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Kristine Kathryn Rusch1996 – Bantam17 years after The Battle of YavinSite Rating =
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SPOILER ALERT: This Will Spoil The Plot of the Book!
A mysterious man named Kueller has plans to destroy Luke and Leia. He unleashes a disturbance felt by Luke, Leia, and the Solo children.
Leia’s time in the Senate is wearing on her. She has become displeased with the many Imperial sympathizers that now have places in the Senate. During a Senate meeting a bomb explodes that kills many and injures Leia. Some in the Senate blame Han for the attack.
Having felt the disturbance, Luke sets off to discover the source. Eventually he finds Brakiss, a Jedi trainee that had turned to the dark side, and attempts to turn him back to the light. He fails Brakiss tells him that what he seeks is on Almania.
Meanwhile, Han travels back to his roots by visiting Smuggler’s Run in search of someone he believes is involved in the attack on the Senate. He meets up with some old friends and they come under attack.
R2 and an X-Wing mechanic learn that all the new model X-Wings are sabotaged with explosives. Leia brings this new information to Meido, the leader of the opposition, but he tells her there will be a vote of no confidence facing her in the Senate.
Luke finally meets Kueller, who turns out to be Dolph another former Jedi gone bad. After various attempts at working out an agreement between the two men, they battle and Luke is defeated. Kueller contacts Leia and demands that she give him power over the New Republic or he will kill everyone in the galaxy starting with Luke!
Leia decides to go after Luke and Mon Mothra convinces the Senate to allow her to take Wedge and the fleet with her. Luke is attacked by a creature on Almenia, but survives.
As Han and the others attempt to escape they are stopped by a huge explosion when all the medical droids explode without warning. R2 and 3PO discover the source of all the explosions and have Cole get to work dismantling droids.
As Leia races to find Luke, Wedge leads an attack along with Talon Karrde against Kueller’s forces. She finds him, but Kueller does as well. The two men fight again, and with a little help from some friends Kueller is defeated.
Comments
Overall, this was a surprisingly good read. I hadn’t really heard a great deal about this stand alone story, but it was very fast paced and I went through it fairly quickly.
The plot is fairly standard as our heroes are again separated on different missions that eventually converge in the finale. I did think that Han’s part in the end was a bit of a stretch, but overall Han’s background history was developed in a positive way. It was good to meet a few of his former partners in crime.
The side characters also worked well throughout the plot. Cole Fardreamer was a well drawn out addition and having Mara Jade and Karrde pitch in proved effective as well (although Mara seems a bit too much of an onlooker).
The villains in this tale were effective. Kueller is essentially a Vader wanna be with a mask hiding his youthful appearance. I enjoyed his introduction quite a bit and did set him up as a worthy opponent. Also a lot of the dialogue between Kueller and Brakiss as well as Kueller and Luke drove home many of the Star Wars standard themes.
The ysalamiri appear again so if you don’t like the concept of this force sappers, then you may frown at a key moment in the plot.
Overall, a good quick read.
Major Characters |
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Kueller
Brakiss Luke Skywalker Princess Leia R2-D2 C-3PO |
Mon Mothra
Han Solo Lando Calrissian Cole Fardreamer Chewbacca Wedge Antilles |
Why Should You Read This Book? |
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| It is a fairly quick read for someone who wants to check out a book that doesn’t need a lot of prior EU experience. Good Jedi action as well. | |
Good Moments |
Bad Moment |
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Luke asking some guards, “Have you ever met a Jedi Master before?” Nice to see him a little cocky every now and then. |
I didn’t really like the creature bit, especially when it intervened in the rescue attempt.
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Previous Novel |
Next Novel |
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Tyrant’s Test
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Ambush at Corellia
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