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Summary: A Jordan Hawk Review of: Dark Tide I-Onslaught
Review: Let me start about by saying this: I loved Vector Prime and thoroughly recommend it. Well onto Onslaught. After I finished VP I found myself wishing there was about eighty more pages. Instead, I got 292 pages of sheer brilliance and mastery of the dazzling universe that is Star Wars. Michael Stackpole is a veteran at battles among the stars. He is the other of the Rogue Squadron series and I, Jedi, and bring back many of his own characters in this perfect followup. This story delves farther into the Yuuzhan Vong and their strange way of life. Classic Stackpole heros are brought back full blast including Corran Horn, his wife, Mirrax, and Elegos A'Kla. The beauty of Stackpole using his own creations is that he can murder them all off should he want to. The Solo kids are great in this novel and finally there's some Jedi. I mean it is call The New JEDI order. This book is a great read and should be bought should the oppurtunity rise.
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Summary: Another winner in the NJO series.
Review: Another winner in the NJO series. A direct sequel to Vector Prime, in this one the Yuuzhan Vong, the alien invaders from another galaxy are spreading out and consolidating their grip on the Rim, with presumably the Core coming up next. The whole book is major battle after major battle, with essentially a galaxy wide war being declared at the end. If you think about it, a major war is what has really been missing from the Star Wars universe. The Rebellion against the Emperor could hardly be considered a war. This war is going to be fun (surely billions will die in battle.)
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Summary: Just not the same
Review: I must admit that after finishing vision of the future I felt that for me, the star wars experience was ending but I was willing to give the NJO a chance. I stayed away from Vector Prime for no other reason other than reading some of the reviews, which ruined the story for me. So I decided to give dark tide a chance. I must say that the story isn't that bad considering that Stackpole wrote it but to me it didn't feel the same. Chewie dead? No Han? The yoyo von? ok ok Yuzzhan vong. I realize that things change but for me it isn't the same, the feel is gone. I probably won't waste any money on the NJO, so long live the original star wars trilogy and Tim Zahn for rekindling the excitement of star wars for a short time
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Summary: Heck, i cant believe this book
Review: SO AWFUL. I couldnt believe how much this book upset me. After the first book from the NJO series, i had my hopes up for the second one. This one just plain did not live up to its title of Star Wars. I am very upset. If i could give it a zero, i would.
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Summary: Overall a Good Book
Review: I find myself in an odd situation. I'm a very big Stackpole fan and this is Part I of his last hurrah in the world of Star Wars novels. At the same time, I am by no means a fan of the NJO series. (I whined about it in my 'Vector Prime' review. I'm not going to do so again.) In any case, its a pretty good book. Stackpole always has been a Civil War-era writer (the Galactic Civil War, I should specify) and he's not quite up to form in the NJO series, although I expecting that. Nonetheless, its a reasonably good book and its nice to see good ol' Corran Horn at work. Jaina joining Rogue Squadron was an interesting twist, although I'll still take the Rogue Squadron of old any day. (The X-wing books and comics) The whole refugee element indeed makes sense and the prologue is a nice setup for the main plotline of 'Dark Tide II: Ruin'. The state of the Jedi is still pretty much as it was, and Ganner, one of Kyp's followers, is the kind of chap you wish would get sliced across the face by an amphistaff. (Which does happen in 'Ruin', but I won't get into that.) In any case, the Corran/Ganner/scientists at Bimmiel interaction is pretty good. Ganner does show some good sides in the end, a thing that carrier over to 'Ruin'. I'm still not fond of the ooglith masquer and the idea thereof, as it always sounded incredibly cheezy to me. It's used less here, and continued to decline as the series wears on. A good thing, in my opinion. The battles are also pretty good and the ending once mores comes up to a draw-like state. (Which gets a bit annoying as it repeats book after book. Why can't either side ever really win?) That said, I'd also like to bring up one point: How stupid can the Vong be? They send one wave and let that get destroyed at the end of 'Vector Prime'. Then what do they do? Send another wave to plow through territories until they get destroyed. This can be explained to an extent by the Yuuzhan Vong culture, but I just wish they'd add a bit of tactical knowledge to these guys instead of having them fling themselves at the Republic like kamikaze fighters. Reccomended overall, and a slight turn for the better after 'Vector Prime'.
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Summary: Once again, Michael A. Stackpole delivers a stunning book
Review: Dark Tide: Onslaught was a great book. I couldn't put it down for four days straight. It has been about 2 months since the events of Vector Prime, which started the whole New Jedi Order series. Leia tries to convice the New Republic government that just because the Yuuzhan Vong were stopped, doesn't mean the threat is over. Does the New Republic believe her? No. So Leia, Luke, Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, Corran Horn, and others travel to the Outer Rim planets to see if the Yuuzhan Vong have been stopped. But this time even the Force itself may not be able to help everyone. A great read.
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Summary: An excellent book, worth five stars!
Review: First of all, even if you hated Vector Prime, I urge you to at least give this one a try. It has everything that was good about Vector Prime, plus plenty of things that make it even better, and none of the drawbacks. Anyway, it takes place about two months after the events of Vector Prime, with the galaxy now under attack from a bizarre species from another galaxy called the Yuuzhan Vong. The New Republic government, run by Borsk Fey'lya, <gagging noises> refuses to acknowledge them as a threat, despite the destruction of several planets out on the rim from their scary bio-technology. Meanwhile this sparks unrest even in the Jedi's ranks, as Kyp slowly gains more followers, to go and take more offensive action against the Vong, while Luke does his best to hold the Jedi order together. He sends Anakin and Mara to Dantooine to see if the Vong have gotten there yet, and so Mara can rest for a while, and hopefully make some progress against her disease, while he and Jacen head to Belkadon to try to figure out why the Vong made the wierd plague thing happen there. Everyone pretty much winds up on Dantooine, fleeing the Vong, and when Leia and Jaina show up with several ships full of terrified reffugees from Dubrillian things get all the more complicated. I really liked this book's writing style, straightforward, interesting, lots of action, and plenty of character development. When you read this book you do not need to ask yourself if Luke and Mara are really in love with each other, (as was often the case with Vector Prime) or reread the same paragraph several times to make sure you 'get' it. Each of the sub-plots was given adequate attention, so that I could feel for all the characters in their individual crisis'. Jacen's seeming "identity crisis" really struck home for me. Most of all though, I really liked the way Mara helped Anakin, and gently seemed to guide him back to the right path for him. So far, she seems to be the only one who actually "gets" what he's going through. Some would say she's mellowed out since her assasin/smuggler days, but I am of the opinion that careing for others has only made her all the stronger, disease and all. As another reviewer put it, being one of the coolest women in the Star Wars doesn't mean she can't love her family. Even so, this book reminds me strangely of a cross between Young Jedi Knights and I,Jedi, and I honestly don't know whether to be pleased or annoyed. Don't get me wrong here; I loved the Young Jedi books, but even so, it irritates me a bit to see the Solo kids gradually replace my favorite characters, and I can't shake the feeling that fifteen year old Anakin, and sixteen year old Jacen and Jaina are far too young to be replacing the adults just yet... A good thing about this book, however, and what really redeamed it for me, was that Luke and Mara (my favorite characters) finally get some attention. For once they actually act like a married couple. This book makes their relationship seem much more real, and I certainly hope the next authors keep this up! Anyway, this is an excellent book, which I definitely recommend to Star Wars fans, though probably not younger ones since this book had quite a bit of graphic violence.
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Summary: Good Follow-Up
Review: Picking up the pace from the previous novel in the new series, Vector Prime, veteran Star Wars writer Stackpole rolls the action along expertly. His experience with the SW universe shows in the book, as it is much deeper than Vector Prime in terms of storyline maturity. The Yuuzhan Vong, the extragalactic, biotech-loving invaders are back, this time commanded by a new leader with a burning ideology and a mission to fulfill. The Jedi are of course once again thrust into battle, this time not necessarily carrying the good will of the New Republic government behind them. The battles themselves are excellent; the action sequences are well-written no matter whether they take place between warriors on the ground or starfighters in space. What's worth reading are the philosophical friction among the inner ranks of the Jedi themselves, however. Beyond the blazing battles against the external foes, Luke Skywalker, as the master, must deal with concerns within, if he is to entertain any hope of a united front against the savage Vong. Stackpole does a great job of painting each noteworthy Jedi with a particular brand of Force ideology, and his personal perspective on the Force helps him craft philosophical debates and brings resolution to many a thorny dilemma. The first of two novels, Onslaught is action-packed, along with detailed exploration of the Force philosophy that should appeal to the hardcore Star Wars fans. -Xiao Zhu
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Summary: Things are not going well for the New Republic...
Review: The story continues the involved story arc of the New Jedi Order begun in Vector Prime - an awesome book in itself - regarding the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong, a race outside the galaxy intent on conquering the GFFA. The suspense is kept up through out - another grab you by the throat and not let go book like many in the series. My favorite parts were with Luke and Mara and their longing to have children. If you haven't started this series, take one step back, go to Vector Prime and have a great time!
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Summary: A disappointing read...
Review: I'm sorry but I didn't care for this book at all. It's an embarasment to Star Wars literacy. Stackpole took a good concept concieved by Salvador and turned it into a pointless story, there's no charactor development, no real plot and he makes the enemy seem like a joke. The obsession of pain starts out interesting but gets old fast. I mean there was no real point to this book. What was accomplished? Not a whole lot. If you ask me, you should skip the next 4 books and just read Conquest. May the Force be with you!
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