Like many of you, I snatched up Inferno on the day it came to my friendly neighborhood Barnes and Noble.

Like many of you (I suspect), it took me a while to get into it; maybe about 1/3 of the book went by before I found myself anxious to see what crap Jacen was going to pull next. It also took me that long to realize that this latest installment was going to be drastically different from the last.

Whereas Sacrifice culminated in Mara Jade's murder, Inferno was a little more subtle. Here we get to see Jacen well on his way to becoming a full-fledged Sith. IMHO, it took a while to figure out that this book would focus primarily on that transition. Once I did, it was one of those EU experiences where I said to myself, oh, OK, nothing too exciting is going to happen in this one, the feeling I get when I read a series where it seems like the storyling is being stretched out a bit to cover more books than it really needs to.

That having been said, here are the impressions that Inferno left behind for me:

1. Sometimes the shift in authors works for me; this time it kinda didn't. I truly believe that all three authors working on this trilogy of trilogies, as it were, are all superb storytellers in their own right. I'm also well aware that lots of folks don't necessarily care for Karen Traviss, the author of the last book in the series.

But like her or not, you have to admit that the events in Traviss' Sacrifice came at you rapid-fire. It (and Bloodlines, her other LOTF contribution to date) gave both the characters and the plot equal billing, and each chapter contained something juicy, some tidbit that made you feel like you were getting closer to piecing together the mystery of what the the galaxy's fate by the end of LOTF.

Inferno didn't do that for me. Denning's lengthy, technical accounts of battles and individual manuevers really slowed the story down for me, and I found myself wishing (often) that something good would happen already (I think I actually said it out loud more than a few times, because my daughter told me it was scary to see me talking to a book). After Sacrifice's emotional roller-coaster ride, reading Inferno was like going on the ferris wheel. You got a good view of what was going on, and some parts were satisfying, but it wasn't anything you'd wait in line for.

So now I wait for November, and the chance to see what Mr. Allston has in store for us.

2. I really don't think of this dude as Han and Leia's son anymore. I think Leia got it right. As Jacen's mother and Anakin's daughter, I think Leia understands the nature of her son's fall to the dark side better than just about anyone; maybe even Luke, since his own experiences cloud his judgement. Jacen truly is gone. Just as Obi-Wan told Luke that the boy he knew was gone when Vader was born, the son Han and Leia raised disappeared when he started thinking of himself as Caedus. Anyone who can't bear his 'human' name is too far gone to defend.

If Denning was charged with the task of making us see Jacen as Caedus, well, mission accomplished. Who else but a Sith would (a) burn up the trees that cover Chebacca's home planet (that really burned my butt); (b) string Tahiri out like a junkie on visions of his dead brother to get her to spy for him; (c) put his own cousin in the embrace of pain? (The last one wouldn't have been as bad in and of itself if the psycho hadn't actually believed that he was doing Ben a favor in the long run.)

3. I'll never be able to feel for Jacen's Darth Caedus the way I felt for Anakin's Darth Vader. To sum it up nicely, Jacen is, well, a big old JERK. Maybe it's because of the prequel films, which introduced us so personally to the Boy Who Would Become Vader, but I just don't have any sympathy, empathy, or anything for Jacen. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't make him any less of an effective bad guy. I just get to despise him wholeheartedly, whereas following Vader's descent into darkness made me equally disgusted and dismayed.

4. I'm glad Luke finally found his . . . um . . . backbone again (I was actually thinking of other body parts, two to be exact, but, well, protocol and all). I whoooooped like crazy when Luke knocked Jacen on his arse, and then I thought, whoa, what else has he been holding back? I have a feeling that Luke is capable of much, much more than he lets on; maybe more than he even knows himself. Maybe it took the emergence of Darth Caedus to open his eyes, or the shock of finally admitting the truth to himself about what really went down when Mara was killed. All I know is he is now someone I can truly see taking on a 30-somthing Sith Lord.

5. Ben just keeps on impressing me. I might be naive, but I don't think the darkness will claim him like it did Jacen and Anakin. He's got too much empathy in him, and I honestly think he's smarter than Jacen, in the ways that really matter. I'm also relieved to see that Tenel Ka has more heart than any female in this storyline, with the exception of Leia. She could teach Jacen a thing or two about making difficult decisions and truly acting in the interests of the greater good. Call me messed up, but I'm really hoping that she and her baby daddy come to blows at some point in the next three books.


So, if you had to put this installment of LOTF in perspective, kinda like a Friends episode, I guess it would be 'The One Where They Finally Get That Jacen Really Is the Bad Guy'. There was a certain relief in that revelation; after all, although the bad guy brings the necessary conflict to our story, most of us get tired of seeing him get over for too long. Although it's agonizing to consider from their perspectives, it was gratifying to finish Inferno knowing that Jacen's parents, sister, lover, former fellow Jedi, and fellow politicians now see him for what he is. It gives me hope that the next book will deliver on my sincere hope that Jacen will soon get his know-it-all butt kicked. I would have enjoyed seeing that just a wee bit more here.

Something I heard while the kids were watching I, Robot last night touched on the way Inferno left me feeling about Jacen/Darth Caedus. Will Smith's character and his sidekick have finally caught on to the fact that the main computer is the mastermind behing the misbehaving robots. When they confront her, she rattles off something about having watched human beings for years, and realizing that no matter how many chances they are given, they will always end up making bad decisions that lead to war and destruction. She implores them to understand that her logic is flawless, and it has led her to the conclusion that, like children, humans just really need someone who will tell them what to do, lest they become victims of their own imperfect logic.

In the end, this is exactly the flaw in Jacen's thinking. I won't argue that his view of the galaxy is compltetely wrong; after all, who better than a history teacher to admit that human nature tends to gravitate towards strife and confilct? But humanity is also built with an inner pendulum to set that balance straight. Faith in humanity requires faith in that balance, and in the power of something greater than us - the Force, a deity/deities, or something else - to preserve it.

Jacen made his greatest mistake when he decided that he was wise enough to know exactly when and how to use his power for the best of all the beings in an entire universe, anf that they's be better off that way. I'm hoping that his incredible vanity will eventually seperate him from his use of the Force, leaving him much like he was when Vergere had him in the Embrace of Pain.

But that's just me