Title: Invincible
Author: Troy Denning
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Legacy of the Force
Preceeded By: Revelation by Karen Traviss
Ratings
Score: 7/10
Overall Series Rating: 9/10
Review
This book had a lot to live up to. The series as a whole has been incredible thus far, and the previous book particularly so. If this book was to even match my expectations it had a lot to do. Quite frankly: it didn't.
This was the book that everything had been centering on. The loose storylines, the tension, the emotion... All of them really suggested that this was going to be something big. But it actually seemed like the author wasn't really that into it anymore. I felt that scenes were cut short, characters were fairly two dimensional - except Jaina and Ben - and that the conclusion happened too fast.
Addressing those in order: First we have the cut short scenes. An example would be a scene where one character drags another off to talk to them. That conversation never happens in the book. We can guess what it was about - but I would still have liked to listen to that conversation (which would have been quite emotional). Similarly, some scenes are cut at the beginning - so we don't really know why the scene is happening. Now once or twice and this could be passed off as tension building maybe, but it was constant, and really quite irritated me.
The second thing - two dimensional characters. The majority of the characters display either false or no emotions. None of it is really relatable, and there is none of the empathy induced by "Revelation". An example is when someone is reported dead - Han Solo does the actions he would do if he were angry - but he just doesn't seem to be. Also - no-one seems to really feel sad when a major character is shot in a space battle. I was more upset than the characters! It's another thing that quite annoyed me.
However, there were two major exceptions. Ben did have feelings; guilt, pride, compassion, determination. Not sure if that last one is actually an emotion but he had it. And I really enjoyed reading about him. Similarly with Jaina - although I was pretty annoyed that Denning pretty much ignored the majority of the Boba Fett storyline, she was a good character to read, especially through the first attack on Caedus.
Finally: the conclusion. There were two parts to this - conclusion of the Darth Caedus plot and of the civil war. I was quite disappointed with both. The Caedus ending was quite unengaging, although there was a nice touch in the final act of Caedus - we don't actually know if that act made a difference! Which makes it seem a bit pointless writing about it. Then the galactic civil war was summarised in what was almost a passing comment. It should'nt have been that way. We should have at least seen a meeting between heads of states/ Jedi order etc. The series was - at the start in particular -ABOUT THE WAR. We should have been witness to it's conclusion (This is another aspect of the first point - cutting bits we should have seen).
However, it was still quite an interesting read - especially during the two attacks on Caedus - and so it doesn't get too bad a score. But it was the worst of the series and a poor end to the series.
Overall, I would still recommend the series, as I highly enjoyed reading it. Just don't have high expectations for this last book. (It's worth it for the books by Traviss though)
Main Protagonist(s): 1 Female (Other protagonists less important than in other books)
Main Antagonist(s): 1 Male
Main Relationships: Heterosexual
Genre: Science Fiction
Brief Synopsis:
The final novel in the epic nine-book Legacy of the Force series, concluding the tale of Jacen Solo's journey to the dark side, and featuring Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, Jaina Solo, and Ben Skywalker, Luke and Mara Jade's son.
-Amazon
ISBN: 978-0099491187
Amazon Link: UK | US
Pages: 368
Published: 2 April 2009
Publisher: Arrow
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