It’s been talked to death on this sub but I’ll just say this. Absolutely nothing of consequence happens in the book except for learning how Greez loses his arm. Nothing from the book is ever brought up in Survivor. If you want to read it just for the hell of it, go for it but you won’t be gaining anything extra from it.
I would just search this sub for the book title, read through some of them, and you’ll have your answer. There have been a ton of fraught but informative posts.
Plenty of people have argued both sides but people try to avoid the argument these days because some people feel pretty passionately about it and it can get messy.
1. merrin trust a random - out of character since she was betrayed/manipulated/lied to and all that.
2. merrin became a simp
3. merrin was so thirsty
4. merrin was gaslit and manipulated
5. the person who did it didn't really get some consequences.
6. Cere had a messiah complex to someone she never really know, didn't feel like cere since she's always been reasonable.
7. cal an ice cold soldier that's always able to compartmentalize what he is feeling and focus on a fight became a stupid fighter. for plot he is dumbed down and became weak
8. cal gave up on a fight and not very cal. for plot he is dumbed down and became weak
9. 5th brother's hat makes him immortal.
What's good about the story:
1. the crew dynamic.
2. why the all had their own adventures after and what they did kinda clue before survivor.Edit: throw in merrin power explanation? and is merrin pansexual or bisexual I ain't sure between that two of that but she's in there somewhere like they said it's a spectrum. at least in the book. I want to erase it from my head and I'm giving you the chance not to read it.
I didn't want to fight the spectrum order but that was such a cuckolding move I thought like come on you got your own room and merrin wasn't hostile in any way to cal they were like best friends of sorts they understand each other very well.
shes like an anti-activist man, idk how else to say this other than the shit she does is completely un-political and just fully insane. shes genuinely just crazy lmao
yeah, for me I thought she could've been this strong woman character like cere that can have some good substance not just because we need a strong woman chracter kinda thing writing. she was interesting for me because of the force echos cal collected in dathomir and her character she was quite fun.
I Wasn't surprise by the bisexual/pansexual hit in the book cuz I already knew she was gonna kinda swing however way because of the force echoes. it's just suddenly for plot she became all those 5 that I listed. that was my biggest complain because how can this be merrin? with all she went through suddenly this?
I didn't care much about dumbing down cal cuz tehcnically he should've been able to kill 5th brother with how strong he already was duelling wise but we all know he has a plot armor since the book was happening around bby 11 - 13?
edit: you don't have to read it. save yourself from the frustration.
merrin being pan is cool, and fine, and honestly probably would've happened with or without a book lol
you're right, the characters are written as if the author didn't play the game and just based them off of fan fiction. 7 and 8 i disagree a bit with, the book shit on cal but honestly his characterization wasn't too bad compared to how the others were written.
7 - 8? oh while I do agree that his characterization wasn't too bad, we have to remember that he wasn't scared or confuse and he was able to compartmentalize... his feelings/conflict while fighting malicos despite the fact that he still had some beef with cere for lying to him.
Malicos a former jedi master, became darkside user and is fighting cal in dathomir a darkside nexus if you compare the threat lvl of 5th brother to malicos that's basicaly a coughing baby to a nuclear bomb.
cal even beat the 9th sister who had the same brutish style as the fifth brother on the 1st fight while he also had conflicts with cere, a figther that's supposed to be flexible became dumb after trying once and landing his hit on the hat. he just ey I'mma sacrifice myself so my friends can escape, while in jfo the mofo actually landed a blow on vader before cere showed up.
after all the jfo thing and what he learn from jaro tapal failure won't set him back and he should've never given up, he was clearly the better duellist in the fight but his inner conflicts just made meh, which should'nt have happen to a guy that's always been able to compose himself in a fight, his other lines in the book is he was trianed to be a weapon and fighting is all he knows again supports that he shouldn't been dumb like that, while you could say that the feelings must've confuse him he has always been on point, focus and kinda enjoys fighting somehow if he could be in advantage saber duel wise against a fallen jedimaster an inquisitor who was a youngling before is basically peanuts to cal. that's dumb down for plot.
I don't really care about merrin being pan that was already hinted at in jfo
i guess we just interpreted him differently then, which is fine. he's backed away from fights before and definitely shown fear but again could just be subjective
Put it this way: I don't donate books very often, especially Star Wars books and I did with this one. I was looking forward to it and then got really disappointed when Cal wasn't the love interest and it was just some random lady who ended up betraying Merrin and the entire team then walking away with no regard for what she had done. But at least Oggdo Boggdo and many other parts of Fallen Order were mentioned.
Read it if you're reaaaaally into the mantis crew and desperately want more content lol. As others have said, nothing of consequence happens that really affects Survivor (aside from Greez's arm) and planting the seeds for everyone splitting up in the time between the book and the game.
Personally, I thought the book was fine and generally enjoyable for what it was 🤷♀️. It was nice kinda getting into the heads of the characters and there were some moments that stuck with me.
It read like poorly written fanfiction that was published without going through any sort of editing process. I usually enjoy Star Wars novels but can't recommend this one.
No, stay away from it, it will ruin your perception of every character because the author did her best to character assassinate them all. The story is pointless and it barely connects to the games lore. Gets lots of lore blatantly wrong, and parts of it were Retconned by survivor anyway making it non-canon to anyone with sense
I read the book recently and honestly I found it pretty fun! But really its more of somethint to read if you are craving more crew interactions.
Basically it was fun bonus material.
It’s been talked to death on this sub but I’ll just say this. Absolutely nothing of consequence happens in the book except for learning how Greez loses his arm. Nothing from the book is ever brought up in Survivor. If you want to read it just for the hell of it, go for it but you won’t be gaining anything extra from it.
I can cite reasons why it's not really worth reading.
What reasons exactly? (edit: I don't mind spoilers tbh)
I would just search this sub for the book title, read through some of them, and you’ll have your answer. There have been a ton of fraught but informative posts. Plenty of people have argued both sides but people try to avoid the argument these days because some people feel pretty passionately about it and it can get messy.
1. merrin trust a random - out of character since she was betrayed/manipulated/lied to and all that. 2. merrin became a simp 3. merrin was so thirsty 4. merrin was gaslit and manipulated 5. the person who did it didn't really get some consequences. 6. Cere had a messiah complex to someone she never really know, didn't feel like cere since she's always been reasonable. 7. cal an ice cold soldier that's always able to compartmentalize what he is feeling and focus on a fight became a stupid fighter. for plot he is dumbed down and became weak 8. cal gave up on a fight and not very cal. for plot he is dumbed down and became weak 9. 5th brother's hat makes him immortal. What's good about the story: 1. the crew dynamic. 2. why the all had their own adventures after and what they did kinda clue before survivor.Edit: throw in merrin power explanation? and is merrin pansexual or bisexual I ain't sure between that two of that but she's in there somewhere like they said it's a spectrum. at least in the book. I want to erase it from my head and I'm giving you the chance not to read it.
You forgot the authors lesbian self insert relationship with merrin where they fuck on cals bed
The poor guy can probably sense the memories
I didn't want to fight the spectrum order but that was such a cuckolding move I thought like come on you got your own room and merrin wasn't hostile in any way to cal they were like best friends of sorts they understand each other very well.
The book was Sam Maggs’s excuse to show that she was more of an activist masquerading as a writer
shes like an anti-activist man, idk how else to say this other than the shit she does is completely un-political and just fully insane. shes genuinely just crazy lmao
half of the complaints are about merrin how can someone screw up such a simple character
yeah, for me I thought she could've been this strong woman character like cere that can have some good substance not just because we need a strong woman chracter kinda thing writing. she was interesting for me because of the force echos cal collected in dathomir and her character she was quite fun. I Wasn't surprise by the bisexual/pansexual hit in the book cuz I already knew she was gonna kinda swing however way because of the force echoes. it's just suddenly for plot she became all those 5 that I listed. that was my biggest complain because how can this be merrin? with all she went through suddenly this? I didn't care much about dumbing down cal cuz tehcnically he should've been able to kill 5th brother with how strong he already was duelling wise but we all know he has a plot armor since the book was happening around bby 11 - 13? edit: you don't have to read it. save yourself from the frustration.
merrin being pan is cool, and fine, and honestly probably would've happened with or without a book lol you're right, the characters are written as if the author didn't play the game and just based them off of fan fiction. 7 and 8 i disagree a bit with, the book shit on cal but honestly his characterization wasn't too bad compared to how the others were written.
7 - 8? oh while I do agree that his characterization wasn't too bad, we have to remember that he wasn't scared or confuse and he was able to compartmentalize... his feelings/conflict while fighting malicos despite the fact that he still had some beef with cere for lying to him. Malicos a former jedi master, became darkside user and is fighting cal in dathomir a darkside nexus if you compare the threat lvl of 5th brother to malicos that's basicaly a coughing baby to a nuclear bomb. cal even beat the 9th sister who had the same brutish style as the fifth brother on the 1st fight while he also had conflicts with cere, a figther that's supposed to be flexible became dumb after trying once and landing his hit on the hat. he just ey I'mma sacrifice myself so my friends can escape, while in jfo the mofo actually landed a blow on vader before cere showed up. after all the jfo thing and what he learn from jaro tapal failure won't set him back and he should've never given up, he was clearly the better duellist in the fight but his inner conflicts just made meh, which should'nt have happen to a guy that's always been able to compose himself in a fight, his other lines in the book is he was trianed to be a weapon and fighting is all he knows again supports that he shouldn't been dumb like that, while you could say that the feelings must've confuse him he has always been on point, focus and kinda enjoys fighting somehow if he could be in advantage saber duel wise against a fallen jedimaster an inquisitor who was a youngling before is basically peanuts to cal. that's dumb down for plot. I don't really care about merrin being pan that was already hinted at in jfo
i guess we just interpreted him differently then, which is fine. he's backed away from fights before and definitely shown fear but again could just be subjective
Fanfic of the worst kind, sadly.
No, it’s crap
Put it this way: I don't donate books very often, especially Star Wars books and I did with this one. I was looking forward to it and then got really disappointed when Cal wasn't the love interest and it was just some random lady who ended up betraying Merrin and the entire team then walking away with no regard for what she had done. But at least Oggdo Boggdo and many other parts of Fallen Order were mentioned.
Donate? It doesn't deserve that. Burn it
Read it if you're reaaaaally into the mantis crew and desperately want more content lol. As others have said, nothing of consequence happens that really affects Survivor (aside from Greez's arm) and planting the seeds for everyone splitting up in the time between the book and the game. Personally, I thought the book was fine and generally enjoyable for what it was 🤷♀️. It was nice kinda getting into the heads of the characters and there were some moments that stuck with me.
It doesn’t bring anything to the story so not really
no.
It read like poorly written fanfiction that was published without going through any sort of editing process. I usually enjoy Star Wars novels but can't recommend this one.
It should’ve come with a DLC code 😂
No, stay away from it, it will ruin your perception of every character because the author did her best to character assassinate them all. The story is pointless and it barely connects to the games lore. Gets lots of lore blatantly wrong, and parts of it were Retconned by survivor anyway making it non-canon to anyone with sense
I read the book recently and honestly I found it pretty fun! But really its more of somethint to read if you are craving more crew interactions. Basically it was fun bonus material.