So, I got around to finishing that Dark Nest trilogy, wherein the spectre of a permanent galactic civil war is faced. This would be bad, because if everyone in the Star Wars galaxy died, a stable of some dozen or two authors would be out of jobs, and some of them are pretty good at this. Without meaning to make a spoiler out of it, let’s say that I’m going to presume that the presses have not been stopped as a result of the events in The Swarm War.

The good: the ongoing coolness of someone getting a pirated copy of Revenge of the Sith into Luke Skywalker’s hands, so he can finally get a handle on his roots, and pretty much anytime Chiss are both on the page and speaking rather than being battle fodder. Oh, and all the Jedi Council scenes, especially the characterization parts of them. I’m grooving on Jacen Solo, in ways I will elaborate below the cut. The bad: a lack of Luke using any force lightning like I was promised by the cover, and anything with insect hive mind stuff, because I’m just as unsatisfied with the consequences now as I was when the trilogy started. By and large, it reminds me of the Black Fleet trilogy from a long time ago. Bits and pieces of really cool stuff interspersed with generic uninteresting war. But this time, as I’ve hinted, the characters were a lot more interesting than then.

And, the spoilers:

So, yeah, not so much about the book, which was not sufficiently interesting to spoil, but I have some thoughts about the future of the franchise that qualify as spoilers for the book. I noticed a few things, here. Well, one of them was thrust upon me, but I noticed the other two. 1) The Jedi Order, and for that matter the galaxy, feels a whole lot like it felt right before the beginning of Phantom Menace. A Galactic Alliance rather than a Republic, sure, but to my untrained eyes the government behind that name is not dissimilar to how it once was. Particularly the Order, though, with Luke having settled into an advisory role to that government, creating a new Jedi Council, and such. 2) Jacen Solo spending all that time making decisions for peoples’ own goods without consulting his higher ups, and then the bit where he was approving of Anakin’s motives regarding the whole learning about new powers to save his wife from whatever was threatening her (although, obviously not Anakin’s execution of said motives). 3) The part where Jacen also has a secret girlfriend and secret child. My point being, it feels like history is about to repeat itself. Color me intrigued.