With the universe thrust into chaos by Abeloth’s release from the Maw, the Jedi invade Coruscant to wrest it back from the Sith, but the invasion does not go as planned and the Sith retreat into the Jedi temple creating a battle which can only be won through attrition. Across the galaxy, the remaining part of the Empire suffers political turmoil which threatens to descend into civil war...

So the Fate of the Jedi book series enters its final tale with Apocalypse, written by Troy Denning. The series, as a whole, has had its ups and downs, leaving Denning an awful lot of loose threads to tie together and at the same time leave enough unsaid, to act as a jumping off point for the next tale.

For the most part, the book works well as an individual story and as a satisfying end to the series, but it is not without its problems. The book opens with the Jedi’s attack on the temple, which sets up a good narrative pace. This dips in the mid-section when events move to the imperial sector, before picking up at the end. Along the way Denning continuously toys with the reader hinting at the death of one or more central character, with Luke coming the closest to falling in battle.

Character journeys are well plotted, with Vestara having the most satisfying arc. The problem with characters like Han and Luke is that their personas are so rooted in the whole Star Wars mythos, that they often end up either being written as almost parodies of their onscreen performances or relegated to rehashing personality traits already explored in a myriad of media. Denning has gone for the latter approach; with most of the well know characters. The most problematic character has to be Allana, whose personality flips between the future queen of the Jedi and a precocious nine year old girl, never quite settling down into a coherent whole.

The book scores well on its descriptions of the Sith, resisting the temptation to endlessly repeat how evil they are, Denning chooses to show their disregard for life by their actions. Abeloth does not fare so well with repetitive descriptions of her grinning face and bright eyes.

The biggest fault in the book, and this is purely a personal dislike, is the final reveal of where Abeloth came from. With a whole fictitious universe to play with, which can encompass anything a writer can imagine, why do writer’s insist in making important plot point self-referential to other Star Wars media making the whole thing feel like a very small universe - it takes away from a lot of potential novelty and wonder.

If you have followed the series, the book represents a satisfying and suitable ending.

7

Charles Packer