Star Wars - Dark Tide I: Onslaught book review

I thought Dark Tide: Onslaught was a good follow-up to Vector Prime, and I enjoyed following along with our different Jedi teams. It felt a little short, though, and I missed the presence of a Yuuzhan Vong perspective. (I'm hopeful in the end that my issues will be addressed in book 2!)

00:00 - Intro
02:27 - Luke Skywalker & Jacen Solo
06:22 - Mara Jade & Anakin Solo
07:35 - Corran Horn & Ganner Rhysode
09:34 - Leia Organa & Jaina Solo
11:22 - Gavin Darklighter
12:14 - Borsk Fey'lya & the Senate
13:10 - Issue 1, Mara's voice
14:00 - Issue 2, Missing bits
16:00 - Issue 3, Repetitive missions
16:41 - Issue 4, Lack of Yuuzhan Vong POV
18:00 - In Short

[Arca]

Great review. I can feel the passion in your words ❤

[SADS]

Best review of this tittle in all youtube.

[DIEGhostfish]

Krey'fey is absolutely trained by Asyr, there's no way it wasn't her!

[salvadorcantu]

Really like your reviews, im halfway the series right now (reading rebel dream) and i dont know anyone that even knows these books, so i guess internet is the only place i can interact with other people that enjoyed the books.
Shedao shai is my favorite YV so far and i really loved the epilogue, while I agree that i wanted more from their perspective, the ending feels more epic since its the only moment we get a POV from the YV. Feel like it wouldn't have been so impactful otherwise.

[Robotrik]

There was more to the Leia getting rebuffed by the New Republic Council than just a fear of her returning to power .
There was that whole view of the Empire (and in a sense the Rebellion) being human dominated, and the non humans getting relegated to second class citizens in Palatine's book . There was a clear Resistance from the Council to "another human led Empire/Republic" .
It's interesting to wonder if this was just a power play by Borsk, or if this was a genuine paranoia that ran through all the way to the top governing body of the Republic through various races on the Council ?
And if this had anything to do with Borsk's move against Luke later on ?

[tonygoldenthesecond]

Just found this channel. You seem like a Star Wars Fan and I like how you stay objective about the material. Keep up the great work. Am a new subscriber.

[ianblackmore-allen]

I'm just getting into the Expanded Universe so your videos are very well timed. I will be reading along and really keen to hear what you have to say 👍

[DickyReeves]

4:22 are you calling the baa-sells because it looks like the root of the word “basilisk” ?

[poolplayerbrian]

Just finished the book. I have to say that I liked the fact that Stackpole didn't write the YV from their point of view. We got to see the conflict from the point of the hero's and it also highlighted just how savage the YV are. While reading Vector Prime, I also found the YV to be very boring characters at a personal level. The climax of this book was probably the most gory and violent of a Star Wars book that I can remember. Definitely rated R if made into a movie. I liked the short chapters, which kept the book from dragging. As for the heros, this was the first story that introduced me to Coran 20 years ago. I never read the X-wing books. I loved the fact that this book really starts breaking away from the core characters. I was into the relationship of Ganner and Coran and the development of the Solo kids, primarily Anakin. Jacen is still hard for me to deal with, I rather enjoyed the scene when he gets it ass kicked and taken prisoner. Loved when Luke rescues him and shows him why he's the boss. Jaina is definitely the "mature" one out of the three but I've notice that I have trouble reading the dog fighting scenes. They don't hold my attention and her scenes revolved around dog fights. As for the Luke and Mara "romance". I just don't buy it. I guess all the sexual tension took place between novels. The character of Mara just doesn't seam like someone who would go for Luke. But to be fair, Han and Leia's relationship feels equally sterile in the books. At least they have the foundation of Empire Strikes Back to give it believability. Glad you're moving to a non NJO book so I can get a head start on Ruin. Getting through this series is going to be a challenge with all the other things I have to contend with. I do want to read the series and this is a fun way to do it since I have someone to talk about it with. It's also nice to break away from the Disney Star Wars sequels. After reading these last two books, Disney really did a disservice to the core characters. I hadn't read a Star Wars book in years when the sequels came out so I wasn't that opinionated at the time. After reading VP and DT again, I can see why people are so disappointed with the direction Disney went with the core characters. I'm also hoping additional characters are created or utilized in this series which add emotional weight to the overall story. I know if this goes for 20 books characters will eventually have to die off, considering how lethal these books have already been.

[aamirrazak]

Just finished onslaught I quite enjoyed it but it was definitely gory and dark just like it’s predecessor in VP. I enjoyed the rogue Squadron stuff w Jaina especially. I never read I Jedi or a stack pole book previously, but I did like Corran he seems like a neat character, I like the contrast of his approach with ganner. I did like the exploration of a Jedis role in the galaxy with Jacen and Anakin

[SJHFoto]

What you said about how some of the battles being truncated I think boils down to a trilogy being shortened to a duology

[SJHFoto]

You really do a good job giving your overall impressions in a concise, logical manner. I don't agree with all of your opinions, but I can follow and understand them. (For instance, I didn't take Mara's varying degrees of strength to be a plot contrivance)

[poolplayerbrian]

I'm about 100 pages from being done. Work kicked my butt this last 2 weeks. I'll try to wrap it up one the next couple days and then I'll check out the review. I like the book far more than VP. Better pacing just for starters.

[SJHFoto]

I too thought that the trainer Bothan might be Asyr. Such a shame she never revealed herself to Gavin, but if he got married, maybe it is for the best

[qualityadhd]

Having finished this book it was a great one. Except most of the scenes with x-wings were bland and boring. I haven't read x-wing and was expecting that stackpole would make that part interesting. Unluckily it was boring. What I did love was anakin solo!

[jimalexander]

While I never had strong feelings about Corran Horn one way or the other (with the exception of "I Jedi" where I didn't care for him at all), your about-face caught me by surprise. Of course, I haven't read this book.

I thought Allston handled romance better in his X-Wing books than Stackpol, although both only touched upon it in the periphery. More flirting than actual romance. I only recently completed both of the "Force Unleashed" books, and while I wouldn't classify either as romance stories by any stretch of the definition, the drive behind the latter of the two was most certainly Galen Marek's obsession with Juno Eclipse (who was also the motivation behind his "change of heart" in the former volume).

One of the best romantic interactions I can recall from any of the Star Wars novels I've read would be from "Heir to the Jedi" (between Nakari Kelan and Luke Skywalker), even though such was related in a one-sided manner (as told from the perspective of Luke Skywalker -- who never openly admitted as such). However, from the banter between the two, it was easy to tell the couple were mutually smitten.

Of course, I still think "Dark Disciple" was the most heartfelt Star Wars love story, at least of those I've read.