Comments

Things are getting rather complicated.

Backstabbing, double crosses, betrayals are becoming quite commonplace in this era. And I certainly won't complain about that.

After a bit of a letdown during the first half of this duology, the action and tension is picked up thoroughly here. The intrigue is growing and the stakes are getting higher....sort of.

The story took a bit to get going here, but about two thirds of the way as the Yuuzhan Vong plot unfolded I actually smiled several times while reading the book.

Without going over any of the more common characters in too much detail, I will say that the relationship between Jacen and Anakin is by far the most interesting to watch unfold particularly knowing what eventualities lie ahead of them. Han and Leia's long distance relationship is almost heartbreaking if you didn't know that they both were doing what they thought was best. Luke is non-existent here. For all the bad press Kyp has gotten thus far, he and Ganner shine in their fleeing moments.

Wurth Skidder never clicked with me and as a result his death didn't particularly bother me. His mission was only successful in that the yammosk was killed.

The interplay with the Yuuzhan Vong and the Hutts was more fun that I would have expected and the manipulation and attempted manipulation were mind boggling a few times. Be sure to keep the characters and plots straight while your reading. This wouldn't be one to stop in the middle of and then come back a month later.

Chine-kal was enjoyable and the normal Vong characters all played out well here. Clearly the Viki Shesh angle is intriguing.

Initially when I got to the Centerpoint big, I wasn't sure, but obviously it ended with a bang (sorry for that...).

Overall, this was another successful NJO episode, but again nothing staggeringly amazing either.

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