No, I'm not doing a review. Why? Because you can get those easily on Amazon.com

No, I'm just going to be doing some rather sweeping looks at the Expanded Universe and its current state at the time of the Dark Nest Trilogy and my reactions to it.

The entry has been divided into a minor spoiler section, a moderate spoiler section, and a major spoiler section. Feel free to stop whenever you want

Minor Spoiler Warning!
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Minor Spoiler Warning!

Still here? Alright, so keep this spoiler quiet because it could seriously ruin the plotline for a whole bunch of people. Characters get old. Wow! Who would have thunk it?

I have mixed feelings about them obviously preparing to shuffle off most of the future stories to Jacen, Jaina, Kyp and the like... but I don't mind the characters aging up. Threepio's complaint's of Han's reaction time going down by .56 seconds (or so) over the past decade were probably some of the best lines they've given 3PO in a good long while. Not to mention the fact that they probably did at least half as much character development in these 3 novels as they did in the full 19 novels of the New Jedi Order saga.

So our little galactic crisis of the week throughout the trilogy are the Killiks... Interesting that after facing some complaints that the Yuuzhan Vong in the New Jedi Order series were trying too much to be the Borg of Star Wars that they go right ahead and make an enemy that's even more Borglike! Hive mind, assimilation, lack of emotion, the whole party! The major effect of this was that we never switch to the viewpoint of the enemy, because there isn't one. An odd choice that I wouldn't really want to see repeated in the future. Fighting mindless borged Dark Jedi only works once. You need to see the actions and thoughts of the enemy.

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MODERATE SPOILER AHEAD MODERATE SPOILER AHEAD
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The series also brought some aspects of the Prequels into the timeline via R2-D2's holosystem... As a moderate-core Original Trilogy fan I have mixed feelings about this too, but they haven't had Mace Windu show up and take over the New Jedi Order, they just let Luke know a few things that he's been trying to figure out for a long time in the expanded universe... So it's fine with me and I'm surprised they pulled it off as good as they did. I'm a bit concerned with what they'll do with Boba Fett in the 2nd Legacy book which focuses on him based on the cover. I like my loner bounty hunter, but I suppose as he ages that his character will need to change to... I just hope they don't make him a carbon copy (haha, get it? I'm witty! *cough*) of Jango.

Jacen fried Ta'a Chume! Woo!
Not only was it a great way to set up his (presumed... I haven't read Betrayal) fall to the Dark Side, but it was a great character building moment with a motivation behind it!
Not to mention I've never really liked Ta'a Chume
I currently have this placed on my "Top Ten Expanded Universe Moments" list.

She just better never come out of that coma, because that would ruin the moment imo.

Jacen's constant approval of Anakin's actions in the Prequels seemed a bit forced... but goes along fairly well with the rest of his current mindset.

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MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
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So the Killiks go back to being plain ol' bugs and everyone is fine and dandy.

Wow. I didn't see that one coming

I did honestly expect Luke to need to kill Raynar though. I have no idea how they're going to deal with Raynar's character in the future. Is he still the Joiner King? Will he, Jaina, and Zekk (and the rest of the Joinerish Jedi) have some sort of weird Borg dynamic from now on? Strange stuff that I'm really not a fan of.

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END SPOILERS NO MORE SPOILERS SPOILERS = NILL
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So overall... I was rather indifferent towards the novels themselves, but I like the way they're setting up the Legacy Era. I just hope they pull that off right. Whatever the case... I'm just glad they didn't drag it out to 19 books
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