Vector Prime (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 1)

Rating:
Summary: Iam most displeased with this lack of effort.
Review: Well this book was a terrible experience for me as for a trueStar Wars fan. END

Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: This book is a good start to the new seris it is also a good book for salvatore's first entry into the SW universe ... if u wanna read some of his better stuff though check out "Echoes of the Fourth Magic" and "The Witch's Daughter" ... also i know this is not a place to argue but i have to say one thing "A Reader from Virginia Beach, VA" has not read much SW seening as how he/she said "not the long drawn out nothingness of Mr. Zahn" ... Zhan is the one who started the SW books and has some of the best SW books produced and by far my favorite SW writer ... just putting my two sense in thanks for listening ...

Rating:
Summary: SUCKY BOOK. BORROW FROM A FRIEND, BUT DON'T BUY.
Review: This has got to be the worst Star Wars book I have ever read. The was nothing "star wars" about. The whole living weapons thing from the Vong(Youhzog or Prearite, who cares) was ridicules at BEST. The no resolution to Mara's problem sucked. Superweapons and space opera is what Star Wars is about. I liked the fact that is was a short read, not the long drawn out nothingness of Mr. Zahn. If there are any powers that be out there, please DO NOT let Mr. Salvatore back into the Star Wars universe. Even though it happened a long time ago, Star Wars should be hi-tech and science fictional. Not organical.

Rating:
Summary: The Tragic Loss of the Star Wars Fantasy
Review: No stars for this book... Salvatore has repeatedly defended his reasons for having the need to kill off Chewbacca in this book in many recent interviews. They say that they want to keep people on the edge of their seats, and bring back the wonder of if the character would survive or not. They say that people automatically assume that the main characters would never die, and that good always finds a way to beat evil. To me, and I'm sure many others, star wars was a fantasy I would like to step into, away from the many burdens of life. I enjoyed the fact that I knew good always beat evil. It was part of the Star Wars fantasy. It was a relief from the drama of life where good does not always beat evil. Star Wars was all about the good guys always winning, and that's what always kept me going with it. By allowing beloved characters such as Chewbacca to be killed, it's the death of the fantasy as well. I was sadly dissapointed in this book, not only because I loved Chewie, but in the death of the fantasy. On top of that, Salvatore had a very peculiar writing style. He would start with writing first person with one character, and then without much of a warning, he switches to first person with another character. I thought this book was a sad edition to my Star Wars collection, and I cannot imagine anyone having positive thoughts about this book. So many things left unsaid, no depth to the characters. I did not get the feel for any one character. I didn't feel any concern for Mara Jade's illness from Luke at all. He would just keep reminding himself that she is an independent woman, and that it justified for him to let her do whatever she wants. We all know Mara is an independent person. And for the first book following Vision of the Future, I was hoping to see some sort of connection between Mara and Luke, and I scarcely felt any. The words salvatore used were repeated also. It's as if he never had heard of a thesuarus in his life. Words like "amazing" and "ominously" were used several times, and in the same chapter in most of the cases! I got no feeling from this book, it was very cold. I know that it is just the way he writes, but if this is the way he writes, I suggest Lucas finds someone else to write Star Wars books, because all these people chosen to write the books are chosen by him. I hope I never see another Star Wars book by R.A. Salvatore in my life. It would be the staw that broke the camel's back. In short, this book was horrible.

Rating:
Summary: Poor
Review: I should have been warned by the TPM novelization, which used a good fantasy author to absolutely no effect. I have never read Salvatore's other work--to judge by his reputation, it can't possibly be as bad as this. The book is limp, full of errors, botched characterizations, and villains that are straight out of Ming the Merciless. Just awful. Did the publisher know it was bad? Sure they did, because perhaps the only good section of the book was the one they chose to excerpt on the net and in print. They imagined, I suppose, that quality didn't matter, because hype is all. Wrong again. A dire beginning for the NJO.

Rating:
Summary: Extreemly strong begining
Review: This is a very ambitious new story but one that the Star Wars universe was in desperate need of. Salvator pulls off a very challenging task with great skill. Many fans have responded to the events of this novel, one in particular that I won't give away here, in a negative way but the truth is, it needed to happen to retain the dramatic tension of the ongoing Star Wars story. People who blame Salvator for that and who cry foul aren't considering the events of the films. It happens sometimes and its happened to the much beloved. Salvator makes the whole thing very gut wrenching and ultimately touching, as it should be. It's effects will be felt from now on. Also, he breaths new life into the Solo children, accomplishes the surprisingly difficult task of writing Mara Jade well, and hits the right note every time with characters like Luke and Leia, who in the past, at the hands of lesser authors, have been much mangled. And excellent and exciting read which stands with Vision Of The Future as one of the most important Star Wars books written so far.

Rating:
Summary: Close minded judgemental SW fans stay away.....
Review: Let me just say I'm pretty shocked by all the "If I could give Zero stars I would" reviews here. I've read all the Star Wars novels also, and I liked most of them, didn't like some, and some I thought were fantastic. Tim Zahn, for instance has 5 brilliant novels. This novel is great too. I'm so disappointed in some of these Star Wars fans here to be so incredibly closed minded, and afraid of change. Aren't you tired of the Empire making ANOTHER comeback? Aren't you tired of the Jedi kids getting kidnapped again? Aren't you tired of another Superweapon? Then this is a fantastic step in the right direction. The writing is very fast paced and is gripping. Many readers complain of "no plot movement". I beg to differ. It moves along at a fine pace, and there is another thing to consider. This is the FIRST book in a continuous story arc of a TWENTY-FIVE book series. Do you want everything resolved in one book? Give me a break. I think the Yuuzhan Vong are a very interesting race, and will make for some great books. Also, you people that can't handle Chewie's death, get a life(By the way, I found his death was classy and well done. I was nearly brought to tears, and he went out a hero). For so long now, our SW characters were invincible. The books lose some intensity when you KNOW the main stars can't die. This move wasn't a publicity stunt. It was bringing something fresh and new to the Star Wars universe, and I welcome it. There was also a comment about this being a DARK novel. I agree. It is more dark and foreboding than others. But, I must say after "Phantom Menace" seemed to target the 10 and under audience, I'm very happy to see the SW universe take a more adult view, without losing the "feeling" of this great place. You want more cute stuff, go read Ewok adventures or something. One criticism I agree with was the portrayal of Mara Jade. Her character was rather flat, and I expected much more from the firey red-headed Jedi. Of course, she kind of has her reasons for being so subdued. Finally, I'm sending a challege to all Star Wars fans that bashed Vector Prime. Go to theforce.net and read the MASSIVE interview with R.A. Salvatore in the interview section. He addresses many of the criticisms of his novel, and really explained everything you could possibly want to know about the new direction of the novels. Including the Chewie issue and many others. I GUARANTEE upon reading this, some will change minds about this novel. Hopefully I haven't offended anyone too badly, for we all love Star Wars, and I just get upset when my SW brothers and sisters can't handle change. I think more highly of us as readers. I'm off my soapbox now.

Rating:
Summary: Failure to Star Wars Universe
Review: I have been a great fan of Star Wars for many years, and have enjoyed all the books, up till this one. Timothy Zahn's Vision of the future was such a great book, and the plot between Mara and Luke was so interesting, I thought, hey, this is a great opportunity to learn more about these characters. But I was so disappointed. The feelings between the two were so shallow and non-existent, and it was rather dull. The other characters were also potrayed badly, in a way that was actually unbelievable. The plot of the story was confusing and long and draggy, with very little advancements. The killing of Chewbacca seemed rather silly with no point other than to shock the readers. The emotions of the other characters surrounding the death were questionable. The ending was inconclusive and left off rather abruptly. In general, this book didn't live up to the standard of the other Star Wars books, and do not advise you to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Utterly boring, utterly idiotic, utterly ostentatious
Review: This is one of the most horrible books I have read in my lifetime; and yes, I managed to read the whole book. Why I wasted my time I'm not sure. I'm sure Salvatore can write well, but some authors can adapt to the SW universe and some can't (Salvatore being one of the later).That a particular character died was not the problem. Nor was the new enemy (though I think we all miss the Imperials). The book was just not suspenseful, not compelling, the characters weren't very well developed/captured...<sigh>. Part of the problem is that no author has yet given the Solo children well-written, interesting characters. Yes, they've been characterized, but they're not yet -characters-. Just works-in-progress (not even people in progress).

Rating:
Summary: A tough job -and he failed
Review: Well I finished the book last week and found it to be one of the poorest of the SW novels. I haven't read any of the Young Jedi series, so it's unfair to comment on the three Jedi youngsters, but I hardly recognised any of my beloved characters in this novel. Lando was a slimeball, Mara had none of her fire, and the rest of the well-known characters also lacked the recognised personalities. Before reading the book I didn't know about Chewie's demise and I hope desperately that he could make a return in the future, but I don't think he will. I won't dwell on this issue for long but I do think it's a shameless marketing ploy on the part of Lucasfilm and/or DelRey. I've read virtually all the SW novels, but this has to rate as a low. Apparantly the sequel is better, let's hope so! DEFINITELY skip this book if (like me) you're a Wookie fan.