I thought that the book I was most dreading was The Crystal Star. I was wrong. It was actually the Dark Nest Trilogy. At least Waru is so awful and ridiculous that you can laugh at it once you finish that one book and get over the trauma. On the other hand, I had to deal with the Jedi Bug Sex for three books. THREE. I’d like to thank everyone who sympathized with my reading plight on Twitter. These are some of the only Star Wars books that I haven’t read more than once. I’m now recalling exactly why and exactly how bad they were that my 15-year-old self made that excellent call. I’m also going to apologize right now for what will be by far the most negative post I will make for this project. There was no livestream for these books (because I learned my lesson with Waru) but instead, you do get a lot of ridiculous facial expressions. Enjoy?
The Joiner King
“Bugs!” Han groaned and shook his head. “Why did it have to be bugs?”
That basically sums up my feelings about this entire trilogy. I got all of 103 pages into the book and was already cringing and wanting to run away.
I made it another 119 pages before I had to pour myself a very tall and very stiff drink. Thank goodness for good tequila otherwise this experience could’ve gone very poorly.
These books are bad, guys. They are really really bad. As usual, Han seems to be the only one who gets what’s going on and just wants to get the heck out of there. I wouldn’t even mind much of the book if the characterization train hadn’t gone so far off the rails that it was in a ravine. The idea of the Myrkr missions still affecting them this severely so they can’t make connections with others is just ridiculous. Jaina thinking about how that mind meld is what made her drift away from Jag is ridiculous and a disservice to her character. When she and Jag parted way at the end of The Unifying Force, it was because she wanted to live her life a bit more before settling down not because they couldn’t connect properly or whatever stupid reason the book claimed.