Reviews

Deceived by Paul S. Kemp

the_bitextual's review

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adventurous dark fast-paced

3.5

delliomellidom's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

yousuck's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

jazzy_mw's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

this was mediocre definitely not the best Star Wars novel that I’ve read but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. It took me quite a while to get into it but I must say the last 100 off pages were rather thrilling. The battle with Malgus and Aryn with Eleena involved had to be my favourite part. I also loved how Eleena became something that malgus used to become stronger in the force. The ending was adorable so all in all it was an alright novel.

waden34's review

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3.0

Decent story, but not great.
I really liked Malgus in this book. He had flaws and showed that he was indeed still at least somewhat human.
Zeerid was a good character also, but I really didn't like Aryn. Pretty much everything she did bugged me.

verkisto's review against another edition

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5.0

Going into the Extended Universe, I expected a chunk of the books to be disappointing. I had heard how bad some of them were, but I also knew there were some gems out there to read, too. Starting with Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy set the bar pretty high, and as I entered into the universe from the beginning, I found a mixed bag that didn't start to improve until Revan. So you can probably imagine my surprise when Deceived dared me to stop reading it.

The story is a fairly straightforward one, for Star Wars. There's a Sith lord, and a Jedi, and a scoundrel who's on the side of the Jedi, and the central conflict is one of the Sith versus the Jedi. Deceived takes that conflict and makes it personal. Nothing here is threatening the stability of the galaxy or its government (not directly, at least), and there's no grand war of morals taking place between a rebellion and a corrupt government. Instead, the story breaks down to being about one person against another, and taking the story down to such a personal level without making it feel like a story outside of the Star Wars universe is a significant achievement.

This book has everything a good story -- Star Wars or not -- should have. It has good characters. They're neither good nor bad, heroes or anti-heroes. The three central characters (including the antagonist) have good traits and bad, and their struggle with themselves is a large part of the conflict in the story. The plot of the story derives itself directly from the characters, with the conflict developing naturally from who they are and what their struggles are. And then the ending. Oh, man, the ending. It's hard for an author to take me by surprise, but Kemp did it with Deceived. I'm not going to go into any detail, but there are a lot of books out there that have good characters and a solid plot, but don't manage to nail the landing. Deceived is not one of those books.

If Revan was the first of the EU books to engage me, Deceived was the first one to move me. Not only is this a great example of a good Star Wars novel, it's also a great example of a good novel, period. I would highly recommend this to anyone with a passing interest in the Star Wars universe, and anyone who loves a good story.

craiglister's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kecresser's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mrblackbean11's review

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2.0

Not the best Star Wars fan fiction. I agree with the other comments that the plot was a little misguided. I found myself questioning what was the entire point to the Sith (conquering everything? chaos?) and I am pretty sure the answer is supposed to be power.

j_boehnke's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75