Star Wars: Apocalypse (Fate of the Jedi)

 Star Wars: Apocalypse (Fate of the Jedi) by Troy Denning 4 out of 5 stars.

I have a long history with Star Wars.  It’s easily one of my top movie franchise choices and I grew up watching the movies.  In fact one of my most vivid memories of our Point West house (our second home in Madera, California; the absolute oldest I could have been at the time was eight), consisted of watching Return of the Jedi.

My brothers and I liked to go “camping”, which in this case meant that we would set up a tent in one of the bedrooms to sleep in.  This time around we dragged our “big” TV so that it would fit in the tent’s opening and we proceeded to watch Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.  The scene that stuck-out the most to me was Luke and Leia talking on the bridge after leaving the Ewok celebration.  I just remember watching that and wondering what it would be like to be in that sort of situation.

My parents bred a healthy respect and love for the films.  I just took it to the next level.  It started with the Young Jedi Knights series, a book series that followed the adventures of Han’s and Leia’s twins, Jacen and Jaina Solo.  That started my “affair” of sorts with the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Something that most people don’t immediately realize is that there is an entire Star Wars Books Universe, with hundreds of books.  You can find a somewhat outdated, but still accurate list here if you’re interested: Stars Wars Book Timeline! I’ve read over fifty of the post Episode VI books with plans to read plenty more books in the other eras.  Now this book in particular, Apocalypse, was the final addition to the Fate of the Jedi series which takes place approximately 43 years after Episode IV: A New Hope.  The following does contain spoilers for the story, but let’s just say that in short I really liked it and I loved certain parts of the ending, though I did not quite like how it was so obviously set up for a new series… I thought it was missing some of that feeling of closure.

I had mixed feelings about this one.  Going into it, I was so afraid that this would be the book that would mark the end of Luke Skywalker’s life and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to say goodbye.  That didn’t turn out to be the case, but I can’t help but note that the original three are getting old.  Even though 63 is not really that old in the Star Wars universe (in my opinion it is like the equivalent of 40 in our life-expectancy rates; it’s more common than not that a human passes the hundred year mark there), I know that they will eventually end their story arcs.  I can already see this happening as the younger generation receives more “facetime” with each passing book.  Even though I love some of the new characters, I am very attached to Luke, Leia, and Han.

I loved the fact that Jaina and Jag get married!  Jaina has always been one of my favorite characters.  I know not everyone is a large fan of her, but because I started reading Star Wars with the Young Jedi Knights, I quickly grew to love her.  And I’ve always had a fondness for Jagged Fel, perhaps because I can relate to him rather well. 

I do not like this whole Abeloth situation.  I must admit I wasn’t surprised with Vestara went to go off and be a Sith Lord, particularly since in some of the other recent books you know that there is already another serious Sith threat completely unrelated to the Vestara’s Sith Tribe.  I have a feeling that she’s going to go join them.  But what I mean is that this Abeloth situation seems to make things a bit too muddled. 

But I will leave off this review (really just some impressions of the book) with this bit I loved at the end: 

“The darkness was eternal, all-powerful, unchangeable.
She had stared into it for too many years, alone and unblinking, determined that it would not take her.
Now it never would.
Now she was lighting a candle.”