Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way [Paperback]

Walter John Williams has written a Star Wars novel that easily is among the very best of this series, which to date numbers 14 books. From what I have read about this story arc, this is just about the halfway mark for this cycle of books. I would prefer that all of the installments be written by authors of this caliber, and that all the books are written with the same care and depth that seems to be almost exclusively reserved for hardcover episodes.

This is a novel of length and of breadth that explores the fundamental beliefs that have been the foundation for the knowledge about The Force, and the Jedi who are its guardians. The story challenges the beliefs of a range of Jedi from Luke Skywalker, Jaina, Jacen, and Vergere. Verger's history is fully explained and no one other than Yoda has conveyed more understanding and knowledge of what The Force is and what it is not. The concept of the light and dark sides is replaced by a much more complex explanation of what binds all living things. The Vong are alive but invisible to the Jedi, does this justify committing Genocide against the Vong, or should compassion be shown to them. Are they as a species genetically evil, or the result of the evil of others? The answers to these questions are asked by players you may not expect to hear voice these queries, and others who advocate or protest a variety of actions against these invaders.

Williams has written a book that dramatically changes whatever may happen in the future. There are a group of characters elevated to Jedi Knighthood. Jacen returns and continues to evolve even as he participates in a massive campaign against those who held and tortured him, but towards whom he holds no hatred. A new Jedi Council is formed with members that you would never expect to sit at the same table, let alone apologize for being wrong about the war from the very beginning. A knight is named The Sword Of The Jedi, another will fight The Vong Warmaster in single combat to the death, and a new head of state begins the process of rebuilding yet another New Republic. And once again a Jedi will knowingly make the ultimate sacrifice so that others may live.

These are 450 very dense and very well written pages about a saga that so many people have enjoyed for over 25 years in a variety of formats. Walter Jon Williams has written a book that is excellent, and after all these years why should readers expect anything less?

I thought it was brilliant couldn't put it down. Right from the start it was gripping from the scene of Jaina co-ordinating an attack against a VONG fleet to the political manouvering of Luke in the hope of getting a government that would support the Jedi.

The return of Admiral Ackbar was welcome. He gives the millitary side of it more inspiration.

The explaination of who/what Vegere really is is interesting and needed to help us understand her role in the series.

After the extremely personal events of Traitor, the New Jedi Order series gets back to galactic adventure in Destiny's Way, by noted science fiction author Walter Jon Williams. Things are reaching a turning point as the Yuuzhan Vong are stretched almost to their limits, but the New Republic is too, and both sides are delivering weaker and weaker blows. Williams does a good job with this, though the politics in the book slow things down quite a bit. Also, some of the characterization seems off, though not to a huge degree. Still, it's another winner in this series, and with five books to go, things are starting to move toward a conclusion.

Jacen Solo is on his way back to the Republic, with new-found friend (possibly) and mentor Vergere coming with him. In Destiny's Way, Vergere reveals the truth about who she is and how she came to be with the Vong, and she also sows the seeds to what might end up being the solution to all of their problems. Meanwhile, the New Republic needs a leader, and Luke Skywalker wants to re-establish the Jedi Council, and he finds a good ally in Cal Omas. If Cal can win the support of the majority of the senators, he may be able to help Luke with his goals as well. Meanwhile, the Vong are discovering just how many resources they've expended in this relentless war, and they have to decide whether to regroup or go for a final assault. Admiral Akbar, retired military expert, comes up with a plan that may draw the Vong into a final assault that they cannot win, with hordes of Jedi (along with the most important ones, the Solo twins) as bait. Will things go off as planned, or will the Vong do something completely unpredictable and ruin everything?

Destiny's Way starts out with a bang, with Han and Leia facing off against a bunch of Vong coralskippers as they travel to the remnants of the Empire to ask for help. There, they discover that, while some help is better than none, the Empire may be waiting to see who wins. This, along with a mission proposed by Jaina Solo to decapitate the leadership of the Vong with one shot, gives the book a bit of excitement, as there isn't a lot of action after this (other than an assassination attempt and a another ship battle with Jaina) until near the end. Of course, any Star Wars fan loves spaceship battles with the Falcon, so Williams started out with the good stuff.

The problem is that it starts to bog down a little after that. Some of the conversation is interesting (I loved the scene on the Imperial Remnant, with both Leia and General Pellaeon dancing around diplomacy as they have dinner and visit with each other), but some of it wasn't so much. I found the politics around the new Republic head of state to be rather dull (assassins notwithstanding, as well as a cool Lando scene). The new Jedi Council has some interesting possibilities, but only two of them (Luke and one other) really grabbed my attention this time, even as they wrestled with some serious issues. Thankfully, Williams' writing always stands up, even when the plot isn't that intriguing. While the pace slowed, it never stopped, and that's down to his prose.

The other slight problem was the characterization of Jaina. Perhaps it's because of Jacen's return, but she seems to regress from the previous couple of books, and I thought she had come out of her dark shell more than Destiny's Way portrays. She was still gloomy, but this book has the return of her "I'm going to die anyway, so why should I care about anybody?" shtick. That was really the only characterization fault that I had. Jacen seems to have matured from his ordeals in Traitor, the changes in Luke's attitudes are clearly created by what's happened to him and what he discovers with Vergere (in fact, the scenes between the two of them are probably my favourite in the book), and everybody else is captured fairly well too.

The ending of the book is wonderful, though. Lots of action, reverses as things don't go quite as planned, heroics, and starships blasting each other out of the stars. There's a lot to like there, as everybody gets involved in one way or the other. It'll be interesting to see where the series goes from here, given what happens at the end. Williams' writing shines in these sequences, as he shows he can handle starship combat with the best of them. It's not quite as frenetic as Stackpole and Allston can be, but they are masters of the craft. I'm not familiar with Williams' writing (other than a couple of short stories, and The Courtship of Princess Leia, a book that didn't really contain too many ships), but he definitely has a clear way of handling it.

The New Jedi Order is entering its stretch run of books, and Destiny's Way is another high point. It's just not as high as some of the other books around it have been. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one, though I haven't heard the best things about them. Here's hoping that the quality keeps up.