Hogan Reviews

As a big fan of the first Jedi game, Fallen Order (Review HERE!) who’s really looking forward to the sequel in Survivor I was also looking forward to this book, set in between the two games. I thought it would be a fun side quest that might even has a small ripple effect on the next game (key word small, I wasn’t expecting people who play the games having to have read a novel to understand the next game or anything) Sadly it ended up as one of the worst books I’ve read in some time and not only does it have little to no effect on Survivor but the characterisation is off in the book so it barely feels like its part of the same canon. Oh well! Can’t win them all, let’s take a look so I can then forget about it.

To give it the briefest of run downs the story opens up on Cal and crew attacking the last remaining base of the Haxion Brood as apparently even after the game ended they’ve been hounded by them randomly appearing during missions. There were some fun scenes of Cal jumping from asteroid to asteroid and of Merrin’s inner thoughts about how she has come to accept the Mantis crew as her family but she really wants to strike at the Empire not the Brood. Frankly these opening moments filled me with hope, but at the end of the mission a Stormtrooper called Fret (well, “Chellwinark Frethylrin” but just Fret for the remainder of the book…) contacts them asking for their help in getting extracted and away from the Empire and they take her on board.

This is where things just go off the rails. Merrin immediately falls head over heels in love with her and its seemingly reciprocated so while he get Fret’s sad story and a tip off for information we have to read paragraphs of Merrin describing the feeling of love and how strange it is to her, and far too many descriptions of Fret’s apparently large purple body. It was so awkwardly written that there were some parts that would be at home on those Fan Fiction sites (you know the ones I mean…) where someone just getting used to writing prose is trying to write some saucy and/or romantic scene but is stuck at just describing one character sweating and feeling all warm inside. This love story in focuses on way too much across the whole book, interspersed with Cal pondering whether he was jealous or not, plus later an old flame of Fret’s called Irei is thrown into the mix so we get even more long chunks of prose where Merrin’s inner feelings are described. I’ll be honest there were some of these moments I just skimmed over until the scene changed, it’s not because people being romantic makes me uncomfortable and its sure as hell not because they’re same-sex, it’s entirely because it’s not well written and feels really… REALLY out of place in this novel about the crew from Jedi: Fallen Order.

A great cover that makes the Fifth Brother actually look like a potential threat. Oh well…

Fret’s information is about a new stealth technology that could give the Empire an extreme advantage, such an advantage that the crew eventually decides to meet Fret’s informant despite Greez being very anti-danger and Cere beginning to think more about preserving the Jedi Order’s history rather than fighting an impossible fight against the whole Empire, these clashing views leading to arguments. Greez not wanting to go into danger and Cere’s dedication to the Jedi cause are perfectly in-character, its just Merrin’s childish love story and Cal’s frequently getting into arguments with everyone and generally being a bit of a knob I didn’t feel fit with the original game. Anyway, they’re informed by the bird-man informer that I can’t remember the name of about the whereabouts of the device, an Imperial prison, so the group head in and find the aforementioned old flame of Fret’s, Irei, who claims the knowledge of how to create the device is in her head and her head only. As they’re busy breaking in and then out the Fifth Brother arrives with some Purge Troopers, which sounds exciting but it seemed author Sam Maggs isn’t a fan as she frequently describes him as basically a man in a silly hat and has literally every character describe his hat and his hat alone, with maybe one or two mentions of his grey skin. I know he doesn’t die until the Rebels TV episode so there is little drama in his battles with the equally clearly-not-going-to-die cast of characters from the up-coming sequel game, but no need to have everyone and the prose itself make sure to point out his hat looks a bit shit.

I’ll cover the rest of the story in the spoilers but as you can tell I wasn’t a fan. Far too much focus on a love story featuring Sam Maggs’ own creations and some awkward dialogue and moments with existing characters meant most of the book was really uninteresting at best, really bad at worse. It has very little to do with either game plot-wise, so don’t worry if you haven’t gotten around to it yet…

Overall Thoughts:

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph I was really looking forward to a bit more action with the Mantis crew before the new game comes out at the end of April, but sadly I got a book that was half, if not two thirds cheesy and sometimes poorly written love story and a lead villain that had zero threat. Oh well, at least there’s a new High Republic book out now…

Cal battles with the Fifth Brother while Merrin roasts a bunch of troopers in anger after Fret and Irei left them behind, then Cere arrives and duels with the Inquisitor but instead of finishing him off she tries to bring him back round to the light, putting everyone in danger including Greez, who turns up wondering where everyone is. Sadly this leads to the four-armed alien becoming a three armed alien at the hands the Fifth Brother’s blade, and although Cere traps the Inquisitor and escapes with Greez and Cal and morale on the ship is low after the get-away, which includes Fret and Irei who turned back up at the ship with the latter seriously injured. This led to a few chapters of people arguing, then splitting off in different directions for two days and saying anyone was free to not come back. There was a good heart-to-heart between Cal and Cere here that I really enjoyed, it was one of the few moments that reminded me the crew I loved from the first game.

Unsurprisingly everyone returns and buries the hatchet (hatchets?) and agree to head to the bird-man informer and give him a fake stealth device and then claim the blueprints didn’t work rather than just go into hiding from yet another powerful underworld group but the plan fails as shady businessman / informant turned out to be a shady businessman who no longer saw merit in being an informant and instead wanted to get into the Empire’s good books. This led to our big final showdown as bounty hunters and Stormtroopers alike start pouring in alongside the Fifth Brother, who faces off with Cal and Merrin as a team. A lightsabre duel, some Nightsister magic and a few more quips about the Fifth Brother’s hat later and they win, complete with bird man lying dead. Fret and Irei leave and go into hiding as a couple and will no doubt never be mentioned again unless Sam Maggs gets a second book down the road…

So basically Greez with have one cybernetic arm in the next game due to the events of this book, and that’s all you need to know. Everyone else will no doubt be exactly like the book never happened…