Edge of Victory II: Rebirth

I think this novel could've done with just being another book from Greg Keyes, rather than a second in a duology, as they don't connect a whole lot beyond playing upon character stuff from the last novel, which all of these books do anyway.

This might be a shorter review than usual, not only am I ill, there's not a lot to say!

So I apologise.

I read this quickly again, as it was quite an enjoyable read. But it was nowhere near as good as the last book unfortunately.

There was a major glaring problem with this book for me, which was the extremely uncomfortable sexual tension between Kyp Durron and Jaina Solo.

Twice now, God awful romances have been forced with Jaina, and here's another. How fucking enormous is the age gap? Hasn't Kyp known her since she was very, very young, and seen her at a very, very young age. This behaviour has firmly ruined Kyp for me.

Not only has he been an absolutely terrible person in this book for other reasons, his disgustingly creepy behaviour with Jaina, literally flirting with her and calling her attractive, it all just makes him terrible.

The worst part from Greg Keyes, however, is the complete and utter terrible characterisation of Jaina. Why the fuck does she like it? And why does she consider becoming his apprentice seriously? Are you kidding me?

This much older man who is perving on her, who has been making terrible decisions as a Jedi politically and morally, who has been massively disrespecting her uncle and her parents who have done so much for him, I cannot, I just cannot grasp any reason as to why she would be attracted to him beyond mere looks. And I simply do not believe Jaina is that dense. It is written in a very gross way and I am hoping it'll never be addressed again, and that I can just remove it from my head.

Luke and Mara had an excellent, if minor story in this book. I didn't realise how far along Mara was, and although these parts were often scary, they were also lovely. I am so happy the birth went okay and Mara is now too. I knew they both would be, but I still got so concerned!

However, I do hope this is the end of the Mara illness plotline. It has been dragged on and on!

But I was saddened by Luke's vision of the future without Mara...

Han, Leia, and Jacen's plot was pretty good, but nothing fantastic. The best parts actually weren't the action, but the subplot about Jacen and Han's relationship, and Jacen gets a lot of nice development here for his internal struggles, and Han too.

Anakin and Tahiri are a cute couple. I'm not the most invested, but I do really like them together and find them both great characters. Their story with Corran was pretty solid and I was mostly happy to have him back too.

It was sick as fuck when Anakin and Tahiri tricked the Yuuzhan Vong, as Anakin had a brilliant battle with one of the fiercest warriors. Anakin is one of the best of this series for sure.

Overall it was pretty good, more back to the level of the early books in the series. I do love the Jedi being outlaws and more rogues again, and part of a bit of a rebellion.

But Kyp's characterisation was really wonky, beyond just a morally grey Jedi, he did some really evil and despicable stuff. I cannot possibly see how he can be allowed to be a Jedi after this, and I'm gonna chalk it up to Greg Keyes getting a little overzealous.

I can put aside the little age gap between Tahiri and Anakin. They made a thing out of her having developed quicker, which I feel isn't as common nowadays (or maybe that's just been where I grew up) but generally girls do grow up quicker than boys, going through puberty first, and I think they are mostly at the same level of maturity, so I can put it aside, especially considering it was probably much more normal back then compared to my generation's obsession with age gaps and predators and the likes.

But the romance with Kyp and Jaina was just filthy. It was uncomfortable, it was nonsensical, it was forced, it was out of character for both of them. It was utter shit.

Whilst the book was generally really good, nowhere near the level of my least favourite, Agents of Chaos II, the single worst plot element of these novels so far has to be crowned to Kyp and Jaina's romance here. Just horrible.

Luckily the rest of the novel is solid!

7.5/10

As we head into the second half of the Edge of Victory mini-series, the story starts t o focus a lot more on Anakin Solo. Unfortuately, Anakin is possibly my least-favourite character in the entire series, so I figured that this would make this book a real slog through. Keyes does a really good job of developing Anakin's character, though: by the end of the book, I found him somewhat likable, and appreciated that he now has a bit of a character that's unique and separate from his siblings.