Galactic politics continues simmering and threatening to boil over as the Corellians attempt to drag the Hapan Consortium into the mess, and it’s up to the Skywalker-Solo clan and their friends to try to prevent a civil war that would tear apart the Galactic Alliance. Jacen Solo continues his slide down to the Dark Side and does a fantastic job of alienating friends and family, particularly his parents. Denning keeps the action moving, with plenty of space battles and firefights. ( )

(Alistair) Well, another Star Wars EU book, and one which it's been long enough since I read that I don't actually remember that much about it. I don't usually suffer from this problem when the booklog backlog builds up a bit, which I suppose is not that encouraging.

I don't think this is another case of the phone-it-in syndrome I complained of in the last book I read by this author; it was enjoyable enough to read when I was reading it, I do recall, but it doesn't seem to have left much impression.

Oh, well. Next one in this series is an Aaron Allston, who - generally speaking - gives very good book. Guess I'll find out then if it's general EU malaise or not.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ce... ) ( )

Every storyline is continued, more excitement! ( )

Tempest is a solid read, but not much more than that.

Denning kicks the GA/Corellian war ahead in Tempest, bringing Hapes into the mix on the side of the Alliance. Unfortunately, here the confusion begins; the Hapans have their own fleets, while the very thing that the Corellians rebelled over was because they wanted their own fleets! Denning fails to make clear exactly how this works; the reader is expected to hand-wave this in favor of the further character exploration of Jacen with his daughter and his lover. And while the sickly logical Jacen is further convinced that the Sith way is right, it's hardly a new development for the character.

With the bounty on Han and Leia taken out of the picture with the deal of Sal-Solo, Denning also introduces a new threat to keep them in the picture: Alema Rar. Brought back from the seemingly-dead, she joins forces with Lumiya and the Sith in order to help execute her vengeance. Even under the Dark Nest's influence she didn't renounce the Jedi ways; seeing her do so here was odd. The best Sith have a reason for their actions… and Alema doesn't.

These strange character developments, or attempts thereof, are backed up by some not particularly interesting fleet battles at the end. Denning's never had any particularly outstanding naval scenes, and the ones in Tempest just dragged. I found myself skimming them rather than reading them; unfortunate, as they're usually some of my favorite parts of other Star Wars novels.

Tempest was a serviceable read, but it could've been better—both on its own terms, and on how it fits into the series overall. Hopefully Denning's later books will be more enjoyable. ( )