In many ways the penultimate book in a large series is the
most difficult to write. The author must
begin the process of weaving the various plot threads together, wrapping up
some of the minor ones, introducing still new characters and subplots and
positioning the characters for the concluding book. In the Fate of the Jedi series this task
falls to relative Star Wars newcomer Christie Golden. Ms. Golden and the editorial
team received a fair bit of criticism over her first book in the series Omen, both for its brevity and for its
errors. Her second book Allies showed improvement and her third
and final book she will be writing in the series Ascension shows marked improvement in capturing the modern Star
Wars expanded universe. At 392 pages Ascension
is a substantial tome, much larger then Golden’s first FOTJ novel that was a
measly 236 pages.
One of the early scenes in the book features a Masquerade
ball hosted by the Lost Tribe. This idea
of a masquerade is at the core of Ascension.
While many of the main characters are not at the ball, nearly everyone
is presenting a false face of one sort or another. Characters reveal their true nature only to
the reader or to a limited audience in the book itself. The drama in the book occurs when these masks
slip and the characters true natures are revealed.
Keeping in recent Star Wars publishing tradition, we have a
one word subtitle that has multiple meanings throughout the book. In Ascension, we have the rise of power and
rank as well as the abortive rise and ultimate fall of some characters.
The relationship between Vestara and Ben and the
machinations of the Lost Tribe and Abeloth serve as the backbone of Ascension’s story. The former is handled very well in my
opinion, if you approach it from the perspective that anyone raised from birth
as a Sith will be psychologically damaged.
The issue of Vestara’s redemption and her relationship with Ben play a
major role in Ascension and Golden sets up the relationship to go in some
pretty dramatic directions in Apocalypse. The latter story involving the Lost Tribe and
Abeloth is extremely well done. Chapter
4 of Ascension is the best chapter
involving the Lost Tribe in the entire series and one of my favorite chapters
in all of the recent Star Wars releases.
Golden absolutely nailed the tone, the characters and the action.
Golden also did something in Ascension that I didn’t think
was possible, she made me enjoy and buy into Abeloth as a Star Wars villain. If
you have read my previous reviews of the Fate of the Jedi series, you will know
that I am not a big fan of the Abeloth character. Abeloth is a character that I found
unbelievably bizarre and too powerful. The slow reveal of more and more of the
character was also frustrating, in a nine book series, I would like to know the
nature and motivation of the main villain before the next to last book. I understand they are trying to build
suspense with a slow reveal of Abeloth and her nature, but until this book
Abeloth seemed about as cool as Waru (from The Crystal Star) to me. There is
one particular scene aboard Ship involving Abeloth that I really liked in a
twisted kind of way. While Ascension
does not answer all the questions regarding Abeloth, it gives me enough to embrace
a character that until now I wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
I also enjoyed the return to some Bantam era storytelling,
in which we see Imperial Moffs who are just competent enough to cause trouble,
but not competent enough to take over the galaxy. We get what as far as I can tell is an
entirely new Sith related planet and life-form, which was pretty interesting. We even get an inclusion of the phrase that
this blog is named after, where one of the characters is called out for saber
rattling.
There will be those who criticize some of Ms. Golden’s characterization;
there are two characters in particular that seem a little too pure of
heart. I don’t necessarily think this is
out of character for the two individuals, but in a real world sort of way, they
seem a little too selfless. This is of
course balanced out by the fact that some of the villains are of the mustache twirling
pure evil variety. This I think is in
keeping with the story telling tradition from the original trilogy and
something that the EU has gotten away from with its move towards more
anti-heroes and conflicted characters.
That being said I believe Ms. Golden did a great job in her portrayals
of Ben, Vestara, Jag, and Han.
Ascension is also
loaded with some rather interesting foreshadowing that connects the Del Rey
publishing line with the future of the Expanded Universe as told by Dark Horse
Comics in its Legacy series. I think we have a very good idea where at
least one of the coolest elements of Legacy
came from and whose legacy it is.
Ms. Golden throws a skifter into the Fate of the Jedi
series, but even with all the changes she introduces, she manages to move all
the players into position for Troy Denning to wrap up the story in Apocalypse, only then will we learn what
the fate of the Jedi will be. Ascension will be released Tuesday August 9th in hardcover, if you haven't already pre-ordered it, don't forget to set aside time on Tuesday to run to your local book store or download it to your e-reading device.
Author's Note: Special Thanks to the folks at Del Rey/Random House for providing us with an advance copy for this review. Also check back after Ascension is released for a spoiler filled discussion regarding the book and some speculation about where I think the story will go in Apocalypse.
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