Sacrifice

Sacrifice is book 5 in the Star Wars Legacy of the Force series. It’s official. Jacen has picked his sacrifice and assumes his Sith name: Darth Caedus. His decent from Jedi Knight to Sith Lord has been eerily reminiscent of his grandfather’s. Both of them were incredibly strong in the Force, but weak in will. They were both open to Sith instruction because the Light Side was not enough to accomplish their goals. And they both felt justified in their actions were for the good. There is also quite a bit of a feeling of Emperor Palpetine (aka Darth Sidious) about his actions. One side of him, the political side, knows the right things to say to the right people; the right babies to kiss to make the news holos. But then there’s the side of him that makes decisions behind closed doors: sending Ben to assassinate Dur Gejjen. When Ben overhears a conversation Jacen is having with Lumia, he realizes that Jacen has really lost his way and confesses everything to his mom, Mara Jade. With this knowledge Mara Jade decides that Jacen must be stopped.

This book is pivotal to the Star Wars universe: huge changes take place, Jacen passes the point of no return, and a beloved character’s life is lost. ( )

I'm having trouble starting this review in any sort of catchy way, so let's assume I have, and i'll get on

with it. Basically, this is pretty much the best book of the series so far. The characters are incredible, the

plot is generally unpredictable, and Boba Fett is back again.

To be honest, I'm beginning to wonder why the other two writers didn't write anything at all about him. Karen

Traviss is possibly the leading expert on Fett, but he just seemed to drop out of existance between her books.

But that's not what this review is about. In this book we see Fett as a new man, still an incredible

character, but put in a position of responsibility as the head of the mandalorians, and made to stick there.

It had the potential to go disasterously wrong, but Traviss did a fantastic job with him as she did before.

But one character doesn't give a 10/10 score. What happens is that all of the characters are incredible. Even

the Ship Ben acquired at the end of "Exile" is a well written character. And while I can't think of any that

aren't done well, Ben Skywalker and Lumiya are particularly impressive. Ben is growing up, and his emotions in

Sacrifice are superbly described, and emulated by the reader. On the other hand, we finally get to see

something about Lumiya's opinions on Jacen. We see her doubts, her fear, and her resolution to meet her

target. Both of these are great characters, and Traviss writes them brilliantly. Actually, Jaina isn't written

particularly well. I'm surprised she hasn't been in these books more, being the main antagonist's twin

brother...

And then the plot. The main storyline is given away by the title. "Sacrifice". Jacen has to kill a loved one

to become a sith lord, and it's in this book he does it. We've known that for the last three or four books.

What we don't know who it is, and while the choices are narrowed down quickly to just three people, we are

left guessing as to which it will be until the very end. And when it does come, it's a pretty awesome scene.

There is one thing that niggled me about the book. One sentence. In fact, not even that. at one point the book

mentions the "Monster Raving Anarchy Party", a political party whose name bears a remarkable similarity to the

British "Monster Raving Looney Party" a joke party that runs every election to pretty much make fun of the way

politics works. They actually won a seat once. Now Traviss is English, and has apparently decided it was

amusing enough to put in a novel. But It's too real worldy. Star Wars should take us to a galaxy far far away.

One with Coruscanti political parties, not British ones...

But other than that, the politics was done incredibly well in this book, much better than in any other Star

Wars book I've read, I believe. I'm not going to explain how, as it would be a few spoilers, but the way the

legal system interacts with the government, and how they both interact with supply and demand systems is

actually quite complex, and Traviss does it almost ridiculously well. I find myself looking forward to her

next book in the series more than I do either of the others. Maybe that will change with Denning's Inferno,

but we'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I still wholeheartedly recommend this series. The politics does get complex, but it's

exciting, and not at all hard to read, as Traviss explains everything she needs too. It touches on different

cultures, on family, on war, on politics... In fact, if there was ever a chance of a Star Wars book becoming a

literary Classic, I'd say this is it. ( )

And now back to booklogging, with the next in the Legacy of the Force series of Star Wars EU books.

Really, the biggest problem with this book is that it is two books.

One book, the one I suspect Karen Traviss really wanted to write, featuring Boba Fett and the Mandalorians, is actually a pretty decent read.

Unfortunately, the second book is the one that the title applies to, and that book, featuring the ongoing Fall of Jacen and his reveal as Darth Spoiler and, most importantly, his big death-of-a-main-character eponymous Sacrifice to become fully en-Sith-ed is not. These are major events in the history of the universe, people. I should not feel vaguely bored when I read them.

And, really, Fairly Obvious Spoiler deserved a better death than that. Or, well, a better plot in general.

Summation: Enh.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2009/10/sacrifice_karen_traviss.htm... ) ( )

Exciting stuff as Jacen Solo grows in power both politically and in the dark side.

One last hurdle stands in the way of him being a sith lord....the sacrifice of a loved one.

I enjoyed the rollercoaster ride. ( )

Jacen Solo has been informed that he needs to make a great sacrifice in order to become a Sith Lord, and this volume is where he finally figures out what that is. Traviss brings back the Mandalorian plotline from Bloodlines, depicting the traditionally bloodthirsty warriors in a sympathetic light, and gets in some more digs at modern anti-terrorist hysteria. (The volume includes her novella “A Practical Man”, showing how the Mandalorians handled the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.) Jacen learns to wield bureaucratic power just as well as the Force, and participates in “reluctantly” removing the Head of State of the Galactic Alliance from office. Traviss does a good job of keeping multiple balls in the air with her talespinning; these epic Star Wars novels with a dozen main characters have got to be a writing challenge. ( )