So I know that this has essentially nothing to do with anything, but news and activity on the Star Wars front is sparse, and the quarantine has left me stricken with boredom and lots of free time to type novel-length spergfests. In that spirit, I'd like to continue relating my first-timer EU escapades for anyone who cares, as I was able to set some time aside recently to finish the remainder of the Dark Nest Trilogy. And rather than individually comment on Unseen Queen and Swarm War individually, I felt it would better to simply finish going through both and give my overall thoughts as a whole. My overall consensus for Dark Nest is that it's okay. Not as good as NJO, or as awful as some of the rancid Bantam efforts like Planet Of Twilight or Crystal Star. It's only okay. To be honest, I was expecting far worse for the first story arc to be solely written by Troy Denning, as I hear virtually nothing but seething contempt for the man around the EU Community.
A critique I hear by dissenters of Dark Nest is that it doesn't address the after-effects of the Yuuzhan Vong War, and I can't say I agree with that at all. I'm not saying that it's something that the story focuses on, but it didn't outright ignore it: the galaxy and Coruscant in particular is undergoing a Reconstruction Period following the conflict, Tahiri is still rehabilitating the Vong Remnants on Zonama Sekot, and Jacen is showing the long-term effects of his tutelage under Vergere...the teachings of which, are having a profound effect on how Luke's Jedi Order addresses the current conflict, and whether or not Vergere's philosophy can be universally applied. Dark Nest has issues, but ignoring NJO isn't one of them...trust me, if it was, I'd be the first to rant about it, since NJO essentially became my favorite EU Story Arc. The only omission that I feel is worth mentioning is Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel's "break-up"...which happened off-page, and is given barely any detail in the books themselves. I actually had to reference Wookipedia just to figure out what had happened between them, which really pisses me off since their romance had been a pivotal subplot of NJO.
My complaint with Joiner King that the OT Heroes were being narratively prioritized over the younger generation of characters was, sadly, not fixed in the next two books. This trilogy is mostly about them---the rest of Luke's Jedi Order from Kyp Durron to Tahiri Veila have little to no role in the story, and the survivors of the Myrkr Mission are relegated to a collective plot device. I can understand sharing some focus to the older characters, but Denning just gives them all the focus---most of the events, battles and stakes revolve solely around Han, Luke and Leia, which is something I didn't expect or want after NJO shifted more focused to the younger characters who, frankly, are more interesting and have more growing to do. The Unifying Force for instance had the final battle fought by both the older and younger generation, with Luke fending off Shimmra whilst still allowing room for Jaina and Jacen to shine, both in terms of the battle and importance to the plot. Dark Nest sabotages that balance almost immediately, making most of the drama and stakes set squarely around the OT Heroes entirely, with Jaina and Jacen assigned background roles and drama seperate from the main plot (with Jaina's being particularly inconsequential). Sure, it's neat to see the classic protagonists be heroes and badasses, but frankly that was what the entire Bantam-era EU was about...and by this point, we aren't in dire need of more, especially at the expense of the younger characters.
Which brings me to the thing that really weakens Dark Nest for me: the conflict. It's just not very interesting, largely because the Gorog aren't a real source of intrigue. Why? Because by nature of them being alien bugs controlled by a single hive mind, there isn't a character to be found among them. They're essentially no different from Heinlein's Arachnids or Alien's Xenomorphs...by nature, they can't have individual traits or personalities. An enemy force doesn't always need a face or character to be interesting, but when you have three books of Troy Denning telling you about how dire a war with the Killik as a species will be if it comes to pass, it's hard to care or stay interested. They just don't have any feel or personality to them. What made the Yuuzhan Vong such interesting villains was their culture, and the individual characters that served as antagonists within NJO: Tsavong Lah, Nom Anor, Nen Yim, Shimmra, Onimi...these were characters you could identify, differentiate from one another, even clash in terms of motives and goals. You don't have that sense of character within the Colony or the Dark Nest; they're just a faceless enemy that doesn't leave much of an impression in terms of characters. It's really weird that I say all of this, because one could easily apply this complaint to the Borg from Star Trek, but the reason I like them by contrast to the Killik is the impact that they have on the protagonists...something that happens in Dark Nest with Jaina, Jag and their "Joiner Bond", but goes fucking nowhere and doesn't amount to anything outside of kinda maybe making Jaina's parents uncomfortable. Overall, the Killik just do nothing for me, and it affects my investment in the overarching conflict dramatically. That's not to say that it or the Killik themselves are poorly written or bad, just not very interesting.
So, what is the saving grace of Dark Nest, then? In two words, "character interaction". For all of Denning's faults, he writes character interactions extremely well. His banter between Han and Leia is quite good, and all of the family moments between Luke, Mara and Ben are surprisingly sweet (even if I find Ben something of an annoying little shit). Some of the interactions are fantastic, like the explosive argument between the Solo parents and children in Joiner King (especially a very real, in-character moment when Mara lets Jaina have it for making a comparison between the New Jedi Order and Palpatine), the big debate following Luke's Grandmaster Announcement in Swarm War, and all of the sobering moments surrounding R2-D2's archival footage of Anakin Skywalker. But by far the highlight of these books is Jacen. His shady behavior and actions throughout the series is both compelling and fascinating to read, and remind me a lot of the kind of rich writing afforded to him and many others in NJO. These character interactions are why I kept reading, in spite of the surrounding conflict not being very interesting.
One thing that I'll say is that Denning gets a lot of accusations for making the "edgy teenager's version of Star Wars", and I can concede that it does read that way in areas. Mountains of gory violence, action hero one-liners, hot alien girls in skin-tight outfits...and as over the top as it can get in areas, I kind of find it endearing. It's like if what one of the edgelords of 90's comics like Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee or Rob Liefeld would've brought to Star Wars...it's juvenile and immature, sure, but I never feel like it isn't in earnest, or lathered in the self-aware post-modern way that so much current canon Star Wars material is written to be like. But the fault of Denning's that I definitively hate is his attempts at humor in these books, which are awful and incredibly misplaced. If he's not shoving his two new garbage sidekicks into the reader's face, he's forcing tone-deaf moments of humor with Han or Leia, like that stupid scene where they're in a Killik cell, where Han abandons all sense of stakes and starts thinking about profit like an utter retard...never to be brought up again, or have any sort of long-term consequence. It's fucking stupid, and easily the worst aspect of these books.
TL ; DR To sum up, my experience while reading Dark Nest was eerily similar to my experience with watching Star Trek Voyager for the first time last year, in that it almost felt like filler. I didn't give a remote fuck about the overarching story or the bland threat at the core of the conflict (Species 8472 in the case of Voyager), but the interactions between characters (most notably EMH and Seven of Nine) remained my sole motivation to keep watching and not skip it. Dark Nest is literally that, but for Star Wars. I was expecting far worse, considering all the things I've heard about Denning, but what I got was harmless at best. However, Legacy Of The Force and Fate of The Jedi are next on my list, and from what I understand, they are the Expanded Universe at its most divisive and hated, thanks largely to Denning's efforts (and to a lesser extent, Traviss'). That is both terrifying and intriguing, but something tells me that I'm still going to enjoy them more than the Sequel Trilogy...if, for nothing else, being original and creative.
