Customer Reviews

Force Heretic III: Reunion (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 17)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Holy cow I am glad this series is over. Almost nothing happend in the entire series. That to me was the most annoying part.

And I personally didn't care for the authors syle of writing. I prefere chapers as opposed to lenthly sections. And I have never been so frustrated in a book as this one. About half way through the book, he (the author) would write a few paragraphs of what is going on with these people get it all good and then jump to a totally different story line with different people. I don't mind that so much if you space it out some, but "blah blah JUMP!, blah JUMP, blah JUMP, bl__ JUMP! I was going nuts. You have to read the first few maby one inbetween and last few pages out of 40 or so to find out what happend to anybody. Heaven forbid you do a entire story about what happend to this person at this time and then go on to another person/story. Very frustrating

Like I said in my title, thank goodness this series is over; worst 3 books in NJO.

If you thought Star Wars couldn't get any worse than Kevin J. Anderson, you were wrong. Majorly, majorly wrong.
Force Heretic III is a book without purpose, plot, or character.
The Solo-Skywalker clan is still split up, with Luke, Mara, and Jacen out in the Unknown Regions, searching for a planet that they believe can end the war with the Yuuzhan Vong- though they have no clue how. Suffice to say that Vergere, the Old Republic Jedi teacher of the irritating and insufferable Jacen, told him about it.
Leia, Han, Jaina, and Jag (along with Twin Suns Squadron) are still on their pointless journey through...comm black-spots? The Force Heretic series is such that by the third book, I'm really not quite sure what any of them are supposed to be doing by now.
Tahiri, the Jeedai-who-was-shaped, is still struggling with her Yuuzhan Vong alter ego, Riina Kwaad. WHY exactly Riina has just now shown up is explained, albeit weakly. Riina/Tahiri's new peace with herself (which occurs after many pointless mental arguments) is over-exaggerated, with the reader being reminded constantly of it throughout the book after it finally occurs. Another point to me that seems confusing is that after her new "mental-melding" Tahir keeps the name, "Tahiri." I find it rather hard to believe that a Yuuzhan Vong like Riina would allow her name to be so easily cast aside in favor of the infidel Jeedai's.
Of course, all of Tahiri's, and Jaina's(who is constantly fainting and being wounded), and Jag's and Leia's and Han's exploits are like the work of Zahn when compared to the Barbara Hambly-like stupidity of Jacen and co. on Zonama Sekot.
Personally, I feel that Zonama Sekot should NOT have taken up three whole book of the series, especially as we still have NO CLUE of what the heck its purpose is (if it has one at all). And the constant praising of Jacen Solo (whom I hate), of how smart he is, and how moral, and Danni throwing herself all over him has not helped one bit. Luke as a Jedi Master is esentially ignored in favor of this hermit-wannabe and Mara is made out to be nothing more than a grumpy red-head lacking the brains to make sense of the "brilliant" plans Jacen comes up with. Which, when you think about it, to NOT be able to figure out Jacen's plans doesn't indicate a lack of a brain so much as the existence of one.
I'm rambling, I know, but this book was so impotently infuriating in its sheer idiocy and pointlessness that I'm really at a loss for sensible words. All in all, a stupid book, one you really don't need to waste your time on, especially if you're a fan of Luke and Mara as I am, since they are so grossly IGNORED in this book. Simply know that Zonama Sekot is found, Leia and company are called back to Mon Cal, and Jag has not yet proposed to Jaina, and move onto the next book in the series, The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes, who, despite the vomit-inducing cover of the book, is a GREAT author. He wrote Ben's birth and Anakin and Tahiri's Yuuzhan Vong exploits, didn't he?

This is the 17th Book in the The New Jedi Order saga, or 19th if you count the 2 e-book only stories. Only two more books to go.
The third and last book in this story by Sean Williams and Shane Dix, is the more entertaining of the three books, but that's not too hard to achieve. And don't get me wrong, there's plenty, I mean, lots of cinematic action around... but most of it makes little sense.

The book continues with the 3 stories of the last two books: the search for the living-planet Zonama Sekot by Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, Jacen Solo, Saba Sebatyne, Tekli, Danni Quee and the group of the Imperial Remnant helping them.

Guess what? They finally found it. I have to repeat my recommendation to read another SW book, not part of the New Jedi Order: "Star Wars: Rogue Planet" by Greg Bear ... It's not very good, but you can understand the importance of Zonama Sekot, the interaction with the Jedi Vergere and Anakin Skywalker role in the history of this planet. If you think this idea of a sentient planet, I'll have to refer you to Marvel Comics, where "Ego, The Living Planet" has been around for some decades. Crazy, I know. I'm sure there must be a prior work in the SciFi literature somewhere.

The best part of this story (and maybe the book) must be the narration of Zonama's flora and fauna. You can get to imagine this wonderful world, full of life and the Force. The problem with this part is all the secondary story, this rebel group in Zonama, and the decisions of Jacen Solo. It's really exasperating. It's almost as if Jacen is returned to his pre-Vergere thinking. And it's not fully explained (or at least satisfactory) the decision Luke makes. Finally, the story ends very weak, you can see Zenoama Sekot endured a lot of problems when it was travelling around the galaxy, but now the Ferroans have some technology which will prevent that of happening again, if there's going to be another "tour". Yeah, right. And then there's this news bulletin Luke gives to his sister in an insecure comm channel, when just some lines before Leia was making that evident to another person. You would think you'd like to be sure there are no information leaks.

Another storyline is the one with Nom Anor and his rebellion among the Shamed Ones, which leads to nowhere. We continue to see Shimrra, and the Yuuzhan Vong finally appeared, but as another reviewer said, the Yuuzhan Vong are being dumbed down, they are not that formidable force we have seen in the first 14 books. And it's not that they have changed for the worst, it's only part of the storyline plan, I guess. There's no way the editor(s) could allow this very different (bad?) representation.

The other storyline is about the party from the Galactic Federation of Free-Alliances formed by Han and Leia Organa Solo, Jaina, Jag Fel, etc. There's a lot of action here, but also, many holes in the story, or not fully explained things, or things handled with a degree of levity. There's one part of the story where you see both warring parts are expecting something to happen in the surface below, and you can't see clearly why one side of it want's so badly to be there. "Don't worry", it's "explained" at the beginning of the epilogue. It doesn't make much sense, really.

Now, this is the book from the three-part "Force Heretic" that I read quicker and maybe I enjoyed most, but it must be beacause I already invested in the previous two books.

This is the weakest books of all the New Jedi Order series, and it's a shame they dedicated three books to it. The last two books must be a great deal better than these last three to leave a good taste to the entire series. I really hope so.

As we wind our way towards the end of the New Jedi order there seem to be few surprises as to how we are going to wrap it up. The end has been well telegraphed, it is only a question of the mechanics.

Just as this trilogy ends, no mystery, no danger, no surprises in this book. It isn't a bad book, but I think the first two were better. The Tahiri solution was obviously coming and well foreshadowed so I'm sure everyone knew it. Zonoma Sekot turned out to be rather, well, dull and Han & Leia win another space battle. I love space battles, I loved the X-Wing series, here though the battles are becoming routine. Like the war torn galaxy and the decimated Vong the series is running out of steam.

The mechanics of the book are fairly well done, the various threads, The Zonoma Sekot search, Nom Anor's heresy, Tahiri's struggle and the Empire/New Republic alliance battling together are woven together well. Perhaps a bit too much jumping between threads at the start but all together fairly well done. Not much character development takes place other than Tahiri, everyone seems to have matured into their final forms as we round the last turn and head into the final straight-away.

If you're a Star Wars fan, pick it up, it isn't bad, it's just "Another New Jedi Order Book" ANJOB.

Well, having forced myself through the atrocities that were the first two books in this trilogy, I had to keep up to date with the storyline for the following New Jedi Order books. This book alone should have been the output for these two authors, as it was the only one worth reading, and was not great to begin with.

First, the Nom Anor storyline basically went nowhere. There is nothing achieved, nothing resolved, and it ends basically where it began. The entire plot should have been omitted from this set of three books. It would have been better to have a single book focused on that, like the Jacen story of Traitor. Not this mish-mash jump-around format.

Second, the Han-Leia-Jaina-Jag-Tahiri plot also went about nowhere. Tahiri has the only growth among them, with the others essentially unchanged from their molds before these two had their go at Star Wars. Again, the writing was very youth-oriented, in my opinion, seeming to rely upon those things that kids would interpret as romantic or symbolic of great love, when in fact they are not. The resolution of the Tahiri story also could have been achieved in about ten pages, instead of taking three books. At least Pellaeon and the Empire do some good. There should be more focus on good characters like him, as there is a great deal of exploration that could be done regarding the Imperial contribution to the war effort.

Third, at least Luke, Mara, Jacen, Saba, et al., managed to accomplish something. They located the Rogue Planet, and there is some action on that planet. You can definitely tell that the same guys wrote these three books, since the conflicts in them are all the same formula: Land on planet, get attacked for no reason by people you do not know, reason with them instead of taking them down, find out they were not responsible for their actions, hug. It is insulting.

And the book's end was so touchy-feely that I was revolted. While I can say that they wrapped everything up, I also have to say that nothing really changed! Thus nothing needed to be packaged at the end! I really hope that the next SW:NJO book is plotted and written better (and edited, too, for while this one was less populated with typoes and grammar errors than the first two, it still had WAY too many for my money -- hire a proofreader, dangit!), else I am done with this shared universe.

This is a very mediocre novel, that finally wraps up the disappointing Force Heretic trilogy of the NJO. If anything, now that it is FINALLY over, I have an additional complaint, this one about the totally misleading name. "Force Heretic" really implied a storyline about Jacen Solo, exploring Vergere's controversial claims about the dark side or expanding his understanding to include the Vong. As it stands, it would appear that the title is probably referring to Nom Anor's herecy - "probably" because this was such a very minor facet of this story, I am still not sure.

Back to this particular book: Like the two before it, it contains mostly filler, no surpises, a very predictable storyline and a large number of errors/misrepresentations/inconsistencies.

There are three storylines:
a) The Luke/Mara/Zonama-Sekot one, the only one of any realrelevence to anything, simply reaches its predictable happy ending. No real twists, no new characters, not even some reasonably heroic actions
b) The Han/Leia/Jaina/Tahiri one is just filler, and badly written filler at that. The battles with the Vong are the worst, making very little sense, violating the laws of both physics and the Star Wars universe, as well as basic military principles.
c) The Nom Anor storyline, which really held the most promise in the begining goes absolutely nowhere.

If you simply read the summary on the back of any of the three books, or the one on Amazon, you will not need to actually read these novels. After more than 1,000 pages, we met no new characters, developed a secondary character (Tahiri) a very little bit and failed to surprise the reader once. Two stars is probably too much for this one.

Shouldn't the line read, the harrowing search for an interesting and exciting plot is finally over but the authors unfortunately failed in their mission. Their creative writing styles abandoned in the cold of space. Left only with their combined attention deficit disorder where they capable of putting enough words down on paper to be considered a book. Incomplete thoughts and jumping from sub plot to subplot while failing to engage the reader this inept writing team continues bore us and take us in circles enticing us with the promise of adventure, strong characters and distant worlds yet we only receive a round trip to nowhere.

I hate to say it but I'm glad this long storyline is coming to an end. Unless something earthshattering and shocking happens in the last two books I wont be sorry to see this series finish. I use to think the opposite especially after reading books 1,2,3,5,9,10,11,12, 13,14, and 16 but this latest entry has really soured my enthusiasm. It started out great the storyline really pulling me in but as it progressed it bogged down into more Jedi sudo-philosophy and other such tiresome nonsense. i thought book 6 and 13 had dealt with all that but as soon as the heroes landed on Sekot all action died down. Yes there was action later on with the battle at the communications outpost but I wasn't holding my breath for any surprises to happen; turned out I was right. I mean, how predictable. Then we got this talking planet of all things. Biotechnology is one thing, a living breathing entire planet is another. This is not Lord of the Rings or some fantasy series. Of course a devoted fan like myself can see how the series will eventually end though like I said before that I hope at the very least there will be a great battle with losses on both sides. Another problem is Jason Solo. I thought he had resolved his personal dilemmas in books 6, 13, and 14. Apparently now he's back to being a pathetic pacifist. By the way, what gives some teen age yahoo Jedi the right to make such momentous decisions? Sorry, its too unbelievable and I hope to the dark side he is snuffed out in the last two books. He is a character i can't stand. Then there is Tahiri; it took 10 books for her little plot to finally come to and end. I mean after all, she got shaped by the Vong in book 7; Give me a break! Is it because she is a female Jedi that we can't kill her off? I would have rather seen her betray the Galactic Alliance then the Vong. Speaking of which the last two books could kill of over half the new characters introduced in this series and I am sure the fans wouldn't mind. In addition this book was just too one sided. The folks who created this excellent series I guess decided to start dumbing the enemy to death so he can easily be killed off by book 19. An overused and well worn out device in the SW books. It would have been best to seriously study the X-Wing series to see how one can cleverly defeat an enemy without dumbing him or her to death. Thus there would not be the need to rely on talking planets and other such malarkey. Finally, what's up with this need to pair off everybody? Must SW books constantly portray that there is only one proper lifestyle to lead? Can't we have a few single Jedi; or even a gay one? People who read these books come from a variety of backgrounds and family situations; lets give other folk some time as well. Maybe that's a bit too radical but I can't help but see a trend in these books. So certainly not one of the best entries but exciting overall. Its SW after all. As a quick revision I rated this trilogy thus,
Book 1, 4 stars, book 2 5 stars and book 3 3 stars. Lets see if my enthusiasm will be restored with book 18, The Final Prophecy. the title sounds good at any rate.

Let me preface this by saying I'm a huge SW fan. I've read all the books, and played the games.

This last Triology, to me, emphasizes all the things that are going wrong with the SW paperbacks. The stories are degrading into a chain of chance encounters, conveniant rendevous, and bumbling badguys.

Worse, the books are getting longer, and the stories they tell are getting more boring, mundane, and pointless. I expected something *SPOILER ALERT* to come out of the whole Zonama Sekot search. Maybe a battle or an explanation of how at least the planet will help the new alliance. No, rather, a whole triology on a boring search with nothing to show for it except, "Hey look, we found the planet, cool." It's like the authors are taking very scant ideas, stretching them out as far as they can go, and then handing them off to the next author or triology to deliver the climax. Problem is, the last 6 or so books in the VV wars have delivered nothing in the way of excitement. This Triology was one of the worst.

It's getting so bad, they could knock off Han, or Leia or (hopefully) Tahiri, and no one, at least not me, would care much.

It's sad when you love a universe for 25 years and it comes to this, not caring what happens to the main characters anymore.

If you want a series where the characters truly get to you, and you tear up when they die, try Weber's Honor Harrington series. In depth character development and written much better than the trivial Star Wars crap that has come out since 2001.

Good points first, since the bad outweigh the good.
1. Nom Anor was the best character in this book, and the previous two, His scheming against his own followers, and the people he once served, is simply brilliant.
2. The return of Droma and Pellaeon was well done.
3. The Zonama Sekot plot did not bore me, or go on to long, like the previous book.
Bad points.
The attempt by the Galatic Alliance to save the relay station was disappointing allaround.
Viewpoints were all from the Alliance's side, what about the Vong's side? Surely the traitor plot should have been covered from its own viewpoint. Plus Leia should have been able to sense the Traitor, even with her lack of training, or make a decent job of trying. And the Vong Commander should have had his own point of view. But what do we get? A few communications between the two fighting leaders, all shown from the alliance's side.
Ground battle scene towards the end - to brief/disappointing.
Space battle scene - despite being covered it was lacking in detail and action like the X-Wing Novels battles - and the NJO series.
1. There were 2 Star Destroyers and a Frigate against seventeen Vong vessels. We got no regular updates on how many vessels were destroyed, and damage taken to the alliance/Vong forces.
2. During the battle not many skips were released - when have the Vong not released many fighters into a major engagement zone?
3. The whole idea of Jag ramming two vessels with bulk from a destoryed Gunship was just a way to avoid a major battle scene.
The writers are not capable of writing major battle scenes.
And the ending was even worse. Surely it should have ended with Nom Anor, the only good thing going for this book. Not Tahiri the demented Jedi - who has got far too much coverage in this series. Hopefully Book 18 will be an improvement over parts 16/17.