Jenna Likes to Read

I read this book about three years ago, but never gave it its own post, so I am doing it now.  This book has a lot of faults, but it is one of the few I have distinct memories of reading as a teenager and I loved it back then, so there’s a lot of nostalgia there for me.  It doesn’t make sense that Leia suddenly is willing to marry for diplomatic reasons and leave Han behind, but I like that they reconcile in the end and get married.  Threepio’s song about Han is the greatest part of Star Wars literature.  Fight me. I also really like the Dathomir storyline and the force witches were awesome.

Rereading it as an adult, I totally see the issues with the book, but at the time I loved it.

omg.  Where to even start with this book.  I finished it because I felt like it was important to the continuity of the EU as a whole.  Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but at least I know who Kyp Durron is now.  Around page 16, I was completely exasperated, but I powered through.  I am not excited about reading the rest of this trilogy.

The characters: Every characterization was off.  Leia didn’t know how to balance being a mother with being a diplomat and when Mon Mothma found out that Leia was struggling, she didn’t care.  (Also wtf was up with the kids living with Winter until they’re two?  This makes no sense.) Also, when Han doesn’t check in, Leia just thinks he’s off gambling instead of maybe in danger and Winter has to bring up that idea?  Ugh.  AND when Leia is dealing with a tough diplomatic situation, she wishes Han or Luke was there.  WHYYYYY?  Ugh.  Luke is an ass to everyone he wants to train, but particularly to Leia.  Han was the closest to what I would expect from him but he was still off.  At least I kind of liked Kyp.

The writing:  Damn this writing is bad.  How do you show strength of character by walking down stairs?  I don’t know, but Luke apparently does it.  The book was very tell, don’t show, which is the worst.  Don’t assume your reader can’t remember a detail that was introduced a page before.  And all the dialogue is so so bad.

This review is making me want to change my goodreads review from 2 stars to 1.  I guess I will go subject myself to the next book in the trilogy now.

I had a weird reading experience with this book.  I started it before I went to Japan for 3 weeks and took it with me planning to finish it while I was over there, but I didn’t end up reading much.  Then I got back and couldn’t find the book.  I was about to buy a new copy to finish it when I pulled out my suitcase to go to California and the book was in there!  So I was able to finish it.

As for the actually book… it was pretty good.  I enjoyed it, though I wasn’t overwhelmed with love for it.  Overall, I liked the story and the characterization of our intrepid heroes. Shadowspawn and his powers were interesting.  I thought the investigation set up was interesting and I loved that there are dramatizations of Luke and Han being made.  It made the book light and fun even when the stuff going on was potentially dark and deep.

And we’re back to the Rogues, though a few of our Wraith friends are still around.  I like the Rogues, but I did miss the Wraiths.  I’m pretty sure I said the opposite back in the 4th book when it switched from Rogues to Wraiths initially.  I like them all, I guess, and just want more stories!  I liked that Corran and Mirax are a fun married couple.  I also like that Mirax and Iella are working with the Rogues but are independent women that get themselves in and out of trouble.  The story was fun and I really enjoyed it, though the premise is strange and convoluted.  But at least it was entertaining.

Also, I am going to need to hug Gavin for a really long time now.

I am mad at myself for not writing down my thoughts after I finished this book.  I liked it but I can’t remember why.  I know I loved all the Wraiths and I liked that Han Solo was involved in these books, though minimally.  I did love all the stuff with Kettch so very much.  He may be my favorite pilot.

I almost didn’t read this book because there are stormtroopers on the cover and generally, I haven’t been a big fan of books focused on stormtroopers.  But it is by Timothy Zahn, also featured our intrepid OT heroes, and promised young Mara Jade, so I went for it.  It was a good book, though probably my least favorite Zahn book to date.

I liked Mara, though I kept remembering that she’s only 18 in this book and some of the stuff seems very mature for her age.  Though she does also make some rash decisions, so I guess that makes sense for an 18 year old.  I was confused by her Force powers.  If I remember correctly, in the Thrawn trilogy, Luke is teaching her to use the Force.  In this book, she’s younger and in complete control – moving things, influencing people, whatever needs to be done.  I think there might have been something in TT about her thinking her powers came from the Emperor and she lost them when he died?  idk.  It just seemed weird to me. I did really like her interactions with Darth Vader and felt he was well written.

I like the Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewy story lines.  Leia’s was especially interesting.  I feel like Zahn did a good job of capturing them in their post A New Hope places, especially Han wavering between staying with the Rebellion and leaving to pay off Jabba and working out his feelings towards Leia.

The stormtroopers weren’t as bad as I expected them to be, but I still wasn’t overly invested in their story.  It was just a little meh for me.  I did like them by the end of the book.