 "Don't believe the hype. "Dark Journey" is a good read." | 2009-07-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2Z6BMT6WEWC9M |
I feel compelled to stick up for "Dark Journey". The quality of Cunningham's writing makes up for whatever drawbacks there are in the story (and yes, admittedly there are some).
According to the other reviews posted here, it seems the main complaint is a lack of action. This is relatively true. But it's not as if there are no lightsabers are drawn, or no explosions in space. After the anarchy, loss and destruction in "Star By Star", I think it make perfect sense to give the reader a breather from the mayhem of war combat, and allow the characters a chance to flesh themselves out.
"Dark Journey", as well as any other NJO entry, isn't as much a novel as it is a novel-sized chapter in the epic Star Wars Yuuzhan Vong Saga. And in that context, "Dark Journey" is terrific. Even more successful than some of the other NJO novels up to this point.
The main focus is on Jaina Solo. Awesome. I'd never "met" Jaina prior to the NJO books, and it was fun to get to know her. The joyful way she mocks Yun-Harla is particularly endearing. Cunningham has a good feel for the rest of the Solos too. Select portions of Han's dialogue/attitude ring particularly authentic.
On the less successful side:
-Ta'a Chume is annoying. So is her storyline.
-Anakin Solo's funeral was really glazed over. It read like a ten minute affair, as if everyone had somewhere else to be. It also rang hollow to me that Luke, who was Anakin's uncle and idol, had nothing to say.
-In the same vein, Han and Leia seem to shake off the trauma of losing their son really quick. Compared to his reaction over Chewbacca, Han didn't even blink.
-Jaina's descent to the Dark Side is kinda lame. She never gets Vader-evil, or even Anakin Skywalker-preVader-evil. She plays a few tricks on the Yuuzhan Vong, and then suddenly whips out the Force lightning on Kyp Durron. It felt really contrived. I'd have preferred to see a real sinister transfer to the Dark Side.
Cunningham does the best she can with "Dark Journey", which, as a result, is quite a good read. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and recommend it to anyone who likes the NJO as much as I do. |
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 "Underrated" | 2009-03-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3QTLHAEYUT4N1 |
| I only recently read this book after hearing much negativity about it, but I found that I actually enjoyed it much more than I expected. While not plot-wise happened here, I thought that the characterization and emotions were excellent, and that's one of the main reasons I read. |
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 "Nothing happens in this book" | 2008-08-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2CPNYNT9OXGMQ |
Let me state out right that I have read the whole njo and absolutely loved it. I loved the direction, the darkness, the philosophy, everything. This book, and the horror that is star by star, almost made me give up on the series.
This book centers around Jaina and throws some Tenel Ka in there too. I'm going to agree with another review I read and say that this book was so estrogen pumped it was ridiculous. It was like reading an Anne Rice novel. Not that I have anything against a woman writing a star wars novel, I love Kathy Tyers work, but it seems way to in your face about the womanhood going on in here and not enough of anything else at all.
Literally nothing of interest happens in this book. Jaina turns to the darkside and, surprise, comes back to the light. There, I just saved you 200 pages of boredom and dialogue. There are no battles, nothing. Just boredom.
All in all, I say read the summary on wikipedia and pass this one up. |
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 "Kills the momentum Star by Star established" | 2007-09-26 |
| - Reviewed By justinsgaines |
After the jaw dropping (and heart wrenching) events of Star by Star (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 9), I was eager to see both how the Jedi community would react to the loss of one of its brightest stars as well as how the New Republic would deal with the loss of their capitol planet Coruscant to the Yuuzhan Vong invaders. Instead, Dark Journey gives us a tale of one Jedi's journey towards the dark side and a large serving of Hapan politics.
Under different circumstances, Elaine Cunningham's Star Wars debut would have been a perfectly enjoyable novel. She definitely makes great strides in further defining Jaina Solo's character, especially in terms of dealing with the death of one brother and the potential death of the other. Jaina's thirst for vengeance is perfectly understandable, even if not all of her actions are. Her interactions with hotshot pilot Jag Fel are a little too "romance novel" for my tastes, but her relationship with rogue Jedi Kyp Durron makes for very interesting reading.
The Hapan succession story, which was the other major focus of Dark Journey was relatively interesting, but ultimately unimportant in the grand scheme of things. This is not what the New Jedi Order series needs to focus on at this point. The Yuuzhan Vong invasion was still the main undercurrent of the book, but it should have been front and center.
Despite some interesting character development, Dark Journey serves as a brief (just under 300 pages to Star by Star's 600+) detour from the larger New Jedi Order saga. It's still well worth reading (at this point in the series you pretty much have to read everything), but is not on par with books like Star by Star or the Edge of Victory novels.
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 "Depressing Let Down" | 2007-06-23 |
| - Reviewed By 5greens |
First of all, I would like to state that Cunningham did the best job of at least trying to make the story look up a little, but she had very little to work with: Anakin dead, Jacen "Dead" and Chewie is just another excuse to mourn and moan.
This book is basically about Jaina's struggle through her grief of losing both her brothers in one day and then using outlets to deal out her anger. It's a annoying repetition of "Anakin and Jacen are dead, I'm sad and mad". It was somewhat plausible seeing as in real life people do mourn for a long time. But in books it can become annoying and boring all at once. The book went virtually nowhere. I had a different view of the story when I read the back: "Left behind a piece of her heart".
One, it was two pieces, Anakin died, and two, I first thought that Zekk would be the one to die. At least then it would make Anakin a possible hero in the future books to help bring the story back to its original glory.
No, sadly this novel didn't have too many heroes to work with and the ones left were too depressed and busy making a martyr out of Anakin to push the story further.
Jaina uses manipulation and one of the leaders of hapes to help her get her revenge and that's all that happens.
I'm not saying this is a bad book, it just didn't have a good predecessor and therefore had little else to work with.
Otherwise, it really doesn't do much for me. I read it with difficulty, hoping that someone would pop out and say "Hey people, Anakin" (Or another hero) "Is alive," or something to bring the series out of the dirt, but I lost hope as soon as they had Anakin's funeral.
With this book, I confirm that Star Wars has little potential to work with now that many new heroes have been killed off along with a few original favorites like Ackbar and Chewie.
I wish someone would just stop and write a new series that picks up on the original tone of Star Wars with all the characters restored somehow. But that's wishful thinking.
Anyways, if you can handle a book of depression and mourning, this is it. Or if you don't really mind that most of the heroes were killed off, this is a good book. I don't really reccomend reading it if you disliked Star by Star. |
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| "Great Heart and Interesting Plot..." | 2006-08-10 |
| - Reviewed By dmjorgensen |
Dark Journey started out somewhat redundant, but once the young Jedi strike team reached Hapes, the plot took off. I like how this book's plot focuses more on one planet (especially with one as interesting as Hapes) and a few characters. I'm not saying that all NJO books should be this way but its a nice change. I LOVE the Kyp-Jaina and Jag-Jaina plots. Jaina desperatley needed a mentor with Mara taking care of her own child and Kyp was perfect with his experiance with falling to the dark side. Jag also adds some humor to the book by being properly bewildered by Jaina's behavior towards him. I also love how Tenel Ka's character is expanded and her feelings for Jacen were revealed. I also like having the old Han and Leia back. I didn't have high expections for this book because one of my favorite characters, Anakin would not be in it but I was pleasently surprised. I hope the new relationship between Kyp and Jaina will continue and I hope the next installment in the NJO series is just as good!
Mariel (Murl) Jorgensen, 13 |
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