Same as the last one....poor plot progression...Solo and Leia are used horribly as side plots...overall story arc is crawling...it seems as if Luke and Ben are going to visit a planet per book trying to figure out what went wrong with Jacen....the audio production is cool though....I may read the over all plot of the next few books and pick it up and listen to the last 2 or 3 just to see how it all ends.... ***SPOILERS***I knew ahead of reading this series that Christie Golden was the weak-link of the three authors but wow! The only elements in this book that make it somewhat tolerable are Luke and Ben’s chemistry and subplot and the introduction of Vestara Khai. Vestara shows great promise but her development is stifled by annoying, bloated subplots that don’t move the narrative forward following the last book, which was actually really good. Luke and Ben’s subplot acts as an extension of their roles in the last book, and even though I enjoy reading about them on their adventure, nothing truly significant happens with them in this book. Their role in this book is important, but it is so unnecessarily bloated, I feel as though it could have been squeezed into the last book. Besides the overall plot of the book, or lack thereof, we have Jagged Fel and Jaina Solo in their own subplot, which is completely unnecessary and easily the weakest of the book. This aspect of the book is where Christie Golden’s bad writing truly shines. I was happy when Jag and Jaina ended up together after her forced love-triangle in the Dark Nest trilogy, however, her relationship with Jag in this book is juvenile and reads like a bad YA novel. What’s unfortunate about this situation is these are fantastic characters with a history of very good development, but Golden has no idea what makes these characters so special in the first place, let alone, how to write them. Golden’s obsession with newscasts in this book is like a feeble attempt to ground this universe into reality. She uses them throughout the book, and although they make some sense given the narrative and happenings of crazed jedi roaming the streets wreaking havoc, they are overly sensationalized, an insult to intelligence and extremely cheesy. One of last segments of the book takes place in an animal exhibit and it’s excruciating how bad the situation develops from a nice trip for Allana with Han and Leia, to a mindfuck of death and destruction caused by a deranged jedi. It’s terribly written, comes out of nowhere and adds very little to the plot. I’m digging the jedi-gone-mad concept in this series. It worked well in the last book, but the way it’s handled here is pathetic. Her only good stamp on this series so far is Vestara, and yet, her creation doesn’t get the treatment it deserves. I personally feel this book would have been better off if Golden made the focus entirely on Vestara. After all, the title of the book is called “Omen,” which is based off of the ancient Sith ship that crash landed on an uncharted planet, marooning hundreds of Sith for 5,000 years. The story itself was wonderfully crafted in the superb “Lost Tribes of the Sith” by James Luceno, arguably my favorite new Star Wars author. So I was excited when I found out that “Omen” would come off the heels of that fantastic story. The ship Omen has absolutely nothing to do with any of the other characters in this book, so yes, this should have been a book on Vestara and her lost tribe, eventually meshing into the other plotlines with future books. Golden has a lot to prove with her next two books in the series. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy Aallston’s and Denning’s books in the series.
What do You think about Omen (2009)?
#2 is just as good as the first. I can't read these books fast enough.
—Emily
A bunch of confusing words and hard words to pernounce.
—bgsuthers
i am really enjoying this series
—xxrawritskimmyxx
