The Unifying Force

The New Jedi Order goes out much as it began, which is to say: blandly. Given a nineteen-book series with tons of characters to wrap up, Luceno devotes significant chunks of time early in the novel to Boba Fett and Judder Page, neither of whom have appeared in these books before. A lot of the novel feels oddly low-key: Zonoma Sekot appears in the sky over Yuuzhan'tar/Coruscant, but no one seems particularly worried about or interested in what ought to be an ominous moment. Luceno has obviously read Traitor, unlike Walter Jon Williams, but I'm not sure he gets it any better. He can bog anything down in procedural details, even the wrapup to a four-year galaxy-spanning epic, unfortunately.

The New Jedi Order: « Previous in sequence | Next show more in sequence » show less

I have always said that "bad Star Wars is better than no Star Wars" (a
philosophy that allows me to own Star Wars Episode II on DVD). This was
not bad Star Wars, but it was disappointing Star Wars. The first 300 or
so pages dragged, not a good sign in a 500 page book that is supposed to
wrap up a 19 book series. Maybe they were trying to set things up for
the next round or novels, comics, etc. set in the Star Wars galaxy.
Some of the most interesting parts of the series, and this book in
particular, were parts dealing with understanding the Force. Has their
understanding of the Force been only a limited understanding, all this
time? Apparently the Knights of the Old Republic only had it partially
right, and Luke had to finish his show more training without a master. I was
hoping for a more in-depth discussion of the Force and the role of the
Jedi following the war, but apparently they are holding that back so
they can sell me more books later. show less

James Luceno authors the final chapter to the New Jedi Order series, and given his flair for drama and action, he was a good choice to bring this long tale to an exciting conclusion. As expected, our familiar heroes, Luke, Han, Leia, Mara and others, acquire a new understanding of the Force and bring an end to the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Ok. Now what? Will anyone get to take a vacation now?

Published in hardcover by Del Rey. The hardcover comes with a bonus CD-ROM containing the first New Jedi Order novel, Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore, in eBook format.

A decent conclusion to a long series. The author has a quirky writing style and every so often tries to insert archaic words when everyday words will do. The ending did seem a little cheesy, as did the characterization, but what can you expect from a Star Wars novel?

http://www.livejournal.com/users/lampbane/208664.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lampbane/209129.html

"It's a long book, chock full of plot resolution, appearances by practically every character who's ever appeared in the movies or Expanded Universe, and so much freaking philosophy and metaphysics. Yep, that's right, philosophy.

Got into a psuedo-argument with Mike about it, and after that utter debacle it seems that this was possibly the worst idea ever. Trying to introduce further complexity to a universe that seems to define everything into light/dark, good evil? Shame on them. People are not going to take it very well."

The end to the series. Zonama Sekot redeems the Vong, and everybody ‘win’s. Leaves the future open for more series tho.

a living planet