By Iron Fist; May 2008

Thirty-one years. That’s how long Star Wars has been around; how long it has been telling stories to all who will listen. These stories cover thousands upon thousands of years, and each year, these stories grow larger, more intricate. It is in this vein, that the Legacy of the Force series was created, covering events taking place forty years after the Battle of Yavin. In my opinion, that Legacy series has been one of the more expansive and better series of past few years of Star Wars history despite the occasional issues that plagued it. This editorial will take a look at author continuity, the controversy surrounding Jacen Solo and an overall review of the series as I have seen it.
When Del Rey created the New Jedi Order series, one of the main issues facing its success was its use of various authors to write the eighteen book series. Naturally, at some point, authors lose the ability to unite their stories when faced with deadlines and different writing styles. In Legacy of the Force, Del Rey seemingly tried to fix this by choosing three authors (as opposed to multiple authors), two well-known and one relative new comer (at least to the Post-Yavin Expanded Universe). These authors, Troy Denning, Aaron Allston and Karen Traviss, have done an admirable job at keeping the continuity but there have still been problems in my mind. As I see it, the problems can be divided into two parts: character continuity and character introduction. In terms of character continuity, the authors have each developed their own so called “pet characters” that they and they alone use. For example, Karen Traviss is famous for her writing of the Mando story (although this appears to be changed in Invincible) yet not other author touches them. As a result, we find out that Mandalore is causing trouble at the end of Sacrifice but do not hear about them again until Revelation. This happens multiple times throughout the series as characters disappear for books at time. The other problem, that of character introduction, is similar to the previous problem. Often, new characters shall be introduced but not followed up on by sequential authors (i.e. Syal Antilles, Seha, Shaker, Kiara). I know that I often found myself truly liking these new characters and I wish that they could have been more involved in the story. The question then is: “Why does this occur?” The two reasons that I have arrived at (with the help of discussion at the NJOE forums) are: 1) Ease of use and 2) Time restraints. The first reason comes from how easy it is write from the perspective’s of someone else’s character. While Karen Traviss may be able to write a brilliant Mando perspective, Aaron Allston cannot. And when it comes down to cutting out characters, it is always easier to cut characters you know will be more difficult to write anyway. The second possible reason is simply a time constraint. When Del Rey is releasing books every three months, chances are that the next writer hasn’t even read the previous book and thus may not know all of the minor details. While these are all possibilities, the facts remain that the problem exists and that they have not been addressed to date.
Jacen Solo has also been a point of contention with many people throughout the Legacy of the Force series. Many people have expressed displeasure in the way Jacen has been written, particularly his moodiness and “un-Sith like behavior. While I do not quite share their viewpoint, I thought it might be interesting to throw my thoughts out there. I will agree, though, that there definitely has been an aspect of randomness to how he is written. At the end of Bloodlines, Jacen seems very calm and collected yet his first appearance in Tempest is characterized by the tempter tantrums of an angry and vengeful teenager. While this might be acceptable if Jacen was still in his teens, he is thirty-one and you would expect him to behave a little differently at that age. I, myself, see this very differently. I agree that Jacen probably shouldn’t be written in such a way as well as that Legacy does not present Jacen in a favorable light but, ignoring that, I think it is understandable. The differences seem to depend on whose perspective we are in as Jacen never seems to “think” of himself as being overly emotional. That being said, other characters definitely seem to portray that perspective. As I see it, this change in moods, while annoying, is not overly crucial to the story and seems to fade away later on in the series. If I had to attribute an intentional reason for these changes, I would probably put it down as the result of becoming a Sith Lord. I have to imagine that would cause your emotions to swing all over the place. For me, Jacen Solo’s mood swings are more of an annoyance than a major issue.
And now that I’ve gone over so much negative stuff, I figured I should probably give on overall review, focusing on the good aspects of Legacy of the Force. So, where to begin? I’m going to start with Ben because I’ve really loved the way that Ben has grown throughout the series. He started as the fawning teenager and turns into a very mature adult, even though very little time has passed. From an outsider’s perspective, this sort of rapid change may seem unusual and impossible yet the authors pull it off beautifully. In fact, I found the entire Ziost storyline to brilliantly display Ben’s maturity as well as his humanity. I also found Ben’s relationship with Luke to be well written and believable. It seems strange that, at the end of Sacrifice (and the beginning of Inferno) Ben was the one comforting Luke instead of vice versa yet even this reversal serves a purpose. Luke has had an interesting position through Legacy and it remains to be seen how Invincible has affected him (as of writing this, I have not read Invincible). He began the series as a confident Jedi Master, then was destroyed and brought low by Mara’s death and finally reborn through his love for Ben. This sort of character development is present for many characters in Legacy and I hope to see it in the future as well. And now I come to Mara’s death. I believe my reaction was common among readers as I literally had one of those “I can’t believe she’s dead” moments. The emotion her death provoked (especially in the way that she was killed) truly speaks to the skill of the writers. I think that the authors have done a good job of choosing who to kill off as well as when and Invincible will seal the deal on that idea.
So my thoughts on the Legacy of the Force series come down to this: I enjoyed the books immensely despite the few flaws that they had. Even if Invincible is somehow the worst book of the series (and I do not believe it will be), I do not think anything could change my opinion on the series. Troy Denning, Aaron Allston and Karen Traviss have each brought their unique perspectives to this story and they have each carried the mantle of Star Wars splendidly. It’s always fun to critique the authors on what we think could be done better but I’ve come to understand that, sometimes, you just have to let the authors do their work Legacy was initially sold to me for two reasons: 1) it was Star Wars and 2) it was in the future of the Expanded Universe. That excitement was the original drive for the series for me. Each step Star Wars takes into that unknown future, risks are taken. Legacy was a risk but it has paid its due in full.