So I just finished reading Swarm War, and I have to say, I didn't like it that much. Not Dark Journey, should be purged didn't like, but really disliked it overall.

SPOILER WARNING: ALL OF THE B****ING BELOW SPOILS DARK NEST OR SWARM WAR.

Most of my gripes with the series was how Denning changed a lot of elements from NJO I really liked. Like Vergere's philosophy. It's pretty clear Denning didn't like its lack of clearcuttedness, and so he misrepresented it, dragged the entire order into it so they could see their folly, and then trashed it. Vergere never claims that there is no "good" or "bad" actions, she merely states that the Force establishes no objective measure, that we have to use our own sensibilities to decide. Denning represents this as "ends justify means" and of course finds that morally wanting. Also, in the NJO, Vergere never convinces 99% of the Jedi Order (literally 99%, she only fully convinces Jacen), while in the Dark Nest, everyone is following her.

Another thing that bugged me was the redesign of Cal Omas. The first election in the GFFA (Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, not Galaxy Far, Far Away) was something I really liked. It helped take the NJO off of the depressing "evil politician" track established by Fey'lya and Pwoe, and brought it back to the more feel-good "benevolent leader" track of Mon Mothma and Leia. Finding out that Omas is just as much of a jerk as Fey'lya, as well as just as much of an enemy of the Jedi, really stuck in my craw.

Yet another thing that bugged me about Dark Nest was that the "evil attribute" of the Killik was denial. Palp was an utter megalomaniac and sadist, the Vong were fanatics, the Yevetha had a superiority complex, but the Killik were evil because they were in denial. Come on. It's unusual, but that's because it's bad.

Something irritating about about "Swarm War" specifically was the mysterious plan of the Jedi. Instead of doing a clear-cut, exciting revelation of the hidden plan to take out the Colony, Denning lets it slip piecemeal, without drama. It may be realistic, but not exciting.

The ending also failed to live up to my expectaitions. Although blurbs tend to exaggerate, I was expecting Luke to open a TUF-worthy can of woopa** on Ranyar. I didn't expect him to cleverly dodge psychological attacks.

Alema Rar. Why did she have to die? She was brainwashed, she didn't fall on her own. If she can survive and learn throughout NJO despite brushes with darkness, (don't get me started on those), why does Leia have to shove her into a furry lichen, especially if Lomi Plo controls her mind?

Three final things, and this rant will be over.

1: The weapons bugged me. Shatter guns were a nice touch, and helped relieve the monotony of blasters, but Plasma Assault Rifles are questionably canon at best, and having Chiss use Masers and even Megamasers instead of charrics was incredibly irritating, as well as very difficult to retcon into even a sembelance of sciencetifical accuracy.

2. Jedi combat, especially space combat, was represented very differently, and that bugged me. Instead of speed and premonitions, suddenly all the Jedi are holding starfighters in place with the Force. I don't like the super-Jedi aspect of that, and I think it makes the characters and the fights less exciting. It's not that they need to be quick, they just grab you and hold you still.

3. The R2-D2 subplot was pointless, or rather, out of place. It was nice, with ROTS finally out and connecting the dots, to start revealing the story to Luke, but while Tatooine Ghost did it in an organic, albiet slightly forced way, the R2 story was just sort of stuck on. It was probably independent of the story to begin with, floating around in the continuity office, just to be added to the first book to be released after ROTS came out, and its "Lomi Plo will be invisible" justification weakened the emotional content, it didn't strengthen it.

In conclusion, I am pretty dissapointed by the Dark Nest series, and hope that the Legacy will make the new system established by NJO worthwile.