Outcast begins two years after the events of
Invincible,the last Legacy of the Force book which left the galaxy far, far away in the capable hands of Admiral Natasi Daala. Or something like that. The war is over and the universe is divided into three parts: the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances--overseen by Chief of State Daala--the Galactic Empire (Imperial...
more Outcast begins two years after the events of
Invincible,the last Legacy of the Force book which left the galaxy far, far away in the capable hands of Admiral Natasi Daala. Or something like that. The war is over and the universe is divided into three parts: the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances--overseen by Chief of State Daala--the Galactic Empire (Imperial Remnant), and the Confederation states--those planets unwilling to rejoin the Alliance. The Unification Summit has been called together to discuss the relationship between these three factions and all of our favorite heroes have gathered on Coruscant to attend.
Jaina greets the Imperial Remnant’s representative, Jagged Fel, and almost immediately the two are sticking their tongues down each other’s throats in a way I presume to indicate what’s been going on the past couple of years in the murky waters of Jaina’s love life. I’m probably the only person doesn’t care about this romantic pairing (Team Zekk anyone?). The scene became real trite real fast and Jaina suddenly turned into a flirty, playful facsimile of the type of flighty female protagonist I usually like to avoid in any fiction that isn’t a parody. It was quite un-Jaina like.
In other parts of Coruscant, Mirax Horn has rented out an apartment for the occasion; Valin and Jysella are staying with their parents for the duration of the Summit. But what would have been a cutesy, normal morning with the Horns turns into a weird episode of the “Twilight Zone.” Valin--for reasons I’m still completely unaware and unconvinced of--flips on the crazy switch and starts swinging his lightsaber around in a mostly threatening manner in the direction of the woman he’s
absolutely convinced isn’t his mother. Even within the realm of Star Wars weirdness I’d buy it. Except when Corran comes in, Valin turns his bizarre logic on him, too and jumps out the nearest window. He lands on a nearby speeder and hops onto a bus where he begins to extend his delusion and suspects the (probably) frightened citizens of Coruscant of being in on what must, by now, be quite an elaborate hoax.
Let’s set aside Valin’s ego for the moment. Did anyone else find this incredibly weird, especially coming from the
first chapter of a brand new story arc? If I can forget about the abruptness of events, I can focus on the rest of the story--the humor Allston always brings to his books (the Alliance has the best acronyms--first GAG and now GAS) and the main story line that follows Luke on trial over not taking enough preventive measures against Jacen. Chief of State Daala seems to think the Force is irrelevant when it comes to the law and calls the Jedi Order a criminal organization. Apparently, Luke had word of this coming, but, like a lot of things in
Outcast, found out about it between LOTF and FOTJ. Which is the exact same thing that happened with Jacen and his journey of evil between NJO and DN. Lucky for us, the folks at LucasBooks understand how frustrating all of this half-revelatory type of information is and conceived of Fate of the Jedi--an excuse for us to see just what Jacen was up to during the formative years following the Yuuzhan Vong war. But I’m still annoyed that in order for this to happen, Luke had to be banned from the Jedi without a good-bye scene from Artoo.
Kenth Hamner said it best; Admiral Daala is clueless about the Jedi and “the general public’s state of ignorance concerning the Jedi Order” (p 88) is appalling, really, but not surprising, I guess, considering they’re still secretive about their ways and restrictive in just what the public can or cannot see (didn’t they watch TPM?). Because of Daala’s paranoia and heavy hand, the Jedi now have babysitters--randomly assigned observers that check in on their charges at inconvenient times of the day. Leia manages to avoid this when a late night call from Lando and Tendra sends Han and Leia off to the spice mines of Kessel to investigate matters of geology. But before they go, a third of the way into the novel, Han reminds Leia (and the readers who really, couldn’t care less), almost as an afterthought, that they’ve got Allana (“Amelia”--both terribly uninspiring names) to look after now and they can’t just go galavanting around the universe anymore. Having kids never stopped them before so instead of dropping off their grandchild at Winter’s house, they decide to take her with them so she can play with Chance, Lando and Tendra’s toddler. Maybe it’s because I never read
Millennium Falcon, but since when do they have a kid?
Ben decides to go with his father into exile; their first stop is Dorin, home of the Baran Do Sages, a band of Force users that Jacen visited, to start an investigative journey that will hopefully find answers about Jacen’s downfall and lessen Luke’s 10 year sentence. Luke winds up playing with a ball, Ben gets beat up, and the infamous ANH hook and grapnel make an appearance after four decades hidden in the shadows of Luke’s backpack.
Back on Coruscant, Darkmeld, a secret group of conspirators spear-headed by Jaina sometime between the first chapter and when the name “Darkmeld” is first mentioned, is investigating Valin’s state of crazy and discover Seff Hellin, a character I can only assume was introduced in
Millennium Falcon or in the two years between LOTF and FOTJ, who everyone realizes is exhibiting the same symptoms as Valin. The group makes it their mission to both rescue Valin and keep him in Jedi custody and continue trying to study his odd, dream-like brain waves and kidnap Seff to study his, too.
Outcast was an okay series opener. I’m not crazy about Allana and it wouldn’t bother me if she accidentally died or went off into obscurity to live with someone else. I don’t think she’s cute or adds anything to the story since what makes her so special has to be kept secret. The only useful thing she accomplished (being “cute” is not useful) was to bring up a very interesting point. About halfway through the book, she asks C-3PO who is this maker that he’s always referring to? You’d think in a universe where suddenly all of this formerly obscure information is now common knowledge that it’s a little bit unbelievable for everyone to
not know Anakin Skywalker built him. I mean, come on. It’d be so like LucasBooks to take away that bit of mystery just like they have everything else.
I wasn’t thrilled to see Tahiri again--she’s a character I wish had gone away a long time ago. Everything about her irritates me, but Allston gave her one funny scene--when her observer comes and attempts to introduce himself--but other than that, I tried to get through her scenes as fast as I could. Leia and Han’s journey to Kessel felt more like a Mars rover expedition with Leia constantly mentioning how water must have travelled through the underground caverns, but it was cute to see Han finally get over his fear of energy spiders. I kind of lost interest around Darkmeld and all the kidnapping and breaking out of jail drama, but really enjoyed what I thought was the heart of the book--Luke and Ben’s exile and attempts to understand where Jacen went wrong. In a similar vein, the anti-Jedi sentiment was kind of interesting if only because I’ve never really thought about all the crazy stuff Jedi do that, in the real world, would be against the law, but in a Star Wars book is par for the course. Just one more thing from RL that has crept into the EU. I’m still waiting for bathroom breaks.
Other than that, nothing much happens, but a lot of framework is set up for the series. I’d recommend this, but if you can wait, in paperback. Hopefully the rest of the series is fleshed out a bit more or doesn’t read like it’s been rushed through (did anyone else feel like something about this book was off?), but I’ll be reading it anyway because it’s Star Wars and despite my complaining, I didn’t mind all the Tahiri and Allana. I can put up with them for Allston’s characteristic humor and the quirks he adds that make it completely worth reading his Star Wars books.
If there’s anything else I have to say about
Outcast, it’s this: there’s a reason the word “lekku” is used instead of “brain-tails.” “Brain-tails” sounds grotesque, graphic, and scientific. “Lekku” is much more visually appealing, far less jarring, and just sounds way cooler.
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