Fatal Alliance (Star Wars: The Old Republic, #3) in The Expanded Universe

Dec 21, 2010 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is the first book I have read set in the era of The Old Republic. The graphic novel series Knights of the Old Republic was really good so I had high hopes for this novel, despite the fact that it actually takes place 320 years later. The book is a tie-in to the upcoming MMO The Old Republic. This book is just the first of what I assume will be many tie-ins to the video game as it expected to be a huge cash-cow for LucasArts.

During this period, the Republic and the Empire are equally dominan This is the first book I have read set in the era of The Old Republic. The graphic novel series Knights of the Old Republic was really good so I had high hopes for this novel, despite the fact that it actually takes place 320 years later. The book is a tie-in to the upcoming MMO The Old Republic. This book is just the first of what I assume will be many tie-ins to the video game as it expected to be a huge cash-cow for LucasArts.

During this period, the Republic and the Empire are equally dominant forces dividing the galaxy. If you are familiar with any post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe material, this should seem like well-worn territory to you. How many times must this galaxy be divided between good and evil before it starts to get boring? In this case, however, it is necessary if you are building an MMO with two factions to choose from.

The book takes place 13 years after a fragile peace treaty is established between the Republic and the Empire. It features character types representative of the playable characters you will have to choose from in the MMO: A Jedi, a Sith, a Trooper, a Spy, a Smuggler and a Bounty Hunter (well a Mandalorian who is likely representative of a Bounty Hunter).

The story starts off as a mystery (which I love), with both the Republic and the Empire vying to discover the location of an unknown colony that might have desperately needed resources for either side to plunder. What they end up finding is a world defended by adaptable droids that start "growing" at an exponential rate once they feel threatened by the in-coming forces of the Republic and Empire. The opposing factions must then form a "Fatal Alliance" to stop the droids from leaving their planet and spreading across the galaxy. That's the point where the book starts to fall apart for me.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the majority of this book. But an alliance between the Republic and the Empire just seemed far-fetched even if it is to stop the galaxy from being destroyed. It would have been more realistic for the Empire to want to try to control these intelligent droids rather than wipe them out. I am thinking the reason they form an alliance is to highlight a possible scenario where the Republic and Empire fight side-by-side that might occur in the MMO. We won't really know until the game goes online in late spring.

Once the robots are dealt with, the book ends hurriedly and it took a moment for me to actually figure out what was happening. The final battle over the planet the robots were protecting is told second-hand to the Chancellor of the Republic and we are led to believe that certain details are being left out but we have no way of knowing what they are as we too are hearing it second-hand.

Something I really enjoyed about this book was the diversity in the characters. The book switches between their respective points of view throughout, each detailing a different perspective of an unfolding event. Almost every character is given enough back-story for you to empathize with. The Smuggler's and Bounty Hunter's motivations are kept hidden — as they should be — and I expect to run into them somewhere in the MMO.

There is only one character I was truly disappointed with: Darth Chratis. He is the bad-ass-looking Sith featured on the cover of the novel but he is barely in the actual book. When he does make an appearance it's always just to scold his apprentice. He doesn't seem to posses any intelligence and instead relies on intimidating everyone with his visage and Force powers. I didn't think it was possible for there to be such a thing as an uninteresting Sith Lord, but I guess I was wrong.

The flaws in this book didn't outweigh the good elements, but they did lead me to give it a rating of 3 out of 5 stars. It was good, and I might read it again someday. I recommend anyone interested in playing The Old Republic MMO give this novel a read so you can familiarize yourself with the setting. It definitely has amped up my anticipation of the game. ...more

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May 27, 2010 Jeff Diamond rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, star-wars, audiobooks

Is Fatal Alliance the best Star Wars book in recent times? No. Is it the beginning of a fantastic new series? Possibly.

I can only speak for myself, but I found that Sean Williams's style grates on my brain sometimes. I understand that he's an Aussie, but a lot of the problems that it has don't have to do with Aussie-isms. How many people use the word "baroquely"? Twice. Not only that, but a lot of the events between fights seem to be muddled through. I've heard some say that this is so boring t ...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Keith rated it it was ok

Shelves: star-wars

Second Read:
I feel misled by them considering this a series. I haven't read book #4 yet, but so far they don't have overlapping characters or story arcs. The only thing that connects them is that they happen within a 300 year or so span of one another. I don't see that as a series. I think Red Harvest fits in that timeline, would that be considered The Old Republic 3.5?

I wasn't a fan of the decision to have the timeline jump around. You would follow a character walking into the aftermath of a b Second Read:
I feel misled by them considering this a series. I haven't read book #4 yet, but so far they don't have overlapping characters or story arcs. The only thing that connects them is that they happen within a 300 year or so span of one another. I don't see that as a series. I think Red Harvest fits in that timeline, would that be considered The Old Republic 3.5?

I wasn't a fan of the decision to have the timeline jump around. You would follow a character walking into the aftermath of a battle and describe the status of other main characters. Then you would go back in time and go through the battle. It wasn't the worst decision, but it still left me wondering why?

The scene where some characters say, "We do not recognize your authority" and another runs around screaming "WHOSE AUTHORITY DO YOU RECOGNIZE?" was pretty cheesy.

This book occurs almost 3650 years before A New Hope. They have interdictor tech? According to my memory, this tech was still novel/rare in Thrawn's time thousands of years later. This goes hand in hand with the (view spoiler)

(view spoiler)

There is quite a bit of cliche events/people to roll your eyes at here. (view spoiler)[Ses Jopp is probably the worst for me. The soldier who randomly passes her on Coruscant, recognizes her, and calls her Toxic Moxla or something like that happens to be one of the very small number of troops sent to investigate Sebaddon. Then, he was also one of the even more select few put under Larin's control.
He also is the one who has a chance to save her life but hesitates. Then, Larin is in position to save his life. This enables him to go from despising her, openly being insubordinate, and hating her to the point of almost letting her die to friends that highly respect each other, share jaunty banter, and will calmly watch their oncoming doom together within the span of a few hours.

Stryver's a woman? WHHAAAAT? The fact that this was totally obvious at the beginning of the conversation kind of ruined this big reveal. Also, who cares?

From what I can tell, Jet Nebula is a one off character that is like Han Solo Jesus. He can recognize spies at a glance. He is practically omniscient. He can basically get everyone to do whatever he wants while having them think it is their idea. He has an all-powerful droid that has amnesia, but luckily only remembers it's loyalty to him. I still have no idea what motivates him or what he is doing. Maybe he is in the comics or the game?

When you find out why all of the events in the book happen, it is quite the letdown. It all happens because Mandalore wants to see how strong the Empire/Republic are? What exactly does having two minuscule space forces and maybe a hundred or two soldiers fighting alongside each other show? Seriously, this made no sense at all.

Finally, my last complaint is probably a common one. How do the hexes go from having three of them jack up a sith apprentice, a jedi padawan that is basically a knight, and a hardcore Mandlorian warrior to them taking on hordes of them. It's like in a movie where they fight the first one and after a huge battle, barely kill it. Then they're like, "Alright, let's go massacre a couple hundred more all at once." (hide spoiler)]

All in all, pretty disappointing.

First Read: The characters were moderately intriguing. One of the characters was practically a clone of Han Solo for about 95% of the book, and although I love Solo, this didn't feel original. The plot got better near the end to make up for a slow star. A decent read. ...more

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Aug 01, 2010 John Brookfield rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

The story was good and served as an introduction to a new period in Star Wars history.

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Mar 05, 2011 Gene rated it really liked it

Shelves: star-wars, from-the-library

Good read, I enjoyed the character development a great deal. Theauthor dies a good job at making the story stand alone, and set up for future books in the series, which is appreciated.

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