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MrNomAnor wrote:

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So I read this and got all tingly-good inside because despite Dark Journey being overwhelmingly seen as one of the lesser rated NJO titles, it was one of my favourites for several reasons:

*Jaina Solo. Sure, in this novel she's PMS-y and her Dark Side trip was too light and frivolous, BUT Jaina Solo here is emotional, she is brilliantly characterised and what's more Cunningham GETS how Jaina is related to everyone else and her dealings with other characters (Jag, Zekk, Kyp, Han, Leia, Jacen, Anakin, Lowbacca) and this shines through in brilliant resolution.

*Lowbacca. My goodness, she understands Lowbacca. She gives him pathos! And emotion. Pathos, damnit!

*As an extension, she gets all the YJK. That conversation between Zekk and Tenel Ka regarding the Dark Side and Jaina's fall into it, as well as their friendship with her was nothing short of excellence, and one of MY favourite scenes in the entire series.

*Jagged Fel and Kyp Durron are so awesome here.

*Han and Leia. Cunningham stands up with Denning, Luceno and Allston as one of the better writers to capture Han and Leia's relationship. That's no mean feat.

*She does research. All this references and callbacks to COPL and Hapan intrigue and the like that at first you may not notice, but they're there.

*She openly admits to loving the YJK novels. The only other author I recall publicly doing that is Denning. I wuv this!

So then I thought about all this and thought how a second novel by her would be probably better as DJ was her first novel in a multi-author, multi-book series AND that this time 'round she's had like, six years to look at what made her first EU entry bad and what made it good, and people's expectations of her and the like. She can improve I have no doubt about that.

Now, I looked at the title. Blood Oath. I actually didn't think Nightsister or Tenel Ka like everyone here. At first I thought, "clones" and "clone troopers" ad "Clone Wars." This made sense given the marketing blitzkrieg to this issue and time period that LFL/DR has lately.

But then I didn't like that idea and found it boring (and unwanted by me!) so I thought, what else could this mean?

One thought I IMMEDIATELY had was that "blood" and "oath" and even "blood oath" is merely another way of saying "life" and "debt" or "Life Debt."

This first made me quite happy.

Putting aside my uber-bias towards this theory, I do think that objectively it sound plausible.

Looking strictly at a Post LOTF time period, the words "blood oath" to me could indeed refer to Lowie/Waroo/Wookiees, but also to Jaina, to Han and to the Jedi.

I'm intrigued by the Nightsister idea, but find it somewhat strange if this turned out to be reality. I think an idea that it refers to Tenel Ka is more plausible and warranted.

I guess time will tell.

I just... QFT. QFT. QFeffingT!!!!

I 100% agree with you Nom! I've always been disappointed that DJ was looked at as one of the weaker NJO novels, but I loved every second of it, and I thought it was a very important book in the development of certain characters. Jaina and Jag aside, this was Kyp's shining book. All those people who cry about the lack of Kyp, Elaine Cunningham delievered with him. Not only that, I never ever thought I could like Kyp ever again after Rebirth, but Elaine made the impossible happen--I LOVED Kyp in Dark Journey. There were so many good things about Dark Journey that I have trouble remembering why people thought it was so bad; I guess the whole Ta Chume/Isolder/Jaina-manipulating thing turned people off, but I didn't see it as anything the Hapan royalty wouldn't try and pull. I also liked that it was more of a political intrigue-novel, rather than just a straight-up action book. Star By Star was a real doozy action-wise, and I thought DJ was a good, calmer follow-up to it.