tempest in a teapot
I finally, finally slogged my way through Tempest. I think I started it, um. Awhile ago. Back in December, certainly. As you can probably guess, I didn't like it all that much.
"Bleh" was definitely my word for this one. Where do I even start? The every-other-paragraph references to the bug books? (Dude, I know you want to talk about the other stuff you've written, but *seriously.*) Ben's sudden transformation from surprisingly interesting young teenager to *ridiculously* obnoxious Jacen-worshipper? Man, I-- eh.
I think my problem is that I do not see the characters is not how Troy Denning sees the characters. He wrote scenes with people named Han and Leia, and Luke and Mara, and they generally said things and did things that those characters would have said and done, but they didn't *feel* like Han and Leia and Luke and Mara. At least to me.
I did like Jaina in this book. Mostly because she was the only one going, "Oh my God, Jacen, you're being a complete moron. STOP IT NOW." She was hampered, though, by the presence of Zekk, who is not so much a character as he is one of Jaina's appendages. ...um, that sounded dirty. But you take my meaning. The poor boy has zero personality. He's just kind of...there. Jag may have been Colonel Cardboard, but Zekk is seriously Colonel Cling-Wrap. Or Jedi Cling-Wrap, whatever.
Oh speaking of! Jag with unkempt hair? And a shaggy beard? Bounty hunting? I disbelieve. (But I will pay Karen Traviss ten dollars to write Jag teaming up with Boba Fett.) The "We should, I think he almost married our daughter" line pretty much made it all worth it, though.
And okay, this is such an old issue that I really should just get over it, but I can't seem to stop being cranky about it. Any time I think too hard about this whole storyline, about Jacen, I think that this should have been *Anakin's* story, and it should have been Jacen who died, because it makes so much more *sense* character-wise and Anakin had so much potential and GRRRRRR, are we not smart enough that we could handle two characters named Anakin, LFL? But it's not like I'm going to change anything by being mad about it. And reading the books and mentally replacing "Jacen" with "Anakin" and "Tenel Ka" with "Tahiri" and "Hapes" with "um...Tahiri-land?" really doesn't work, so. Time to get over it.
And so in conclusion: Bleh. The little Exile snippet at the end put me in a considerably better mood, so I am very much looking forward to that.
"Bleh" was definitely my word for this one. Where do I even start? The every-other-paragraph references to the bug books? (Dude, I know you want to talk about the other stuff you've written, but *seriously.*) Ben's sudden transformation from surprisingly interesting young teenager to *ridiculously* obnoxious Jacen-worshipper? Man, I-- eh.
I think my problem is that I do not see the characters is not how Troy Denning sees the characters. He wrote scenes with people named Han and Leia, and Luke and Mara, and they generally said things and did things that those characters would have said and done, but they didn't *feel* like Han and Leia and Luke and Mara. At least to me.
I did like Jaina in this book. Mostly because she was the only one going, "Oh my God, Jacen, you're being a complete moron. STOP IT NOW." She was hampered, though, by the presence of Zekk, who is not so much a character as he is one of Jaina's appendages. ...um, that sounded dirty. But you take my meaning. The poor boy has zero personality. He's just kind of...there. Jag may have been Colonel Cardboard, but Zekk is seriously Colonel Cling-Wrap. Or Jedi Cling-Wrap, whatever.
Oh speaking of! Jag with unkempt hair? And a shaggy beard? Bounty hunting? I disbelieve. (But I will pay Karen Traviss ten dollars to write Jag teaming up with Boba Fett.) The "We should, I think he almost married our daughter" line pretty much made it all worth it, though.
And okay, this is such an old issue that I really should just get over it, but I can't seem to stop being cranky about it. Any time I think too hard about this whole storyline, about Jacen, I think that this should have been *Anakin's* story, and it should have been Jacen who died, because it makes so much more *sense* character-wise and Anakin had so much potential and GRRRRRR, are we not smart enough that we could handle two characters named Anakin, LFL? But it's not like I'm going to change anything by being mad about it. And reading the books and mentally replacing "Jacen" with "Anakin" and "Tenel Ka" with "Tahiri" and "Hapes" with "um...Tahiri-land?" really doesn't work, so. Time to get over it.
And so in conclusion: Bleh. The little Exile snippet at the end put me in a considerably better mood, so I am very much looking forward to that.