THE REVIEW
 

What can I say except this book - this series so far - has been absolutely boring.

Omen is author Christie Golden's first foray into the Star Wars universe, and I, for one, am hoping it is her last. While she does have an imposing list of credits behind her, including more than a dozen Star Trek books and a half dozen World of Warcraft novelizations, she truly struggled through 236 pages of Star Wars.

Omen did not reveal anything we hadn't seen before. While a large focus of the book seemed to want to focus on the little-known Force ability of flow-walking - the ability which should allow Jedi to travel through time to view events without changing them - it leaves the reader even more confused. Little is actually said about how this ability is different from other Force abilities, or how it is actually performed. Flow-walking has been seen in the Legacy of the Force series, true, but the flow-walking in this book seems more like a Force vision than the flow-walking examples we have seen previously.

Then there is the matter of a new planet - a Sith planet - and Ship. Ship just seemed like a vehicle to introduce the planet of Kesh and a new character named Vestara than for any other purpose. To be blunt, Ship seemed lame. She was supposed to be a teacher, but the little bit of actual teaching shown seemed impractical. I have no doubt, though, that Ship will re-appear in this series with a much better purpose and will be portrayed much better than Golden did here.

As for Kesh - now suddenly there is a whole planet of stranded Sith? And these are not the Sith we are used to. These Sith lead normal family lives, much as we do. Vestara has a loving father and mother. There is no Rule of Two. They even seem to have jobs and even pets.

And speaking of pets, another sad storyline in this book is Leia's wish for Allana to have a "normal" childhood. How can this be brought about? By buying the kid a horsie...well, not a horsie in the truest sense, but a pet she can love and ride and spoil. So the Solo family goes merrily traipsing off to the livestock sales. And it just so happens another Jedi succumbs to the madness that has befallen a few others while at this sale.

Boy, it sure is handy that Jaina went along with the family to see the new pet!

No doubt about it, this book is definitely not worth $27. I don't think it is even worth the $7 mass-market paperback when it will be released next year. And I certainly hope Aaron Allston's next book, Abyss, finally brings some muscle to this already floundering series.