World Famous Comics: The Joiner King (Star Wars: Dark Nest, Book 1)
The Joiner King (Star Wars: Dark Nest, Book 1)
By: Troy Denning Publisher: Del Rey Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Del Rey Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 544 Publication Date: July 26, 2005 Release Date: July 26, 2005
Product Description: After triumphing in Star Wars: The Unifying Force, the heroes of the New Jedi Order return in a dazzling new adventure!
Luke Skywalker is worried: A handful of Jedi Knights, including his nephew and niece, Jaina and Jacen Solo, have disappeared into the Unknown Regions in response to a strange cry for help that only they could hear. Now the alien Chiss have angrily lodged a formal complaint, accusing the missing Jedi of meddling in a border dispute between the Chiss and an unidentified aggressor.
Luke has no choice but to head to the Unknown Regions for serious damage control. Han and Leia follow, intent on protecting their children from what could be grave danger. But none of them are prepared for what they find when they reach their destination.
A colony of mysterious aliens is expanding toward the edge of Chiss space. The leader of the alien nest is resolute. Adept in the Force, he is drawing old friends to his side, compelling them to join the colony and meld their Force-abilities with his, even if it leads to all-out war. . . .
SW vs the Palindrome bug aliens This was first published in 2005, but I have waited 3 years to read it as I felt I needed a break from the mostly exceptional New Jedi Order/Yuuzhan Vong invasion story arc. Having read a mess load other genres in this time, I returned to Star Wars expanded universe with this next in line story. After three years and this is what I return to? Unfortunately, after the massive invasion story, this was really a letdown and I know Troy Denning is better than this.
The new antagonists are sentient bugs encrouching on Chiss space. It's up to our aging heroes and new Jedi to resolve the matter. The problem is that the five new Jedi summoned to the hives are actually become entwined into the bug hive-mind collective. I had a hard enough time with the "Jedi battle mind meld" now we have this tripe. Jaina is now so annoying I'm hoping she gets killed off (not gonna happen) and the galactically stupid character of Zekk (from the young adult Jedi Academy series) is in a combined mind with Jaina and an even more pandering twit. Jacen is apparently above the Force now. The bug names are unimaginative palindromes - Yoggoy, Taat, Gorog, Unu, Killik... and were supposed to believe this Killik race has a much bigger part in the history of the SW galaxy. And lastly our aging heroes are pushed into the storyline in an almost commendable attempt of writing their personalities by the author.
Overall, I could really care less about the bug hives as the antagonists, it has been done before and much better than this. I'm hoping the sequels will be better as Denning is a good author.
The Start of a New Era Star Wars: Dark Nest-The Joiner King is an unusual and oftentimes frustrating addition to the SW saga. Picking up approximately five years after the events of The New Jedi Order series, Joiner King manages to avoid answering most of the questions left over by the previous series, instead focusing on a small cast of characters and taking the primary setting into a largely unexplored area of the galaxy.
The story begins when several Jedi Knights suddenly vanish, including Jacen and Jaina Solo, Lowbacca, and Tahiri, who were all experiencing a strange beckoning through the Force, calling for them to come to the Unknown Regions. Shortly thereafter, Luke Skywalker receives a complaint by the Chiss government that several of his Jedi meddled in a border dispute. Hoping to contain the damage, Luke and his wife, Mara Jade Skywalker, travel to the Unknown Regions with their son, Ben. Han and Leia Solo follow, intent on protecting their children. When the group arrives, they discover a colony of ancient and mysterious aliens led by an old ally thought dead, who is no longer the young and brave Jedi he once was.
Author Troy Denning makes the Joiner King a much more hardcore sci-fi novel than most other Star Wars titles, spending an unusual amount of time on the technical side of starships, and creating an enemy who is, to put it lightly, "out there." This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but coming on the heels of the New Jedi Order, it certainly is an unexpected direction.
Perhaps the best thing about this novel is that it highlights just how much things have changed in the SW universe since the events of Return of the Jedi. The characters we know and love have become much darker versions of who they once were, especially Han and Leia. These characters, as well as the new generation of Jedi Knights, are no longer capable of being placed in black or white categories, but instead live in a morally gray area. It makes for a more realistic version of George Lucas' universe.
For the most part, the dialogue is pretty spot-on, although Troy Denning does occasionally struggle with Han Solo, who is easily the most difficult of these characters to transfer to the printed page. The new characters, especially Jacen Solo, are given some heavy treatment as well, and the direction Jacen has gone since the New Jedi Order is both surprising and fitting.
Another fascinating element of this novel is seeing how much the Jedi Order has changed since the war with the Yuuzhan Vong. A potential schism has formed between the Jedi Masters, and hopefully this plot element gets more development in future novels. A Jedi civil war would be extremely interesting to read about.
However, there are a few negative elements to this book that bring my rating of it down. The first is Troy Denning's writing style, which can sometimes be clunky and juvenile. It takes a while to get used to his writing style, and the humor he injects oftentimes clashes with the darker tone of the story.
The plot itself, while certainly unique, is just not as interesting as one could've hoped for following the events of the New Jedi Order, and I never felt as if the Killiks (the new baddies) were that much of a threat, especially now that our heroes have faced villains such as the Yuuzhan Vong.
Overall, The Joiner King is an interesting but ultimately mediocre new start to the Expanded Universe. Hopefully the next two novels in the trilogy will pick things up a bit better, but for now, this'll have to do.
This book also contains the short story "The New Jedi Order: Ylesia," which was previously published in e-book format. Written by Walter Jon Williams, this story chronicles Jacen and Jaina Solo's viewpoints during a battle to retake a Yuuzhan Vong-held planet. Even though the story doesn't make much of an impact on SW canon, it's definitely worth a read. The author has a good grasp on the characters, the dialogue is perfect, and the action scenes are well-written. It's a quick read, but it's highly entertaining.
very good book I am very happy with this book its a very good star wars book and i can not wait to finsh it and read the rest of the books that go with it
so-so Novel with Hints of greatness I really liked the overall plot of the book. I felt that the menace was new and not a rehashing of previous SW Novel villains. The whole hidden Nest thing was pretty interesting to me.
What brought this down in my eyes was the lackluster editing on the part of Lucasbooks. There were several moments that brought me completely out of the narrative.
1) Star Trek-ish Technobabble - Since when does the Millenium Falcon have nacelles? And the whole Reverse the polarity of the falcon's tractor beam thing was just too Trekky.
2) Continuity Errors - If this book was written before Episode 1 was released it would not be that big of a deal, but one of the characters talks about R2 units being created for use by the Imperial Military. Artoo existed well before the Empire was created.
3) Where did Artoo get this footage of Obi-Wan and Padme? From the movies it seems that Artoo stayed with Anakin and Threepio with Padme. This is a minor nitpick though not a biggie.
4) Plot points that seem like a computer game. I had no idea that Troy Denning was a Game designer until I read the part about Luke having to go on a quest to find a journal for the guy that supposedly invented something in Artoo. That part read just like a "go fetch" quest in a computer game that I flipped to the Author Information page to see if he did design games. This was too contrived for my tastes.
Again, basic plot and characterization was well-done, but these moments had me scratching my head and taking me out of the flow of the book.
One word, lackluster So we just come off the greatness of the New Jedi Order, the Yuuzhan Vong are defeated and Ben Skywalker has been born. What does Lucas books give us? A trilogy that in concept could be absolutely huge! But due to poor writing in many places and an overall abundance of characters that are either unimaginative or frankly unacceptable to the universe (an ill-tempered ewok? That doesn't make any sense!) this trilogy falls into a three star category. The only saving grace is the character development. Jacen starts to seriously walk the double edged path to the dark side in this trilogy and begins to estrange himself from his sister. Read it if you're interested in the Legacy of the Force series otherwise stay away.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
