The Swarm War Review

The Swarm War (Dark Nest Trilogy #3)
by Troy Denning

Rating: 4 out of 5

If you’ve read my reviews for the first two books in this series, I’ve been pretty harsh on the series (and Troy) so far. While I don’t like to bash authors and their work, I’m standing by my previous reviews (and the opinions within). I had a very hard time getting involved in this series, primarily because of the main premise of sentient insects. Sure, insect species have been sentient in movies and even Star Wars books before, but not on such a major scale.

With that in mind, I’d like to sing some praises for this particular book. Yes, the bugs are still there. Yes, they’re still sentient. Yes, they still play a major role in the story. But (saw that coming didn’t you), this book actually redeemed the series a bit for me. While I have a hard time recommending the series to anyone, I will certainly plug the last book as the best.

And I think that caught me by surprise. Most trilogies have a strong first book and kind of trail off until the end of the third book. This one worked out to be the opposite of that. It started strong in the first book, then died off right away and didn’t get interesting (at least for me) until the third book.

Some interesting points that may inspire you to read this particular novel:

• Luke appoints himself the Grand Master of the Jedi


• Leia becomes an official Jedi Knight


• Jaina (and Zekk) fight against the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi


• Raynar Thul (UnuThul for most of this series) sees the writing on the wall and manages to survive Luke’s attack


• Lomi Plo (the Dark Nest Queen) gets her butt kicked by Luke


• Admiral Bwua’tu (a Bothan) of the Galactic Alliance Fleet proves to be a great military mind (possibly exceeding Thrawn’s intelligence)


• Lando is still making money by supplying military materials to the New Republic


• Jagged Fel (Jaina’s former Chiss lover) gets shot down by Leia (and is assumed to be alive)


• Tarfang (that crazy Ewok) returns for even more laughs


• Jacen and Tenel Ka have a child (sneaking that one in at the end to see if you’re paying attention)

So there it is. There’s plenty to read about, plenty of action, plenty of drama, and plenty to look forward to. The next book (chronologically), Betrayal (Legacy of the Force #1) by Aaron Allston, is going to be an awesome book from what I hear. Up next for me is City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanDermeer.

On a side note, this is the review I’ve done in HTML. Let me know if there’s a need to have it in PDF or Word format.

Neil@tk42one.com
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