Fate of the Jedi: Outcast

The first entry to Fate of the Jedi is a very welcome tonal shift from Legacy of the Force, that feels more in the vein of the best of the New Republic era, it is still serious and demands your attention, but isn't edgy and needlessly dark where it isn't necessary.

The book has three main plots, really, Coruscant and the political intrigue between the Galactic Alliance - more specifically, Chief of State Daala - and the Jedi alongside the slowly increasing number of Jedi being turned mad, the Kessel subplot with Lando, his wife and child, Han, Leia, and Allana (later involving Wedge and a bunch of X-Wing legends), and the best of all, Luke and Ben's mission to discover all the different Force abilities Jacen learned on his travels, and what ‘broke' him.

While I found the Kessel plot getting more and more mind numbingly boring, the Coruscant plot mainly with Jag and Jaina was very entertaining, and the Dorin plot was absolutely brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable!

Generally, Aaron Allston is in peak form as ever, and the series is a nice refresher after the last, and a great one to return to after my break. It makes me even sadder knowing how close I am to the end!

The main plot of this book revolved around Luke and Ben, but also Luke getting some possibly well-deserved punishment for not foreseeing the actions of Jacen Solo. Exiled from Coruscant for ten years (like that'll last), not allowed to interfere with the Jedi or the Galactic Alliance, Ben has joined him in his exile to discover how Jacen turned to the dark side.

“Forty years ago, there was one practicing Jedi in all the galaxy, and the Order and the Temple were just ill-formed notions taken from suppressed rumours. Today, what you see before you - this is your doing, Master Skywalker.”

This excerpt from the beautiful scene where Luke leaves and all of the Jedi who can come say goodbye, got me to tear up as you realise the journey Luke has gone on, and all that he has accomplished, and also all that he has failed.

Despite contrary belief, Legends Luke is far from perfect, and he has truly earned all of his great power he now has, his journey is one of hardship and great struggle, he falls again and again, yet he powers through it with his defining attribute of never giving up. It is awe-inspiring and why he is such a legendary character in the Expanded Universe.

The planet Dorin is a really interesting one where pretty much all of Luke and Ben's story takes place, they have their own set of Force users and powers, where we learn that the Jacen that left that planet was a man at peace, not the man he ended up as.

There's this really great idea of basically what is a Force cult that Luke and Ben get themselves wrapped up into, which they have to expose and enlighten, leading to a really good fight between their leader, the Hidden One, and Luke.

The Hidden One has really cool white Force lightning, which Luke deflects even though it is very powerful, and Luke steps through Force whirlwinds, also safely dropping structures of rock thrown at him, only kicking him to knock him over once the battle is done.

I love how effortless and wise Luke has become, there was a part earlier when not long after Corran's son, Valin, who is going insane like other Jedi now, fought Luke, and Luke split his lightsaber in two without hurting him in a second and captured him. He's truly the Grand Master.

I'm quite happy Jag and Jaina are back together, they've got really good chemistry, and I like that Troy Denning realised how much people wanted them together, and actually listened even though he thought Jaina should be with Zekk. He wasn't this horrible guy who just went against anyone else's wishes for what he thought was right, he actually listened to feedback!

And that's a point with this book as a whole, while I enjoyed Legacy of the Force for what it was, it feels like they have listened to feedback, dialed down or removed much of what the past series was hated for, and made up for a lot of its flaws and mistakes with an even more interesting and more complex narrative.

Luke and Ben's relationship is stellar in this novel, they have really good banter and are such a lovely duo that are really sweet to read after all that has happened in the last series. Mara is missed but her presence in their lives is still felt. I love the ongoing joke of Luke making Ben fight all the time.

Another little note, I have really adored Cilghal since Jedi Academy, and I really like the EU's execution of Jedi healers, but with her being so present in the book, using the Force to convince an incredibly agitating governmental person intruding on the Jedi that he needed the bathroom, I found her a real highlight of this novel.

Her development since Jedi Academy has been another one of those insanely well-written and expansive character developments over many years like that of Pellaeon. I just really like her character and her being more present suddenly made me think of that!

Sadly, the Kessel plot was pretty dire.

I liked all of the conversations in this section, as always with Allston the humour is great and the characters are all written really well, but the plot on Kessel just isn't interesting and wasn't a fun read.

Whilst I rarely skimmed the dialogue, I skimmed a lot of the fighter action in this part of the book, and especially their stuff underground on Kessel. It just wasn't gripping me and felt like a waste of time by the end. I made sure not to miss anything major, but I was glad to have skimmed a lot of it and not waste my time reading something I didn't like.

Overall, this is a brilliant start to the series, and has me even more excited for it than I already was.

It is shaping up to be greater than the last by a major mile, and is the kind of brilliant and fun storytelling I think many of us wanted after NJO.

While there are still flaws and a major plot I didn't jive with, there's enough awesome stuff here that I have to credit it.

The conclusions to all plots were executed really well and I especially enjoyed the first one hundred pages which blew me away.

Allston also really landed the ending very well.

It's a great book and opener to the series and I'm excited for more!

8/10