Review - The Joiner King - Troy Denning

Star Wars: The Joiner King (Dark Nest, Book 1) by Troy Denning. July of 1995

Mumblemumblemumble-this was a decent book-mumblemumblemuble.

:sigh

Rereading this book has made me ponder the ways in which I approach the past decade or so of the Star Wars Universe. I am not generally a fan of Troy Denning's... or so I thought. Perhaps it might be more accurate to say - I'm not a fan of what happens in Troy Denning's books. Looking at the book itself - things were fairly well written - there was excellent (excellent) pacing. The combat scene with Saba was wonderful... indeed, much of why I like Saba comes from Denning's writing of her (things come back to me, things I had seemingly blocked out).

So I give my grudging respect to Denning, and now I must engage in a chicken-egg debate in my head.

Why is there so much cruddy stuff in Denning's work? Is it that Denning imports cruddy stuff, or is it that Denning is bold enough to take on things that are difficult - like correcting things where the Meta-plot had gotten off course, or even killing off major characters?

The truth is probably in between. I think I respect Denning a bit more because he does try to correct things... I just then don't like the way he corrects them. Two wrongs don't make a right. Now, are his wrongs as bad as the ones he corrects... I don't know.

The big place where this hits for me is the whole "modern Jedi" theme that the Fiction books had developed out of the New Jedi Order where basically the idea had boiled down to there no longer being a light or a dark side of the force. That's the situation into which Denning has been placed. And while the assertion of this utterly stupid philosophy annoys me... maybe I'm too harsh pinning blame for this on Denning, as he does bring it both into focus and into questioning.

For example, consider the following:

"Now I really have a bone to pick with those Dark Jedi," Han said. "And with Raynar, too. Why couldn't he just let bugs act like bugs?"

"Because he's a Jedi," Luke sounded almost proud. "And he was trained in our old tradition - to serve life and protect it, wherever he found the need."

"Yeah, well, he won't be protecting much life when that border conflict gets out of hand," Han said.

"Yes, now many more livez are at risk," Saba said. "Nature is cruel for a reason, and Raynar has upset the balance."

"The law of unintended consequences," Mara said. "That's why it's better not to intervene. A modern Jedi would have held himself apart and studied the situation first."

"And we're sure that's a good thing?" Leia asked. She was as surprised as anyone to hear herself asking this question, for the war had hardened her to death in a way that should would not have believed possible twenty years before. But the war was over, and she was tired of death, of measuring victory not by how many lives you saved, but how many you took. "How many being would have died while a modern Jedi studied the situation?"

Luke's confusion filled the Force behind her. "Does it matter? A Jedi serves the Force, and if his actions interfere with the balance of the Force -"

"I know," Leia said wearily. "I just miss the days when all this was simple."

Sometimes, she wondered whether the tenets of this new Jedi order were an improvement or a convenience. She worried about what had been sacrificed to this new god Efficiency - about what had been lost when the Jedi abandoned their simple code and embraced moral relativism."

+ + + + + + +

So. What is Denning doing? Is he just frustratingly good at showing the moral and ethical flaws the NJO series had jumped into when they introduced all their tomfoolery with the Jedi code and the force at the end of the previous series? Does he not combat it enough?

See, here is the problem -- NJO left the Jedi abandoning their code. This is bad. The proper response is to have them return to that code - where peace and serenity is what saves the day. That would have been a repudiation -- and then really set the stage for Jacen's fall (in his rejection of that serenity and peace).

Instead - and this is jumping ahead, I know - Denning will make the Jedi, and in particular Luke, more powerful. As though power is the answer to the problem. The problem isn't that the Jedi weren't powerful enough (and we need an author to show us that Jedi can be powerful without the "freedom" of action moral relativism gives) but rather that the Jedi Code is what hones a Jedi into a willing and active conduit for the Light Side of the Force.

He spots the problem, but then answers it the wrong way. This is the seat of my frustrations. That, and things do have a tendency just to get way too dire when he writes.

All this aside, as a big giant EU/Bad/I don't know ball of confusion, by in large, I really liked the book. I enjoyed it. The Dark Nest is a neat idea - a little too Sci-Fi for my taste, but creative. The moving of the strike team Jedi towards being Joiners was very well done. I enjoyed how he characterized Han and Leia - especially Leia.

So I don't know. The whole discussions on the force frustrate me (as do most moral relativism arguments -- it's a lousy and sloppy philosophical system) - but the book is well written.

I shall give it, and this surprises me, a solid B. I was expecting to hate it -- and there are many things I don't like about it in the least, but there are good, interesting characters... and even if they are approaching philosophy in a fool hardy way -- well, those are the cards you are dealt.