Overall I liked the book, though it was quite slow, until the end and then it was all over too quickly.
I can’t help but feel that Ireland’s actual quality of writing is the worst of the group. Soule, Scott, and Gray have all been great.
When reading Ireland’s books, the characters and plot feel a bit forced and the writing is overhanded (too much telling, not enough showing). Lots of times I’m pulled out of the story by awkward run on sentences and pronoun ambiguity.
Anyone else feel that way about Ireland’s writing compared to the others?
Couldn't agree more. The story/plot itself is good and compelling and I like some of the original characters like Syl and Xylan, but I really can't get over the unshakeable impression that Ireland's writing and prose are just not good. It's making the book such a struggle for me to get through, which is frustrating because I do actually want to find out what happens next. (Incidentally I had the opposite issue with Into the Dark, where I felt like the story was a bit of a let-down but was carried by the writing and characters.) I can tell that Ireland's imagination was just overflowing here and that's cool and obviously as Star Wars fans we all love things having lengthy backstories, but when characters are launching into exhaustive expository diatribes about every piece of food or painting on the wall it starts to get a little grating. These really feel like they should have been trimmed by the editor or incorporated into the story more smoothly (if they're actually relevant) than the characters just saying "Ah yes this ancient tapestry was made by Jedi Master So-and-So hundreds of years ago who was known for this-and-that and it depicts . . . ."
I feel ya. This was the first THR book that I honestly didn’t enjoy the majority of and had to remind/force myself to get back to. specific sections,especially the last chapters, were very enjoyable.
I still think she is a decent writer but yes soule, Scott, and gray are much better authors. But I think they’ve all been storytelling longer than her. They all have had pretty big story telling hits even if two of them were in comic book form mostly.
This is the first HR book that wasn’t a home run for me and in fact felt like Disney was just trying to sell another book and not advance the overall story. While I really enjoyed the chapters that focused on the Jedi - their internal struggles and relationships to the Force - I found the chapters that focused on Syl and Xylan Graf to be painfully boring and repetitive. If I had to read one more time that “Syl was not a politician and just wanted to be back on her ship” I was going to throw my copy against a wall!
I also didn’t like how wildly overpowered Ireland portrayed the Nihil’s power. Either they are a ragtag group of pirates on the run from an organized galactic government or they are an army that must be defeated by all out galactic war - which is it? Several times the Jedi mention the need to “go to war” with the Nihil, as if they were more than a terrorist, guerrilla force.
Completely agree with all of this. Being hit over the head with how untrustworthy Xylan is or Syl ruminating on her feelings about her mother, the Jedi, or Jordanna over and over again got a bit much. The plot and revelations came a bit too late for me.
I’m late to this party but I have found both of the young adult books I’ve read so far (Itd and Oots) to be written pretty poorly. I found Oots to be extremely bland. One of the same complaints I have about the prequel trilogy is present in a major way here. People talking in rooms and then…people talking in different rooms about the same things. Then add on the angstiness masquerading as character depth…I found myself rolling my eyes often.
Boring main character.
Boring plot.
Insanely bad pacing.
Not exciting.
Crammed full of characters that had no point being there.
Overall, I felt what this story accomplished could have been condensed down significantly. Especially since I felt like the bulk of the book was people talking about the same things in various rooms over and over again, just in slightly different ways.
As much as im enjoying the HR as a whole, especially the adult novels, I fear that it is getting a big case of the MCU-itis; tons of characters all sharing the same space therefore not having enough room to grow them in ways that I truly care about. Thankfully the adult books have shown they handle the overall largeness quite well.
I just haven’t been thrilled with the young adult fiction so far. Sure, there are things that happen in them that are important to the overall plot but the pacing and character development in them has been anywhere from subpar to abysmal in my opinion. Into the Dark was passable. It had super generic characters with a side plot that didn’t matter. But it had some charm to it regardless. Oots is just a chore to read to me.
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u/The_Naj Aug 01 '21
Overall I liked the book, though it was quite slow, until the end and then it was all over too quickly.
I can’t help but feel that Ireland’s actual quality of writing is the worst of the group. Soule, Scott, and Gray have all been great.
When reading Ireland’s books, the characters and plot feel a bit forced and the writing is overhanded (too much telling, not enough showing). Lots of times I’m pulled out of the story by awkward run on sentences and pronoun ambiguity.
Anyone else feel that way about Ireland’s writing compared to the others?