jenny_librarian's reviews
1176 reviews

I managed to forget the series is called “Tales from the Occlusion Zone” and was super proud of myself for knowing

that they would get stuck in there the minute it became clear Pikka was pregnant 🙈🙈🙈

I don’t massively love the Insider short stories, but this is interesting. I wonder what kind of resolution we’ll get since the Stormwall issue wasn’t completely resolved in The Eye of Darkness…

Screaming crying throwing up!
That was one hell of a ride! George Mann at his best, I was holding on for dear life the whole time.

And that ending!!!! I need Temptation of the force NOW 😭😭😭

I’m not a big fan of war books, but this being a clones adventure I figured I’d give it a try. And it was surprisingly a lot better than Battlefront (which I found devoid of emotion and character growth). Or maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s a Karen Travis’s book after all, and some of my favourite Star Wars books are hers.

I loved the clones. Commandos are completely different to the troopers and ARC we’re used to see in the animated series and the canon books, so it was nice to get a fresh POV. And I haven’t read a lot from the clones POV in general, so that was nice too.

Etain was the big disappointment of this book, in the sense that she didn’t feel like a Jedi at all. I get the whole feeling unworthy thing, but it almost felt like she’d never even gone through the basic initiate training at times. I appreciate her care for the clones, but that’s about it. 

I also wasn’t a big fan of the slurs, racism and sexism, but I guess that comes with the fact that this was released in 2004. I’m so glad the new books are more inclusive now.

I’m going to keep making my way through Legends, and I’m excited to get more Commando stuff (hopefully without Etain). 

It seems disjointed at first, but by the time the third part comes around it comes together well. Still, the thrill of reading this is seeing the Jedi Council’s shenanigans. They’re a bunch of idiots and it’s hilarious to see.

A few twists were also worth it. The last chapter was *chef kiss*

I hate having to rate this less than 4 stars. Canon pansexual Merrin should have been enough to give this 4.25 at least. Unfortunately, the writing is… shaky at best.

Maybe it wasn’t edited properly, maybe they ran out of time before publication. Whatever the reason, it’s bad. To the point that I sometimes had to reread a paragraph 2-3 times to understand what was going on. There was also a lot of repetition, sometimes from different characters basically saying the same thing, other times the same character repeating their thoughts from one page to the next. It’s really not that good.

And that’s a shame because this book is for the lesbians! Merrin being described as pan ON PAGE!! Having a very steamy relationship that burns just as quick and bright as her fire! An open discussion about a possible polyamorous relationship! (They don’t say as such explicitly, but it’s one of the few times there is subtext in that book…) It could’ve been great. Should’ve been great 😔

Don’t base your expectations on the cover. The publisher put something that draws the attention, but doesn’t really fits the story. The Fifth Brother takes a lot of room on the cover, but he’s there maybe 20 pages in total? There’s no picture of Fret, but she’s way more important than he is. Also Cal is centred (probably because he’s the main character in the video game) but Merrin is the central character in this story. Of all of them, she’s the one who has the most character development. Dare I even say, the only one who has some serious development…

I’ve read worse in the GFFA, and if it weren’t for the writing this could have been really good. As it stands, I advise you read only if you want some lesbian Nightsister action.

It was an okay finish, but I’m glad this run is over. It was a bit too convoluted by the end. Too many near-misses and times Vader faced the rebels for it to be believable.

It concludes well enough though, and I liked the little short stories at the end. Was nice to see Poe’s parents.

The High Republic, turning caring teen girls into evil masterminds!

THR middle grade novels continue to be among my favourites. All around well done and you don’t even feel like you’re reading a book originally written for 10-14 years old.

Loved Ram, as always. Tep Tep was a great new addition to the growing pool of neurodivergent characters. Zyle and the THRA phase 2 Easter eggs were perfect. And Driggit is my new favourite villain.

Older and Wong knocked it out of the park with this one!