14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Feeling FOTJ Fatigue despite a fair entry, December 20, 2010
Vortex has a lot of action And Denning does know action. He does a commendable job not only juggling all of the various soap opera story-lines in FOTJ but he does so while giving us the feeling that things are really finally moving. Not happy with the Jedi Council lately? Denning remedies that. Thought Ben and Vestara were too cutesy in Allies? He tweaks that relationship too. So there was a feeling of resolution of several ongoing plots. Whether I agree with all of them is debatable.
Abeloth is more confusing and relentless than in Abyss. Why she's after Luke's old flames I don't know but I hope that goes somewhere. I really loved Denning's Luke. I haven't always in the past but Luke is as wise, powerful and understated as we want him to be. Denning creates with Abeloth something pretty un-Star Warsy. It's new. It's a Force driven David Lynch realm. But I mostly approve of the risks Denning takes by making the Force cringeworthy.
I won't call this a page turner as I didn't tear through it. I did however notice that it's more what the fans have been clamoring for in this series. There are definite consequences in Vortex. A fine entry in a fairly thin series.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
star wars vortex, January 20, 2011
Maybe it's just me, but these very long star wars series really seem to be stretching their various plotlines out much too long. I think fate of the jedi has done a better job than legacy of the force at keeping my attention, but it still seems that each book in FOTJ hits long boring parts. It seems many of the star wars plot devices used before are just being continually recycled with slight tweaks. I understand that in order for a disaster to truly affect the great Luke Skywalker it has to be massively universe threatening. But it seems as if the whole universe leans on him a bit much. So I really do think having him step down as grandmaster was a fantastic step in the right direction to limit him calling on other jedi for help. Unfortunately he seems to have no problems solving every issue thrown at him.
That being said, the Luke/Ben storyline in this book was much more interesting for me than the previous book. But I found the Han/Leia sections to be extremely forgettable, including what was supposed to be their big action sequence in this book. And as much as I love star wars, I think the best books do not involve these galaxy spanning political problems. Not because I think politics are boring, but because I don't think any author has been able to introduce a political thread in star wars that can stretch through 6 or 9 books and keep it from becoming stale. I did like the fact that the jedi council finally showed some resolution in the deadlock they have been suffering through.
Overall I can't say this was a bad book, but I certainly didn't find it an overly exciting addition to the series. More of a place holder for a series that probably could have been formatted to fit 6 books allowing for a tighter more streamlined exciting series.
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fate of the Jedi's best, December 1, 2010
Well, first things first. Easily the best Star Wars book I've read in a long, long time. Anything that can almost bring me to tears (a 22-year old college student) I consider good stuff. Two scenes in particular (don't want to spoil it) made the book worth it. They were heavily emotionally written and worked extremely well.
Denning has shown that again he knows Star Wars. I realize that many people are upset about the direction Star Wars has gone, so if you view the book with those tinted-glasses, then you might be disappointed. But I feel that if you read it with an open mind, then you will enjoy it as I did.
One of the big complaints about the recent books is the lack of continuity between authors. I believe this has been fixed a great deal. Whether the authors are learning from mistakes or if the bigger gaps between books has to do with it I don't know, but you can definitely see the difference. Subplots from the previous book (slavery, the trial) are carried over and are written very similarly.
Speaking of the trial, that way of story-telling, along with the news reporting, are two things that help keep Star Wars fresh for me. It's not been done outside this series and I really like the way it is done.
Also, there is a lot that happened in this book. If you've been thinking that this series has just been meandering around without really having a point, then you'll really like this one. Allies was a lot of fighting, but in this one the Jedi actually "do" something after just sitting around for five books. So that definitely is a plus.
Overall, I highly recommend it. The Sith are well done, the Fallanassi are creepy as always, and the Jedi are just awesome.
One more thing: Wynn Dorvan = my new favorite character.
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