Rating: 
Summary: a good read
Review: Onslaught is both a good read and an easy one. It is entertaining, and engaging. I was impressed with Stackpole's mastery of the Star Wars universe. Much to my surprise, however, Han Solo is not in the book hardly at all. Maybe two pages. And Stackpole showcased Corran Horn a little more than I would have liked. If you like star wars, and my guess is you do, then this is a very worthwhile read. You'll walk away wanting to know what happens next... which is exactly how you should feel after a Star Wars tale.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Star Wars Book
Review: Dark Tide I: Onslaught was pretty good for a Star Wars book. It was certainly fast paced, with lots of cool action and neat surprises, but in some respects it was kind of dissapointing. For one, it is extremely short (Star Trek length). Also, a common problem with Stackpole is that the dialogue sounds too contrived, too "speechy" and not real enough. The military action and humor were all great though. Another gripe I have -- The New Jedi Order was supposed to be this big, dark event for Star Wars, and Stackpole himself has said that Dark Tide would be very dark and bloody and have lots of death and destruction and havoc, but it really didn't. The good guys keep winning, and things don't seem to bad for them yet. As always, Stackpole's ability to thread multiple plotlines together has worked very well, possibly, maybe a little too well, but that can't really be avoided. The characterization of the new main characters was great, although IMHO there wasn't enough of Danni or the Vong. A very promising continuation of the beginning of NJO, I just wish it had been more of a dark cliffhanger than resolving the main story yet again.
Rating: 
Summary: He's baaaaack! The new Star Wars Master Returns in Style.
Review: I started this book yesterday, and much to the detriment of my studies, I finished it today. This is one of the greatest Star Wars books ever published. That may seem to be a large bit of overstatement when viewed with the Zahn books and such, but I assure you it is not. It picks up a little bit after Vector Prime let off, with the Vong seemingly gone, and the New Republic leaders not caring about the phantom threat. They are more concerned with their own power base than what may be a species invading the galaxy. The outer rim soon learns the folly of that course of action. Leia leads an effort to find out the truth behind the invaders, all the while trying to defend the citizens from the incompetence of their rulers and the ruthless Vong, and ruthless they are. There are a lot of battles here, and plenty of Jedi Vs. Evil Warrior bearing snake duals too. The action is great, but one of my favorite parts was the charater development of the kids. Anakin trys to come to grips with what he sees as his faliure to save Chewbacca, while Jaina looks at seperating here identity from that of her mother. Jacen seeks to find for himself what the force is, and his pontential in it. It is really quite facinating to see the growth of the people, as they head towards becoming adults. The one thing I could have done without is all the refrences like "Mara looks so strong, and yet she is dying, how does she do that?" It gets kind of annoying. That is only a minor gripe, you may not even notice it if you read the novel slower than I. This is a great book, I really recommend it to those who enjoy Stackpoles writing and the expanded univerese in general. And as a parting shot, I have to add... Dantooine, they are on Dantooine ;-) 5/5.
Rating:
Summary: This is going to be good
Review: Stackpole is the prince of Star Wars, so his should be a hell of alot better then the other New Jedi Order book
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Stackpole fan...
Review: I've said it before and I'll say it again: Stackpole thinks that Corran Horn is the best thing to happen to Star Wars since lightsabers. His new rules for Corellian Jedi (that they're bad with telekinesis, can dispel energy/pain, are amazing with mental imagery) get annoying because he just seems to be going with this fantasy for all it's worth simply because it's "cool." Mr. Stackpole really does just need to get over Corran. But Corran aside, the general plot was good, but it was more characterization issues that got at me. Danni Quee got annoying (again, Stackpole stepping in with his "cool" visions of the Force, this time with someone learning it for the first time). Han Solo was absent entirely from this book except for a few pages in the beginning where he shows up drunk and depressed. He also made Luke seem very weak throughout the book by making the Force drain him of energy when he uses it. We've seen Luke's amazing talents using the Force before, and he was never as exhausted as Stackpole portrays him. The interactions between Luke and Mara Jade are also lacking. They constantly call each other, "My love," which annoyed me immensely. I simply cannot see Mara saying something like this. She also calls Luke, "husband," which caused the same feelings for me. Mara also loses her ship, the Jade Saber (sorry for those of you who haven't read the book), and there is absolutely nothing written about her sorrow over this. In Timothy Zahn's Hand of Thrawn duology, Mara also loses a ship (Jade's Fire) which she was very attached to, as it was really the first thing she had that belonged to her. Zahn showed that she was very sad about it, but Stackpole dismisses the matter almost immediately. Mara doesn't say a word about the loss of Jade Saber. She was just as attached to it as Jade's Fire (which we know from reading Vector Prime), but she has no regret or sorrow over losing it at all. Stackpole also left the Yuuzhan Vong out of the story. Vector Prime was an excellent book, and one of the reasons why is because R.A. Salvatore did the exact opposite. Every other chapter had a passage told from a bad guy's (Yomin Carr, Nom Anor, Prefect Da'Gara) point of view, and Stackpole didn't do this once. The Yuuzhan Vong's POV was something that made Vector Prime very enjoyable to read and could keep things like irony going. The complete lack of this made Onslaught seem a bit boring. In my opinion, Michael A. Stackpole really should just leave Star Wars alone.
Rating:
Summary: Great Star Wars tale continued...
Review: I am now officially addicted to the New Jedi Order. The story is carried forward in this edition minus Han Solo. For the sake of those yet to read Vector Prime, I will not comment on his whereabouts although you probably already know.
The similarities with the X-Wing series is apparent here, with most of the intense action sequences taking place in flight. Good stuff. All in all, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Big star wars fan, but: not my style...
Review: What can I say ? I'm a big Star Wars fan: I've seen the movies a zillion times, read most of the book, own quite a lot of them... But these New jedi Order Books ? I really don't like them. I've bought 4, but read only 2.
It's probably just me, 'cause most of them are bestsellers and when I look at the reviews, most people like them a lot...
What I don't like about the books (well, the two I've read). I realise that they needed a new threath to keep the stories going, when the Empire was completely distroyed, and I know it took the Rebels also a really long time te defeat the Empire and that it looked quite undoable in the beginning... Maybe I'm just a romantic, but I like books with happy endings... Main characters that are dying (ok, it was getting a little unbelieveble that they all lived through so much battles), a hopeless situation for who knows how many books ? That's just not the kind of book I like to read...
I realise that most star wars fans won't agree with me, well, it's a free country and you can't argue about taste, as they say...
Rating:
Summary: Onslaught to Ruin
Review: Stackpole will forever be one of my favorite authors, not just Star Wars. I liked this book a lot. Corran and Gavin were right on in this book. I still wish that Danni Quee would have died. Stackpole makes her less annoying. The Solo children were done well. I do think Luke was a little stiff in the beginning. This book did great foreshadowing of Jacen and what will happen to him later down the line. My hope is one day Stackpole writes a Star Wars novel again.
Rating:
Summary: The Yuuzhan Vong Tide Just Keeps Rolling
Review: Dark Tide I: Onslaught, is the second book in the New Jedi Order series of Star Wars books. While Vector Prime was almost a non-stop action-fest, Stackpole chooses to examine the characters a little more closely. It's a good choice because Stackpole does such a wonderful job of it. Both books are good, just different. It's a good sign for the series, too, as too much of the same thing would get boring really fast. This novel is packed full and it's only 290 pages, yet it doesn't really feel like it's too much. Stackpole does a good job of juggling various storylines, though it does get easier when most of them come together. It does help that this is mostly a character novel, though, as he's able to get into the heads of the various characters and discover what makes them tick and how they all react to this new threat. One way he's able to jam so much into this is because he completely ignores the Vong side of things until the very last chapter, which leads into the next book. In Vector Prime, a large part of the story was told from the Vong point of view, as we learned more about their culture and society. This time, though, we only see the Vong through the eyes of the main characters. This is actually quite effective, as it turns them into an almost unstoppable force that we don't understand, the "dark tide" of the title. The various investigations that the main characters are on provide them with insights to the Vong, and we follow along for the ride. The Vong seem unusually cruel in this one, seemingly creating pain for pain's sake in their prisoners, torturing slaves when they become useless. Since Stackpole wrote the next book as well, though, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he will explain some of these changes in the Vong. Some of it could boil down to differences in individual Vong, but some of the differences seem almost institutional, and I'd like to know why we didn't see any evidence of it in the first book. The final chapter, told from the Vong point of view, gives me hope that this will happen. There are too many characters in this book to detail how Stackpole does on all of them, but a couple of them stand out. Jaina Solo, Leia's daughter, is an apprentice Jedi Knight but she's also a great pilot. She's trying very hard to get out from Leia's shadow, to be something different than she was. Jaina also is torn because while she thinks that Leia is not fulfilling her full potential by using the Force that runs through her, Jaina is happy that it gives her something that Leia doesn't have. She starts learning that you have to be yourself and to do things not because it's something that her mother hasn't done, but because it's something that would be good for Jaina. When she gets a chance to be part of Rogue Squadron, she jumps at it and feels more alive then when she is being a Jedi. It's interesting to see her growth and I look forward to seeing more of it. The other standout characters is Corran Horn and Ganar. Corran has his beliefs constantly challenged by Ganar as they try to rescue the university students. The interplay between the two is intriguing Stackpole does a good job of showing that it's not just their philosophies that conflict, but their personalities as well. Ganar is arrogant, thinking that because he is powerful in the Force, he's better than anybody else. Corran knows that the Force carries a philosophy behind it that must be embraces as much as the power is. Both characters get to show off their stuff when they discover that the Vong do have a presence on this world and the students are in danger. I like how Stackpole, while occasionally showing Ganar in a bad light, actually has him do some smart things and actually puts Corran in his debt. It makes for interesting, three-dimensional characters that I like to read about. I think Stackpole does a wonderful job with the plot as well. It's not as full of coincidences as Vector Prime was, with only one major one I can think of. It's very tight, with no major holes that I could see. The juggling of stories could have gotten annoying, but Stackpole makes all of the characters interesting enough that you don't mind switching from one story to another. Sometimes the characters speak in annoying "teacher-speak," where the dialogue seems intended to instill a lesson in both another character and the reader, but this didn't annoy me too much. I just rolled my eyes and moved on. I've noticed that this is something that Stackpole does in all of his books, so maybe I've just gotten used to it. While there aren't any major action set-pieces besides the ending, that doesn't mean that there is none. Stackpole gives a nice balance between character philosophy and action, with one never seeming to overshadow the other. He also explains things well enough that you don't need to have read the first book (I hadn't the first time I read this one) to know what is going on. One slight concern I have, with the number of different authors writing for this series, is that certain characters may only appear in books written by their creators. Corran Horn and Gavin Darklighter weren't in the first book, and they appear in Stackpole's. I'm hoping that they don't disappear once different authors take up the story. It's too early to say it's a problem, but it's a concern that I hope will be alleviated with further books. With two hits to start off the series, I'm really looking forward to more of The New Jedi Order. This is just getting good. David Roy
Rating:
Summary: Unfreakinbelieveable
Review: This book was amazing. I love how he continued the new jedi story. This guy is one amazing story teller. After reading this book I was left thinking "wow" It was cool Big Truck
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