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miqozerda's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
arf88's review
2.0
I've really been enjoying the art in this series. It's not fancy or stylised, but it's a pleasure to look at.
I struggled more with the story and prose. The entire plot felt very rushed, this massive war between the Republic and Sith lasted only a few pages. On top of that, the characters were all dumb as bricks. They probably weren't any brighter in the last volume, but their stupidity stood out to me more here. And then finally to round it all off, is the terrible dialogue. And believe me, the dialogue is terrible.
Online these comics seem to be a highpoint for a lot of Star Wars fans. I have to admit that at this point, I'm struggling to understand why.
I struggled more with the story and prose. The entire plot felt very rushed, this massive war between the Republic and Sith lasted only a few pages. On top of that, the characters were all dumb as bricks. They probably weren't any brighter in the last volume, but their stupidity stood out to me more here. And then finally to round it all off, is the terrible dialogue. And believe me, the dialogue is terrible.
Online these comics seem to be a highpoint for a lot of Star Wars fans. I have to admit that at this point, I'm struggling to understand why.
edavid88's review
3.25
the artwork and clashing colors put me off at first, but it ended on a satisfying note.
zare_i's review
5.0
Conclusion of the storyline about first major conflict between Sith and Republic.
Using the brother-sister exploration team as a means of invading Republic, Sith start attacking on multiple fronts. Only by sheer luck and numerous sacrifices do the Republic and Jedi order manage to repel them.
But what seems to be a victory is nothing more than prelude to the storm because Sith have come back from the exile and poisoned the waters so to speak. They are back for a long war.
What might turn down some readers is the very way story is told. Authors do not go into much detail but present events in digested form, like something you would expect from pages from diary or chronicle. So if one is expecting deep character development - sorry, you wont find it here. But if you seek information on the lore then you are in the right place.
This is story of sacrifice required to defeat the evil powers, first saga of almost legendary age and all characters are presented as greater than life (like Empress Teta, Jedi warriors and Naga Sadow). All the other characters are just given as sort of a background noise.
Art is more uniformed than first book. There are some gorgeous space combat scenes and battle scenes on Coruscant.
Highly recommended.
Using the brother-sister exploration team as a means of invading Republic, Sith start attacking on multiple fronts. Only by sheer luck and numerous sacrifices do the Republic and Jedi order manage to repel them.
But what seems to be a victory is nothing more than prelude to the storm because Sith have come back from the exile and poisoned the waters so to speak. They are back for a long war.
What might turn down some readers is the very way story is told. Authors do not go into much detail but present events in digested form, like something you would expect from pages from diary or chronicle. So if one is expecting deep character development - sorry, you wont find it here. But if you seek information on the lore then you are in the right place.
This is story of sacrifice required to defeat the evil powers, first saga of almost legendary age and all characters are presented as greater than life (like Empress Teta, Jedi warriors and Naga Sadow). All the other characters are just given as sort of a background noise.
Art is more uniformed than first book. There are some gorgeous space combat scenes and battle scenes on Coruscant.
Highly recommended.
envi's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
librarycobwebs's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I had read this once before but it was much more enjoyable in context of the rest of the story. I'm glad it addressed some of my concerns in the previous volume about Teta's empire. It's fun to see someone else's take on the tropes of Star Wars like separated twins in this story in comparison to Luke and Leia.
jaredkwheeler's review
3.0
Star Wars Legends Project #6
Background: Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire was released in five issues from June to October 1997, and the trade paperback came out in May 1998. It was written by [a:Kevin J. Anderson|4845|Kevin J. Anderson|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1215310030p2/4845.jpg] and pencilled by [a:Dario Carrasco Jr.|146769|Dario Carrasco Jr.|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg], the same team who produced the previous Tales of the Jedi arc: [b:The Golden Age of the Sith|390089|The Golden Age of the Sith (Star Wars Tales of the Jedi, #1)|Kevin J. Anderson|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1174372741s/390089.jpg|379702] (my review here).
The Fall of the Sith Empire begins immediately after the conclusion of Golden Age of the Sith, 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. Speaking of which, there are some cool shout-outs to the origins of those Massassi temples on Yavin and a few other Expanded Universe tie-ins that I wouldn't want to spoil. This comic completes the arc of the characters begun in the previous series, and doesn't introduce any additional elements.
Summary: Jori Daragon has fled the Sith Empire. Forced to leave her brother Gav behind, she hopes to warn the Republic of the threat presented by the impending Sith invasion, but little does she know that a tracker has been attached to her ship, and she is leading the invaders straight to the Republic's doorstep. Meanwhile, Naga Sadow's plans to assume the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith and lead his armies in glorious battle nears fruition, and the Force-sensitive Gav may prove to be just the malleable-but-powerful apprentice that can seal the success of the venture.
Review: This is the pay-off I've been waiting about 15 issues to see (5 issues of Tales of the Jedi, and 10 issues of Dawn of the Jedi before it, because the pay-off of that series hasn't been published yet). The depiction of the Great Hyperspace War was epic and thrilling, rightly taking up the majority of this comic. The art was fantastic, and the fighting was intense. Massive space battles and planetary invasions are a cornerstone of what makes Star Wars awesome, and I appreciated the mega-dose of that I saw here.
That said, I have a few points of significant confusion about the set-up of this whole scenario, both pertaining to the role of the Daragon siblings. At the end of The Golden Age of the Sith, Naga Sadow stages a raid to free the captive Daragons (who are believed by the other Sith to be Republic spies), and makes it look like the Republic was responsible. He then plants just enough evidence of his own responsibility to lure his arch-rival into a trap, thus accomplishing two things at once: staging a dramatic escape to send Jori scuttling back to the Republic with the planted tracker, and extinguishing his chief competition.
So here are my questions: 1) Jori is so convinced of an impending Sith invasion that she pulls all kinds of crazy stunts to make sure the Republic is warned (more on that in a moment). But Jori escapes the system under the impression that Sadow is being attacked by fellow Sith for helping her escape. She has no reason to believe that there is an invasion in the works. Sadow's secret plan is to invade, but she thinks he's an ally, and the other Sith are loudly opposed to doing any such thing. So why does she think an invasion is coming?
And about those "crazy stunts" I mentioned. As soon as Jori lands back at home, she is immediately arrested for the theft and property damage she and her brother committed when they left the system previously. Her warnings fall on deaf ears, and she is sentenced to hard labor on a colony world. But, having worked there for an unspecified length of time, she randomly decides that it's just too important to warn someone. And she decides that, since the guards have probably got countermeasures to thwart any planned escape, she'll only be able to escape if she doesn't plan at all and just goes for it. This flawless leap in logic works, and she escapes fairly easily, roaring back home and breaking into the Empress's palace to warn her. Seems like, if she was capable of that kind of supreme effort, she ought to have just broken into the palace before she got packed off to a prison colony.
Oh, and the warning is pretty much pointless, anyway, because Odan-Urr, one of the Empress's Jedi advisors (and a "major" character who has played such a minor role that I haven't bothered to mention him by name before), has been having nightmares about a Sith invasion since the last series, and he already warned the Empress. And she already heeded his warning and set her war machine in motion. But everyone still acts like Jori's warning matters, even though it clearly doesn't. Anyway, that was all part of the first question . . .
2) Sadow uses the "Republic raid" that frees the Daragons as the impetus to rally the other Sith to take action. But as soon as the invasion is ready to launch, he trots Gav out as his protege, even going so far as to make this completely random, inexperienced person the commander of his flagship. Aside from the fact that this makes no sense, and totally backfires in all of the ways that you'd expect it to: Why don't the other Sith notice that the Republic spy who was rescued by the raid that sparked their invasion is suddenly in command of their fleet?
And while we're talking about Gav Daragon, his character arc was pretty terrible. I won't call it the clumsiest light-to-dark-to-light transformation I've ever seen, because (let's face it) Luke has some pretty terrible character arcs along these lines in a few stories, but it's extremely sketchy. The reasons for his decisions are all there, but Anderson never does the hard work of showing this process happen in a natural or convincing way.
So, definitely some serious issues with the writing here, and depending on the reader, that could be pretty distracting. Most of the issues I've outlined above didn't significantly bother me until I started to think through the story later. That's mostly because, as I said before, the battle scenes are awesome, and Naga Sadow remains a compelling villain and by far the best character, so seeing his character complete its arc in this series (with hints of future villainous exploits) was quite enjoyable. Maybe that enjoyment is leading me to be overgenerous, but I like what I like, and I'd be willing to read this comic again, and probably even re-read The Golden Age of the Sith as part of the full story.
C+
Background: Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire was released in five issues from June to October 1997, and the trade paperback came out in May 1998. It was written by [a:Kevin J. Anderson|4845|Kevin J. Anderson|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1215310030p2/4845.jpg] and pencilled by [a:Dario Carrasco Jr.|146769|Dario Carrasco Jr.|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg], the same team who produced the previous Tales of the Jedi arc: [b:The Golden Age of the Sith|390089|The Golden Age of the Sith (Star Wars Tales of the Jedi, #1)|Kevin J. Anderson|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1174372741s/390089.jpg|379702] (my review here).
The Fall of the Sith Empire begins immediately after the conclusion of Golden Age of the Sith, 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. Speaking of which, there are some cool shout-outs to the origins of those Massassi temples on Yavin and a few other Expanded Universe tie-ins that I wouldn't want to spoil. This comic completes the arc of the characters begun in the previous series, and doesn't introduce any additional elements.
Summary: Jori Daragon has fled the Sith Empire. Forced to leave her brother Gav behind, she hopes to warn the Republic of the threat presented by the impending Sith invasion, but little does she know that a tracker has been attached to her ship, and she is leading the invaders straight to the Republic's doorstep. Meanwhile, Naga Sadow's plans to assume the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith and lead his armies in glorious battle nears fruition, and the Force-sensitive Gav may prove to be just the malleable-but-powerful apprentice that can seal the success of the venture.
Review: This is the pay-off I've been waiting about 15 issues to see (5 issues of Tales of the Jedi, and 10 issues of Dawn of the Jedi before it, because the pay-off of that series hasn't been published yet). The depiction of the Great Hyperspace War was epic and thrilling, rightly taking up the majority of this comic. The art was fantastic, and the fighting was intense. Massive space battles and planetary invasions are a cornerstone of what makes Star Wars awesome, and I appreciated the mega-dose of that I saw here.
That said, I have a few points of significant confusion about the set-up of this whole scenario, both pertaining to the role of the Daragon siblings. At the end of The Golden Age of the Sith, Naga Sadow stages a raid to free the captive Daragons (who are believed by the other Sith to be Republic spies), and makes it look like the Republic was responsible. He then plants just enough evidence of his own responsibility to lure his arch-rival into a trap, thus accomplishing two things at once: staging a dramatic escape to send Jori scuttling back to the Republic with the planted tracker, and extinguishing his chief competition.
So here are my questions: 1) Jori is so convinced of an impending Sith invasion that she pulls all kinds of crazy stunts to make sure the Republic is warned (more on that in a moment). But Jori escapes the system under the impression that Sadow is being attacked by fellow Sith for helping her escape. She has no reason to believe that there is an invasion in the works. Sadow's secret plan is to invade, but she thinks he's an ally, and the other Sith are loudly opposed to doing any such thing. So why does she think an invasion is coming?
And about those "crazy stunts" I mentioned. As soon as Jori lands back at home, she is immediately arrested for the theft and property damage she and her brother committed when they left the system previously. Her warnings fall on deaf ears, and she is sentenced to hard labor on a colony world. But, having worked there for an unspecified length of time, she randomly decides that it's just too important to warn someone. And she decides that, since the guards have probably got countermeasures to thwart any planned escape, she'll only be able to escape if she doesn't plan at all and just goes for it. This flawless leap in logic works, and she escapes fairly easily, roaring back home and breaking into the Empress's palace to warn her. Seems like, if she was capable of that kind of supreme effort, she ought to have just broken into the palace before she got packed off to a prison colony.
Oh, and the warning is pretty much pointless, anyway, because Odan-Urr, one of the Empress's Jedi advisors (and a "major" character who has played such a minor role that I haven't bothered to mention him by name before), has been having nightmares about a Sith invasion since the last series, and he already warned the Empress. And she already heeded his warning and set her war machine in motion. But everyone still acts like Jori's warning matters, even though it clearly doesn't. Anyway, that was all part of the first question . . .
2) Sadow uses the "Republic raid" that frees the Daragons as the impetus to rally the other Sith to take action. But as soon as the invasion is ready to launch, he trots Gav out as his protege, even going so far as to make this completely random, inexperienced person the commander of his flagship. Aside from the fact that this makes no sense, and totally backfires in all of the ways that you'd expect it to: Why don't the other Sith notice that the Republic spy who was rescued by the raid that sparked their invasion is suddenly in command of their fleet?
And while we're talking about Gav Daragon, his character arc was pretty terrible. I won't call it the clumsiest light-to-dark-to-light transformation I've ever seen, because (let's face it) Luke has some pretty terrible character arcs along these lines in a few stories, but it's extremely sketchy. The reasons for his decisions are all there, but Anderson never does the hard work of showing this process happen in a natural or convincing way.
So, definitely some serious issues with the writing here, and depending on the reader, that could be pretty distracting. Most of the issues I've outlined above didn't significantly bother me until I started to think through the story later. That's mostly because, as I said before, the battle scenes are awesome, and Naga Sadow remains a compelling villain and by far the best character, so seeing his character complete its arc in this series (with hints of future villainous exploits) was quite enjoyable. Maybe that enjoyment is leading me to be overgenerous, but I like what I like, and I'd be willing to read this comic again, and probably even re-read The Golden Age of the Sith as part of the full story.
C+
dejajoue's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
mmwiseheart's review
4.0
I was a little disappointed with the war. I expected a Jedi vs. Sith war to be bigger. And, "This deal is getting worse all the time" didn't really seem to fit. Aside from that, I was quite pleased with The Fall of the Sith Empire, especially with the character development of Gav and Jori. I also loved that it shows the beginings of the Massassi temples on Yavin IV. Very exciting!
wyrmbergmalcolm's review
3.0
Considering when these comics were written, they have aged terribly! The artwork is very old-school and retracts from the story hugely - the same can be said for the entire Tales Of The Jedi series. None of the characters have any depth to them and very little thought beyond reacting to what is before them.
The story itself has more merit as a 'historical' bit of interest. Particularly how the Massassi temples came to be on on Yavin and the Jedi archives came to be on Ossus.
The story itself has more merit as a 'historical' bit of interest. Particularly how the Massassi temples came to be on on Yavin and the Jedi archives came to be on Ossus.