| Title | : | Annihilation (Star Wars: The Old Republic, #4) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0345529413 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780345529411 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 286 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2012 |
But Karrid’s ruthless determination is more than matched in the steely resolve of Theron Shan, whose unfinished business with the Empire could change the course of the war for good. Though the son of a Jedi master, Theron does not wield the Force—but like his renowned mother, the spirit of rebellion is in his blood. As a top covert agent for the Republic, he struck a crucial blow against the Empire by exposing and destroying a Sith superweapon arsenal—which makes him the ideal operative for a daring and dangerous mission to end Ascendant Spear’s reign of terror.
Joined by hot-headed smuggler Teff’ith, with whom he has an inexplicable bond, and wise Jedi warrior Gnost-Dural, Darth Karrid’s former master, Theron must match wits and weapons with a battle-tested crew of the most cold-blooded dark side disciples. But time is brutally short. And if they don’t seize their one chance to succeed, they will surely have countless opportunities to die.
Annihilation (Star Wars: The Old Republic, #4) Reviews
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Now that I actually took my time while reading this, I can appreciate the story; while not the best Star Wars has to offer, it was still an engaging novel set in a galaxy far, far away. It had the action and intensity I've come to expect from this franchise. The only problem is that Disney messed this up by relegating it to "Legends" status.
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Theron Shan is now one of my favorite non-Force user characters. He's sarcastic and sly, and often considers given orders more like guidelines for his actions. Despite being pushed to become a Jedi like his famous mother, Satele Shan, Theron has blazed his own path in life. This book really goes into detail about Theron's relationship with Satele and his father. The reader also gets insight on the relationship between Theron's parents and how they work together to help their son. This book did a great job bringing in a character story that we've never really seen in Star Wars before. A non-Force sensitive child who can't live up to his Jedi heritage, yet becomes a hero by his own doing.
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This story is Drew Karpyshyn at his best.
This story takes place after the Immortal Sith Emperor is feared dead the Dark Counsel and Sith Lords are on the back foot in the war with the Republic. They have one major ace up their sleeves. The Ascendant Spear. The biggest, fastest, deadliest star ship ever created. It is an amalgam of engineering, Sith alchemistry (magic), and Human/Falleen interaction. Thanks to cybernetic enhancement a Sith Lord can take control of the ship and uses it as an extension of her own will.
Theron Shan is a Republic spy. He is a decedent of Star Wars The Old Republic - Revan but unlike his (secret) Jedi master mother he is not force sensitive, though is raised by another Jedi and taught methods of force meditation and other techniques. He believes in the Republic and has dedicated his life to protecting it, just not the Jedi way. -
This is probably one of the better Star Wars books by Drew Karpyshyn, which is quite a relief after the train wreck that I thought was Revan. It's amazing what a good writer he can be when he's not being rushed. Now that he has left BioWare, I'm glad he left us with this before moving on to his future endeavors.
For a while we've known that Satele Shan, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order during this time in the Old Republic, has a "secret son." Theron Shan first appeared in The Lost Suns comic and now he stars in his own novel, which aside from featuring his undercover agent/operative awesomeness also reveals a lot about his parents' history and his own mysterious past.
I could tell Drew K had a lot of fun writing Theron's story. From experience, I find that characters in books based on movies/TV shows/video games, etc. very often read like caricatures and hardly ever feel like real people. However, I thought Theron had a clear personality right away, and even smiled to myself a few times at his wit. I also enjoyed the supporting characters, Teff'ith the Twi'lek whose weak grasp of Galactic Basic was a nice touch, as well as Master Gnost-Dural who fans of the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO will recognize as the keeper of the Jedi archives.
The story is pretty much your run-of-the-mill fare, but very entertaining nonetheless. There were the usual space combat and lightsaber battle scenes, but I was surprised at how well done they were. Drew Karpyshyn is very good at writing action, but I was even more surprised to see how well he tackled some of the emotional issues in this book. Like I said, he can be very good when given enough time to develop his characters.
One last thing I should note: I listened to the audiobook of this. Though I'm confident to claim Annihilation as a solid entry to the world of Star Wars novels, I have to mention the possibility that the quality of the audio version may have influenced my opinion. For one thing, it was my first experience with a Star Wars audiobook, so I've only just discovered the talent of Marc Thompson, who is probably one of the best narrators I've ever come across. His voices are simply phenomenal, and together with the sound effects and music I was just blown away. -
FREE BOOK FROM GOODREADS FIRST READS. Good book. It has been a long time since I have read a Star Wars book, but this was a good one. One nice thing is that the book was very clean (no language, sex, etc). The story is a good one and while the expectation is that good will defeat evil, you still wonder how it is going to happen. Entertaining read.
-
For those that have been wondering why the only reviews I have been doing lately are for updates on books that I have already read, it's because I don't have the best access to new materials right now. Being a college student with no steady income outside of summer jobs leaves me with limited time and money, so I have been sticking with Star Wars because my interest in reading primarily stems from exploring Star Wars Lore.
Anyways, I decided to come back to Drew Karpyshyn's The Old Republic: Annihilation for a couple of reasons. First, the book’s titular character, Theron Shan, is playing an increasingly important role in the SWTOR storyline as a companion in the newest expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire. I also revisited
Revan, and finally read
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction over the summer. After reading these two other books, also by Drew Karpyshyn, I was curious to see how Annihilation held up. I really loved Annihilation on my first read, but some things came to mind. First, I read some other reviews of the book, and after I read multiple ones pointing out its flaws, I had to agree after some thought. Second, even though I adored Revan on my first read, it didn’t hold up well after I revisited it. Third, Path of Destruction ended up rather disappointing, despite its reputation as one of the best Star Wars novels ever, right up there with
Heir to the Empire. It wasn't a bad book, but I think it is very overrated.
So that begged the question: was this book even that good in the first place? After all, I was still relatively fresh off being hit with a jedi mind trick while reading Revan. It probably went something like this:
Fantasy apparition of Darth Revan: *waves his hand across my face* "You will love this book"
Me with a stupefied expression: "I will love this book"
Revan: *waves hand again* Matthew Stover can suck it. Your love for
Revenge of the Sith means nothing. Revan is all that matters!
Me: Matthew Stover can suck it! My love for Revenge of the Sith means nothing in the face of the epic continuation of KOTOR!
Revan: Hail Darth Revan, your one and only true Star Wars character.
Me: *goggling like Poe the Panda* Hail Darth Revan, my one and only true Star Wars character.
Goodness was I naive. either way, my initial love for Karpyshyn's Revan was still in my mind. More importantly, right before this I had treated myself to the abomination that was
Fatal Alliance. After that little gem, I was ready just to read something different. Anything would probably work to wash the horrible taste from my mouth, but Drew K's name on the cover of Annihilation got me excited- I recognized the character on the front because he was featured on the loading screen of SWTOR when Shadow of Revan was the MMORPG's most recent expansion, and I just knew Annihilation couldn't be any worse than Fatal Alliance.
What really surprised me though, was just how well this book held up after I recently completed it again. Is it a masterpiece? No. Not even close. But even so, Drew K's Annihilation is my current pick for the most underrated Star Wars expanded universe book. I know that seems odd because I declared another one of his books (
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction) to be the most overrated EU book, but it's true. Even though, again, PoD is a decent novel, the immense praise for it makes no sense, and I think The Old Republic: Annihilation does not get enough attention. When people talk about Drew K's Star Wars novels, they will almost always praise the Darth Bane Trilogy.
Revan gets lots of talk as well, whether it's love or, more often, vitriol. But I have never seen anyone mention this book on EU discussion threads or article/video comments sections.
THE STORY: Theron Shan, despite being the son of the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Satele Shan, is not force sensitive. But that doesn't stop him from serving the republic. Rather than brandishing a lightsaber and magic powers as a jedi, Theron relies on his gadgets and wit as an agent for the Republic's Strategic Information Service.
The Republic may be winning the Great Galactic War and have the evil Sith Empire in retreat, but it threatens to make a triumphant comeback with a devastating superweapon: a seemingly invincible ship called the Ascendant Spear, lead by an up and coming Sith Lord, Darth Karrid.
Theron is sent to take down this thing, where he teams up with Karrid's former Jedi Master, Gnost-Dural (which, I learned from my new Goodreads friend Mogsy (
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4...), appears in the MMO as the Keeper of the Jedi Archives.), and a smart mouthed Twi’lek smuggler named Teffith.
THE BAD: As much as I enjoy this book, I can't ignore it's problems, for while they don't ruin the book, they prevent it from being on the level of other books I gave the same rating like
Lords of the Sith or
Heir to the Empire.
The first thing I’ll mention is that this book can get really cheesy at times, particularly the climax . For me, it’s part of what makes this book so much fun, but for others who want something darker or more serious out of their Star Wars novels, look elsewhere.
The plot is quite standard for Star Wars as a whole and once you read the book's back cover synopsis, you know exactly where it will go. Even a casual Star Wars fan who has only seen the original trilogy could pick up this book and quickly figure out what it will be: a big giant evil weapon that the heroes have to blow up in order to save the day. It's the plot of not just 4 out of the currently 7 Star Wars episode films, but based on what I read from Crystal Starr Light's reviews (including for this book), it seems to be the plot of a good portion of the Expanded Universe too.
In fact…
Even if you didn’t read my spoiler, if you made any effort to try to compare this to A New Hope, it’s quite easy to pick out the similarities, and you’ll pretty quickly discover that this is essentially “A New Hope in the Old Republic”.
Karpyshyn doesn't really do anything very new with the story's espionage/spy setup- it’s all the standard Star Wars plot devices mixed with the standard James Bond movie plot devices. And early in the book you have that forced plot device where the main character screws up and his higher-up gets mad, resulting in some grouching around that slows everything down because you know all of it will be forgiven and it won't affect the overall plot moving forward.
The parallels to A New Hope would not be as noticeable if Drew made a bigger effort to discern this setting from the one in the films, but he really doesn't. Crystal Starr Light makes a good point in her reviews of the Old Republic books in one way or another: that they don't feel like they are set thousands of years before Luke Skywalker. I'm able to get past this because I am familiar with the aesthetics of the Old Republic Era. I can visualize what is being described because of my experience playing SWTOR and I can get easily immersed with the setting due to my inherent love for this era, but sometimes I have to make an effort because Karpyshyn (as does the other writers of the Old Republic novels) use similar terminology to that of the film eras and not enough that is specifically tied to this one. The only part that really shows that this is the Old Republic that isn't my previously established knowledge of this era, is the bits of lore presented.
Another problem with Annihilation is the novel's portrayal of the imperial characters, particularly its villain, Darth Karrid. It's interesting that Karrid is a Faleen and her connection to the Ascendant Spear and how she powers it through the force is admittedly awesome, but neither of those traits stop her from being a 1-Dimensional character. You need more than just a unique gimmick to make a good character. Being a blue alien with red eyes and being able to discover his enemy's weaknesses through art for me is not what makes Grand Admiral Thrawn a great Star Wars villain. His design and the whole art thing is cool, but what really makes him stand out is the personality, actions, and dialogue that were fantastically executed through Timothy Zahn's great writing. Darth Karrid has cool gimmicks, but Karpyshyn provides nothing else to really back the character up. Her actions are standard for the type of villain she is, her dialogue is nothing new, and her personality is the stereotypical sith lord. That’s a problem with the imperial characters as a whole in this book: their characterizations are as standard as they get.
The final problem is that this book, while it works fine on its own as an entertaining book, often falls back to
The Lost Suns, a comic that came before this book chronologically. I actually never knew this comic existed before I read Mogsy’s review and she mentioned how Theron Shan was first introduced in it. And I would quickly realize as I was reading this book again Karpyshyn often expects you to remember what occurred in the comic where it introduced characters from this book (such as Teffith and Ngani Zho) or plot devices (namely the Ascendant Spear). This was a problem I noticed in Revan as well, but in that case I was already intimately familiar with the beloved and massively popular KOTOR games- here, it’s an obscure tie in comic that I never even heard of until Mogsy mentioned it. I guess it’s good that reading this made me want to read the SWTOR comics, but the really good spinoff novels (like A New Dawn and Heir to the Empire) should make perfect sense without any prior knowledge of the materials they relate to. Some of the character backstories and motivations in this book were not as clear as they could have been, and I quickly resigned to the solution that “I just had to read The Lost Suns”. If a spinoff novel wants to encourage me to check out other material, that’s great. But it shouldn’t rely on me to do so to fully understand the stories and characters.
THE GOOD: My rating is definitely bloated, but I don’t really care. This book is probably closer to a 3 stars than a 4 stars if all I’m looking at is problems vs strengths, but I’m being extremely generous for two reasons: First, I want to emphasize that I think this book is underrated, and second, I’m trying to balance what I think is a more objective rating with how much enjoyment I get out of this book (based on pure enjoyment I would rate this a 5 stars), because like other forms of art and entertainment, books are subjective. I did something similar with
Star Wars: Darth Plagueis: I personally had a hard time with that one but I can see why others loved it much more than I did. Annihilation is the opposite: while I see why the flaws would turn off some readers, it doesn’t stop me from enjoying the hell out of this book.
Drew is able to write around the forced plot device at the beginning of the book that I mentioned earlier (the grouching around bit) by using that point to cut away to the imperial scenes that provide the required context and exposition. While the characters these parts focus on are dull, there is a pretty awesome space battle so I can handle it.
Reading Annihilation just puts an enormous smile on my face. I don’t think every Star Wars novel needs to be taken overly seriously, or to have a complex plot with vivid and emotionally investing characters. If that’s what you want in your Star Wars novels, there’s always Plagueis, Stover’s Revenge of the Sith, or Lost Stars. But why can’t a Star Wars book just be focused on pure FUN once in a while? Afterall, that’s what Star Wars is. It’s a wonderful fantasy universe that can take children and adults of any age on a whimsical adventure. While I acknowledge that I love Star Wars to death and will always enjoy the giddy and childlike wonder that it brings me, I also admit that at its heart the franchise is a campy, silly, and dumb little galaxy far, far away. While it’s great that various minds can put deeper, more emotional, and innovative spins on the setting and lore, I don’t see why we can’t have a book that goes back to the goofiness that Star Wars is at its roots.
And through this book’s writing, I can tell that Drew Karpyshyn’s main goal with Annihilation was to just have fun. While there are some emotional moments and even some good themes brought up that I will get too shortly, those elements weren’t the focus. I could tell, especially in the climax, that the main objective was to capture the corny and goofy feel of the very first Star Wars film, an effort which I think paid off greatly.
Karpyshyn’s writing is at its best here. Despite the familiar and predictable plot, I think the execution more than makes up for it. Karpyshyn takes every advantage that he can to deliver his amazing flair for writing action sequences. This book is packed with action scenes, and all of them, whether they are personal brawls or big epic space battles, are wonderfully rendered and tons of fun.
Karpyshyn’s knack for lore is also present, and while its not as deep as Path of Destruction, he does a good job making sure you know what time period you’re in, and what has happened in the MMO and other SWTOR lore before this book.
The characters very entertaining, even if they are tropes we have seen before. While not the most complex or interesting characters ever written, they are definitely pretty strong, especially for Drew Karpyshyn. His Star Wars characters usually range from dull at best to awful at worst. I enjoyed Path of Destruction for the great main plot that lead to fascinating lore and gritty action- but I didn’t give a womp rat’s rear about Bane, he was as boring as a corpse in the Valley of the Dark Lords!
But here, his characters are surprisingly interesting and have a great sense of camaraderie. I got a kick out of many of their conversations in this book, whether it be just chuckling or straight up laughter. Theron Shan is very likeable for his determination and his dependability, but he is also caring and always makes sure he sticks to his word. Gnost Dural is a Stoic Jedi Master but is relatable in his desire to fix the mistakes he made in his past. Teffith has some hilarious dialogue and is quite a badass, but even though her main desire is money she can also have a caring soft side.
When I read the section where Theron was negotiation with Gorvich, I couldn’t stop imagining Gorvich as Donald Trump. I couldn’t stop laughing as I tried to imitate Donald Trump’s voice while reading his lines.
The quirks Karpyshyn added to Director Marcus Trant leads to some adorable and funny moments,
I love the way that Karpyshyn fleshed out Satele Shan and Jace Malcom, a pair of characters prominently featured in two of the MMO’s beautiful trailers (watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuNvC...). The dynamic between these two leads to many of the books more emotional moments as well as touching upon the costs of war and how not everything is black and white. After how poorly Karpyshyn usually handles the emotional moments between his characters or complex themes in Revan and Path of Destruction, it’s very impressive to see how well it’s done here.
Karpyshyn’s knack for action and lore are present in Annihilation, but two factors elevate it from Revan or Path of Destruction. First is the surprisingly well written characters. While the villains are still kind of dull, the Republic characters are much better than Karpyshyn’s generally bland and 1-dimensional casts. Second, is just the way Karpyshyn is just going for it. The climax gets really silly, but the characters and action sequences take advantage of it and the way it’s written encourages you to have fun with it. And the result? Pure Star Wars style fun.
THE CONCLUSION: This book may have some problems, but I still really enjoy it. There is enough legitimately good stuff in it that I consider Annihilation a truly underrated gem rather than a guilty pleasure. For me, this is definitely Drew Karpyshyn’s best Star Wars book. I still need to read
Rule of Two and
Dynasty of Evil, but if
Path of Destruction is any indication, I think this book will stay above them. If you’re a fan of SWTOR and/or have read
The Lost Suns, this is definitely worth checking out. For everyone else, it depends on what you want. If you want a Star Wars novel with substance, you won’t find much of it here. For me, part of it could just be the setting that I love so much. It could also be that I haven’t read enough of the expanded universe, so this for me is unique in that its mostly just trying to be pure fun and nothing else. If you just want a fast- paced, action packed, and enjoyable novel with some decent characters, good comedy, and interesting lore, this book is a very good way to occupy yourself. I know I’m going to read this one many times again, and I am going to enjoy the Theron Shananigans every time. -
A solid self contained little episode of a book.
World: The world building here is solid and effortless. There is not a lot of info dumping and we are very quickly oriented on what the state of the First Galactic Republic is at the moment and the pieces that this book plays with, which is both from the game and the Extended Universe books. I liked how small the story was, it was intimate and made the story about character more than anything.
Story: The story is solid, it’s a very basic mission story with new characters (well for me, I imagine the gamers will know them more than me). The pacing in the first third is a bit slow and when the mission starts it just fast fast fast until the end. There are some moments for character development and interaction but I found them to be basic and lacked depth. I did enjoy the villain and the idea of the technology behind the ship. It was a fun little episodic kind of book.
Characters: I found Theron to be a very typical character in an action adventure, kind gruff, kinda snide so yeah this character is not very interesting. He’s a cliché and that’s fine, there are no deeper layers to him (which may have been found in the game) for a novel’s main protagonist. The supporting cast is also just as basic with Teff’ith, Gnost-Dural serving as the smuggler and the Jedi Knight in this band of three. The villainess was fairly standard though the idea of her ship was intriguing.
Overall a very solid tale that felt episodic and doesn’t really break any new ground. Safe, clichéd fun.
Onward to the next book! -
Fourth Book that takes place during the Old Republic. I recommend reading the previous book Fatal Alliance so you can get familiar with Jedi Master Satele Shan.
I really enjoyed this Star Wars book, because the main character Theron does not have the ability to manipulate the Force, even though he is the secret love child of a Jedi master. There are Jedi and Sith characters in this book, but it was refreshing to have a book from a different perspective. -
Theron Shan may be the son of Satele Shan, Grand Master of the Jedi, but that doesn't mean he's a Jedi or even a Force Sensitive. He's a spy, an intelligence agent, a loner, now that his father-figure is dead.
He has been given a new assignment. The Sith have what could be their ultimate weapon: the Ascendant Spear, a ship so powerful and controlled by Darth Karrid. Together with Jedi Master Gnost-Dural, Theron has to do whatever possible to destroy this ship.
NOTE: I received this through the Amazon Vine Program.
If you would have asked me 6 months ago what I thought of Drew Karpyshyn, I would have said something like: "ZOMG, da best SW author EVAH!!" (Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the point.) But after reading
Revan, a book so disappointing, I was at a
loss for words to describe how disappointing it was, I wasn't so sure. Up until Revan, I had been excited about Annihilation; after Revan, I was ready to be disappointed.
Well, there is good news and bad news. The good news is this is MUCH better than Revan. The bad news is it is nowhere near as good as Karpyshyn's Darth Bane trilogy.
One of the things I though Karpyshyn did better in Annihilation was the characters. Pretty much all the characters were 100% more interesting than the ones in Revan (and apologies in advance for all the comparisons to Revan, but since Revan so influenced my opinion of Karpyshyn's works, I think it is necessary to have some comparison). Theron Shan was definitely not the bland, stereotypical Jedi-turned-Sith-turned-whatever. I liked how Shan was not a Force user. It's fun to see regular "guys" in Star Wars have to figure things out without a flick of the wrist or a squint of the eyebrows. Furthermore, Shan has interesting drama - the fact his mother, a prominent Jedi, left him in the care of another and the fact he has no idea who his father is. If that doesn't mess a guy up, I don't know what would!
My favorite character, though, was Teff'ith. She was great; snarky, independent, opinionated, capable, and yet still caring and thoughtful. I liked her dialect (though I am puzzled over how she can go from such rough, heavily accented Basic to cultured Imperial speech so easily). I liked how she wasn't Theron's love interest. I liked how she was important to the plot. About the only thing I didn't like was that she didn't appear more.
One of the things that also tickled me was how even minor characters sometimes got interesting developments. The Director flirted with Jace's receptionist; Satele doubts at times whether it was good to leave Theron with someone else and not tell Theron's father.
The biggest "character" problem is how badly sketched the Imperials/Sith are. Darth Karrid, while very interesting with her ability to cybernetically attach to the ship, was still your stereotypical power-hungry Sith. Not much nuance there. There are a couple of other Sith - the Minister of Logistics (who, because he's a logistics guy, of course loves numbers and cannot possibly understand that "emotions" thing that people talk about - don't you know that emotions and logic can NEVER mix??) and one Sith on the Council - who seem to be important in the beginning, but completely disappear by the end. Why bring them up if you aren't going to at least touch bases with them at the end?
Storywise, this book felt a LOT like the early Bantam books to me. We have another super powerful, gonna-destroy-the-galaxy superweapon with the Ascendant Spear. And most of the story is just that. Director and Jace tell Theron to destroy it; Theron and Gnost-Dural investigate how to do that, snatching up the MacGuffin "black cipher" in order to pad the word count - I MEAN! - in order to break the Imperial code and find out where the ship is (as if a ship like that can hide behind a rock!!). I think the better portions are the ones with Theron trying to figure out how he feels towards his parents and even him working with Gnost-Dural. Other than that, the story really didn't "do" anything for me.
And now, I've been looking forward to it and I know you have been too...NERD NITPICKS!!
1. Is there a definition that says that any government called an "Empire" must be evil and xenophobic? I can understand the Sith Empire being a teensy bit evil, but killing people and destroying perfectly good capital ships just because the ships are fleeing a lose-lose situation? How stupid is that? I wouldn't want to be the person trying to explain THAT to the Uber-Evul, Satan-Incarnate Emperor. "Yeah, Empy, I was just trying to show them cowards who was boss...no I didn't think about the billions of credits we don't have to replace that brand-new, top-of-the-line ship..." As for the xenophobic, it must be shorthand for "evil". And I'm not saying it isn't, but WHY must every Empire be xenophobic? In a galaxy with MILLIONS of species, you seem to be cutting off a LOT Of allies.
2. Has the Star Wars galaxy never invented any forms of birth control? From Satele Shan to Etain to Padme Amidala, it seems no one in this universe knows how to get the pill or pick up a package of condoms. Perhaps this is a jab at those who want to oppose the American laws that insurance companies MUST provide women with access to birth control???
3. What do Imperials (ALL IMPERIALS) wear? Uniforms? WRONG. Hats? WRONG! Pride and arrogance. Because we've NEVER seen Republic or Rebel officers with pride or arrogance. No siree! Because Republic and Rebel officers are pure and blameless, always thinking of others and NEVER self-seeking.
4. The reason the Ascendant Spear is so tubular is because Darth Karrid uses cybernetic implants to directly speak with the ship and thus make everything faster (esp when she draws on her Force abilities). Soooo...why does she even bother to type things on a screen? Why not use her mental powers to tell the ship to do "X"? How can she enter a system and IMMEDIATELY see EVERYTHING? Wouldn't it take the ship some time to download? Has no one downloaded anything off the internet, even using a fast connection? It still takes a few seconds/minutes. You are telling me their computers are SO FAST that this takes no time??? I'm no computer expert, but I just don't buy it.
And this has been another...NERD NITPICKS!
About the best thing I can say about this book is "it's better than 'Revan'". The characters are pretty nicely drawn on the whole, but the story has been done so many times, there really isn't much to make it stand out. I had a hard time being interested in it.
As for Karpyshyn, I haven't given up on him yet. I still think he can write a great book if he has A) the right subject, B) the right characters, and C) enough time. Hopefully, next time the balance will be perfect. -
The actual plot of this book wasn't anything special but Drew Karpyshyn managed to tie all of the previous book into this one very well. It was really interesting to learn more about Grandmaster Satele Shan (daughter or Revan and Bastila Shan from a previous book) and her relationship with Jace Malcolm and Theron Shan. It does get annoying though when every Star Wars book/movie has some big, unstoppable weapon that needs to be destroyed. It started with 2 Death Stars, then Starkiller Base, and now the Ascendant Spear. Since this book takes place thousands of years before the time of the movies though, the Ascendant Spear was actually the first weapon capable of mass destruction that we see later.
Theron has to be one of my favorite non-force users. He is sarcastic with everyone and tends to ignore the chain of command. His exchanges with other characters and side remarks made the book more alluring.
Most Star Wars books are just a lot of action with little character development, but Annihilation stands out as one of the best Star Wars books I have read. -
Loved this. So fun. Drew Karpyshyn is a creator who I have tons of respect for and I hate that Disney is doing him dirty and turning down his offers to help write for them. He knows Star Wars like few do. What he lacks in eloquent prose he makes up for in great pacing and blockbuster stories. All of the books I've read by him could easily be turned into feature films and this is no different!
-
In my opinion, Drew Karpyshyn is the best Star Wars author currently working in the tie-in genre.
I have read all four of the "Old Republic" PC MMORPG game tie-in novels, as well as Karpyshyn's Darth Bane series (set in the "Old Republic" era) and his Mass Effect series of tie-in novels. Three of the four PC game tie-in "Old Republic" novels have been above average for the usual Star Wars novel. "Annihilation" is the second one written by Drew Karpyshn.
I have no familiarity whatsoever with the MMORPG universe or the "Old Republic" comic book series, but I do have fond memories of "the Old Republic" era from Bioware's "Knights of the Old Republic" Xbox games, which Drew Karpyshn was involved with the writing of. If you don't know already, the "Old Republic" era is 5000 years before Luke Skywalker blew up the original Death Star.
Why a lot of fans enjoy that far-flung era is that the dogma of Lucas is a lot less oppressive out on the fringes of history. Meaning there are many, many Sith to deal with--not just two--and that the Jedi sometimes do real human things, like fall in love and have kids.
Speaking of having kids, the main stumbling block to credibility in "Annihilation" is that our main character, Theron Shan, turns out to be the son of Satele Shan, Grand Master of the Jedi Order, and Jace Malcom, the Supreme Commander of the Republic military. His folks weren't in such lofty positions of power when they created him, of course, but it still seems like the type of "coincidence" that has been done to death in many genres.
I am aware that Karpyshn didn't create most of the characters in this novel, so perhaps some of the blame lies elsewhere. Yet once you get past some of the less plausible aspects of the set-up, the novel is well-written and compelling.
"Annihilation" has something of a World War Two feel to it. The goal of the protagonists is to destroy the Ascendant Spear, the Sith super cruiser that is capable of decimating whole Republic fleets due to its ability to "bond" directly with its Sith captain. The Sith are losing the war with the Republic, but their use of the Ascendant Spear is the main reason their war effort is still viable.
The missions leading up to the boarding of the Spear to face its Sith captain, a fallen Falleen former Jedi named Darth Karrid, are gripping and tense. To break the "unbreakable" encyption of the Sith communications, they need to steal a cipher without the Sith knowing that they've lost one. Once they have access to the communication network, they have to use it to find where the Ascendant Spear will be docking. And breaching the Ascendant Spear to sabotage it from within is the main goal. Though since the Spear is wired directly into the mind of Darth Karrid, technical sabotage is a tall order to achieve.
And it wouldn't be a suspenseful story if things went the way of the Republic saboteurs--Theron Shan and Karrid former Jedi Master, a Kel Dor named Gnost-Dural. A pivotal moral choice changes the entire landscape of the mission to breach the Ascendant Spear. Anyone who knows WWII history will know the story of the bombing of Coventry by the Nazis. A similar situation occurs during the Spear mission and causes a definite shift in the mission and the plot.
If you're a fan of Drew Karpyshyn and/or the Old Republic era of Star Wars, you'll definitely enjoy "Annihilation." Though I'd say the book is accessible to any Star Wars or sci-fi fan not looking for Darth Vader or Yoda or Boba Fett. -
You don't have to be a Jedi to fall to the Dark Side (or follow the Sith). Hate poisons the soul no matter who you are.
Even a non-Force sensitive can use Force techniques to calm themselves and in their own lives in general.
From page 195: Jedi aren't soldiers and don't approach conflict with such a mentality. And yet there is always the danger that they will succumb to the temptation of revenge and hatred
Theron Shan, Satele's son, is snarky, intelligent and a great asset to the Jedi and the Republic. He's a covert agent who isn't upset he was kicked out of the Order for not having Force abilities, but instead uses what he learned from the Jedi as well as his own skills to fight the Empire and the Sith. What's cool is that the implant in his left eye is an HUD.
Theron watches over a Twi'lek named Teff'ith, although she's typically aware of his presence. They have a history, presumably from the game, though I've never played it.
Jace Malcolm aims to get all of the Republic to join together and destroy the Imperials. His short-term goal is to destroy the Ascendant Spear, a super awesome ship controlled by the Falleen Sith, Darth Karrid. She's very resourceful, and has a bond with her ship, not entirely unlike Talyn with Crais in Farscape.
The Sith Council and its Spheres of Influence was interesting.
There is a major typo on page 88 (PB version) that made me chuckle.
I enjoyed it more with my 2015 reread (vs. 1st read in 2013). I still consider it a good sci-fi novel with some Star Wars aspects, but with more of a SW feel than I did before. Bumping it to 4 stars. -
Annihilation with the possible exception of Revan also written by Drew Karpyshyn is quite possibly the best novel based around the Old Republic video game mini-franchise. While it is not free of it's flaws it is very enjoyable to read and easy to do so. It was one of the few Star Wars books that I have read recently that kept me turning pages.
The best part about the novel is its characters. Theron Shan, first introduced in a the Old Republic comic series, is an intriguing character considering his background, lineage, and the fact that he is not a Jedi. However, I thought that his character lacked a measure of conflict. He seemed too at ease with his position in life. This made him a bit shallow, despite a deep background. The other characters in the novel are a lot of fun, particularly that of Teff'ith. The character of Gnost-Dural, the Jedi Master, was also one of my favorite characters, and I would have loved to see more of him.
Annihilation Full Review -
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Annihilation, was written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Drew Karpyshyn.
This novel is the seventh event on the Legends novel timeline. This tale takes place during the Old Republic Era, it also counts as book four, the last, in The Old Republic series. It takes place 3,640 years before A New Hope.
SUMMARY: The Sith Empire is in shambles! The Sith, Darth Karrid has control of a sleek, fast, and powerful ship, the Ascendant Spear. The Republic fears the might of the Ascendant Spear! Operation End Game is created, pulling the best of the Strategic Information Service and a Jedi together, to destroy the ship. Doing so would strike a heavy blow against the Empire.
CHARACTERS: There are a few interesting characters but the only two I’ll talk about are Theron Shan and Darth Karrid.
Theron Shan: He’s a Republic Strategic Information Service (SIS) Agent. He’s somewhat reckless but quick on his feet. He’s loyal to the Republic but has an issue taking orders. He likes to take care of business his own way, even knowing that there will be consequences from high command. He was adopted by a Jedi as a baby, so he’s going to have some parental issues. He’s got a cybernetic implant in his face.
Darth Karrid: She’s a Sith Lord, former apprentice of Jedi Master Gnost-Dural. Long ago, she was sent on a mission, to go undercover as a spy. Sadly the dark side wins her over and she calls Darth Malgus her master. She is a Falleen, which works against her in the Sith Empire. She is captain of the Ascendant Spear, a dangerously powerful ship. Members in the Dark Council want to destroy her to get the ship for themselves. She’s angry, full of pride, and craves power. Karrid will crush all who stand in her way, be it the republic, or her fellow Sith. She also has a cybernetic implant in her face.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Annihilation is a fairly decent read. The story is simple and compact. The chemistry between our characters was great. However, character traits and descriptions, made for predictable reveals and plot points. The cast was great, not a ton of names to remember or get confused with. I really enjoyed some of the references to Darth Malgus, who was the star antagonist of Decieved.
The story moved along quickly. I laughed a few times, especially toward the end. The little spice of humor thrown in was good. Like I mentioned, some of the story was predictable… it was in a big way. In the first two chapters I had already predicted details in the climax and was 100% correct. I’m no genius, I think anyone could see it. It was the only issue I had with the book.
I wouldn’t mind more stories with Theron Shan… but sadly, I don’t think that’s going to happen… ever.
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: The Old Republic – Annihilation? Yes. It’s entertaining yet simple.
RATING: I give this book a B. It was entertaining but nothing spectacular… and predictable. -
Star Wars Legends Project #29
Background: The Old Republic: Annihilation was released in November 2012. It was written by
Drew Karpyshyn as the final tie-in novel in "Old Republic" series. It is Karpyshyn's second Old Republic novel after
Revan (
my review).
The Old Republic: Annihilation is set 3,640 years before the Battle of Yavin, after the conclusion of the main storyline of The Old Republic game, but before the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion. The main character is Theron Shan, and at several points the novel refers to the events of
The Lost Suns comic (
my review), set 3 years prior. Major characters include the small-time, Twi'lek criminal Teff'ith, Jedi Master Gnost-Dural (narrator of the "Timeline" segments that provide the historical backstory for The Old Republic), Supreme Commander Jace Malcolm, and Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan (Theron's parents). The plot takes place mostly on planets featured in the game (Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant, Ziost), plus some space stations and capital ships.
Summary: The Sith Emperor is dead and with him the Empire's advantage in the Great Galactic War, but the Sith remain formidable. Meanwhile, a Jedi plot to plant an operative within the enemy's highest ranks has backfired spectacularly: The operative has fallen to the dark side, taken the name "Darth Karrid," manipulated her way into the Dark Council, and assumed control of the Ascendant Spear, the most powerful capital ship in the galaxy. In addition to weapons and armaments far beyond anything in the Republic fleet, the Spear is augmented with dark-side energies channeled by its commander and her apprentices as she communes directly with the ship. Knowing they cannot defeat the Spear in battle, the Republic recalls its best intelligence operative and sends him with Karrid's former master on a desperate mission where hope of success is slim and millions of lives hang in the balance.
Review: Annihilation reads a lot like any of a dozen multi-mission storylines from The Old Republic, which will feel repetitive and cliche to anyone who has played through multiple characters in the game. Actually, it's worse than that. I mentioned the various references to The Lost Suns, but it would be more accurate to call this novel a direct sequel. And it would be most accurate of all to call this a blatant retread. Annihilation recycles the plot of The Lost Suns in most of its important details, merely substituting new characters to replace the ones who died in the previous story. So, while most fans will recognize the incredible laziness of yet another tired superweapon plot, only those who have read the comic will appreciate how deeply unoriginal the novel is.
Which is a shame, because I still really like these characters, particularly Theron. As both a descendant of Revan, and interesting in his own right, he is the ideal "main character" of this period of Star Wars history. Revan and his progeny are the Skywalkers of the era, and Theron has a lot of unrealized potential.
Hot-tempered Teff'ith is just as welcome this time around as a source of comic relief and skill with a blaster, but her presence in the story is just as mystifying, too. In The Lost Suns, even though he's an interplanetary spy, Theron was doing police-work on Coruscant for some reason and collared Teff'ith for some low-level criminal activity. Then, he ended up being in such a rush that he couldn't leave her handcuffed to a nearby pole and call the actual police or drop her off with port authorities or anything, but had to haul her around with him so she could join in his adventures. Okay, fine. She's a lot of fun, so we'll let it slide.
This time, she (being as grumpy as ever) has a standing desire to never see or hear from him again, but he finds himself feeling so protective of her that, as the novel opens, he is using his vacation time to follow her around and quietly keep her out of trouble. Which is complicated by the fact that she might just shoot him herself if she were to spot him following her around. Nevertheless, she is somehow the only decent underworld contact that anyone in the entire SIS has, and Theron has to sweet-talk her into lending a hand with vital covert operations not once, but twice. This feels a bit like the Law of Economy of Characters run amok . . . Karpyshyn pulls several moves like this that manage to make a very large galaxy feel very, very small.
And the fact that Teff'ith speaks in a weird pidgin-Basic is just as odd this time around. Actually, it's even more odd because at one point she perfectly pulls off a comm interaction impersonating an Imperial officer with a flawless accent, which means she's actually just choosing to talk like that. Anyway, that's probably more than enough about Teff'ith . . . I could also complain about Darth Karrid having the worst "Darth" name ever, since it presumably comes from her real name: Kana Tarrid. Ugh. So, Darth Vader would have been Darth Akywalker, and Darth Sidious would have been Darth Salpatine? Boo. Try harder.
But these complaints are getting petty, so I should stress that the plot moves along at a brisk pace, stringing well-conceived action sequences together with more character development for Theron. A mission to Ziost to steal the Imperial equivalent of the Nazi Enigma Machine is a definite highlight, as a change of pace. This isn't anything like a stand-out effort, but it's perfectly functional and diverting, for what it's worth. The real disappointment isn't what it is, but it should have been.
C+ -
So i'm going to ask you two questions. 1. Have you played the expansions for the old republic? 2. do you like Theron? If you've answered no to either of these questions, chances are, you're not going to care about this book.
It seems that with the exception of Fatal alliance, every one of these books has a focus on a character. Revan was obviously...well Revan, Deception was Malgus, and Annhilation is Theron. And while Fatal Alliance was still my favorite of the four, (this being the final old republic book as of now), This one definitely comes in second. Having played the expansions and thinking that Theron's an all right guy, I enjoyed the book to an extent.
The biggest issue with this book is that there's a lot of Theron's mommy and daddy issues scattered throughout. If you can push through that, it's fine. The story itself is pretty generic. Super weapon, Theron has to stop it. About as generic as a star wars story can get. But Theron's funny enough and there's some good enough action scenes to make it worth it.
One of the good things was that it was an incredibly fast read. it's only around 280 pages which compared to fatal alliance is Child's play. I pumped this book out in like 2-3 days.
Overall, nothing fantastic, but not bad. A fun romp through the galaxy with Theron. 3/5. -
This was the closest in feel to a Wraith Squadron book I've encountered in the Star Wars Old Republic era. It doesn't have the humour, or the ensemble cast of Aaron Allston's X-Wing books, but it does revisit the theme of a small band of heroes coming together to take out a powerful enemy warship through guile and infiltration, as opposed to an all-out frontal assault.
The worst aspect: like all the BioWare Old Republic novels it suffers from dreary antagonists. Darth Karrid does nothing to make herself memorable, and the other members of the Sith Empire make even less of an impact. The main enemy is the ship, and if you are wanting a Star Wars "sink the Bismarck" tale, read the Wraith Squadron novels, or watch the Clone Wars Malevolence arc instead.
The best aspect: the plot to steal the encryption cipher. That was good fun.
Despite all this, it was still fun while it lasted, I enjoyed it (despite the off-the-shelf characters), but there was nothing especially memorable about it, and I would always pick up Iron Fist in preference to this if I fancied a re-read. -
Unabridged Audiobook (10/10):
This might genuinely be one of my favorite Star Wars Legends stories to date. Theron is a brilliant and complex character that is quickly established as still being a force to be reckoned with. But the character that I enjoyed the most might be my new favorite Legends Jedi: the Kel Dor, Jedi Master Gnost-Dural, former master of Darth Karrid. I really want to see more of his story play out! -
Audio book was narrated with excellence, except for one tiny detail: he mispronounced "coup de gras." Otherwise, his vocal expression and different voices for different characters were spot on. I also liked the background Star Wars theme music and all the sound effects; they added much to the drama.
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The writer seemed to know his stuff. Unfortunately it’s stuff that bores me.
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This was delightful. Definitely one of the better SW legends books I've read.
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"The dark side is insidious. Hate will transform you into the very evil that you are fighting so hard against."
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Excellent
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Like many Star Wars books, Annihilation was a mixed bag of good and bad, but for the most part, the good won (it is Star Wars after all) and Annihilation made a fine, solid chapter in the EU. It falls during the Old Republic era which means lots of Sith Lords and just as many Jedi. It occurs almost directly after the events of Star Wars: Fatal Alliance and nearly 2,600 years before Karpyshyn’s accoladed Darth Bane Trilogy.
The part of the story I struggled with was Theron Shan’s upbringing. I understand that his mother Satele Shan was a high ranking Jedi, nearly vital to the Jedi’s war on the Sith. I understand that his father was a high ranking military commander serving on the front lines. But somehow these don’t add up to sending him away right after he was born, never having any contact with him, never telling Jace Malcom he has a son, or never giving Theron the information that Jace Malcom is his father. In fairness to the book and to Mr. Karpyshyn, I think that this reflects one of the glaring and never clear, though often repeated, flaws of the Jedi at this time: attachment is wrong. You could argue that since this in an in-universe, well-established plot point it shouldn’t be such a sore spot. Normally, I would agree. But what really rubbed me the wrong way was the fact that it was coming from a Shan. We’ve been following this family for a while now, and even allowing for differing individuals and eras, I would think it would be clearer to them than any of the other Jedi that not all attachment is wrong. I could completely buy Satele and Jace deciding to send their newborn son away to protect him. We’ve seen that before with the Solo kids, and while it’s not great, it’s done for the child’s benefit. “I sent you away because the rest of galaxy is more important to me” is just plain wrong.
Moving on the positives of the story, Theron was an amazing character! I think we really need more squib Jedi. To have been so completely seeped in Jedi teachings and lore and yet lacking even the most rudimentary access to the force made for a complex and captivating character. I also thought that Theron was perhaps the most well rounded character I’ve read in the Old Republic era novels – aside from Bane in later books – and would love to see him featured in other novels even if he isn’t the main character. His handling of meeting with his parents and working with a Jedi when he failed his own training showed a remarkable maturity. He refused to pretend it didn’t hurt some, but his confidence in the man he’d become allowed him to acknowledge the pain and move on. In many ways, he was a finer example of not allowing emotion to cloud his judgement than his mother was. And beyond and maybe in spite of all that, he had a great sense of humor – very reminiscent of Han Solo.
With a fast paced plot, the fate of the world in the hands of an everyman instead of Jedi, and a focus on characters rather than plot, Annihilation is in many ways the kind of book fans have been clamoring for. And while I had some issues with it, it definitely holds up as one of the stronger entries into the post megaseries EU.
Reblogged from my site: myrdan.com
My thanks to Random House for providing me a review copy of Star Wars Old Republic Annihilation via NetGalley, in return for my honest opinion of this book. -
So this is another NetGalley title, and I’m really starting to get used to this now. As long as I don’t resist the urge to request loads of titles, I think I’ll be okay. Anyway, NetGalley statement over, let’s cut to the chase. Drew Karpyshyn’s debut to the Old Republic Universe is not just the best novel that I’ve read in that setting, but one of the best Star Wars novels that I’ve read, anywhere.
Okay, maybe I haven’t read anything by Timothy Zahn yet, but my point still stands. Annihilation is epic, and would be great to watch on the big screen as it I felt that the novel was very cinematic. Although we’re unlikely to see a Star Wars film based on a tie-in novel, I think that Annihilation should be the one to look out for. It’s superb.
"The Sith Empire is in flux. The Emperor is missing, presumed dead, and an ambitious Sith lord’s attempt to seize the throne has ended fatally. Still, Darth Karrid, commander of the fearsome Imperial battle cruiser Ascendant Spear, continues her relentless efforts to achieve total Sith domination of the galaxy.
But Karrid’s ruthless determination is more than matched in the steely resolve of Theron Shan, whose unfinished business with the Empire could change the course of the war for good. Though the son of a Jedi master, Theron does not wield the Force—but like his renowned mother, the spirit of rebellion is in his blood. As a top covert agent for the Republic, he struck a crucial blow against the Empire by exposing and destroying a Sith superweapon arsenal—which makes him the ideal operative for a daring and dangerous mission to end Ascendant Spear’s reign of terror."
Joined by hot-headed smuggler Teff’ith, with whom he has an inexplicable bond, and wise Jedi warrior Gnost-Dural, Darth Karrid’s former master, Theron must match wits and weapons with a battle-tested crew of the most cold-blooded dark side disciples. But time is brutally short. And if they don’t seize their one chance to succeed, they will surely have countless opportunities to die.
It’s always great to be reading a Star Wars title again. The last title set in this universe that I read was written by the same author, and was Path of Destruction. Whilst it was enjoyable, it sadly wasn’t a perfect read. Neither is Annihilation a perfect read either, but I still loved every second of it. The characters are well-thought out, the action scenes are epic, and we get a real sense that this is Star Wars, and not just any old sci-fi novel.
The characters are well visualized and even though the story may be too short to expand on them, Karpyshyn gives it his best shot at creating a relatively small dramatis personae with varying strengths and weaknesses. As this is a tie in to The Old Republic, Annihilation makes use of several characters from various factions. We get a Han Solo like character in Theron Shan, the alien smuggler Teff’ith, the Jedi warrior Gnost-Dural. Each provides their own element to the story and not once did I feel that any of the characters were there simply for humour or as a plot device. Maybe given a few longer pages, Annihilation could have developed the characters more, but I felt that that would probably disrupt the breakneck pace of the story.
Read the rest of the review (with Shadowhawk's review):
http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/11/.... -
I reviewed this book on my blog. Scroll past Old Republic #3: Fatal Alliance to read it:
The Real World According To Sam
This is one of the better Star Wars books in the original EU/Legends timeline.
After Fatal Alliance, I wasn't hopeful about my overall enjoyment of the Old Republic series. However, I did enjoy Revan, and since this book had the same author as the Revan Old Republic novel, I had a much better time.
The pacing is fast, the characters are intriguing with their own personal flaws and needs, and the story feels very much like it would occur in the Star Wars universe (unlike Fatal Alliance, which in my opinion, was going in a dozen different directions at a snails' pace). The story moves so quick that once I really got going with it, I practically breezed through it.
One of the things I enjoy most about Star Wars in general is the grandness of the adventures, but the detailed orientation that small actions have while adding up to something bigger. This novel took that aspect and really ran with it. Although Theron and Gnost-Dural run into several snags during their quest to bring down the Ascendant Spear (Sith ship), the ability to move past initial failure to find new pathways towards ultimate success kept me on the Star Wars high. Failure and conflict are wonderful, but only when they remain on a particular track with a solid pace. This was excellently executed. While there are also other minor subplots and conflicts going on for the different characters present within the novel, none of them overwhelm the story at its base or detract from the overall story, instead adding to understanding of character choices and desires. This shapes the story and characters for the better, rounding it out and adding depth.
This is one of the best books in the Old Republic "quartet" and I am very excited to be moving to the next part of the timeline, particularly since there will be more of Karpyshyn in Star Wars novels I will be coming up to soon. He is one of the better Star Wars writers I've read so far and I'm glad to see his name repeat (a high compliment since if I see Sean Williams' name on more I will cringe at least a little and the others I have read I am currently indifferent to).
This book renewed my interest in what is yet to come and if my to-read list were shorter I could see myself rereading this one, or even picking up a copy of it [and Revan] somewhere down the road to own. -
2.5 stars. This is a basic adventure that covers the Star Wars standards, making it a fun, light read, though not as memorable as many others I've read.
Theron Shan is a rather unimpressive character, despite the claims to his expertise as an SIS agent. I read
The Lost Suns before writing this review to see if I was missing anything, but no, there's not much to him. His main purpose in this book is to add more depth to his parents,
Grand Master Satele Shan and
Supreme Commander Jace Malcom (Star Wars really does love its illustrious titles). Having played
Star Wars: The Old Republic, on which this book is based, I was disappointed in the limited interaction with these two characters after seeing them in the various trailers -- in fact, Jace Malcom was unnamed when he was introduced -- so the few moments spent with Satele and Jace helped to flesh them out a bit more.
The writing did not seem to suffer from the immaturity I felt was present in Drew Karpshyn's
Mass Effect books I have read. Or perhaps it was the nature of Star Wars that made me feel like Drew was more comfortable writing this story. My opinion on this is very likely skewed by the fact that I "read" this in audiobook format. Music and special effects aside,
Marc Thompson does an exceptional job, especially the character of
Teff'ith. I'll excuse his Satele Shan. No one can replace
Jennifer Hale.
