Dear Del Rey:
Hello. I am one of the many disgruntled Star Wars fans. My love for the Fate of the Jedi series was killed with the release of “Allies.” I did not run out and buy the book. I waited almost a month for it to come in at the library. It took me two weeks to read. My desire to finish my review and not earn an overdue fine at the library forced me to finish it.
Nevertheless, the release of Vortex, restored my hope. Thank Troy Denning for that.
I have mixed feelings about Troy Denning. I find him to be a talented author. Star by Star is one of my favorite books. He captures emotions well. His personal feelings about characters tend to leak onto the page, however. He likes to mess with fan favorites. It affects the story negatively and is, frankly, distracting and annoying.
How did Troy Denning manage to do this, you ask? First off, his plot goes somewhere. To put it bluntly, stuff actually happens. I don’t want to give away any details, but the plot moves forward. Your editors know this. A stagnant story is boring. His characters act, for the most part, appropriately. He creates situations and events that keep the reader interested. For example, the long scene at the end involving Jaina, Han, Leia, Zekk, Taryn and the other was gripping and exciting. At no point was a bored and ready to move onto other things.
Vortex’s sales are down, as expected. When a company puts out a piece of crap, people are going to be hesitant about buying another product. It will be interesting to see how Conviction does. I intend to buy that book. I have faith in Aaron Allston’s ability to produce excellent content.
The damage has been done, though. Readers won’t forget what a mess Allies was. We won’t forget the bad writing, poor characterizations and lackluster plot. Regardless of the events of Ascension, I will not purchase that book. Christie Golden’s first two books were simply too awful. I hope Del Ray learned their lesson: simply slapping Star Wars on a book isn’t going to make fans love it. We won’t pay for crap.
Sincerly,
An avid Star Wars fan
