Impressive
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Betrayal is the first novel in the new nine part star wars series called Legacy Of The Force, which is being jointly written by Aaron Allston, Karen Traviss and Troy Denning. Each of which are writing three novels a piece, and it's Allston's job to start the series off and what a job he does!
The legacy series takes place roughly ten years after the end of the yuuzhan vong war and five years after the dark nest crisis. Luke Skywalker has been able to fully unify the jedi order, however planetary interests are threatening the Galactic Alliance and the famous/infamous Corellia is at the heart of it all, which is being led by none other than Thracken Sal-Solo.
However dark forces from the distant past are also manipulating events behind the scenes and in so doing are escalating events. And trust me you are in for a lovely treat when you find out who, but that's enough of that.
Our faveourite heroes return in Betrayal, Luke, Mara, Han, Leia, Wedge, Tycho Celchu aswell as some of our most hated villains however the story really belongs to Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker, Master and Apprentice, they make an excellent team, while Ben is innocent and naive, he is struggling to grow up so as to obtain respect from the "adults" which can be quite funny in some cases, Jacen on the other hand, well let me say first that his arrogance is outstanding, but he still is a very interesting character and his choices in this book will have lasting effects. Allston has not left everything to the old generation though and has introduced several new and very interesting charcters into the star wars universe.
All in all i found this book to be one hell of a rollercoaster ride, the writing is fantasticly well detailed and the characters are all done justice, an excellent start to the new series, let us hope it continues.
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Legacy of the Force off to an amazing start
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Legacy of the Force: Betrayal marks the beginning of a new 9 book series taking place ten years after the 19 book New Jedi Order series and about four years after the Dark Nest Trilogy that bridges the gap between the NJO and LotF. Betrayal in my opinion is a far more satisfying opening to LotF than Vector Prime was for the NJO, this I think hinges on how much I enjoyed the Dark Nest Trilogy and how it set the galactic scene after the Yuuzhan Vong war and how it sorted out a number of key issues so LotF could hit the ground running. This however is not to take anything away from Betrayal itself, this book is excellent in its own right with Aaron Allston crafting a compelling and extremely enjoyable story.
Betrayals plotline is centered around the growing tension between the Corellian system of planets and the Galactic Alliance, with a Jedi Order that is continuing to grow and become an important part in guarding the peace and security of the galaxy. The Corellian system on the surface is simply wanting concessions from the Galactic Alliance but with Thracken Sal-Solo as Corellias(the planet) Chief of State, Centerpoint Station and Sith thrown into the mix things are anything but simple. However this latest galactic incident has a lot of implications for the Skywalker/Solo families as Han solo and Leia gravitate towards the side of the Corellians while the rest of their family are Jedi Knights duty bound to protect the Galactic Alliance. This plot is beautifully handled providing anything but a clear cut conflict as both sides have valid concerns and are being manipulated from behind the scenes by the true enemy. The books highlight is the focus upon Jacen Solo now an active Jedi Knight for the Order and his informal apprentice Ben Skywalker as they get drawn into this conflict which leads to a simply amazing turn of events which I wont dare spoil for anyone.
Aaron Allston provides an exciting adventure full of action and humor that further convinces me that this is going to be a superb series. My only complaints are that I would have liked to have seen more Jedi Masters such as Saba Sebatyne, Kyle Katarn, Cilghal etc and the Jedi Academy on Ossus but those are very minor things. LotF: Betrayal left me like the Dark Nest Trilogy did, desperate to read what comes next.
This the paperback version of Betrayal also has an added bonus of containing two short stories. These two stories are by Karen Traviss and although they do not tie into the Legacy of the Force storyline they are both excellent. They are called "In his image" and "A two-edged sword" and focus upon Darth Vader in the years following Revenge of the Sith.
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Too much for one novel, a weak beginning to a new 9-book series
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Member worlds chafe under heavy taxation, bridle at providing materiel and conscripts, and make noise of open rebellion. The central government blusters, threatening isolation, economic stagnation and military retaliation, but secretly fears secession and the eventual withering away of its power and influence.
So opens Betrayal, the first in a planned nine-book series following the characters of the Star Wars universe 36 years after events in Revenge of the Jedi and 10 years after the events of the Yuzhong Vong invasion, chronicled in the last extended novel cycle, New Jedi Order (19 volumes published 1999-2003).
To prevent the dissolution of the Galactic Alliance, Chief of State Cal Omas and his government devise a plan in which the Jedi will abduct the leadership of the GA's most openly antagonistic member, Corellia, so that the GA might then brow beat Corellia's leaders into quietly paying their taxes and end all talk of independence. It's one of the most ridiculous plans you're likely to encounter in a Star Wars novel. At least the most ridiculous I've read to date. How much more belligerent - short of dropping bombs or shooting people - can you get than kidnapping a government's leaders? It's as if the Germans decided to kidnap the leaders of the French government for threatening to leave the EU. Even more ridiculous, this plan is approved by Luke Skywalker, a guy normally depicted as levelheaded, who prefers talking to fighting (and who later in the book turns down a second snatch plan on the grounds that the GA doesn't want to set a precedent of kidnapping leaders of hostile governments!).
Word of the plan leaks out and the Jedi come up empty handed in their kidnapping caper. To salvage what little he can from the operation, the GA's leading Admiral over Corellia seizes and occupies a small leisure planet within the Corellian system. Now the Corellians are spitting mad and things quickly move from bad to worse.
Along the way, the characters are put into situations where they must make difficult choices. While the story itself is often confusing when it isn't implausible, author Aaron Allston should be given some credit for trying to beef up this hodgepodge of a novel with some thematic muscle. Betrayal is a story about choice and conscience, about weighing consequences and realizing that sometimes the best action is also the most painful.
Han must choose where his allegiance lays, with the GA or his homeworld of Corellia, while Leia, a newly minted Jedi, must choose between her husband, the GA and the order. Ben must choose whether to terminate a computer simulation of his lost cousin Anakin Solo in order to shut down the Corellian's superweapon, Centerpoint Station. In Betrayal's other main plot, Han and Leia's son Jacen must choose to take a life in order to save the lives of many more, and further whether to extend his knowledge of the Force by studying the dark arts of the Sith.
Overall, there's far too much happening in Betrayal for it to be anything but rushed. The first third covers the initial attack on Corellia (including a laughable scene in which 13-year old Ben Skywalker sneaks into and eliminates the threat from Centerpoint Station by tricking the computer, a la James Kirk, into believing that it isn't a real person after all), the middle part the political maneuvering to get the combatants unstuck, including a subplot of political assassination leading into the last third of the book, Jacen's discovery of the Sith (this particular branch having descended from a sentient species of Mynok, a flying rodent and pest of pilots in the SW universe). Anyone of these parts could have been a novel itself, but mashed together here the stories suffer as a result of having to constantly advance the plot so that we can get to the end of the book - and start the next one.
And there's the rub. These extended series involve a number of editors and writers working together to make a coherent and consistent story. It also involves working on a tight deadline to make sure the books are delivered at regular intervals. With so many cooks stirring the pot, with the added pressure of having to write to deadline, its not surprising that we end up with half-baked books.
Still, I'm looking forward to the next one, especially as Karen Travis will be writing a 71 year old Boba Fett who has to work together with his old bounty, Han Solo. Stay tuned.
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Good Stuff
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This book is a bit weird because it seems to take ages to get into the really exciting stuff. But once it does reach that stage you really won't be able to put the thing down.The story has great potential with regards to the Jacen Solo character and some of our old favourites continue to thrill. Yes Luke,Han and Leia are getting on a bit but when I imagine them in this time frame they're still young; these characters are immortal. Overall an excellent start to the series, if you buy it persevere with it at first; you'll be glad you did.
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great start
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i thought this was a great start to the legacy of the force series, i really enjoyed this book, i felt as though i could feel the growing tension between luke and han but the only thing is it was a bit predictable that there was going to be a big fight at the end to finish the book off, but overall i give 5 out of 5 stars for the rest of it.
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