Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse | |||||||||
Troy Denning | |||||||||
Lucas Books, Del Rey, 477 pages | |||||||||
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A review by David Maddox
Luke manages to expose the hiding Sith infiltrators in the government and makes an ill-planned raid on
the occupied Jedi temple. Quite a number of lightsaber battles ensue. Han and Leia continue to try and
protect Jacen Solo's daughter (their granddaughter) Allana from the Sith, and of course, there's Abeloth.
This evil and disturbingly described creature has been tormenting our heroes from the start of the series
and she finally has her origins revealed in this book. In a nice tie-in to the animated Clone Wars
episode "Overlords," Abeloth's history with the eons-ancient Father, Son, and Daughter that Anakin and Obi-Wan
once encountered is brought to light.
Lost Tribe of the Sith member Vestara Khai finally shows her true Sith colors, betraying Jedi through the
story in her own self-serving way. Ben Skywalker, still in love with her, refuses to believe it till the
very end, a disappointing twist as the redemption storyline, much like that of Mara Jade, is far more
entertaining in a Star Wars setting than a betrayal tale. But, hopefully, she's being set up for a
salvation down the line.
Troy Denning, after penning the third and sixth installments of the series, attempts to pen a grand
showdown, wrap up and big finale for this final tome in the series. And he more or less accomplishes
this. The side-stories and through lines of all the other FotJ novels are decently wrapped up and he
manages to give relatively satisfying conclusion to most of them.
The sad part is that while it does have a powerful Good versus Evil battle near the end, it still finishes
on a whimper of sorts. After all is said and done, nothing is truly settled. The Jedi are still suffering
from the bad press on Coruscant and are forced to leave the planet, the Lost Tribe of the Sith is still at
large in the galaxy, their home world still hidden, Daala is back in the Imperial Remnant, and Luke is
incredibly weak and sick from his battle with Abeloth. Vestara Khai is back out in the galaxy with the
mysterious Sith training vessel Ship possibly plotting revenge.
The wedding of Jagged Fel and Jaina Solo is a touching moment, and harkens back to A New Hope's medal
ceremony, but does little to give a happy resolve to all the pain that our heroes have suffered. True,
most likely this is all in place for the next series of novels slated for the future, but with each
successive Expanded Universe story arc, our heroes seem to end up a little worse off than they were
before. It might be nice to have an honest WIN at the end of things for a change.
Overall, Apocalypse does well to keep the Star Wars Expanded Universe in turmoil for
upcoming adventures. The new breed of Sith, unencumbered by Darth Bane's Rule of Two, present a new,
on-going threat, and Abeloth seems to be slated to return at some point, as well. Fate of the Jedi
had a nice run, introducing new characters and restructuring the political set-up of the SW Universe. A
few questions were answered and a few new mysteries hinted at. We'll have to see where it goes from here…
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