Story

The story is an interesting one. It’s set in a world where people that die are plugged into a virtual reality where they can live out their final days in peace and occasionally talk with their loved ones. While investigating claims of corporate espionage on another planet, a group of employees fall into a trap and are bombed by a rival company. When they return to Earth, things start to get weird, and the employees begin to wonder who died in the bomb blast and who is living in a virtual world.

This theme of questioning what is real appears in many of Philip K. Dick’s works. Like, almost all of it. He finds many exciting ways to explore the theme and gives it many perspectives. But his books generally have a plodding pace and are challenging to get through. His short stories are a completely different situation, but this is not a short story.

I found myself putting this book down a few times before returning to it days or weeks later. It was not a page-turner. But the concept was exciting enough that I had to finish it.

Writing

As I said, Dick’s works aren’t usually super thrilling. Even “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” a book about a bounty hunter searching for androids posing as humans, is slow. But his ideas and the themes they explore are captivating enough to keep going.

The language Dick uses isn’t as lucid or vivid as someone like Ray Bradbury, but it gets the story across. The book isn’t oriented to the sense of sight. It isn’t oriented to any senses. It does just enough to give the reader the story that provokes their thoughts and makes them think about reality.

Characters

The characters of “Ubik” aren’t the focal point here. Like Isacc Asimov’s books, the story’s purpose is the concept and the themes, not the characters, which is unfortunate. There are a lot of characters that we never get to know. Apparently, one of them was a love interest for the main character at the beginning of the book, but their relationship isn’t ever explored or even hinted at.

I can’t even remember half the names of the main characters. One character introduced early on was a fascinating concept, but the concept only came up a few times later in the book. I didn’t care about any of the characters. Even the main character was flat. I only finished reading the book for the concept, which I believe is a testament to how unique and exciting the concept is.

Verdict

While this novel is strange and has a lot of room for growth in the character department, the concept and ideas it explores are interesting enough to carry a reader through the whole book. It’s slow, which can hinder many readers’ experiences, but I think this book is still worth the read.

If you’re interested in this story, buy the book here!

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.

The post Ubik | Spoiler-Free Book Review appeared first on Elliot Kessler.

Story

The story of “Revan” is simple enough to understand. The title character, Revan, has visions of a distant world he doesn’t remember and decides to find it. But the whole book is filled with so many twists and turns. It even has an incredible subplot about a Sith warrior tasked with finding out who is responsible for the assassination attempts of one of his superiors which ties in perfectly with the main plot.

These twists make the book fun since every chapter is unpredictable. Even the ending comes completely out of left field. It truly is a phenomenal plot that keeps giving.

Characters

The “Star Wars” franchise has always been filled with great characters, and Drew Karpyshyn delivers on that well. The characters all have unique personalities, and they all have their own stories. Even side characters, like Canderous, feel essential and carry emotional weight with them. This isn’t something commonly seen, and I enjoyed it a lot.

(Minor spoilers in this segment.) The villains of this story were terrifying. At first, Nyriss was a big best of a Sith with incredible power. But as soon as you think she’s the most powerful character of the story, you learn about the Emperor, who (I kid you not) consumed all life on his home planet. From the creatures and people to the plants and trees, the Emperor devoured them all to become more powerful. It’s not exactly like Darth Nihlis, but it is similar. So, he was a scary foe to go up against, and Karpyshyn did an incredible job developing him. Even though the character is a monster, he made sure to give him a realistic motivation.

Worldbuilding

Creating an expansive galaxy that has to fit into another franchise while still being original enough to stand out and be its own thing is hard, but Karpyshyn kills it there, too. Karpyshyn was the head writer of the “Knights of the Old Republic” video game, so he likely already knew the world and the main characters well. Although he didn’t work on “Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords,” he still managed to throw it into the novel like he knew the whole thing by heart. Although, after looking at Karpyshyn’s website (drewkarpyshyn.com), it looks like he’s a big nerd like me, so he probably did know the whole thing by heart.

Anyway, it was cool to see how he mixed the characters from both games and made sure the stories from the games affected this novel without relying on them too much. If you haven’t played the second game, then you’re fine. I still haven’t played the second game and knew what was happening. The character from “The Sith Lords” in this book is introduced so well that I understood her without looking her up on Wookiepedia.

However, if you haven’t played the first game, you’ll probably be a little lost, especially at first. I had read this book a couple of times before, once a physical book and once an audiobook, and I kind of understood what was going on, but it was still confusing. Maybe it was just me. But I do know the game helped me understand the story much better.

The world of “The Old Republic” is enormous. Even though the book only explores a handful of planets, I felt just how big it is. There is so much going on. I felt that the book only scratched the surface of the galaxy. There is so much political conflict and uncertainty. It is one of the most fascinating periods in the Legends continuity of “Star Wars,” and that wonder at the immense scale of the galaxy is not lost in this book. The characters are from very diverse backgrounds, giving the reader even more of a feel for the size of the galaxy. The world-building in this book truly is fantastic.

Conclusion

This thrilling adventure filled with heroes and villains, twists and turns, and joy and terror is a must-read for any “Star Wars” fan. Unfortunately, if you only enjoy reading the books and have no interest in playing the video game that inspired this novel, then much of it will likely be lost on you. There is so much background that is briefly glossed over in this book but is essential to the title character’s story. Could you read it without playing the game? Absolutely. But the game will definitely enhance your experience in this period of a galaxy far, far away.

Get the book here!

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.

The post Revan | Spoiler-Free Book Review appeared first on Elliot Kessler.