Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan

Let me first start by saying, I played the video game Knights of the Old Republic. It's very important to have played that game if you want to get the most out of this book. If you haven't, you're probably not going to get most of the references during Revan's part of the story.

That said, if you have played the game, this book explores most of the things that went unexplained in the game. It's really quite a fun trip. I can't wait to play The Old Republic in a month to see how this book will tie into that game as well. I'm more excited than ever to get my hands on it, which is the whole reason this book was written in the first place.

As for the audio, Marc Thompson does it again. What a fantastic narrator. It's been a treat to listen to the more recent unabridged Star Wars books narrated by Mr. Thompson.

As for people who have not played the Knights of the Old Republic, it's really hard to recommend this book to you. I hope someone who hasn't will review this book soon. If you have played it, this book is a must buy.

In response to Ryan's review, he might be onto something.

Not having played any of the Old Republic games, this book felt kind of like an abridged version. You'll understand whats going on but you just won't have the detail and the depth that I'm sure the storyline from the game will give you. I felt like the book just skims the surface of the Reven story.
I'd still recommend it to anybody that's a fan of the Star Wars books.
But as somebody that doesn't play the games, It would of been great if they integrated the story lines of the game and book into a 2 or 3 part series.

Oh, and Marc Thompson did another killer job reading this installment of the Old Republic series.

The production quality on all the SW-TOR supporting audio book fiction has been top notch. Sound effects, musical score, a narrator with a variety of voices at his command, all superb.Unfortunately though, this title just came off as weak. I think the central problem is they're dealing with characters who are so large and mythic in scope that as readers we don't feel much connection with them. This book returns to characters from the original Knights of the Old Republic Franchise and its portrayal of them is just kind of flat. There's really no surprises or significant character development. Who they are at the start of the book is who they are at the end. Overall it just left me wanting.

I would not go out of my way to, to be sure. I'll give an author a second chance, of course, but I don't really feel there was much meat to this story. That maybe because it's a corporate product and the author is under constraints.

Superb. March Thompson did an excellent job, provided impressive variety of characterizations. He was a treat to listen to.

On a matinee, perhaps.

The best part of the book is how it ties in the mysteries of the story of Revan as seen from the two video games: Knights of the Old Republic & Knights of the Old Republic: Sith Lords.

My least favorite element of the work is the ending - not to be confused with the Epilogue. It is rushed, and does not leave the reader feeling fulfilled after a strong build-up. After thinking about it, the ending does not make much sense in context of the situation of the two warring sides as set down by the novel. Revan's vaunted tactical expertise is sadly ignored by his actions.

No. For the most part, the Star Wars books are fair pulp books with common plots that can be found in many other Sci-Fi novels. There are some exceptions to this and even some of the more common plot stories are decently crafted. It is for me like literary fast food: somewhat tasty but not very filling.

Marc Thompson does many of the voices exceptionally well and his reading is concise. Although, he does mispronounce Bastilla Shan's name.

Revan is not seen in this book as much as the Sith character Lord Scourge. For the book to be titled

Enjoyable, Curious, and Abrupt

Revan was the best character overall. The Sith protagonist, Lord Scourge, was also well delivered, but my curiosity kept drifting to the light side/dark side duality or Revan. I should note that the author did a excellent job with all the characters. I only wish the author spent more time devoted to Revan's story and abilities.

Marc Thompson brought exceptional voice acting and emotion to the story. He was simply invaluable and a delight to listen to.

Anger, excitement, redemption, confusion, and grumpy face. I was mad, almost angry, at the way the author seemingly disposed of the Revan storyline (after his capture). Yet, I still found myself excited to learn more about the back story behind the Emperor and Scourge. The author's ability to include interesting details and characters redeemed the book as I continued to look forward to each new chapter. However, the redeeming qualities did not dissuade my shock by how abrupt the ending was or why Revan was made so apparently ineffectual throughout. The epilogue also gave me a grumpy face and seemed overly forced, almost as if the author was instructed to write something to give the abrupt ending a conclusion.In short, my emotions spanned the gambit by the end.

The production on this book was fantastic. Lightsaber sounds, music, explosions... everything. I kept waiting for the book to show me the use of the force in unique and captivating way (the Emperor story line touched on that). Yet, in the end, this book did not do that. Revan was not used well from a user of the force perspective and the story was left to other methods to entertain the reader/listener. I ultimately finished the book wishing Revan got to play with his powers in a awe-inspiring way that would have come across more satisfying/substantial. The inclusion of the Emperor was a treat and his back story did not disappoint. In the end, the book was a fun to listen to, well written, and gave me a lot of interesting concepts to consider.

After Revan, I likely will not continue to read any further books set in the 'Old Republic' era. I distinctly got the impression that the point of this book was to supplement the SWTOR game, rather than as a free-standing story on its own.

Lord Scourge was great. Very well done.

There were so many fantastic characters in the book. It's a shame that their potential was wasted.

This was an excellent performance of a terrible story. It reminded me of The Phantom Menace, which required viewers to sit through two and a half hours of meetings, talking, politics, and mind-numbing backstory just to get to five minutes of cool stuff.

I kept waiting for the author to get to some decent red meat, but as is usually the case in Star Wars novels they put a dramatic image of a Sith warrior on the cover of a book that drones on and on about Jedi and forced, bland descriptions of softcore relationship tension between them, instead.

If you're going to write a book about a Sith character, don't spend 60-70% of the text on Jedi.

Outstanding vocal performance across a wide range of speech patterns, accents and tonal differences. Thompson did a great job with some poor material.

If you like a story coming from an entirely evil perspective, this is the book for you. I'm really only interested in light side stuff.

No, I wouldn't want to depress them.

The narration was good, as well as the sound effects and music.

Mainly intolerance, after listening to the constant dark side stuff about slavery for thousands of years through multiple generations, and planets that were described like Hell itself.

I'd say that in the Star Wars universe depicted here, the light side is pretty much non-existent.

Liked everything about it except the ending, though I have to admit this ending was different and really gets you thinking.

Revan

Yes

This is by far one of my favorite audio books. I love the sounds effects that all Star Wars audio books incorporate into the story telling. You can hear the lightsabers turning on, droids beeping/whistling, etc...

Discovering who Revan was married to.

When they tied together both of the KOTOR video games into the story.

If you loved the KOTOR video games, then this is what we have been waiting for.... closure WRT Revan's and the Exile's stories.