Return of the New Jedi Order, Episode XXXI: The Unifying Force by James Luceno

This is it! It took me a year and a half to reread the series in chronological order, but I've finally come to the end of The New Jedi Order. I have to say it hasn't held up: I remember liking much more of it than I did on this reread. Its highs are still great (Edge of Victory, Star by Star, Traitor), but when you're not always eagerly picking up the latest installment to find out what happens next because you do know what happens next, the repetitiveness, aimlessness, rough edges, and dull characterizations become much more apparent.

Hardcover, 529 pages
Published 2003
Acquired December 2003
Previously read February 2004
Reread September 2015

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force
by James Luceno

Year Five of the Invasion (Months 1-3)
The New Jedi Order goes out much as it began, which is to say: blandly. Given a nineteen-book series with tons of characters to wrap up, Luceno devotes significant chunks of time early in the novel to Boba Fett and Judder Page, neither of whom have appeared in these books before. A lot of the novel feels oddly low-key: Zonoma Sekot appears in the sky over Yuuzhan'tar/Coruscant, but no one seems particularly worried about or interested in what ought to be an ominous moment. Luceno has obviously read Traitor, unlike Walter Jon Williams, but I'm not sure he gets it any better. He can bog anything down in procedural details, even the wrapup to a four-year galaxy-spanning epic, unfortunately.

Next Week: A new reading adventure begins: twelve novellas for twelve Doctors, as I finally hit up the prose fiction celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who!

Return of the New Jedi Order, Episode XI: Jedi Eclipse by James Luceno

Mass market paperback, 348 pages
Published 2000
Acquired 2000(?)
Reread May 2014

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
by James Luceno

Year One of the Invasion (Month 9)
Like in Luceno last's New Jedi Order tedium-fest, there's some potential here: Han and Droma trying to find Droma's family in the midst of the galaxy's refugee crisis. This plot is actually a lot of fun, with the usual hijinks you expect Han Solo to get into. Unfortunately, the rest of this novel consists of military and political posturing with absolutely no character hook to hang on-- it's just people with titles talking to/about other people with titles.

Even when there is potential for more in the politics, it is squandered: Leia goes to Hapes to convince them to join the fight on the side of the New Republic, but then just stands around while male characters fight over her. (Somehow, women can be marginalized even in the matriarchal society of Hapes.) Then, she has a vague vision of badness again and again, but does nothing about it... then something bad happens! Man, riveting. And, for the two people out there who considered the Corellian Trilogy the high point of Star Wars fiction, Luceno peppers the book with characters from that series so you don't have to miss them anymore.

Return of the New Jedi Order, Episode X: Hero's Trial by James Luceno

Mass market paperback, 352 pages
Published 2000
Acquired 2000(?)
Reread April 2014

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Agents of Chaos: Hero's Trial
by James Luceno

Year One of the Invasion (Months 7-8)
Seriously, what's up with these Star Wars books that take forever to get going? Do you guys even know what book series you're writing? I like character work as much as the next man, but in Star Wars it should happen during the action, not before it. I don't know how Luceno even got this one out to over 350 pages, because what happens is: Han Solo mopes and investigates some stuff with some guy who I guess was in another book, he gets in some fights, the Yuuzhan Vong attack a space station he's in, he stumbles into a plot, victory. Meanwhile, the actual plot is happening to bunch of characters who I am pretty sure I would not care about even if I did remember their fleeting appearances in The Black Fleet Crisis.

There's a three-page section where Luceno just describes technical modifications that happened to the Millennium Falcon in other books. Seriously!

Admittedly, Luceno is good at writing Han Solo, and that saves Hero's Trial. Han gets all the best lines, and is a total badass (as always), and his interplay with Droma is great. (I love how Han expects Droma to have heard of him, and Droma's like, "your real name's Han Organa?") The way he lucks and gambles his way through the assault on the Jubilee Wheel and the Queen of Empire are both utterly perfect. Also I really like it when Luke and Leia decide to fly in to help. And Luceno treats C-3PO as an actual character, which I think no novelist other than Stover has ever bothered to do. It's better than Stackpole's efforts, but the New Jedi Order is going to have to do better than this in the long term.

Large-Scale Star Wars

Trade paperback, 373 pages
Published 2011
Acquired March 2012

Read May 2012

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis

by James Luceno

Darth Plagueis was mentioned in a parable in Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith told by Chancellor Palpatine. Though not directly stated, it was implied that Plagueis was actually Palpatine's own Sith master, killed by his apprentice. In the wake of Episode III, a Plagueis novel by Luceno was announced-- and then cancelled.  I was thankful for this, because I had my doubts that any novel about young Palpatine and his master could be as cool as my imagination.

Well, it was uncancelled, and here it is.  Darth Plagueis begins with the death of Plagueis's own Sith master, and covers the next several decades, as Plagueis recruits an apprentice and plots the downfall of the Republic and the Jedi.  Palpatine is recruited to be Darth Sidious fairly early in the book, and it moves between the perspectives of the two Sith as they both learn about being a Sith Lord and manipulate galactic affairs.

Maybe I was set up for it by my own biases, but I was disappointed. Some of it is definitely Luceno making choices that I wouldn't make.  According to this take on events, Plagueis is active well beyond the point where I would have thought, meaning that Palpatine is but an apprentice during the vast majority of the time the groundwork for the prequel films is being laid.  As someone who considers Palpatine (at least as depicted in Episodes I, II, and VI and Dark Empire) one of the coolest villains of all time, this is completely lame!  Palpatine should be the top man, not some guy's lackey.

Furthermore, the book weaves in and out of established Star Wars events too much. We see Jedi Council: Acts of War, Darth Maul, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Cloak of Deception, and much more told from the Sith point-of-view, but without seeing the actual events, meaning far too much of the action happens out-of-sight. Having the Sith say that cool things are happening somewhere else is not terribly interesting in and of itself. Also, Lucenopedia overload! Also, they're usually fighting mooks, which stops you from being impressed; outmanipulating Nute Gunray is not exactly the act of a genius, and even potentially intelligent characters like Chancellor Valroum come across as a bit thick.

Worst of all, though, is that the book doesn't really communicate what it is to be Darth Plagueis or Palpatine, at least not in a way that's really satisfying.   Luceno has never exactly had a gift for character, and though we see a lot of what the two Sith Lords think, we never get to experience what they feel for the most part... and when we do, it's kinda lame.  "Oh, I just hate the Jedi so much!" We see them make decisions, but I don't feel like I understand why they do what they do, or how it is for them to do it.  Even manipulating Dooku's fall, which should be completely fascinating (I love Dooku), turns out to be deadly dull.  Going by this book, being a Sith Lord is actually fairly blasé.