Star Wars: Lucenso (Star Wars: the New Jedi Order) [Paperback]

Shedao Shai leads the Yuuzhan Vong against the New Republic and a somewhat surprising ally, and brings with him all the Vong are known for. This book continues to take place in the very dark abyss R. A. Salvatore dropped this Star Wars experience into with Vector Prime. The sadomasochism of the Vong is more intense this time around, and I am tiring of it. Evil always was portrayed in Star Wars with much left to the imagination; the terror suggested was always magnified by the imagination of the reader. When an interrogation droid hovered into Princess Leia's cell in Episode 4 we were not present for whatever took place. In Episode 5 we only see the very beginning of Han Solo's treatment at the hand of Vader, a scream, and then a scene change.

Now we have the Vong's "Embrace Of Pain" that is pure horror story not science fiction. The level to which it is used stretches credibility. There is nothing clever about it, it's just graphic. I lost track of the number of beheadings and the ways they were described. The other offensive and defensive organic weapons of the Vong continue to fascinate, but there novelty is wearing thin. A new fighter on the side of the Republic is more interesting this time around. And the best part is you will never guess who leads the squadron.

Michael Stackpole continues as one of the best writers in the Star Wars Universe. The story he shares here is very well told, and strikes a balance between the times spent on Jedi Reflection, the Senate Politics, and the action that always has been the heart of Star Wars.

There are more bits of comment that suggest other changes are coming. I am beginning to wonder if when this latest cycle of books has ended will it coincide with the final movie?

George Lucas has said there will be no 3rd trilogy from him and he will not allow someone else to continue the story. These books may be the final trilogy, and they may bring everything full circle. Just a thought.

I do have one personal hope that someone will take a lightsaber to Borsk Fey'lya. I realize I may be slipping to the darker side, but if there in an appropriate place for this sentiment, it is within this series.

A very good read that all fans should enjoy.

The primary reason for this is that Siege, which was going to be the middle volume of this would be trilogy, was cancelled, so a lot of ideas and events seemed kind of either forced or unbased at the beginning of this volume. However, a lot of cool stuff did happen in this novel -- more on that later.

The biggest problem with this book, and its predecessor Onslaught, was that they tried to say too much. Though the publication of Siege would have helped, it wouldn't have alleviated this problem. The author crams a ton of events from a bunch of characters' POV into a few chapters, and then the book skips a week until the next big battle, skipping what would have been very interesting character building times. Another problem with this too much being said is that certain smaller plotlines were just dropped.

I found myself not liking the enemies, the Vong, in this book. Vector Prime set them up extremely well, alien and menacing, and, well...alien in thought and deed. In this book, however, they're still theoretically obsessed with pain, but they're too petty. They've gone from a terrifying unified force to political infighting among their own houses, petty acts of revenge, and are just too human in their thought processes.

Most of the characters are in character, but Luke and Corran are still often preachy-speechy, not seemingly able to have a normal conversation, while the Solo kids, for the most part very interesting characters, seem to be mostly just worry-warts in this book. While I wasn't expecting to see Han much, he gets more space than some other characters -- Leia is sadly neglected, as is the new and potentially very good character Danni Quee. However, because it's Stackpole, of course we get our myriad of familiar characters. Good old Kapp Dendo's back, Pelleaon, Chiss, Baron Fel is mentioned. Which leads me to another interesting but completely undeveloped character -- Fel's son, Jag.

The action isn't as good as in the other books -- in fact, most of the big battle isn't seen from the POV of the fighters, but is instead outlined after the fact. While there are a few very neat sequences, such as the destruction of the "grand," and the defoliation, most of the action scenes aren't what we've come to expect from Stackpole either. And he effectively makes it impossible for any other author to use his character Corran also.

Still, while the writing isn't so great, a lot of very interesting and important events occur, and a lot of neat insights and foresights are made. While this book doesn't have that "great book" feeling to it, it is definitely worth reading as one of the more "important" in the Star Wars line. I'll give it 3.5/5 stars.

Further... his characters are two dimensional. It was clear Stackpole was trying really hard with Jacen to make him a character of some depth, and to some extend he succeded. However, that's about it. Everyone else was too predictable. Mechanical. They all had emotions yes, but you are left with the impression at the end that, "*I* could have written this!"

Many key plot developments take place in these two books, though, so you can't really bypass them. They are not so badly written that it is an endurance test, but I didn't get much joy out of them. Look forward to Luceno's books. He's much much better with character.