First Legacy of the Force novel available for download . . . free!

[MSTJedi]

I just got an email about this one. The first book of the Legacy of the Force series of Star Wars novels, Betrayal, is now available for download in PDF, e-book, and audio book formats. The audio book is the one I'm interested in since I already have the book in paperback.

http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/starwars/sw_legacy.html

[bratpop]

But can it possibly hope to live up to this image?

[MSTJedi]

Oh, you know it can't . . . Fine, go and spoil my little announcement.

[bratpop]

I downloaded the audio book and am listening to it slowly. And painfully, because I've never read any SW fiction beyond the first book, and they kind of don't really bother to explain how many hundreds of kids Han Solo has or connect you with all that. I can't figure why a new writer would want to be stuck with characters that somebody else pulled out of their ass. In all the Conan books, the authors just write whatever the hell they want, make up their own new characters, and don't bother to connect the books. I wish the SW franchise was more like this, more like adventures, and less about politics and long dinner conversations. It doesn't seem in the spirit of Star Wars at all. It's like they took the concept and fleshed it out into a Star Trek universe. Funny that Lucas also did this and people didn't like it. I miss the goofy Marvel comics.

Anyway, a free audio book is pretty cool, but I don't get why they don't just make it a full cast audio drama. Having one voice actor do all the voices (including - poorly - the women) is a tad strange. I prefer the guy in the YouTube video that was on the site there because at least he got to do Obi-Wan and Yoda. Han and Luke have pretty boring voices by comparison.

[MSTJedi]

I know what you mean about the voice guy doing women. It's really off-putting at first. The only other SW audio book I've heard was Dark Empire and that had a full cast. This guy's pretty good, but it would've helped to at least get a female voice actor for the women.

As for the Solo kids, if you haven't figured it out yet (or even care), the twins, Jacen and Jaina were first. Then there was Anakin, but he died at 16 (heroically, of course) during a war with the Yuuzhan Vong, a race of hyper-masochistic aliens from another galaxy. Even being the fanboy I am, I sometimes have to check the SW Wiki, the Wookieepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page).

[Pak-Man]

Well before I devote a CDR to this, I left the EU in the middle of the Crystal Star. It turned me off completely somehow and I never got back into it. I'm aware of most of the big things that have happened since, but am I going to need to have read the other Legacy of the Force books to know what's going on storywise? I can except that X character is dead now and Y character is king of the universe or what-have-you, and Z is Part Wookie now, but does the plot revolve around the things that happened before, or does it stand alone?

[bratpop]

It's the first Legacy book, so of course you don't have to read the rest to know what's "going" on. However the idea is obviously to get you to want to read the rest of the books, Potter-style.

So far it's about something happening, and some other stuff going on. Okay, so I'm not paying that much attention. It's got something to do with Centerpoint Station, but they kind of explain what that is before they get into it.

[James of LinHood]

Well before I devote a CDR to this, I left the EU in the middle of the Crystal Star. It turned me off completely somehow and I never got back into it. I'm aware of most of the big things that have happened since, but am I going to need to have read the other Legacy of the Force books to know what's going on storywise? I can except that X character is dead now and Y character is king of the universe or what-have-you, and Z is Part Wookie now, but does the plot revolve around the things that happened before, or does it stand alone?

There are other books that would help you understand some of the references in this series a little better but by no means are they a requirement.  The New Jedi Order novel Traitor and the Dark Nest trilogy are good reads to get a lot of the background for this series of novels.  Or you can go to the Wookiepedia link that MSTJedi posted above and look up things like Centerpoint Station and the Yuuzhan Vong.

BTW, since the Legacy of the Force novels are not clearly numbered, here's the order that they go in:

1.  Betrayal
2.  Bloodlines
3.  Tempest
4.  Exile
5.  Sacrifice
6.  Inferno
7.  Fury
8.  Revelation
9.  Invincible  (Release date:  Tuesday, May 13th)

[Pak-Man]

Oh, it's the first one? (Looks at the title of this thread) Well that should have been WAY more obvious to me. I just assumed they were trying a radical new promotion for a new one. That's what I get for working a job as an Editor. After a while, you just kinda read key words and everything else sinks into the back of your brain. :^)

[bratpop]

It IS a radical promotion for the new one. The last book is coming out, so they're giving away the first book.

[MSTJedi]

It IS a radical promotion for the new one. The last book is coming out, so they're giving away the first book.

Yep . . . as the proverbial pusher always says, "The first one's free, kid!"

While I'm really into this series, like the New Jedi Order series, it does a lot of things that are out of the blue, mostly killing off beloved characters. But who needs invincible heroes, right? That and it seems that the conceit of Jacen knows no bounds.