Abyss

3.5 stars. Pretty much three separate stories going here: 1) Han, Leia, Jaina and the other Jedi back on Coruscant trying to figure out why some of their young knights seem to be going crazy, 2) Luke and Ben Skywalker in the Maw trying to uncover the mystery of how/why Jacen Solo fell to the dark side, and 3) the Lost Tribe of the Sith trying to fulfill their prophecy of becoming the masters of the galaxy again.

If only that third story line was as interesting as the first two, I would have given this book a higher rating. But as it is, and I can only be honest here, I could care less about Vestara and her connection with Ship, and the rampant infighting amongst her people. All her sections were boring, annoying, and didn't become show more significant until the last few chapters of the book.

Still, I remain optimistic about the rest of this series. After all, I had felt much the same way about Han and Leia's roles in the first book in which they were "parked" and were given absolutely nothing of import to do but waste time with a dumb side story just to keep their presence strong in the series. And yet, they have become purposeful characters now, and perhaps the later books will do the same thing for the Tribe's storyline. Here's to hoping it can only get more interesting and exciting.

On the other hand, following Luke and Ben's exile has been a surprisingly intense experience. Each book seems to have them uncovering more information about Jacen's transformation into Darth Caedus, and is probably the biggest reason why I'm still so invested and interested in continuing this series. show less

Now that Disney has taken over with its own alternative universe, there will probably never be any more Star Wars books. Not in the real Star Wars universe. But maybe there were never going to be any more after the Fate of the Jedi, at least not stores about Luke's, Jaina's, or Ben's generation. The adventures which take place "beyond shadows" read like the end of an era, when lost characters return to say goodbye. Anakin Solo tells Ben, "The Order can't wait for a great Jedi Knight to lead it. That's what everyone thought I was, and when I died, too much died with me. Don't make the mistake I did. Don't let anyone push you into that. Every Jedi Knight has to be his own light because the light shouldn't go out when one Jedi dies." Maybe show more the next era of novels was going to focus on Alanna, the daughter of Jacen, and her friends.

It is also interesting to read more about the philosophy of the Force as Ben and Luke explore the traditions of non-jedi Force users. This topic was addressed in more detail during Jacen's fall to the dark side, back when the Jedi were considering whether the Force actually had dark and light sides or whether it was the intention of the force user that mattered.

In addition to the stories of Luke and Ben, Han and Leia, Jaina and Jag, etc. there is also an interesting story about the Sith apprentice Vestara. The authors successfully present this lost Sith tribe as merely a different culture, with its own values, rather than the incarnation of evil. And Vestara is a compelling character in her own right, so the reader finds themselves rooting for her. Even the Sith hunting party seems laudable as they struggle to overcome a darker evil. Maybe the 'Fate of the Jedi' is to join with the Sith to defeat this greater enemy?

Some of the descriptions were a little difficult to understand, especially in the smaller version of Centerpoint Station. But overall, Abyss is a worthy addition to the Expanded Universe. show less

20 words or less: Fate of the Jedi plotline begins to pick up in a typically uneven Denning novel that does more right than wrong.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Pros: Interesting Luke/Ben subplot finally delivers on potential; Spot-on characterizations; Series plotlines finally start to come together

Cons: Poorly written dream sequences; Denning continues to demonstrate a weakness for describing action sequences; Techspeak crutch used to arrange scenes

The Review: After reading Omen (review here), the Fate of the Jedi series left a bad taste in my mouth. Now, after Troy Denning’s Abyss, I’m happy to say the series appears to be back on track. In the first two books, it was clear that LucasBooks were trying to fix some of the issues that plagued show more their first attempts at large story-arcs (of the 9+ book variety); mostly regarding continuity errors, sloppy characterizations, and dropped plotlines. It was easy to see that each book had a specific start and end-point and the author was responsible for navigating between the two. This structured approach felt unwieldy in the first two books, possibly a result of the authors not being given enough plot to fill a 350 page book with or creative struggles on the author’s part. It might be the fact that the overarching plotlines are finally starting to intertwine, but Abyss felt like a fully developed story rather than 3 unrelated novellas that simply occupied the same chronological space in the Star Wars Universe. The characters all have something interesting to do, rather than visiting the galactic pet market or teaching sages the importance of living life to the fullest or whatever one-dimensional storyline was used to bridge the predefined end points for Han, Leia, and Luke.

The Luke/Ben plotline specifically was a huge improvement over previous entries and very interesting in its own right. Retracing Jacen’s journey to various Force-wielding cultures around the galaxy sounds like a very intriguing story on paper. However, the first two entries came and went with only minor amounts of “galaxy-building” development or Force philosophy leaving only a massive amount of wasted potential behind. With the Mind Walkers, a secretive sect hidden amidst the galaxy’s largest Black Hole cluster, Denning delivers on that original potential, fleshing out a strange and possibly ill-intentioned group of Force-users that inhabit an equally mysterious space station. In previous books, the Luke/Ben story was a glaring weakness. In Abyss, Denning has improved it into one of it’s strengths.

The second plotline concerning the “Jedi-sickness” plaguing young Jedi Knights continued as well. This was one of the most intriguing parts of the first two books and Denning managed to add some much needed momentum to the story after it started to crawl in Golden’s Omen (10% of the book involved two characters going to dinner). The multi-faceted Jedi/Republic/Empire/Press conflict continues to develop as loyalties change and additional incidents occur. The third plotline is Sith being Sithly. Which doesn’t disappoint, although they aren’t quite as evil as they possibly should be. Clearly, all three plotlines are related but this is the one that is really going to make things interesting in the books to come. Overall, the series made tremendous improvements plot-wise in this volume.

While I was much happier with the plot advancement of Abyss, it still had some stylistic problems, albeit not nearly as many as Omen. Where Golden was a Star Wars “noob” still finding her voice, Denning is a seasoned Star Wars author. He gets what Star Wars characters do and don’t say (at least pre-Phantom Menace characters anyways). The majority of the dialogue and galaxy-building is strong aside from Denning’s tendency for tech-dumping. Inventing “mirfields”, “wallscopes”, and other technologies for a single scene is more lazy writing than anything else. Rather than trying to come up with an internally consistent reason for the situation he wants to write, Denning resorts to “new technological advancements” to introduce a conflict. It doesn’t help that these buzzwords never really get explained and don’t make much sense from any of the context clues. This is further compounded by Denning’s apparent inability to write an action sequence. As soon as the action gets going, whether it’s the exploration of an ancient run-down space station, a lightsaber battle in zero gee, or a chase through the streets of Coruscant, the characters get lost in general spatial vagueness and an absolute vacuum of detail. Anyone who has scene Star Wars knows that the visual elements are tremendously important and Denning just can’t deliver up to expectations. I spend so much time trying to figure out what is actually happening that it’s almost impossible to get lost in the thrill of a fight. Normally, I would be a little lenient but Denning does this in every Star Wars book he has every written. I suggest he try a little Joe Abercrombie to see what how an action scene should be done.

Ignoring my distaste for a couple of Denning’s bad habits, Abyss is still a worthwhile entry in the Fate of the Jedi series and it really put the series back on track without straying from the more rigid serialized structure that is cleaning up the series continuity issues quite nicely. This was especially nice to see after Omen failed to advance the plot in any appreciable way and wasted a huge opportunity with the Luke/Ben subplot. Honestly though, if you aren’t a Star Wars junkie like me, there’s nothing really worth talking about. I would say you were missing much. As a fanboy, however, I’m very eager to see where the story goes in future volumes. Unfortunately for me, FotJ Book 4, Backlash, won’t be out until next March. show less

I think this was another strong book in this series. I know that there are a lot of people burned out on the Star Wars EU, but since I just started reading them I like what is happening in the world.

Things are progressing in the Jedi storyline, although it does seem slightly slow at the moment. I hope that things eventually pick up. It doesn't even need to pick up that much, just a little more happening in the book would be nice.

Luke and Ben continue their galaxy world tour, this time with a stop in the Maw. I like this storyline the best, perhaps due to my love of Luke Skywalker. Plus it has the added advantage of featuring a kid (well, teenager) that doesn't totally annoy me. Amelia Solo I'm looking at you. I just really hate show more precocious kids in literature. They are always written as older than their years and have to be wedged into the important plots of the books. And now she's some sort of Jesus-queen who brings everyone together in harmony? ugh. No thanks. Maybe her story will get better?

I liked the continuing storyline of the Lost Sith as well. They are always interesting to read about, and Vestura doesn't get on my nerves. Yet. We'll see how they develop her past this book, it could go downhill fast.

Overall, I still like the way this series is headed. I know a lot of people are burned out with the Extended Universe, and I can see how it might get tedious, but I'm still having a lot of fun reading them. show less

Just when I think that the Star Wars universe has been played out, they come out with another compelling series that goes in a whole new direction. I like that this series isn't centered around war and I'm always intrigued by the whole Force mythology. Luke is awesome, as usual, but in such a non-flashy way.

Abyss was FANTASTIC. The best part was it lead me to fall in love with Han Solo all over again. The Grandfatherly persona has taken a slight edge off the old man, Every interaction he has with Leia brought a smile to my face, even though my life was quite serious. Also the completely separate storyline of the Sith finally interacts with the Jedi, though from the ending I'm not sure how long that will be.

As usual with Star Wars audio books the "cinematography" was amazing.

Not worth $27, so borrow it from the library. Okay, I had to get past that. Now on with the review.

This book moves the plotlines of the Fate of the Jedi series incrementally forward. Denning juggles the plotlines well enough to keep you wanting to know what happens next, but the problem is the same as with the previous two books in the series: nothing much happens next, or at least nothing much different.

A quick recap of the Fate of the Jedi plotlines. In plot A, Luke and Ben Skywalker are following the path of Jacen Solo's five-year walkabout to try to find out why he turned to the dark side. In plot B, young Jedi are falling prey to a mysterious disease that makes them believe that everyone around them has been replaced with evil show more copies. And in plot C, a planet where Sith have lived in isolation for thousands of years is visited by a Sith spaceship that returns them to space and makes them a power to be feared.

In Abyss, all three plots are nudged along, but it feels much like these words that are given to Luke on page 233: "We aren't telling you anything.... We can't tell you what it is because we don't know." Except I think the three writers in the series do know the answers to the mystery of each plot line. They just have the poor job of having to stretch that mystery out over nine books when the job could be completed well in one or two, a trilogy at the most.

And so we come back to my first point. This series is only being released in hardcover editions at $27 a pop. With tax you will be paying $250 for this "epic." It feels like a crass, commercial move on the part of the publisher and there has been nothing in the first three books that felt like it needed three books to be told.

I will read the rest of the series. I like the Star Wars universe and I would like to know the answers to the mysteries, but I will be borrowing each copy from the library. Maybe if enough of us do this, the publisher will get the hint. show less