Outcast is the first in a new Star Wars series called Fate of the Jedi. Another great story in the Star Wars universe, Outcast takes place 40 years after the fall of the Empire. The Jedi are once again getting identified as a militant organization. Jacen Solo brought trouble to the Jedi when he went crazy, and now Luke Skywalker is being tried for not seeing it soon enough to stop Jacen's tyranical rule. The sentence is 10 years out of contact with the Jedi organization, just as Valen Horn begins exhibiting the same symptoms Jacen did. Ben Skywalker decides to leave with his father, Luke, for the 10 year sentence which they would spend tracing Jacen's journey before losing his mind to the dark side. ( )

It was a quick read and I can't really pick too many faults in the stories, but it felt more like a trio of short stories than one novel.

The 3 distinct stories seem at the moment to have little in common (Esp the Han/Leia story in the mines).

I was initially glad that they seemed to be tackling the fact that the Jedi's have no real accountability and basically do what ever they like in the name of the Force. Luke realising this point just before his exile was a high point of the novel. They then proceeded to show in two of the main stories that the jedi are above the law and can meddle in foreign cultures when it suits them.

Overall though it was a quick and fun read. ( )

This book was a welcome jump back into the Star Wars universe. I've always been a fan of Mr. Allston's style and he does not disappoint. For non-Star Wars fanatics, I would not recommend jumping right into this book without at least having some background of the last 3 or 4 series that precede this one. On a funny note, I find it amazing how Han & Leia also find trouble. ( )

Mr. Allston is one of my favorite Star Wars authors and this book is no exception. The storyline is interesting and there are regular injections of clever humor. This is the beginning of a new Star Wars series and it looks to be interesting with a new type of conflict. ( )

WARNING: SPOILER REVIEW BELOW

I just finished the novel and I was not impressed. If this wasn't a Star Wars novel, I don't think I would have any incentive to pick up the next release.

I was interested in all of the three significant storylines, but only the Coruscant based Valin/Jaina/Seff storyline ended up paying off. The others were so lightly developed that they felt rushed and wasted.

The Ben/Luke storyline was paced poorly and really fell flat. It seemed as complex a plot as a Scooby Doo mystery. The promise of learning about the Baran Do was initially interesting but we didn't end up with much. Other than the Hidden One, every Baran Do was interchangable with any other. I would like to know more about their philosophy, their history, and why Jacen sought them out. Instead we got a very episodic storyline that left us no further than we had been before. On to the next world!

The Han/Leia storyline was abruptly introduced and didn't make much sense. Aside from Leia's Force powers, why would Han/Leia be able to anything better than some geologists/biologists/archeologists? If you are going to go with a Big Dumb Object, we need a little bit more information about it to make it interesting or worthwhile. Instead there are some floating energy harddrives and giant magnetic self-destruct sequences. We barely got a what and where, so don't even think about how or why. What upset me the most was the fact that it doesn't sound like there is going to be any answer to these questions.

Another problem I had was how G-rated the book felt. While I understand they were trying to compensate for the backlash against the R-rated NJO and LotF, there was absolutely nothing approaching evil or danger anywhere in the book. Our heroes were fighting groundquakes, spiders, training matches, bureaucracy, and couch potatoes. The most pressing issue was that of Jaina and Co. on Coruscant, which I mentioned as my favorite part of the book.

Also, Allston's humor works well to relieve the tension when facing impossible odds and death at any turn (as in the Rogue novels and also the OT). It seems like a realistic coping mechanism and is diluted by the seriousness of the rest of the story. With Outcast, so little of the story was actually serious that the jokes came too often, and started to grate.

I think Allston's strengths are in creating individual characters, writing strong dialogue, comic relief, and fast pacing. His world-building is some what lacking as evidenced by the Baran Do and the Kessel BDO which while promising were not detailed enough to engage me.

Overall, I didn't feel like I was reading the start to a series, as much as I was reading a complete standalone, and a poor one at that. I realize there were some hints with the ominous voice Allana heard and that Jacen was looking for a Force nexus but we could have just introduced those in the first few chapters of the novel and been spared the sparsely written Kessel and Baran Do plotlines. The book would have been greatly improved by an additional 25 pages of exposition. I didn't have as much a problem with what was in it than what wasn't. ( )