I’m still having a hard time getting into this series, and I think I’ve finally figured out why. It’s the world building… or maybe I should call it space building.
The dialogue is solid and the story flows well, but I keep wanting more texture from the world around the characters. There’s something interesting here, I just wish the setting felt a little more alive.
I’m fully obsessed with this series at this point. Every book somehow raises the stakes, and this one is no exception.
Let’s talk highlights. Samantha goes on an absolutely unhinged adventure (Shi Maria… if you know, you know), and the mantars are back, which was both chaotic and weirdly exciting. Also, slug boils? Disgusting. Truly. I will never recover.
The AI is getting creepier with every level, and it adds this constant layer of unease under all the humor and chaos. And then there’s Katya… her situation hit hard and brought some real emotional weight to the story.
And Carl. The way the game makers dig into his past to try to break him is straight up diabolical. It makes everything feel more personal, more intense, and honestly more brutal.
Also… Oozie Jesus. That’s it. That’s the comment.
This book is wild, emotional, ridiculous, and somehow still manages to deepen the characters and the story in the best way. I can’t get enough.
This one took a minute to get going for me. The beginning felt a bit slow, and I wasn’t fully pulled in right away. But once the story found its rhythm, it really picked up.
The tension builds nicely, and the emotional stakes hit harder as the plot unfolds. I especially appreciated how the characters were pushed and forced to grow, even when it hurt to watch.
Overall, a strong follow up that just needed a little patience at the start.
I read Star Wars: Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly and it was… just ok. I went in hoping for more action and more Jedi magic, but the story leaned heavily into slower plot threads and long stretches of setup.
There were some interesting ideas, especially around the lost Jedi and the mysterious dreadnought Luke encounters, but the pacing dragged enough that it never fully grabbed me. Luke Skywalker spends a lot of time reacting rather than doing, which didn’t help.
Overall it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the Star Wars adventure I was hoping for. A middle of the road read for me.
This is the first book in the series that didn’t quite hit 5 stars for me. It has a noticeably different tone. Longer, heavier, and honestly pretty sad in places. The usual chaotic humor and weird little nuances are still there, but as the story evolves, they didn’t land the same way for me this time around.
That said, I still really enjoyed it. The stakes feel higher, the emotional weight is stronger, and I’m fully invested in where this is all going. Even at 4 stars, I’m already impatient for the next book.
What is this? How Callista Got Her Groove Back? Because that’s honestly what this felt like at first.
The beginning reads more like a quiet getaway than a full on Star Wars story, almost like we took a brief detour away from the chaos (and, let’s be real, the kids). It took a minute for me to settle into it.
But once the action kicked in, it snapped right back into that classic Star Wars rhythm and I found myself having a lot more fun.
And the Jedi Academy absolutely mind blasting the Empire? Yeah… that was epic.
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