A review by peregrineace
Allies by Christie Golden
2.0
I'm very conflicted about the Star Wars (SW) Expanded Universe (EU) these days. The books are being published faster than I can keep up, especially if I want to read any non-SW material. And what I'm reading I haven't been terribly impressed with. SW used to be escapist fantasy and it's felt like Lucasfilm's publishing branch can't get a hold on what type of story to tell in the last decade or so. (Yikes, did I just say decade?!?)
So a couple years ago, I quit reading the SW EU. And then I missed it and picked up Timothy Zahn's Choices of One, which was good, and decided to at least try finishing the Fate of the Jedi series, which I had dropped out of mid-story.
Allies does not encourage me to continue, despite now being 5/9ths through the series. I'm not entirely sure this is Golden's fault. We spend the first part recapping and the last three chapters setting up the next book. These are likely required of the author. There was some advancement of the story in between but no character growth at all (that, I'll lay at the author's feet). The Tahiri story has the potential to be nuanced and the Jedi vs. Daala storyline is at least interesting, although Daala's descent into totalitarianism mirroring Jacen's earlier fall is old, old news.
This books suffers from the same flaws that made me quit originally. All the multi-author series writing has led to no secondary character development (witness each and every scene with Kenth Hamner, in which he is weary and conflicted! While Corran Horn rages irrationally about the situation but does nothing!), short and shallow battle scenes (), plot events from nowhere (), and spending the end of every book setting up cliffhangers to make you buy the next installment, instead of wrapping up the current story (Will Luke & Ben survive continuing with the Sith? Will Tahiri survive her trial? etc. Tune in next week!).
Bottom line, I don't expect the SW EU to be high literature. But I do like an escapist novel with some character development, decent fight/conflict scenes, and that I can actually escape into instead of seeing the flaws everywhere. This is not that novel and I'm not sure if I'll be continuing with the series.
So a couple years ago, I quit reading the SW EU. And then I missed it and picked up Timothy Zahn's Choices of One, which was good, and decided to at least try finishing the Fate of the Jedi series, which I had dropped out of mid-story.
Allies does not encourage me to continue, despite now being 5/9ths through the series. I'm not entirely sure this is Golden's fault. We spend the first part recapping and the last three chapters setting up the next book. These are likely required of the author. There was some advancement of the story in between but no character growth at all (that, I'll lay at the author's feet). The Tahiri story has the potential to be nuanced and the Jedi vs. Daala storyline is at least interesting, although Daala's descent into totalitarianism mirroring Jacen's earlier fall is old, old news.
This books suffers from the same flaws that made me quit originally. All the multi-author series writing has led to no secondary character development (witness each and every scene with Kenth Hamner, in which he is weary and conflicted! While Corran Horn rages irrationally about the situation but does nothing!), short and shallow battle scenes (
Spoiler
Luke battles Abeloth from Ben's point of view, where he is more shocked by Vestara's inevitable and known betrayal than absorbed by the two-front battle his father (all-too-briefly) fightsSpoiler
Jaina fights Ship because...?Spoiler
What happened to Buwa'tu (alive but unconscious for a dramatically necessary length of time, I'll bet)?Bottom line, I don't expect the SW EU to be high literature. But I do like an escapist novel with some character development, decent fight/conflict scenes, and that I can actually escape into instead of seeing the flaws everywhere. This is not that novel and I'm not sure if I'll be continuing with the series.