The Joiner King

Good grief! Won't farmboy, family and friends, ever get a chance to relax and have some fun? Troy Denning makes life miserable for Luke, Mara, Leia, Han and their kids. Bugs big and small, Dark Jedi, space dogfights, light saber duels, sexual tension, and two more books in the series to come. Included with this novel is Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams, a New Jedi Order short story previously released as an eBook.

Published in mass-market paperback by Del Rey.

This is going to be one of my conflicted reviews.

The Joiner King is a mix of bad characterisation, brilliant characterisation, great characters, not-so-great characters, excellent action, boring plotlines, imaginative and interesting new creations, and also really strange, uncomfortable creations (not in a good way.)

Adding to this, is a really horny writing style that felt like I was reading a really good fanfiction with a perverted streak, made for a very conflicted read.

There was a lot I liked, which I will start with.

All of the fights with Jedi were incredibly fun to read, and led to some exceptional character moments.

Welk vs. Saba Sebatyne was an extremely engaging fight, and I love myself a lightsaber duel with great force powers, so it was really exciting to see Welk using Sith lightning, and a red lightsaber, whilst Saba gives such a fierce fight, that even after losing fingertips, a bit of her tail, and a bit of her head, she still lives on! The atmosphere of the fight taking place entirely in these sorta caves was really cool too.

The little side story about uncovering information about Revenge of the Sith is amazing. It's about time Luke and Leia learned more about their parents, and I love how it's a little bit of a mystery.

I really like the new Jedi Temple on Ossus, and it seems like a really nice place for them to learn. Nothing will probably ever beat the Praxeum for me. I loved Yavin 4, that academy, so much about that place was perfect for the Jedi.

Furthermore, Luke and Mara had some absolutely amazing fights with Welk and a bunch of the bugs. Mara using lightning, Luke cutting Alema's arm after a really exceptional battle, then force choking Welk, taking his lightsaber, having to fight cleverly, I'm just a sucker for Luke in a duel. And he even tried to give him another chance before having to kill him. Man, I love Luke.

Leia is finally becoming a proper Jedi, which is something I'm ecstatic about, and the best part is that Saba is her Master! I've loved Saba throughout the series, but she just grows on me with every book, her determination, her strength, her quality as a Jedi despite her nature often wanting other things, she's excellent and I love that she's going to train Leia.

However, I also saw a lot of flaws.

Why were pretty much all of the young Jedi insufferable?

Jacen came off as a rebellious, unhelpful brat, Jaina was just terrible, Zekk was favoured to an annoying degree, Jag was sidelined and treated poorly by Denning, Alema was written as nothing but an angry slut which is a shame - I always viewed her as fierce whilst absolutely owning the allure of a Twi'lek slave rather than letting that be all she is. I can go on.

There were also some fundamental misunderstandings. We're backtracking on the new Force philosophy. It's a shame. A lot of depth is now lost. However, I can put this aside and enjoy the new story, and try to appreciate it as a separate entity. What I cannot grasp is Corran being underserved.

“Prideful Masters like Kyp and Corran” excuse me. Corran? Prideful? He has his flaws, part of why he was so excellent in Dark Tide II, but prideful? You are thinking of the wrong person Denning! Do not compare him to Kyp. And Kyp has kinda gone back to how he was before the New Jedi Order series. All his development has gone again.

A lot of the bug stuff in this book was really imaginative and creative, but what totally spoils it is how insufferable they are, and how they are presented as right, and how we're almost expected to pity them.

I cannot pity a species knowingly hiding and ignoring information, and brainwashing Jedi. On the topic of brainwashing, are we gonna talk about how the Sword of the Jedi was not only easily brainwashed by them, but how she is comfortable with it? This leads to her sleeping beside Zekk in the ‘Harem Cave' (whilst still harbouring feelings for Jag) then with the hive mind it leads to her feeling Zekk's feelings for her, and Zekk feeling her feelings for Jag. What the fuck?

A lot of this seems written purely to drift Jag and Jaina apart in a really lazy manner to undo their excellent romance in the New Jedi Order series. Zekk does not deserve Jaina, and I can't possibly understand why Denning wants these two so insufferably inseparable. If I was in Jag's position, I'd be totally out if my girl was sleeping with a bunch of bugs (and Zekk) and now they are practically inseparable. I respect your culture but I'm not comfortable with that and it kinda changes my thoughts on you. I don't know how these two are gonna reconcile, but I hope Jaina does some apologising for being dumb! (Even though I truly blame Denning, not Jaina.)

The Sword of the Jedi becoming a Joiner and it being treated as right just really fucks with me in all the wrong ways. There's something far less consensual about this than Jacen's ‘enlightening' from Vergere that I took time to come around to, but understand much better as being through necessity, and Jacen coming to those conclusions himself, and coming out of it a better person. Now, Jaina is all touchy with Zekk and they finish each other's sentences acting like a love-sick thirteen year old couple. It makes me feel really uncomfortable.

The book also ends really suddenly after all that fighting. I get that this is a trilogy but the plots of this book didn't feel very well explained or concluded.

Overall, I have to admit it's a really enjoyable novel.

The writing is easy to follow, most of the action is really good, and a lot of the characters are great. There are some brilliant design ideas and the imagination of Troy Denning is wonderful.

But there's also some really poor characterisation, a lot of strange decisions, and some really uncomfortable, slightly sexist writing, such as the constant sexualisation of women and the surprising amount of sex and/or innuendo.

8/10