World Famous Comics: Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 8)
Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 8)
By: Karen Traviss Publisher: Del Rey Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Del Rey Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 448 Publication Date: February 26, 2008 Release Date: February 26, 2008
Product Description: During this savage civil war, all efforts to end Jacen Solo’s tyranny of the Galactic Alliance have failed. Now with Jacen approaching the height of his dark powers, no one–not even the Solos and the Skywalkers–knows if anything can stop the Sith Lord before his plan to save the galaxy ends up destroying it. Jacen Solo’s shadow of influence has threatened many, especially those closest to him. Jaina Solo is determined to bring her brother in, but in order to track him down, she must first learn unfamiliar skills from a man she finds ruthless, repellent, and dangerous. Meanwhile, Ben Skywalker, still haunted by suspicions that Jacen killed his mother, Mara, decides he must know the truth, even if it costs him his life. And as Luke Skywalker contemplates once unthinkable strategies to dethrone his nephew, the hour of reckoning for those on both sides draws near. The galaxy becomes a battlefield where all must face their true nature and darkest secrets, and live–or die–with the consequences.
Good setup for "Invicible" but too much filler "Revelation", the 8th and penultimate entry in the "Legacy of the Force" series is a much better entry than the last, Fury, and is superior to Karen Traviss' previous novel "Sacrifice" in almost every way. It successfully sets up the final novel by moving the players into their places with efficiency and style, and pays off the Mandalorian/Boba Fett story arc that Traviss spent far too much time developing in her previous efforts. It's no surprise that the weakest parts of the book center on Fett and his dysfunctional family.
There are three main story arcs, with only one being developed and completeed in a truly interesting manner. The first deals with Ben Skywalkers attempts to prove Jacen Solo, now the Sith Lord Darth Cadeus, killed his mother, Mara Jade Skywalker. He takes this task on himself, and returns to Coruscant to enlist the help of his old friend Lon Shevu of the Galactic Alliance Guard(GAG). Shevu is an old local cop who was drafted into the GAG in the second book of the series and has been a mentor to Ben on correct police procedure. With Shevu's help, Ben begins to build an air-tight case against Jacen to present to his father and the Jedi Council.
The second arc involves the political manuverings of Jacen, the Old Empire, and Admiral Cha Niathal, Jacen's co-chief of state who has decided that Jacen's ambition and tyranny are too much for her to bear. Represnting the Empire is fan favorite Admiral Palleaon, former Commander of the Galactic Alliance Navy and now essentially the head of state for the Empire. This story arc is the most well-defined and Traviss demonstrates some skill in writing political intrigue. Palleon, Jacen and Niathal all have tricks up their sleaves, and Traviss does a superb job of unleashing the surprises on both the galaxy and the reader, and there are some very interesting cameo's in this section of the book.
Finally, there is the Jaina Solo/Boba Fett arc. Jaina believes that she alone can stop Jacen, but that since they know each other so well, she needs to learn things he doesn't. So she enlists Fett to train her in Mandalorain techniques to take down Jacen. Here is the real weekness in the story. Traviss seems intent on shoehorning her characters and threads from her "Republic Commando" series into the Madalorian scenes, and so the time spent on Mandalore focuses too little on who Jaina is learning and far too much on psychoanalyzing Fett and essentially holding up the Mandalorians as some sort of glorious ideal. Her writing shows a lot of contempt for the Jedi and while they certainly deserve some criticism, Traviss tries way too hard to point out how much better, morally and physically, the Mandalorians are, which gets tiresome fast. I think Fett's history is interesting, but it has not place in this series of novels. So these scenes drag down the pace of the book and push the Ben Skywalker angle to far out of the picture that he only makes one appearence in the last third of the book, though it's a very important moment and she writes it well.
Other problems with the story are that no one seems to know anything about the Sith in this novel. Considering everyone knows that Palpatine was a Sith and that Sith are supposed to be evil, most of the non-Jedi characters have a lot of convienient lapses in memory of what, exactly, the Sith represent. This is annoying to a long-time reader of the Star Wars series because the threat of the Sith came up a lot in previous novels. Not all of their history is well known in the Star Wars universe, you would think a galaxy that spent 20 years under the rule of one Sith, Palpatine, would retain some memory of them, especially Fett, who worked with and seemingly respected Vader.
Anyway, I think this stands in the way of making this a great book and brings the score down. The only positive is that Traviss successfuly sets up the final novel and also gives Fett some resoultion. She should ask LucasBooks to let her write a stand-alone novel on the Madalorians. She obviously loves the bloodthirsty mercenaries, and it would at least be addressed in the correct place. You can't skip this book if you want to enjoy the final book of the series, but it's not too great either.
Classic Karen Traviss has a style that sets her apart from the other authors. She did an great job with this one. The only shame is that she has to share the load with the other authors. Instant Classic!
Not one of the better books in series I've read every star wars book in existance. This is probably one of my least favorites, especially from this series.
The writing just wasn't very good, especially in the beginning. It seemed to take Karen about half-way through the book before she hit her stride. If you can get through the first half you'll probably enjoy the second-half much more.
The Fett part of the story is excellent. She does a lot of excellent character development and really fleshes him out.
The Jacen Solo part is laughable. His character has no development and actually becomes more cliche as the story progresses. He is character is weak that I was tempted to skip forward to the next chapter each time he was the focus. Once again everyone "tries" to kill him and they (surprise) fail. Nobody tries very hard in this book and the only real plot advancement is with Jainia and Fett.
I'm hopeful the final book will be one of the better ones because this was very much a disappointment.
A good set up...... A good set up for what promises to be a great conclusion. Missed the lghtsabre battles but then again Karen has not been great on depicting these fights anyway. This is the final betrayal and journey down the dark path for Mr. Jacen. This is twin sister stop playing the whining little girl as displayed in the series thus far. this is the Fett rubbing his hands together to get revenge for his daughter's death. This is the lull in the eye of the hurricane. you know that the tail-end of that storm is going to smack you upside the head. Methinks Jacen and his allies should be uttering the now famous "I have a bad feeling about this....". and hey, no super Luke in this round.
Legacy of the Force: Revelation This is a great book if Boba Fett worship is your thing, but it is not mine (hence the only 4 stars).
I am glad that I bought this book. For some one who came in during the middle of the series, much of the information in this book fills in some of the confusing points in 'Inferno' and 'Fury'.
The scenes on Keldabe could very easily have become their own series, but then this book would have been a whole lot shorter.
Ben Skywalker is becoming an adult and how he investigates his mother's murder was very interesting. I would have liked more detail on the investigation to be in the book than there was. But there are some things that have to be sacrificed so that the author can bore the reader to death on every little detail about Boba Fett.
The final scene and the scene on Kavan were beautifully described and almost made me cry.
Jaina got some interesting scenes in this book, but mostly they were dominated by Fett. Her decision to try to take down Jacen/Caedus is a good one. However, Karen Traviss could given that decision a bit more depth.
The scene when Jacen/Caedus explains his reasoning on why he is not evil and why whagt he is doing is for the good of the galaxy almost made me want to throw out the book. DIDN'T HE LISTEN TO WHAT HE WAS SAYING? ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD BELEIVE HIS REASONING!!
Okay, back to the reveiw.
Admiral Pelleaon had some interesting scenes in this book but I was disappointed by what happened to him.
Admiral Daala is back with turbolasers blazing. She wasn't my favorite character in the Jedi Academy Trilogy, but she made a fine appearance in this book.
Tahiri made me so sick in this book. In the Swarm War Trilogy, she wasn't having any trouble with her grief over Anakin's death. Now, she is swimming in grief and is become a Sith to try to "deal with it". Grow up, girl!!
Luke, Leia, and Han hardly had anything to do in this book. That was sad. To avoid repeating myself, see the paragraph on Jaina.
Admiral Niathal finally got some sense and made a very good decision. It is a shame that the fleet didn't realize that Jacen/Caedus doesn't care about them anymore and didn't follow Niathal. She was a better commander anyway.
When Jacen/Caedus "revealed" that he was a Sith, it was not well done at all!! "Hey, I am a Sith Lord. Please call me 'My Lord' and lets have dinner together sometime." THAT'S HOW IT CAME OFF. REALLY!!
I can't wait to see how Troy Denning will write the final book. It is bound to be excellent. In fact, 'Inferno' is still my favorite 'Legacy of the Force' book.
One final note to Karen Traviss: why not write your own series, and fill it with Boba Fett to your hearts content?
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
