I recently finished reading the third book in the Fate of the Jedi series, Abyss, written by Troy Denning.
This book looks a lot like the other two in this series from a structural standpoint. More Jedi on Coruscant go crazy and seem to think everyone is their enemy, Admiral Daala takes more control of the government because of it, Luke and Ben get into a sticky situation with archaic force-users of some type in an effort to learn about Jacen Solo’s fall to the dark side, and the Sith are around, but for who knows what.
I’m going to be completely honest here: This book took me more than a month to slog through. From the time I started this book to the time I finally finished it, I’d read at least a dozen books besides. This was quite possibly one of the most boring Star Wars novels I have ever read. It took me so long to get through it because nothing was happening and I really didn’t care about what little there was.
It was a mirror of the last book and it really did feel like it went next to nowhere.
The biggest source of yawns for me? The Sith. I really could care less about the Sith roaming about the galaxy in packs chasing after a ship of some kind. And I was incredibly bored by the explanation of the dynamic between the Sith masters and apprentices and the whole “living on the edge of a razor because someone might betray me at any moment”-thing just bored me to tears. When all of these Sith guys start betraying each other, I just don’t care, because they’ve all spent so much time worrying about how they’re going to betray each other and when. And because none of the Sith characters are interesting or mean anything, the fact that they’re on some random side mission to retrieve the Ship that Jacen and Ben found in the Legacy of the Force series just felt like chapters I wanted to skip.
And in retrospect, I could have and would not have suffered any ill consequences, because their story meant next to nothing.
I know I said that Omen looked as though it was a little boring, but it was setting up for something, but it turns out that it wasn’t. This book was a whole yawning ball of nothing.
Let’s hope Aaron Allston can pull this series’ fat out of the fryer with the next installment, otherwise I don’t think I’ll continue reading any further. And it’s sad, because I’ve been really invested in the Star Wars books since I’ve had the opportunity to start reviewing them, and those I’ve read, before these last two, have been top notch. I want to like them, I really do. I mean, really, you guys all know how much I LOVE Star Wars… But this book was just a bridge too far.
If you feel like you need to, you can order this book on Amazon.
Other reviews in the Fate of the Jedi series:
Outcast
Reviews of the Legacy of the Force series: