pathetic - Rated 
this review contains spoilers.
up until a few hours ago, as far as troy denning was concerned, i thought he was gifted technically as a writer, but had his head to far up somewhere i don't think i can mention without getting censored to be the same with actual content.
let me explain.
in terms of style (incorporating tightness of structure, lucidity of description, et. al) inferno was far and away the best book in the series. the lightsaber duel between jacen and luke was breathtaking, the space battle made it abundantly clear what was actually going on without being patronising or pedestrian, etc.
on the other hand, the thematic content was a joke.
the former has a taken a downturn for invincible, and more unfortunately the latter has not improved. by thematic content i really mean themes and messages, everything a work of art (for lack of a better word) tries to express, through the medium of what happens. the novel is almost uniquely-advantaged compared with other mediums (tv, picture) to convey this, because it allows you insight into the character's thoughts. in real life, we only have access to our own minds, the rest goes through the filter of what people actually say and do. this is why novels are such a treasure trove in terms of expanding your awareness, and adding other facets to your worldview. to experience good examples of this in star wars novels, see what allston and traviss tried to do to rationalise jacen in betrayal and bloodlines, and every star wars novel stover has ever written. denning doesn't have this knack, in large part because his writing suggests a mind rigidly enclosed within its own prejudices. this is revealed by dozens of petty inconsistencies throughout the book (see below).
going back a bit, denning is very sparse with what people are actually thinking at crucial moments, and when he does get inside their heads it's worse than nothing at all.
for the former, see jacen's death. for the defining (and final) moment in the life of the main character in the lotf series (and arguably the njo) we don't know what he's thinking. we don't know how his lover feels. instead (and this covers the latter) we get jaina, who is mistaken about jacen's immediate intentions, and still doesn't have much of a clue of his entire rationale for what he's doing, convinced he doesn't count as human because he's a "lying sith murderer" (she's a liar and a murderer, but also a jedi. at the end of the day, that's the core difference) and an attempt by jacen's parents to pretend they don't care that their surviving son has been murdered in cold blood by their daughter - on their urging - until their emotions finally kick some sense into them.
the same happens throughout invincible, and it extends to what people say as well as think (this is below). ben thinks tahiri can be redeemed because she felt regret about what she was doing. but... so does jacen, and denning shows us that he does, yet none of the characters we're supposed to learn from (you can tell because they're presented as amazing heroes and they always win) acknowledge this. when jaina is moving through the anakin solo, a droid tells her that he knows it was jacen who snapped isolder's neck because that's what jacen 'always does'. this scene is designed to show how far jacen has sunk; even droids know he's evil. but it isn't what jacen 'always does'. this is in fact the second time.
hang on, twice is bad enough. he must be evil. except,
except jacen killed isolder because, from the information (and the time) he had available, he had a choice between killing isolder and allowing tenel ka and allana to die. it was a cold and ruthless thing to do, and we shrink from it and call him evil and insane and whatever, except that it was the better of two very bad choices, one of which had to be made.
this book (and series) has repeatedly given jacen choices like that. that is how he's 'fallen to the dark side'. other characters, (luke, jaina, han especially) would have taken the passive route. taken the time to explain to isolder, lost time to help allana and tenel ka, then sorted the other life-threatening issues, and everything would have been perfect. except, in reality, this would have been impossible, and the worst would have happened. but this is fiction, so that's allowed. but if jacen had taken the other choice, the worse would have happened, because that is how the authors (and denning in particular) are writing him.
it seems like this is rambling, and also making something out of nothing, harping at irrelevances, whatever. but all the above fits under the same general point. this series, and this book, is inconsistent, with itself. it's intellectually nonsensical and morally bankrupt. the books set up a war in which nobody's evil and every death is a tragedy (a real war, in fact) then prolong it through the selfishness of the heroes and turn the one character with the noblest intention of all into a genuine evil mwahaha villain by repeatedly giving him options like 'kill an innocent woman you have a personal bond with or ignore visions of the deaths of billions', and 'kill a person you know is a great man or allow your lover and daughter to die' (and, notice, it's made worse by making jacen's information faulty when he's forced to make these decisions) and simultaneously (and arbitrarily) turning him into darth voldemort. this would matter less if invincible was just supposed to be the culmination of a tragedy. but it's not. star wars is preachy, always has been. jacen's story is supposed to be a message and a warning about how to resist evil, stay good, all that, except if any of us were in that asteroid being told by lumiya that it's turn sith or turn a blind eye as billions die then i'd hope no-one would do a luke and insist there has to be another way, and fail, and watch billions die (unless we're jacen, in which case the information would be faulty).
there's more, far more, both in extension and to fill out what's already been said (and explain better), (and i still haven't really gone into how bad denning's quality of writing has gotten in this book, and how absurdly short it is, but read the review of the other 2-star guy for that), but this is too long already and if you agree with me you get where i'm going and if you don't you're already clicking the 'not helpful' button, so i'll stop here.
but please, do question the validity of what denning et. al are trying to say here, and how they're saying it. it's important, because this will be a bestseller and thousands of people will accept it as gospel because it's in print.
think about it.
What a disappointment - Rated
I couldn't disagree more with the reviewer above (Skywalker Fan). I am very disappointed in this book.
With the exception of Jaina, Denning gives no depth to any of the characters with some (Han, Luke & Leia) almost completely overlooked. Whilst other authors manage to weave complex stories with a myriad of believable characters, Denning seems to stumble from one scene to the next almost too eager to tell the overall story without thinking of the individual characters involved.
The dialogue between characters was nothing short of cringe worthy at times. The 'jokes' were never funny and often extremely out character and place. I understand soldiers' grim humour in times of stress but this went completely over the top on occasion. Again, other authors seem to be able to get this balance right but Denning fails.
Whilst this book certainly has pace it almost feels rushed. I was expecting more from the point of view of Jacen/Caedus seeing as this book should have been just as much about him as it was Jaina. This aspect of the story seemed woefully neglected.
The only redeeming parts were the last two chapters. The fight scene at the end was as gruesome as it should have been even if the final blow was a bit of an anticlimax. The attack on the `Dragon Queen' was an exciting addition to the plot but you do see the `twist' coming a mile off.
I was expecting so much more from the series finale and this book just didn't deliver. Perhaps what makes it stand out so badly is that authors like Karen Traviss and the brilliant Timothy Zahn manage to write them so well. You realise that you can have good complex storylines with lots of action and plenty of first person perspective from carefully thought out, believable characters. Characters you actually care about.
Karen Traviss was by far the most redeeming part of this series. If she gets to write more SW novels then I hold out hope that the next series of books will be worth reading.
Awesome finale to a great series - Rated 
Here it is the final book Legacy of the Force book. It is a hardcover and is Troy Denning's final book as well as the series conclusion. The stage has been set, Darth Caedus faces enemies from all sides. Enemies from his family, his friends, the rebel Confederation and from within the Galactic Alliance. It is a race for the Jedi Order and allies to deal with Caedus before his quest to enforce a peaceful galaxy ends up destroying it. Jaina Solo leads the hunt drawing upon all her Jedi training and the unorthodox techniques of Boba Fett.
In Invincible Troy Denning does an exceptional job of concluding the series. While it is a short hardcover, clocking in at 301 pages of story if you include the prologue, like Inferno it does not waste a single word. It propels the narrative to its conclusion in a fashion that other Star Wars authors can only dream of doing. The story is handled in a way that will disappoint some readers. It really pulls the focus in very tightly in on the critical plot line: Jacen Solo and Jaina bringing him down. It concentrates on this and the resolution of the Sith manipulated war takes a distinct back seat. This in my opinion was inspired as it was as clear as crystal throughout the series that the war was a crucible for Darth Caedus that was brought to its current intensity by Lumiya's careful manipulation. The key to its resolution is and always has been Darth Caedus and with his removal the war could be brought to a halt and resolved through negotiation and explanation. It is because of this that Invincible will suffer from being compared to The Unifying Force which was the finale of the New Jedi Order series and unjustly so. Both Invincible and The Unifying Force are excellent conclusions to their respective stories but their stories were very different and so they are very different books. The plot resolution in fact reminded me of the story telling style used in the Star Wars movies particularly the end of Return of the Jedi where the larger battle around the Death Star while still important, got less screen time as the struggle between Luke, Vader and the Emperor grew more intense. Invincible and to some degree the whole Legacy of the Force series has for me recaptured the pace, style and fun of the films.
Invincible packs in a wide range of locations and characters over the course of the story from the asteroids of Nickel One the home of the Verpine to Coruscant and the hidden Jedi base of Shedu Maad. The introduction of the Imperial Remnant into the war in the previous novel Revelation plays an massive role in the storyline and in the resolution of the conflict and also we get an excellent setup for some plot points of the Legacy comic series by Dark Horse that I thought was great. Ben Skywalker (now a Jedi Knight) as always really stands out and during Invincible we really can see the growth he has gone through throughout this series and what an interesting character he is for the future. He really shines in his duel with the now Sith apprentice Tahiri with his growing saber skills and also the compassion he has obviously gotten from his legendary father. Jaina Solo also is represented brilliantly here with her really becoming one of my favorite Jedi characters. We also get what I found to be a really astonishing surprise at the end in terms of the new Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, one that to begin with I could not wrap my head around. My advice give it a while to sink in and while it still is unexpected and could go wrong it does provide some very interesting dynamics for future story lines. Although this development really would have benefited from more page time either at the end of the penultimate chapter or the beginning of the final chapter.
There is a lot more that I really liked in the book and while some may feel let down in that a number of plot points are left for future books/comics/articles etc to cover. I personally found it appropriate for the end of the first series of the Legacy era. An era that about one hundred years later has the amazing Legacy comic series and an era that does not have an end point. It really left me wanting to know what happens next and how things will join up with the comic series. The story continues in the stand alone hardback Millennium Falcon which is being written by James Luceno out this December. Troy Denning rounds off a thoroughly enjoyable Star Wars series providing action, excitement, laughs and tears. His novels in this series have been very obvious high points and Invincible is no exception. Great stuff.
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