STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI - APOCALYPSE
By Troy Denning
Published in the UK by CENTURY PUBLISHING
Reviewed by Scott Weller
Reaching a zenith of fast paced action in
its final section, it’s a shame that the much anticipated concluding book of
the nine-part FATE OF THE JEDI series, APOCALYPSE, by popular author Troy
Denning, doesn’t totally succeed in giving the once promising book
series-originally designed by LUCAS BOOKS to re-invigorate the STAR WARS saga
in printed form-the ultimately satisfying climax that it deserves, and especially
after what has proved to be a very long, and often downright frustrating, four-year
publishing duration.
Containing an imbalanced mix of over and
underwritten material, with middle books that, in my opinion, contained lots of
padding and many out of character characterizations, plus some downright poor
underuse of some of our Classic STAR WARS heroes within occasionally wacky
ideas and set pieces, Denning, part of the series triad with Aaron Allston and
Christie Golden, works hard in rounding things off, trying to keep both the
series epic sweep and its story momentum intact, with some good, if not totally
perfect, plot strands utilizing our old and new Jedi heroes, and a now legion
of supporting players, alongside some well described, worthy adventuring, and
consequence facing, as the final battle against the Sith and the Abeloth continues
across the besieged Coruscant-now the second time the once glistening world had
been infiltrated/ attacked since the epic Palpatine kidnap of EPISODE III.
Most of the books previously dangling questions
are given answers of sort’s -though some of those relating to the nature of the
Force made me a little uneasy, clashing with my perceived view of it from
seeing the movies. The conception and existence of the book series-spanning
Abeloth creature also wasn’t quite what I expected, either, but not being
officially cannon in my eyes anyway I’ll overall accept what the writer/s
ultimately did with it/her. Die-hard fans hoping for game-changing deaths galore
after the online rumour mill started up a while back are going to be very disappointed,
though, and it won’t be spoiling things to say that the book has a happy
ending. C’mon, this is still a fairy-tale universe, after all! Our band of
heroes (and anti-heroes) have been moved and counter moved around the chess
board block but they’re now in stationery positions until they can be
manipulated all over again for the surely inevitable follow-up.
Now more than ever, though, I think that
LUCAS BOOKS has to think very carefully about their future multi-part book
plans, and I certainly think the entire range in general is in danger of going very
stale- it’s definitely reached a point where it needs fresher and more
innovative blood (and I think they should spread out their wings beyond core
American talent, too). Would it also be harmful to move the saga away from the
Sith and all the current, and very heavy, continuity baggage bogging it down,
so as to find new and more diverse and epic villains beyond the frontiers of
the New Republic? Thinking outside of the box has been the core motto of George
Lucas for years-how about consulting with the Father Creator on ideas for the
future literary destinies of the characters he originally, and lovingly,
created? After all, he still has a whole wad of notes for the aborted Episodes
Six to Nine that could surely be mined…
Overall, though, and despite such festering
criticisms, I can’t totally dismiss the FATE OF THE JEDI series as a wasted
opportunity- the ambition was there to try and make a big creative mark after
the prior success of THE NEW JEDI ORDER and LEGACY OF THE FORCE series, with some
new concepts, character off-shoots and big ideas- but something wasn’t quite
pulled off in its ultimate translation, in a way that made it more of a
footnote to the previous series rather than a fresh and innovative new step
towards the future…
STAR WARS AFICIONADO RATING: Not quite a
shockwave ending to the saga, then. Rather a large ripple, instead. 7 out of 10
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