anyone?). More than that, he wore a black, red-rimmed cloak; Force Lightning seemed to be his favorite Force power; and he had bodyguards that wore red-robes and masks and used force-pikes as weapons. In other words, Hetton is Palpatine. There are at least a few other instances I could list, but you understand the general point. The repetitiveness of used concepts and ideas annoyed me throughout this book. Lack of character development. This is probably my biggest complaint and one I really just cannot understand. The first Bane novel gave Bane character depth. It broke down the events of his life, portrayed how they influenced his decisions, and showed how he grew. In comparison with other SW novels, sure, its characterization was far from the best but still sufficient. Rule of Two did.....nothing. Bane had absolutely no character development in this book, and Zannah had next to none either. The entire plot of this book basically revolves around one sentiment: "I want more powah!" And that's it. Bane spends his time searching through Sith tombs looking for dark side secrets. Zannah spends her time learning dark side secrets from Bane. Both just want to become more powerful, and that is the extent of their character depth in this book. Seriously, what happened? Did Karpyshyn just run out of ideas for how to make Bane more interesting after the first Bane novel? Or did someone actually think "gaining more powah!" is actually a good drive for a book? You might say, "But, Silver, aren't you like a total Palpatine/Exar Kun/Naga Sadow fanboy? All they want is more powah!" Yes, they are favorite Sith of mine, but the difference is that I like the Emperor and Kun and Sadow as villains. Bane and Zannah are protagonists, and as protagonists, they need to have more interesting goals and thoughts than just, "Hm. Let's see how I could get more powah today." Besides that, all of the Sith I like a good deal have much more character depth than simply a desire for power. Mostly this is disappointing for Zannah, because at least Bane had the previous book to depict his character. Zannah has nothing. The only real development you could say she had in this book was just becoming colder. Like Bane, she did at times have trouble accepting the bloodier parts of being a Sith. However, where Bane had his entire past deconstructed to parallel his life to his work as a Sith Lord, Zannah pretty much just became more evil through experience and through a desire for powah. Yes, Bane was driven by a hunt for powah as well and for reformation of the Sith, but his decisions actually make sense in the context of his life. Zannah just slid by, gradually and quickly becoming more prone to Sith ideals. There was just nothing to her development as a Sith Lord, and despite how Bane was developed in the book prior, he had none here. People have said that the Bane novels are written like a video game, and in this case, I agree with that. In this book, Bane walks into a Sith tomb, fights his way to the holocron, and leaves with more powah. He and Zannah fight Jedi to escape. Bane rescues Zannah when she was young from some inhabitants of Onderon. Everywhere they go, they have to fight someone to continue on and often find a new artifact, and in that sense, it feels like a video game. Once again, I dislike the Jedi in this book, not because they were necessarily un-Jedi-like but just because they were essentially punching bags for Bane and Zannah to beat up and kill. No, they never just rushed into a fight and pwned the Jedi, but aside from Johun and Farfalla, none of the Jedi had any character. And let's be honest, nobody cares about Johun or Farfalla, especially Johun. I found Johun's complete incompetency as a duelist funny, while also slightly irritating. I know that these books are about the Sith, and thusly, the Jedi are unimportant. But it could at least have more respect for them. A minor complaint: Zannah was rather underwhelming with the Force. Karpyshyn spends a huge amount of time showing how powerful Bane is, but Zannah barely accomplishes anything with it here. Granted, she does grow in power after this book; so I guess we can expect she will be more powerful later. Brief note also to Karpyshyn bringing Farfalla's frigate-starship back. I guess keeping a little piece of the fairy-tale-ish feel of JvS was a good idea....somehow. Rule of Two was okay, but if I had to choose between this and Path of Destruction, I would take the PoD in a heartbeat. The main and most accurate compliment I can give RoT is that it is entertaining. It just lacks real substance, and therein lies its downfall. Score: 6/10 Average
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JediXMan
Enhanced Ledger
2011; the year of the Sith
Posts: 578
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Post by JediXMan on Sept 24, 2011 21:35:26 GMT -5
Nice so far. I want to see you review the Thrawn trilogy, as well as the Force Unleashed and Republic Commando.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 21:46:31 GMT -5
@jedix: I will when I get there. As I said, I plan on reviewing everything in order, and I have read a fair number of RotE era novels. So I will be there for a while before I make it to the NR era.
And thanks. I will try to have a review for Dynasty of Evil posted today or tomorrow.
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Post by Power NeXus on Sept 24, 2011 22:17:40 GMT -5
Have you ever read Shatterpoint (Clone Wars novel, focused on Mace Windu)?
That's the only Star Wars novel I recall reading, and I loved it. It would be interesting to hear your opinion on it if you've read it.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 24, 2011 22:27:04 GMT -5
@nexus: I have, and I will review that when I come to it.
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Post by Admin on Sept 25, 2011 15:47:38 GMT -5
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 25, 2011 16:11:20 GMT -5
@k4tz: Cool. When I get to the Rebellion era in my reviews, I will hopefully read that and review it.
May not be for a while though.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Sept 25, 2011 17:08:40 GMT -5
Darth Bane: Dynasty of EvilAuthor: Drew Karpyshyn Series: Darth Bane Format: Trilogy. Book 3 of 3 Era: Rise of the Empire Chronological Year: 980 BSW4 Overview: "Twenty years have passed since Darth Bane, reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, reinvented the ancient order devoted to the dark side as a circle of two: one Master to wield the power and pass on the wisdom, and one apprentice to learn, challenge, and ultimately usurp the Dark Lord in a duel to the death. But Bane's acolyte, Zannah, has yet to prove herself a worthy successor. Determined that the Sith dream of galactic domination will not die with him, Bane vows to learn the secret of a forgotten Dark Lord that will assure the Sith's immortality—and his own. Zannah knows that her ruthless Master has begun to doubt her, and so she prepares for his downfall, plotting at last to wrest from Bane the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith. Zannah pursues her Master from the grim depths of a ravaged world to the barren reaches of a desert outpost, where the future of the dark side's most powerful disciples will be decided by the final, fatal stroke of a lightsaber." Last book in the trilogy. While I do believe that this book slightly improved over Rule of Two, it did share some of the same faults. Positive ElementsKarpyshyn's descriptions. Said this twice before already. You know my opinion on it. The aftereffects of removal of the orbalisk armor was interesting, if pointless. Bane was still physically powerful, but even years after losing the orbalisks, there are noticeable but subtle degradations. These are minor, but Bane notes that they could and would become worse as he ages. The dark side already ravages the user physically, but the orbalisks slightly accelerated that process. The circumstances through which Zannah found her own apprentice were good. It was also interesting that she never just found the perfect candidate all at once, because that would just feel too convenient. She had other characters she considered for it. There was little, if any recycling of ideas/concepts in this book, as opposed to the previous one, which was good. Serra's contribution to the story was decent. I can only say so much about this without spoiling anything, but the underlying point is that she has a grudge against the Sith for personal reasons and this sets her on her way to kill them. This may sound like it came from nowhere, having nothing to do with the overall plot and could have been done without (which is true), but it actually did feel implemented well enough for the reasons provided. It also led to the circumstances through which Zannah found her apprentice; so in the greater scheme of things, it did play a part. Bane and Zannah's final duel was entertaining. I believe it gave a good conclusion to the series and showed what the lineage of the Sith should be. Overall, Karpyshyn's battles are fairly good, and this may be the best one in the trilogy. The conflict that Bane and Zannah have was well drawn out because they both felt that the other failed to follow the Rule of Two. Bane believed that Zannah was simply waiting for him to grow old so she could kill him easily (she was waiting because she had no apprentice yet, among other reasons), which would not prove her to be his superior, and Zannah believed that Bane betrayed the Rule because he was searching for means to immortality (he was searching for means to immortality because he had to live long enough to train a new apprentice if Zannah would not challenge him). It was all rather contrived and complex but intriguing to read about. Over the years, their interactions with one another had diminished, and they both had secrets kept from one another (as any good evil genius will keep secrets from a partner they plan to kill). Overall, this was probably my favorite aspect of the book in terms of storytelling. Negative ElementsStill no character development. This is still my greatest complaint. The only character development you could argue took place is what I mentioned before about Bane and Zannah's thoughts regarding each other's fulfillment or lack thereof of the Sith rule, but even that did nothing to really flesh them out. They are still more or less blank slates who just want more powah in this book. However, I have to say that the only character in this book who had any real character development was Serra, and that was near the end. Throughout the whole book, I really disliked Serra. Huntress and Set Harth were both rather two-dimensional characters, especially Huntress. She was just an evil, sadistic killer. That was as far as her character depth went. Set was just annoying. His attitude, his goals, how he carried himself. He was more irritating as a character than interesting, and he never had any development either. Mostly, I was disappointed that, yet again, neither Bane nor Zannah were built as characters in any way. That was the case in the previous book and carried on into this one. As the two primary characters, they should have more depth than just, "I want more powah!" But there was none. I still felt like the Jedi were treated poorly. In this book, when Jedi talk about their beliefs, the characters listening give their own silent commentary on them. The Jedi system is shown from the perspective of characters who disagree with them, and that just makes the Jedi look bad. A couple examples of hyperbole (or just simple exaggeration). When Serra watched Bane and Zannah fight one another, and the book said that one of the combatants was twice as tall as the other, I LOL'd. Bane is two meters tall; apparently, Zannah is one. ;D And the other example: The book said that Bane's Lightning could have incinerated his targets. Well, too bad it never did; so pointing that out is irrelevant and only serves as a way to make Bane look powerful. Bane learning the ritual to Spirit Transference just seemed to come too easily, and honestly, it was just an excuse to have Bane learn a new power (because Karpyshyn's only goal in these last two books was to make his characters powerful). Andeddu's gatekeeper was unwilling to give it to him right away; so he just tears it out of the holocron? How is that even possible? Characters can use Drain Knowledge, but how do you TP technology? Because, seriously, the way he forced out the information seemed like some kind of TP trick....on a little piece of ancient machinery... To be perfectly honest, I thought the entire hunt for immortality he went on was rather unnecessary. There really is no reason for him to even learn it, especially since Zannah did ultimately challenge him (he may not have known she was planning to, but the fact that he thought she wouldn't just seemed like a weak reason for him to learn a new power, especially because of how easy it was for him to attain it). And once again, he runs into a tomb, fights his way to the holocron, and leaves. Video game type storytelling again. This book also fails to explain how Andeddu's holocron wound up on Korriban in one of the tombs, where Quinlan Vos found it a thousand years later. Not spoiling what exactly happens to the holocron by the end of the novel, but it fails to explain that. Presumably, I guess we could just assume that someone hid it there...or had it stolen.....and the person who stole it figured that putting it in a tomb not even related to Andeddu was a good idea.......or something..... The final duel, while entertaining, was frustrating because Zannah had to draw on outside Force energies to augment her powers enough to use a spell that did a huge amount of damage. Seriously, throughout all of these books, Zannah's feats were extremely mediocre. Bane, good God, did Karpyshyn give Bane good feats. He went out of his way specifically to give Bane good feats, to the point that he presents hyperbolic descriptions at times. But Zannah was left without anything notable, and to make that worse, Karpyshyn had her amp herself to fight him. Well, thanks, Karpyshyn: You spent three books making Bane look more powerful than Zannah, and then has her continue on the line. Good job... Regardless of the faults I attribute to Dynasty of Evil, I will say that it did provide a decent conclusion to the series but not one worth a reread. I just wish Bane and Zannah were more developed in this book. As with RoT, DoE is entertaining, which is of course a good thing, but it fails to deliver on many crucial elements. So, again, style over substance, and I have to say that as with RoT, many sequences and plot points in this book could have been omitted without hindering the story at all. Score: 6/10 Average
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Oct 7, 2011 8:08:57 GMT -5
Legacy of the JediAuthor: Jude Watson Series: Clone Wars Format: Standalone Era: Rise of the Empire Chronological Year: 89 BSW4 Overview: "Yoda and Dooku. Dooku and Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan and Anakin. Four generations of Jedi. One common enemy." This is a young reader novel, and thusly shorter than most EU novels, but a rewarding read all things considered. The concept surrounding the book's plot is what first caught my attention, and its execution proved to be worthwhile. As the novel is short, there is less to say about it though, and the review will be short also. Positive ElementsThe descriptions, while rather basic, flow well. The descriptions in this book are not extraordinary (for obvious reasons) but work well enough to keep the reader interested, even for a reader like me who, by all rights, is reading a book well below his reading level. The plot. This was one of the better parts of the book. The preceding idea of the novel of having a correlated story between Yoda and Dooku; Dooku and Qui-Gon; Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan; and finally Obi-Wan and Anakin is what earned my intrigue in the first place. Consequences of events that occur between each story are carried over into the next until a conclusion is ultimately made. Characterization is great. This novel is very Dooku-heavy; so if you like him as a character, read this book. It shows how he first gained interest in Sith teachings, what he was like as a Padawan, and differentiates his character as a Jedi and a Sith very well. It shows his progression, becoming more and more grim and dark as he grows as a Jedi and later becomes a Sith. It actually offered some decent depth to him, in my opinion, which is great. Also, Lorian Nod, the character present in each of the four stories that relates them to one another, is very important in Dooku's life, as they were friends in the Jedi Order. Not going to spoil anymore details for you, but the novel does a good job of contrasting Dooku and Lorian in how each develops as a character in their own right and in a way switch places, so to speak. I also did thoroughly enjoy Qui-Gon's part in this. If all you know about Qui-Gon is what you saw in The Phantom Menace, then this could help glean some information on him. The story with Dooku and Qui-Gon was engaging. As everyone knows, Dooku eventually became a Sith; so outlining what exactly Qui-Gon's relationship with Dooku was was entertaining to read about. Anakin and Obi-Wan were basically the same as they always were: simply enjoyable to read about. Negative ElementsDespite what the premise of the novel is, Yoda is actually not featured in this book very much, which was a little disappointing (and by "a little disappointing," I mean, "Why was that even listed as part of the premise if it had hardly anything to do with it?"). This probably would not be as much of a problem for me if I was actually aware of that before reading it, but misleading overview is misleading. If you begin reading this expecting to learn about Yoda and Dooku's relationship, this will unfortunately fail to meet your expectation. The novel you should actually read for information on that subject is Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, which actually does reference this book. Not much else about this was poor besides the point listed above (which may have varying levels of detriment to your appreciation to the book.) It is a young adult book; so maybe that will detract from you enjoyment of it. I don't know. This book is very good for what it is. It is fairly short; so in a way, there may be less substance to it. But it was worth the read. Score: 7.5/10 Good
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Post by Admin on Oct 7, 2011 12:35:21 GMT -5
The cover alone would make me avoid picking that up.
Shallow opinion is shallow.
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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut
The Fourth Precept
Posts: 4,654
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Post by Silver on Oct 7, 2011 14:04:34 GMT -5
LOL, why because Dooku looks silly as a freshman?
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Post by Admin on Oct 7, 2011 14:21:25 GMT -5
Personally, I prefer unique art for covers and not crappy cropping of the movie stuff. It just seems campy to me.
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