Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order) (Paperback)

Luke Skywalker and his wife, Mara, lead a clandestine force back on Vong-occupied Coruscant. The force's main purpose is to set up some resistance cells among the populace, though the changes that the Vong are making on the planet indicate that mere survival may be all the remaining populace can hope for. Meanwhile, Luke and his fellow Jedi are there to investigate a massive presence that's full of Dark Side power. What they discover may make them, at least temporarily, ally with the Vong against this nightmare that comes from Leia's past. And getting off the planet may be the least of their concerns. Meanwhile, Han and Leia continue their journey from planet to planet to facilitate other cells on planets whose governments may be leaning too close to capitulating to the Vong. And General Wedge Antilles plan to buy his people time and perhaps get a major victory against the Vong comes to fruition, tricking the Vong at every turn. But will it be enough against the massive fleet that the Vong have sent to Borleias? And will Wedge survive to even see his victory, if it happens?

Before I say anything else, I have a bone to pick with the back cover copy-writer. The description talks about Han and Leia being "trapped on a small planet whose rulers are about to yield to Yuuzhan Vong pressure to give up the Jedi rebels." This does happen in the book. But it's just one relatively small (but effective) sequence in a bigger storyline for them. Rebel Stand shows them on a couple of missions, including getting involved with the politics of another world to prevent a Vong-friendly woman from being elected to head the planet's government. It's a bit misleading (but then, isn't that what cover copy is for?) That being said, the sequence the cover describes is very cool, reflecting back to the old swashbuckling days of the earlier movies. The droids (especially Artoo) are very effective, even as Threepio is constantly complaining that he's not cut out for rescue and deception. Heck, there's even a trash compactor involved!

Once again, Allston gets most of the characters perfectly. Jaina Solo is a lot more comfortable with herself, now that she's gotten over the depression and Dark Side flirtation that she has been dealing with. She's been afraid to form relationships with anybody because in this horrible war, it was very likely that the person she gets close to would just end up dying. In fact, given what has already happened with her brothers, she was ready to just die in the fighting, alone. Over the course of this series (though mainly in Rebel Dream), Jaina has grown a lot, even to the point of allowing somebody to get very close to her. I really like what Allston did with her.

I can't rave enough about Han and Leia as well (and I already have, and it's really nice to see these two characters in love and teasing each other again), so I'll move on to Luke. We already know that Allston can write terrific starfighter combat and action from the X-Wing and Wraith books. But what really impressed me is his handle on the Jedi action and character. Luke is much more "hands-on" in the Enemy Lines duology, not as much the quiet philosopher as he has been in the past. When they discover the truth behind what's happening on Coruscant, he, Mara, and Taheri jump into stopping it rather than fret about it. The action scenes as they fight this evil are quite good, showing us that Allston is good at more than just spaceships. But he also gets the reflective parts down pretty good, too. There's a bit too much of an infodump when one of the Wraiths explains what happened to create the monster, but it's mitigated by the fact that it's an infodump for the rest of the characters as well. All in all, the plot on Coruscant was just as well-done as the Borleias part.

The threat itself is quite intriguing, bringing back a relatively obscure character from one of Bantam's Star Wars novels in an interesting fashion. I did find the design a bit weird, though. Lightsabers coming out of his knees and elbows? I also liked how Allston used Taheri, especially what's happened to her in past books to come up with a unique solution to the problem.

The only annoyance I had with this book (and the previous one, though I didn't mention it) was Viqi Shesh, the ex-Senator who was in a league with the Vong. While I can't say her characterization was off in either book, I can say that she was actively annoying. Her preening and self-centeredness was especially irritating, making her pass from the "villain you love to hate" and graduating to "villain you hate." I found what happened to her very satisfying, however, and appropriate to the character and its independent nature.

The "Enemy Lines" story brings the entire series back to its roots a bit, with humour, adventure, starships juking and jinking, and great character moments. The action is furious, and extremely well-written. I loved every moment of it. Rebel Stand was even better than the first book, and I can't wait to read Allston's next Star Wars book.

David Roy