Well. It’s done. I’ve finished reading these books and I’m ridiculously relieved to be through with Fate of the Jedi. To be completely honest, even though there are a lot of things in Legacy of the Force that upset me, I’d rather read a series like that than this one. I hated the character derailment that some of them were subjected to but I prefer that series as a whole to reading about anything with Abeloth ever again. No more tentacles please. There were a lot more high points in that series than this one. To top it off, I just never felt as invested in these books. There was both too much and too little going on. I know that sounds impossible but I don’t know how else to describe it. Basically, the majority of the series made me do this:
At least there was Mercy Kill waiting for me at the end. Observe my Wraith Squadron related tears of joy.
Warning: There are some NSFW words on some of these gifs
Vortex
My sentiment about having to read this book again can be summed up in one word: Ugh.
This book is bad. It’s not Jedi bug sex bad because I didn’t cringe and resort to drinking but it is bad. I literally just finished it and tossed it down and said “Stupid. So stupid.” Was half the galaxy replaced by Skrulls? Honestly, I’m running out of reasons for why so many people acted the way they did. Everyone makes bad decisions that in turn make me want to bash my head against a wall. I can’t even rage like I usually do. It’s just all so gosh darn frustrating. We’ll go down the list.
First and foremost is everything involving Kenth Hamner. I have yet to understand why “The Villainization of Kenth Hamner” had to occur and I think it’s ridiculous. While I don’t think that he (or anyone in the order really) is looking at the situation from an entirely rational point of view, I also don’t think that anything that happened with his storyline was logical. I especially disagree with how he dies.
That brings me to point two which is Saba. I liked Saba when she was originally introduced. I really did. I feel like I’m not dealing with entirely the same character anymore. It’s nice that she doesn’t take any pleasure in killing Kenth but it doesn’t change that she did and the last time I checked? You don’t reward someone for that by making her the new Grand Master. Seriously, Cilghal and Corran? Seriously? Kyp Durron or Kyle Katarn would’ve been better choices. I’ll agree about wanting someone who’s more of a warrior in charge but I certainly don’t think that staging a kriffing COUP is going to help things. There’s general distrust of the Jedi Order because they’re too powerful and act only as they see fit. Clearly the best way to counter this is to remove the Chief of State from office. EXCEPT NO. NO IT IS NOT.
On the other side of the galaxy, we’ve got Skrull!Luke Skywalker. Everything about this Luke feels wrong. I don’t know what else to say except that this isn’t the Luke Skywalker we know from the films and previous books. I’d also really like to know when his storyline went from ‘Retrace Jacen Solo’s Force Odyssey’ to ‘Retrace Luke Skywalker’s Love Life’. Oh and hey! We can throw in some Sith while we’re at it. 😐
Fourth, I still don’t get Abeloth. If I could never read again about her tentacles and giant mouth that eats people or whatever, I’d be happy. She is ridiculous. Everything about this storyline is ridiculous and I want it to end. I’m so done with all of this.
This next one doesn’t anger me as much as it annoys me. I honestly don’t get the point of including this slave uprising storyline. I know it gets used more later and does tie into the overarching story but it feels overall like wasted page space to me. Sorry.
Finally, who thought this Barabel nest thing was a good idea especially when it comes to ending a book? No, don’t answer that. It was rhetorical. On a scale from 1-10, this ranks an 8 on the Unnecessary Scale.
Part II of our Fate of the Jedi review looks into new characters, the authors, loose ends, and gives a score for the series as a whole. Be sure to read the first part 
A funny and rather unexpected thing happened while trudging through the latest entry in a series of Star Wars Expanded Universe novels that haven’t exactly jumped out and grabbed my attention. Somewhere in the middle of reading through Aaron Allston’s Conviction (the seventh entry in the much maligned Fate of the Jedi series), I realized I was feeling a strange sensation. I was having fun with this book. Now, that’s not entirely unusual, I wouldn’t be an EU reader if I didn’t manage to derive some kind of fun from every novel I pick up.