Inferno

It's been some time since I read Sacrifice, so I may be blaming Inferno for its sins. But the book appears to have completely ignored much of the character development of Exile, which is just plain annoying.

Ben Skywalker, once Jacen's apprentice, has been toying on the edge of Sith teachings under his master's tutelage. But during Exile, and his time on Ziost, it seemed like he had permanently put their sacrifical outlook behind him. Come Inferno, though, and we find him yet again giving heed to his emotions: wanting revenge, not justice.

Yes, his mother was just killed. But having consciously rejected Jacen's teachings, it seems strange to see him trying to leap right back into them.

Jacen, too, is acting without visible cause; he tosses show more Ben into the Embrace of Pain, but we're never really told why he thinks that torturing Ben will turn him. His "military" actions are equally extreme; it's surprising that nobody among his crew batted an eye, and that it took his later murder of an officer on the bridge (in Fury) before they really turned against him.

Inferno's poor characterization and senseless events result in a subpar novel; unfortunate, seeing as how the Sacrifice it builds on wasn't much better. show less

I bought this book on amazon. When deciding which version of the book to purchase (I eventually went with paperback) I looked at a couple of the reviews. One or two said that it was the worst in the series. I find myself having to disagree with them. It's not the best, both the previous book in the series (Sacrifice - Karen Traviss) and the previous book written by Denning (Tempest) exceeded it. But It wasn't the worst either. I really enjoyed reading more about Luke, who has been pretty much absent from previous books, and also of Han and Leia, who seem to come and go in previous books.

After the events of the previous book, Darth Caedus seems quite lost without his mentor. In this book we get shown that despite turning darker, he has a show more long way to go before being another emperor. While he tries to be cold and calculating, he can't quite get it down perfectly. This book shows Jacen, not in a good light, but in a light that is really interesting to read. He's starting to accept his own darkness, and I feel that Denning writes Jacen really well, In that we actually kind of understand where he's coming from. Palpatine was clearly evil. But Jacen is just... misguided.

Of course - that doesn't mean he's not the bad guy. He isn't a nice person. But the way Denning has written, along with the prior works of the three authors, allows us to see him as evil one moment, and lost in another.

There were two minor characters that particularly stood out for me as well. Chief Omas, and Ship. The first Denning writes really well, despite his brief appearance. The second is just a simply incredible character/vehicle. The idea that a ship can be sentient is not a new one in the star wars universe - but this particular one is highly entertaining to read. As is the whole series for that.

There are a couple of problems I had - non major. The biggest is that the character of Tahiri is reintroduced in this book - apparently for no good reason. Maybe she'll be more prominent in the next three books, but I would have liked to see more of a reason for Darth Caedus' manipulations of her. She has a small use, but given that the book started with her - I expected more.

I also didn't like Ben's character very much, meaning the way in which it was written, which is interesting since I liked him so much in Tempest. I kind of understand why he was written the way he was - but it seems too different from his character in the previous books.

Overall though, I really enjoyed this book. it's the last book of the middle section, and where the last book was a large turning point in Jacen's world, this is the consequential large turning point for the rest of the galaxy. As we enter the final books of the series, I'm finding it difficult to stick to my reading/reviewing plan and not just read the rest of the series straight away. As always - I would recommend this series. show less

The plotoutline of the book seems pretty good; unfortuntately this book is not much more then a thin tangle of lines connecting the predefined skeleton. Except for some longwinded fight-scenes, there really isn't much development. Several key points in the book are also completely butchered.

Luke is shown for the Grand Master of the Jedi Council that he is. The Society of One Sith are revealed and pave the way for the Legacy Comics. I hope Caedus dies a slow painful death.

fun.

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13828415