Tag Archives: annihilation

EU Retrospective: The Really Old Republic

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It’s taken slightly longer than anticipated thanks to some difficulties with the library but I’ve finally finished the first leg of my Expanded Universe reread.  The short version?  There were certainly some ups and downs and WOW am I glad to be getting out of these eras and away from these old school Sith.  (Sith Fatigue is a real and dangerous disease, folks.  It claims hundreds of readers every year.)

The Old Republic: Revan:

I’ll freely admit to being a HUGE KOTOR fangirl back in the day.  Somewhere, buried on a harddrive, is probably a lot of half-written fanfic about the characters.  I was obsessed with Revan and had slightly ridiculous crushes on both Carth Onasi and Atton Rand.  (That was totally my right as a 14 year old girl.)  If you’ve never played either of the Knights of the Old Republic games, the one thing you should know is that your character (Revan in the first game and the Exile in the second) is essentially a blank slate.  You decide their gender, their looks, and their personality.  Therefore, I spent most of the first half of the book trying to reconcile the Revan in my head (a very snarky lady) with the canon Revan who is decidedly not her and is, in fact, a man.  (Curse you, canon!)  Also, I insist that Natalya Donn is totally a better name for the Exile than Meetra Surik.  I mean…. Meetra?  Really?

As a whole, the book left me feeling mostly underwhelmed.  The basic premise?  Great.  I’ve always been intrigued about what made Revan originally turn to the dark side and where he disappeared to in the time between games.  I wasn’t as thrilled with the execution.  For starters, the book falls just short of 300 pages; something that makes me glad I didn’t purchase this book as a hardcover.  I also felt that the many of the action sequences fell victim to video game syndrome where paragraphs often felt like they were queues of action commands.  Additionally, I found myself missing the presence of characters like HK-47 and Jolee although I can understand why they were left out of the book.

My biggest issue was with the pacing.  Obviously Karpyshyn was aiming to answer some of the questions players had about the gap between games which, as one of those players, I appreciated.  However, the ending felt rushed, weirdly open ended and I still don’t really know what happened.  (I’m also a bit miffed about the Exile’s unceremonious exit but that’s another rant entirely.)  Two-thirds of the book occurs in the gap between games and the last third post-KOTOR2.  It certainly could have benefited from a more even split and more pages.  Actually, upon further reflection, I’m comfortable with saying that I hated the ending.

This all isn’t to say that the book is horrible but it won’t be making my ‘Essential EU Reads’ list any time soon.  It’s certainly worth the read if you were a KOTOR player and if your Revan was male, you’ll probably have a much easier time getting into the book than I did.  I did enjoy the parts with Canderous (even wished there had been more of them) and I especially appreciated the nods to the Mando language.

At the end of the day, it’s not a replacement for KOTOR3 (honestly, nothing really could be) but at the very least, it’ll help fill the KOTOR shaped void in your life for a little bit.

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Review: The Old Republic: Annihilation

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As someone who hasn’t really kept up with the Old Republic novels or gotten around to playing the new game, I went into Annihilation not expecting anything more than a decent read where I’d have to continuously look up references to events I had no knowledge of.  What I actually got was an incredibly fun read where I only occasionally had to reference Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion for dates and general information.  Color me very pleasantly surprised.

Drew Karpyshyn’s latest novel, The Old Republic: Annihilation, centers around Theron Shan, a field agent for the Republic’s Strategic Information Services. He’s also secretly the son of Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan but has no connection to the Force.  (Spoiler Alert: This will definitely be a plot point later.)  The Sith Empire has at its command a technologically impressive and incredibly dangerous warship called the Ascendant Spear.  Under the symbiotic control of Darth Karrid, it is a ship that the Republic has to destroy if they want to ultimately beat the Sith Empire.  Cue Operation End Game: It’s up to Theron Shan and Jedi Master Gnost-Dural to find a way to stop Darth Kerrid and the Ascendant Spear.

The plot itself is entertaining and never really drags. The book is one part spy, one part action, and often left me fondly reminded of the X-Wing novels.   It opens with an unauthorized mission that helps establish not only the tone of the novel but also who Theron is both as a person and as an agent.  The book continues to move the overarching plot forward with just the right amount of missions/ action sequences to keep things interesting but not enough so that it feels overly excessive.  The threat of the Ascendant Spear also works well because it presents enough of a danger to warrant Operation End Game but doesn’t fall victim to Ridiculous Super Weapon Syndrome.

One of the book’s highlights was the brief chapter that focuses purely on the poor Imperial Minister of Logistics.  No one really appreciates the work he does and obviously the Empire wouldn’t function nearly as smoothly without him.  Efficiency is everything and the politics of the Sith Lords are a nuisance even if he does know how to play that game.  It’s amusing and a nice (yet relevant) break from the main storyline.

The characters are what really help the novel succeed.  Theron himself is an interesting protagonist who occasionally gives off a strong Corran Horn vibe because of his huge amount of self-confidence.  He’s self assured and a bit cocky at times but it never truly spills over to arrogance.  He also doesn’t fall into the expected trap one would expect of the Force blind offspring of the Jedi and never really broods on it.  Does Theron have some unresolved issues in regards to his mother?  Sure, but they never become a defining character trait and only really surface when prompted by circumstances.  Another entertaining character was Marcus Trant, the Director of SIS, who you just can’t help but sympathize with when he has to deal with Theron’s antics in the field.  He’s good at his job, struggles a bit with his personal life, and just positively had it up to here with Theron some days but can’t fire such a valuable agent.  Gnost-Dural, the token Jedi of the book, was another pleasant surprise who left me intrigued about his life from before the book’s start.  I also found myself soon warming to Teff’ith, the young smuggler who has a very weird bond with Theron.  She’s incredibly independent and doesn’t want Theron poking into her business.  Her speech patterns thankfully manage to walk on the right side of endearing or irritating and she ultimately has one of the best lines in the book.

The only thing that I wasn’t really a fan of was the family plot line.  Theron learns who his father is about a third of the way through the book and it is not exactly the shocker of the century.  As a whole, the plot line actually works with the book but the obligatory awkward family scenes left me rolling my eyes because they felt too expected at times.  However, they didn’t detract drastically from my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, I give Annihilation a 3.5/5 and say that it is definitely worth the read especially if you are interested in the era or are looking for a fun Expanded Universe book that’s not part of a giant series.

 

Thank you to Random House for providing us with an advanced copy of the book for review purposes.