Kir Kanos' revenge continues
Kir Kanos is back to kill those who betrayed the Emperor. Or is he?
I'm going to start this review by getting the negatives out of the way. You see, Crimson Empire II does feature Kir Kanos, but he takes somewhat of a supporting character role until the middle of the story. There's the lack of focus on Kir Kanos' mission due to so many subplots that are way out of place and focuses too much on the villains. The Council of Blood, the group Kanos is going after, is too busy fighting each other, that makes me wonder if they are going to kill themselves before Kanos even gets a chance to. Then there's the Black Sun organization, a criminal organization that pretty much rivals the Empire in power, who wants to negotiate peace with the Republic and the Empire. That subplot doesn't exactly make any sense. Then there's a Hutt pirate called Grappa, who is another part of this disjointed story. It's not exactly clear on how he's really connected to The Council. The fact is, Kir Kanos uses him to get to the Council. But that's the thing. It takes so long for the plot to actually get somewhere, and keep in mind that this series expanded 6 issues.
Now, I am bearing in mind that there was a sequel in plan after this book, but it got canceled before it could ever see the light of day (until 13, 14 years later).
Despite these drawbacks, this book still have some strong parts to it as well. The characterization is still well done, despite the disjointed plot. Kir Kanos is still a badass in plenty of his scenes going under the name of Kenix Kil due to having a bounty. It's pretty cool that he decides to be a bounty hunter himself in order to blend in. Mirith Sinn returns as well who was originally part of a subplot , but ends up running into Kanos again. I find her less annoying in this story than in the last one.
One of the interesting characters that appears in Crimson Empire II, is the mysterious Nom Anor. While his presence doesn't seem that important, his actions in this story play an important role with the Yuuzhan Vong War.
The artwork is still great. As always, the illustrations covers are awesome to look at. Characters are well defined along with the spaceships and creatures. The action is still great, especially when Kir Kanos' is in them.
Overall:
While Blood of Council is weaker than the first book, it was a still a decent book.