The Energon Pub

Omen is the second book in the Fate of the Jedi series.

Basically, there are three stories in one threading through the Fate of the Jedi series. First, you have a banished Luke Skywalker (with his son, Ben) visiting non-Jedi force-wielding cultures that Jacen Solo had previously visited to learn what caused Jacen to fall to the Dark Side and become Darth Caedus. Along the way, Luke and Ben learn amazing new force powers.

Next, you have newly appointed Chief-of-State Daala (a former Imperial Admiral and villain) trying her best to tear down the Jedi Order, as they deal with members of their order one by one going crazy. So far, she has had two Jedi imprisoned in carbonite.

Finally, and most interestingly, you have a new society of Sith that have just reclaimed space-faring capability, who are bent on finding and killing Luke Skywalker and dominating the galaxy once more.

This book develops all three stories further, but the action is still a little slow for my taste. Jedi battling a Crazy Jedi is not the same as a Jedi battling a Sith, which does not happen in this book.

I liked the storytelling style, but would have preferred more action. Overall, I'd give it a solid B.

I haven't read the book yet (though I tried, and failed, for reasons I'll get to in a moment), but I have read online summaries of it, and can safely say that, without a shadow of a doubt, this is the worst Star Wars book ever to see print. Yes, even worse than perennial stinkers like "The Crystal Star", "Planet of Twilight" and pretty much anything ever read by Karen "Quitter" Traviss.

At least we can be thankful that this wasn't written by Quitter Traviss, who was apparently supposed to be part of this team, just as she was for LOTF. Otherwise we'd have too much of the narrative focused on Boba Fett and her precious Mandalorians, Luke and the other Jedi treated like drooling idiots, and her own personal viewpoint spouted from every single mouth.

And I'm starting to wonder who it was in real life that decided to let Daala, the person I'd least like defending me at a sanity hearing, in charge of the freakin' Galactic Alliance. I don't want to get into a political discussion about this, but suffice it to say that an entire plot of the book is devoted to her abusing her powers in an attempt to destroy the Jedi, for no better reason than simply because they punk'd her.

And yes, that is the reason for the stupid idiotic ending of this book. Thinking Daala has any interest in bringing justice for Pellaeon's death is so ludicrous I can't think about it without laughing so hard I might vomit.

In closing, two books in, Fate of the Jedi makes me do something I've never done: question my love of Star Wars.

The Pellaeon thing I can understand. Tahiri murdered a respected Imperial leader. Why wouldn't she go to jail? Moreover, Daala was friends with Pellaeon. How Tahiri got away with it for this long is beyond me.

Dark Starscream wrote:Tahiri murdered a respected Imperial leader. Why wouldn't she go to jail? Moreover, Daala was friends with Pellaeon. How Tahiri got away with it for this long is beyond me.

If it was about seeking justice over the death of an official leader, Tahiri would have been in jail months before, and so would a lot of other people. But it has nothing to do with Pellaeon and Daala being friends. It has nothing to do with the question of whether or not Tahiri should be in jail. The Jedi punk'd Daala and made her look like the stupid idiot she is, and because she couldn't take it out on those who deserved it, she went after the only person she could: Tahiri.

Dark Starscream wrote:Tahiri murdered a respected Imperial leader.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't killing Imperial leaders the only thing anyone has been doing since the end of the Clone Wars?

Aww shucks. The nice looking hardcover artwork style of the 'Fate of the Jedi' was drawing me in to buy the books, but then after reading this thread, I came to my senses and realized that the books is about the story, not about the cover art >_>

Guess I'll start off with Legacy of the Force and skip this crap.

Blurrz wrote:Guess I'll start off with Legacy of the Force and skip this crap.

Nah, skip that, too. It's just as much crap as FOTJ is.

Alright... quit the entire Star Wars fandom it is then...

Blurrz wrote:Alright... quit the entire Star Wars fandom it is then...

I wouldn't go that far...even though I said Omen almost made me do that. There are aspects of it I still enjoy.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Alright... quit the entire Star Wars fandom it is then...

I wouldn't go that far...even though I said Omen almost made me do that. There are aspects of it I still enjoy.

Like what?

Cyberstrike wrote:Like what?

Like the RPG books (Galaxy at War Campaign Guide out tomorrow)...and the comics (Legacy and Invasion being awesome)...and the Essential Guides (pick up the Atlas if you find it)...

Personally I love Traviss' novels. I like that she actually made clones more than effing droids made of flesh. I like that she has made the Mandalorians interesting, and I still don't see her knocking the Jedi. People read way too far into stuff.

Regardless, I'm liking this new series quite a bit. Omen was short to be frank and I'm getting a little fed up with not knowing what is causing the psycho Jedi syndrome, but overall, it's shaping up nicely. At least until the next one by Denning. I'm sure it'll be filled with overtly sexual scenes and probably have Tahiri whacking off guards or something just so Denning can fulfill some fantasies he has.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Alright... quit the entire Star Wars fandom it is then...

I wouldn't go that far...even though I said Omen almost made me do that. There are aspects of it I still enjoy.

This makes me glad I never read those books...
For me, I count them out of my personal canon.
It is alright to say some stories are crap stories, and making them official canon does not make them suck any less.

TheMuffin wrote:Personally I love Traviss' novels. I like that she actually made clones more than effing droids made of flesh. I like that she has made the Mandalorians interesting, and I still don't see her knocking the Jedi. People read way too far into stuff.

First off, dude, I don't understand how it is that you can love Quitter Traviss' novels. Yes, she did make the clones more human, but she did so for the reason of making the Jedi out to be the enemy in the situation. And the Mandalorians were already interesting. Star Wars Insider #80 had a well written article about them, which Karen all but ignored when she did "Order 66", for the simple reason that because it didn't jive with her view of the world.

As as for not seeing her work as knocking the Jedi...well, allow me to point you in the direction of this. Once you've read that, try telling me that you think that way. (And that you actually made it through without laughing.)

Regardless of what she says in an interview, I don't see it come across in the Republic Commando novels. She writes from the Clones perspective. They are realizing they've been played. So of course their going to be condescending against the super people that tell them what to do. Regardless, I'm not going to get into this discussion with you because I know how you roll on the subject. It'll end in everyone being angry.

Well I just don't know exactly how good FotJ series is. Anyone mind giving uh.... a unbiased approach? Like, I enjoy reading the Star Wars novels, but it isn't always automatic. Like Yoda: Dark Rendezvous was possibly the worst novel I've ever read in my entire life.

Well I read it, in a week, which is actually fast for me, oh wait. It's actually a VERY short book.

I wouldn't go far as to say it was the worst SW book, but it was most certaintly, boring.

Sure there were some parts where I wanted to keep reading, but for the majority of it it was just plain boring. The overall story had very little progression (bunch of Sith go to space, couple more Jedi go bonkers, Skywalker's have their egos boosted a bit blah blah blah)

Moving onto Abyss. Let's see if it's an improvement.

I am currently reading ABYSS, and read LOTF. I hadn't read many SW novels before it, more so comics, movies, and Clone Wars two part toon but enjoyed the offscreen fic., here and there.

LOTF encouraged me to pick up other books, and try them. I read 'I, Jedi', the Grand Admiral Thrawn series, the Darth Bane books, 'Tales from Jabba's Palace', and have 'Death Star', and 'Dark Lord' on my shelf waiting for me. Waiting for Millenium Falcon in pb before I pick that up.

I can't say that I have a favorite Star Wars writer. Thus, I also cannot name a hated writer either. I enjoy them for what they are, and like them for increasing my character awareness and revealing more about established characters.

One thing that I find amazing when reading these books is that the older characters seem to be written so that they are as sharp and young, as a 20 year old, but have incredible experiences, and knowledge to draw on. I think age must work differently in the SW universe. Children seem wise and able beyond their years, and adults seem wise and able despite their years. It's odd.

As for the new series, I am enjoying it. It certainly has fun stuff, builds on previous stories, and continues the use of our favorites. At this point, I do not see the point of the SITH and the SITH SPHERE being a part of the story, but this whole MAW thing and a smaller centerpoint station seems interesting. The sick JEDI is an interesting plot point, and it finally seems to be getting resolved, they are making connections. We may see more sick JEDI yet, but at least there is direction. It's interesting how they seem to have JACEN powers though.

I kind of like the Luke and Ben side story. It's refreshing to get Luke out of his Grandmaster role, and into a more familiar role of explorer. It's not lost on me that I am probably also enjoying it being a new daddy.

As for Traviss' Mandalorians, I enjoyed them in LOTF--haven't read about them much of anywhere else--. I'm a Fett fan. I know so many are, but I also like the idea of the Mandos, and the role they have played in the universe. I hate being like this, but I don't read for figuring out what the author is trying to get across unless it is obvious. Then I usually don't finish a book if the author is so full of themselves and their ideals that I don't enjoy the story they are telling. I made it through her books without feeling like I was being smacked in the face with her ideals, even if they are obviously MANDO/FETT centered. I think the juxtaposition of the authors in the series can make one appreciate a certain one's style over others, but I don't think that makes another unreadable, it just creates a desire for the next book by the author whose style you enjoy.

OMEN was not phenomenal, but not horrible. Sure not a lot happened, but it did keep advancing the plot points. I don't know how many books are supposed to be in this series, but so far I think they have read and been paced similarly to LOTF.

tigertracks 24 wrote:One thing that I find amazing when reading these books is that the older characters seem to be written so that they are as sharp and young, as a 20 year old, but have incredible experiences, and knowledge to draw on. I think age must work differently in the SW universe. Children seem wise and able beyond their years, and adults seem wise and able despite their years. It's odd.

From what i've gathered the average age of dieing for a human in the SW universe is anywhere between 120-150.

So even though Han's in his 80's, by our standards he's only in his 50's. As far as the children go, well the only children we ever hear about are the kids of main characters, the Solo/Skywalker kids themselves have been getting abducted or put through some other traumatic experience pretty much since they were born so that's going to make them grow up quicker.

I don't believe Han is that old. Right now we're around 43-45 years after the Battle of Yavin. Leia and Luke were 19 when that took place so they're both 62-64 years old. Han was 29 when it took place. So he's 72-74. Yes I'm lame for knowing that. Also this would make Jaina 34-36. Which just seems odd because when I started reading the novels, she was around the same age I was. Kinda creepy reading about someone even if their not real, technically aging twice as fast as you.

Close enough to 80's.

Burn wrote:Close enough to 80's.

Han would disagree with you. lol