Fate of the Jedi: Backlash

Another solid entry into the series, but yet another that fails to match the quality of the dazzling opening, it flickers between entertaining and boring, and sadly drags as if there was a requirement to reach the two hundred page mark!

Allston did a superb job as usual of keeping up the comedy, writing the action very well, and characterising everyone perfectly, even invoking a little bit of original trilogy nostalgia by giving Threepio and Artoo more of a focus again.

Past characters and plot points from older novels are returned to in very satisfying ways, and the political drama with Daala is continued in a very good manner, whenever Jedi get into some action, it's mostly really good, and it's generally just another good entry.

The Dathomir plot with Luke and Ben flickered for me, it started really awesome, and I like that they blended Han and Leia into it, avoiding the dreaded boring Han and Leia subplot, but a consequence of this was instead of just keeping Allana away, she took their place and got her own boring subplot.

Whilst Allana's subplot allowed for some great humour from C3P0 and R2D2, it was largely unentertaining and detracted from the pacing and story rather than adding anything, and was definitely an area I skimmed through to avoid losing my patience with the series.

It started really fun seeing Jedi and Dathomiri witches and men fighting Rancors and Nightsisters, but I'm not kidding, there must've been five or six of these fights, and the middle ones were especially boring, and were described in unnecessary detail.

Luckily, they begin to change a little as Luke and Vestara battle Nightsisters, Luke blocking their lightning while Vestara fights alongside him, and Vestara in general had a good mysterious plot as she tried to deceive Luke, Ben, and the Dathomiri people and their Nightsisters.

I also really liked the Dathomiri people, how they've developed, and one of the women highlights that Luke simply arriving to Dathomir many years ago has led to so much change and growth and development, even if it takes a lot of hardship to get there, was really inspiring and a sign of the influential figure he has been developed into.

One of the best bits of the entire series occurred when Vestara tricked the Nightsisters, and a group of Sith arrived to help her, arrogantly assuming Luke and Ben are no match for them, only for Luke and Ben to win the battle.

It's a really exciting and gripping battle, including a character called Dyon who was a failed Jedi student, where he got to use blasters and his small Force power to really cleverly fight the Sith in ways they're not used to, throwing dirt in one's eye while she is sliced in half by Ben.

I love how cocky they are, but how useless they are against the Grand Master that they keep underestimating, and the fight in general is just really well written and almost makes me consider bumping up my rating of the book purely from how excellent these fight scenes were, but unfortunately, I need to be fair!

This leads to the Dathomiri people and Ben agreeing to build another Jedi school on Dathomir for more progress, and it's just great to see Luke's Jedi expand and become more and more indestructible! The Jedi are truly indomitable.

The Coruscant subplot with Daala and the Jedi reached its peak early on, with a magnificent fight between Mandalorians and Jedi, where the Mandos, hired by Daala, try invade the temple, and without Traviss' bias, leads to some really great fighting.

Raynar Thul, finally returning to these books, gets to properly shine and save an apprentice, fighting a few Mandalorians at once.

As well as this great scene, Jaina fights off a whole group of Mandalorians at once, and beats them all, which is just so badass. This is an amazing female character, one who has struggled and earned her power, and now can embody it and be the kickass character she is, flaws and all.

Niathal made a return, only to kill herself so her family wouldn't be punished for her not seeing that Jacen would turn, and this causes great displeasure to Daala. This was an interesting little part of the Daala side plot that added a bit more depth to Daala, but is doing little for her likability.

“All it takes to do evil is to stand aside while others do it - when a single word from you could have stopped it.” - Luke Skywalker.

Overall, it's a good book, but suffers from feeling a little bloated, and not knowing what to do with some characters, therefore enforcing an uninteresting plot on them, and taking away from the better parts of the book.

I think this series could've been improved by almost completely wiping out some plots, for example, not having a corrupt government, and perhaps having it be a time of peace for the galaxy, and to focus purely on the Jedi, the Sith, and Abeloth, as it seems to be what everyone is most interested in writing.

Not to say the other plots don't have their moments, but they're up and down enough for me to lose interest as time goes on, but I have hope they can be improved as the book goes on, they usually do with these books!

I can only read so many Rancor fights before I get sick of them, so sadly, some of this stuff lowers my rating a little, but I cannot deny that it is still a good book, and I can see why many may love it, but I'm personally more excited for what's to come, and the next looks great!

7/10