Invincible was not a great book. Which is so disappointing because it had so much potential. Both as inheritor of a fascinating plot-line that the Legacy has laid down, and with it's stellar first half. Early on, the period of time between each chapter is huge. It runs more like a sitcom: characters end a chapter talking about a big future event and a page break later we're there. What excited me about this format is that it felt more like the movies. There is a spareness in the telling early on, that coincides with the economy of run-length in movies. It also—not coincidentally—makes the narrative run quickly and feel poppy, even when going through the chore of establishing plot.
Jania's brief time with the Mandalorians, and her search for the strength to hunt her brother in Karen Travis' near-perfect 'Revelation,' were foreboding. It's with a heavy heart that we leave Jainia at the end of that book. Wiser—somehow—but dolefully resigned to the fact that whether she has to kill her brother or not, she must be prepared to. With Ben and Luke's relationship finally repaired, and Ben's ascension to knighthood the Skywalker legacy is finally on a firm footing. Simultaneously, Han and Leia steeling themselves for the of the Solo epoch. With both male children dead, the heroic Solo name has died as well.
Jania begins by reconciling herself with the Council and with Zekk and Jag, steeling herself for the hunt. Caedus solidifies his ties with the Empire and begins to flex his Sith muscles in influencing or manipulating them. It's interesting when Caedus shows shows glimmers of Sidious' tactical genius. It really sells the post-New Jedi Order Sith resurgence. Caedus' bolstering of the Empire is also exciting, because, at the beginning of the book, it seems to be setting up the much stronger New Empire of the Legacy comic series. Along with the hidden Sith cabal on Korriban it seems like the 'sensible' universe of the novels, and the insane universe of the Legacy comics is slowly bridging together.
Jaina's first assault on Caedus while aboard the Anakin Solo above Nickel One was an interesting plot choice. And while definitely not completely pointless I mark this as the part of the book where things start falling apart. It's clear that neither of them will be killed in this conflict. It's in the beginning of the second act, and the intelligence that it supplies the Jedi with is inconsequential. What we get from the conflict is two-fold. It exhibit's Caedus' breadth of force knowledge through the blood-trace, which also set's up his discovery of the Jedi Base later on; and Jaina lops off an arm, which eases her eventual task of killing him. My problem with these out-of-universe, structural reasons is that it represents a drastic switch from previous novels in the series from the expounding of a long-term narrative, and good deep character development. Jaina and Caedus are static characters in this conflict and so there's nothing to be gained by it.
Here the narrative's speed becomes a detriment. It, coupled with the increasingly obvious structural justifications, make the book a chore. Denning rushes through tying up the plot threads that the series has laid down as efficiently as possible.
The development of Ben's plot comes as a respite, though tainted. The development of his character throughout this series has been paramount—and that's a good thing. He's come a long way since being a creepy toddler-joiner in the Dark Nest Trilogy. At the begining of the series his deep-thinking, and consequence oriented nature seemed a little unjustified—even for Lukespawn. But by the end of this book Ben's wisdom seems genuine. It's unfortunate then that the pinnacle of his character should be juxtaposed so awkwardly against one of the worst characterizations in the series: Tahiri. For crying out loud, the girl has dropped off the face of the galaxy since the end of the New Jedi Order (Didn't Leia say something about her being considered part of the family?). The decision to bring her back abruptly as Caedus' help-maid was forced. Though that was outside this book, Denning does nothing to actualize her conversion in this book. Her seduction by the dark side is as unjustified here. Denning says: "That happened in another book, I don't know anything about that. Look: some boobs."
penultimate battle is unfortunately just as lackluster. Jaina enters the Anakin Solo and immediately becomes the straight-woman to a wily hostage she's taken. This is the sort of thing that's supposed to happen in the first act—not before finally killing the bad guy. The attempt to combine the humorous and the sanguine in Star Wars is never as effectual as it is in the movies. By the time Jaina actually confronts Caedus the battle quickly turns in her favor. Though her face and hair get singed she more or less has him under control. I know that he's down a leg and distracted, but he's a Sith Lord who's much more experienced than her. A graph of the excitement in this fight would be inverse of what it should be. Jaina cuts off another limb, it dips a little, she wins, it dips again. There's no doubt who's going to win the battle as soon as it begins. There's so little time left in the book. Each step forward Jaina makes is another improbably death-blow against the far superior opponent until the end.
The final plot misstep is in allowing Ben to have the final action sequence. If you've read the Lord of the Rings you'll understand what I mean when I say Hobbit-sized climax. The lesser hero battles a diminished lesser-evil, and wins. It's a strange device—a sort of pseudo-ending. I'm not sure that even Tolkien could make it work, but Denning certianly can't. Instead of putting the resounding success of the book, and series in a human-sized conflict it plays out the the thinly veiled foreshadowing of Tahiri's redemption, in the most banal way. She never really had a decent justification to be Sith anyway.
Invincable parallels the whole Legacy series. With it's abrupt and uneven ending it was ultimately a disappointment. But that's not to say that it wasn't fun, and even very good from time to time. It seemed to go by very fast, maybe too fast for it's own good. But there were glimmers, from time to time, of what made the movies so good, which is all that really matters.
