Customer Reviews

Star Wars: Dark Nest III: The Swarm War (Star Wars (Random House Paperback))

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was on the fence regarding the whole of the "Dark Nest" trilogy. While I share Han's attitudes towards bugs (terrestrial and otherwise), I kept an open mind throughout. If Denning's trilogy was as much a depature from the status quo as it seemed--well, I endured all nineteen of the NJO series, so what harm is there in a Killik-centric trilogy?
Seeing as how this was both an epilogue to events left unfinished in Denning's novels "Star by Star" and "Tatooine Ghost" (not to mention Luke learning the circumstances surrounding his mother and father during the rise of Darth Vader), the trilogy worked well enough.
As for "The Swarm War," Denning manages to bring the oft-mentioned Myrkr mission/disaster to an emotional close; indeed, that Raynar was able to call the survivors to his side shows that the boy will undoubtedly play a potentially significant role in the upcoming "Legacy of the Force" saga. Yet this hook, with the whole Joiner subplot, really wasn't as great as I was hoping. The conclusion, that final showdown between Luke and Lomi Plo (honestly, doubt as a weapon is a grand idea. But not in the hands of an incompetent Nightsister with insectile prostheses) was a disappointment, as was the confrontation between Jacen and Luke. While the Solo child may never receive his comeuppance, it was disheartening to see that Luke could be so dissuaded by his nephew. Indeed, it seems that Jacen has somehow managed to turn Luke's doubt into a tool towards Jacen's own ends; this is one of those little threads that left me wondering what was next. Mind you, I liked that not everything was resolved, and that's what will bring me to press on.
Now, as for the Jaina/Zekk Joiner/Love interest subplot...it needed to die in "Swarm War." It didn't appear to provide any substance to the overall saga save for hitting home for the Alliance what being a Joiner meant. It was that I found hardest to tolerate; despite the three years that had passed since the recapture of Coruscant, Jaina seems to have forgotten what the war cost her emotionally.
But, we do see more of the Jedi turmoil--I'm curious to see where the Grand Master honorific will lead, not to mention the ultimatum issued by Luke in regards to the establishment of the Order. And we've apparently a resolution between the Galactic Alliance vis-a-vis Chief Omas and the Jedi.
Perhaps most gratifying was the return of Admiral Pellaeon as Supreme Commander of Alliance forces and his devotion to the Jedi.
If there is a Jedi Civil War on the horizon, this book was a good setup. If there's nothing more than another alien threat or new Dark Jedi on the rise (we've all heard the rumors of Lady Lumiya (sic?) from the X-Wing comic series making a return), than this might very well be the last time we'll see our heroes at their fighting best.

Still, this book has what one expects from Denning: clear-cut prose, a fast pace, and on-spot characterization that makes one confident that the rich characters of the Star Wars universe are in the hands of a fine author who is, as we know, capable of delivering much more.

I enjoyed the trilogy but the final chapter was my least favorite. The shake ups in the Jedi order are a great way to begin but Jaina'd been a hot character through out the first two books and just kind of faded into the back ground in the finale. Old favorites seem to come to the rescue and big things seem to be in store for Jacen but I just didn't feel the climax of this novel as much as I did the previous two. Overall an enjoyable read though. I've enjoyed everything I've read by Denning and this was no different. I do recommend the trilogy to anyone that is a fan of the NJO books.

I've observed that "Amazon-ian" Star Wars fans seem to find helpful reviews for SW books that have two qualities: a positive rating/review, and a lot of content detail. Unfortunately, this has neither, but I will take my chances for the sake of completeness (which ironically should appeal to fans), b/c I reviewed the first two books in this series.

If you didn't start this series, and you have other SW books you are considering starting now instead, READ THOSE FIRST. If this trilogy had stayed as good as its opener, it would have been great. Unfortunately, it lost ground significantly with each subsequent title.

One of the best things about the first book was the in-depth treatment of the effect of the insectoid collective mind on the minds' of "joiners", illustrated through some of the not-quite-so-young-anymore "young Jedi knights". By the third novel, Denning has completely left this out.

While it is true that I've been annoyed before at the "extra" information authors include in sequels so that they could potentially be read as stand-alones, based on this experience, I have to say I find that preferable. Worse than leaving out the interesting work on the insect-collective-mind is the loss of material on the political and strategic state of affairs and some of how we got there. For many voracious readers, we will read several other books between any two SW books in a series, and the reminders are helpful.

The dialogue in this book is terrible, especially that of OT characters, who are treated with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. And not only is the dialogue bad, but the plot is less exciting, the style is flat... in fact everything about this book says "I'm only writing this b/c I'm under contract."

Some SW fans seem to be satisfied if you just throw in a few well-loved characters, some action with lightsabers or their favorite space vehicles, and fill in the gaps. Personally, I want more. This was a disappointing end to a trilogy with a promising beginning.

I may be a bit biased in this, but plotwise this entire series was about the same caliber as the notorious "Starship Troopers". Bug-stories are often like that and this one was no different. Further, the trio of Dark Jedi from the Myrkr mission during the Vong War were better kept dead as they had nothing interesting to offer to the SW EU. After a whole trilogy, I realized that they still don't =P. By the end of the first book, I had lost all sympathy for the main characters (the Kilik sympathetic band of Jedi) and cannot for the life of me figure out their motivations in light of their established personalities upto this point in the EU. In other words, Denning has written about well-established characters such as Jaina and Tahiri and even Jag Fel (who gets an insultingly short mention) as if they were fresh new characters that he can mold any way he wants to. I did NOT appreciate the meaningless and unnecessary loss of continuity in the characters because of this. Luckily, Aaron Allston rectifies this gross oversight in the first of the Legacy of the Force series where the characters "come back to normal" =P. Pity. I really like "Tatooine Ghost". Perhaps, Denning's next book will be more to his standards than this entire trilogy was :(

This trilogy is very much a classic character centred adventure and it has one of the best portrayals of the Star Wars novel staples (Luke, Mara, Leia and Han) that i've read in a long time. The dialogue is not simply copied from the films and modified to fit a new situation, it felt very natural and in keeping with the characters. It really felt as if there are going to be real consequences to the characters interactions in this book and it was great to see. I felt this firm grasp of the long standing heroes of the Star Wars universe was crucial in pulling the plot together for the conclusion in The Swarm War.

This is of course a Star Wars book so of course it has the customary intense space battles, lightsaber duels and force pondering and these are all handled well as they are throughout the entire series. However it is the clever way the characters and plot are depicted which is why this will remain one of my favorite series, how the events in this book and the entire trilogy can be interpreted in ways that vary greatly from person to person. This trilogy does not force you to think one particular way about the way the situations were handled by the characters. It was refreshing to not be coerced into accepting the interpretation the author has decided upon and to be left to draw my own conclusions based upon my reading of the story.

The story was of interest to me for a number of reason but one in particular stood out in The Swarm Warn, it was the Jedi and whether their duty was to their consciences or to the state and again this was handled in a way that did not come across as telling you that the right decision had been made, although I thought it was. The Swarm War really caps off the NJO time period nicely. Particularly in the way the issues with the Jedi and the government work together and how the jedi view the force, and while in my opinion The Unifying Force wrapped up the NJO book series nicely, it is The Swarm War that brings a satisfying end to the NJO era.

On a negactive note the showdown between Luke and Lomi Plo initially underwhelmed me a great deal but upon reflection The Swarm War never presented itself as depicting a titanic galaxy spanning conflict and the finale isn't too bad at all, although i wish it had been longer because it was good seeing Luke kick butt. Then of course there is the way Jaina and Zekk were left without much resolution at the end of the book which was disappointing to say the least, however with the events of the story ending how they did i think it is quite safe to assume that they will return to normal(ish) relatively soon. These were the two main minus points for The Swarm War but these weren't enough to spoil what i thought to be a good conclusion to theses books

One personal point that made this book even better was that we get to see Jedi actually trying to distance themselves from the conflict (on the most part) to try and bring about peace since in both the Yuuzhan Vong NJO books and the Clone Wars novels, comics and cartoons we have seen the Jedi being soldiers fighting for a certain group. This trilogy really sparked my imagination, it was good to see these characters pushed out of their comfort zones and the next books just can't come soon enough for this reader.

The essence of this book was just that:the old way of experiencing the Force versus the new way. In short, the Old Jedi order's way, and Vergere's way. as Luke says sometime in the book, "that is vergere's way of using the force. I don't need power, i need STRENGTH, and that comes from MY way of using the Force". It's as simple as that. Does Vergere's way provide a moral compass to young Jedi who need it? Think about it...
Also, we see, for the very first time, a forceful(no pun intended) side to Luke. He establishes his leadership. As usual though, this raises questions as to who'll follow.
Leia proves her Jedi skills, showing herself worthy of her Barabel Master.
Luke does learn a thing or two from Jacen, embracing his fears much in the way Jacen and the Vong embrace pain. This would be in connection to Anakin Skywalker and Padme, whose whole history is revealed to Luke at last. I won't spoil that for you though!
As for who in the family is going to fall to the Dark Side in Betrayal, the stage seems set...some people seem awfully admiring of Anakin Skywalker.
This is a great launch for the "Legacy of the Force" series... REad the books to find out.
All in all, a totally and long-awaited Luke-centric book!

This series has to be the worst since The Jedi Academy Trilogy. Totally destroyed Jainas character. She is the Sword of the Jedi and Denning turns her into a punk joiner. Come on, wheres the continuity in that. Plus, a trilogy about bugs.Boring!!! Especially after something as ambitious as the NJO story arc. Lomi Plo and Raynar Thul should have stayed dead. hopefully LOTF will be better.

In Star Wars Dark Nest III: The Swarm War we have the dramatic conclusion to the Dark Nest trilogy where the Killik Crisis and the split in the Jedi Order are dealt with. Both of these situations had been left on a cliffhanger from The Unseen Queen and both in my opinion are nicely resolved in The Swarm War, even though some things are left deliberately open as to lead into the Legacy of the Force series. However this was not detrimental to my enjoyment of the book or the trilogy overall.

The return of Luke Skywalker to the Jedi Order after being out of contact during The Unseen Queen sees him deal with how the half Jedi/half Galactic Alliance Advisory Council had been used by Cal Omas to drive a wedge in the Order. Lukes actions result in him taking sole leadership of the Order for the duration of the Killik crisis and after its conclusion there is the prospect of an all Jedi Council with a lot more authority over the Order to be seen in future books, unlike the less formal Masters' Councils seen earlier in the Trilogy. The resolution of the Killik Crisis is a satisfying plan that calls for great acts of courage from all in the Jedi Order and in the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances military.

The Swarm War as with the first two entries of the trilogy has very good depictions of both the major characters and the smaller bit parts. The action is of a high level of quality with some excellent confrontations for Luke, Leia, Han and Co. to endure and there were also some very funny moments scattered throughout the book. Particularly the parts involving Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne. There were also as with the first two installments a number of instances when events from Revenge of the Sith are revealed to the Skywalker/Solos and as has been the case before these are woven into the Killik storyline and in my opinion do not come across as forced. I found The Swarm War and the Dark Nest trilogy in general to be an excellent adventure in the post Yuuzhan Vong War galaxy showing the Jedi regain some of their much needed moral framework to compliment and temper the greater understanding of the force gained in the NJO series, aswell as wetting my appetite tremendously for the Legacy of the Force series starting in 2006. Highly recommended.

Brought back some interest to the series for me. Had humor, action. Some things were not explained to the extent they needed.

The heroes the Star War galaxy pull togther and try to stop a war in the unknown regions from spiralling into the fragile Galactic Alliance. All in all The Swarm War is a great read, especially the way that the characters interact. They seemed to be written in a much more dramatic and well thought out manner. Plus it was good to see the Jedi sort out their differences after the squabbling in The Unseen Queen.