Nick Antonoglu

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Nick Antonoglu is currently reading

Traitor: Star Wars Legends (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order Book 13)

by Matthew Woodring Stover

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Reading for the 3rd time

read in January 2025

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Nick Antonoglu said: " 10/10

Stover did it again. The absolute madman wrote another 10/10 Star Wars book. Holy fuck this book was unbelievable.

There is so much to talk about here. For being surprisingly short, Traitor ended up being the densest and most interesting NJO book 10/10

Stover did it again. The absolute madman wrote another 10/10 Star Wars book. Holy fuck this book was unbelievable.

There is so much to talk about here. For being surprisingly short, Traitor ended up being the densest and most interesting NJO book BY FAR. While I have really enjoyed reading other entries in this series like Star by Star and Edge of Victory I, this is the first book in the series that actually felt like it said something. It actually tried to be more than just a Star Wars book, and, in my opinion, completely and totally succeeded.

I’ll start with negatives, since there really is only one I can even think of. I think Stover’s prose, while overall phenomenal, at times can drivel on a bit too long. There are a few moments, particularly at the end of Part II, where Jacen’s mental breakdown was rather redundant in its description. Lots of lofty language that I honestly really liked, but it almost went too overused. Almost.

Okay, now why this book has easily become my favorite in the New Jedi Order series. To start, the worldbuilding and set pieces in this book are all, and I mean every single one, jaw dropping. Stover’s description of the environments aboard the seed ship, Yuuzhantar, the World Brain, the Crater, Embrace of Pain, and everywhere in between are so vivid and surreal. Colors and descriptions are well written and so wonderfully sci-fi that I can’t help but be filled with wonder and excitement. My personal favorite location is the Seedship, with its tiny sun and surreal structuring, and Jacen’s first sight of Yuuzhantar and the Bridge being a close second.

Quick side note, this book can be really fucking strange at times. The climax of this book revolves around the hero seducing and getting a kiss from an eldritch slime god in a red green slime pit at the bottom of the senate chamber. I LOVE how weird this book gets with its story, and it straight up improves previous locations like Yuuzhantar/Coruscant and the Embrace of Pain with Stover’s super gory and weird details. All of the Jacen stuff in Part II with the cavern beast and his mental breakdown in particular reads like a straight up fever dream, which it kind of is, and makes you question the narrator for the first time in the entire series. Let Star Wars be strange!

The characters. Oh my god. Jacen Solo turned from an annoying little kid I couldn’t stand in Balance Point to a supremely interesting and wise Jedi is my favorite character development of the series so far. By the time you reach the end with him and Vergere staring out the window of their ship, it hit me just how insane of a journey this book takes you on with him. The amount of stuff he goes through and learns is so dense and complicated that I feel like I need to reread this book 7000 more times. His ideology change, with the help of Vergere, is so fascinating and profound that I want to go back in and lick the words off the page just so I can understand them more.

Vergere, however, gets the first place award for most improved character. Her Agents of Chaos character was a shadow of her true potential. Vergere here is a character so ambiguous and mysterious that you can’t help but crave her presence while reading. It’s so hard to understand her motives and who she is, that I ate up every hint she dropped like it was water in the desert. Even by the end, I don’t even fully understand what she wants, and Stover implies that maybe that doesn’t even matter anyway. I can’t wait to see more of her, and her relationship with Jacen.

Oh and Ganner! Almost forgot to talk about him. What a way to write out a character! Ganner’s death is honestly perfect, and shockingly so considering he only shows up in the last third of the book. His monologue where he says “None shall pass” is straight up badass as all hell, and his final joyous stand is fucking awesome. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how well he tied in with the story’s message as well, about being who you are.

I don’t even know what else to say. The ideas presented are so complex that I need to go back and reread before I feel comfortable discussing them. All I know is it felt like every chapter I was writing a quote down for later, or I was smacked in the brain with a profound line that would have me put the book down and think for a moment. And this book is ONLY 300 PAGES. That in itself is this books greatest achievement. It has 100x as much as content as Balance Point in almost half the length. Basically, I now think Balance Point is even worse than before.

If this wasn’t book 12 in a 19 book series, I would instantly recommend it. Honestly, though, even if you don’t want to read the whole series and are craving a good Star Wars book, I think this one’s worth a shot (though you should read this series, it’s very good). As long as you know a decent amount of background Star Wars EU lore and read a quick summary of the previous books, I think you can still enjoy this one. Maybe not as much without the background on Coruscant and Jacen and the Yuuzhan Vong, but the story itself is pretty self contained. It stays focused on Jacen and Vergere pretty much the whole time (except the Ganner part at the end) and in my opinion, is the best Star Wars book I have read (well, maybe tied with Stover’s Revenge of the Sith).

Glad that one lived up to the hype and more. From what I understand that now we start on the phase of the NJO people collectively call the good stuff, with only a few hiccups left. I can’t believe how far in the series I’ve come at this point, and after finishing this book, I must say these books are a must read for Star Wars fans. God damn. ...more "

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(page 38 of 322)
— 17 hours, 35 min ago

Jan 08, 2025 12:36PM · see review