Joseph

Once again, as with book one of the series, the performance of this audio book nearly derails the story. The voicing of certain characters is cartoonish at best and incredibly annoying at worst. The most annoying award goes to Alana Solo, who comes off sounding like the spoiled brat grandchild of Han and Leia. Coming in at a close second is Ben Skywalker. To portray him as this very clich?d sounding 16 year denies his position as a Jedi Knight and his life's experiences. Perhaps the writing is to blame for that as well, but young Skywalker comes across sounding like some kid who is annoyed that he can't go out skateboarding.
The story in these first two books has hooked me and makes up (mostly) for the performance. This book even more so than the first. The newest parallel story line introduced here (where the book gets "Omen" from) is so intriguing that I wish a book was written solely on that story. None the less, I look forward to this series continuing.
Note to the authors of Star Wars fiction: Please, for the sake of all things good, enough is enough with these not-so-subtle and pointless references to the movies. It is a cheap, almost cynical way to hook the readers. I think that it undermines your abilities as authors. Surely you can create asides or references or conversations that do not require such a crutch. Please, make it stop.

I've had as much as I can take. The reading of this story with the various character voices has finally worn me down. I should have stopped at Omen but I was so interested in the story that I didn't want to wait to receive the hardback book. For my impatience I was punished. The character voicings are so bloody annoying that it detracts from a good story. Please make it stop! Back to the old fashioned way of reading. Perhaps it is for the best.

As an on again off again reader of Star Wars fiction (and an avid fan of the movies) I was intrigued by this book. I wish I read the book. The story was very engaging and left me looking forward to the rest of the series. The reading of some of the characters was so bloody annoying that it made getting through the book difficult. The children are voiced like annoying Disney or Nickelodeon characters; Lando sounds ridiculous; Han, Leia and Luke are poor attempts to sound like the originals; and voicing the news anchor to sound like Tom Brokaw was a terrible choice.
My critical point about the story itself - Is it necessary to constantly reference the movies? It seems to me that this story would have moved along without those references and been interesting in and of itself. I think I will get the hardcover version of the next installment.