Iain Hawkes’s Reviews > Trials of the Jedi > Status Update

I wouldn't say this is "losing me" per se, but a lot of it feels questionable. I like the duel between Porter and Vriess (even if it feels like it's channeling Grievous), but the Battle of Eriadau feels...off. As in, one battle is apparently all it takes now for the Nihil to just collapse? I'll grant that I've read the High Republic books out of order (mostly due to relying on the library for them), but one battle...

Still fine, I guess. Still more interested in the Eriadau stuff than Planet X.

So Marcion's plan is "kill everyone for shits and giggles?" Maybe it's to be expected with a faction called the "Nihil," but Marcion's motives seem bereft of any actual nihilism. Also, the Battle of Eriadau feels like the RCF just stumbling in, and the Nihil stumbling back. Go figure. :(

This is okay, but like many works for me recently, I find myself more invested in some areas of the story (Eriadau) than others (Planet X). Sevran Tarkin feels like another example of the universe getting smaller, but meh, I'll buy it, and the Eriadau sequence is well done in of itself, and Vriess is delightful in her sociopathy. On the other hand, the Nameless are just meh. Force this, Force that, gah!

...but that doesn't mean you have to fall into the cliche of "evil leader kills lacky just to show how evil he is." The excuse that he's not entirely lucid at the moment doesn't mitigate this overmuch.

This picked up a bit. Lina's diplomacy with Marcion is mostly well done. The interior of the 'Gaze Electric' is appropriately eerie. On the other hand, the Eriadau rebellion feels half-arsed. I'll buy for the sake of argument that the people had this planned, but apparently the signal for a planet-wide uprising is...check notes...a bartender shooting Nihil? Sure, okay. Also, I get Marcion's "the bad guy," but...

This is beginning to lose me. Want an exposition scene? Fine. Want to name drop practically every Jedi from the High Republic series as part of said scene? Fine. Do both? That leads to the Dark Side.

Didn't get to read much, but still good, sense of dread in that the Blight is now inside the Jedi Temple, etc.

Good intro, good so far.