Star Wars Fate of the Jedi Omen introduces us to the newest addition to the ranks of Star Wars writers, Christie Golden. Ms. Golden doesn’t disappoint in her first foray into the GFFA and I was left wondering one thing throughout my time reading Omen. Why hasn’t she written in the Star Wars Universe before now?  Read the whole review after the break…

Considering how Luke and Ben deal with the flow walking Aing Tii it is only fitting that this novel flows back and forth in time to tell its story. Taking in to account that Omen follows three seperate paths I’m going to talk about each one seperately, starting with Luke and Ben’s journey.

After finding out from Cilghal that Jysella Horn showed signs of being able to flow walk Luke and Ben head for the Kathol Rift to meet the Aing Tii. They work with the Aig Tii, Tadra’ Ro. Their journey is long and ardurous and it proves that there are still fractures in their relationship, as father and son but heads on learning to flow walk. Luke and Ben’s time among the Aing Tii is littered with old school references that show that Ms. Golden really knows her Star Wars history. Luke and Ben are tasked with finding the Codex to prevent a civil war among the Aing Tii. They don’t really find the answers that the Aing Tii are looking for, but Luke does learn from the Codex that their next stop should be the Maw. Luke and Ben meet with Tadar’ Ro one last time before they leave and Ben flow walks for the first time. He goes back to see Jacen learning how o flow walk and realizes that Jacen wasn’t starting to lean towards the Dark Side on his stop with the Aing Tii. When he’s finished he vows to never do it again and a father’s worries are settled. Ben is given a vor’cha stun stick by Tadar’ Ro that Luke promptly teleports from his hand to his own to let Ben know he wasn’t the only one learning something new. I have a feeling Ben’s vor’cha stun stick will come into play later on in the series.

Next I will focus on the Coruscant story, which focuses on Han and Leia and the Jedi. This time the Solos are joined by Jaina and something amazing happens. After dealing with Jedi gone wild, Daala, and reporters looking for an angle, the Solos decide that a side trip to the Livestock Expo is just what the doctor ordered and Leia suggests that they should get a pet for Allana. It’s just too bad that one of the Jedi guarding the family decides to go crazy. In a harrowing escape from creatures that were featured in the movies Natura Wan is stopped, too bad Javis Tyyr happened to witness the whole thing. By the end of it all little Allana decides she wants a baby Nexu whose mother was killed in the melee, proving she’s her father’s daughter in more ways than one. To cap off the Coruscant storyline the amazing part happens. After dodging the nefarious reporter Javis Tyyr, Jaina and Jag meet up in a hotel room where Jag finally pops the question!! Now there is no definitive yes from Jaina, but there is a big emotional hug and that’s always better than a handshake, right? At the very end of the novel we catch up with Tahiri as she is being arrested for assassinating Grand Admiral Pellaeon.  The suddenness of this development surprised me, but in a good way.  It wasn’t something I was expecting for the novel to close with and it left me wanting more right away.

Now for my favorite part of the novel the Lost Tribe of the Sith, whose ancestors were just introduced in John Jackson Miller’s ebook LTotS: Precipice. To start with we must go back to the beginning of the book where Dician is trying to lure Ship to join the One Sith. She fails miserably because Ship doesn’t like the fact that the One Sith have chosen to hide and he takes off in search of those willing to fight. Meanwhile on the beaches of Keth we meet a young girl named Vestara Khai, whose only desire is to become a Sith. She and her training partner witness Ship’s landing on Keth and young Vestara communicates with Ship. We learn many things about the Lost Tribe; there is an entire hierarchy to their society, their looks are very important to them. They think the Sith Empire rules the galaxy.  Ship has found the legion of Sith he was looking for, the Lost Tribe only needed to know that the Sith Empire fell. Vestara becomes the apprentice she wanted to be, the Lost Tribe rebuilt the Omen and built up a fleet of starships to take back the galaxy with.  They learned of Luke Skywalker and the threat he poses to their plans, so they set up a Sith strike team to kill him and then Ship disappeared.  The Lost Tribe decides that they need Ship’s help so they go after him and wait on their plans for Skywalker.

 Those are the three main plot lines of Omen. The thing I like most about Omen overall was the great flow of the novel.  Going from Outcast to Omen and then reading the excerpt for Abyss was like reading a story from the same author. Ms. Golden you have taken your first step into that galaxy far, far away I think you have found your final frontier.