Wednesday, March 14, 2012

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.

44 comments:

  1. I know humans apparently live longer in the galaxy far far away, but seriously can they REALLY go on much longer. I don't want them to keep going non stop until they're dead. They deserve to have a bit of peace and quiet in their twilight years, they've earned it a million times over. So, yes I think they need to start winding them down, and retiring them off somewhere. It saddens me to say that, but i would rather they just faded into the background than have a big dramatic death in some future book.

    Anyway, thanks for putting our minds at ease and letting us know that everyone is still alive.

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  2. Thanks for the post Zyra, I'm glad you brought this topic up. I got up at 3:00am on Tuesday and downloaded Apocalypse on my Kindle and started reading. I was bad and read the last chapter first. I then skimmed through the book to get a general sense of the story. I am still listening to "Conviction" but I understand enough of the plot line of the Fate of the Jedi series to know what was going on. Yes, some pretty heavy duty stuff and Denning even tied in the Mortis Trilogy from season 3 The Clone Wars episodes. If you haven't seen it, it's a must. I had the same impression as you did regarding Han and Leia. I almost felt as if they were flying off into the sunset. And then you know what happened? I cried. Not just a sniffle, I really cried and I am NOT a crier. My daughter was so proud of me for being so emotional, she loves to write angst. I'm blaming the fact that I was up since 3:00am and I have my 45th birthday around the corner, must be a mid-life crisis. I think I was also upset, because like you I have no idea what is coming next if anything for our beloved couple. I don't know, I just all of the sudden had a moment when I saw my husband and I flying off into the sunset as well, yup, definitely mid-life crisis. Overall I have really enjoyed what I read of Fate of the Jedi and plan on reading or listening to the entire series. By the way, my daughter won an autograph (by all three authors) copy of Apocalypse from Tosche Station Podcast. They chose her fanfic that she submitted. Sorry, just a proud mama bragging a bit. Thanks again for the post on this topic.

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    1. Aww, bless you, Seams2Be. Your post made me feel , well, a bit sad!

      Congrats to your daughter, she must be so excited!

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    2. Yeah, I got kind of emotional at the end for my own personal reasons as well (not a crier either) but it was a nice way to end it.

      Aw, Seams, you're 30 years younger than Han, you still have time ;) And your daughter isn't getting married yet, right? That is very cool about your daughter, I'm sure she was very excited about that!

      And reading around now I'm hearing about how a lot of this refers to something that happened in the Clone Wars. Damn it, I don't know anything about the Clone Wars!

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  3. The Clone Wars is better than the prequels. Seriously. I've only seen the first season so far but I've enjoyed pretty much all of it.

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    1. I've heard the Clone Wars is actually pretty good from several people whose opinions I trust. Maybe someday I'll get some DVDs.

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  4. well, dang. I need to get up to speed on Clone Wars too?

    maybe we can quit jumping 10 years into the future with every set of books now and go back and fill in some other gaping holes for a while. looking forward to Tim Zahn's Han-centric book.

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  5. Thanks for the sweet words, I'm better now and I actually have an idea for a story in my head based on that "last chapter". The Clone Wars the animated series is awesome! This is how I got back into Star Wars after an almost twenty year hiatus. We sit down as a family every Friday to watch Clone Wars. Aside from the incredible computer animation, the story lines are really great. We have met several of the voice actors in particular Ashley Eckstein, voice of Ashoka and James Arnold Taylor, voice of Obi-Wan. I really like Anakin in the Clone Wars, for one he is better looking animated than in the movies, plus you really get into his heroic character. What impressed me the most about Clone Wars is the way it has brought a whole new generation into the Star Wars family. My ten year old daughter loves Ashoka. The Mortis Trilogy which is referenced in Apocalypse deals with the balance and the origins of the Force. It was a very compelling three part series. I think you can watch some of the shows online either at cartoon network.com or star wars.com. I highly recommend watching the Clone Wars animated series.
    Back to H/L , I agree jzhanfan, let's go back and fill in the gaps. I would like to see another Shadows of Mindor time frame story.

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  6. Very glad to know that they all live! Also looking forward to having more books that fill in the gaps. II've never seen that clone wars, but may have o go check them out now!

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  7. I have been searching the net for Apocalpse spoilers, cos wanted to know why some people are getting emotional over the ending. I found out!!! I won't spoil it for others, but I read about it at theforce.net in their Apocalpse thread if anyone is curious. Aww, sounds like a bittersweet ending, and I did feel sad and happy at the same time. Sounds like it really could be H/L last appearance. But then no more books have even been announced, so who knows, it could be the last one for everybody!

    I agree on Anakin in The Clone Wars, he is much more likeable than Hayden ever was, and he isn't anywhere near as wooden in the acting department.

    As I mentioned in the other Apocalpse thread I'm definitely up for more novels much earlier in the timeline. More between SW and ESB would be great. Would like to read about Ord Mantell in this time frame for sure! Yes, the time following Mindor really does need to be fleshed out a bit. And I'm sure Troy Denning can squeeze in another Han and Leia centric novel between TG and The Thrawn Trilogy, with maybe a pregnancy announcement?

    I was going to suggest a novel that expands on Corphellion Interlude and tells of their entire honeymoon. But you know what, I'd rather they didn't have some big adventure on their honeymoon, just lots and lots of sex. Right? :)

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    1. I'd love that link Claire if you send me Pm at Fanfiction.net.

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    2. You can just e-mail me and make your life easier. I just didn't want to post major spoilers here.

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    3. Amara just go to the Literature forums at Jedi Council Forums, the Apocalypse spoiler thread is right at the top. The bit that talks about Han and Leia is on page 19, it's the very long blacked out bit, you have to highlight to read it.

      If you can't find it let me know.

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    4. Thanks, ladies! I liked it. I can see what you mean.

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  8. Claire, are you reading my mind regarding Corphellion Interlude?????? Must be the Force. :)

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  9. So... should I be pleased or frightened that tonight at the book signing, a man with SW tattoos asked me where I got my tee shirt?

    I will post more later but Troy definitely confirmed everyone's basic impression that the intent for future EU novels is to focus on the younger generation.

    He also reiterated his oft-repeated statement that Han is his favorite OT character to write. I commented that considering he's killed off both of the Solo sons, odds are that Troy is NOT Han's favorite EU writer.

    I bought the book tonight and am too tired to do much more than open it to a few random spots and skim. Will be spending tomorrow sitting around waiting while hubby has teeth extracted so I expect to get lots of reading done.

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    1. Cool, Jz! What t shirt were you wearing?

      Looking forward to hearing more about Troy!

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    2. That's awesome that you went! Did you really make that comment? That's too funny and too right. Did he say anything?

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    3. Can't wait to hear more about your book signing trip. Hope your hubby feels better soon.

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    4. Claire, I was wearing my brown Star Wars tee shirt from Target, with the retro-poster sort of design. the tattoo guy was really out there.

      Amara, yes I did make that comment and I was in the front row so he heard it all right. his response was that he hadn't thought about it that way, and that he'd better watch his back. Then someone else piped up and wanted to know had he ever met Harrison and Troy said no, and before anyone asked, he'd never met George either, but he had seen his office door once, and things went off in a different direction.

      it was neat, he talked a lot about the creative process and how the different series posed different challenges. Mostly people asked good stuff and got him talking and he'd just ramble on for a while.

      Unfortunately since I kept piping up with follow up questions and comments on other people's questions, the bookstore guy never picked me for an official question myself.

      Hubby is feeling no pain at the moment, he insisted on getting up to watch basketball for a while and then took a pain pill and conked out.

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    5. I don't know the t shirt you mean, as we don't have Target over here, but it sounds cool!!

      Looks like you had a great time at the book signing. Soooo, did he sign your copy of TG or didn't you take it?

      That's a shame they didn't pick you for a question.

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    6. That is too bad you didn't get picked for a question. But liked his response.

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    7. yes he signed TG and Apocolypse for me. one guy in front of me had a stack with like 15 books, he had all of Troy's D&D stuff as well as all of his SW stuff.

      it was a pretty low-key discussion session and I was sitting in the front row so I had ample opportunity to comment and ask follow ups to other questions. bookstore guy was trying to be fair and call on people further back including kids so I wasn't too disappointed.

      I suppose I could have asked him when I got my books signed but he remembered my name from my post on his FB page that I was planning to come to the signing and so the conversation went in a very different direction at that point.

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    8. Claire, you need Target in England. So many cool SW shirts and very inexpensive! I have that tee, jz :) Thanks for the summary, that must've been fun. Also to be in a room full of other Star Wars geeks. How many people were there? I wish he'd write another H/L book from earlier in the relationship. Probably won't happen, though. Maybe it can be like Corphellion Interlude, just a short little thing for Insider Magazine or something about her being pregnant or whatever. Anything!

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    9. Yeah think we do need Target in England, I looked at their website and they sell pretty much everything! Luckily though I have been able to buy some SW t shirts from American websites, so I do have a few nice ones.

      Yes, we need more of Troy's younger Han and Leia desperately. I'm pretty sure it won't happen though, but I'd like to see that more than anything. Maybe he reads this site (we can wish) and can suggest it to Lucasfilm!

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  10. My little local book store didn't have a hard copy, so I ended up downloading it to my iPad and not being able to resist the temptation to 'search' for key words (like Leia, Jaina and Jag) and check everything out. I wound up reading the last chapter, exactly what I said I wouldn't do. I couldn't help myself! And now I've been slowly reading the book. I guess it was for the better, I feel much more relaxed reading it now than I would have if I had kept myself in the dark. Also, the fact that Zyra knew what happened and I didn't really ate away at me, so I had to know what she knew! So it was her fault, really.

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    1. LOL Push, that sounds exactly how I read a SW book for the first time. Can't relax and enjoy it until I've read that its all ok at the end first. I hate doing that but its impossible not to.

      Good job I didn't want to buy this book on release day cos its not even out over here until March 29th! The wait would have killed me. I'm still reading Legacy of the Force, so won't be getting Fate of the Jedi anytime soon.

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    2. This is my usual method, but this time I just wanted to find out as I went along. I think it was because I had higher expectations, as opposed to the past few books where I had basically none, so it felt like there was potential for more to happen that might be better to find out as I read. Before it was more like, well, this book will probably be kind of boring, but let's just see if Han and Leia at least have some fun lines.

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  11. I read the last chapter already, too.

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    1. maybe i should just go to Chapters and read the last chapter as well. I don't think i can take the stress.

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  12. O.M.G. I'm so glad you read this so i didn't have to wait ages. I'm trying to read everything in order and I am still in the middle of the Vong war (which, BTW - is getting really REALLY old, i'm rather bored of it, actually) so i have a LONG way to go before i hit this one.

    I had my fingers crossed for butterflies and rainbows, which i suppose i am unlikely to get anyway in this war riddled universe, so i'm super stoked to hear that everyone i care about is alive and happy at the end. have we heard if they are having a follow-up series to this one?

    The day they kill off Leia and/or Han is the day I give up.

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    1. Zolo, the last few books of NJO are actually really good. I know some of it lagged but I promise it is worth it if you push through.

      I feel as though they will not ever actually kill Han, Leia or Luke "on screen." We will later find out they died somewhere at some time, hopefully peacefully. The end of this book really feels to me like we'll be moving on from them at this point, which will fortunately save me lots of money on books, so not really an opportunity to die heroically or anything. It's sad to think that I won't be looking forward to these books anymore, but also kind of a relief.

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    2. I can vouch for that too. The NJO gets better as it goes along, especially for Han and Leia-ness. They have some great scenes and dialogue in some of the later books.

      I hope you're right Zyra and we never get books that feature their deaths. I'd much rather not read about that.

      Who knows, maybe there will be more books to spend our money on sometime in the future if they decide to go back and fill in gaps earlier in the timeline. And of course we've got Tim Zahn's Han-tastic novel in the works.

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    3. Lol. Han-tastic? Love that! Last week my husband asked if I wrote Han-fic. I of course reminded him of the correct pronunciation of Han's name.

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  13. I can't believe how sad I felt all week thinking about the fact that Han and Leia are being written off. I just got back into them and now their story is fading away. Yah, I know they are getting older, but aren't we all. It did drive me to write my own ending for Apocalypse. Han-tastic, very clever.

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    1. Neat about the story. You going to post it?

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    2. Yeah, you can't tell us you wrote a new ending and then not post it.

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    3. Too right! You just have to share it!

      Don't be sad Seams, we've still got loads of good H/L stuff, and we may get something new eventually. If not, there's always fanfic right? The possibilities are endless.

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    4. I knew I should have kept my big mouth/keyboard shut. I finished the story today and now I am in the editing stages. I was going to set-up a fan-fic account tomorrow so I don't have to use my daughter's account. I guess it takes a day or two before you can post anything on a new account. By that time I should have the edits finished. I must say that all of you and my daughter have inspired me to embrace the "writer" in me that I ignored for thirty years.

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    5. Aww, I think that's great. Glad we inspire you and each other. This is the first time I've been able to finish a story and get the courage to share. I think interacting with everyone on the blog has helped with that. It doesn't hurt that we all just can't get enough Han and Leia. :)

      Looking forward to it.

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  14. Aw, man, y'all really didn't let on how good those last chapters were. I went off to the bookstore this morning to take a look. Oh, so good! That's what I expect from an SW book. I know why you cried. Realty liked it.

    I'm looking at the Falcon manual too. It's pretty neat.

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  15. I can heartily recommend the Falcon manual. For once we had a book release in England before everyone else cos this one came out last November and I had it for Christmas. Great book, loads of stuff I didn't know. Also great diagrams and photos, including a sizzling hot pic of Han that had me drooling for a while. It was interesting to learn more about the crew facilities on the falcon especially.

    Unfortunately Apocalpse still hasn't been released here so I can't go and read that last chapter yet.

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  16. The manual was very cool. My birthday is coming up and that will be on the list.

    I would be bad once it comes out, Claire, and go check it out. Now I want to read all the FOTJ so can work up to this book.

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  17. Just a heads-up for anyone that's interested. SW Insider will be publishing a short story set after the events of Apocalypse in its June issue.

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