'Dark Journey' discussion

[Singin Hobo]

Please do not discuss any titles that take place chronologically later than this one. We’ll get to them all soon enough, so there’s no reason to spoil it for anyone else (most notably... me :tease2:.)

Clearly (as a few of you have pointed out) this book took me awhile to trudge through.

The fact that I was expecting a certain action and that action NEVER TOOK PLACE is what killed this book for me. We knew from Star by Star that Jacen was missing and were all set for a big rescue... maybe a siege similar to the attack on the worldship like we saw in SBS... but then Jacen, *ahem* "died." :rolleyes: and the story came to a dead halt (which isn't that big of a deal considering that it wasn't moving particularly fast to begin with).

Concerning Jacen's death... I'm not buying it for half a second. Even without Leia saying that he's still alive it's clear by the way that it's written that he's not dead. Star Wars books, I suppose, are subject to the same rules as comic books: If there's no body, he's still out there somewhere.
I don't need you to confirm or deny this fact (for those of you who have already read past this point) because I know without a doubt that it's true.

I liked Kyp in this book... although, Cunningham completely ignored all past character traits that he's displayed and completely changed who he is... so I guess what I like is this mysterious character that Cunningham pulled out of her butt. This isn't Kyp Durron, but some perversion of him. He's not this wise, he's not this cool-headed... he's supposed to be an idiot and a jerk.

I hate the idea of Jaina being his apprentice.

And while we're talking about things I hate (see: this book) could we have been more bored by Hapan politics and by all the regality and dressing-up and the flirting and crap?

And Anakin's funeral sucked... it wasn't nearly as moving as Chewbacca's service was and it really should have been.

Something I did like about it, though, was the trickery of Jaina... it was a great puzzle put together and kept me interested towards the end. I don't think it was elaborated on enough, too much focus on other sorts of junk... but what we did have of it was interesting.

[Shadowtraveler]

Yeah, don't worry too much about this book. They make up for it in Enemy Lines and Traitor.

[Singin Hobo]

I have no intention of not continuing with the series... this one just sucked.

[VaTer320]

i didnt think it sucked, but i did think it was near the bottom of the ranking. I read it pretty fast, but that's because I was in the hospital for my grandpa before he died, so i needed something to keep myself occupied away from the thoughts of death.

I think Kyp's character was supposed to be a little different. forgive me if i'm wrong, it's been a few months, but in the beggining when his entire squadron bi the dust over Coruscant, didn't he change his philosophy or something of the sort? I think that bit moved him if i remember.

Also besides changing Kyp's character, and repositioning everything after SBS, the whole story accomplished nothing. Khalee Lah was the crappiest villian in the entire NJO, and thank the pizza I'm about to eat, that he died in DJ. However Harrar was a bit interesting because we get to see little thoughts of heresy in his head...

But perhaps the biggest failing of this book is the fact that Jaina see's the error of her ways by the end. Can you imagine how amazing it would be to have the Jedi fighting not only the Vong, but Dark Jaina? They really missed out on a potential plot arc. Even if she was dark for only 3 books or so, or even just one more, it could of had so much more meaning. Instead it was a hissy fit about the unfairness of life.

Also I forgot to mention that Jaina's darkest acts, were cut from the book! The two chapters that include some of her more evil deeds were cut from the novel and were included as a short story for Insider or Gamer i'm not sure which. That said I wont be rushing to get a back issue, because frankly the way the story turned out, doesnt compell me to look further into it.

And yes Anakins funeral sucked more than a drunken prostitute.


Thankfully Aaron Allston and Matthew Stover come into to clean up the mess before Destiny's Way.

Dj score 6.75/10

First time I read it I would have given it a 7.5, but looking back, it was bottom of the barrel compared to the rest of the NJO.

[Shadowtraveler]

I have no intention of not continuing with the series... this one just sucked.I didn't say that. You're entitled to your own sucky opinion.

But yeah, this wasn't that great a book. Definately New Republic Era-grade quality.

[coheed]

Not a wholly fantastic book, but it had some brighter spots. Ta'a Chuume's chats with Jaina were vaguely reminiscent of Palpatine and Anakin, but in the end nothng came about as a result so it was kind of a waste of time.

No way in heck Jacen is dead.

When Kyp and Jaina fought near the end, I was really hoping she would kill him. But even if she would have, it would have been pretty lackluster because, well, this author probably wouldn't have done the thing well enough for any of us to care.

Blah. Not exactly a heart-stirring story in any way. Looking forward to Enemy Lines and moving on.

[Sirithe]

Is there anything big I need to read in this book to understand the rest of the NJO, it sounds like it sucks and I don't really want to read it...

[Singin Hobo]

Jaina poses as the Vong trickster goddess and she becomes increasingly "dark" and by "dark" I mean she doesn't do anything as cool as attacking Vergere with Force lightning.

You really have to be paying attention to a lot of stuff, none of which, somehow, is neither dialect OR action in order to catch on to the fact that she is going dark side... I actually didn't know it until later books when it talks about it. That, apparently, was the big climax of the book and it wasn't clear to me at all.

It's also important to know that all the Skywalkers and Solos (Jedi) "feel" Jacen's death... which is done in such an unconvincing way that you couldn't possibly believe it, especially after the power of Anakin's death in SbS.

[Sirithe]

Thank you, off to get the Rebel Dream books.