The Apocalypse.... Has Apocalypsed

I read it. In one day. That is probably the most reading I've ever done in one day and certainly the only time I've ever read an entire Star Wars book in a day with the exception of a couple of the short kiddie books. First, I was in the unique situation of not really having anything else to do yesterday. Normally I order my books on Amazon but for a new release the delivery is often unpredictable so I didn't want to risk not having the book in my hands as soon as possible. It was $13 more buying it at the store but at least I had a guarantee.

I started reading at about 9:30 in the morning and finished about 9:30 last night. There were a couple of breaks, but most of the time was spent reading. I should also add that I got a 50-page head start when I read - legally - the first few chapters online. I probably wouldn't have felt so compelled to get through it so fast if it weren't for the fact that I had decided not to go read all of the spoilers or skip to the end, so I actually had to read it in order to find out what happened. I didn't even do the usual flip-through to see just how many chapters Han and Leia were in. Okay, a couple of times if I'd have read like thirty pages they weren't in I'd skip ahead to see when they came back, but I wouldn't read what they were doing, just saw the names and went back to where I was.

I'm not going to do a full review as we do for the other books because, well, there's a lot of stuff in it that wouldn't make any sense unless you'd read the other books or we'd at least reviewed them and brought you up to date. And I think I understand why there weren't a lot of spoilers out there for this one. A lot happens but at the same time it's all quite complicated and can't really be explained quickly or easily like, "OMG, Vader is Luke's father!" Or, "OMG, Leia is having twins!" And again, if you are not up to date on these books, almost anything specific I tell you will probably just make you go, "Huh?"

I'll give you some general impressions, though. If you are looking it strictly as a Han and Leia fan it is slightly disappointing. They are great in the scenes they're in, acting how I'd expect them to act, bantering when appropriate, kicking ass in a fight and being grandparents. But they aren't in it a ton. And really they aren't particularly integral to the plot, so why should they have lots of scenes? It's like, they're in the middle of everything but they can't really do that much to help the overall situation. But let's be honest: they're old. They don't really have a role in anything anymore. Maybe it's finally time for them to just retire somewhere. It saddens me a bit to think that we could be done reading about them, but there just doesn't seem to be much else to say.

Aside from Han and Leia, there is a whole lot of intense stuff going on and I was very rarely bored while reading it. Yes, that includes the Luke parts. Maybe it helped that Jaina was quite often with Luke in this one, and she gets to be pretty bad-ass herself, but it's pretty good when I'm not falling asleep in the middle of a chapter wondering when we'll get to something good later. There are a lot of interesting revelations and, somewhat annoyingly, not all questions are answered.

I will say that all of the people we love survive the book. And while there is still some unrest in the galaxy, our people get a nice, happy ending. Troy treated our Han and Leia right, as usual, even if he wasn't given a lot of opportunity to do that much with them.

There's not much else to say about it. If you've been reading the series you will likely enjoy it and there were certainly moments where I was somewhat worried for what might happen. There's a little bit of closure at the end, but without really giving us any idea of what could happen next. And for the first time I think since I've started reading Star Wars books, I'm finishing one without any idea of when the next one might come out, because as far as I know, nothing has been announced. I don't know, guys, it might be time for them to pass the torch from the "big three" and continue the story mostly without them. Sad to say, but true.

Now you all know what a super-geek I am to read this whole book in one day. In spite of what you may now think of me, I'm sure you're glad that at least someone is willing to do that so you can know what's going on without actually having to read.

The biggest problem now is that after reading an actual good book containing some genuinely heart-pounding moments I now have to suffer through The Crystal Star. Crap.