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Greg Keyes2001 – Del Rey26 years after The Battle of YavinSite Rating =
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SPOILER ALERT: This Will Spoil The Plot of the Book!
On Coruscant, Luke Skywalker is addressing a gathered group of Jedi. The group discusses the bounty that has been placed on them by the Yuuzhan Vong. Kyp Durron is arguing with Luke. He wants the Jedi to defend themselves by going on the offensive the way Luke did in destroying the Empire. Jaina and Jacen Solo comes to Luke’s defense. Kyp storms out of the room. Anakin and Jaina go after Kyp to talk to him. He tells them that while he respects Luke, he cannot stand idly by and wait for him to make the right decision. The Solo children can’t help but think Kyp isn’t completely wrong in his thoughts. Jacen arrives and they discuss that Leia, Han, and C-3PO have been sent on a mysterious mission that is believed to be something that will help the Jedi hide from enemies especially the Peace Brigade. Only a handful of Jedi Masters remain along the young learners on Yavin 4 as the rest are either attending the meeting or looking for lost comrades. Anakin doesn’t tell them that he’s been having bad dreams about his best friend Tahiri Veila who is still on Yavin.
Back in their home, Mara and Luke talk and he tells her that he now identifies with Obi-Wan and Yoda. The Solo children arrive and express their concern about Yavin 4 as the New Republic is dragging its heals to protect them. Mara suggests they find Talon Karrde to get them to safety. Anakin feels that Luke isn’t working fast enough and decides to go to Yavin 4 himself.
As he reaches the Yavin system he has a run in with the Peace Brigade, but is able to land on the moon. He meets with Jedi Master Kam Solusar and Tahiri. The two teenagers flirt playfully with each other. They go to meet with the other Jedi, including Tionne and Master Ikrit and Anakin tells them about the bounty on the Jedi. They decide to hide the children in Ikrit’s cave. Anakin plans to stay behind and run interference until everyone is safe. Ikrit comes to Anakin and tells him to let go of the anger he has, but they are interrupted as the Peace Brigade begins their attack. After a brief verbal exchange, the battle is on. Tahiri and two others stay behind and fight alongside Anakin. He sends the two off to find Ikrit as he and Tahiri head down a turbolift shaft to the underground hanger leftover from the Battle of Yavin. Anakin suggests stealing a ship from the Peace Brigade. He and Tahiri stand lookout and as they talk Anakin realizes that he loves her. After a while, they enter the shipyard and find a suitable ship. They run into a Peace Brigade pilot and take him on board.
Talon Karrde arrives in the system and offers his assistance to the Peace Brigade, who obviously don’t believe him. Talon says they would be much better off working with him than against since he has better equipment and information than they have.
Back on the stolen Peace Brigade ship, Anakin and the others are blocked in by several ships. Master Ikrit jumps out to the ground and parts the blockade using the Force and deflects much of the blaster shots heading towards the ship. Eventually he tires and blasts begin to make it through. Tahiri leaps out of the ship to help him, but Master Ikrit does not survive. Anakin flies higher and farther to draw the ships away from Tahiri.
Karrde’s crew is searching with four times as many members of the Peace Brigade. As then enter into a large cavern, Karrde makes his move and stuns a couple of the others as Solusar engages them forcing the remaining Brigade members to run away. Unfortunately, when they leave the tunnel, they are surrounded by reinforcements. The Jedi Masters create a distraction as the Wild Karrde lands and the Jedi children race on board. Talon learns that Yuuzhan Vong ships are arriving in the system. Solusar and Tionne will remain with the children and Talon sends Shada D’ukal for help.
After a brief chase, Anakin crash lands the stolen ship. Anakin learns that the Peace Brigade had hoped to arrive before the Yuuzhan Vong so they could give them the Jedi Children as gifts.
While Anakin keeps an eye on those that are inspecting his crash site, he learns the rescue ship is in bad shape and it will take quite a while before any rescue will reach them. Anakin has an intense vision of Tahiri as a Yuuzhan Vong Warrior with Dark Side energy swirling around her. He is woken by Qorl, an older man who knew Jacen and Jaina, and notices that Vong ships have entered the airspace. Anakin takes Qorl back to the group and tells them to leave the planet immediately and he’ll continue his search for Tahiri.
Luke is meeting with Fey’lya who refuses to help the Jedi for fear of breaking the truce with the Yuuzhan Vong. Luke takes the bad news back to the Jedi and suggests that they bring in a Star Destroyer to help even the odds on Yavin. Jaina will lead a group to contact Booster Terrik to help them. Shada D’ukal says she’ll be returning to Yavin no matter what.
Anakin searches for Tahiri in a pieced together speeder, but he is being tailed by another ship. Something grabs the speeder in mid air ejecting him from the ship and he becomes intertwined with tentacles. He Force throws his lightsaber into it and destroys it. He has been badly beaten, and remains hidden. Unfortunately his lightsaber was damaged in the attack and is not functioning, and his speeder was also rendered useless.
While overlooking the planet Nen Yim, a Yuuzhan Vong shaper, speaks with a Master shaper named Mezhan Kwaad. Nen Yim is going to be receiving her first shaper hand. Her hand is placed into a liquid and the creatures in it begin to bite through her wrist and remove her entire hand. Although she feels shame at feeling discomfort, Kwaad tells her that everyone feels that when receiving their first hand. After passing out, she awakes with her new shaper hand intact.
After searching for three days, Anakin encounters an unarmed Yuuzhan Vong who is horribly disfigured (even for them) being taken away by two Vong warriors. The unarmed Vong kills his captors. The Vong, Vua Rapuung, sees Anakin and tells him that he will assist Anakin in finding Tahiri.
Master Shaper Yal Phaath greets Yim and Kwaad as they watch over Tahiri. Apparently they have just discovered a new area of the nervous system. Phaath is unimpressed and says they should not be discovering in such a way and should simply petition the Supreme Commander to learn the answers they seek. Kwaad has a history of committing heresy according to Yuuzhan Vong beliefs.
Anakin and Vua are hiding Vua’s cave. Vua scoffs at Anakin’s quest to save Tahiri, but says he’ll help anyway. Vua tells him that she will be shaped into the image of the Vong gods, causing Anakin to recall his nightmare. As they head out, Anakin sees that the Jedi Temple has been completely destroyed and has been replaced by Vong structures. Without going into detail, Vua tells him that he is displeased with the state of his body, and that is the reason he seeks revenge. As they reach the river, a boat with an unscarred Vong aboard approaches and Vua kills him and takes over the boat. The plan is to use Anakin as a decoy to be allowed inside the Vong camp.
Yim tells Kwaad that she has finished mapping Tahiri’s nervous system. They agree to question the protocols of the gods and continue the experiment. Kwaad thanks the gods that they have sent Yim to her. Much to her own dismay, Tahiri is now able to speak in the Vong language. They tell her that she will be stripped of her false memories and be changed into a Vong.
Vua tells Anakin he must be disguised as a slave in order to walk freely inside. He tells Anakin that when they find Tahiri he will also take out his revenge on Kwaad. He implants a coral growth on Anakin. It doesn’t fully implant and Vua tells him to respond as though it did. They hide his broken lightsaber in a pool, and enter a shanty town filled with several other slaves and Shamed Ones.. After an encounter with a warrior, Anakin learns that Vua is posing as Shamed One. A Shamed One is frowned upon by the gods, and their bodies reject the scarring making them useless. Apparently Vua was in love with a shaper named Mezhan Kwaad. When he broke it off, the shaper made him appear shamed. Vua tells Anakin they will go to the Executor and they will not see each other for several days. Anakin should find Tahiri and get as close as he can to her.
Anakin spends several days working as a slave. Suddenly he is taken with great pain and he realizes the pain he feels is Tahiri’s as she is scarred. He is taken into a field with telepathic blossoms that he is forced to harvest in a rather uncomfortable way. Inside each blossom is a strange gem like object that can be controlled as a light source simply using one’s mind. In the evening, Anakin goes back to the field alone. He takes a gem and goes back to the pool to recover his lightsaber. As he returnes, he run into Vua! Anakin tells him he needs some time to repair his lightsaber and learns from Vua that when the Temple was destroyed they did not touch the caverns below it.
Yim gains a new assistant from Kwaad named Tsun since she will not be able to attend. Through information, Yim realizes that Tsun is also a heretic and is to be trusted. Yim tells Tsun that they are altering her memories using a new technique. Tahiri now believes her name is Riina Kwaad.
Anakin and Vua enter a cavern through a tube. After working on his lightsaber, Anakin has trouble getting it to work. Anakin begins doubting Yoda’s philosophy of keeping balance with the Force. The Yuuzhan Vong do not affect the Force so perhaps they should not be bothered with. Anakin knew this premise could not be true. Light and Dark are the same regardless of the galaxy they came from. They had to be stopped no matter what. Perhaps it was something inside of him that must be changed. With this new knowledge he reaches deep inside the Force and his weapon. Suddenly it ignites!
Yim tells Kwaad of her forward progress with Tahiri and that her memories may become permanent. After telling her of the apprentice, Kwaad realizes that they have been tricked and that Yal Phaath now has the proof of their heresy! At that moment, they are arrested by guards and accused of heresy.
As Anakin and Vua make their way to the shaper compound, Anakin realizes that through the Vong crystal he can now sense Vua’s presence! Upon entering, shapers sound an alarm and they are trapped until Anakin slices through a wall and Vua demands a Vong to take them to Kwaad. They reach the laboratory, and are attacked by a dozen Vong warriors as Tahiri is taken out of the room. The warriors stop and argue with Vua about bringing a Jedi inside. He vows to get Kwaad to admit her treachery. Anakin vows to hold off the others until she confesses.
Anakin has a vision of Tahiri and the shapers boarding a ship and the two companions head towards the shipyard. They are held back by the Vong Commander who is holding Tahiri. Tahiri tells him her new name. Anakin is faced with chosing between Tahiri and his vow to Vua. Anakin says he’ll only go, if Kwaad is compelled to confess her wrongs. The Commander agrees and Kwaad not only confesses she admits that she does not believe in the gods. As she does, a mutiny begins killing the Commander and many others. They attempt to take Anakin and Vua onto the ship, but halt when Anakin’s lightsaber floats into the air towards Tahiri who grabs it and cuts off Kwaad’s head. She threatens Anakin as well, but he speaks softly to her and her spirit returns to him.
As many warriors move on Anakin, Vua stands beside him and tells the others to let Anakin go. He attacks the warriors as Anakin and Tahiri run on board the ship. They frantically attempt to decipher the controls as he watches Vua Rapuung die in battle. Tahiri speaks in Vong tongue and the ship responds, but it doesn’t take long before they are under attack. She is able to control the ship and they fly out until the ship begins to falter and begins to fall back towards the ground.
Back on the ground, they flee from approaching ships. Anakin feels the damage Tahiri has taken. Working together they begin tossing huge trees at the ships knocking them out of the sky. Through the chaos a ship of metal flew in. It was the transport of Remis Vehn and Qorl invites them inside.
In space over Yavin 4, Talon Karrde’s ships await. He picks up the transport on radar and Solusar senses that Anakin and Tahiri are on board. On the transport, several Jedi sense that Solusar is nearby and Vehn begins aiming the ship in that direction, but they are still 30 minutes apart. They’ll have to hold off some Vong ships in the process. Karrde takes several ships and begins heading towards them to cut the time down. Shada’s ship takes several hits and is destroyed along with any Vong ships in its area. Karrde’s ship is the only one left. A red Star Destroyer suddenly appears and Booster Terrik announces his intention to destroy Vong targets. Anakin is holding off coralskippers, but several shots are still getting through. A couple of X-Wings piloted by Jaina and Jacen come to his rescue, just as the Star Destroyer finishes things off.
After the battle, Corran Horn brings good news to Karrde in the form of Shada. Horn had picked up her escape pod. Anakin tells his siblings that he has a new understanding of the Yuuzhan Vong now and is ready to continue the fight with renewed energy. He is also glad they he has the two of them watching his back.
Anakin meets with Tahiri and tells her he’ll be going back to fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, but not until she heals and can go together.
Nim Yim faces Warmaster Tsavong Lah to account for her activities with Kwaad. She pleads for her life as the sole surviving holder of the information learned from the Jedi. Lah agrees, but refuses to allow anyone from her domain to work on the project again. Phaath will take over instead. Yim vows to continue the work in secret if she must. Yim also tells Lah that because of Vua’s redemption at the hands of Anakin, many of the Shamed Ones now feel that the Jedi are the way to their own redemption and not prayer to the gods.
Comments
Whereas Jacen Solo and Jaina played larger roles in the previous novel, it is obviously Anakin’s turn to shine as the main focus here is Anakin’s quest to find Tahiri and along the way picks up Vua for good measure.
Honestly I can’t really say anything negative about the main story here. The simplicity of it was a relief from some of the more tangled webs we’ve seen in this series (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Anakin shows wisdom beyond his years here which is fairly common in the EU and understandable in this case given the circumstances. Tahiri’s role, while it lacks in overall face time, is very powerful here and makes things to come in the future a bit harder to take.
The look inside the Yuuzhan Vong that is portrayed through Vua and the Shapers is a stark contrast to things we’ve seen before. There are cracks in the armor and Anakin has gained valuable knowledge to use in the furture.
Overall, this is a solid entry with events that will undoubtedly hold importance later in the saga.
Major Characters |
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Anakin Solo
Master Ikrit Mezhan Kwaad Nen Yim |
Tahiri Veila
Talon Karrde Vua Rapuung |
Why Should You Read This Book? |
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| To learn more about Anakin Solo, and get an inside view of the Yuuzhan Vong structure. | |
Good Moment |
Bad Moment |
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Ikrit jumping to the rescue
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More Kyp/Luke whining
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Previous Novel |
Next Novel |
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