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sarkenobi's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
ellie_cripps's review against another edition
2.0
Genuinely one of the oddest books I have read in a long time, felt like it wasted the opportunity to explore the character relationships that existed from the first game in favour of extra characters with no ties to the audience. Messy at best
jenny_librarian's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
I hate having to rate this less than 4 stars. Canon pansexual Merrin should have been enough to give this 4.25 at least. Unfortunately, the writing is… shaky at best.
Maybe it wasn’t edited properly, maybe they ran out of time before publication. Whatever the reason, it’s bad. To the point that I sometimes had to reread a paragraph 2-3 times to understand what was going on. There was also a lot of repetition, sometimes from different characters basically saying the same thing, other times the same character repeating their thoughts from one page to the next. It’s really not that good.
And that’s a shame because this book is for the lesbians! Merrin being described as pan ON PAGE!! Having a very steamy relationship that burns just as quick and bright as her fire! An open discussion about a possible polyamorous relationship! (They don’t say as such explicitly, but it’s one of the few times there is subtext in that book…) It could’ve been great. Should’ve been great 😔
Don’t base your expectations on the cover. The publisher put something that draws the attention, but doesn’t really fits the story. The Fifth Brother takes a lot of room on the cover, but he’s there maybe 20 pages in total? There’s no picture of Fret, but she’s way more important than he is. Also Cal is centred (probably because he’s the main character in the video game) but Merrin is the central character in this story. Of all of them, she’s the one who has the most character development. Dare I even say, the only one who has some serious development…
I’ve read worse in the GFFA, and if it weren’t for the writing this could have been really good. As it stands, I advise you read only if you want some lesbian Nightsister action.
Maybe it wasn’t edited properly, maybe they ran out of time before publication. Whatever the reason, it’s bad. To the point that I sometimes had to reread a paragraph 2-3 times to understand what was going on. There was also a lot of repetition, sometimes from different characters basically saying the same thing, other times the same character repeating their thoughts from one page to the next. It’s really not that good.
And that’s a shame because this book is for the lesbians! Merrin being described as pan ON PAGE!! Having a very steamy relationship that burns just as quick and bright as her fire! An open discussion about a possible polyamorous relationship! (They don’t say as such explicitly, but it’s one of the few times there is subtext in that book…) It could’ve been great. Should’ve been great 😔
Don’t base your expectations on the cover. The publisher put something that draws the attention, but doesn’t really fits the story. The Fifth Brother takes a lot of room on the cover, but he’s there maybe 20 pages in total? There’s no picture of Fret, but she’s way more important than he is. Also Cal is centred (probably because he’s the main character in the video game) but Merrin is the central character in this story. Of all of them, she’s the one who has the most character development. Dare I even say, the only one who has some serious development…
I’ve read worse in the GFFA, and if it weren’t for the writing this could have been really good. As it stands, I advise you read only if you want some lesbian Nightsister action.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
hallowwolf's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
carithlee's review against another edition
Should've read this before playing the game! Afterwards it felt a little too painful.
queenserene's review against another edition
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
benriddiough's review against another edition
3.0
The book is best when focusing on the main crew and their relationships with each other.
Would have liked more BD and Cere.
Would have liked more BD and Cere.
locklyn's review against another edition
3.0
at long last, i finished this book! so. i read lots of bad stuff about this book and honestly, if i hadn't been this obsessed with cal- ahem i mean, the mantis crew, i probably wouldn't have read it at all. but, to my surprise, it did end up better than what i was expecting. (spoilers for the video games jedi fallen order and jedi survivor below, read at your own risk folks).
set two to three years after the events of jedi fallen order, we follow cal and his crew for yet another mission that put them all in danger (what would they be if not in order really), and while the idea of this mission was intriguing at first, i think it was poorly handled. first, the new characters were all interesting and the most frustrating thing was the villain. take a look at the cover. do you see him? his face takes at least 1/3 of the cover. he should have some backstory, some interest, some... thing, right? trilla was a very interesting villain in jfo. dagan was a very interesting villain in js. bode was an ever better villain. the fifth brother? WHAT WAS HE EVEN HERE FOR? he was here for like two scenes and that's it!
now, onto the OTHER frustrating part (but not so much actually but i'll get to that): the whole romance going on between merrin and fret. having merrin be canonically pansexual is very very very good, i'm so happy about it, but it was badly handled, AGAIN. their romance was meaningless, merrin felt out of character the whole time. i'm not even saying this because i'm a huge merrical shipper or anything, because actually this book has a lot of merrical moments. merrin and cal have been crushing on each other ever since jfo, you won't change my mind about this. i think that merrin knew that her being with cal was a no-go from the start because of the whole "no attachment" rule the jedi have to follow so when she saw fret, she thought she could blow off some steam and possibly forget about her relationship to cal. and yet, the book emphasizes many times that there's the mantis crew on one side, then there's cal/merrin. they're a family, but family doesn't use possessive pronouns when they call you (cal describing merrin as "his merrin" and merrin describing cal "her jedi" will be the death of me). they share a deep connection, they're willing to die for each other, literally, they hold hands several times, they hug, they fight as one, so yes, merrical was mean to be from the start. all merrin/fret was able to do was showing us how special cal was to merrin because even fret noticed something was going on between them, even if they never talked about it.
now, onto one thing that i absolutely loved about this book: when playing jedi survivor, i wondered what made the mantis crew split up and how greez had lost his arm. now i had my answers, and it didn't disappoint, it made sense, as painful as it were. i read that several people were not happy with how cal's character was handled in this book but honestly it felt... right?
actually, i have so much left to say about this book, but my thoughts are all muddled rn so i'll stop there, i'll just end my review by saying that despite its flaws, battle scars was an interesting read at least! (and merrical for the win y'all).
i hope we'll get other books with the mantis crew that would take place after jedi survivor, i need so see my stupid family again soon, now that i'm done with both games and the book.... how many years will i have to wait until the third game is announced? and released? *sobs*
set two to three years after the events of jedi fallen order, we follow cal and his crew for yet another mission that put them all in danger (what would they be if not in order really), and while the idea of this mission was intriguing at first, i think it was poorly handled. first, the new characters were all interesting and the most frustrating thing was the villain. take a look at the cover. do you see him? his face takes at least 1/3 of the cover. he should have some backstory, some interest, some... thing, right? trilla was a very interesting villain in jfo. dagan was a very interesting villain in js. bode was an ever better villain. the fifth brother? WHAT WAS HE EVEN HERE FOR? he was here for like two scenes and that's it!
now, onto the OTHER frustrating part (but not so much actually but i'll get to that): the whole romance going on between merrin and fret. having merrin be canonically pansexual is very very very good, i'm so happy about it, but it was badly handled, AGAIN. their romance was meaningless, merrin felt out of character the whole time. i'm not even saying this because i'm a huge merrical shipper or anything, because actually this book has a lot of merrical moments. merrin and cal have been crushing on each other ever since jfo, you won't change my mind about this. i think that merrin knew that her being with cal was a no-go from the start because of the whole "no attachment" rule the jedi have to follow so when she saw fret, she thought she could blow off some steam and possibly forget about her relationship to cal. and yet, the book emphasizes many times that there's the mantis crew on one side, then there's cal/merrin. they're a family, but family doesn't use possessive pronouns when they call you (cal describing merrin as "his merrin" and merrin describing cal "her jedi" will be the death of me). they share a deep connection, they're willing to die for each other, literally, they hold hands several times, they hug, they fight as one, so yes, merrical was mean to be from the start. all merrin/fret was able to do was showing us how special cal was to merrin because even fret noticed something was going on between them, even if they never talked about it.
now, onto one thing that i absolutely loved about this book: when playing jedi survivor, i wondered what made the mantis crew split up and how greez had lost his arm. now i had my answers, and it didn't disappoint, it made sense, as painful as it were. i read that several people were not happy with how cal's character was handled in this book but honestly it felt... right?
actually, i have so much left to say about this book, but my thoughts are all muddled rn so i'll stop there, i'll just end my review by saying that despite its flaws, battle scars was an interesting read at least! (and merrical for the win y'all).
i hope we'll get other books with the mantis crew that would take place after jedi survivor, i need so see my stupid family again soon, now that i'm done with both games and the book.... how many years will i have to wait until the third game is announced? and released? *sobs*
rosesbyanyothernames's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0