Is this what being ADHD means?Han Solo and Droma continue their quest to find his family amidst a billion other plots including, but not limited to: Droma's refugee family, the Yuuzhan Vong politicking with the Hutts, Viqi Shesh being a duplicitous politican (but what politician not with the last name "Solo" or "Organa" isn't?), Leia rubbing elbows with the Hapans, and the Solo boys going to Centerpoint to do absolutely nothing.NOTE: Based on audiobook and novel.I'm sorry if my summary sounds rather caustic. This novel was rather caustic on the mind, and I figured if I can't throw a bit back at my audience, I will likely self-combust. Either that or start tearing into my iPod. And since I don't have the money to replace the iPod, I figured that putting my thoughts out in word form is less expensive. Monetarily.Now that I've finished "Agents of Chaos II", I want to apologize for my review of Agents of Chaos I. When you read both novels back to back, you see that the first is light years better than the second. At least, after reading the first, I didn't want to scour my brain with a Greenie. I almost have no idea where to begin, there is so much that made me want to pull out my hair.Let's start with characters. That's usually a good place to start. Well, if you didn't like the tight focus on Han and his predicament, you are in luck. Luceno decided to drag up every character from the last 10 years of Star Wars EU and throw him in the pages. Oh, AND give that person a point of view. I thought this book was supposed to focus more on Han and his healing, but apparently, I lost that memo. While some of the characters were interesting to see again (Ebrim and Marcha), others made me bang my head on my desk (Oh, great, in this expansive, DEVASTATING war, Roa's STILL ALIVE). In fact, I think I DID bang my head on my desk. That would explain the ripping headache I have right now.Instead, we focus on some random planet with Leia attempting to herd the refugees off. This was the first time I realized it, but does anyone else think it odd that there has only been one real victory for the Yuuzhan Vong--the one at Ithor? Every other "victory" has been alluded to (as in "Oh noes, the Yuuzhan Vong are advancing!") or offscreen. If this is supposed to be the part of the story arc where the Yuuzhan Vong are conquering, shouldn't more of the books end with, oh, I don't know, maybe some planets being CONQUERED? You know, a few losses for the New Republic? But, no, Vector Prime ends with Helska kerblooey, Ruin ends with victory, Agents of Chaos I ends with Elan dead, and Agents of Chaos II is still victory (sorry to somewhat spoil). Onslaught is the only book with a modicum of victory for this foreboding "conquerors".But I am getting off topic. Characters. Han is decent, Leia returns with more snap this time (though, spoiler again, they are still not back together by the end of this novel), but all the other characters are EPIC FAIL. Droma fails to impress, and the only thing I like about him is how he is dumped off at the end of the novel (frak, another spoiler, sorry). Jacen and Anakin resort to bickering like children: "Don't touch that!" "I want to!" "MOM!!" Viqi Shesh, as stated above, slips more into Dirty PoliticanTM. And no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find Luke and Mara for the life of me.Storywise, there are some good threads. Hutts siding with the Yuuzhan Vong? Yuppers, that's good (reminiscent of the prequels too!). Wurth Skidder getting some time to expand his character? Yeah, I could get behind that. Centerpoint station coming into play? Definitely. Someone on the inside leaking secrets to the Yuuzhan Vong? Oh, yeah. All of these plus more? FRAK NO! OMG, what happened? Did Luceno have ADD? Did he hear complaints about the Han focus of the previous novel and decide to drastically change the second? I'd MUCH prefer the former to this scatter-shot mess. Remove the stupid plotline with the refugees (which was 100% padding), move some of the plots for further novels and expand the remaining ones, and you'd have a fair novel...If there wasn't this stupid commentary about Anakin, somehow the only person who can use Centerpoint corrently, using the frakking weapon. Yeah, he's not supposed to use it, so someone else can and kill thousands of friendlies. Where is the logic in that? Someone needs to bash in Jacen's head for convincing his brother from using it. At least someone was smart in using it (and I LOVE how the news praises the one who does!!).If there wasn't some dumb lines about planets of billions being unable to hold a measly 10,000 refugees. Sure, maybe that's a lot for a country, like the United States, or a state, like Louisiana but THINK BIG. This is a galaxy, not a planet or a country.If Leia didn't get upset about Wurth acting like he could save the galaxy single-heartedly, when she acted that way when she was younger and fighting the Empire.If Luceno didn't write strange sentences like "Death pursued the shuttle to the edge of space". In fact, much of Luceno's writing smarts of overwriting, from thesaurus showoff ("Lookie! I found this word 'rictus'!") to over-describing to transcribing space battles funny (never would I ever consider a space battle "pretty" as people are DYING).If everyone didn't meet up in the EXACT SAME SYSTEM withOUT coordinating their efforts.If Luceno didn't feel the need to show off his knowledge of the EU world. "Let's throw in some of 'Courtship', some early NJO, and some 'Corellian Trilogy'!"If the book wasn't called "Jedi Eclipse" even though the Jedi BARELY REGISTER in the book.I think I've worn myself out. If you've managed to get through that, you deserve brownie points.I can definitely say, of the first five NJO books, this is the worst. There is too much going on with too little focus on any one thing. An editor should probably have gone through, crossed out a few plot lines. If he or she had, I know we'd have had a much better story. And you wouldn't have had to read through this review.
First of all, let me say "Woah head, stop spinning." After I finished this book, I needed a few moments to reorient myself and figure out what the hell I had just read. Sadly, this wasn't an outburst of appreciation for the book, but rather near-head-exploding confusion. (I possibly should have also read this more slowly.) It was a difficult read without having to go back and reread certain sections. I won't list the entire plot here, but as a quick summary: The New Republic organizations (Defense Force, Senate, etc.) are hatching a plan to trick the Yuuzhan Vong into attacking the supposedly undefended Corellia so that the Republic can use the reactivated Centerpoint station to wipe a good chunk of them out. However, the Yuuzhan Vong are planning to trick the New Republic into thinking that they're going to attack Corellia so that they can attack another, similarly undefended planet. Otherwise, the "main" characters (for how could anyone in this novel be a main character with this many plots going on at once) are doing pretty much what they were doing in the last novel: Leia's attemping to enlist the Hapan Consortium into the fight while dealing with the awkwardness of revisiting Isolder, the leader of the Consortium and old flame of Leia's (and whose name kept making me think of Lord of the Rings), and finding places to relocate the billions of refugees; Han is helping new companion Droma find his clanmates who have become refugees themselves due to the Yuuzhan Vong , while getting caught up in a droid rebellion on a refugee camp planet and consequently running into the Yuuzhan Vong in his own way; Luke and the other Jedi are acting under the radar, gathering information about the Yuuzhan Vong's next target; Jacen and Anakin are outbound to Centerpoint to reactivate it while arguing again about the Jedi's place in war; Wurth Skidder gets himself captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and tries to free his fellow captives; and we also get about two or three chapters' worth of Droma's clanmates experiencing the crowded refugee camps.In some ways, I like the global feel: this invasion is the worst event the New Republic has ever experienced as a whole up to this point, and the entire galaxy is at stake. So it creates a lot of tension and excitement when EVERYONE'S survival is at stake. I also commend Luceno for keeping track of it all.However, I think that, while this massive split of attention creates an exciting, elaborate web of clashing events and characters, it also diminishes the focus on the characters. I don't think that were very many characters who I felt developed throughout the course of this novel. Yes, it's a galactic war novel and there should be a lot going on, but I enjoy novels primarily for the characters and their journeys. Of course, much of what I said in the review about the first Agents of Chaos remains true. Luceno still paints glaringly bright pictures of the space battles (even though there are very few to speak of in this one). And again, little character development.Overall, not a terrible novel: Luceno does a decent job (at best) with what he's given. But it leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. I can't say that he's one of my favorite Star Wars authors so far.
What do You think about Jedi Eclipse (Agents Of Chaos, #2) (2000)?
***SPOILERS***This book was a pretty good read, except for the staggering stupidity of Anakin and Jacen not wanting to use the Centerpoint weapon offensively. Okay, millions of people will die fighting an enemy with no redeeming values - or you could obliterate them. Pretty easy choice. So then their evil uncle takes the shot, and because Anakin didn't do it, he ends up killing a bunch of allies. I haven't read this far yet, but it's easy to see how Jacen's stupid passivity and moral dilemmas eventually turn him to the dark side.
—Ryan Herbert
With the New Jedi Order series being one that comprises about 20 books, I guess I can't be too surprised when I hit a slump or two. Jedi Eclipse wraps up the Agents of Chaos story, and while I liked it better than Hero's Trial, I can't say I really enjoyed these two books. Many of the subplots were too dry, and the one involving the Ryn felt more like a gimmick than something actually meant to draw you in. At times I really felt like I had to force myself to finish the novel.I would have given up and never looked back if I didn't know better stories are in store for me in this series.
—Mogsy (MMOGC)
I liked this book more than the previous book(4)in the series. It had more action and surprise elements than the previous book, and like the previous book the main focus is on Han and he's new buddy Droma. Something that fascinated me was the Droma's species the Ryn. They are a nomadic Gypsy like species that travel through the stars. Much like Gypsies they are mostly unwanted where ever they go, and they have to rely on their skills as singing, dancing and fortunetelling to put food on their table. I also found that some of their behavior and customs are much like the Gypsies. Droma is much like Han in many ways. Sometimes it seems that they even think alike. Now what happened to that mystical Fosh, Vergere. I assume I'll see more of her in the rest of the series. I would like to see more focus on the Jedi in the rest of the series. After all it's called "The New Jedi Order".
—Nima Foladi
