Okay. First things first. As with all my blogs, this one came about because I promised someone I would write it. In this case it was Darth Vader and since he turned blue, I feel that I should humor him.

Second things second. Massive SPOILER warning for Betrayal. If you haven't read it and don't want to find out the ending, stop reading now.

Third things third. The blog.

I was really looking forward to this book because I very much enjoy Aaron Allston's writing, especially his sense of humor. I figured this book wouldn't have quite so much humor as his X-Wing books since it's part of the main time line, but it was much heavier than I would have thought. I don't like what this portends for the rest of the series. Ever since Chewie's death in Vector Prime, it seems to me that the authors are trying to make Star Wars more like real life, where good people die and bad things happen and so the books are becoming heavier, darker, and grimmer. I wish they would stop. I read books for enjoyment, not so I can get depressed. If the main characters in Star Wars seem to have amazing luck and never get killed off, I don't have a problem with that.

Moving on, a short synopsis of what happens, for those of you who haven't read it, but ignored my earlier warning. It starts of with a visit to Adumar, which is an old stomping ground for Allston from his Starfighters of Adumar book. Things then quickly get to the main point- problems stemming from Han's, Wedge's, and Corran's homeworld of Corellia. Basically, Corellia is trying to reap all the benefits of belonging to the Galactic Alliance without conforming to the rules and laws set forth by the GA. A lot of this can be attributed to our old friend (and Corellia's Minister of War), Thrackan Sal-Solo, (he's a character I wouldn't mind seeing get killed off though, earlier comments not withstanding). As things come to a head, this causes some consternation for some of the loyal sons and daughters of Corellia. Han, and by extension Leia, end up playing both sides of the field. Not in a bad way, but truly in an effort to keep violence and deaths to a minimum. Wedge is kidnapped by the GA so he will stay out of the conflict, but, of course, that didn't work. He ends up working for Corellia, mostly to keep an eye on Thrackan and curb him as much as possible. The official Jedi position is with the Galactic Alliance, although some of the Corellian Jedi may jump sides in future books.

Side bar- Now that the PT has been concluded, a number of facts about the Jedi order from the PT era have been "discovered" and are mentioned. This is odd to me, because for so many years there wasn't a lot about the PT era in the books and it did take some getting used to. Also, there some events and characters that seem to have been pulled out of thin air, but I think they may be from the comics. Not sure though.

Anywho, back to the main blog....
This brings us to Jacen Solo and why this blog has the title it does. During parts of the Dark Nest trilogy, I could see Jaina and Jacen heading down the same path as Anakin. For the moment, Jaina seems to be over it, but we will see. Jacen, however, just keeps going. And if he continues unchecked, I think he could be worse than Anakin and, quite possibly, Palpatine. Throughout the beginning of the book, Jacen's motives and thought processes are somewhat suspect. Then he meets up with a woman who turns out to be Lumiya (for those of you, like me, who don't read the comics and have never heard of her, click here for her databank entry). She convinces Jacen to take up the path of the Sith, in the tradition of Darth Vectivus. Vectivus didn't become fall into the same path of greed and evil as the other Sith, because he had a strong ethical code before he turned, whereas most Sith start out "damaged." However, if someone, like Jacen, could learn the Sith skills, but still remain "ethical," then he would be able to finally put a stop to all the fighting in the galaxy. Personally, I don't believe it (just like I didn't believe Palpatine), but Jacen does. And so, like his grandfather, Jacen starts down the path to the dark side, not realizing that he is being played big time. Like Anakin, Jacen begins his path with the death of an innocent. Anakin let Mace die, so he could save Padme. Jacen kills a Jedi named Nelani, because he believes that her continued life will mean Luke's death (it's a weird vision thing that I don't believe was a true vision, but really Lumiya twisting things). Once Nelani is dead, Jacen pledges to learn the Sith skills from Lumiya, just as Anakin pledged himself to Palpatine.

The book basically ends at this point so we will have to wait until August to see how things turn out. I'm really scared that Luke is going to be forced into the role of Obi-Wan and I don't even want to know what will happen to the relationship between the Solos and the Skywalkers if Luke has to go after Jacen. There are already strained tensions and I don't want to see them strained further. Of course, I could be wrong and it could be Leia or Jaina who takes the Obi-Wan role.

Well this blog turned out longer than I thought and it still left a lot of stuff out. I also thought I would spend more time analyzing Jacen, but I think that will have to wait until a couple more books are out. Oh well, thanks for reading. And for those of you wondering- my choice of pic comes from my speculation in the previous paragraph.