A readable and sometimes enjoyable chapter in a poorly conceived series - Rated 
This second installment in the new 9-volume Legacy of the Force series proves one thing - even a good writer can't make up for a silly plot.
Legacy started poorly in the first volume with a premise for which there is no evidence, namely that the Galactic Alliance (GA) is now more like the old Empire than the New Republic, running roughshod over member states, creating a general air of mistrust and indirectly fomenting ideas of rebellion and secession. When Corellia decides it's had enough, Luke Skywalker suddenly looses his good sense and sends a Jedi snatch-squad to kidnap Corellia's leaders so that they can then be bullied into not leaving the GA. How's that for implausible?
But it gets even worse in Bloodlines. Not only aren't we given any additional background information about why now everyone suddenly despises the GA, the characters start to act even more out of character, especially Luke and Mara, who despite the very obvious evidence that their nephew Jacen Solo is turning to the dark arts, do nothing to secure their son Ben Skywalker from training with the budding Sith Lord. They're also complicit in continuing to support the GA in bullying the Corellians. In the story's other major thread, Jacen is appointed colonel of an antiterrorist unit and spends his days rounding up and interrogating Corellians living on Coruscant. All the while he continues to explore his new powers, killing a "terrorist" while interrogating her and traveling through time to meet his grandfather, none other than Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader. Perhaps in the next volume he'll be able to visit Corellia by flying through space.
Fortunately, we've got Karen Traviss writing Boba Fett into the story and for a time at least diverting us from the improbable main plot.
Now 71-years old, the dying mercenary needs the help of the Kaminoan scientists to arrest a fatal condition. But the cloner who can help him has fled Kamino and if Boba is to ever to get help, he's going to have to first find him. Which is made all the more difficult when the new president of Corellia, Thrackan Sal-Solo, makes Boba an offer he can't refuse, a huge pile of cash to assassinate his cousin and chief political rival, Han Solo.
As regular readers of the Star Wars novels are aware, Traviss is the new authority on all things Mandalore, having written quite an extensive back history and even the rudiments of a language for her two Republic Commando novels and her Boba Fett novella. The former military journalist's command of detail in this world of clone warriors and mercenaries imparts a certain depth and confidence that makes these sections more compelling than the palsied main plot. They also have a sad charm about them, as Boba begins to reflect of his mortality and experience for the first time regret for having long ago abandoned his family.
Besides a well-drawn Fett, Traviss provides some clues as to what happened in the intervening years to some of the characters in her Republic Commando series, and she also gives us for the first time a partially developed Ben Skywalker. Until now he's been just a kid and mostly Luke Skywalker's kid. But Traviss here for the first time makes Ben into a young man with his own personality, who begins to come into his own as an apprentice in Jacen's antiterrorist unit, using his Force powers on raids to sniff out people and munitions. This is one character I'm now interested in seeing how Troy Denning will handle in the forthcoming volume, Tempest.
I don't expect, however, no matter how well he writes Ben, that Denning will be able to rescue us from a poorly developed premise. I think we're now too far in to see any hope of saving what has revealed itself as a thinly disguised and poorly conceived retelling of the film saga, a story about a boy of enormous talent, trained as a Jedi and lured to the dark side in the belief that only the power he can find there will prevent his loved ones from suffering.
what vader should have been, on approach - Rated 
poorly-conceived series... stale plot... stupid jacen solo. oh dear
clearly people aren't particularly happy with the new pro-sith angle. hence all the accusations flying around about cyclic plots, dense jacen, etc.
not convinced by that to be honest. for those who've not read bloodlines and so far don't have a clue what i'm on about, i'll elaborate.
bloodlines follows on from betrayal in the legacy of the force series. set 40 odd years after the original films, it follows the simmering tensions between the GA and Corellia before what is presumably going to be an all-out war.
character arcs follow jacen solo turning into a real sith, ben skywalker growing up, han wondering why his family hasn't followed his decision to switch sides, luke and mara worrying about ben/ the war/ stuff, and boba fett looking for his daughter and trying to stave off death.
in all honesty i've never been too much of a fan of the original films, wrong generation i suppose. so to me luke's just a naive child and always has been. equal parts bemusing and cringe-inducing were his little jacen observations: 'you think im not on to you but i am... you're turning to the dark side... you don't care about people any more', when insights into jacen show he's a tad wrong. more controversially, han bores me. he's clearly out of his depth; ambling around shooting things. i had to exercise extreme self-control not to skip the bits where either of their plotlines turned up. boba was interesting though.
despite that (solely personal) gripe, most of the book's fine. ben's development is handled exceptionally, as is jacen's transition and his relationship with lumiya, as is the scrapping of the various politicians on both sides.
unfortunately, a real judgement on jacen's decisions is hard to come by; purely because of luke and han. the former constantly comes off as a dithering idiot, and the latter a stubborn old man (which at least on his part is well within his rights, but not when we need him to be perceptive if we're to get a balanced view on jacen). because of this, its hard to decide on jacen. the authors (both of them so far) are clearly on his side, but without more intelligent counters from luke's side its far too easy to agree.
despite all that, there a few points where the book comes completely into its own. the war/rebellion/great new democracy under the jedi/ jedi and government fall out/ sith turn up/ war/ rebellion rinse-and-repeat cycle is pulled off convincingly, and jacen's solution is handled far better than in reports from other sources. the symmetry really works, although the inevitability is perhaps stressed too strongly at times.
also, there are jacen's flashbacks to anakin. both of them, especially the first as jacen follows him through the 501st's storming of the temple, are written beautifully. they also manage to cover vital emotions and balance that were conveniently ignored before - glaringly in the film and more forgiveably in matthew stover's brilliant novelisation. anakin's pain is made all the more real through the medium of an understanding character.
what else. well the prose is fine, but nothing to write home about, and the boba fett bit seems tacked on in the (successful) hope of eking out a bit of nostalgia value (think the wookies in episode 3). more time is needed on jacen's thought processes, and his 'interrogation' is handled atrociously, both during it and when it's referenced afterwards.
still, its worth a read, for more than just the anakin/fett bits, which is all that matters on a credibility level.
Well Written - But marred by lisence constraints - Rated
This book holds up because:
of the brilliant portrayal of a capable non- Jedi in the form of Boba Fett.
And the writing quality (none of the faults I write about are the fault of this author)
The plot outline for the entire series seems stale however. The history repeating itself has no real basis in previous fiction. The most obvious reason being that the Gallactic Alliance hasn't suffered half a century of corruption.
The fact that there is no courage to tell a plot all about Fett or in another time is deplorable. This continual exploitation of the now grey haired characters seems almost like rape. The continual wars after 10,000 years of relative peace seem less plausible each time.
In short:
The wonderlust of the early books has dissapeared almost altogether.
Perhaps it is telling that the best stories since rogue squadron have been those in the Knights of The Old Republic videogames who although lack the emotional weight of the books have far better plotting.
Excellent book for the new series... - Rated 
Only problem i have is the stupid actions of Jacen Solo, rather than understanding the reasons why The Empire was defeated and more importantly why Luke Skywalker had to confront and defeat the dreaded Vader. His character seems lost, and stupid. Stupid by the way he has let in Lumiya into his life to manipulate and control him, he defends his actions by "time traveling" backwards now and then to see how his grandfather fell into the trap of the Dark side. Using this information Jacen solo uses this as an excuse to kill with meaning, rather than rationale thinking.
The whole decend into the dark side of Jacen solo is done okay, nothing major here but i feel that Lucasarts are trying to kill off the whole story of Star wars. Is Jacen solo going to kill Skywalker? are the solos on their last confrontation? the whole way the Skywalkers and Solos falling out doesnt make sense. Even if Han solo is a stuborn Corellian, i cant think of why over 20 years of friendship would be torn up by one single war.
The only good point of this book, is the insight to the most feared character in Star wars. boba Fett. his story was eagerly awaited when Karen jumps between the solos, skywalkes and Fett. To find out he has a family is shocking and interesting. And i wish we could have a Whole series just on this one Character. I want to know more about Boba fett and wish that Lucasarts allows writers to concentrate solo on Fett.
A readable and sometimes enjoyable chapter in a poorly conceived series - Rated
This second installment in the new 9-volume Legacy of the Force series proves one thing - even a good writer can't make up for a silly plot.
Legacy started poorly in the first volume with a premise for which there is no evidence, namely that the Galactic Alliance (GA) is now more like the old Empire than the New Republic, running roughshod over member states, creating a general air of mistrust and indirectly fomenting ideas of rebellion and secession. When Corellia decides it's had enough, Luke Skywalker suddenly looses his good sense and sends a Jedi snatch-squad to kidnap Corellia's leaders so that they can then be bullied into not leaving the GA. How's that for implausible?
But it gets even worse in Bloodlines. Not only aren't we given any additional background information about why now everyone suddenly despises the GA, the characters start to act even more out of character, especially Luke and Mara, who despite the very obvious evidence that their nephew Jacen Solo is turning to the dark arts, do nothing to secure their son Ben Skywalker from training with the budding Sith Lord. They're also complicit in continuing to support the GA in bullying the Corellians. In the story's other major thread, Jacen is appointed colonel of an antiterrorist unit and spends his days rounding up and interrogating Corellians living on Coruscant. All the while he continues to explore his new powers, killing a "terrorist" while interrogating her and traveling through time to meet his grandfather, none other than Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader. Perhaps in the next volume he'll be able to visit Corellia by flying through space.
Fortunately, we've got Karen Traviss writing Boba Fett into the story and for a time at least diverting us from the improbable main plot.
Now 71-years old, the dying mercenary needs the help of the Kaminoan scientists to arrest a fatal condition. But the cloner who can help him has fled Kamino and if Boba is to ever to get help, he's going to have to first find him. Which is made all the more difficult when the new president of Corellia, Thrackan Sal-Solo, makes Boba an offer he can't refuse, a huge pile of cash to assassinate his cousin and chief political rival, Han Solo.
As regular readers of the Star Wars novels are aware, Traviss is the new authority on all things Mandalore, having written quite an extensive back history and even the rudiments of a language for her two Republic Commando novels and her Boba Fett novella. The former military journalist's command of detail in this world of clone warriors and mercenaries imparts a certain depth and confidence that makes these sections more compelling than the palsied main plot. They also have a sad charm about them, as Boba begins to reflect of his mortality and experience for the first time regret for having long ago abandoned his family.
Besides a well-drawn Fett, Traviss provides some clues as to what happened in the intervening years to some of the characters in her Republic Commando series, and she also gives us for the first time a partially developed Ben Skywalker. Until now he's been just a kid and mostly Luke Skywalker's kid. But Traviss here for the first time makes Ben into a young man with his own personality, who begins to come into his own as an apprentice in Jacen's antiterrorist unit, using his Force powers on raids to sniff out people and munitions. This is one character I'm now interested in seeing how Troy Denning will handle in the forthcoming volume, Tempest.
I don't expect, however, no matter how well he writes Ben, that Denning will be able to rescue us from a poorly developed premise. I think we're now too far in to see any hope of saving what has revealed itself as a thinly disguised and poorly conceived retelling of the film saga, a story about a boy of enormous talent, trained as a Jedi and lured to the dark side in the belief that only the power he can find there will prevent his loved ones from suffering.
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