Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Dark Tide I: Onslaught

i dont know where to begin. i love star wars and the previous book vector prime, was a gripping book with a MAJOR character death
this could be a spoiler but i think its common knowledge by now who it is.
but this was the blandest follow up they could have written. maybe it would have been exciting if i had read it way back on release but now know the outcomes it was boring. also all the stories i have heard over the years about the “unstoppable ” yuzhan vong seems greatly exagerated as right now they seem like stock alien invaders despite the major events in the previous book. i didnt think any book could bore me more than the crystal star did (which on rereading was better than i remembered) or planet of twilight(which was worse than i remembered) anyway on to the book.
we get one scene of han solo still moping over chewbacca’s death then we dont see him again the remainder of the book.
theres almost no action this book. we get a very boring story of luke and jacen investigating the vong presence on belkadan
where jacen gets a vision of him self as a hero saving some prisoners only to get him self in trouble to have luke end up rescuing him.
while anakin solo and mara jade spend time on dantooine in an attempt to help mara fight her illness and to help anakin learn to not abuse the force as much. jaina spends time with rogue squadron. eventually all three story lines culminate at dantooine for a battle against the vong and even that is blandly written. leia luke and the others end up protecting colonists we dont know and don’t really care about. in the end nothing really happens. i recommend this for hardcore star wars completists but even then its bland read. i wanted to give it 2 stars but i dont hate it i DO like the book but its just a very bland read.

In “Onslaught,” the Yuuzhan Vong are coming, but leaders of the New Republic refuse to acknowledge the danger. Luke, Leia, Mara and the Solo children all go to the Outer Rim, searching for clues to convince the council.

Luke is finally shaping up to be the coolest Jedi Master in the galaxy. His performance in the New Republic Era had me worried. Here, he is just the right balance of wise Jedi Master. He can use the Force but isn’t invincible, doesn’t get crippled in the first few pages, is burdened by events in his life but isn’t overwhelmingly depressed. He’s sad, yes, but who wouldn’t be?

The Solo children are shining brightly. I can see that they are set to take larger roles in the future.

Han is completely missing from the picture, still mourning his friend’s death.

Corran Horn is back. He’s more mature now, not so full of himself. I find him more likeable.

Mara is as sick as ever. I find it hard to believe she can go from barely walking to fighting off Yuuzhan Vong, but there you have it.

Some things need improvement. There is plenty of action, described in more detail than I care to know; and although there is an attempt to give the characters some emotional depth, I felt that was lacking. Rather than letting us experience their pain, Michael Stackpole tells us how they’re feeling, or the characters come right out and say it. It falls a little flat. I really want to feel their anguish . . . really, I do.

Still, the storyline is interesting. Cracks are beginning to appear in the enemy’s defenses. We can only hope our heroes can unravel their weakness in time.

I have to say that I enjoyed the first book in the New Jedi Order series, plot holes and all, but either Salvatore dropped the ball or Stackpole did. The inclusion of “blackhole shields” on the coral skippers is a significant change from Vector Prime. It’s one I could forgive but this book has a couple other problems. For the most part Stackpole’s writing style is not bad but I was left with the feeling that he was nervous writing this story. His attention, over-attention I should say, to minute details of the seating arrangement of an office early in the book sharply contrasts with his lack of detail in several spots where it could have been useful and appreciated. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer to just get the broad strokes of a scene and fill in the rest myself, much as Timothy Zahn usually let’s the reader do but Zahn always makes sure we know the important details Stackpole seems to have tried but dropped the ball a few times while being overzealous in others where it obviously wasn’t necessary. The third and biggest gripe I have about this book is the complete, not counting the tacked on Epilogue, lack of anything from a Yuuzhan Vong perspective. Savlatore introduced us to a, at least in my mind, very interesting species while, besides what we see from the New Republic character’s perspective, Stackpole hides them from us. Really? I’d love to know the thinking there. Besides this major oversight what we do see of the Vong seems to directly go against, in some instances not all, what we learned of them from Vector Prime. We don’t even know if the Vong have a base in the galaxy beyond the facory planets. Is there a new War Coordinator? No clue.

I do not recommend skipping this book because it is part of the series but I am disappointed and was worried when I saw that neither this nor Dark Tide II were ever publish in hardcover. Just be aware that although the story is acceptable Stackpole’s version of the Vong does not mesh with Salvatore’s and in my humble opinion tarnishes what was a decent, definitely not perfect but enjoyable, beginning to this series. I’m hoping better for Dark Tide II and looking forward to moving on to the next author in this series.

Oh and for those wondering, yes this is a bit darker than Vector Prime.

A considerable improvement from the first njo novel. I enjoyed this book immensely and found myself finishing chapters faster than the previous book. I thought the writing was more interesting and gripping,although some of the dialogue between characters was odd (Mara and Luke) that I felt was a bit off for one character in particular but maybe it’s because I’ve only started the njo books and haven’t seen them develop as characters (not at all bad just odd).

There was a lot of characters like Anakin and Corran being instant favourite characters so far besides Luke(for me this is the first time I’ve seen Corran in a book). Speaking of Luke, I really liked the way he was handled in this book, how he took from the force had a impact on him every time he did something badass was understandable and made sense. Loved the rogue squadron being a central part of the story, although I have to say I miss my boy Wedge.

Thoroughly enjoyed and a light read at 292 pages!

Reading this series of books for a second time and forgot how good they are so much better than the disappointment of the sequels and the new cannon books.