Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force #2

by Karen Traviss

A new era of exciting adventures and shocking revelations continues to unfold, as the legendary Star Wars saga sweeps forward into astonishing new territory.

Civil war looms as the fledgling Galactic Alliance confronts a growing number of rebellious worlds – and the approaching war is tearing the Skywalker and Solo families apart.

Han and Leia return to Han’s homeworld, Corellia, the heart of the resistance. Their children, Jacen and Jaina, are soldiers in the Galactic Alliance’s campaign to crush the insurgents. Jacen, now a complete master of the Force, has his own plans to bring order to the galaxy. Guided by his Sith mentor, Lumiya, and with Luke’s young son Ben at his side, Jacen embarks on the same path that his grandfather Darth Vader once did.

And while Han and Leia watch their only son become a stranger, a secret assassin entangles the couple with a dreaded name from Han’s past: Boba Fett.

In the new galactic order, friends and enemies are no longer what they seem. . .

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, War

380 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

#1 New York Times best-selling novelist, scriptwriter and comics author Karen Traviss has received critical acclaim for her award-nominated Wess'har series, and her work on Halo, Gears of War, Batman, G.I. Joe, and other major franchises has earned her a broad range of fans. She's best known for military science fiction, but GOING GREY and BLACK RUN, the first books in her new techno-thriller series RINGER, are set in the real world of today. A former defence correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist, she lives in Wiltshire, England. She's currently working on SACRIFICIAL RED, the third book in the Ringer series, and HERE WE STAND, book three in the NOMAD series.

Reviews

[Jakob J. 🎃 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Reylo sequel trilogy of movies could have been substantially improved if this series was used as the blueprint. Instead, they opted for remaking A New Hope, defiling legacy characters, deconstructionist pablum,
and retconned fan service (in that order).

I haven’t watched any of the subsequent Disney+ series, but following The Legacy of the Force story rather than wiping the canonical Expanded Universe slate clean, we could have been spared Boba Fett becoming a bloated Tusken Raider activist with Stockholm Syndrome? I don’t know. Again, I didn’t watch it.

I’m not a bitter fanboy. Star Wars probably should have been put out to pasture some time ago if preservation of artistic integrity was the goal, but what could have been is more fun to think about than watching what we actually got.

In this series, Han and Leia still have a son, Jacen in this timeline, who flirts and struggles with the dark side. Boba Fett was still extricated from the sarlacc pit (and being post-prequel trilogy, and in keeping with Boba Fett as a clone, his body is turning against him, riddling him with tumors. He is hunting down all surviving clones of The Clone Wars, and he fathered a now estranged daughter [so clones produce viable sperm. Good to know]).

This is the second book of nine in this series, but I read it first as a teenager because I saw Boba Fett on the cover.

Another civil war is brewing, threatening stability as the Skywalker-Solo families struggle to maintain peace and order within their families and the galaxy. If I return to a Star Wars EU series, it will likely be this one.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one fails for one very simple reason. I hate the characterization of Boba Fett. I totally disagreed with Lucas's backstory of Fett being a clone, thus ruining his individuality. And now, Karen Traviss has turned the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter into an emo papa's boy. Oh dad, I loved you and Oh dad, I miss you. Pathetic and fail.

Jacen Solo's transformation continues to baffle me as well. The logic is completely faulty. Jacen embraced multiple ways of using the Force during the last major story arc, refusing to commit himself to one particular path and embracing a path of moral relativism. I was inspired by his take philosophically and was intrigued by all of this mystic knowledge he had acquired. He seemed at the time to be the most powerful and objective Jedi in the Star Wars universe, wise beyond his years. In this arc, he embraces the fact that maybe Sith teachings aren't all that bad after all, and that they can be a tool to bringing order and peace to the galaxy, if used properly. I accept this premise. It fits with his nature. But, he is more and more embracing the idea that the Sith way is the way, the only way, to bring peace to the galaxy, and that somehow he must sacrifice someone he cares about if he really wants to achieve his objectives and prove that he is beyond passion and temptation. Huh?!?!? Why accept the need for sacrifice? There was no plot point where a loved one has gotten in his way. HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHO THIS LOVED ONE IS, ONLY THAT HE HAS TO KILL ONE OF THEM. Why?????? Fail. I imagine Jacen toying with Sith teachings as part of his overall patchwork worldview and not how Traviss is implementing this, "Oh, I have to be dark in order to succeed. I'll be a martyr and make the tough choices and sacrifice myself" nonsense. There was also a recognition on his part that he has a "Sith Destiny," which again, doesn't mesh with his worldview. The real Jacen would say that he has his own destiny and the things he learns helps him to fulfill it.

The plot points in this story also make no sense to me. There's no connective tissue between the story developments in the ongoing Corellian Crisis. It's just, "Oh, this happens. Now let's talk about something else. Oh and by the way, that last thing that happened was much more important than we first described, it's now blowing up into this situation. Why? Because I say so that's why! Thanks for asking." Just, ugh. I think plot-wise it's the poorest flow of any of the Star Wars EU stuff I've read so far.

The redeeming factor in this is the characterization of Han. It's really fascinating to see what stance he takes when his son becomes a member of the gestapo. The pain it causes him, and the choices he make truly feel agonizing. Traviss also manages to get him just right. Han's a rebel by nature. He hates the establishment. He loves independence and he loathes uniformity, which is personified in this novel by Jacen.

One other success: philosophically and politically, it's interesting to see how this story parallels prequel stuff. Mainly the question being tackled is how does a peace-loving democracy turn into an authoritarian state. And moreover, how do individuals who fought for their whole lives for freedom and the creation of a new and better system react once that brainchild shows signs of corruption? Do you reform from within because it's the system you created and believed in, or do you revert to your past, and fight it from the outside, tear it down and make something new? There's something cyclical about the overall arc I find appealing and fascinating and so I will continue it, but Traviss, you let me down.

[Dexcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, wasn't expecting that Boba storyline to hit so hard. So emotional. He's really a beautiful character. Han turning his back on Jacen hit hard too. I'm happy it's taking it's time with Jacen slowing becoming a Sith. It would be awful if it was rushed.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boba Fett isn't my favorite character, but this story made for some exciting reading. Though I already know how this series ends, it'll be interesting to relive the events that led up to it.

[Lisa Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

After getting involved in the story in the book before, this book almost frustrated me enough to stop reading the series. I didn't like the author's writing style, which was very different from the author of "Betrayal" - the first in the series.

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

For 2023, I decided to reread the post-NJO books set after the Dark Nest trilogy, especially as I abandoned the Legacy of the Force series after Sacrifice all the way back in 2007. This shakes out to the nine books of the Legacy of the Force series, the nine books of the Fate of the Jedi series, three standalone novels, and five short stories.

This week’s focus: book two in the Legacy of the Force series, Bloodlines by Karen Traviss.

SOME HISTORY:

Boba Fett was last seen in a brief cameo in James Luceno's The Unifying Force, but he’s back in Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines, and he’s a huge part of the narrative. And as a surprise to many readers at the time, he has a family?? Yes, Boba Fett has an ex-wife and a daughter, and now a granddaughter as well. Fett’s wife and daughter (Sintas and Ailyn Vel) first appeared in “Outbid But Never Outgunned” in Star Wars Tales #7, but the canonicity of Tales comics has always been dubious at best. However, Sintas’s canon status was confirmed in a Star Wars Gamer article, and the Star Wars Insider article “The History of the Mandalorians” first gave us their daughter’s name, Ailyn Vel. Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines by Karen Traviss made it to number twelve on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of September 17, 2006.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

In thinking back over my previous memories of Bloodlines, all I remembered was that there was a lot (too much?) of Boba Fett, and that I was frustrated with how Luke and Mara chose to parent their child. Both are true! But there was a lot more here (Jacen…) that I had completely forgotten.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

Civil war looms as the Galactic Alliance confronts a growing number of rebellious worlds—and the approaching war is tearing the Skywalker and Solo families apart. However, Jacen has his own plans to bring order to the galaxy. Guided by his Sith mentor, Lumiya, and with young Ben Skywalker at his side, Jacen embarks on the same path that his grandfather once did. In the new galactic order, friends and enemies are no longer what they seem.…

THE PLOT:

Bloodlines follows a few major plot lines: the first is the return of Boba Fett. He finds out he's dying, he wants to track down Taun We, but he also wants to find his estranged daughter Ailyn Vel and maybe make amends. The second sees Han and Leia heading back to Coruscant, then returning to Corellia, and Han conflicted about his cousin Thrackan. Finally, the Coruscant arc: Jacen summons the Dark Lady Lumiya and becomes the head of the Coruscant secret police. He drags his thirteen-year-old cousin down with him and exudes dark side nonsense everywhere. The Jedi Order is concerned, but seemingly has no idea how to handle him.

CHARACTERS:

I'm not a big Boba Fett fan. I know that there are some people who absolutely love him, but Boba’s Bantam era appearances highlighted to me what an unemotional backstabbing weirdo he was. Of course, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones ushered in loads of revelations about his origins, so Traviss in Bloodlines is attempting to make sense out of all that disparate continuity. Boba Fett has a daughter! Boba Fett has an ex-wife! Boba Fett is the Mand’alor of all Mandalorians even though he doesn’t speak their language and has no interest in their homeworld. With his impending mortality staring him in the face, he’s trying to figure out his legacy: where he stands with his immediate family as well as where he stands with his people and his heritage.

When they were planning out the Legacy of the Force series, Traviss specifically asked Del Rey and Lucasbooks if she could bring Boba Fett back. Here’s the thing: Traviss loves Mandalorians, and I think your enjoyment of Boba Fett’s plotline will come down to whether you also love Mandalorians. Boba’s definitely not in my top 20 characters or anything, so at times I felt overwhelmed by how much of the book was dedicated to him. He doesn’t have anything to do with the other characters until close to the end, and most of his arc is trying to find someone who can cure him and trying to track down his daughter with Mirta Gev in tow. He ends up teaming up with Han to assassinate Thrackan Sal-Solo (although the actual kill belongs to Mirta); he learns that Jacen Solo killed Ailyn; he learns that Mirta Gev is Ailyn’s daughter and thus his granddaughter; Boba and Mirta reconcile and head off to be Mandalorian bounty hunters together. I suspect we will not see them again until Sacrifice, but I might be wrong!

Han and Leia leave Corellia, barely make it back on Coruscant, keep the Falcon behind for repairs, then return to Corellia. Han spends most of the novel upset about Jacen, on the outs with Luke, and unsure what to do about Thrackan. Han teaming up with Boba Fett and Mirta Gev felt somewhat implausible to me, but it does give him the opportunity to kill Thrackan, even if he ultimately doesn’t take it. As the book ends, Han and Leia are decidedly on the outs with Jacen after he murdered Ailyn Vel.

Having finished Betrayal and Bloodlines now, I sort of get the sense that the authors don’t know what to do with Han. They want him to be the voice of Corellian independence, but he seems to be walking this perilous tightrope between “supporting his homeworld” and “outright treason.” And at the same time, his kids and his brother-in-law are directly working for the Galactic Alliance, so Han is very conflicted. He’s concerned about Jacen, he’s angry at his family, he only has Leia on his side, and he doesn’t know how to talk this through. Meanwhile, Leia seems to have dismissed her moral quandary about being a Jedi but still following Han around, so maybe this is an even later book development?

Jaina is the colonel in charge of Rogue Squadron, which is interesting! I thought she was commanding a Jedi squadron in Betrayal, but she does have past history with Rogues. Sadly, she doesn’t get any time to revel in her promotion before Jacen swoops in and takes over her command. Since Jacen’s manipulations in the Dark Nest trilogy, their twin bond seems damaged—she already doesn’t have good feelings about his actions in the Corellian conflict, and this usurpation of her command leads to even more feelings of anger and resentment on Jaina’s part. Jaina has many reasons to be angry here! It all culminates in Jacen ordering Jaina to fire on retreating civilians, Jaina refusing, and her being stripped of her command and up for a court martial—presumably fodder for the next book.

Back on Coruscant, Luke and Mara are arguing about Jacen. I was flabbergasted to learn that Mara is the one who trusts him and thinks he’s having relationship trouble and he should still be allowed to teach Ben. If anyone could pick up on the bad vibes emanating from Jacen, I would have expected it to be Mara, who often sees the worst in people. Instead, she turns a blind eye to Jacen’s actions with an explanation that makes no sense, and she’s not willing to remove her thirteen-year-old child from the vicinity of a man whose actions are worrying the Jedi Council. (If even Kyp Durron is concerned, you have a big problem pending.)

Instead it falls on Luke to be the cautious, worried one, but he doesn’t do anything concrete about his fears. (Is this a plot contrivance so that we can stretch this out for more books? Probably.) This makes Luke feel so ineffectual, though, that the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order has a Jedi Knight who has gone off the rails but the Jedi Council says that they can’t tell him what to do. Actually, you can! He’s a member of your Order, if Cilghal and Kyle Katarn and Kyp and Luke are all worried about his actions, that should be enough to censure him!

(Side note: Cal Omas was the Jedi’s biggest supporter in the NJO, then a sneaky manipulator in the Dark Nest trilogy, and now he’s…exceedingly out of his depth. He’s pushing for a diplomatic solution, but Admiral Niathal is gunning for his job and Jacen is supporting her aggressive moves.)

Speaking of Jacen….he’s seriously considering what Lumiya told him in Betrayal, and he flow walks through time on several occasions to see what happened to Anakin Skywalker. (Very convenient that the Galactic Alliance rebuilt the Jedi Temple exactly as it was in the Prequels, then.) He decides that he’s not going to end up like his grandfather because Anakin did everything for misguided love, and Jacen is doing this to restore justice to the galaxy. There’s a lot of comparisons between Jacen and Darth Vader, especially when Jacen accepts the position as the head of the Galactic Alliance Guard (aka the Coruscant secret police). He’s arresting and deporting Corellians left and right, because “Justice!!” And “We need to keep the peace after these terrorist attacks.” (Never mind that these attacks were engineered by Lumiya in some way.)

If Jacen in Betrayal came across as grim and with no concern for the lives of others, Jacen in Bloodlines comes off as severely self-deluded. He constantly reiterates to himself that he’s doing the Right Thing, that this is What Needs to be Done, and it’s painful to read. I felt at times like Traviss had no sympathy for Jacen, and that makes it difficult to read about his actions here. He tortures Ailyn Vel to death, and there’s no remorse there or acceptance that he stepped too far—he needed to find out who she was hired to kill, and it’s not his fault she had an aneurysm and died. So many of Jacen’s decisions are just sheer political maneuverings; he only takes the position as Colonel of Rogue Squadron just to look good to the other Admirals, and he doesn’t care how much that position meant to his sister.

What kept me reading in the Jacen scenes was the hope that Ben Skywalker would realize he’s being manipulated and that he’s in a dangerous situation, and that he would get out. But at the same time, Ben is a thirteen-year-old boy, despite all the references to how he’d be a man among the Mandalorians. Ben is not a man! He’s a child, and he’s being forced into situations that are absolutely inappropriate for his age. He wants to measure up to Jacen and learn from his cousin, but he’s so very scared. If Jacen is slip-sliding straight towards the Dark Side, Ben is getting dragged down along with him, and it’s so sad to read.

I feel like Ben has been failed by all the adults around him. His parents should step in and remove him from this. The Jedi Council should intervene. He should not be allowed along on these raids to arrest people. He kills two men, and he can’t process it—nor should he have ever been put into that situation! This is not nineteen-year-old Luke joining the Rebellion, this is a child being used as law enforcement. It makes me want to cry because no one is looking out for this boy, and they should.

ISSUES:

My first issue was tonal stuff. Karen Traviss is British, unlike Aaron Allston or Troy Denning, and she uses some unfamiliar British military terminology. Jacen orders them to turn away the “bowser,” and he’s not referring to the evil turtle. Multiple characters say they need to “recce,” which apparently is an abbreviation for reconnoiter. My eReader’s built-in dictionary definitely helped here. Additionally, Traviss has both Han and Luke use the endearment “honey” when talking to their wives/ I think that works for Han and Leia, but doesn’t really work for Luke and Mara.

Second, Karen Traviss is very interested in Mandalorians, so suddenly we have loads of characters constantly referring to Mandalorians in an unnatural manner. Ben reflects multiple times that since he’s thirteen, he’d be considered a man on Mandalore. Other characters would casually reference Mandalorians in their dialogue or thoughts. It works for Boba Fett because he is a Mandalorian and would have that mindset, but it felt like all the Mando references came out of left field for characters like Han and Luke and Leia.

Finally, I felt a disconnect between how the Corellian conflict played out in Betrayal, and how it progressed in Bloodlines. A few people made comments in book 1 about Imperial sentiments (the Imps would have crushed the Vong vs. the Galactic Alliance is becoming like the Empire) but that escalates immensely in book 2 to the Galactic Alliance creating a special police force and protesters chanting “The Empire’s Back!”

In book 1, I assumed the issue came down to autonomy—Corellia wanted their independence and wasn’t keen on the Galactic Alliance’s push for centralism—and in book 2, the issue was more that Corellia wanted their own defense fleet. That feels like two different things to fight about? I would side with the Corellians here and that they can have their own fleet, as long as they supported the GA during a big conflict. I got the sense in Betrayal that after the Corellians retook Tralus there would be some attempts at a diplomatic dialogue, but instead everything got 500% worse very very fast.

IN CONCLUSION:

Bloodlines gave us the return of Boba Fett, and I think your enjoyment of the novel may boil down to whether you’re a Fett fan. There’s a lot of Boba Fett content here, and he was mainly off on his own journey (separate from the main plot) until the end. Jacen is doing Very Bad Things and working hard to justify his actions to himself, which made this a difficult read for me—especially in regards to his treatment of Ben Skywalker. (Why is no one looking out for a thirteen-year-old child??) Events seem to be escalating further, especially with the revelation at the end that Jacen will have to kill an innocent—and he currently thinks that might be either his lover or his daughter.


Next up: book three in the Legacy of the Force series, Tempest by Troy Denning.

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/Et7kGda8YMI

“Karen Traviss: Tracing Bloodlines” (August 29, 2006): https://web.archive.org/web/200610261...

[elef · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is the worst sw book i've ever read so far. i can't believe how could a woman was able to write more misogynistic things than male authors. both leia and jaina was sidelined meanwhile mara was literally written like patriarchal "women are emotional, only think of love" stereotypes. i hate it. i've accepted that this series is ooc for jacen but that woman was NOT mara. do you want me to believe that the woman who saw vergere's abuse of jacen over miles away but she couldn't see her own son's abuse and let jacen do these things?? and she's excusing his EVERY FUCKING SITH BEHAVIOR with saying "he's in love"??? did we forget the moment when they watched padme and anakin's recording and how she side eyed him when jacen defended anakin's obsessed actions? it was ONE BOOK before.

i don't care how she wrote boba or other male characters good. this book doesn't deserve any good reviews as long as she's mischaracterizating women to make men look good. and yes, she did exactly that with mara and luke. it's a fact even though i liked luke's writing.

[Q. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Legacy of the Force series is one of those works of literature where the quality of the writing isn't the problem (that's actually quite good) it's the subject matter. The potentially interesting premise (ripped off from the prequels it may be) of a morally gray civil war with our heroes having to make tough choices, is badly bungled here. The initial setup is the Galactic Alliance versus Corellia with no clear good guy. The problem here becomes is that this book paints them both as assholes. Speaking of which, Jacen still sucks as a character. He goes from killing a friend without hesitation in the last book to herding people into interment camps and torturing characters during interrogation in this one. I want to transcend the fourth wall and slap his family members for not catching onto the fact he is obviously a bad guy now. The one saving grace of this book is Boba Fett and his subplot. His characterization and interactions with other characters is spot on.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't the biggest fan of Karen Traviss' "Republic Commandos" series...but she is certainly owning the Legacy of the Force series after two books. I'm not a person who ever drank the Kool-Aid regarding Bobba Fett, but Ms. Travis certainly works magic with him here...and actually makes me care about him. Meanwhile, Jacen's deep dive into the Dark Side -- side-by-side with the galaxy's dive back into civil war -- is showcased in all its brutal, inevitable glory. Jacen's self-rationalizations would be laughable if they weren't so terrifying. I'm going to have to dive into book three and see what happens...

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the writers in the Expanded Universe are all agog about the Jedi, and write about them as the wunderkind they are. Traviss approaches the Jedi from a different angle, as flawed humans who have lost their attachment to real people, and instead shows us normal people who are as brave, resourceful, and committed as the Jedi, as if to say, "These people do it without all the superpowers; why aren't we celebrating them?"

For the direction this series is taking, Traviss is the best writer to participate in creating it. I kinda wish she'd written the entire series.

[Jaydon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, don't get me wrong, but it gets super boring after a while. I was reading, and usually I read books for a while cause I like action books, but I got bored reading this one. Recommend if you like stories with a decent amount of conflict.

[Gaby Cresswell ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐

I'm not okay 😭

[Omika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Need Karen Traviss to never write Star Wars again

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot:
Bloodlines is the second book in the Legacy of the Force series and is just as invigorating as the first. The book opens up on Boba Fett as he is collecting a bounty when a curious question pops up: “’Why do you still do this, Fett?’” That question is probably on everyone’s mind. Boba Fett doesn’t need to do this anymore because through the years he has become the wealthiest man in the galaxy. He could retire and enjoy his life, so why does he continue? That gets Fett wondering what he should do now as he is dying, and only has about one standard year to live. Fett wants to see his daughter again who he hasn’t seen in over fifty years. He also needs to find a way to cheat death, and in order to do this he goes off after a Kaminoan doctor, Taun We, to seek medical treatment and information. During his travels he meets Mirta Gev who is a fellow bounty hunter that says she knows Boba’s daughter. Boba decides to take her on his travels because he likes her, even though he won’t admit it, and she has information that he wants. Boba travels to a medical facility and confronts the doctor. When asked, the doctor cannot help Boba, so Boba steals information as payment. One thing that I don’t understand is how Taun We can be so heartless. She is the one who practically raised Boba. Boba does find out about another clone who is supposedly still alive even though the clone is supposed to be 140 years old because of rapid aging. Boba decides to go in search of this mystery man when everything is settled.
On the other side of the galaxy you have Jacen Solo who is the leader of the Galactic Alliance Guard. He is in search of terrorists to the Galactic Alliance, and because the GA is at war with Corellia, most of the “terrorists” are Corellians living on Coruscant. Many people are mad and Jacen and disgusted with what he is doing, but most people absolutely love it. Jacen is apprenticing under Lumiya, dark lady of the Sith, to become a Sith Master. Jacen is becoming like his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker (a.k.a. Darth Vader). Jacen is doing more horrible things to the Corellian population every day. One day Jacen went after some terrorists. One of the terrorists was a bounty hunter. That bounty hunter happened to be Boba Fett’s daughter. Unknowingly, Jacen killed her.
Before that Boba was hired to defend Corellia, but he had other plans. When he found out Han Solo was going to kill his cousin Thracken Sal Solo, leader of Corellia, Boba decided to help. Together the two killed Thracken along with Mirta Gev. After the killing, Han tells Boba about his daughter. When Mirta hears that she tries to kill Boba. Mirta is Boba Fett’s granddaughter, and was supposed to hand him over to his daughter for her to kill him. Han talks Mirta down, and Mirta and Boba decide to stick together because they are the only family they have left.
Characterization:
Throughout this book the character of Boba Fett gets revealed. In the beginning, Boba is a cold, heartless killer who cares only about himself. When Boba realized that he was dying everything started changing. Suddenly he wanted to have someone who he could pass his legacy onto. Then Boba met Mirta Gev. Unbeknownst to Boba that she was his granddaughter, Boba had an immediate liking for her because she reminded him a bit of himself. I wonder why that was. Boba started thinking about more than himself. He started sharing his feelings. All of these things are things he has never done before. It just goes to show how life changing events really do change your life.
Audience:
This novel would be recommended to people who have a high school reading level and have a love for Star Wars. People who also love sci fi books would enjoy this book because it describes many science fiction ideas such as space travel, aliens, and advanced technology. This book is for both genders as Star Wars is not restricted by gender. However, if you do not like death, war, or conflict, do not read this book. If you aren’t a big fan of science fiction novels do not read this book as well. Overall this is a well written book for everyone to enjoy.
Personal Response:
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. I thoroughly enjoy reading about the Star Wars universe and this book is not a disappointment. I especially enjoyed reading about my favorite Star Wars character of all time: Boba Fett. It was exciting getting to know the man and what his personal life was like. This book offered everything you would want in a Star Wars novel and I would recommend it to any Star Wars fan.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was actually pretty good, except I have no idea why Boba Fett was relevant. Except to please readers who think he's a great character - who appears in a total of about six minutes on film and has almost no lines. Now you get to see him as old, decrepit, and very oddly emotional, not to mention on nearly-friendly speaking terms with Leia and Han.

What ...?!?!

Has Jacen turned to the dark side or not? It seemed clear at the end of the first novel in this series. The second book treats it as if he's still on the path, but falling away. At least the way it's described here makes more sense.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really do love the audio book implementations for Star Wars novels. It's lovely to hear all the music cues and background effects. This book wasn't amazing, though I very much enjoyed the Boba Fett portions. The stuff with Jacen feels very forced (heh). They're doing it because they want a specific set of circumstances/conflicts, but it does not feel in character or organic at all. Oh well. On to the next one!

[little_pangolin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Briefly, things I liked:

-Mirta is truly a joy and a well-rounded character. Her relationship with Boba Fett is very sweet. She is the only thing keeping me from concluding that Karen Traviss just hates women.

-Thrackan Sal-Solo finally bit it, thank u god.

-I really liked the part where Jacen expressed surprise that Lumiya was human enough to have brought her belongings from the asteroid.

Let's complain, as they say:

-I think the time in which this was written had such a huge (and not necessarily helpful) impact on it. And I mean that in two ways. It was published the year after the prequel films finished up, and it is too married to them. We don't need Jacen being the "new Vader" and literally walking in his steps. It would be so much more interesting if he had his own arc. SECONDLY, it was written five years after 9/11, which shows in the anti-Corellian plotline, but that plotline doesn't feel like it was fully thought through. How can you tell when someone is Corellian? Are all Corellians humans? What is a Corellian, anyway? If it's about blood, why aren't Jacen and Jaina considered Corellian? If it's about where you live, why do the Corellians on Coruscant count? Is it just about being born on Corellia? Then they should explore what that means for Han. This book is not smart enough to interrogate its themes.

-Can we talk about Mara? Is her characterization not horrifyingly sexist? You know, Luke's SHREW WIFE, who will make him sleep on the couch if he disagrees with her in a Council meeting (while she is taking notes, as their secretary)? "Jacen is just in love, LUKE, you FUCKING IDIOT." What an absolutely bonkers stance for her to take. This woman was the Emperor's Hand and all she can think of is that Jacen might be in love? And that would somehow explain his being a Nazi? Bitches be crazy!

-The adults/older generation in general are so passive and ineffectual. Luke, Mara, Han, and Leia all kind of stand around wringing their hands and saying, "It's too bad Jacen is a Sith Nazi now. It's such a shame." And Luke and Mara in particular letting their Ben just follow Jacen around, despite Luke's conviction that he's falling to the Dark Side. "Oh well, Ben's a man now." THIRTEEN. HE'S THIRTEEN. Luke had a pretty normal childhood; he knows how young thirteen is.

-Listen, just write a separate, different Boba Fett book. If we'd heard half as much about Jaina's internal world and we did about Boba Fett's stock market purchases, I would have given this three stars. ("Don't forget you're dying, Fett." HOW. HOW COULD WE FORGET. FOR EVEN A SECOND.)

-Jacen's characterization makes no sense. His descent into evil is just way too rapid and his motivations are unclear. He leaps to the wildest conclusions. Who said he had to kill Tenel Ka and their daughter??? He keeps going, "I have to do this. This is how it has to be." Why? Why didn't we pick up the threads from the end of the last book and talk more about how he's doing this to avoid a timeline in which he kills Luke? It's also very hard to be invested in his arc when he's doing things this monstrous for reasons we can't begin to understand.

Additional commentary:

I think Karen Traviss has a coffee addiction. There's a scene where Han and Leia have a covert meeting in a coffee shop and then leave in the middle to go to a different coffee shop. There's a scene where Luke and Mara wake up in the middle of the night, drink coffee, and then Mara goes right back to sleep. Then the next morning she's again making coffee, spills it, and immediately starts making more. What the fuck is going on?

I guess on some level this book must have had something going for it, if I'm this invested. Onward to Troy Denning!

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everybody’s favorite bounty hunter (no, not Dog) was first introduced to Star Wars fans in the most unlikeliest of sources: the 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special”, in an 8-minute animated sequence. (Disney+, in its wisdom, has released this animated short, along with several other classic hard-to-find SW TV tie-ins. Sadly, the full-length “Holiday Special” is not one of them.)

I’m, of course, talking about Boba Fett, who has been as elusive a character as he has been a beloved fan favorite. By elusive I mean several things: he’s hard to pin down in terms of whether he is a “good” guy or a “bad” guy, because he has been both, and, in general, he’s elusive in the sense that he shows up infrequently throughout the SWEU.

It is, perhaps, due to the recent Disney+ TV show “The Mandalorian” that has rekindled popularity in Boba Fett. The long-assumed dead Boba reappears as a recurring and significant character in the show, played by Temuera Morrison (the actor who played Boba’s father, Jango, in “Episode 2: Attack of the Clones”), and is slated to get his own TV show starting in December 2021.

I’ll be honest: I don’t know a lot about Boba. I am aware that there are several SWEU books written about him, most notably the 1999 K.W. Jeter Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, and I also know that he shows up as a recurring character in later seasons of the animated “Clone Wars” TV series. (I’m ashamed to say that I am only up to mid-season 2 in my viewing. For some reason, it’s a show that I haven’t had a chance to binge-watch.)

Thankfully, Boba plays a starring role in Karen Traviss’s phenomenal 2006 novel “Bloodlines”, the second book in a nine-book series, Legacy of the Force. He also has a surprising history reveal in this, a role that I didn’t expect, both from his character or from the SWEU: deadbeat dad.

So, apparently Boba got married and had a child at a very young age. Due to his lifestyle and profession (bounty hunter/assassin-for-hire), Boba ditched his family when he was 16. He’s had regrets ever since.

The book starts with Boba receiving unwelcome medical news from his doctor: he has an incurable degenerative illness that will kill him in about a year. He may be able to extend that by finding Taun We, the Kaminoan scientist who cloned him, but she has apparently left planet Kamino for parts unknown. He also starts to have pangs of sadness in never getting to know his daughter, Ailyn. He is, thankfully, the galaxy’s best tracker, so he decides to go in search of both.

Boba’s search will, tragically, have unexpected consequences for the Skywalker and Solo families, as his search leads him straight into the middle of the growing conflict between planet Corellia and the Galactic Alliance.

Boba learns that his daughter, also a bounty hunter, has been hired by Corellian dictator Thrackan Sal-Solo to assassinate Han and Leia Solo.

Jacen Solo, Han and Leia’s oldest son, has been corrupted by a Dark Jedi named Lumiya and has been promoted in the military ranks of the GA. His sole job is hunting down, interrogating, and “eliminating” terrorist threats. One of those threats just happens to be Boba’s daughter.

Traviss’s former experience as a TV and newspaper journalist definitely shines in this novel. She has the perfect journalistic prose style to fit the socio-political parallels between the events of the novel and the real-world events of 2006. It’s hard not to see them, but Traviss is just as talented in strong character development and human interest. Her Boba is probably the strongest, most sympathetic portrayal of the enigmatic character that I have encountered in the SWEU.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was one of the first decent original SW series books in awhile. The story lines in it were actually quite interesting and sending things going in potentially exciting directions. Unfortunately, it suffered from two major issues: 1. The typical over-bloating of unnecessary scenes and dialogue that tend to plague the books. It could have been a great 250 page book instead of an OK 380 page book. 2. While there are intriguing characters and plot lines, too much of it originated way back earlier in 80s comic books or YA Young Jedi books and assumed you read all of them, even though it's unlikely you had. Had pointless space battles and civil unrest scenes been replaced with purposeful flashbacks to explain the background more it would have made for a much better story.

[SR · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely detest this book. The writing is horrendous, the audiobook was a mess, the narrator kept trying to sound tough and there’s so many umm aghh that made him sound like an idiot. And I DO NOT take this Luke Skywalker as the real Luke Skywalker. He knows Jacen is turning dark, not only he does nothing, and he pushes him away?? The real Luke would never do that. He would do everything he can to help him and he would believe him and he would know he’s good deep down. Luke would’ve never given up on Jacen. This is not the Luke I know and I’m done with the series. The only redeeming part of the book is Boba, which was 10000% better than the Boba we got from TBOBF.

[Joe Xtarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt like the first actual space-opera story in a long while for SW Legends. I really enjoyed the vibe of this; like a good blending between the originals and prequels. I'm actually interested in these characters again. Nobody feels incidental. Clearer stakes are set. This is the sequels that we deserved.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book extremely slowly because the first half really didn't capture my attention much for some reason. The second half got better, but it still wasn't one of my favorite SW books so far. The ending made me look forward to (but also really dread) what's coming though.
The ending with Boba Fett was sweet.

[Oliver · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aliit ori'shya tal'din. Family is more than bloodline.

Legacy of the Force continues with its second book, Bloodlines, and with that its second author, Karen Traviss. Needless to say, the result is another controversial Star Wars entry. I went into this novel on New Years' Eve with open eyes, having previously had mixed experiences with Traviss' oeuvre, and just for that one night (circa 50 pages), everything worked. Some of the previous work's foundational mistakes were immediately addressed, Ben Skywalker struck me as more interesting a character under her pen, and there was an undercurrent of genuine familial affection that was sorely missed in the previous four books. But then it kept going. Repetitious scenes that lead nowhere. Flimsy allusions to then-current socio-political issues that take me out of the fictional setting. Underlying problems with continuity and direction that put to question the sensibility of the round-robin authorial format. Frankly, Mandalorians are the least of this book's issues.


So let's get to them. Bloodlines, as the name suggests, is concerned with family matters, specifically dealing with the SkySolo and Fett clans. Given that this is the Legacy era and the Legacy of the Force series - perhaps originally intended as another send-off for the OT generation after Denning's trilogy bungled that? - I do not have any inherent qualms with Fett's story seeing a continuation in this new era. Allston did the same in his book and it worked well. Rather, the problem lies in the fact that Fett's subplot comes out of nowhere, failing to tie into the main plot particularly well until the very end, and taking up space at the expense of some other subplots (more on that later...). How much more interesting would Boba Fett's story in the old EU have been had his chance meeting with Han in The Unifying Force truly been the last time the two crossed paths? You could still have him kicking around, doing his own family thing like he does for most of this novel, but maybe tell that story in a different setting, in a novella of its own - the Ylesia to this book's Destiny's Way. The material is decent enough on its own: A hunt through the galaxy, featuring family drama as well as action. In that sense it is more exciting than the main plot,as well as most other things Traviss published around this time, arguably. So no, I would not call the Boba Fett stuff in this book terrible or anything, nor do I fundamentally disagree with the concept of making Fett into a family man. After all, there is precedent in previous works for such a direction: Daniel Keys Moran's excellent The Tale of Boba Fett, after all, dealt with Fett's idiosyncratic thoughts on family and his general approach to living. Indeed, in that sense and more generally Traviss' Boba Fett could be seen as an amalgam of different, previous interpretations of the character, taking influence from the "badass" portrayals of the 90s as well as Lucas' revised backstory of the man from his 2002 film. 70-odd year old cancer patient Boba Fett looking for his estranged family has storytelling potential. I might not be too invested in his continued story compared to the SkySolos, at least not on an innate level, but truly, it is not terrible.

The way the Skywalker-Solo characters are handled I find more problematic. Everyone seems... off, not just compared to the Bantam and NJO eras of publishing but also in relation to Betrayal. With one exception deserving of their own paragraph, Jacen fares the best. His is an interesting case in terms of inter-novel coherence: On the one hand, sure, Jacen is once more wholly different to his previous depictions (and for the fifth novel in a row, no less). Allston's Jacen was an emotionally withdrawn pragmatist who "solved" moral and tactical quandaries in an instant; Traviss', an overcharged pragmatist who questions his every decision. Both interpretations are founded on the same philosophical thought - end-justifies-the-means morality aka utilitarianism - and thus still work together, but Jacen's personality outside of that is different. Still, I have to admit that this Jacen Solo was an improvement in many ways for me, simply because Aaron Allston's Jacen seemed too emotionally distant and ultimately gullible to me, which are qualities I consider inimical to the current direction of the character. Bloodlines!Jacen is introspective, but firm; he's ruthless in the pursuit of his ideals and yet still cares about his family; he is, ultimately, a multi-faceted individual who rationalizes himself into making all the wrong decision. My absolute favorite section in this novel is the second chapter's epigraph, in which Jacen is desperate to contact Jaina about his oncoming sithdom, but decides against it, reaffirming his familial bond with his sister before deleting the message altogether. This was not just a heartbreaking read, but also the so far only showing of genuine familial love in this entire series. Jaina herself, meanwhile, fares a lot worse, being arguably less present than even in Betrayal. Her plotline seems like a decent mirroring of the character's story in Dark Tide I, but ultimately fails to stick out. Other characters that don't get to do anything include Leia, who I cannot remember the role of; Mara, who seems to have soaked up all of Jacen's rejected gullibility in her most foolish appearance yet; and finally Luke Skywalker, who seems to have inexplicably developed a categorical aversion to Jacen after treating him like his right hand man in book 1 (though he was worse in the book before that, to be fair). Incredibly disappointing renditions of the main cast. The absolute low point of characterization in here would be Han Solo, however, who is apparently a bloodlusted sociopath whose single goal in life is to murder his estranged cousin now. Okay. If TSW!Luke is the worst incarnation of that character then Bloodlines!Han is the worst Han. I was looking forward to reading Traviss' take on this extended family after being introduced to her Jacen but the more we got to see of them the worse it got. Blegh.

But at least there is still Ben Skywalker, the shining light of this book. As far as the plot goes, it is through Ben's perspective that we see some actual motion be put into the general staleness of this plot. A member of the newly formed Galactic Alliance Guard anti-terrorist organization at just thirteen years of age, Ben Skywalker walks us through the civilian side of this up-and-coming war, making a multitude of new acquaintances that liven up the rapidly aging cast while struggling with the allure of adulthood vs. the easy comfort of childhood. As with Jacen, I generally liked Ben in the previous entry, but my problem with him was how relatively lacking in defining personality features he was. Sure, Ben is an adolescent who uses slang and such, but outside maybe his slight adoration for his cousin there wasn't really much else to him (which made the scene with Anakin Sal-Solo less impactful than I remembered it being...). This time around, these two features dominate his personality and form a self-contained arc of sorts, at the end of which Ben is left to wonder if perhaps his idol isn't the man he thought he was, after all. Furthermore, following up on Betrayal's stark political/military focus by narrowing the scope to civilian life was a pertinent call, as well. Looking at the wider Star Wars franchise, it quickly becomes clear just how few stories even try to consider the everyman's plight within these larger conflicts, and giving the Corellian minority on Coruscant a voice gives this story another layer. In that sense, the GAG storyline soars high above the eponymous bloodlines' drama...

...or at least they would, if it wasn't for how painfully blatant the real-life political allusions were. Okay, this is a book about terrorist attacks and measures against the same written by a British person in 2006, so it is obvious that the premise did not come out of nowhere. But if "If you are not with me then you are my enemy!" is a less-than subtle dig at George W. Bush-era politics, then this novel might as well be Bush and Tony Blair-themed "fan"-fiction. As I alluded to, there are terrorist attacks and official policy to counter the same, there are preventive measures taken against specific neighborhoods which could be construed as indicative of an erosion of civil liberties, there is a newly introduced political opposition to Thrackan's regime called the "Democratic Alliance" party which is in a coalition with the "Corellian Liberal Front" and, oh no, turns out to not be all that nice itself after Thrackan's assassination. Look, if someone like me, who was born post-9/11, can notice these things it's got to have been even more obvious to readers at the time. It's not even that I wholly dislike overt politics in my Star Wars, as some of my favorite parts of the prequels have to do with characters like Valorum, Palpatine, or Padmé as a chancellor. Star Wars is inherently built on political allusion and has been ever since the original trilogy with its Vietnam parallels. But if pretty much everything in your A-plot is a thinly veiled attack on the then-current British PM, a character jokingly being dubbed "Darth Blair" by the author, I just cannot help but stop feeling immersed in this fictional setting. I just cannot help but feel like I am reading a novel set in London, 2006 CE and not Coruscant, 40 ABY.

This criticism goes a lot deeper than flimsy political allusions. More than any other Expanded Universe novel I have read so far, Bloodlines fails to evoke the feeling that I am reading about a setting different from our real world. Everything just feels like 21st Century Britain to me. There are tabloid newspapers, the cast has just now taken to using taxis, Jacen and Lumiya decide against hiding themselves during their conversations because, lol, all around us are clerks who are just so busy with life. Perhaps this book should be renamed to "2006: A British Star Wars Story". Things like visiting someone's apartment or having multiple meetings within a political office used to be commodities, but now they have become an overabundance. That's the other side of things: Traviss seems to have gotten tunnel vision while writing this book. There are dozens upon dozens of scenes set within Cal Omas or someone else's office in which the same things that had already been established ten pages prior are regurgitated over and over again with only ever so slightly a development being reached as a result. By page 200 I just wanted to put the book down every time I finished a scene within a given chapter. Traviss just has some writing ticks that get more pronounced the longer you are exposed to them, including a weird lack of... flow in dialogue. Sometimes it just feels like characters are talking past each other, which is made worse by how often a given quote tends to make up a paragraph of its own - thus lacking any indication to whose voice it is the reader is confronted with. I appreciate the attempt at having tight 3rd person POV shape each scene, but it ends up falling flat when a decent chunk of the cast sounds so similar, though this book is an improvement over the Republic Commando series in that regard. Karen Traviss is certainly far from the weakest EU writer on a technical level, but her prose still fails to connect with me.

Finally, a good bit of this book strikes me as off, coming off of LOTF 1 and previous post-ROTJ era works. I already mentioned a few of the characters feeling different, but this time I'm mainly talking about how the Corellia plotline is progressing. I stand by my opinion that delving deeper into civil life was a good choice, but in spite of that, I cannot help but find the way the conflict is developed at odds with book 1's efforts. For starters, Wedge Antilles is completely missing, as is his daughter Syal - their place taken up by Boba, Ailyn Vel, and Mirta Gev, no doubt. That's a shame - Syal had a lot of potential as a next generation-type character, as does the newly created Mirta, and I would have loved for both of them to be afforded a role in this story at the same time. On a more general level, every Corellian political character except Thrackan is dropped, seemingly replaced by a different, less diverse and developed cast, and the way the world's perspective on the conflict is presented seems different, as well. For the first hundred pages or so, everyone treats the sabotage of Centerpoint Station as the last big event, until at some point, the occupation of Tralus magically enters everyone's headspace again. It's like Traviss started writing this book before the previous was even finished, and only found out about what exactly Allston was writing while already a good chunk in - which, from what I have heard, seems to be surprisingly close to the truth... which still does not excuse some of these problems a good editor could have and perhaps should have spotted. Then, of course, there is the death of Thrackan Sal-Solo, which is a surprising direction to take the series in, to say the least. It's not necessarily out of the question, but what ruins it for me is not just that the subject of this plot development was not given anything to say or do for the entire book until then, but also how the aftermath is completely glossed over for the next author to - perhaps - deal with. This more than anything makes me feel like the GAG/Corellians-on-Coruscant plotline, despite its qualities, was written in to make a statement more than develop the plot further...

One more thing: Zekk is a member of Rogue Squadron now. Zekk. Without any fanfare, without any explanation, that guy's part of the Rogues now because Jaina once was and now is again, also for some reason. Oh, and of course neither any of the previous Rogues, nor indeed any new Rogue Squad characters make an appearance here. Beautiful.


Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines, despite harboring some redeeming elements, is not a good novel. Many of the previously established characters are acting wildly out of character, the main plot seems to serve the author's political machinations more than the overarching story or setting, and there is a certain lethargic energy to the experience, by way mainly of repetitively constructed scenes. Is this the worst post-NJO novel so far? I am not sure. I would say that The Swarm War was the bigger disappointment, wasting all of its trilogy's interesting set-up in one of the weakest final acts in any Star Wars story. This book, meanwhile, does not have the success of an entire trilogy looming over it, but I think I ultimately had less fun with it overall due to how painfully repetitious and, as a result, draining the reading experience ended up being. Way to follow up on a perfectly good opening novel. Still, there is enough good set-up in here to make me want to continue with the closing act of the first third, Troy Denning's Tempest.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacen>Kylo

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this series. I'm struggling a bit with the story though. It's not because of the story itself, but because I've read ahead in the timeline and know what's to come. There's a bit of sadness, because I've engaged with the characters. I've traditionally not been a fan of the Fett Lives concept in Legends or Disney. He's a wonderful character that was kind of ruined in the Return of the Jedi. This book has gone a long way towards repairing what was at one time a great character, and I've really enjoyed his roles and how he's portrayed in this book!

[Gus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a very exciting read. The book flashes it point of view to that of Boba Fett, a bounty hunter known throughout the galaxy. After escaping the Sarlacc Pit, he learns that because he is a clone he is slowly dying from age acceleration. His only hope of surviving is to find Ko Sai, a Kaminoan cloner who may have the solution to his age acceleration. As his journey begins he meets a young bounty hunter named Mirta Gev. She tells Fett that she is completing a bounty for Fett's daughter and that she can take him to her if he wants. The last time Fett saw his daughter, Ailyn, she tried to kill him and took his ship. With the looming fact that he might die, Fett agrees but is unaware that Mirta is his granddaughter. Mirta is sent by Ailyn to lure Fett into a trap and kill him. Meanwhile, Jacen is the head of the Galactic Alliance Guard, a task force created to get rid of Corellian terrorists who are protesting on Coruscant. The cause of the terrorism was the attack on Centerpoint and the assassination of Corellia's former Prime Minister. With the assassination of Corellia's Prime Minister, Thrackan is voted into office and starts urging Corellia and her fellow systems to leave the Galactic Alliance. This causes a lot of conflict between the Galactic Alliance and the Solo family. Jacen starts to lead raids in Coruscant to deport Corellians back to Corellia. This angers Luke as he slowly feels Jacen slowly going to the dark side. It also angers him because Jacen is taking Ben on these raids. Luke soon realizes that Lumiya is behind it although he doesn't know that she is working through Jacen. Han soon teams up with Fett to assassinate Thrackan in hopes that it will end the looming war between Corellia and the Galactic Alliance. During the raids back on Coruscant, Ailyn is captured and killed during interrogation by Jacen. This upsets Boba but it brings his relationship with Mirta closer and they head out together to find a cure.

This book was very angering to see Jacen's character transition into something dark and evil. It is very frustrating to see Jacen's character be so swayed by Lumiya to the dark side. It seems as though soon Jacen will be to the point where he may start to hurt the people that he loves. He may do this with no remorse or regret.

This book is very good for any Star Wars fan. The book leaves the reader sitting at the edge of their seat with the flip of each page. A good age group for the readers would be from middle school and up. I don't recommend this book if you haven't read the first one in the series of if you aren't familiar with the Star Wars franchise.

[Priya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. I guess there aren't a lot of things I can say about this book other then I am not a huge fan of Karen Traviss.

First of all, the woman cannot write Luke or Mara or Han or Leia for that matter. Thier conversations just seemed so out of charachter.

And then there were the idiotic thought processes of Mara (really would she really not see the darkness surrounding her own nephew?) Not to mention the relationship between L and M and Ben.

That being said the hardest parts of this last bit of the book:

"Poor Grandfather: gifted, exceptional, dismissed, barely tolerated, largely untrained, abandoned. No wonder he resorted to crazed, desperate violence...

I'm the second chance.

The Jedi Council dropped the ball. And they paid for it.

Jacen had accepted his Sith destiny, but now he understood not only that it had to happen, but why. Everything in his life had led to this point because Anakin Skywalker's destiny had been subverted and warped by well-meaning but blind Masters, sending him off on a tangent to do a flawed Palpatine's bidding instead of realizing his own full power.

I am more powerful than any of you." (Jacen after Forcewalking back in time to see how the Council refused Anakin his title of Master)

Ridiculous, I think the part when he admits he is prepared to kill Tenel Ka and Allana is where I decided I wanted to hurl.

Though I will say that the most realistic moment of Han's was this quotation:

I don't know who you are, but you aren't my son anymore. My Jacen would never do the kind of stuff you do. Get out. I don't want to know any more." --Han.

There are tons of gripes, but maybe its my dissatisfaction with the larger storyline: Omas, internment, secret police, Luke saying he 'isn't a student of history' when his whole life has been determined by the past. Anyway. I wasn't happy, but at the very least I've heard the series picks up with the next book..so stay tuned. (So I lied, I did have a lot to say)

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never thought I would see the day that Boba Fett & Han solo would work together, but Karen Traviss delivers us just that situation in book 2 of the Legacy of the Force series, Bloodlines.
Traviss is a hit and miss writer in my opinion, and this book lands somewhere in the middle. I liked the Boba Fett scenes and situations as he hunted for both bounties and personal answers to personal questions concerning family, being Mandalore and his own life. However, it seems like Jacen's turn to the dark side is flying by without anyone willing to do anything. Clearly, his twin sister, Jaina, and uncle Luke can sense that he is turning, but do little more than offer words like :"how are you doing?" or "you're different", and the young Jedi keeps getting darker and darker. I know Jacen is very powerful, and able to conceal his emotions from his family, but it seems like this whole situation is a bit, pardon the pun, "Forced".

[Alix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed “Star Wars Bloodlines” by Haren Traviss, because it deals with science fiction and outer space. This book also talks about the forces of good and evil. There are a lot of different characters views and how it all plays out in the story line.

The book is told in first person. It’s tells how Luke Skywalker’s nephew is going to the dark side. Luke is also worried about his son being Jacen’s apprentice, because Luke doesn't want Ben to follow Jacen.

“Star Wars Bloodline” takes place in Outer Space at Corellia and Corusant. In the future of time.

The theme is mainly telling right from wrong, not letting people influence you to do wrong.

I would recommend this book to anybody that likes science fiction. Seventh grade and up would be able to read this series. If you like watching the Star Wars movies you will like these books. Most of the characters in this book are also in the movies. You will be able to identify with the characters.

[Matt Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book 2 of the series and as you can probably guess by the cover it features Boba Fett very prominently throughout in his own storyline. At first it seemed a little out of place, but by the end the author had me hooked on his story as much as Jacen's story.

Basically Boba Fett is dying because of a genetic defect inherent in clones. So he goes in search of the original Kaminoan cloning doc to help him live. But at the same time Jacen's crackdown on dissenters and trouble-makers on Coruscant leads him to accidently kill a mandolorian bounty hunter during interrogation, not realizing it was Boba's daughter...

He just made another enemy he really doesn't want...