Once again, this blog is dedicated to Darth Vader and his never-ending quest to have me read the books so he doesn't have to.

I realize that Bloodlines has been out for a while and this is kind-of late, but Lego Star Wars II sidetracked me, so you can just blame LucasArts.

Please click here for my blog from Betrayal.

And, as always, MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!!! If you don't want to know the end of the book, stop reading now.

General impressions of the book:
Bloodlines was a little easier to read since Betrayal had already set the tone for the series, but I still have my same complaint- I don't read Star Wars so I can become depressed. I read it for fun and I think these books are way too heavy and serious. I also think that a little bit of commentary on current events is starting to creep in, which I would prefer it didn't. This is also the first book by Karen Traviss that I have read since I haven't gotten around to the Republic Commandos books yet. At first I had a hard time with the "voice" of the book, but I was able to eventually settle into it. Another problem is that Wedge and family, Tycho, and a few other major players from Betrayal are a complete no show in Bloodlines. This is disappointing because from what I read, they learned from their mistakes with the New Jedi Order books and were going to try for more consistency in Legacy of the Force. Now it could just be that each author is going to be in charge certain auxiliary characters (Allston- Wedge, Traviss- Boba Fett, Denning- ???) which is fine, but they need to at least be mentioned by the others. Otherwise it's just weird and makes the story harder to connect.

And now for what actually happens in the book-
Boba Fett plays a large roll. For the first time, the readers get a good look inside the helmet. Boba is dying. However, like most people, he's not yet ready to go so he puts much time and effort into tracking down Taun We in an attempt to get information that will help save his life. In the course of his hunt, he meets up with a woman named Mirta Gev. Mirta has a necklace that belonged to Boba's wife and she promises to help him find Ailyn, the daughter he has not seen in fifty years. I'm going to leave this subplot now, but I'll come back to it later.

There is still tension between the Solos and the Skywalkers. Han and Leia are still pro-Corellia, but the Skywalkers and Jacen and Jaina are pro-Galactic Alliance. Jaina is hardly mentioned, but generally when she is, it allows the other characters to verify that she doesn't really like what's going on with Jacen. Han and Leia mainly spend their time hiding out, as everybody's favorite person, Thracken, has taken a contract out on their lives. Luke and Mara are having some tension in their marriage. Luke is really starting to get bad vibes from Jacen and doesn't want Ben to continue to train under Jacen. This isn't helped by the fact that Luke finally realizes that this cloaked person he's been having Force visions/dreams about is Lumiya and that she is running around somewhere. Mara finally figures out the Jacen is having problems with his love life (but not the specifics) and thinks that that is all that is troubling him. So she sees no reason why Ben can't continue to train under Jacen.

The main focus of the story is on Jacen and Ben. Ben is thirteen and going through that beautiful stage in life where he really wants to be seen as an adult, but he is still a kid. He practically worships the ground Jacen walks on, because Jacen allows him to be an adult. He is a little bit estranged from his parents because he doesn't like the way they treat him, especially the fact the Luke doesn't want him learning from Jacen. However, near the end of the book, events happen that make Ben realize the Jacen isn't perfect and that maybe he needs to listen to his parents a bit more.

Now for Jacen. What to say...what to say? I spent most of the book wanting to give him a good whack upside the head and the rest wanting to just flat out shoot him. He is made a Colonel and is more or less in charge of a special forces group, the Galactic Alliance Guard. However, his tactics are somewhat unorthodox and those that serve under him do start to wonder. He leads raids against Corellians living on Coruscant, generally being more forceful than he needs to be. But, the big problem pops up during the interrogation of a terror suspect. Jacen uses a Force technique on her, which ends up killing her. This is what makes Ben start to wonder and also starts to jog his memory about things that Jacen has "erased." Anywho, Jacen continues on his little course towards becoming a Sith. He keeps thinking that he is on the correct course because he isn't doing it for the power. Someone needs to tell him that doing the wrong thing for the right reasons is still doing the wrong thing, but I don't think that will happen any time soon.

His streak of idiocy continues when he is in charge of a force that is blockading Corellia. Rogue Squadron, including Jaina, is part of the force. At one point, she refuses a direct order from Jacen (I'm not completely sure why) and he has her court martialed. Nice brotherly thing to do. Han and Leia don't know about it yet. But that's okay, because this is where stuff starts to really get messy (and you thought it was messy already )

Boba and Mirta end up sneaking to Corellia where Thracken tries to hire Boba to kill all the Solos. Fett tells Thracken that he will think about it, but pretty much already has his mind made up not to do it. Fett is then approached on behalf of some of the other Corellian leaders to have Thracken killed, to which Fett agrees. This blog is already way too long so I won't get into the reasons why, but Han and Mirta go along with Boba to make the hit, Mirta ends up being the one to pull the trigger, and, in one of the few "up" moments of the story, Thracken is killed.

Fett now really wants to get on with his journey to see his daughter. There is one little hitch though. The bounty hunter that Jacen killed- that was Ailyn. And it turns out that Mirta is Ailyn's daughter (don't you love how coincidence like this pop up?). Okay so now Jacen brings Ailyn's body to Corellia. Leia is very disappointed in Jacen (as she should be). Han is ballistic. He totally disowns Jacen and Leia doesn't do anything to intercede. Jacen just accepts this as a necessary part of his becoming a Sith.

Jacen returns to Coruscant for one more talk with Lumiya before the book ends. This is where Lumiya tells him that in order to fully embrace his destiny, he has to kill what he loves because it is the ultimate act of selflessness, showing that he is willing to accept emotional pain and agony in order to bring peace to the galaxy. And Jacen realizes that he will have to kill Tenal Ka and Allana.

Everyone keeps comparing Jacen to Anakin, but I now think that's the wrong comparison. Anakin did not consciously move to the point where he became a Sith. The events of his life took him there. I think Jacen is more like Palpatine, who knew exactly what he was doing every step of the way. That is not to say Lumiya does not have a hidden agenda and is using Jacen in an attempt to engineer the downfall of Luke or the Jedi, but at the moment we haven't been allowed inside her head to know what her true agenda is.

Well, this read more like a book report than I intended it to, but what else can you do when you are writing a blog so someone else doesn't have to read the book???