Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #5) in The Expanded Universe

Sep 03, 2012 Josh Lewis rated it it was ok

Shelves: sweu

First of all, let me say "Woah head, stop spinning." After I finished this book, I needed a few moments to reorient myself and figure out what the hell I had just read. Sadly, this wasn't an outburst of appreciation for the book, but rather near-head-exploding confusion. (I possibly should have also read this more slowly.) It was a difficult read without having to go back and reread certain sections. I won't list the entire plot here, but as a quick summary:

The New Republic organizations (Defen First of all, let me say "Woah head, stop spinning." After I finished this book, I needed a few moments to reorient myself and figure out what the hell I had just read. Sadly, this wasn't an outburst of appreciation for the book, but rather near-head-exploding confusion. (I possibly should have also read this more slowly.) It was a difficult read without having to go back and reread certain sections. I won't list the entire plot here, but as a quick summary:

The New Republic organizations (Defense Force, Senate, etc.) are hatching a plan to trick the Yuuzhan Vong into attacking the supposedly undefended Corellia so that the Republic can use the reactivated Centerpoint station to wipe a good chunk of them out. However, the Yuuzhan Vong are planning to trick the New Republic into thinking that they're going to attack Corellia so that they can attack another, similarly undefended planet. Otherwise, the "main" characters (for how could anyone in this novel be a main character with this many plots going on at once) are doing pretty much what they were doing in the last novel: Leia's attemping to enlist the Hapan Consortium into the fight while dealing with the awkwardness of revisiting Isolder, the leader of the Consortium and old flame of Leia's (and whose name kept making me think of Lord of the Rings), and finding places to relocate the billions of refugees; Han is helping new companion Droma find his clanmates who have become refugees themselves due to the Yuuzhan Vong , while getting caught up in a droid rebellion on a refugee camp planet and consequently running into the Yuuzhan Vong in his own way; Luke and the other Jedi are acting under the radar, gathering information about the Yuuzhan Vong's next target; Jacen and Anakin are outbound to Centerpoint to reactivate it while arguing again about the Jedi's place in war; Wurth Skidder gets himself captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and tries to free his fellow captives; and we also get about two or three chapters' worth of Droma's clanmates experiencing the crowded refugee camps.

In some ways, I like the global feel: this invasion is the worst event the New Republic has ever experienced as a whole up to this point, and the entire galaxy is at stake. So it creates a lot of tension and excitement when EVERYONE'S survival is at stake. I also commend Luceno for keeping track of it all.

However, I think that, while this massive split of attention creates an exciting, elaborate web of clashing events and characters, it also diminishes the focus on the characters. I don't think that were very many characters who I felt developed throughout the course of this novel. Yes, it's a galactic war novel and there should be a lot going on, but I enjoy novels primarily for the characters and their journeys.

Of course, much of what I said in the review about the first Agents of Chaos remains true. Luceno still paints glaringly bright pictures of the space battles (even though there are very few to speak of in this one). And again, little character development.

Overall, not a terrible novel: Luceno does a decent job (at best) with what he's given. But it leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. I can't say that he's one of my favorite Star Wars authors so far. ...more

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