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Star Wars: Legacy of the Force #3
Legacy of the Force: Tempest
As the stand-off between the Galactic Alliance and its rebellious member states erupts into full-blown battle, the new Corellian leadership develops a desperate plan to draw the Hapan Consortium into the war on their side. But the plot poses a moral quandry for Han and Leia Solo, who cannot abide deliberately spreading the war any more than they can the murder of the Hapan Queen Mother, ex-Jedi Knight Tenel Ka. Taking it upon themselves to save her life - and that of her young daughter, Allana - the Solos set in motion a firestorm of confusion and mayhem that will pit children against parents, bring Luke Skywalker into battle with his foremost nemesis, and leave them at the mercy of one of the Jedi's oldest and most deadly enemies.
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
December 26, 2022
More excitement and intensity from this series! Glad I have the remaining volumes on hand!
March 10, 2008
Thank God for Troy Denning.
Overall Plot: Much, Much better. It felt more thought out and tried to use a broader cast of characters then the other (alright just Traviss' book) books which tended to be narrow in focus. Mara, Han, Leia and Luke all seemed a lot more realistic, and I think that Jacen's wavering and uncertainty was a lot more vivid--that is you could tell that while Jacen had committed to this sithly path, he's very much still not sure if he can take the next step. In the previous books, it felt like he had embraced it wholeheartedly.
Though I'm not sure the whole "Jacen will see the error of his ways" path is the smartest thing to do...
I love that Mara was calculating trying to get Jacen to see things the right way, and I could tell that Tenel Ka was having trouble buying some of Jacen's thought processes.
Ben: Wow, he's still pretty cool, but that final inane conversation on the Falcon about arresting Han and Leia and stabbing Zekk was terrible. He is so committed to doing the right thing and being something his father can be proud of, that he is unable to see how his father is trying to teach him to see what is going on with Jacen. That fight at the beginning was really illustrative.
It was nice to see Jag again, and the discourse between him and Han/Leia was dry, witty and very much in line with a Jaf who is a little bitter after having been stranded for two years. Wow..that just sucks.
I'm not sure if there really are a whole host of Sith out there or like that ridiculous allusion to Ben being the Sith is just being made up by Lumiya.
Allana was a cute addition and Jacen seemed so much more human when he was trying to protect her, but listening to him calculate who he would rather sacrifice to take that final step was a little disgusting.
On a meta level, in terms of the larger Star Wars Universe--the galaxy has once again turned into a scary place especially where you can't be sure of who our friends can trust, or even if our friends are trustworthy anymore. I like how Zekk has appeared to relinquish his little crush, but at the same time I feel sorry for Jaina and her belief that being the Sword of the Jedi means she has to be alone I'm seriously frightened by the deaths of Tresina Lobi, and the 11th hour, lack of quorum tactics by Omas.
Overall Plot: Much, Much better. It felt more thought out and tried to use a broader cast of characters then the other (alright just Traviss' book) books which tended to be narrow in focus. Mara, Han, Leia and Luke all seemed a lot more realistic, and I think that Jacen's wavering and uncertainty was a lot more vivid--that is you could tell that while Jacen had committed to this sithly path, he's very much still not sure if he can take the next step. In the previous books, it felt like he had embraced it wholeheartedly.
Though I'm not sure the whole "Jacen will see the error of his ways" path is the smartest thing to do...
I love that Mara was calculating trying to get Jacen to see things the right way, and I could tell that Tenel Ka was having trouble buying some of Jacen's thought processes.
Ben: Wow, he's still pretty cool, but that final inane conversation on the Falcon about arresting Han and Leia and stabbing Zekk was terrible. He is so committed to doing the right thing and being something his father can be proud of, that he is unable to see how his father is trying to teach him to see what is going on with Jacen. That fight at the beginning was really illustrative.
It was nice to see Jag again, and the discourse between him and Han/Leia was dry, witty and very much in line with a Jaf who is a little bitter after having been stranded for two years. Wow..that just sucks.
I'm not sure if there really are a whole host of Sith out there or like that ridiculous allusion to Ben being the Sith is just being made up by Lumiya.
Allana was a cute addition and Jacen seemed so much more human when he was trying to protect her, but listening to him calculate who he would rather sacrifice to take that final step was a little disgusting.
On a meta level, in terms of the larger Star Wars Universe--the galaxy has once again turned into a scary place especially where you can't be sure of who our friends can trust, or even if our friends are trustworthy anymore. I like how Zekk has appeared to relinquish his little crush, but at the same time I feel sorry for Jaina and her belief that being the Sword of the Jedi means she has to be alone I'm seriously frightened by the deaths of Tresina Lobi, and the 11th hour, lack of quorum tactics by Omas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 22, 2021
Troy Denning’s “Tempest� is the third book in the nine-book series Legacy of the Force. Denning has a decent track record in the SWEU, having penned “Star By Star�, which was one of my favorites in the New Jedi Order series, as well as his three-book SWEU Dark Nest series. Characters and events from that series are referenced in “Tempest�, so it helps to have read that trilogy prior to this one.
Jacen Solo’s path to the Dark Side is a gradual but inevitable one. His work as a terrorist-hunter is garnering him praise within the Galactic Alliance military ranks. He is now captain of a Star Destroyer, and he has taken to wearing all black, including a black cape. Any resemblance to his grandfather, Darth Vader, is, of course, strictly coincidental.
The plot of “Tempest� is somewhat complicated, as it involves a series of double- and triple-crosses. Han and Leia Solo are being set up to look like terrorists, framed for an assassination attempt on Tenel Ka, the Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, who is also Jacen’s secret love and mother to Jacen’s secret love-child.
Luke and Mara are embroiled in a murder investigation on Coruscant. The vicious homicide of a Jedi Master leads to more proof that the Dark Jedi Lumiya is alive and choreographing events. Luke fears that Lumiya has been corrupting Jacen, and he is worried that his son, Ben, may be being led down the path of the Dark Side, too.
Lumiya is receiving help from Alema Rar, a former Jedi Knight who joined the Dark Side. She’s also a Joiner (a victim of an insectoid race of aliens called the Killik’s hive mind), and she is bent on revenge against Leia and Luke Skywalker.
Denning weaves an intricate plot, but the book does get bogged down and confusing near the midpoint with lots of extraneous details. Still, when the action gets started, Denning’s talent for writing exciting and suspenseful action sequences shines.
On to Book Four!
Jacen Solo’s path to the Dark Side is a gradual but inevitable one. His work as a terrorist-hunter is garnering him praise within the Galactic Alliance military ranks. He is now captain of a Star Destroyer, and he has taken to wearing all black, including a black cape. Any resemblance to his grandfather, Darth Vader, is, of course, strictly coincidental.
The plot of “Tempest� is somewhat complicated, as it involves a series of double- and triple-crosses. Han and Leia Solo are being set up to look like terrorists, framed for an assassination attempt on Tenel Ka, the Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, who is also Jacen’s secret love and mother to Jacen’s secret love-child.
Luke and Mara are embroiled in a murder investigation on Coruscant. The vicious homicide of a Jedi Master leads to more proof that the Dark Jedi Lumiya is alive and choreographing events. Luke fears that Lumiya has been corrupting Jacen, and he is worried that his son, Ben, may be being led down the path of the Dark Side, too.
Lumiya is receiving help from Alema Rar, a former Jedi Knight who joined the Dark Side. She’s also a Joiner (a victim of an insectoid race of aliens called the Killik’s hive mind), and she is bent on revenge against Leia and Luke Skywalker.
Denning weaves an intricate plot, but the book does get bogged down and confusing near the midpoint with lots of extraneous details. Still, when the action gets started, Denning’s talent for writing exciting and suspenseful action sequences shines.
On to Book Four!
February 11, 2018
If you can’t tell from the fact it took me 5 months to read this, it was a bit of a slog to get through. It’s really the same issue I have with most of the Star Wars books. There’s too much focus on politics and intrigue without enough actually happening. The main characters hardly ever encounter each other, so the reader is constantly being introduced to new side characters that may be present for a single book or may crop back up years later.
This approach also presents serious pacing issues. 3-5 separate plot threads are set into motion early on and are revisited once every few chapters. It’s only at the end of the book immediately surrounding the climax that it feels like it gets any momentum. I remember now why my favorite book from the New Jedi Order series (Traitor) appealed to me so much. It was almost entirely focused on one character and sequence of events.
Some may not like what is being done with these characters, but I think it’s compelling drama. I may not like it, but it’s interesting and at least makes some sense. I just really wish it could get to the point sooner. Knowing the rest of the series is about the same size of book, though, I don’t think it will happen anytime soon. Of course, I’m a glutton for punishment, so I’ll be continuing to read this series until it’s over.
This approach also presents serious pacing issues. 3-5 separate plot threads are set into motion early on and are revisited once every few chapters. It’s only at the end of the book immediately surrounding the climax that it feels like it gets any momentum. I remember now why my favorite book from the New Jedi Order series (Traitor) appealed to me so much. It was almost entirely focused on one character and sequence of events.
Some may not like what is being done with these characters, but I think it’s compelling drama. I may not like it, but it’s interesting and at least makes some sense. I just really wish it could get to the point sooner. Knowing the rest of the series is about the same size of book, though, I don’t think it will happen anytime soon. Of course, I’m a glutton for punishment, so I’ll be continuing to read this series until it’s over.
March 14, 2023
For 2023, I decided to reread the post-NJO books set after the Dark Nest trilogy, especially as I abandoned the Legacy of the Force series after all the way back in 2007. This shakes out to the nine books of the Legacy of the Force series, the nine books of the Fate of the Jedi series, three standalone novels, and five short stories.
This week’s focus: book three in the Legacy of the Force series, Tempest by Troy Denning.
SOME HISTORY:
In October of 2006, the Star Wars website launched the Darth Who contest—an opportunity for fans to pick Jacen’s Sith name, that would be revealed in book #5. Over 8500 entries were received in October and November, but that list was reviewed and edited down to 500 names—and then staff from Del Rey and Lucasfilm as well as the three authors whittled the contenders down to five finalists: Darth Acheron, Darth Caedus, Darth Judicar, Darth Paxis, and Darth Taral.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I remembered that Tenel Ka was in this book (I should hope I would remember that, because she’s on the cover), but otherwise my memories were very shoddy here.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Han Solo and Leia Organa have enraged their families by joining the Corellian insurgents. But the Solos draw the line when they discover a Corellian plot to ally with Hapan nobles who aim to murder their pro-Alliance queen and her daughter. And as Luke Skywalker’s concern for Jacen Solo forces him into a life-and-death struggle against his fiercest foe, Han and Leia find themselves at the mercy of an unexpected enemy: their own son.
THE PLOT:
Continuing the trend of multiple major plot lines, Tempest follows at least five subplots: Han and Leia are dispatched to talk with Tenel Ka, uncover a plot against her and her daughter, and are branded enemies of the Galactic Alliance by Jacen. Luke and Mara prepare to face off against Lumiya, and still differ over what to do about Ben. Jaina and Zekk are sent by the Galactic Alliance to Hapes to figure out what’s going on, and end up stranded on Terephon. Alema Rar reappears after near death in , and allies with Lumiya. Finally, Jacen and GA forces stop persecuting Corellians (and now Bothans) to hop over to Hapes and help Tenel Ka with this coup attempt. Everyone goes to Hapes this time around!
CHARACTERS:
I felt like Han and Leia were the most prominent of the subplots here, perhaps because they’re two of Denning’s favorite characters. In the previous two books, I questioned what was going to be the breaking point: what would make Han and Leia’s careful involvement tip over to something that would have consequences for them? And that’s exactly what happens in this book. The Corellian government sends Leia and Han to speak with Tenel Ka about withdrawing her fleet from the Galactic Alliance…yet even Wedge recognizes the bad vibes emanating off this order. Han and Leia come across as perhaps unrealistically naive here, because it’s not until they’re twiddling their thumbs on Hapes that they realize they were intended as a distraction—there’s a coup attempt underway, and assassins try to kill Tenel Ka and her daughter Allana. Han and Leia would never support this plan (they love Tenel Ka), but the optics look very bad here, especially when they flee Hapes with one of the assassins to try gathering more info.
Of course, Jacen draws the wrong conclusion and issues an arrest order for them, and things get a lot worse. Han and Leia send Tenel Ka information about the Hapans in charge of this attack, but during the Battle of Hapes the GA Star Destroyer the Anakin Solo (terrible, terrible name) fires on the Millennium Falcon on Jacen’s orders. Han and Leia’s plot ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, as they escape into hyperspace but we don’t know where they’re headed or what will happen to them with that arrest order still hanging over their heads.
I still question Han instantly siding with the Corellians here, because while I’m sure he’s loyal to his homeworld, he also hasn’t spent very much time on Corellia since his childhood. Leia and Han have a home on Coruscant, and his gung ho Corellian fervor took me by surprise. Similarly, I’m not sure why Leia is cool with all of this? I would have thought that Leia would have to travel places or talk to people in her role as a Jedi, but instead she seems completely free to roam around with Han wherever she likes. (Although I suspect that this freedom will be curtailed after this Hapan disaster.)
I was not expecting Aurra Sing to appear in this book. She was originally just a cameo in The Phantom Menace during the podrace scene, but she played a larger role in the comics and later the Clone Wars show. I was initially surprised that she was still alive (Tempest is 72 years after TPM), but apparently she’s a long-lived near-human. She also drinks blood, because Denning always manages to sneak some weird stuff in.
Luke and Mara play a larger role than they did in the previous two books. Luke is trying to reach out to Ben by sparring with him, and in typical Luke fashion he’s taking it very slow. He wants Ben to realize that his apprenticeship with Jacen isn’t working well, but he makes no active moves to remove Ben from Jacen’s tutelage until the end. Mara is still absolutely fine with Jacen teaching Ben, even as she senses that “something bad will happen.� (Mara�)
Still, Luke assigns Jedi Master Tresina Lobi to follow Ben and spy on Lumiya if she can, and though Lumiya and Alema Rar murder Lobi she still gets a message to Luke. Luke and Mara find evidence that Lumiya is staying in a Galactic Alliance Guard safehouse, and they both build shoto lightsabers in preparation for future fights. Luke first used a shorter shoto blade when facing off against Lumiya in the Marvel comics, and while I admit it looks cool I’m not sure how that would work logistically?
Anyway, Luke and Mara head to Roqoo Depot in the Hapan Cluster to meet up with Ben, but it’s a trap. Lumiya is waiting, and it was all a setup on Jacen’s part. Luke fights Lumiya and Mara fights Alema Rar, Luke is badly wounded, Mara disables Alema and discovers the baddies are wearing deadman’s switches, and Lumiya’s device detonates but Lumiya probably escapes in the confusion. The epilogue concludes with Luke removing Ben from Jacen’s vicinity, but who knows how long that will last.
I am still sympathetic to Ben’s plight, but he comes across as a mouthy kid here, especially in his interactions with Jaina and Zekk.
Having been unceremoniously booted out of the GA military thanks to her brother in , Jaina and Zekk are now…independent Jedi working with the Galactic Alliance. OK. They’re dispatched to Hapes after the Millennium Falcon is spotted heading there, and Tenel Ka sends them to call up the Ducha AlGray’s forces. They arrive to discover that the Ducha is one of the conspirators, and they’re stuck on Terephon until Ben Skywalker and the GAG pick them up. From there, they drop right into the Battle of Hapes, go EV, get picked up by the Falcon, and leave in an escape pod after Ben has a meltdown and wounds Zekk. Jaina has a bit more to do here compared to books one and two. My only quibble is that it's mostly Jaina/Zekk interpersonal stuff, but I will rant about that in the Issues section.
Jagged Fel is back. He was stuck on that Killik world for two years after Leia shot him down, and he’s now completely estranged from his family—the Fel family personally vouched for Lowbacca after he was set free, and his subsequent attack (with Jaina) on the Chiss has ruined the Fel family honor. Jag thinks that finding Alema Rar will allow his family to regain their honor, but he can still never see them again. This is so sad to me! While I don’t think the Fels are an emotional family, they seemed very close; so to exile Jag from his mom and dad and sister just so that he has a reason to stay in the Galactic Alliance feels like a cruel development.
Did I mention that Tenel Ka and Allana are here? Allana is now four years old, and speaks in this cutesy kid voice (“twied� and “Yedi�). I definitely could have done without the speech impediment. Tenel Ka isn’t super active here, and exists more as a plot device than an actual character—see the Issues section for my thoughts on that.
Compared to the first two books, Jacen is much less of a major character here. He knows about that sacrifice prophecy, and he's worried that it means he’ll need to kill Tenel Ka or Allana. But when it appears that his parents are traitors, he’s ready to kill them and write them off as trash. What??? I was a little surprised that Jacen was so quick to jump to conclusions here. He has been self-delusional in these books, but I felt like this went beyond self-delusion to wanting to think the worst of someone without even considering the evidence against them. Tenel Ka expresses some reservations about this snap judgment, but Jacen’s convinced they’ve turned against him and his cause. Then most of Jacen’s plot revolves around Allana, and Allana’s safety—if anything, I think this story shows how much Jacen's willing to do to save his daughter, and how much that will affect his decisions moving forward.
Lumiya now has Alema Rar and Jacen to influence, and she's so committed to her Sith cause that she's willing to die in that fight on Roqoo Depot? Huh. We do get dialogue with Alema, though, that sets up how long she has been lurking and analyzing all the Jedi for Sith aptitude. (For instance, Jaina is too impulsive, and Leia is too fearful of her father’s legacy.)
Alema Rar is a total mess. Every time she encountered Luke or Leia in the Dark Nest trilogy, she came out worse off, and her mental state has really fallen apart. She still speaks in first person plural even though the Gorog nest is gone, and she’s obsessed with achieving Balance by killing the Skywalker/Solos. But she’s bad at it? She kills the World Brain instead of Jacen, and Mara knocks her out during that fight on Roqoo Depot. The only reason she’s still alive is because our heroes hesitate to kill her in cold blood.
ISSUES:
Tempest was surprisingly tame for a Troy Denning novel, until blood and limbs started flying during the Roqoo Depot fight. My preferred level of Troy Denning violence is , and this book started out like that one but definitely got more graphic towards the end.
My second issue was that Tempest presented a much more passive Tenel Ka than I wanted. Part of Tenel Ka’s appeal is her Dathomiri warrior side—even after her accident in the Young Jedi Knights, she is still a fierce, competent fighter and her disability doesn’t affect her fighting skills. I expected that we would see Tenel Ka taking out most of the assassins on her own; but instead we see events from Han and Leia’s POV and Tenel Ka is mostly absent. For the rest of the story, Tenel Ka takes Allana to Jacen’s Star Destroyer and speaks with him, then she leaves to direct the Battle of Hapes off the page. And we don’t get her viewpoint until the Epilogue, where she’s being diplomatic to achieve peace between Jacen and his family. I wish we could have seen Tenel Ka in a more active role, or even Tenel Ka in a command position, but that’s just not here.
Why is Jaina’s plot line so much relationship drama? Even in the New Jedi Order series, when she’s dealing with grief and withdrawing from the world around her, the books focused on her relationship status. Here, she finally tells Zekk to back off because she’s only interested in him as a friend—Zekk is like “cool, I got this”—and it leads to her respecting Zekk more, and considering him anew. Meanwhile, Jag Fel has returned, even though they don’t encounter each other here. I wish Jaina had SOMETHING to do that wasn’t related to guys. She’s in her thirties! Why isn’t she taking the lead in situations? I was excited for her to command Rogue Squadron in Bloodlines, only for that idea to be snatched out from under me in the same book.
My final issue was that aside from Jacen turning on his parents, it felt like his Sith journey was just treading water here. That made me think about the pacing of Jacen’s descent to evil, and whether he needed to partner with Lumiya so early on? I suppose if you add in the Dark Nest trilogy it makes Jacen’s fall a twelve-book arc, but I felt like the authors are holding off on having anyone truly confront Jacen over his actions because we’re only three books into the Legacy of the Force series. That inaction makes Luke and the Jedi Council come across as ineffectual, and I started to wonder whether this civil war and Jacen’s fall needed to be concurrent? Maybe a different order could have worked, like Jacen doing bad things without Lumiya during this conflict, and Lumiya seeking him out as a result? Because Tempest ultimately seemed to be more about the Hapan coup than Jacen’s progression as Sith.
IN CONCLUSION:
Tempest moves the action away from Coruscant and Corellia to Hapes, where a coup attempt is underway and the lives of Tenel Ka and her daughter are at risk. I thought Han and Leia's plot was interesting: they encounter a surprising Prequel era character, and there were finally consequences for their “will-they-won’t-they� attitude towards treason. But while I enjoyed the shift to Hapes and the opportunity to see Tenel Ka again, I feel like the book really did her dirty by having her play such a minor passive role. Likewise, Jacen's descent to the dark side felt like it was on the back burner here, and Tempest was more interested in demonstrating his concern about his daughter and what he will do to secure her safety.
Next up: book four in the Legacy of the Force series, by Aaron Allston.
My YouTube review:
“Your Chance to Name the Next Sith� (October 3, 2006):
This week’s focus: book three in the Legacy of the Force series, Tempest by Troy Denning.
SOME HISTORY:
In October of 2006, the Star Wars website launched the Darth Who contest—an opportunity for fans to pick Jacen’s Sith name, that would be revealed in book #5. Over 8500 entries were received in October and November, but that list was reviewed and edited down to 500 names—and then staff from Del Rey and Lucasfilm as well as the three authors whittled the contenders down to five finalists: Darth Acheron, Darth Caedus, Darth Judicar, Darth Paxis, and Darth Taral.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I remembered that Tenel Ka was in this book (I should hope I would remember that, because she’s on the cover), but otherwise my memories were very shoddy here.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Han Solo and Leia Organa have enraged their families by joining the Corellian insurgents. But the Solos draw the line when they discover a Corellian plot to ally with Hapan nobles who aim to murder their pro-Alliance queen and her daughter. And as Luke Skywalker’s concern for Jacen Solo forces him into a life-and-death struggle against his fiercest foe, Han and Leia find themselves at the mercy of an unexpected enemy: their own son.
THE PLOT:
Continuing the trend of multiple major plot lines, Tempest follows at least five subplots: Han and Leia are dispatched to talk with Tenel Ka, uncover a plot against her and her daughter, and are branded enemies of the Galactic Alliance by Jacen. Luke and Mara prepare to face off against Lumiya, and still differ over what to do about Ben. Jaina and Zekk are sent by the Galactic Alliance to Hapes to figure out what’s going on, and end up stranded on Terephon. Alema Rar reappears after near death in , and allies with Lumiya. Finally, Jacen and GA forces stop persecuting Corellians (and now Bothans) to hop over to Hapes and help Tenel Ka with this coup attempt. Everyone goes to Hapes this time around!
CHARACTERS:
I felt like Han and Leia were the most prominent of the subplots here, perhaps because they’re two of Denning’s favorite characters. In the previous two books, I questioned what was going to be the breaking point: what would make Han and Leia’s careful involvement tip over to something that would have consequences for them? And that’s exactly what happens in this book. The Corellian government sends Leia and Han to speak with Tenel Ka about withdrawing her fleet from the Galactic Alliance…yet even Wedge recognizes the bad vibes emanating off this order. Han and Leia come across as perhaps unrealistically naive here, because it’s not until they’re twiddling their thumbs on Hapes that they realize they were intended as a distraction—there’s a coup attempt underway, and assassins try to kill Tenel Ka and her daughter Allana. Han and Leia would never support this plan (they love Tenel Ka), but the optics look very bad here, especially when they flee Hapes with one of the assassins to try gathering more info.
Of course, Jacen draws the wrong conclusion and issues an arrest order for them, and things get a lot worse. Han and Leia send Tenel Ka information about the Hapans in charge of this attack, but during the Battle of Hapes the GA Star Destroyer the Anakin Solo (terrible, terrible name) fires on the Millennium Falcon on Jacen’s orders. Han and Leia’s plot ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, as they escape into hyperspace but we don’t know where they’re headed or what will happen to them with that arrest order still hanging over their heads.
I still question Han instantly siding with the Corellians here, because while I’m sure he’s loyal to his homeworld, he also hasn’t spent very much time on Corellia since his childhood. Leia and Han have a home on Coruscant, and his gung ho Corellian fervor took me by surprise. Similarly, I’m not sure why Leia is cool with all of this? I would have thought that Leia would have to travel places or talk to people in her role as a Jedi, but instead she seems completely free to roam around with Han wherever she likes. (Although I suspect that this freedom will be curtailed after this Hapan disaster.)
I was not expecting Aurra Sing to appear in this book. She was originally just a cameo in The Phantom Menace during the podrace scene, but she played a larger role in the comics and later the Clone Wars show. I was initially surprised that she was still alive (Tempest is 72 years after TPM), but apparently she’s a long-lived near-human. She also drinks blood, because Denning always manages to sneak some weird stuff in.
Luke and Mara play a larger role than they did in the previous two books. Luke is trying to reach out to Ben by sparring with him, and in typical Luke fashion he’s taking it very slow. He wants Ben to realize that his apprenticeship with Jacen isn’t working well, but he makes no active moves to remove Ben from Jacen’s tutelage until the end. Mara is still absolutely fine with Jacen teaching Ben, even as she senses that “something bad will happen.� (Mara�)
Still, Luke assigns Jedi Master Tresina Lobi to follow Ben and spy on Lumiya if she can, and though Lumiya and Alema Rar murder Lobi she still gets a message to Luke. Luke and Mara find evidence that Lumiya is staying in a Galactic Alliance Guard safehouse, and they both build shoto lightsabers in preparation for future fights. Luke first used a shorter shoto blade when facing off against Lumiya in the Marvel comics, and while I admit it looks cool I’m not sure how that would work logistically?
Anyway, Luke and Mara head to Roqoo Depot in the Hapan Cluster to meet up with Ben, but it’s a trap. Lumiya is waiting, and it was all a setup on Jacen’s part. Luke fights Lumiya and Mara fights Alema Rar, Luke is badly wounded, Mara disables Alema and discovers the baddies are wearing deadman’s switches, and Lumiya’s device detonates but Lumiya probably escapes in the confusion. The epilogue concludes with Luke removing Ben from Jacen’s vicinity, but who knows how long that will last.
I am still sympathetic to Ben’s plight, but he comes across as a mouthy kid here, especially in his interactions with Jaina and Zekk.
Having been unceremoniously booted out of the GA military thanks to her brother in , Jaina and Zekk are now…independent Jedi working with the Galactic Alliance. OK. They’re dispatched to Hapes after the Millennium Falcon is spotted heading there, and Tenel Ka sends them to call up the Ducha AlGray’s forces. They arrive to discover that the Ducha is one of the conspirators, and they’re stuck on Terephon until Ben Skywalker and the GAG pick them up. From there, they drop right into the Battle of Hapes, go EV, get picked up by the Falcon, and leave in an escape pod after Ben has a meltdown and wounds Zekk. Jaina has a bit more to do here compared to books one and two. My only quibble is that it's mostly Jaina/Zekk interpersonal stuff, but I will rant about that in the Issues section.
Jagged Fel is back. He was stuck on that Killik world for two years after Leia shot him down, and he’s now completely estranged from his family—the Fel family personally vouched for Lowbacca after he was set free, and his subsequent attack (with Jaina) on the Chiss has ruined the Fel family honor. Jag thinks that finding Alema Rar will allow his family to regain their honor, but he can still never see them again. This is so sad to me! While I don’t think the Fels are an emotional family, they seemed very close; so to exile Jag from his mom and dad and sister just so that he has a reason to stay in the Galactic Alliance feels like a cruel development.
Did I mention that Tenel Ka and Allana are here? Allana is now four years old, and speaks in this cutesy kid voice (“twied� and “Yedi�). I definitely could have done without the speech impediment. Tenel Ka isn’t super active here, and exists more as a plot device than an actual character—see the Issues section for my thoughts on that.
Compared to the first two books, Jacen is much less of a major character here. He knows about that sacrifice prophecy, and he's worried that it means he’ll need to kill Tenel Ka or Allana. But when it appears that his parents are traitors, he’s ready to kill them and write them off as trash. What??? I was a little surprised that Jacen was so quick to jump to conclusions here. He has been self-delusional in these books, but I felt like this went beyond self-delusion to wanting to think the worst of someone without even considering the evidence against them. Tenel Ka expresses some reservations about this snap judgment, but Jacen’s convinced they’ve turned against him and his cause. Then most of Jacen’s plot revolves around Allana, and Allana’s safety—if anything, I think this story shows how much Jacen's willing to do to save his daughter, and how much that will affect his decisions moving forward.
Lumiya now has Alema Rar and Jacen to influence, and she's so committed to her Sith cause that she's willing to die in that fight on Roqoo Depot? Huh. We do get dialogue with Alema, though, that sets up how long she has been lurking and analyzing all the Jedi for Sith aptitude. (For instance, Jaina is too impulsive, and Leia is too fearful of her father’s legacy.)
Alema Rar is a total mess. Every time she encountered Luke or Leia in the Dark Nest trilogy, she came out worse off, and her mental state has really fallen apart. She still speaks in first person plural even though the Gorog nest is gone, and she’s obsessed with achieving Balance by killing the Skywalker/Solos. But she’s bad at it? She kills the World Brain instead of Jacen, and Mara knocks her out during that fight on Roqoo Depot. The only reason she’s still alive is because our heroes hesitate to kill her in cold blood.
ISSUES:
Tempest was surprisingly tame for a Troy Denning novel, until blood and limbs started flying during the Roqoo Depot fight. My preferred level of Troy Denning violence is , and this book started out like that one but definitely got more graphic towards the end.
My second issue was that Tempest presented a much more passive Tenel Ka than I wanted. Part of Tenel Ka’s appeal is her Dathomiri warrior side—even after her accident in the Young Jedi Knights, she is still a fierce, competent fighter and her disability doesn’t affect her fighting skills. I expected that we would see Tenel Ka taking out most of the assassins on her own; but instead we see events from Han and Leia’s POV and Tenel Ka is mostly absent. For the rest of the story, Tenel Ka takes Allana to Jacen’s Star Destroyer and speaks with him, then she leaves to direct the Battle of Hapes off the page. And we don’t get her viewpoint until the Epilogue, where she’s being diplomatic to achieve peace between Jacen and his family. I wish we could have seen Tenel Ka in a more active role, or even Tenel Ka in a command position, but that’s just not here.
Why is Jaina’s plot line so much relationship drama? Even in the New Jedi Order series, when she’s dealing with grief and withdrawing from the world around her, the books focused on her relationship status. Here, she finally tells Zekk to back off because she’s only interested in him as a friend—Zekk is like “cool, I got this”—and it leads to her respecting Zekk more, and considering him anew. Meanwhile, Jag Fel has returned, even though they don’t encounter each other here. I wish Jaina had SOMETHING to do that wasn’t related to guys. She’s in her thirties! Why isn’t she taking the lead in situations? I was excited for her to command Rogue Squadron in Bloodlines, only for that idea to be snatched out from under me in the same book.
My final issue was that aside from Jacen turning on his parents, it felt like his Sith journey was just treading water here. That made me think about the pacing of Jacen’s descent to evil, and whether he needed to partner with Lumiya so early on? I suppose if you add in the Dark Nest trilogy it makes Jacen’s fall a twelve-book arc, but I felt like the authors are holding off on having anyone truly confront Jacen over his actions because we’re only three books into the Legacy of the Force series. That inaction makes Luke and the Jedi Council come across as ineffectual, and I started to wonder whether this civil war and Jacen’s fall needed to be concurrent? Maybe a different order could have worked, like Jacen doing bad things without Lumiya during this conflict, and Lumiya seeking him out as a result? Because Tempest ultimately seemed to be more about the Hapan coup than Jacen’s progression as Sith.
IN CONCLUSION:
Tempest moves the action away from Coruscant and Corellia to Hapes, where a coup attempt is underway and the lives of Tenel Ka and her daughter are at risk. I thought Han and Leia's plot was interesting: they encounter a surprising Prequel era character, and there were finally consequences for their “will-they-won’t-they� attitude towards treason. But while I enjoyed the shift to Hapes and the opportunity to see Tenel Ka again, I feel like the book really did her dirty by having her play such a minor passive role. Likewise, Jacen's descent to the dark side felt like it was on the back burner here, and Tempest was more interested in demonstrating his concern about his daughter and what he will do to secure her safety.
Next up: book four in the Legacy of the Force series, by Aaron Allston.
My YouTube review:
“Your Chance to Name the Next Sith� (October 3, 2006):
January 6, 2022
This is a tough one to grade. It was for the most part OK and well that is OK...
The story involves Jacen continuing his turn to the dark side, his kid cousin Beth wanting to be like him, Jaina getting angrier, Luke looking like a wimp and idiot as this is all happening...yeah. Then through in a Leia/Han in a bad plot that has them being framed for an assassination attempt.
Some of the storyline is a little weak. The whole mind games of Jaina/Jacen/Mara/Luck/Ben/Leia/Han were kind of frustrating. It was like OK people just talk it over as opposed to saying little to each and being like OK we are going to come back to them and breakdown everything they said in the conversation. That was the weak frustrating part of the book and I feel like that is what has been happening as they continue on with this series. It is like Jacen doesn't trust his parents and think they are out to get him or something. Luke/Mara looking completely dumb. The other not so great part was is the person dead or not... just kill them already...
The best part was the action scenes. They made the book.
It seems like a harsh review and it really isn't that bad though. There was some good things that set up the series up. Only 6 more left.
The story involves Jacen continuing his turn to the dark side, his kid cousin Beth wanting to be like him, Jaina getting angrier, Luke looking like a wimp and idiot as this is all happening...yeah. Then through in a Leia/Han in a bad plot that has them being framed for an assassination attempt.
Some of the storyline is a little weak. The whole mind games of Jaina/Jacen/Mara/Luck/Ben/Leia/Han were kind of frustrating. It was like OK people just talk it over as opposed to saying little to each and being like OK we are going to come back to them and breakdown everything they said in the conversation. That was the weak frustrating part of the book and I feel like that is what has been happening as they continue on with this series. It is like Jacen doesn't trust his parents and think they are out to get him or something. Luke/Mara looking completely dumb. The other not so great part was is the person dead or not... just kill them already...
The best part was the action scenes. They made the book.
It seems like a harsh review and it really isn't that bad though. There was some good things that set up the series up. Only 6 more left.
January 19, 2021
Eine spannende Lektüre für Star Wars Fans. Anders als viele andere Leser habe ich das Extended Universe erst nach dem Disney Canon für mich entdeckt. Bisher hat sich das EU aber als eine wahre Goldgrube an Star Wars Geschichten erwiesen.
September 18, 2024
I had no clue what was going on but idk if that’s the result of not reading the first two books or if there were too many double-crosses to keep straight
January 26, 2024
Jacen Solo, apprenticing with a Sith. Had the galaxy gone mad?
Legacy of the Force the Third: Tempest. I'm really not quite sure what to think of this one. It contains many of the usual flaws of the post-NJO while also failing to build up on the series' moral-philosophical core in any meaningful way; in that sense, Tempest might be considered the least meaningful of its ilk. On the other hand, this is a much more readable and technically solid book than its predecessor could ever muster up to be; as far as being pulpy escapism goes, Denning does succeed here. In the end, all I can really think of is question how we even got here in the first place.
I do stand by my initial comments on its technical worth, though. To put it simply, Troy Denning can write fiction, he is familiar with the basics of narrative structure and the construction of scenes, and he knows that, most of the time, at least, Star Wars should strive to be escapism first and political caricature second (which is not to castigate the existence of "political" SW works per se; it's just that, y'know, they shouldn't consist of twenty identically construed scenes passive-aggressively directed at the British PM...). When all is said and done, I had a fun time reading this book. In a way, it reminds me of some of the New Jedi Order paperbacks: here's the basic message and conflict set up within the first ~30 pages, now have fun with a couple of hours worth of self-contained subplots, general shenanigans, and interesting callbacks 'till we wrap the entire thing up. I can work with that. There is, of course, no escape from the ever-present Denningisms� - Alema Rar is reintroduced and sexualized in record time, the cast and reader reader are inflicted with another hilarious alien comedy duo, and some of those action scenes are perhaps a bit too graphic - but sure, whatever, Denning do what Denning please. It's idiosyncratic tendencies like these that make reading different authors' works such a fun experience. LOTF 3 easily passes the basic tenets of pulpy escapism with a Star Wars twist.
So what about those usual Legacy of the Force trappings? As seems to be the standard now, the continuity has once more taken a couple of hits, with the Galactic Alliance's declaration of war having seemingly been turned over once more. I mean, the GA and Corellia do appear to be in some sort of conflict with one another, but the full-scale battles promised by book 1 are still missing in favor of what ends up being nothing more than a proxy war: both parties having a stake in the future of the Hapes Consortium and its current Queen Mother, Tenel Ka. There we have Tempest's self-contained qualities again. To be fair, Denning does at least try to bring in some of his cohorts' characters and ideas: both Wedge Antilles and Dur Gejjen are immediately reintroduced at the beginning of the book, but sadly both characters end up being quasi forgotten for the rest of the narrative. What we get instead is a return to the Hapans and their court intrigue, which is certainly an interesting element of the setting and one which I've always found interesting, but did we have to bring in another player with how thin the main plot is by this point? Add to that a weird filler plot involving a prequel era character - one whose interactions with Leia directly contradict a statement from the previous novel, no less - and Tempest starts feeling not just self-contained but straight up like a filler episode. Oh, and Jacen's tassels have seemingly been dropped for good by now - a shame, cuz that was one of the more promising set-ups by Allston. The longer we go on, the more Legacy of the Force just ends up feeling like one big missed opportunity.
There are some positive developments, however. Alema Rar has always been a fascinating character in concept, and while I found her appearance in Dark Nest to have failed to deliver on most of that, Tempest more than makes up for it. This time around Alema has adopted a twisted spin on the Jedi belief of Balance in the Force, in which her singular goal seems to be to enact vengeance on the Solo family for all the pain it has previously caused her. At times, this belief is a self-crippling one; multiple times Alema decides against a swift and pragmatic call to action against her enemies for fear that disposing of them quietly would not grant the karmic retribution she desires. I find that more often than not a character that is supposed to be utterly insane tends to come off as such in a very one-dimensional way, so having Alema adopt an idiosyncratic world view like that which ties back into her past is a great decision. Another character that has come back from the shadows is Jagged Fel. An interest choice, for it was Denning himself who systematically destroyed the character and his family life back in Dark Nest. Jag seems to have become a bounty hunter of sorts, which appears to be an homage to his "rival" Zekk after his Dark Side stint. Speaking of, Zekk's relationship with Jaina seems to have been finally given the boot after the previous five novels did the same to Jaina and Jag. I refuse to participate in Jaina Solo shipping discourse, at least for the purpose of this review, so all I'll say is that I do not like the way she is handled in this book, or indeed the series at large so far. Tempest is her most notable appearance in LOTF as of right now, and yet all she can think of is the boys in her life. What an unfortunate heel-turn after the excellence that was NJO!Jaina... Which brings me to how the World Brain is handled. As a quick recap, in the last third of the NJO series, Jacen Solo befriended what was effectively the Yuuzhan Vong's central computer on the conquered Coruscant, the World Brain, and got it to help him with ending the war effort by way of sabotaging any of the local projects. Fast forward to LOTF book 2, and now it is mentioned as having become an intelligence asset to Jacen Solo and his GAG secret police; finally, Tempest takes that plot thread and wraps it up by... I was actually enjoying the Prologue quite a bit, it being where Alema's new philosophy is unveiled in the Yuuzhan'tar-shaped lower levels of Coruscant, but that development just soured the entire thing for me. At this point I can't help but think that certain folks at Del Rey had active beef with the previous storyline. A mixed bag of developments good and bad.
Finally, I have to mention the continued development of Jacen Solo, who has taken yet another 180 degree turn from the previous work, having made the decision to wholly reject his emotional ties and accept the necessity of Tenel Ka and Allana's sacrifice. In this book he is utterly dominated by petulant emotion and tries to reason himself out of extinguishing the lives of his daughter and her mother. Okay. What I find particularly depressing about this is how the moral-philosophical strand that had dominated the character's thoughts seems to have been dropped completely by now. Jacen is no longer acting out of misplaced utilitarianism but rather a quest for hedonistic self-fulfillment, essentially - thus needlessly contradicting the path he was on as a character. He callously brands his parents as "terrorist scum", he cripples his own military strategy out of fear for Allana and her alone, and he even Force-chokes a member of his staff. This is a terrible approach to developing your quasi-protagonist-turned-antagonist; he's no longer a morally complex anti-hero, but rather what I would consider an Anakin Skywalker pastiche - that part of Bloodlines' Jacen characterization Denning did keep. I just hope that Allston can put the character back on track, as well as the main plot...
Legacy of the Force: Tempest is an easy, quick, and generally entertaining read. However, it falls into many of the same trappings as the works that preceded it, and in fact makes a few of the more underlying problems even worse. It's better than Bloodlines, sure, but in the end fails to particularly stand out as a work of its own and does not manage to reach the heights of Troy Denning's first three Star Wars novels. In spite of how highly uneven this series' first third was -or perhaps precisely because of that - I'm quite stoked to see how Aaron Allston goes about putting the three authors' different visions together in his second LOTF entry and the beginning of its middle third, Exile.
Legacy of the Force the Third: Tempest. I'm really not quite sure what to think of this one. It contains many of the usual flaws of the post-NJO while also failing to build up on the series' moral-philosophical core in any meaningful way; in that sense, Tempest might be considered the least meaningful of its ilk. On the other hand, this is a much more readable and technically solid book than its predecessor could ever muster up to be; as far as being pulpy escapism goes, Denning does succeed here. In the end, all I can really think of is question how we even got here in the first place.
I do stand by my initial comments on its technical worth, though. To put it simply, Troy Denning can write fiction, he is familiar with the basics of narrative structure and the construction of scenes, and he knows that, most of the time, at least, Star Wars should strive to be escapism first and political caricature second (which is not to castigate the existence of "political" SW works per se; it's just that, y'know, they shouldn't consist of twenty identically construed scenes passive-aggressively directed at the British PM...). When all is said and done, I had a fun time reading this book. In a way, it reminds me of some of the New Jedi Order paperbacks: here's the basic message and conflict set up within the first ~30 pages, now have fun with a couple of hours worth of self-contained subplots, general shenanigans, and interesting callbacks 'till we wrap the entire thing up. I can work with that. There is, of course, no escape from the ever-present Denningisms� - Alema Rar is reintroduced and sexualized in record time, the cast and reader reader are inflicted with another hilarious alien comedy duo, and some of those action scenes are perhaps a bit too graphic - but sure, whatever, Denning do what Denning please. It's idiosyncratic tendencies like these that make reading different authors' works such a fun experience. LOTF 3 easily passes the basic tenets of pulpy escapism with a Star Wars twist.
So what about those usual Legacy of the Force trappings? As seems to be the standard now, the continuity has once more taken a couple of hits, with the Galactic Alliance's declaration of war having seemingly been turned over once more. I mean, the GA and Corellia do appear to be in some sort of conflict with one another, but the full-scale battles promised by book 1 are still missing in favor of what ends up being nothing more than a proxy war: both parties having a stake in the future of the Hapes Consortium and its current Queen Mother, Tenel Ka. There we have Tempest's self-contained qualities again. To be fair, Denning does at least try to bring in some of his cohorts' characters and ideas: both Wedge Antilles and Dur Gejjen are immediately reintroduced at the beginning of the book, but sadly both characters end up being quasi forgotten for the rest of the narrative. What we get instead is a return to the Hapans and their court intrigue, which is certainly an interesting element of the setting and one which I've always found interesting, but did we have to bring in another player with how thin the main plot is by this point? Add to that a weird filler plot involving a prequel era character - one whose interactions with Leia directly contradict a statement from the previous novel, no less - and Tempest starts feeling not just self-contained but straight up like a filler episode. Oh, and Jacen's tassels have seemingly been dropped for good by now - a shame, cuz that was one of the more promising set-ups by Allston. The longer we go on, the more Legacy of the Force just ends up feeling like one big missed opportunity.
There are some positive developments, however. Alema Rar has always been a fascinating character in concept, and while I found her appearance in Dark Nest to have failed to deliver on most of that, Tempest more than makes up for it. This time around Alema has adopted a twisted spin on the Jedi belief of Balance in the Force, in which her singular goal seems to be to enact vengeance on the Solo family for all the pain it has previously caused her. At times, this belief is a self-crippling one; multiple times Alema decides against a swift and pragmatic call to action against her enemies for fear that disposing of them quietly would not grant the karmic retribution she desires. I find that more often than not a character that is supposed to be utterly insane tends to come off as such in a very one-dimensional way, so having Alema adopt an idiosyncratic world view like that which ties back into her past is a great decision. Another character that has come back from the shadows is Jagged Fel. An interest choice, for it was Denning himself who systematically destroyed the character and his family life back in Dark Nest. Jag seems to have become a bounty hunter of sorts, which appears to be an homage to his "rival" Zekk after his Dark Side stint. Speaking of, Zekk's relationship with Jaina seems to have been finally given the boot after the previous five novels did the same to Jaina and Jag. I refuse to participate in Jaina Solo shipping discourse, at least for the purpose of this review, so all I'll say is that I do not like the way she is handled in this book, or indeed the series at large so far. Tempest is her most notable appearance in LOTF as of right now, and yet all she can think of is the boys in her life. What an unfortunate heel-turn after the excellence that was NJO!Jaina... Which brings me to how the World Brain is handled. As a quick recap, in the last third of the NJO series, Jacen Solo befriended what was effectively the Yuuzhan Vong's central computer on the conquered Coruscant, the World Brain, and got it to help him with ending the war effort by way of sabotaging any of the local projects. Fast forward to LOTF book 2, and now it is mentioned as having become an intelligence asset to Jacen Solo and his GAG secret police; finally, Tempest takes that plot thread and wraps it up by... I was actually enjoying the Prologue quite a bit, it being where Alema's new philosophy is unveiled in the Yuuzhan'tar-shaped lower levels of Coruscant, but that development just soured the entire thing for me. At this point I can't help but think that certain folks at Del Rey had active beef with the previous storyline. A mixed bag of developments good and bad.
Finally, I have to mention the continued development of Jacen Solo, who has taken yet another 180 degree turn from the previous work, having made the decision to wholly reject his emotional ties and accept the necessity of Tenel Ka and Allana's sacrifice. In this book he is utterly dominated by petulant emotion and tries to reason himself out of extinguishing the lives of his daughter and her mother. Okay. What I find particularly depressing about this is how the moral-philosophical strand that had dominated the character's thoughts seems to have been dropped completely by now. Jacen is no longer acting out of misplaced utilitarianism but rather a quest for hedonistic self-fulfillment, essentially - thus needlessly contradicting the path he was on as a character. He callously brands his parents as "terrorist scum", he cripples his own military strategy out of fear for Allana and her alone, and he even Force-chokes a member of his staff. This is a terrible approach to developing your quasi-protagonist-turned-antagonist; he's no longer a morally complex anti-hero, but rather what I would consider an Anakin Skywalker pastiche - that part of Bloodlines' Jacen characterization Denning did keep. I just hope that Allston can put the character back on track, as well as the main plot...
Legacy of the Force: Tempest is an easy, quick, and generally entertaining read. However, it falls into many of the same trappings as the works that preceded it, and in fact makes a few of the more underlying problems even worse. It's better than Bloodlines, sure, but in the end fails to particularly stand out as a work of its own and does not manage to reach the heights of Troy Denning's first three Star Wars novels. In spite of how highly uneven this series' first third was -or perhaps precisely because of that - I'm quite stoked to see how Aaron Allston goes about putting the three authors' different visions together in his second LOTF entry and the beginning of its middle third, Exile.
September 26, 2021
I read this book when it first came out in 2006. I remember enjoying it. I found a hardcover copy when I was traveling this summer through several states, so I picked it up and decided to read it again. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This is the third book in the Legacy of the Force arc and I hadn't read any of the previous books in the series since they came out. I was able to pick up on the earlier plot points easily.
There are several plotlines going on: someone has murdered a Jedi and Luke and Mara discover that a familiar Sith is behind it. Complicating matters is that they believe Jacen Solo is being trained by this antagonist. I loved how Luke was treading carefully around Jacen, not wishing to push him to the Dark Side, accidentally creating another person like his father. And also creating trouble is that the Jedi's son Ben is incredibly loyal to Jacen, causing his parents to wonder if maybe he's the Sith's actually prey and not his cousin.
Leia and Han are asked to go on a diplomatic mission by a familiar face and find themselves in trouble that has them running from several factions of the galaxy. Again, Denning made the dialogue absolutely true to the characters and the action top notch.
Jaina Skywalker is partnered with her not-my-boyfriend Zekk and they find themselves equally deep in trouble. Again, Denning makes their moments fantastic.
Everything about this book worked. It made me so happy to read and incredibly nostalgic to reread all of the original Star Wars novels before Disney acquired the franchise and erased them. This was everything I wanted in a Star Wars book and more. Brilliant.
This is the third book in the Legacy of the Force arc and I hadn't read any of the previous books in the series since they came out. I was able to pick up on the earlier plot points easily.
There are several plotlines going on: someone has murdered a Jedi and Luke and Mara discover that a familiar Sith is behind it. Complicating matters is that they believe Jacen Solo is being trained by this antagonist. I loved how Luke was treading carefully around Jacen, not wishing to push him to the Dark Side, accidentally creating another person like his father. And also creating trouble is that the Jedi's son Ben is incredibly loyal to Jacen, causing his parents to wonder if maybe he's the Sith's actually prey and not his cousin.
Leia and Han are asked to go on a diplomatic mission by a familiar face and find themselves in trouble that has them running from several factions of the galaxy. Again, Denning made the dialogue absolutely true to the characters and the action top notch.
Jaina Skywalker is partnered with her not-my-boyfriend Zekk and they find themselves equally deep in trouble. Again, Denning makes their moments fantastic.
Everything about this book worked. It made me so happy to read and incredibly nostalgic to reread all of the original Star Wars novels before Disney acquired the franchise and erased them. This was everything I wanted in a Star Wars book and more. Brilliant.
January 17, 2024
I have to admit that I am disappointed in this book. The Legacy of the Force series started off very strong, but this one seems to have gone off the rails. Jacen Solo takes a backseat to plot elements that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things as set up in the two previous books and that is a great detriment. Jacen's arc has been compelling to me so far and I was excited to delve deeper into it. I am hoping this series is able to course correct. Unfortunately, this was not a strong entry in the series so far and felt like the creators were stalling for time.
February 13, 2025
Everyone in this book is so goddamn fucking stupid
September 7, 2022
I'd push this one to 3.5 stars...a superb, intense introduction leads into a lot of talk, a lot of sulking, a lot of planning and machinations, punctuated by action set pieces. It keeps the story arc going at a slow burn, but with enough spice to be explosive at times.
January 21, 2014
I enjoyed Star Wars "Tempest" because there is always something that can catch your attention. If you have not read the first two books, you will not understand everything that is happening. The story line continues on throughout the series. There are a lot of controversial situations. The further you get into the book some of the characters start to have bad judgment calls. This makes for a very interesting story line. There are so many unexpected things that happen throughout the last book of this series.
This was told through many different characters points of view. Some of the things mention in Star Wars “Tempest� is starting to come to life because of our new technology that has advanced. Some of this could happen in real life. Throughout the book many of these characters change especially how they feel about each other.
Jason was sent to another planet to help investigate the assignation of the queen. Luke orders Master Lobi to follow Ben. Lumiya meets with Jason and Ben in the park. Ben did not realize that he just met the Sith Lord. When Jason and Ben leave the park, Lumiya comes and kills Master Lobi.
Star Wars “Tempest� takes place on the Planet Courosant and in the future.
Star Wars “Tempest� theme is how to tell your friends from your enemies, and don't let them take advantage of you.
I enjoyed this book because of all the battles that continue from the last books. They are always introducing new characters in each series. I would recommend this series to ages 14 and up. It is a great book for people who like science fiction movies and books.
This was told through many different characters points of view. Some of the things mention in Star Wars “Tempest� is starting to come to life because of our new technology that has advanced. Some of this could happen in real life. Throughout the book many of these characters change especially how they feel about each other.
Jason was sent to another planet to help investigate the assignation of the queen. Luke orders Master Lobi to follow Ben. Lumiya meets with Jason and Ben in the park. Ben did not realize that he just met the Sith Lord. When Jason and Ben leave the park, Lumiya comes and kills Master Lobi.
Star Wars “Tempest� takes place on the Planet Courosant and in the future.
Star Wars “Tempest� theme is how to tell your friends from your enemies, and don't let them take advantage of you.
I enjoyed this book because of all the battles that continue from the last books. They are always introducing new characters in each series. I would recommend this series to ages 14 and up. It is a great book for people who like science fiction movies and books.
December 5, 2016
italic text: Legacy of The Force: Tempest: a Book Worth of Being Called a Star Wars Book
Tempest, by Troy Denning, is the third book in the Legacy of The Force series. It is a great book and worthy of the Star Wars name. It takes place after the book Bloodlines, when Jacen Solo was rapidly turning to the Dark Side.
In Tempest, Han and Leia Solo are accused of participating in the attempted assassination of the Hapans Queen Mother Tenel Ka, a friend of theirs. Jacen Solo believes that they did try to do that and put a search and detain order on them. Han and Leia go undercover within the assassination attempters in order to find out how to prevent future attacks. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and his wife Mara are concerned about their son Ben and the possibility of Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith, returning and working with Jacen. There is a civil war in the Galaxy, and it seems like there might end up being one in the Skywalker-Solo family too.
I think that Tempest is a good book for any Star Wars fan. It is an amazing book with a good plot. It has the Star Wars feel. It focuses a lot in one place in the Hapans Consortium, which you would have to read early books to know about. The book will seem to make more sense if you have read the earlier books in the series. If you like Star Wars, you should read this book.
Tempest, by Troy Denning, is the third book in the Legacy of The Force series. It is a great book and worthy of the Star Wars name. It takes place after the book Bloodlines, when Jacen Solo was rapidly turning to the Dark Side.
In Tempest, Han and Leia Solo are accused of participating in the attempted assassination of the Hapans Queen Mother Tenel Ka, a friend of theirs. Jacen Solo believes that they did try to do that and put a search and detain order on them. Han and Leia go undercover within the assassination attempters in order to find out how to prevent future attacks. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and his wife Mara are concerned about their son Ben and the possibility of Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith, returning and working with Jacen. There is a civil war in the Galaxy, and it seems like there might end up being one in the Skywalker-Solo family too.
I think that Tempest is a good book for any Star Wars fan. It is an amazing book with a good plot. It has the Star Wars feel. It focuses a lot in one place in the Hapans Consortium, which you would have to read early books to know about. The book will seem to make more sense if you have read the earlier books in the series. If you like Star Wars, you should read this book.
December 12, 2016
Personal Response
I think that this book was very good because it had a lot of unexpected twists and turns. Also it had very tense moments that not all books have. I think that the author did a great job overall with this book and so far in the series.
Plot
The first thing that happens is that Jaina and Zekk are flying new Stealth X fighters when they are attacked by the Corellian fleet but manage to evade them and tell of the Corellian fleets location. Then Han Solo and Leia Organa go to the Hapes cluster and are suspected of aiding an assasination attempt but they escape. The Ruler of the Hapes cluster escapes to the Galactic Alliance but travels back after half of a year. Then a fleet tries to take over the Hapes Cluster but is stopped by the Galactic Alliance. Then Ben picks up Jaina and Zekk when there starfighters crash and they make it onto the Millinium Falcon but are fired at by the Star Destroyer ''Anakin Solo''.
Recommendation
I would recommend this book to boys middle to high school because they are the types who usually like a lot of action. I would not recmmend this to girls of any age because girls do not usually like this kind of stuff
I think that this book was very good because it had a lot of unexpected twists and turns. Also it had very tense moments that not all books have. I think that the author did a great job overall with this book and so far in the series.
Plot
The first thing that happens is that Jaina and Zekk are flying new Stealth X fighters when they are attacked by the Corellian fleet but manage to evade them and tell of the Corellian fleets location. Then Han Solo and Leia Organa go to the Hapes cluster and are suspected of aiding an assasination attempt but they escape. The Ruler of the Hapes cluster escapes to the Galactic Alliance but travels back after half of a year. Then a fleet tries to take over the Hapes Cluster but is stopped by the Galactic Alliance. Then Ben picks up Jaina and Zekk when there starfighters crash and they make it onto the Millinium Falcon but are fired at by the Star Destroyer ''Anakin Solo''.
Recommendation
I would recommend this book to boys middle to high school because they are the types who usually like a lot of action. I would not recmmend this to girls of any age because girls do not usually like this kind of stuff
September 15, 2013
Troy Denning usually produces a top notch Star Wars adventure, and this one is no exception. Readers will enjoy the ever widening gap of mistrust between the Skywalkers and the Solos, the Skywalkers and their son & nephew, the Solos and their son, Jacen. It all looks to be leading to a new Darth, but will it be Jacen or Ben? At this point it is hard to tell if one or both become Sith Lords. Add to the action and suspense is the introduction (or is that return) of a bounty hunter from the distant past (Clone Wars era past) that seemingly, and unexpectedly, disappeared from the universe. My only complaint with this book was the too-many twists sometimes left me confused as to who was who and who was on whose side. I understand why Denning did it, to build suspense, but it became unclear what was going on at times and the ultimate result was a four star book that could have been a five.
November 14, 2023
The writing is all over the place. Every action scene is jumbled and confusing. There's tons of hyper-sexualizing every woman character (of course!), and some liberal racism tossed in (a character is described as being unbelievably ugly because she has big lips and a wide nose). Leia might as well be a third-tier character, and the other main characters are mostly annoying. And, please gods, give Jaina a life outside of her failed romances! Just please.
Still tho...I like the plot of Jacen's dark turn too much to be completely disappointed in this. Sure, the story could be better developed, but it's good enough for what it is. Keeping my hopes low, and moving on.
Still tho...I like the plot of Jacen's dark turn too much to be completely disappointed in this. Sure, the story could be better developed, but it's good enough for what it is. Keeping my hopes low, and moving on.
March 16, 2018
Whereas most of the EU books to me feel like they could be a movie in and of themselves, this one felt more like an episode of a TV show. That's not a knock against it -- and in fact, I ended up reading it over 3 days (at the sacrifice of sleep) --but just so folks are aware.
December 17, 2022
4.5 stars-The slow slide of Jacen to the Dark Side really ramps up in this one where he sends out an order to have his parents detained and then even fires on them. Jacen also tries to backstab Lumiya, which most likely didn't work, but was interesting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2018
Jacen continues to move closer to the dark side of the Force Luke worries that Hus sob, Ben is in danger of following in his master's footsteps.
March 29, 2025
How the hell is Alema Rar still alive? After all the brutal dismemberments and torture she had during the Dark Nest Trilogy, she's still alive?? How is that good writing? For that point, how in the fuck is Aurra Sing still alive either???
Welcome to the Denningverse.
Some of the positives from this book were the political stuff and the intrigue, even if I believe that all the characters are acting in complete opposite of how they should be and the plot is moved forward by them making stupid decisions for the sake of plot (aka pretty much on par for LOTF and the Denningverse books so far).
Anyway, plot summary:
Han and Leia are sent by the new Corellian Government to reach out to Tenal Ka and the Hapan Consortium about leaving the Galactic Alliance and joining them. But it turns out to be a set-up cause the Corellians hired assassins to kill her and her daughter, with the help of some anti-GA Hapan nobles. Believed to be part of the plot, Han and Leia are forced to flee and act as spies with one of the failed assassins, who is revealed to be the Jedi Hunter Aurra Sing (who, for whatever reason, is somehow still alive). Jaina and Zekk are sent to investigate the whole thing, and are targeted by the nobles working with Corellia. They're forced to escape. Jacen, afraid for Tenal Ka and their daughter, declares his parents enemies of the state and dispatches a warrant for their arrest. He sends Ben to go pick Jaina and Zekk up and rendezvous with Luke and Mara, who are worried about Ben and discover that Lumiya is working with the GA. Believing that Jacen is part of it, they decide to end Ben's apprenticeship with him and bring him home. However, Ben and the others decide to go help Tenal Ka at Hapan. Meanwhile, Alema meets up with Lumiya and pledges to work with her in order to get revenge on the Solos and Skywalkers...cause apparently it's their fault she got mind-raped by a bunch of bugs and ripped apart. Together, they ambush Luke and Mara and nearly kill them. They manage to escape, and Lumiya is presumed dead in an explosion. Thinking that Jacen set them up, they reaffirm their decision to take Ben from him.
The Corellians and the rebel nobles attack the Consortium, and Han and Leia get in the middle of the fight trying to send Ka a message to hold out for an alliance fleet. Ben, Jaina, and Zekk end up in the middle of the battle, and end up getting picked up by the Falcon. Earlier, Han and Leia had sent a message to Luke and Jacen saying they weren't involved in the assassination attempt, and Jacen seemed to be willing to remove the warrant against them. However, Alema ends up visiting him on his star destroyer (tackily named Anakin Solo, of all things...) and manages to convince him that his parents information has hindered his efforts more than helped (which apparently wasn't too hard, since now Jacen has the iq of a womp rat thanks to Troy's writing and will believe anything anyone tells him). Convinced that they're to blame now, he orders his ship to open fire on them, while they have Ben and Jaina on board. While they're trying to repair the falcon and get out of there, Ben tries, for God knows what reason, to arrest Han and Leia and compel them to surrender. He also insults Jaina, claiming that she got kicked out of the military because of her temper (he also wonders elsewhere how she managed to survive in the military as long as she did, and believes that the military was worse off before cause of the Vuuzhan Vong war. Ooookaaaay....). In the fight that follows, he injures Zekk and Han forces them into the Falcon's escape pods. Somehow, they manage to escape, though not without a cost (RIP Meewalh and Cakhmaim) and massive damage to the ship.
In the end, the Consortium is saved and Tenal and her daughter are alive, but the rift between Jacen and the rest of the Skywalkers/Solos is growing.
Welcome to the Denningverse.
Some of the positives from this book were the political stuff and the intrigue, even if I believe that all the characters are acting in complete opposite of how they should be and the plot is moved forward by them making stupid decisions for the sake of plot (aka pretty much on par for LOTF and the Denningverse books so far).
Anyway, plot summary:
Han and Leia are sent by the new Corellian Government to reach out to Tenal Ka and the Hapan Consortium about leaving the Galactic Alliance and joining them. But it turns out to be a set-up cause the Corellians hired assassins to kill her and her daughter, with the help of some anti-GA Hapan nobles. Believed to be part of the plot, Han and Leia are forced to flee and act as spies with one of the failed assassins, who is revealed to be the Jedi Hunter Aurra Sing (who, for whatever reason, is somehow still alive). Jaina and Zekk are sent to investigate the whole thing, and are targeted by the nobles working with Corellia. They're forced to escape. Jacen, afraid for Tenal Ka and their daughter, declares his parents enemies of the state and dispatches a warrant for their arrest. He sends Ben to go pick Jaina and Zekk up and rendezvous with Luke and Mara, who are worried about Ben and discover that Lumiya is working with the GA. Believing that Jacen is part of it, they decide to end Ben's apprenticeship with him and bring him home. However, Ben and the others decide to go help Tenal Ka at Hapan. Meanwhile, Alema meets up with Lumiya and pledges to work with her in order to get revenge on the Solos and Skywalkers...cause apparently it's their fault she got mind-raped by a bunch of bugs and ripped apart. Together, they ambush Luke and Mara and nearly kill them. They manage to escape, and Lumiya is presumed dead in an explosion. Thinking that Jacen set them up, they reaffirm their decision to take Ben from him.
The Corellians and the rebel nobles attack the Consortium, and Han and Leia get in the middle of the fight trying to send Ka a message to hold out for an alliance fleet. Ben, Jaina, and Zekk end up in the middle of the battle, and end up getting picked up by the Falcon. Earlier, Han and Leia had sent a message to Luke and Jacen saying they weren't involved in the assassination attempt, and Jacen seemed to be willing to remove the warrant against them. However, Alema ends up visiting him on his star destroyer (tackily named Anakin Solo, of all things...) and manages to convince him that his parents information has hindered his efforts more than helped (which apparently wasn't too hard, since now Jacen has the iq of a womp rat thanks to Troy's writing and will believe anything anyone tells him). Convinced that they're to blame now, he orders his ship to open fire on them, while they have Ben and Jaina on board. While they're trying to repair the falcon and get out of there, Ben tries, for God knows what reason, to arrest Han and Leia and compel them to surrender. He also insults Jaina, claiming that she got kicked out of the military because of her temper (he also wonders elsewhere how she managed to survive in the military as long as she did, and believes that the military was worse off before cause of the Vuuzhan Vong war. Ooookaaaay....). In the fight that follows, he injures Zekk and Han forces them into the Falcon's escape pods. Somehow, they manage to escape, though not without a cost (RIP Meewalh and Cakhmaim) and massive damage to the ship.
In the end, the Consortium is saved and Tenal and her daughter are alive, but the rift between Jacen and the rest of the Skywalkers/Solos is growing.
March 29, 2018
Rating: 7/10
Aptly Named...A Good Book and Continuation of the Series
Warning: This review may contains spoilers.
Tempest, is an equally enjoyable book and an equally frustrating book. Jacen Solo finally is making proper leaps towards the dark side, and just when you think he has the ball rolling, and the descent is really going to begin, he begins taking a couple of steps back by the end of the novel. Though that being said, his fluctuations between the light and the darkside where a lot more believable in the context as he is straddling both lines in comparison to the first two novels, in which his decisions were hard to understand the reasoning behind.
Along with this frustration is how the Skywalker's and Solo's are viewing Jacen's descent into the darkside. I know there is no helping someone who thinks they are absolutely doing the right thing, or doesn't want to be helped, but no one, not even his twin are really reaching out to help him. In Tempest everyone, aside from Ben who has been under Jacen's influence too long to see anything else, understands exactly where Jacen is heading and yet believe that he will have an epiphany and return back to the right course. After Luke and Mara's experience with the darkside its hard to fathom that, its hard to fathom that Leia, Han and Jaina aren't trying to get through to them. I just feel for the most part Jacen's family is stuck in no man's land. It's their family member who is going to the darkside, so I understand that family you give more the benefit of the doubt and more chances than they should but its right there in front of their faces, yet at the same time, no one is really caring to try and reach out. It's just an odd position for the family to be in my opinion.
Despite that this novel is a good Star Wars read and continuation of the Legagcy of the Force and glad to see this time, more focused on the central characters and families, as opposed to introducing all these new characters that potentially we will never read of hear of in this series, and probably any other Star Wars series.
I am glad to see Mara and Luke finally remove, unwillingly, Ben from Jacen's immediate influence. I look forward to seeing the friction this is going to cause between Ben and his parents, and just see how much Jacen has been able to influence Ben which will cause him to make mistakes, potentially towards the darkside. Its just really fascinating to see how much of an influence Jacen has had on and still has on Ben, with him having no conscious knowledge of it despite what everyone is telling him.
Whilst not a bad thing, it is amusing that with all the force sensitives in the Skywalker and Solo families, and all their abilities no one has managed to pickup on the fact that Jacen has a daughter, and also erased that memory from Ben's mind. All those skills, and no one is able to pick up a stray thought or feel an force links/bonds between Jacen, Tenel Ka and Allana. I'm glad to see that despite what is happening to Jacen, we are still expanding on the relationship already established in earlier series of Jacen and Tenel Ka.
So far Tempest's quicker paced plot, plot twists, better balanced politics, with the force and our favourite characters make this the best of the first three books in the Legacy of the Force series. I am hoping to see more of Mara in her last couple of novels, especially some good moments between her and Luke and her and Ben. Reading to delve into the next in the series.
Aptly Named...A Good Book and Continuation of the Series
Warning: This review may contains spoilers.
Tempest, is an equally enjoyable book and an equally frustrating book. Jacen Solo finally is making proper leaps towards the dark side, and just when you think he has the ball rolling, and the descent is really going to begin, he begins taking a couple of steps back by the end of the novel. Though that being said, his fluctuations between the light and the darkside where a lot more believable in the context as he is straddling both lines in comparison to the first two novels, in which his decisions were hard to understand the reasoning behind.
Along with this frustration is how the Skywalker's and Solo's are viewing Jacen's descent into the darkside. I know there is no helping someone who thinks they are absolutely doing the right thing, or doesn't want to be helped, but no one, not even his twin are really reaching out to help him. In Tempest everyone, aside from Ben who has been under Jacen's influence too long to see anything else, understands exactly where Jacen is heading and yet believe that he will have an epiphany and return back to the right course. After Luke and Mara's experience with the darkside its hard to fathom that, its hard to fathom that Leia, Han and Jaina aren't trying to get through to them. I just feel for the most part Jacen's family is stuck in no man's land. It's their family member who is going to the darkside, so I understand that family you give more the benefit of the doubt and more chances than they should but its right there in front of their faces, yet at the same time, no one is really caring to try and reach out. It's just an odd position for the family to be in my opinion.
Despite that this novel is a good Star Wars read and continuation of the Legagcy of the Force and glad to see this time, more focused on the central characters and families, as opposed to introducing all these new characters that potentially we will never read of hear of in this series, and probably any other Star Wars series.
I am glad to see Mara and Luke finally remove, unwillingly, Ben from Jacen's immediate influence. I look forward to seeing the friction this is going to cause between Ben and his parents, and just see how much Jacen has been able to influence Ben which will cause him to make mistakes, potentially towards the darkside. Its just really fascinating to see how much of an influence Jacen has had on and still has on Ben, with him having no conscious knowledge of it despite what everyone is telling him.
Whilst not a bad thing, it is amusing that with all the force sensitives in the Skywalker and Solo families, and all their abilities no one has managed to pickup on the fact that Jacen has a daughter, and also erased that memory from Ben's mind. All those skills, and no one is able to pick up a stray thought or feel an force links/bonds between Jacen, Tenel Ka and Allana. I'm glad to see that despite what is happening to Jacen, we are still expanding on the relationship already established in earlier series of Jacen and Tenel Ka.
So far Tempest's quicker paced plot, plot twists, better balanced politics, with the force and our favourite characters make this the best of the first three books in the Legacy of the Force series. I am hoping to see more of Mara in her last couple of novels, especially some good moments between her and Luke and her and Ben. Reading to delve into the next in the series.
August 2, 2020
In a long-running series, there are bound to be installments that feel more like filler; where the story feels like it is expanding more than it is progressing. Tempest appears to be such an installment for the Legacy of the Force novel series.
It's not that nothing happens here. There is a ton of plot in this book. Alema Rar is back from the dead and attempts to assassinate Jacen. Then she decides to join up with Lumiya instead. Meanwhile, there is an attempt on the life of Tenel Ka over in the Hapes Cluster, and Han and Leia are prime suspects, because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, on covert business for the Corellian government. Jaina and Zekk get involved looking for the assassin, but then become targets for unknown Hapan conspirators. Luke and Mara investigate the murder of a Jedi on Coruscant, tracing it back to Lumiya. And Ben . . . well, he's doing things too. A lot of the usual suspects are running around doing the usual stuff - politics and intrigue and fighting. It's a lot of sound and fury, signifying . . . well, not much.
Nonetheless, Denning's writing proves a bit stronger this time. Although still prone to over-plotting and attempts to draw in elements from every Star Wars novel ever written, his inclination to write scenes of nasty violence has been somewhat tempered here. There is plenty of action, but less gore, and fewer tragic deaths. And although Jacen continues down his path to the Dark Side of the Force, Denning does not revel in sadness, anger, or grief the way he seemed to during the New Jedi Order series, or even during the Swarm War novels. Instead, he builds (mostly) plausible psychological positions for his characters, attempting to justify the tensions between the regular heroes of the Galactic Alliance and move the story forward. I still like Allston and Traviss's writing better, but this book was better than I had hoped for from Denning. Sometimes, it's all about expectations.
Like the Waterloo discursion in Les Miserables, I feel like the most significant things to happen in this novel occur near the very end. We take a long walk through a lot of extra territory to wind up at some fairly basic conclusions. Still, the journey could have been a lot worse.
It's not that nothing happens here. There is a ton of plot in this book. Alema Rar is back from the dead and attempts to assassinate Jacen. Then she decides to join up with Lumiya instead. Meanwhile, there is an attempt on the life of Tenel Ka over in the Hapes Cluster, and Han and Leia are prime suspects, because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, on covert business for the Corellian government. Jaina and Zekk get involved looking for the assassin, but then become targets for unknown Hapan conspirators. Luke and Mara investigate the murder of a Jedi on Coruscant, tracing it back to Lumiya. And Ben . . . well, he's doing things too. A lot of the usual suspects are running around doing the usual stuff - politics and intrigue and fighting. It's a lot of sound and fury, signifying . . . well, not much.
Nonetheless, Denning's writing proves a bit stronger this time. Although still prone to over-plotting and attempts to draw in elements from every Star Wars novel ever written, his inclination to write scenes of nasty violence has been somewhat tempered here. There is plenty of action, but less gore, and fewer tragic deaths. And although Jacen continues down his path to the Dark Side of the Force, Denning does not revel in sadness, anger, or grief the way he seemed to during the New Jedi Order series, or even during the Swarm War novels. Instead, he builds (mostly) plausible psychological positions for his characters, attempting to justify the tensions between the regular heroes of the Galactic Alliance and move the story forward. I still like Allston and Traviss's writing better, but this book was better than I had hoped for from Denning. Sometimes, it's all about expectations.
Like the Waterloo discursion in Les Miserables, I feel like the most significant things to happen in this novel occur near the very end. We take a long walk through a lot of extra territory to wind up at some fairly basic conclusions. Still, the journey could have been a lot worse.
October 18, 2022
Tempest
I enjoyed the book, I was really invested in what was going on with the characters and there was a real sense of tension of what could happen. I found the previous books never really had me interested fully, I was more or less trudging through it. Maybe it’s because of a different writer, but genuinely enjoyed it more than the first and second.
When it comes to the story, the tensions have heightened and this book really sets up the groundwork for the fall of Jacen and disillusionment from his family. Luke and Mara are arguing still about Ben being close to Jacen, especially when rumours persist that Lumiya has infiltrated the GAG. Ben is loyal to Jacen and that scares Luke, to the point where he doesn’t want Ben to be a part of the Guard. Mara is on the fence about it until the very end of the book.
The Corellians and Galactic alliance are still at each other’s throats, each having secrets of their own. Han and Leia are on the side of the Corellians, however they keep playing both sides throughout the book. Although I enjoyed their point of view on the massive battle that happens, I kept wondering why they even needed to put them in this book. Han himself says that he is too old for this, so why are they still being featured? They don’t add much to the story and are just an inconvenience. Luke and Mara engage Lumiya at Roqool depot and it’s a tough fight, Luke loses his arm and Mara has to drag him out of there before Lumiya blows them up. Apparently she’s dead but it wouldn’t surprise me if she turns up eventually, not a lot of people can die in Star Wars unless you’re Qui-Gon.
Speaking of the main battle, I thought it was a really good one. Usually it’s Allston who is the master of detailed space battles and dogfighting but Denning really does an excellent job here. Jacen is clearly becoming unhinged throughout but it doesn’t really show until Alannas life is threatened. Later, once the battle has commenced he does a Vader classic on one of his officers. Once the Usurpers fleet are destroyed, the Hapan Queen is safe and the Skywalkers converge on Jacen, accusing him of setting them up.
I really enjoyed this book and will continue to read the others.
I enjoyed the book, I was really invested in what was going on with the characters and there was a real sense of tension of what could happen. I found the previous books never really had me interested fully, I was more or less trudging through it. Maybe it’s because of a different writer, but genuinely enjoyed it more than the first and second.
When it comes to the story, the tensions have heightened and this book really sets up the groundwork for the fall of Jacen and disillusionment from his family. Luke and Mara are arguing still about Ben being close to Jacen, especially when rumours persist that Lumiya has infiltrated the GAG. Ben is loyal to Jacen and that scares Luke, to the point where he doesn’t want Ben to be a part of the Guard. Mara is on the fence about it until the very end of the book.
The Corellians and Galactic alliance are still at each other’s throats, each having secrets of their own. Han and Leia are on the side of the Corellians, however they keep playing both sides throughout the book. Although I enjoyed their point of view on the massive battle that happens, I kept wondering why they even needed to put them in this book. Han himself says that he is too old for this, so why are they still being featured? They don’t add much to the story and are just an inconvenience. Luke and Mara engage Lumiya at Roqool depot and it’s a tough fight, Luke loses his arm and Mara has to drag him out of there before Lumiya blows them up. Apparently she’s dead but it wouldn’t surprise me if she turns up eventually, not a lot of people can die in Star Wars unless you’re Qui-Gon.
Speaking of the main battle, I thought it was a really good one. Usually it’s Allston who is the master of detailed space battles and dogfighting but Denning really does an excellent job here. Jacen is clearly becoming unhinged throughout but it doesn’t really show until Alannas life is threatened. Later, once the battle has commenced he does a Vader classic on one of his officers. Once the Usurpers fleet are destroyed, the Hapan Queen is safe and the Skywalkers converge on Jacen, accusing him of setting them up.
I really enjoyed this book and will continue to read the others.
October 18, 2022
So far, the books from this series have felt somewhat disjointed � from each other and from the EU as a whole (Betrayal more so than Bloodlines). This has been especially true with the Dark Nest series, i.e. the one that directly precedes this one. It was pretty much ignored in Betrayal while Bloodlines at least acknowledged its major plot lines.
Tempest breaks that trend, which is hardly surprising given that Denning authored the Dark Nest series. In a way he glosses over the previous two installments by revisiting concepts from that series, which contributes to the disjointed nature of the Legacy series but helps with overall continuity.
In my opinion Tempest is the best novel of the Legacy series so far and it is the first one that has managed to get me truly invested in it. It focuses on the core cast of characters, which is always a good choice, and expands on the pre-established conflicts in a meaningful way. Jacen giving in to the Dark so easily remains as baffling as ever. Still, the comparisons to Anakin Skywalker here are quite poignant. I find it fascinating how opposite motives (selfishness vs. selflessness) lead to the exact same outcome and strange how Jacen realizes this but changes nothing about his trajectory.
What Denning does particularly well in this novel is delivering the unexpected over and over again. Surprises are manifold, and keep suspense high from cover to cover. I really hope that Allston manages to continue in this vein in the next installment.
All in all, Tempest is a very strong Star Wars novel and my personal highlight of the Legacy series so far. I wouldn’t go as far to say one should skip installments one and two because these, too, deliver important plot points and because they are pretty solid novels themselves. Still, Tempest kind of feels like a reward for having soldiered through its predecessors. I am really looking forward to the rest of the series and am glad that it includes two more books written by Denning.
Tempest breaks that trend, which is hardly surprising given that Denning authored the Dark Nest series. In a way he glosses over the previous two installments by revisiting concepts from that series, which contributes to the disjointed nature of the Legacy series but helps with overall continuity.
In my opinion Tempest is the best novel of the Legacy series so far and it is the first one that has managed to get me truly invested in it. It focuses on the core cast of characters, which is always a good choice, and expands on the pre-established conflicts in a meaningful way. Jacen giving in to the Dark so easily remains as baffling as ever. Still, the comparisons to Anakin Skywalker here are quite poignant. I find it fascinating how opposite motives (selfishness vs. selflessness) lead to the exact same outcome and strange how Jacen realizes this but changes nothing about his trajectory.
What Denning does particularly well in this novel is delivering the unexpected over and over again. Surprises are manifold, and keep suspense high from cover to cover. I really hope that Allston manages to continue in this vein in the next installment.
All in all, Tempest is a very strong Star Wars novel and my personal highlight of the Legacy series so far. I wouldn’t go as far to say one should skip installments one and two because these, too, deliver important plot points and because they are pretty solid novels themselves. Still, Tempest kind of feels like a reward for having soldiered through its predecessors. I am really looking forward to the rest of the series and am glad that it includes two more books written by Denning.
January 31, 2018
Once again, a book from the SWU evades my 5-star rating because of plot-holes and nonsensical turns that could easily be fixed or downright omitted without impacting what is turning out to be a pretty solid overall storyline. In the second book, the big gaping hole came at the end when the Sith claimed to be righteous and an alternate method rather than a dark one. But then insists on sacrificing a loved one to be true to the cause. Yeah, okay. Pointless sacrifice, but that's not a dark path. Gotcha.
In the Legacy of the Force, the confusing out-of-character decision to not surrender was the big hole. Han and Leia would simply comm "Hi son, yeah we're coming in and we'll explain everything." Solved. Why wasn't that done? Well, that was never explained. Frustration? Anger? Resentment? Not good enough. You're trying to convince the reader, and not doing a good job of it.
However, some intense battle scenes and otherwise solid story building actually made this a good read. Luke versus Lumiya, Mara versus Alema, Jacen versus Aurora Sing - awesome. Even Jaina and Zekk evading assassination on a Hapes planet was intense. Han and Leia holding the Falcon together using string and chewing gum (again) was also nail-biting. It's just so frustrating when an otherwise great story is derailed by one or two nonsensical character decisions.
And as I open Book 4 and read the cast of characters listed at the beginning, and see that Lumiya is in it...I fear the nonsense won't stop. Star Wars can have so much trouble killing off a character once and for all, it's becoming predictable again.
In the Legacy of the Force, the confusing out-of-character decision to not surrender was the big hole. Han and Leia would simply comm "Hi son, yeah we're coming in and we'll explain everything." Solved. Why wasn't that done? Well, that was never explained. Frustration? Anger? Resentment? Not good enough. You're trying to convince the reader, and not doing a good job of it.
However, some intense battle scenes and otherwise solid story building actually made this a good read. Luke versus Lumiya, Mara versus Alema, Jacen versus Aurora Sing - awesome. Even Jaina and Zekk evading assassination on a Hapes planet was intense. Han and Leia holding the Falcon together using string and chewing gum (again) was also nail-biting. It's just so frustrating when an otherwise great story is derailed by one or two nonsensical character decisions.
And as I open Book 4 and read the cast of characters listed at the beginning, and see that Lumiya is in it...I fear the nonsense won't stop. Star Wars can have so much trouble killing off a character once and for all, it's becoming predictable again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2018
I really enjoyed this book, which is surprising since I didn’t care much for the Dark Nest Trilogy.
Jacen continues to go even further to the dark side, betraying his friends and family and even firing in his parents near the end of the book. I feel that, so far, Jacen’s turn to evil has felt natural and well written, building off of his experiences in the NJO to show that he is sympathetic towards other beings and selfless in his pursuit of peace, but he’s taking it too far and is easily turned by Lumiya.
Han and Leila were also good, starting off fighting for Corellia but ending up an enemy of Han’s homework’s and the Galactic Alliance. The banter between them is great, and I think is one of them he things Troy Denning does best.
I also liked how Ben is following Jacen, but still had his reservations. I think he’s definitely going to see the error of his ways in future books. Mara and Luke are the first to realize that Jacen is actively working with Lumiya, and how they react makes sense.
The only things in this book I really didn’t like was that Jaina still hasn’t done much. She does more in this book than the previous two, but she still isn’t focused on anywhere near a such as I feel she should be. Troy Denning is also somewhat confusing in his space battles, which is annoying since the last part of this book had lots of that. But altogether, it was a good book.
Also, Aurora Sing was a definite surprise. I hope there are more references like that in coming books.
Jacen continues to go even further to the dark side, betraying his friends and family and even firing in his parents near the end of the book. I feel that, so far, Jacen’s turn to evil has felt natural and well written, building off of his experiences in the NJO to show that he is sympathetic towards other beings and selfless in his pursuit of peace, but he’s taking it too far and is easily turned by Lumiya.
Han and Leila were also good, starting off fighting for Corellia but ending up an enemy of Han’s homework’s and the Galactic Alliance. The banter between them is great, and I think is one of them he things Troy Denning does best.
I also liked how Ben is following Jacen, but still had his reservations. I think he’s definitely going to see the error of his ways in future books. Mara and Luke are the first to realize that Jacen is actively working with Lumiya, and how they react makes sense.
The only things in this book I really didn’t like was that Jaina still hasn’t done much. She does more in this book than the previous two, but she still isn’t focused on anywhere near a such as I feel she should be. Troy Denning is also somewhat confusing in his space battles, which is annoying since the last part of this book had lots of that. But altogether, it was a good book.
Also, Aurora Sing was a definite surprise. I hope there are more references like that in coming books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2025
There was a time in my life (early teens) where abridged audiobooks were all that were available for many books, especially in subgeres like sci-fi. I was probably a little too young or a reader to be reading the level of books I was so the abridgement was good for me. As I aged, I came around to unabridged audiobooks, diverse readers, and no sound effects. Then I was annoyed at how many books were still being released abridged. Now that audiobooks are popular with the rise of smart devices there's a plethora of audiobooks to enjoy.
All of that could be it's own post and have nothing to do with this book, if it wasn't for the fact that I listened to an unabridged version of it final thanks to Hidden Gems (). I like this series a lot, especially the beginning trilogy, but I barely recognized this book. There's so much that was cut and the overarching story makes so much more sense. Now that the series has started all 3 authors have had their hand in it and the cycle goes through two more times to complete the series.
There are still segments where it feels like Jacen's fall is too sudden, Ben is too naïve, and Jacen's extended family & baby mommy have big blinders like Padmé did towards Anakin, but overall the stories and characters develop nicely. The best storyline is how complex Han & Leia's plot is and how that sets up the title of, and their role in, the next book. I can't wait to see what else I've missed.
All of that could be it's own post and have nothing to do with this book, if it wasn't for the fact that I listened to an unabridged version of it final thanks to Hidden Gems (). I like this series a lot, especially the beginning trilogy, but I barely recognized this book. There's so much that was cut and the overarching story makes so much more sense. Now that the series has started all 3 authors have had their hand in it and the cycle goes through two more times to complete the series.
There are still segments where it feels like Jacen's fall is too sudden, Ben is too naïve, and Jacen's extended family & baby mommy have big blinders like Padmé did towards Anakin, but overall the stories and characters develop nicely. The best storyline is how complex Han & Leia's plot is and how that sets up the title of, and their role in, the next book. I can't wait to see what else I've missed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2019
I have never felt such anger towards a book before. That sounds like it's a bad thing, but it actually proves that this is a great book!
I really have grown to feel for the main characters in the EU/Legends series. Reading this book with Jacen and Ben continuing on their dark path just saddens me. However, Troy Denning and the rest of the "Legacy" team did an amazing job keeping me hooked. I was so angry at Jacen and Ben that I had to know what came next.
One thing that has been seriously missing in recent EU books is Tenel Ka. After the midway point of the New Jedi Order, she has been almost non-existant. We got more of her in this book and I'm hoping to get more of her in the future.
Luke and Mara's plot was probably the weakest of the group, but by their major action scene towards the end, I was hooked.
I am still continually amazed at how these EU authors are able to separate all the characters and have them all come together in the end. Really impressive writing.
Overall, good book. I think that this book is right on par with Betrayal and Bloodlines, so it gets an 8.7 out of 10! Good job Denning.
I really have grown to feel for the main characters in the EU/Legends series. Reading this book with Jacen and Ben continuing on their dark path just saddens me. However, Troy Denning and the rest of the "Legacy" team did an amazing job keeping me hooked. I was so angry at Jacen and Ben that I had to know what came next.
One thing that has been seriously missing in recent EU books is Tenel Ka. After the midway point of the New Jedi Order, she has been almost non-existant. We got more of her in this book and I'm hoping to get more of her in the future.
Luke and Mara's plot was probably the weakest of the group, but by their major action scene towards the end, I was hooked.
I am still continually amazed at how these EU authors are able to separate all the characters and have them all come together in the end. Really impressive writing.
Overall, good book. I think that this book is right on par with Betrayal and Bloodlines, so it gets an 8.7 out of 10! Good job Denning.
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