Omen

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi #2

by Christie Golden

The Jedi Order is in crisis. The late Jacen Solo’s shocking transformation into murderous Sith Lord Darth Caedus has cast a damning pall over those who wield the Force for good: Two Jedi Knights have succumbed to an inexplicable and dangerous psychosis, criminal charges have driven Luke Skywalker into self-imposed exile, and power-hungry Chief of State Natasi Daala is exploiting anti-Jedi sentiment to undermine the Order’s influence within the Galactic Alliance.

Forbidden to intervene in Jedi affairs, Luke is on a desperate mission to uncover the truth behind Jacen’s fall to the dark side–and to learn what’s turning peaceful Jedi into raving lunatics. But finding answers will mean venturing into the mind-bending space of the Kathol Rift and bargaining with an alien species as likely to destroy outsiders as deal with them. Still, there is no other choice and no time to lose, as the catastrophic events on Coruscant continue to escalate. Stricken by the same violent dementia that infected her brother, Valin, Jedi Knight Jysella Horn faces an equally grim fate after her capture by Natasi Daala’s police. And when Han and Leia Solo narrowly foil another deranged Jedi bent on deadly destruction, even acting Jedi Grand Master Kenth Hamner appears willing to bow to Daala’s iron will–at the expense of the Jedi Order.

But an even greater threat is looming. Millennia in the past, a Sith starship crashed on an unknown low-tech planet, leaving the survivors stranded. Over the generations, their numbers have grown, the ways of the dark side have been nurtured, and the time is fast approaching when this lost tribe of Sith will once more take to the stars to reclaim their legendary destiny as rulers of the galaxy. Only one thing stands in their way, a name whispered to them through the Force: Skywalker.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, Space Opera, Adventure

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Award-winning author Christie Golden has written over thirty novels and several short stories in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror. She has over a million books in print.

2009 will see no fewer than three novels published. First out in late April will be a World of Warcraft novel, Athas: Rise of the Lich King. This is the first Warcraft novel to appear in hardcover. Fans of the young paladin who fell so far from grace will get to read his definitive story.

In June, Golden’s first Star Wars novel, also a hardcover, sees print. Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi—Omen is the second in a nine-book series she is co-authoring with Aaron Allston and Troy Denning. Also in June comes the conclusion of Golden’s StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga with the release of Twlight, the third book in the series. The first two are Firstborn and Shadow Hunters.

2004 saw the launch of an original fantasy series called The Final Dance, from LUNA Books. The first novel in the series, On Fire's Wings, was published in July of that year. The second, In Stone’s Clasp , came out in September of 2005. With In Stone’s Clasp, Golden won the Colorado Author’s League Top Hand Award for Best Genre Novel for the second time. The third book, Under Sea’s Shadow, is available only as an e-book

Golden is also the author of two original fantasy novels from Ace Books, King's Man and Thief and Instrument of Fate, which made the 1996 Nebula Preliminary Ballot. Under the pen name of Jadrien Bell, she wrote a historical fantasy thriller entitled A.D. 999, which won the Colorado Author's League Top Hand Award for Best Genre Novel of 1999.

Golden launched the TSR Ravenloft line in 1991 with her first novel, the highly successful Vampire of the Mists , which introduced elven vampire Jander Sunstar. Golden followed up Vampire with Dance of the Dead and The Enemy Within . In September of 2006, fifteen years to the month, The Ravenloft Covenant: Vampire of the Mists enabled Jander Sunstar to reach a whole new audience.

Other projects include a slew of Star Trek novels, among them The Murdered Sun , Marooned , and Seven of Nine , and "The Dark Matters Trilogy," Cloak and Dagger , Ghost Dance and Shadow of Heaven .

The Voyager novel relaunch, which includes Homecoming and The Farther Shore , were bestsellers and were the fastest-selling Trek novels of 2003. Golden continued writing VOYAGER novels even though the show went off the air, and enjoyed exploring the creative freedom that gave her in the two-parter called Spirit Walk, which includes Old Wounds and Enemy of my Enemy .

Golden has also written the novelization of Steven Spielberg's Invasion America and an original "prequel," On The Run , both of which received high praise from producer Harve Bennett. On The Run, a combination medical thriller and science fiction adventure, even prompted Bennett to invite Golden to assist in crafting the second season of the show, if it was renewed.

Golden lives in Loveland, Colorado, with her artist husband and their two cats.

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio. Audio. Audio. I can't recommend that enough with these Star Wars books. I am enjoying this particular series (Fate of the Jedi). I just love Luke and his son, Ben. I also enjoy Han and Leia as a
married couple. The audios are highly entertaining and they have great sound effects.

I liked the story with this one. This series highlights the relationship between Luke and Ben, striving to move on with the wife and mom. Ben seemed more like the kid he should be in this one. I also enjoy the family life of Han and Leia. The original cast is by far my favorites. So 4 stars.

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great yet short novel in the Fate of the Jedi Series. Christie Golden's first step into Star Wars is certainly an entertaining one!

I absolutely love the political storylines in this book. It meshes really well with the political storylines set up by Aaron Allston in Outcast. This book feels like it syncs up the Fate of the Jedi books between authors better than the Legacy of the Force books did.

Vestara was really interesting, as was the worldbuilding behind the lost tribe of the sith. I think the freshness and uniqueness of the world is what made it so interesting. This was definitely a bold step in the Star Wars universe, and so far I'm liking it! It feels like it blends Old Republic with Post-ROTJ storytelling in the EU.

Like with Outcast, I didn't particularly love the Luke and Ben story in this book. I think that the humor between them, as well as the dialogues they have with each other are great. I also loved the sequence near the end featuring Flow walking. However, the actual story with them and the Aing-Tii was sort of bland. Definitely the weak point of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, just like book 1. I think this one handles its storylines better and more efficiently, and has the added bonus of including the whole Lost Tribe storyline. But Book 1 had great shock value with Luke's trial. 8 out of 10!

[Russ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. I think that, in general, Star Wars books have been outstanding of late. The last series with Allston, Denning, and Cunningham was incredibly well written, even if I didn't always like the story line. The first book in this series, written by Allston, was really, really good. This book seemed horrible in comparison.

It is really short, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it suggests to me that the author, first time Star Wars writer Christie Golden, had trouble coming up with material when other SW authors don't. The writing itself very often seemed YA quality- just a little corny and not really up to par with the other recent SW authors. And then, as far as action, I feel like nothing really happened in this book. Maybe I'll feel differently at the end of the series, when it is revealed that this book set up a ton of action in later books, but right now I feel like Book 3 is going to start basically in the same place as if this book hadn't been written.

I'm disappointed, to say the least. I hope Ms. Golden picks up her game for the rest of the series.

[Khurram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a short but important book in the Fate of the Jedi series. The One Sith are mentioned but have not yet announced themselves to the Jedi or the galaxy. The Lost tribe of the Sith are finally ending their seclusion after 5000 year.

The story. More Jedi are falling victim to the strange illness that causes them to have paranoid delusions that everyone they know has been replaced by imposters. The only similar trait they seem to have is that they are exhibiting powers and abilities in the force that they never learned abilities that were used last by Jacen Solo. Han and Leia while rising their "adopted daughter" Allana are trying their best to defuse the continued hostilities between the Jedi and the GA government. This could escalate with Jaina Solo leading a secrete strike force of Jedi to capture the affected Jedi (so they can receive proper treatment) before the GA can get their hands on them.

Luke and Ben still in exile follow a lead that takes them to the race of force users who are most adept to the "Flow walking" technique that Jacen used to seduce other Jedi to his side. Here the force is not seen simply as Light or Dark but as more of a rainbow. Though Luke does not agree with their philosophies he cannot deny their abilities in the force. It is great to see Luke learn a couple of new trick to add to his already impressive force abilities.

A good story sowing the seeds for things to come. I always judge a book to be good if it leaves me wanting to continue reading the next book in the series immediately. All in all a good but shorter than average Star Wars book. I can see many important events in the future coming from this. This book must be read right to the end as big things happen in the last couple of chapters.

[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: the second book in the Fate of the Jedi series, Omen by Christie Golden.

SOME HISTORY:

The original intention for the Fate of the Jedi series was that the three authors from Legacy of the Force would continue on and write this one as well. However, Karen Traviss decided that she was too busy with the Republic Commando books to agree to another series—and once season two of The Clone Wars came out and contradicted her Mandalorian worldbuilding, Traviss rage-quit Star Wars—so Del Rey contacted Christie Golden about filling that third author spot. By 2009, Golden had written a number of Star Trek novels as well as stories within the World of Warcraft, and she had experience with writing stories within the various realms of D&D like her fellow author Troy Denning. Fate of the Jedi: Omen by Christie Golden made it to number four on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of July 12, 2009.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

Since I never read this series before, I thought I would simply state what I knew about Omen going into it: not much! Based on the cover, I guessed that this was the book introducing the little Sith girl, Vestara Khai.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

The Jedi Order is in crisis: two young Jedi Knights have succumbed to madness, Luke Skywalker has been exiled from the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi Order for ten years, and Chief of State Daala is stoking anti-Jedi sentiment. As Luke and Ben Skywalker travel to the Kathol Rift to learn more about Jacen's five-year Force pilgrimage, even more young Jedi begin to suffer psychotic breaks. And on a remote low-tech planet, Sith who have been stranded for millennia make their first steps toward venturing out into the larger galaxy…

THE PLOT:

As the second book in the Fate of the Jedi series, Omen is pretty darn short. My paperback copy was 275 pages, and there’s only 25 (shorter) chapters here. As with the previous book, Outcast, there's a limited number of subplots, and the pace moves at a pretty good clip.

Luke and Ben Skywalker continue on their journey of “trying to figure out how Jacen fell to the dark side,” and they decide to head towards the Kathol Rift to talk to the Aing-Tii Monks (last seen/talked about in Vision of the Future by Zahn). As in the previous book, they learn a few skills and help the Monks with their own problems. Meanwhile, the Leia/Han/Allana plotline has merged with the Jaina and co. plotline, so we have the Jedi struggling with more young Jedi falling prey to delusions, Jaina and Jag dealing with relationship stuff, and a 4-H animal fair that goes dreadfully wrong. Far away on the remote world of Kesh—and two years before the rest of this novel—we meet a lost tribe of the Sith who have been marooned for 5,000 years, and the arrival of the Sith meditation sphere becomes the impetus for them venturing outside their isolated planet. Our viewpoint character here is fourteen-year-old Vestara Khai.

CHARACTERS:

Luke and Ben decide to visit the Aing-Tii monks because they know that was one of Jacen’s first stops on his Force pilgrimage, but it’s a difficult journey. The Kathol Rift is dangerous and you must navigate the right currents, plus it tends to make Force users hallucinate things. The Skywalkers are basically going off of decades-old info from Talon Karrde as well as surreptitious stuff passed along from Cilghal. (And the Kathol Rift section gives us the first of the series’ The Odyssey analogues, with Luke’s impossible navigation seeming very like how Odysseus works out the pass between Scylla the six-headed monster and Charybdis the giant whirlpool.)

Once they arrive on the Aing-Tii’s planet, they find that everyone’s divided: the monks wander around the Rift collecting Force artifacts they believe are connected to “Those Who Dwell Beyond the Veil,” and a Aing-Tii prophet recently said that those god-like beings would return. The monks want the Skywalkers to tell them if the prophet was correct, and Ben wants to learn how to flow-walk through time despite Luke’s disapproval. Tensions build between father and son until Ben flow-walks back to Jacen’s time with the Aing-Tii and decides that his dad is right and you shouldn’t peer into the past or even peek into potential futures either. The Skywalkers examine the monks’ artifacts, and when Luke touches this pyramid-shaped thing called the Codex…a lot happens. Luke’s presence is broadcast out, the Sith on Kesh sense him, and Luke gets a Very Bad Feeling about the Maw by Kessel. The Skywalkers tell the monks that they weren’t able to sense Those Beyond the Veil, so the Aing-Tii are going to have to figure out their destiny on their own like everyone else in the galaxy.

In Omen, Ben didn’t always feel like a teenager to me. Ben has gone through some very intense situations, and he’s obviously mature beyond his sixteen years, but his dialogue with Luke felt less like how a teenager would talk, and more how an adult imagines a teenager would talk. I also wasn’t sure about the conflict between Luke and Ben about flow-walking, because part of what I enjoyed about the previous book was the growing rapport between the two. Seeing the Skywalkers at odds, even temporarily, wasn’t a development I was crazy about, and I felt like Luke could have articulated his reasons against flow-walking a little better.

It was cool to see the monks, though! In Vision of the Future, we just saw Jorj Car’das, and I think this might have been the monks’ first reappearance since The Darkstryder Campaign. The Aing-Tii are very strange, with their six tongues and their rock-armadillo-esque appearance and their esoteric Force skills, and I like getting to experience the stranger aspects of the Star Wars universe.

Over on the Coruscant front, we have two more young Jedi succumb to madness. The first is Valin Horn’s younger sister, Jysella, and we get to spend a little time with Jysella before she falls prey to the imposter delusion. She has fellow Jedi friends her own age, she’s worried about her brother and current events, and when her psychotic break occurs she isn’t angry like Valin—she’s terrified. She demonstrates another Force skill that only Jacen knew (flow-walking), and that provides part of the impetus for Luke and Ben’s journey to the Kathol Rift. Jysella, like her brother, is arrested by the Galactic Alliance and frozen in carbonite.

The Jedi continue to study Seff Hellin, madness victim #1 that Jaina and the Darkmeld team captured in the previous book, but Kenth Hamner knows nothing of this until that weasley journalist Javis Tyrr releases footage of Hellin in Temple custody, and Jaina, Tekli, and Cilghal have to apologize for their subterfuge. Daala seems like she’s going to respond super harshly to this revelation, but Leia talks her down to a more reasonable approach—and Daala’s chief of staff, Wynn Dorvan, also helps to temper Daala’s initial response.

The second Jedi succumbs to madness while the Solo family is visiting an animal fair. This one is a Falleen woman named Natua Wan, and her unprecedented Force skill is the ability to throw her voice. She causes absolute mayhem at the fair but the Jedi are able to capture her, so now they have two Jedi to study. I felt like the reason given for the Solos to attend the fair was a bit of a stretch (Leia wants to get Allana an animal mount? Leia, you live in an apartment: where would you keep it??) but it gets the Solos to the right place at the right time when Natua Wan loses it.

Jaina and Jag’s biggest relationship problem right now is constant press attention, which makes it hard to run off and carry out Darkmeld plots. At the end, Jag proposes marriage to Jaina, she accepts, and I guess we’ll see how that works out. After all, Jaina is currently very stuck on Coruscant and Jag is very stuck wrangling the Imperial Remnant and frustrating Moffs.

And then we have the introduction of this lost tribe of Sith from the remote world of Kesh. Unlike the rest of the book (which is set 43 ABY), this section is set two years earlier, during the end of the Legacy of the Force series. Our viewpoint character is Vestara Khai, a fourteen-year-old girl who is present when the Sith meditation sphere lands on her homeworld. Ship wants to teach, and Vestara is very eager to learn. Vestara is a good introduction to these Sith, because they’ve been stuck on Kesh for 5,000 years and their culture feels very antique and ritualized. They’re a lot different than the Sith that appear in the Legacy comic series—they’re very concerned with beauty and aesthetics—and the appearance of Ship dramatically changes the trajectory of their culture.

Vestara becomes the apprentice to a Sith master, but unfortunately we skip all her training to jump forward two years to the Sith ready to venture into the outside galaxy, the Sith sensing Luke Skywalker, and Ship abandoning them for a dark presence. Vestara’s an interesting character, and she reminds me of Emperor’s Hand-era Mara in that she’s been super isolated, she only knows her own culture, and she’s never ventured into the greater world. She’s so sure that what she’s doing is right, but she’s a Sith…I would have loved to see some of the details of her training, but alas.

ISSUES:

My first issue with Omen related to tone, as it felt surprisingly young adult at times. Maybe this was because of the prominence of Vestara’s plotline? I certainly wouldn’t market Omen as YA, because it’s obviously not meant to be so, but the overall tone felt a lot younger than the previous book. Even the scenes with Jysella and her friends (characters in at least their mid-20s) felt more teenage than I expected.

My second issue was a continuation from Outcast, in that I don’t feel super sad or connected to the young Jedi Knights who suffer psychotic breaks, because I don’t really know them as characters. We spent one scene with Jysella before she goes mad, but she’s mostly only a name to me—and her friends are completely new characters. That’s not a lot of time to develop a connection with her, and when Natua Wan snapped I just felt like…ehhh. She seemed like a nice young Jedi, but I don’t know her at all! I felt most sorry for Corran Horn and Mirax Terrik, because it’s obvious that the situation with their children has deeply affected them. And I think that’s a failure on the series part: I should care deeply about the fate of these young Jedi, but instead I’m most torn up about two of the young Jedi’s parents.

My final issue with Omen was just general Setup issues. Nothing important happened in Omen, and Vestara’s plotline especially seemed to exist just to introduce us to the Lost Tribe and show us what kind of person Vestara is. The Sith build their fleet off-page, and we don’t see anything with Vestara’s training or the Sith preparations or Ship’s instructions. Luke and Ben travel to the Kathol Rift and learn a little, but they’re mainly helping the monks with their own problems. (This is a slow road trip thus far.) The most plot things happen in the Coruscant plotline, what with Jedi succumbing to madness and Jaina and Jag’s engagement and Allana getting a nexu cub and the cliffhanger ending of Tahiri Veila being arrested for the murder of Admiral Pellaeon, but it still felt like the continuation of book one’s setup. Allston did tons of setup in Outcast, and now Golden did her setup in Omen; it remains to be seen whether Denning’s novel will contain Copious Setup as well.

IN CONCLUSION:

Omen was a pretty quick read (at sub-300 pages, it's relatively short for a Star Wars book), and I enjoyed meeting Vestara Khai, who may be a Sith but remains very likable. I wish we had more of a connection to the mad Jedi Knights, though--a problem that carries over from book 1, Outcast--and it was more Setup than I expected, but I'm interested to see what happens next, with Luke and Ben venturing into the Maw and these newly marauding lost Sith venturing out into the galaxy.


Next up: the third book in the Fate of the Jedi series, Abyss by Troy Denning.

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/Z46eC0bo3HM

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christie Golden makes her Star Wars debut!

Unfortunately, it's not the best entry in the Expanded Universe. Hopefully, her writing and the storyline gets better as the series goes on.

[elef · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really liked how christie golden write this book. it really felt like for the first time someone actually read the previous books since njo. she handled so well the main continuity meanwhile adding new material. also i loved luke and ben's relationship. her writing ben's scenes with jacen's legacy really made me want her to write lotf too. she had more understanding for the characters than that one specific writer.

[DiscoSpacePanther · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, the second book in the Fate of the Jedi series is a bit of a dip in quality. I still enjoyed the story, but there were some elements that I wasn’t entirely fond of.

Firstly, the writing style of this novel is much more YA in feel than in the preceding book, Aaron Allston’s Outcast.

The prose is not really to my taste, and seems a little unpolished. For example, when Ben Skywalker says, “I’m sixteen. Of course I’m hungry”, that, to me, reads as if it is something that an adult who has never actually listened to a teenager imagines a teenager would speak. It isn’t—it’s how a parent would talk about a teenager.

Also, I don’t think this book was properly proofread, as there are errors such as “the Red Squadron”, (no definite article needed) and “ysalamari”, (I know it’s a made-up word, but it is a bit like talking about “wookies” or “Ashoka Tano”—get your fictional terminology right!

As an aside that is the fault of the series, but not specifically the fault of the author of this particular book: Another element that I am not fond of in these novels is the character who is head-of-state of the Galactic Alliance. I’m not going to spoil it for any readers who haven’t finished the Legacy of the Force series, but having this character be the head of the successor government to the New Republic would be like having Nute Gunray being elected leader of the Rebels—rewarding a mass-murdering war criminal with the position of head-of-state.

There is another plot-element I’m not fond of—the bringing back of an ancient enemy of the Jedi Order. It seems unnecessary, and a bit creatively bankrupt. However, I’ve read enough of the later Star Wars Legends series to know that this is most likely the result of collaborative brainstorming, and not a singular problem caused by Christie Golden.

Enough of the nitpicks, though. The story rattles along at a fair lick, with peril and drama on all pages (unlike some of the newer canon books). Characterisation is good, and consistent with other novels and movies. The ongoing mystery of characters abruptly succumbing to a form of Capgras Syndrome is interesting, but I am hoping that some answers will be forthcoming soon, otherwise I will find it frustrating, a bit like the endless string of defeats in the New Jedi Order series before Balance Point.

I’m still invested enough in the story to be looking forward to the next instalment, Fate of the Jedi: Abyss.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second entry in the Fate of the Jedi series, and another not-too-bad book, certainly better than the earlier series. Luke and son Ben are traveling to learn more about what led Jacen down the path to the Dark Side, visiting the Force using beings known as the Aing-Tii who trained Jacen in some new techniques. Meanwhile, the long lost Sith meditation sphere "Ship" has found its way to the long lost Tribe of the Sith far in the Outer Rim and has alerted them to the resurgence of the Jedi. This bodes poorly for the galaxy as the Tribe decides it needs to seek out and destroy Luke Skywalker. Back on Coruscant another Jedi has caught the strange psychosis, causing a public catastrophe and giving the Galactic Alliance more ammo for shutting the Jedi down. And all this happens in 276 pages, more than enough to keep the story straightforward without too much filler. I guess my biggest concern at this point is how the Jedi are handling their numbers going nutso-cuckoo. They are forced to agree to some humiliating public terms when they should be making efforts to train their members, if suddenly you feel paranoid like everyone you know is an evil clone, don't believe it! Use the Force FFS.

[Cal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book I read years ago...on a Nook, probably on vacation somewhere.

I remember really liking this one, and after re-reading the synopsis, I know why. I sure would like to re-read this series someday. These books are my sequels lol, I'm not ashamed of that either.

UPDATE: I was wrong. I didn’t really like this book. Maybe back in the day I did, but I don’t now. It just wasn’t that good. Christie’s writing is a bit juvenile for me I think. Oh, and Ben Skywalker yelled, “Lubed!” upon receiving a stun stick. That was wild. It’s probably like a 2.5 from me. Some cool ideas that weren’t fleshed out well, and some super forgettable moments. We’ll see what Troy Denning does next. i ReMeMBeR rEaLlY LiKInG THis OnE.

[C.K. Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review of this novel is much the same as the last one, and so I won't bother to put it in full here, but I will summarize the main points of my thoughts that differentiate this from the last:

This is a worthy follow-up to the first novel and an improvement. The increased focus on Jaina, Jag, Luke, and Ben were the biggest improvements of this one over the last. Han and Leia are good when they are involved in interesting or entertaining plot points, which they failed to be in the last book. Their use is better in this one. The introduction of the villain through the narrative was an improvement, as was the continued focus on the politics of the New Republic. Generally, less time is wasted and more time is spent on the Force and adjacent ideas. The voice and uniqueness of each character was more present. The differing motivations are better developed and apparent. Overall, a solid improvement in most ways.

Definitely better than the first and moving in the right direction. I think I will be disappointed once I reach the end of the series as this was left incomplete upon the sale of Star Wars to Disney, a high praise for a series with 9 books already.

Ah, well.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is much like book 1, living on a timeline that longer exists but is better than the current disney track. I enjoyed the pace, less action than book 1, but this book laid down some foundation for future goodness.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The web is weaving a great story
4 ⭐️’s

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as the first. Also once again I don't care about the Leia/Han storyline.

I was glad this was a shorter book.

[Joshua Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

The non-canon books are always fun, bizarre and wild, but sometimes that hits the right spot!

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Men." Leia sighed.

What I find most interesting about Omen is how it compares to Bloodlines, its Legacy of the Force counterpart: Whereas Golden's novel seems rushed, a bit insipid, and content to rephrase what its immediate predecessor had already established, Bloodlines was all about ambitiously forwarding a storytelling theme, a moral message. Yet whereas the latter ended up a painfully repetitive-on-its-own slog filled with brutal mischaracterizations and LOTF's early collapse in cohesion, Omen for the most part amounts to a decently fun time with an (in the post-NJO) hitherto unseen approach to continuity and sympathetic character voicing. Unfulfilled ambition vs. inoffensive clunkiness - both have their ups and downs, but so far, FOTJ is in the lead.

Which doesn't mean that Omen does not perplex at points. The pacing is completely off, for one. For the first c. 100 pages, things seem smooth enough - a very slow build-up that mostly evokes the prior novel, but with a lurking Sith subplot and the promise of finding out more about Jacen's flow-walking dangling in front of the reader. Were this, say, an NJO hardcover set at 300-400 pages, this would be okay. The problem is that FOTJ2 ends 236 pages in. Readers at the time were furious - how could Del Rey come up with an all-hardcover series - during the Great Recession, mind you! - and then have its sophomore entry battle the old Lando paperbacks from the 80s for lack of page count? Old fandom controversies aside, the modern reader suffers just as much: Omen simply doesn't have enough space to properly develop its ideas. This becomes painfully apparent in this second half, as I alluded to, wherein Golden utilizes time skip after time skip to jump over any opportunity for fleshing things out and setting proper scenes. Luke & Ben arrive in front of a dangerous area in space, talk about the hazards within... but, oops, there's not enough time to flesh this out! So let's just take all of what they said, put it into practice identically and without anything new in the scenario, and skip forward. Luke and Ben have to go on a physical journe- oh wait, they're already at their destination. There really ought to have been another 100 pages here. Like Outcast, the ending amounts of a non-climax, except here it's worse simply because the foundation is weaker than what Allston came up with. Say about LOTF what you want, and I know I certainly have - but at least those books managed to stand on their own.

Repetition forms an underlying theme. We have another two crazy Jedi POV chapters, someone sympathetic to the GA once more pesters Jaina every step of the way, and yes, Luke and Ben's journey to the Aing-Tii follows many of the same ideas as the Baran Do trip. Actually, I have to wonder if Omen might have worked better had it been shorter, had it been a novella rather than a (full price hardcover...) novel. There simply isn't much storytelling involved as far as these repeated beats are concerned. I'll talk more about the young Jedi in a more positive paragraph, but we could have done away with at least one of their insanity scenes - the core idea of evoking Jacen, Shelter, and the Maw is more than clear by now. There are positives to Jaina's scenes, too, but here we don't even have the strategic Darkmeld elements anymore... what is her role in this book, even? The Solo grandparents + Allana I don't even want to talk about. Well, Kevin J. Anderson at least would appreciate the filler zoo storyline. Denning, too, with how needlessly (and hilariously) brutal it gets at a point. Most disappointing, though, is the Aing-Tii business. As I said, most of it is ignored by the text, but even what we DO get leaves something to be desired... okay so Ben learns Flow-walking and he sees Jacen 20 years earlier and Jacen's actually pretty nice despite the supposed Vergere brainwashing and yet he also already wishes for Ordah LOTF-style and then Ben realizes that oh wait I can't actually change any of this and so now I need to cry for a bit. Also Luke learned how to teleport things off-screen and touched the Holy Gr- Pyramid, the Holy Pyramid, and the Sith felt it and so this is how those plots intersect. Meh approach to macguffins. In general I can only hope that the next book takes up the mantle of forwarding FOTJ's main plot rather than bumbling around in repetition.

Thankfully, Golden's new ideas are actually pretty great. There's a lot of good to be said about the Lost Tribe here, this fun intersection between FOTJ, a minor plot thread from LOTF, and John Jackson Miller's contemporary short stories. I'm actually excited to see the Sith again! Christie Golden, throughout the book, employs a sort of Young Adult writing style - a lot of exposition and telling rather than showing, a very individualistic third person POV style, some adolescent sensibilities. I guess for many this would be an automatic negative, but I don't really mind it per se, at least not when it fits like it does with this here subplot. Vestara Khai, our main POV character, is fairly effectively positioned as a series deuteragonist. We see her dreams and inner turmoil, we get to know about her patented facial trait in the form of a Joker-type mouth scar (hey, it worked for Isard's eyes and Jag's streak of white hair...), we get a glimpse into the Lost Tribe's society. It's all fairly surface-level, but I really don't mind. I enjoyed this more than the old Kevin J. Anderson kids' books, and it evokes Harry Potter more than Jude Watsons rather grizzly works. It's not just fun to have this type of story back in Star Wars, it also serves a genuinely important niche in making it more relatable to young readers again. Compare this to the low energy, "class reunion" Dark Nest books and the nihilistic LOTF series. It also plays to my personal love for unique settings, because the beach's sand is purple. Simply great.

In general, characters are one of Omen's strong suits. I also have to give some love to Wynn Dorvan, Daala's assistant. He's sort of a morally neutral character, someone who's working for a psychopath, yes, but doesn't really preside over injustice beyond the haziness of the Jedi situation. Dorvan is certainly no desk murderer, and does seem to want the best for the GA. And that's about it; there is very explicitly no private life to be spoken of with him - except for his pocket pet. Daala, on that note, is a bit better than in Outcast. Unlike Allston, Golden doesn't bend over to try and make her seem like an honorable figure, yet she still comes off as someone whose thoughts are very much logical, who you can buy as believing what she does. Otherwise, FOTJ2 thankfully picks up where its predecessor left off. The main characters are still likeable. They no longer disgust me a la LOTF. Luke & Ben maintain their loving father-son dynamic, and one of my favorite scenes here is when they just talk about things over dinner (Luke making fun of Ben for not having any friends his age aside). Jaina's role in this series remains problematic (i. e. barely existent), but at least we've moved on from the constant angst and idiotic love triangle. On that note, Jag Fel's great too, and I am once more warming up to them both as a couple. It's like the NJO never left. My favorite bit of characterization, however, might concern the C-list Jedi. Jysella Horn, the weak-minded but lovable Bazel Warv, proud Bothan Jedi Yaqeel Saav'etu, a second serving of a Falleen Jedi in Natua Wan... these are mostly archetypes (again: YA), but at least they're allowed to exist. At least the NJO kids generation is no longer so weirdly faceless anymore. A very important step towards selling the post-NJO as a living setting again - I hope the following books keep up the good work.

Finally, I am stunned by Golden's adherence to continuity. This is the most cohesive novel set in this era, in fact. Practically every chapter, particularly those relating to Ben, have a reference or two to past works - and not just for their own sake, but in such a way that relates to the characters, that informs their characterization. The very prologue is dedicated to LOTF D-list character Dician's unsuccessful interaction with Ship, opening up the entire Lost Tribe situation; much later on, Ben recalls his misadventures on Ziost, and they permeate his views of Jacen. Finally, there is a reason for the Embrace of Pain nonsense from Inferno to be part of the canon; it has stuck with Luke's son and has made him the person he is today. All of this would be an impressive construct of continuity even for Allston or Denning, but Christie Golden, a first-time GFFA author? Beyond any expectations.

Writing these thoughts down was enlightening - I went into this expecting to tear into Omen much more than I actually did; its positive points simply disallow me from getting too mad. Completely different situation than with the "Denningverse's" first twelve entries. This is far from a great novel, but it's one I didn't regret reading - itself a great accomplishment, given the context.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think "Omen" was a great improvement over the first book in the "Fate of the Jedi" series. But as a multi-book Star Wars series tends to do, we are still getting an awful lot of medicore set-up and filler story that doesn't result in a lot of emotional impact. I think Christie Golden is an able writer and a better one than some others I could name in the Star Wars universe of writers. But she's working with many disparate threads and not given the ability to provide us with anything that resembles a real payoff.

Here's what's going on in "Omen." There is...yet again...a lost tribe of Sith operating without contact with the galaxy at large because their ship crashed on a planet a long time ago and the survivors couldn't make it fly again. This lost tribe of Sith seems more like the Screen Actors Guild (narcissistic and beauty obsessed) than a bunch of evil Sith...at least until they find a way (courtesy of the living Sith teaching orb ship from the "Legacy of the Force" series) back out into the galaxy and start slaughtering innocents. The Sith we get to see the most of is new apprentice Vestara Khai, who seems to have a special relationship with Ship.

The "mad Jedi" plague seems to be spreading and causing havoc...as well as encouraging Daala to crack down harder on the Jedi. There is squabbling over who gets to keep which mad Jedi, since Daala just wants to freeze them all in carbonite.

There's more with "grandpa and grandma" Solo (a.k.a. Han and Leia) and their cute Jedi grandchild Allana, but their plotline is not nearly as annoying and ancillary as it was in the first book of this series. Their plotline twines in more directly with the mad Jedi storyline when they fall victim to the actions of one of the mad Jedi soon after she turns violent.

There are a couple of nice bits with Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel, who may finally be moving forward with their relationship.

And Luke and Ben are continuing to follow Jacen's path. This book they visit the Aing-Tii (those mysterious "flow walkers" who can travel outside of their bodies to the past and future) and try to solve their problems as well. I have to say the Luke and Ben plotline is pretty dull no matter what planet they go to and who they're supposed to help. Their adventures play like a really bad sci-fi TV show meant to educate viewers about different alien races (and how human Jedi are always the most special Jedi of all). Instead of solving the problems of the Aing-Tii, which would be trite and expected, Luke and Ben don't solve their problems. The novelty of that is lost in the lame way it all comes about, however.

The powers that be do allow a bit of foreshadowing of future storylines in that Luke, while touching an Aing-Tii artifact, broadcasts himself briefly to the galaxy and the lost tribe of Sith take notice.

I found the abrupt "cliffhanger" ending of "Omen" (the arrest of "fallen" Jedi Tahiri Veila by the GA) to be somewhat jarring and no substitute for an actual satisfying ending.

And while some might object to the harsh reviews I write about Star Wars books, I have found at least one Star Wars book (the Yoda Clone Wars era book "Dark Rendezvous") that I would put on my favorite books of all-time list. So while I do have higher standards, I'm not just bashing Star Wars for the heck of it. I wouldn't be reading the books if I wasn't hoping to find something worthwhile in them.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good story and has some interesting moments, it felt a bit like a filler chapter in the series.

[Kasc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Omen, the second installment of the Fate of the Jedi series continues where its predecessor left off and centrally deals with the strange occurrences surrounding the Jedi on Coruscant. After Valin Horn attracted public attention with his aberrant behavior and consequently ended up incarcerated in carbonite in Outcast, it is now his sister, Jysella, who suffers a similar fate. The nature of whichever ailment has befallen these two siblings and, in all likelihood, also Seth Hellin is still unclear. However, the evidence points towards a relation to Jacen Solo as, at the time of their respective breakdowns, each of the victims displayed a different very specific and extraordinary Force skill that Jacen, too, had mastered. This connection makes it seem plausible that Jacen, sensing his imminent downfall, somehow initiated whatever process is now taking shape prior to his demise.

Jacen’s possible involvement in current events adds both urgency and relevancy to Luke’s ongoing pursuit. Still in exile, he and Ben are attempting to reconstruct Jacen’s solitary journey of Force study prior to his fall to the dark side in order to learn how it came to pass and to then deduce from this knowledge a way to prevent any repetition. Before, their journey had taken them to Dorin, where Luke learned from the Kel Dor but did not exactly come any closer to achieving his core objective. Now they are in pursuit of the mysterious and reclusive Aing-Tii monks, who taught Jacen the ability to flow-walk. Flow-walking is the skill Jysella exhibited prior to her capture and may play an integral part in explaining how exactly Jacen is involved. Hence, the Skywalkers’ trip inside the dangerous Kathol Rift could potentially yield more relevant results than their previous one. Once they find the Aing-Tii and are accepted by them, Luke and Ben learn of their very unique understanding of the Force. Similar to Jacen’s eventual embrace of a grey area of the Force, the Aing-Tii see it as a rainbow rejecting the binary light vs. dark thinking of the Jedi. They also do not have a linear understanding of time which is the basis for their ability to transcend it via flow-walking (side note: the concept of the past, present, and future coexisting without the restraints of a linear progression of time reminded me a lot of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha). While their stay with the Aing-Tii also does not deliver any definite answer to the questions surrounding Jacen, it provides both Skywalkers with important insights and gives them a direct clue as to where to continue their search – in the Maw. Personally, I found the Aing-Tii species a bit off-putting at first as their means of communicating via the use of six separate tongues is weird even by Star Wars standards. Regardless, their teachings are fascinating. However, the almost philosophical musings are not exactly action driven and might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
This time, Luke and Ben’s quest is connected directly to the Jedi Order’s most pressing issues, which makes this novel seem more linear than its predecessor.

On Coruscant the remaining Jedi must deal with the aftermath of Jysella’s breakdown, the growing anti-Jedi sentiment, and heightened press attention. Together for a change, the Solos are in the midst of the turmoil and are all involved in Jaina’s own investigation into the rogue Jedi issue. Meanwhile, Leia has the urge to provide her granddaughter with some positive childhood memories and therefore initiates a family outing to an animal exhibition on Coruscant intending to acquire a pet for Allana. This seems like an odd and somewhat goofy subplot but, as was to be expected, things do not go smoothly for the Solos, and they find themselves dealing with yet another Jedi going mad. It turns out that an exhibition that includes dangerous species from all over the galaxy is not the best place for a Jedi Knight to go haywire and mayhem ensues. Other than the opening fight with Jysella, the chaos at the animal exhibition is the only really gripping action scene in this novel. I liked the extraordinary setting and since the entire Solo family (including little Allana/Amelia) is involved the stakes are high enough to build up suspense. With each new Jedi falling to this mysterious disease of the mind the air grows thinner for the Jedi Order as the public calls for more control and governmental restrictions. The situation is bound to escalate further, and it will be interesting to see which new measures Chief of State Daala will come up with.

Interspersed between the Coruscant and the Aing-Tii plot, Omen features a small side plot that is completely detached from the rest of the novel. It focuses on a secluded Sith community, which has never appeared before and is only mildly interesting. Through flashbacks we learn of one of its most promising apprentices and the community’s preparations for conquering the galaxy after millennia of seclusion. Until a Sith Meditation Sphere (the same one from the Legacy of the Force series) appears on their hideout planet, Kesh, the community is of firm belief that the other Sith have spent the past millennia bringing the galaxy under their control (this seems pretty naïve). Learning that this is not the case comes as a shock but does not weaken their resolve to instate a Sith rule in the galaxy. As of now their actions have been limited to capturing several vessels. On top of that they plan to rid the galaxy of Luke Skywalker once they sense his presence in the Force. The Sith interludes in Omen’s are entirely inconsequential to the rest of the plot and their whole purpose appears to be to set up a villain for the upcoming novels of the series. They are relatively long compared to the other chapters, and therefore often felt like a bit of a drag distracting from the main plot. Honestly, this small Sith community does not seem to be much of a threat considering the insurmountable odds against which the Jedi have prevailed in the past (Yuuzhan Vong, Jacen Solo, …). Let’s see how this plays out.

At under 300 pages, Omen is relatively short for a Star Wars novel making it even more frustrating that it takes a considerable number of pages to get interesting. There is a very long exposition introducing us to the Sith, showing Jysella’s frenzy and capture, and pointing Luke and Ben towards their next destination. None of these aspects are in itself very captivating. I did not care for the random never-before-heard-of Sith. As far as characters go Jysella is more of an afterthought and not one I really care about, so neither her fighting her closest friends – who are just random Jedi that have never appeared before – nor Luke and Ben spending a lot of time discussing her issues is very interesting. Once the pace picks up, the story sometimes feels rushed seemingly omitting details as if to save pages (this makes no sense for such a short book). For instance, there is a long scene in which Jaina and Jag follow an elaborate scheme employing doubles to be able to go on a secret mission. Yet, there is no chapter on the mission itself making me question the point of the long setup. Similarly, one Moff’s point of view on the current state of the Imperial Remnant and his opinion of Jag as the Imperial leader is shown. While it makes sense to include this information, there is no real connection to any of the rest of the plot and the insinuated ongoing by the Moffs is of no consequence for now.

On the whole, Omen leaves the impression of a filler novel, the central purpose of which is to set the path for the rest of the story. While as such it certainly does not work on its own, it is a quick, diverting read nonetheless with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. It does not stand out as particularly weak or strong but conveys a few interesting ideas and has a surprise ending, so my rating is probably closer to 3.5 than 3 stars.

[Nicholas · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrific disappointment from the first book in the series. This book feels like a placeholder in the story. There are minor developments, but other than that, seems like a direct derivation from the previous book by Aaron Allston. Plot-wise, there are almost no new developments beyond the introduction of some shadowy new villains. In that respect, all Golden manages is an introduction too. Other than that, everything pretty much goes on it's humdrum way. More Jedi fall to the mysterious illness that consumed Valin Horn in book one, each one constituting a mini-crisis in the political conflict between Daala and the GA and the Jedi Order and provides a touch of action to an otherwise stale book that reads more like a travel diary than a Star Wars epic.

Making matters worse is the poor editing and poor writing by Golden. Maybe it's a pet peeve, but I really can't stand it when writers use dialogue to recap things for readers. There's a lot of, "Well let's not get ahead of ourselves gang. Remember last week, when __________?" and "Don't forget that two weeks ago this person did this and that's why." These things feel part of the narration or something that should be in an interior monologue. Not dialogue. It just feels clumsy and reveals the author's hand way too much. It makes it harder to immerse yourself in the story and visualize everything.

The other major disappointment, which I dearly hope is rectified by the next book, is the episodic and cyclic nature of the story. Feels like this saga is developing a bad habit where in each new book, a new Jedi goes crazy and causes havoc and Luke and Ben visit yet another world on their journey to find out what happened to Jacen Solo. Reminds me too much of the Smallville freak-of-the-week formula and I will be sorely disappointed if it continues.

Here's hoping to an improvement in the next book. The idea is solid, and so was the set-up. I just hope other authors can execute better than Golden.

[Balkron · Rating 3 out of 5]

1 Star - Horrible book, It was so bad I stopped reading it. I have not read the whole book and wont
2 Star - Bad book, I forced myself to finish it and do NOT recommend. I can't believe I read it once
3 Star - Average book, Was entertaining but nothing special. No plans to ever re-read
4 Star - Good Book, Was a really good book and I would recommend. I am Likely to re-read this book
5 Star - GREAT book, A great story and well written. I can't wait for the next book. I Will Re-Read this one or more times.

Number of times read: 1

The story of the new Jedi Order. This is around 40 years after the battle of the Death Star. I am reading this before I have read most of the books between the battle of the Death Star and when this book starts. This has caused me to not understand all of the references. I feel I should have waited on this.

Characters - The characters classic Star Wars (Luck, Leia, Han, etc) and some new Jedi. The character development was not as detailed as I would have liked but it was adequate.

Story - This is a continuation of Star Wars, if you like Star Wars then this story helps expand the story with a focus on the new Jedi Order.

Overall - This is an average book. Nothing real special, but it is a Star Wars story and I am a Star Wars fan. So this is a have to read along with the other 100+ books.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m only 2 books into the Fate of the Jedi series and I’m already left wondering what the point is.

I already stated in my review of Outcast that things felt stale and rehashed and uncreative. Well that’s seen yet again in Omen. Rather than bring anything fun and new and exciting to Star Wars, Omen, (and now I’m presuming the entire freaking series), just plods along like a cheesy soap opera, repeating the very same themes that fans saw way back during the Old Republic era.

And I’d even forgive that since history reality is, in fact, cyclical, but Omen is just so damn boring. Literally nothing of any importance happens, or at least seems to happen. Luke and Ben travel amongst the stars, complete with teenage angst and rebelliousness between the father and son. More Jedi come down with some kind of false memory syndrome. Public disenchantment with the Jedi is at an all time high. And the Sith are supposed to be rising and coming, but after 2 books and 5,000 years they still can’t get off of Kesh. It’s just all so lame and boring.

Unfortunately, as a fan of this franchise, I’m gonna keep reading these, hoping against hope that something worth my time actually happens.

[Jesse Whitehead · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think only Barbara Hambly is able to write worse (much worse) Star Wars than this. Luke and Ben eat a lot gooey desserts and discuss nothing in great detail then have many grand adventures in a single paragraph that simply says they had many grand adventures. Han and Leia go to a stock show. That's it.

In 233 pages this book is full of nothing. It read like a cliff notes version, only less interesting. Most of the space that is there is full of inanity.

Star Wars has been on a decline since the New Jedi Order ended, maybe Del Rey needs to pass the baton to the next player or maybe there just aren't any more stories to be told in this universe. I don't what it is but these first two books of the Fate of the Jedi series are a new low as far as pointless and boring goes.

I hope it gets better.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this book was good but, as of late, I feel a little cheated on the new SW series. It feels like I got a third of a book here. Right when it feels like you're going to get into the meat of the story you hit page 230 and it is over. I know that it is probably a publishing choice but I'd really rather have one decent length complete novel a year than the two or three nibbles that we've been getting.

[Bryan457 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most books have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Not this one. It just had a middle.
I'm not sure this author actually read the final version of the previous book. I think there was at least one major event from the last book that got reinterpreted in a vastly different way.

That said, it was a pretty decent middle of a story.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this well enough, but in the end, it just kind of stops. I know that it's part 2 of whatever, but really, each part should have a beginning, middle and end. This was more like two weeks in the lives of each character.

[Grave · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not a fan of Golden's voice in this series. I found myself skipping her books throughout this series and relying on wookieepedia to fill in the blanks.

[mike andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good follow up to the opener

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bleh. I don't even know where to start with this thing. Its a twaddling mess for a variety of reasons, and a depressing continuation of a downward trend in quality for the Star Wars EU over the last few entries. Below, I'll try to put my frustrations into words. There are some spoilers below, if such a threadbare plot is capable of being spoiled...

Okay then.

1. Christie Golden apparently had it in her head that she was writing a Young Adult novel for teenage girls. There are a few moments where the maturity level bobs it head above water, but 80% of this work comes across as unnecessarily melodramatic. There is no subtlety to anything that happens, and there is lots and lots and lots of over-reacting and over-emoting and most of the cast are in a constant state of exaspiration. Also, there are no less than FOUR plucky teenage heroinnes whose earnestness and naivete are challenged by the cruelties of the real world. Fortunately, one of them just gets a few pages of face time near the end, and another is carted off to jail by GA soldiers, but the other two, Yaqeel and Vestara, are actually the focus of a significant amount of the book. And to be fair, I honestly can't recall exactly how old all of these girls were, but they were all written to ACT like over-dramatic teenage Disney Channel stars, so that's how I'm remembering them. They should appeal nicely to the Hannah Montana set.

2. The scale of events is made to feel so tiny. Gone are the days when the adventures were high stakes chess games with each player in the struggle (The Galactic Alliance, The Jedi Order, The Imperial Moffs) deftly trying to manipulate and out-maneuver one another on planetary and political scales. Instead, Golden over-simplifies every situation every character is in, so that only the bare minimum number of players are present to move each plot device forward. In the war being waged between Daala and the Jedi, Daala and her aid are the only GA castmembers present for any of her 'plotting', and Kenth Hamner, Cilghal and a few token Jedi are the only one representing their august body in most of their scenes. I think back to how brilliantly Karen Travis and Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole have been able to tell their stories by utilizing the rich tapesty of characters that make up the EU. Golden either doesn't want to, or doesn't know how to, tap into all of that, focusing instead on broad characterizations of a tiny number of characters to get her points across (except for the FOUR teenage girls she created). An analogy: it would be like if you tried to remake "Lean on Me" as a 22 minute episode of "Saved By The Bell". You might get your ideas across, but the production values are inferior and instead of filming the big graduation scene in an actual high school auditorium with a thousand graduates, you film it on the tv soundstage, which only has room for about fifteen extras. That's kind of what big chunks of this book felt like.

3. In case you didn't catch it the first time, things are stated and re-stated over and over and over and over again. I almost started laughing at one point. Probably the incident that gets mentioned the most is the harrowing account of Jysella's freak-out and capture. To begin with, the incident itself doesn't get resolved for over 30 pages. But in case you missed it, or nodded off while reading it the first time, any character who wasn't present has to have the entire scene summarized for them. So we get exciting recounts when Luke is told, and when Daala is told, and when a reporter does a news story, and when some other Jedi pop up, and on an on. The Jysella freak-out was the most glaring overly-repeated summary, but Golden also pads her word count with repetitions of Jaina's distasteful musings about an annoying reporter, the Skywalker's fascination with the Aing Tii's use of the force, and any other 'important' happening that the author felt you might not have picked up on the first time around. Some advice: if you ever have Christie Golden over for tea, keep your dead horses locked up, or she will find them and beat them.

4. Very little happens! Actually, things actually do happen, but nothing of much consequence. At the very least, not enough happens for the second part of a multi-novel series. As stated above, there is a lot of restating of the few things that do happen, but most of this novel is padding. Consider the plot points one at a time:
a)the JEDI/DAALA conflict: Daala tells the media the Jedi are bad. The Jedi respond by telling the media, "No we're not." Repeat seven times. Not only was this repetitive, that was pretty much the same exact thing that happened in THE LAST BOOK! But even "Outcast" threw in the somewhat interesting idea of government supervisors being thrust into the Jedi Temple. But since Aaron Allston cut that plot off at the knees in his book, Golden doesn't even have that to work with.
b)the SKYWALKERS IN EXILE plot: Luke and Ben have now traveled to two worlds in two novels, and their visits basically resulted in them getting a clue as to what world to go to in the next novel. This is not exciting. If anything they did on those worlds had any bearing on the overall plot, then it might be interesting. But twice now, the Skywalkers have shown up, met the locals, learned about their exotic cultures, gotten a clue, then left.
c)the SECRET SITH SOCIETY plot: this is arguably the place where the most progress is made, essentially serving as an introduction to new bad guys with one of the FOUR plucky teenage girls as our point-of-view character. We get to follow her as she is accepted into a sort of evil Sith Hogwarts, and you'll never guess, but [SPOILER:] she's THE CHOSEN ONE!

5.Press conferences! Press conferences are apparently Christie Golden's shorthand answer to the intricate plotting of other, far superior EU authors: why watch all the plans of these master strategists slowly play out in all their epic grandeur, when you can have a press conference and explain your intentions in a fraction of the pages!

6.Christie Golden has a weird sense for what is actually interesting. She spends an oddly inordinate amount of time with her the plucky Sith girl, and reiterating the scene where the plucky Jysella freaks-out, and with press conferences, but one of the most interesting ideas Golden drops into this work is glossed over in a few pages. She does this once, then brings the idea back and glosses over it again! The idea is this: The Aing-Tii monks have an exotic connection to The Force, which had led them to think they must collect artifacts from around the galaxy that are somehow related to 'Those Who Dwell Beyond The Veil'. In exchange for telling them about their dealings with Jacen Solo, Luke agrees to help them gather some of these artifacts, which the Aing-Tii have trouble gathering themselves because to touch the artifacts themselves would defile them. Neat idea.

In my opinion, Luke and Ben journeying to collect one or two or three of these artifacts would have made for a moderatly interesting subplot. Instead, the collection of said artifacts is relegated to a few paragraphs. Basically: "They went on some journeys and found some stuff." Lest you think I'm exaggerating, look at the bottom of page 187 then read to the middle of 188, and what is later described as months of traveling is reduced a few generic paragraphs.

Now Golden gives herself a second chance to tackle this little bit of side-plot when the Skywalkers agree to study all of the artifacts for the Aing-Tii (remember, they can't touch or study them themselves) to help them sort out a prophecy they're having trouble interpreting. Do we get interesting descriptions of any of the artifacts that give cryptic hints to other strange worlds or any clues as to what all of this has to do with Jacen Solo? Not so much. To quote page 214, "The process was hardly a swift one, but it went fairly quickly." The process, as it turns out, is all wrapped up by the end of the day. Keep in mind, the Aing-Tii have spent millenia collecting these artifacts. It is one of the primary functions of their entire species. And what they've amassed over the course of a couple thousand years, the Skywalkers sift through and study in an afternoon. And they're so certain of their thoroughness, they go back to the Aing-Tii big-wigs and announce that they haven't found anything about the mysterious philosophy. Sorry.

That Golden would spend so much of her word count on repetitive scenes and overblown melodrama, and make these the conduit through which to move the plot sluggishly forward, but would pay the barest of lip-service to an idea that could potentially have given meaning and weight to what turned out to be a pointless subplot is beyond forgiveness.

7.Lots of things just don't make sense. Little things that bothered me as a devoted fan of the Star Wars EU:
* The Sith on Kesh are a space-faring people who crash-land on a planet where they are cut off from the rest of their people. And in 5,000 years, even though the entire society seems obsessed with getting off the planet and back into the mix, they can't figure out how to fix their space-ship or build a new one? Hell, once humans on Earth figured out how to build an airplane, it took us less than 100 years to get into space. And the Sith are supposed to be all awesome and evil! What gives?
* There is many a moment where a character makes an odd leap in logic, only to have another character point out how odd a leap in logic that is, only to have the first character justify said leap by saying that they just have a feeling. Then everyone accepts that logic as truth. Example #1: Cilghal posits than Jysella must have been 'flow-walking' when she escaped the Jedi Temple and held off being captured by predicting what her opponents were going to do next. Luke points out that that's what Jedi do: use the Force to feel what's going to happen next. Cilghal's reply: "No, but this was super-special predicting!" Luke's response: "Yes, I see what you mean." Example #2: The Sith plan to attack Luke, whom they feel is the mightiest force for the Light Side in the galaxy! He's so mighty, in fact, the mission leader says she will only take a small strike team. Another Sith points out that if he's so powerful, shouldn't they maybe take more people? The first Sith's reply: "There was something about his presence--I do not think so" (p. 232). The second Sith's response: "Cool."
* I thought Jedi's lightsabers were their weapons of choice and went with them every where they went. Not in this novel. Every time you turn around the Jedi seem to leave them lying around and have little internal debates about whether to take them along on their missions. Like you might consider carrying an umbrella because you heard in might rain. There's actually a scene where Jaina leaves hers behind, but at the last minute picks it up and throws it in her purse!
* Jagged Fel is the worst head of state in the history of states. He spends the entire novel going to dinners with Jaina and having romantic trysts with her. When Jaina asks what he's doing about the scheming Moffs, he basically tells her not to worry, I got it all under control babe. Also, I won't spoil it here, but he makes a decision at the end of the book that makes no rational sense and is not in character at all, and only makes sense in the Disney Channel sense, where cheap melodrama trumps rational thought.
* Golden called Cilghal's hands 'flippers' about five times in the span of 20 pages and it really started to bug me.

Okay this is getting too specific...moving on to my final point:

7.It's too freaking short! The novel clocks in at a whopping 236 pages, and as stated above, most of that is spent on Jysella's freak-out, summarizing Jysella's freak-out, press-conferences, everyone railing against how much they hate the the crack-reporter who keeps following them all around, and Luke and Ben finding their clue to the next novel. And in the end, not much has happened. Part of this is Christie Golden's fault. You almost get the sense that she doesn't know what else to do with these characters. She picked a few characters (the wrong ones, in my opinion) to act as mouth-pieces for each major player to move their schemes forward, and in the broadest of strokes, achieved that objective. She invented two new characters (Jysella isn't really new, but Golden is the first to give her any kind of personality) and gave them lenghty detailed plots and that was half the book. Outside of that, its like she wasn't comfortable exploring anything else.

The other big person to blame, however, is Del Rey publishing, who seem to have made a conscious effort to pull back the scope of the latest books by trying to keep each novel self-contained. This fundamentally ties the hands of any author who might have story ideas that they then can't really play with. The Legacy of the Force storyline caught some flack from some of the fans for their darkness, but each of the nine novels in that arc told one big story with an intricate plot that never let up until the last novel. On top of that, each of the three contributing authors had their own corners of the EU they wanted to expand upon in their three entries, the best example being Karen Travis and her fetish for the Mandelorians. It was nine novels, but it was one big story, and there weren't any superfluous one-and-done adventures thrown in to fill some pages.

The first two chapters of the new Fate of the Jedi arc seems just the opposite. Small stories, anecdotes almost (Han and Leia fight cave spiders on Kessel; Ben and Luke meet mysterious aliens; Han and Leia take Allana to the Stock Show [seriously:]) that seem truncated and over before they started, with an overly repetitive and plodding through-line of the Jedi freak-outs and the media war, which really hasn't seen any new developments over the course of two novels.

I didn't like this novel, but I'm beginning to feel a little depressed about the overall tone and direction of the series itself. I don't think everything has to be dark and depressing and filled with angst, but I'd expect the authors to aim for a more sophisticated audience than teenage girls.

The fact that Troy Denning (author of the atrocious "Invincible") is writing the next installment doensn't give me any hope. As a matter of fact, I think I may stop buying the hardcovers new at all. Up to now, I've always chosen to pick them up on the day of release at full price (well, new, sales price anyway) as a way to show support for the line. But I'm not paying $30 for a book of this low quality and page-count. I'll still read them, but I fear I'll be waiting a few months until I can find them super-cheap at Half Price Books.

Sorry I rambled. I think this review may actually be longer than the novel itself.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great follow up to the first book in the series. I am not normally a fan of long series' with many titles, but this was on par with Aaron Alston's first in the series, which is saying a lot. This was the first book I read by Christie Golden and I enjoyed it immensely. I hope to read many more of her books in the future.

It was exciting to see what happened to the "Lost Tribe of the Sith" first mentioned in the book of the same name by Jason Jackson Miller. I hope the rest of the series remains as well written and interesting as the first two have been.

I only wish this book had been longer.

Synopsis:

In 41 ABY a Sith named Dician, who is only mentioned during the opening chapter (maybe she appears more later in the series) is orbiting the planet Ziost, having followed a "Sith Meditation Sphere" called "Ship". She had the opportunity to destroy the Millennium Falcon, but followed Ship instead. Dician attempts to convince Ship to come with her to the "One Sith" (who are also not mentioned again in the rest of the book), but Ship refuses, believing them to be too weak for choosing to hide from the galaxy.

Ship eventually arrives on Kesh, where a stranded Lost Tribe of the Sith (orginially established in Lost Tribe of the Sith by J. Miller) remain isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Ship takes special interest in Sith Apprentice Tyro Vestara Khai and offers to teach her in the ways of the dark side of the Force. Several days later Vestara is called before the "Circle of Lords", the leadership of the Sith the planet Kesh, as they have had no previous contact with the rest of the galaxy for over 5000 years. She tells the Lords that she and Ship shared their thoughts. The Lords then reveal that they will use Ship to learn more about the Sith, and also use Ship to fly offworld. Vestara is made Sith apprentice to Lady Rhea and will also fly and be trained by Ship. Ship then reveals to the Lords that the Sith do not rule the galaxy and are very few in number. This revelation completely shatters the Lost Tribe's long-held belief that the Sith have ruled the galaxy for thousands of years.

Two years later, in 43.5 ABY, Jysella Horn is still attempting to get over the loss of her brother Valin, who has been encased in carbonite after contracting a mysterious illness (in book 1, Outcast). While in the New Jedi Temple with Jedi Master Cilghal (the medical lead), Jysella is suddenly stricken with the same illness. Now believing that everyone is an imposter, she flees and is pursued by other Jedi. During her escape, Jysella begins to flow-walk (an ability she should not possess, which was also harnessed by the late Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus) and she is able to avoid capture based on what she sees in the future. She escapes the Temple and battles Bazel Warv and Yaqeel Saav'etu, two of her closest friends. However, she is caught by GA security. Chief of State Natasi Daala arrives and announces that Jysella will be encased in carbonite alongside her brother.

Meanwhile, on the Jade Shadow, Luke Skywalker and his son Ben continue their journey to gather information about Jacen Solo's five year sojourn. Cilghal contacts them and informs them about the recent events. Luke is concerned that each Jedi who has contracted the illness has displayed Force powers that they hadn't learned, and furthermore, powers that Jacen had possessed. Luke speculates that Darth Caedus may have flow-walked into the past and planted a kind of "Force bomb" that would trigger the illnesses if he did not succeed in his quest for power during the Second Galactic Civil War. Luke and Ben decide to travel to the Kathol Rift in order to find the Aing-Tii, a xenophobic species with strange time altering Force powers. Jacen was known to have visited these beings, and the Skywalkers suspect that this is where he learned to flow-walk.
Once the Skywalkers reach the Rift, they encounter an Aing-Tii ship. After receiving directions, Luke and Ben arrive at a small moon and find an Aing-Tii craft waiting for them. The lone Aing-Tii presents them with a challenge: to communicate with him via the Force. While using the Force, the Skywalkers are shocked to find that the monk shines in it just as brightly as Luke, but the Aing-Tii's presence differs from any other Force-user that they have felt before. The encounter is too much for Ben, and he is forced to give up. Luke, however, maintains contact for quite some time and passes the test. They learn the Aing-Tii's name is Tadar'Ro. Tadar'Ro gives them the coordinates to the Aing-Tii homeworld.

Arriving at the coordinates, the Skywalkers find it is a rocky and mostly barren world. They are greeted by the Aing-Tii with a mixture of aggression, welcome, and neutral disinterest. Tadar'Ro tells them via an Aing-Tii translation device that the monks' peaceful society is being torn in two. Recently, a prophet who had made many accurate prophecies proclaimed that Those Who Dwell Beyond the Veil (god-like figures in the Aing-Tii religion) would return in his lifetime, then he died. This has led to much controversy, which is tearing apart the Aing-Tii's society. Tadar'Ro agrees to tell the two humans about Jacen's visit, teach Luke the ability to teleport objects using the Force, and teach Ben the ability to flow-walk. In return, the two Skywalkers must collect relics, various sacred artifacts that have a residue of Force power in them and ordained by Those Who Dwell Beyond the Veil to be collected, but the Aing-Tii are culturally forbidden from touching them.

Back on Coruscant at the Livestock Exchange and Exhibition, the Solo family and Jedi Knights Radd Minker and Natua Wan are all attending. Han and Leia also wish to search for a pet for Allana. After viewing the tamer animals Allana decides she wants to see the more ferocious and dangerous creatures. As they enter the exhibit holding the dangerous species, Wan suddenly contracts the same mysterious Force illness that has presented itself in the Horn children and Seff Hellin. The Falleen Jedi flees to the command center of the station and locks all of the doors of the dangerous animal exhibit. She starts to retract the bridges over the cages leading to the doors and opens the animal pens. One spectator is injured and a child is almost eaten by a boar-wolf. He is saved by Leia, who in turn chases Wan, who throws her voice using the Force, another ability of Jacen's. Leia, Jaina, and Radd engage Wan and render her unconscious. Unfortunately for the Jedi, much of what happened was recorded by journalist Javis Tyrr.
Tyrr is also able to sneak a device into the lower areas of the Temple and get a recording of Seff Hellin's imprisonment there. Tyrr broadcasts both of these events on the HoloNet. Daala immediately demands a meeting with the Jedi, where she both humiliates them and tries to detain Hellin and Wan. The Jedi refuse but grant the GA full access to the two Jedi so a cure can be found. In return each of the Jedi who had been in on this plot, namely those involved in Darkmeld, has to be named and interviewed on the HoloNet. The exception is Tahiri Veila who had resigned so Jaina did not give her name in. That night Jaina returns very tired to her quarters and finds Jagged Fel waiting for her. Jag then asks Jaina to marry him, which she happily accepts.

On the Aing-Tii homeworld, the monks are becoming restless and Tadar'Ro decides that even though the Skywalkers are not ready, they must travel to the Embrace, a series of caverns where the relics are stored. The Aing-Tii hope that the two humans will be able to discover an item that would solve the species' problems. After a two day hike the trio arrive at a cave. Inside the Skywalkers find thousands upon thousands of items.
On Kesh, Vestara Khai has flown and learned from Ship, as have many others. The Lost Tribe of the Sith have destroyed various ships and then repaired them. They have now acquired the equivalent of a small fleet. Vestara has been put on the Eternal Crusader under her master Lady Rhea. While hauling back two new ships Rhea feels a great presence in the Force at the same time as Luke touches a relic called the Codex.

Inside the Embrace, Luke is temporarily stunned after the Codex enhanced his powers tremendously. He says afterward that he felt a disturbance in the region of space called the Maw and that he and Ben must travel there. Upon returning to the surface the Skywalkers stand in front of the Aing-Tii crowd and tell them that though they have learned much, none of the relics have said anything that can guide the species. Therefore, the Aing-Tii must decide on their own whether to believe that the prophet was right; to accept the new beliefs that time was pre-ordained or return to the old ways. Though briefly enraged, the Aing-Tii finally accept the advice and step closer to filling in the rift between them. Luke and Ben express gratitude to Tadar'Ro and tell him they were going into the Maw. The monk warns them against it and reveals that Jacen also touched the Codex and felt a disturbance. The Skywalkers are warned of the Mind Drinkers who dwell there. But before the Skywalkers leave the planet, Ben goes to the spot where Jacen was taught to flow-walk. He finds that even though his late cousin was not his dark side self yet, he was inevitably going down that path, and there was nothing that Ben could do to stop it. Though experiencing great emotional pain at having failed to seek closure over his cousin falling to the dark side, Ben rejoins his father as they lift off in the Shadow, not knowing exactly what awaits them in the Maw.

On Kesh the leaders of the Lost Tribe of Sith discuss Luke Skywalker--they had all felt his presence when he touched the Codex and his Force powers were tremendously magnified. Lady Rhea describes her experience and how the Grand Master had felt alone and unprotected. Vestara suddenly cries out, feeling Ship abruptly leave Kesh. The Lords' discussion ends as they decide to track down and recapture Ship rather than dedicate their fleet to stopping Luke.

On Coruscant Allana opens up for the first time after the excitement at the Exhibition. She expresses her wish for a nexu cub that had lost its mother to Leia in the fray.

Tahiri Veila (Darth Caedus' former apprentice who helped stop him at the end of his life) is sitting in her apartment contemplating the events of the past few days when she hears a knock at her door. She opens it to find armed GA officers who declare that she is under arrest for treason and murdering Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon two years earlier.

The book ends abruptly and I cannot wait to read the next one. I only hope it is on par with the first two.