|
Review
by Bones, UK, 2011:
"Allies marks the central point in the Fate
of the Jedi series and, as such, one would expect it to contain
some sort of major development. Unsurprisingly, then, it does indeed
have some rather key moments during the narrative. The rest of it,
however, is fleshed out unsatisfactorily.
"Golden’s writing suffers from persistent overuse of
clichés, whether it’s flat, uninteresting characters or just
unappealing manoeuvring. Many of the characters that she introduces
are all very similar: Kani, Hamner’s assistant, is a plucky young
girl who dutifully performs her role; Desha Lor, Dorvan’s
assistant, is an emotional young girl who is nevertheless very
efficient and dutifully performs her role; Maadhi Vaandt is an
enlightened and scrupulous journalist who dutifully performs her
role; Leeha Faal, a Keshiri Sith, who gains favour in her lord’s
eyes by dutifully performing her role. There are a couple of other
examples, but the gist is fairly clear. Golden loves female
characters, particularly strong female characters or those who
epitomise femininity, strength or efficiency and whilst this is not
necessarily a bad thing, the fact that she goes out of her way to
thrust it under the reader’s nose is quite off-putting. The
relationship between Dorvan and Daala
is badly handled, with the Chief of State coming across as an
erratic, stubborn eccentric, whilst Dorvan gently chides her because
he clearly knows better since he keeps a pet in his pocket – it
sounds daft and yes, I’m being cynical, but that is how it comes
across.
"I disliked the number of analogies to Earth-based situations.
The courtroom scene, for example, lacked a Star Wars feel and read
like it came from any American courtroom. Similarly, the Perre
Needmo Newshour, with its wholesome and unbiased “perfect”
journalism, was a clichéd, idealistic example of any current
affairs programme one might wish to name. On that note, the
continual references to slavery seemed, in the context of this book,
utterly pointless. I have suspicions that it will become more
important in the future of the series, but here it just cut straight
across the main flow.
"It has its good points. There is an unexpected turn towards
the end, although it is never quite explained as wholly as it could
be. The stand-off between the Jedi and the GA certainly builds
literary tension and the situation in the Maw does contain a
satisfyingly substantial plot development. But there’s too much
fluff, whether it’s the continual references to the treaty of
Vondor (yes, we know about it now, please don’t repeat it again)
or the Fountain of the Hutt Ancients (yes, we know about that too,
you’ve mentioned it many times) or the persistent mentioning of
how beautiful all the characters are, or even drafting Lando into
the story with his bizarre tug-thing, which seemed to actually serve
very little purpose in the end.
"The book tries to contain gravitas appropriate to its place in
the series, but it falls down thanks to boring characters and too
much time filling."
Rating: 2.5
/ 5
|