Star Wars: The Old Republic – Fatal Alliance Book Review

Fatal Alliance was written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Sean Williams.This novel is the sixth event on the Legends timeline. This tale takes place during the Old Republic Era. The book also counts as the third installment in The Old Republic series. It takes place 3,643 years before A New Hope.

SUMMARY

A smuggler is doing work for a Hutt, when he and his crew come across a mysterious ship. When they attempt to capture it, it self-destructs. However, they collect two interesting pieces from the debris; the Navicomp and a strange metallic cylinder.

The Hutts invite many factions across the galaxy to Nal Hutta to inspect and have an opportunity to place a bid on the rare, mysteries items. There’s a Mandalorian warrior who shows up and causes all kinds of trouble, activating the strange metallic cylinder, revealing a dangerous new threat.

The factions involved include; the Republic, the Empire, the Jedi, and the Sith. After the violent actions of the Mandalorian, they begin to hunt the warrior down and seek out the location of the metallic cylinder’s origin.

CHARACTERS

There are a ton of characters to choose from, too many, but I’m only going to mention two.

Jet Nebula: He’s a pilot and smuggler for hire. He really doesn’t seem to care about much. His primary objective is just, staying alive. He’s laid back and observant. He’s no hero, but he’s no villain. Was this character super important? No.

Eldon Ax: She’s a Sith apprentice under Darth Chratis. For a Sith, she really doesn’t have a desire for power, she doesn’t seem to care about the glory of the Empire. Maybe she has the personality of the average Sith? However, she was punked by a Mandalore and wants revenge.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

So, wow. There are a ton of characters in this book. I don’t really like that, especially for just one novel, unless they appear in the next book in the timeline, which I highly doubt they will. This isn’t an epic tale like Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, was curious if the author was trying to have a memorable cast like those tales. The conflict within and around the characters didn’t come across organic. They were boring, and in a week or two, I’ll probably forget everyone’s name in this book.

I actually got lost in most of the action scenes. At many points I was a bored with the story and the characters. The novel tries to tell a tale of a grand, galactic doomsday scenario. It falls flat at the end. I was waiting for some amazing climax to redeem the story… but the book just ends.

Do I recommend you pick up Star Wars: The Old Republic – Fatal Alliance? Absolutely not. I don’t understand why this story was told, it’s completely different than the previous books in The Old Republic series.

RATING

I give this book an F. It didn’t hold my attention and sometimes I just got a little confused.