Customer Reviews

Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 4)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'll keep this short and sweet because I don't want to spoil anything... I have never read any of Luceno's work, but he does a good job continuing the New Jedi Order series. Where the previous books were more directed towards the Jedi and their contributions towards this new enemy, Hero's Trial gives us a new respect and admiration towards our lovable hero, Han Solo. He has been sorely missed due to the death of Chewbacca and now has to overcome his grief and fight in the name of Chewie. Sometimes it seems as though Han could be "Force-sensitive" for all the situations that he seems to get himself in and out of... but, that's the Corellian luck for ya. Anyway, it was an excellent book with some great insights to the character of Han and how deep his relationship with Chewie really was. The rest of the cast is also built upon nicely which promises a great follow up in Jedi Eclipse. Happy Hunting!

As with Mr. Greg Bear and "Rogue Planet", Mr. Luceno is another excellent addition to the Authors who continue the Star Wars epic. I also will be brief following the standard of the other person who has commented thus far, and I hope others will as well. Please do not give away anything that the covers of the book do not.

Han is back; the reader must decide which incarnation of Han Solo has returned. Han has evolved so much through these books, and no single event can match the death that Chewbacca's death had upon him. But as the back of the cover states "Han becomes the.....he once was". And with this persona so much of what fans have been missing is back, in a manner of speaking.

This Author steps the level of writing up on this book, as well as increasing the depth of some familiar old friends. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is about awareness, what it means, how each individual copes with it, and the implications it may have. This plot line was totally unexpected, and in my opinion very well done.

Mr. Luceno avoids the clichés that most Authors embrace; he expands the Organic Weaponry of The New Republic's Enemy in new and clever ways, and clearly makes his mark as a top tier writer for the Star Wars World.

I feel fans will really enjoy this installment.

Great story. The writer clearly has read every piece of Han Solo fiction ever written (or at least done a good deal of research) and blends Han's past with this new future in a quite believable way. As I understand it, Luceno also helped pen Robotech. I was reluctant to get into the "new" Star Wars books because I felt that besides screwing up his own D&D novels Salvatore had clearly lost his mind when he killed off the Wook. It's impossible to pass up a well written Han Solo story though, and Luceno has presented an excellent (albeit darker) story about our favorite rogue turned hero.

The character actually experiences something of a rebirth while he is forced to deal with the very non-Star Wars real emotion of grief in a very realistic way. While Solo is the focus of the story the author adeptly handles the underlying plot and characters surrounding Han in the story. The space battles, in particular, are above average for Star Wars books. They are so good, in fact, that I kept thinking Luceno would be good candidate to further script the adventures of everyone's second favorite Corelian, Wedge Antilles (provided he hasn't been killed off either).

Han and Luke are handled carefully, but are given a bit of maturity that 25 years would bring them. Solo has the age issue to deal with (much like the actor who played him) and Luke seems to be the Jedi Master in every way. In one bit I could almost detect the writer's question about whether or not to use the Jedi Temple on Coruscant as a local in the book. It would have worked, but only if it isn't destroyed in the other movies. He wisely opted to come as close to that as possible without using the real deal.

In the end, the villians are convincing and the heroes are right on the mark. There is even a deadpan Harrison Ford moment that is taken right out of The Last Crusade. While this is a darker story than standard Star Wars, Luceno certainly has crafted himself a minor masterpiece here. Solo fans unsure of this "new" series ought to check it out. Besides the lack of favorite characters Lando, Wedge, and Talon Kard, this one will have you finishing it faster than Solo could pull off the Kessel Run (and wanting more).

This book is great for those of you that have wondered what happened to Han Solo. Jay Luceno writes a very good book, that enters the Star Wars world and places him right behind the likes of Timothy Zahn and Micheal Stackpole. This book really explains well what has happened to Han since Chewie's death. He tries to explain his feelings toward the war with the Yhuzzan Vong, Leia, Luke, and especially Anakin his youngest son. The book reads well, but doesn't weave the same type of web that Timothy Zahn and Micheal Stackpole create in their visions of the Star Wars Universe. I have read all of the accounts of Han, Luke, and Leia since the very beggining with A New Hope. I would reccomend this book as an excellent continuation of the New Jedi Order series and I really anticipate the release of Jay Luceno's next book in October.

Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial is the fourth book in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series. The series so far has been dazzling, but unfortunately there always has to be a bump in the road. This one's it. Michael Stackpole provided a lot of momentum with his two book series, but Luceno drops the ball a little bit. It's not that bad, by any means. It's just not that good.

I've been anxiously awaiting Han Solo's story ever since what happened to Chewie. In Stackpole's series, Han was sidelined as somebody who was wallowing in his sorrows and going off to get drunk. He was gaining weight and basically becoming a slob who didn't care about anything. But we knew he wouldn't be like this forever. When I heard that Hero's Trial was about him, I rejoiced.

Then I read it, and I wasn't quite so happy. I'm not sure if it just suffers in comparison to Stackpole's, or if it has its own problems. First of all, while there are the requisite space battles that any Star Wars book or movie has to have, the scenes just fall flat here. The dialogue's not bad, but the descriptions of the battles just lie there, moribund. They don't bring that sense of exhilaration that previous ones did. Sure, all the terminology's there: the jukes, the jinks, the firing of lasers and proton torpedoes. However, the sense of the ebb and flow just isn't there. I wouldn't say I was necessarily bored, but they definitely didn't hum.

The second problem with the book is the other characters. They are, almost to a man (or woman), dreadfully dull. Luceno creates a few Yuuzhan Vong characters, but they just lie there on the page. The scenes on the Vong ships are flat and just basically exposition. The Vong plan is to "allow" a defector to join up with the Alliance, but when she meets the Jedi Knights, a surprise will be awaiting them. This is not a spoiler as the plan is detailed by the Vong in the first few chapters. Thus, any sense of suspense is lost because we know what they are trying to do. The only suspense is whether it works or not. This isn't always a bad thing, but this causes the Vong characters to be nothing but mouthpieces as any scene with them devolves into "make it look like you're trying to rescue her, but make sure you don't."

None of the other characters inspire much in the reader either. The lone exception to that is Droma, the Ryn that Han meets up with on Ord Mantell. Droma has a lot of snappy dialogue and he makes the perfect foil for Han. He becomes a temporary partner to Han, and the interplay between the two is a wonder to behold. Droma is sarcastic, philosophical, slightly a coward but he's also willing to make the extra sacrifice when necessary, even with his tail (which we see in a truly memorable scene where it's instrumental in rescuing Han). He is a wonderful creation, and I hope we see more of him.

Another major problem with this book is the coincidences. The Star Wars universe is full of coincidences, and usually I can look past them. If two stories are going on, it's very likely that they'll both end up in the same place eventually. That's all well and good. But in this case, three stories all end up in the same place, and it just stretches my suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point. On top of that is when Han ends up on the same passenger ship on which the defector is being transported. I'm willing to grant a little bit of leeway on this usually, but this book was just too much.

One thing I did like, however, was the way the story showed two sides of the same faction (in this case, the Vong and their associates) not know what the other one is doing. Some Vong associates actually believe the defector is real, and they try to capture her, throwing a wrench into everything. It's the sort of incompetence that happens in real life, when the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing, and it was nice to see here. It adds a bit of chaos to everything and was a nice feature.

From a series point of view, I am a bit disheartened, though. Monumental events happened in the last book. While some of them are referred to (the planet Ithor, for example), one of the major events is never mentioned at all: the fall of Corran Horn. While this did happen a couple of months ago in the Star Wars timeline, it still should be fresh in everybody's minds. But he doesn't get a mention at all. It brings up something I was afraid would happen, and I hope it doesn't become a chronic problem. Are the authors only going to use their own characters in their own books? I seriously hope not. I don't want Horn sidelined for too long. He's too interesting of a character.

I think I liked this book more than it sounds because I was anxious for some Han Solo action. It's nice to see him again, and it was nice to see him be his old roguish self. I love the quirky grin, the "who, me?" attitude and his ability to get himself into the worst situations and then fly out of them unscathed. This is the Han Solo that I loved seeing in the old movies and I missed him. He's a man who isn't used to responsibilities, except to himself. He's been living a responsible life for 25 years now, and it's beginning to wear on him. It was good to see you in action, Han. Too bad the book around you couldn't have been better.

David Roy

I really enjoyed a great many things about this book, not least of which is the fact that it revolves around Han Solo, but delves substantially into his more emotional side. It also seeks to resolve certain elements within the escalating conflict between the New Public and the Yuuzhan Vong. However, James Lucerno's chaotic writing style makes events hard to grasp insofar as actual resolution is concerned. This hampers an already convoluted plot by the Yuuzhan Vong to infiltrate an assassin into the New Republic so that they can murder as many Jedi as possible with a poisonous virus carried within the lungs of the assassin.

It also lays Chewbacca to rest in a private ceremony on his homeworld of Kashyyyk, and Lucnerno thankfully had the good sense not to have Chewie's relatives assume the life debt, even though it was suggested. Han skillfully manages to avoid having another Wookie as a first mate, since that would have diminished Chewie's death greatly. Instead, Han must come to grips with Chewbacca's death by himself and in his own fashion, which usually means periods of brooding introspection and occasional verbal attacks on family members, including Luke, Leia, and Anakin, who bears the brunt of Han's wrath while the lad must come to terms with the guilt he feels over Chewie's death, and his father's accusations that he left Chewie to die.

The Vong fake an attack on a New Republic ship and sacrifice a vessel so that an escape pod bearing the priestess, Elan and her bizarre avian companion, a Fosh named Vergere. Beforehand, however, they connive a plan whereby Elan ingests a virus that will collect in her lungs and incubate until she is brought before the Jedi with vital information about Mara's illness. Then she exhales the virus which quickly multiplies and immediately causes hemorrhaging and an agonizing death. The reader steadily becomes suspicious of Vergere until it is revealed that she is actually from a region of the galaxy near the Corporate Sector. Doubly so when Elan wonders if the Yuuzhan Vong will ever come to master the Force, and Vergere states that the Vong aren't really worthy of it.

A rather amusing chain of events ensues as a band of traitorous humans known as the Peace Brigade learn that Elan is in New Republic hands, but isn't aware that it is a plot by the Vong. The Peace Brigade is a band of traitors who have sold out to the Vong, and believing they will be rewarded for the return of one of their own, hatch a plan to capture Elan. In the Ord Mantell system, Han meets up with Big Bunji, from the old Han Solo books, just as the Yuuzhan Vong attack. Things turn inane when the Vong attack a space station known as Jubilee Wheel with a giant elephant trunk that begins vacuuming people out of the station! However, that aside, the ensuing dialog between Han and a Ryn named Droma escalates into a rousing series one-liners that had me laughing out loud. Escaping the Jubilee Wheel, Han and Droma board the Queen of Empire, a passenger liner ferrying refugees Coreward.

It becomes pretty obvious that Han has found a new first mate in the pleasantly goofy Ryn, Droma. I found however that Lucerno's writing style isn't well suited to depicting the Yuuzhan Vong. As Stackpole and Salvatore have done in the past with the aliens, Lucerno's Yuuzhan Vong have very little menace to them. Nom Anor is reduced to being little more than a toady, gone is the malevolence that he displayed so wonderfully in `Vector Prime'. Plus Lucerno lacks Stackpole's ability to write space combat sequences. Whereas `I, Jedi'; `Onslaught'; and `Ruin' gave the reader vivid accounts of X-wings having it out with coralskippers, complete with pilots' input and battle chatter, Lucerno's battles are more sterile and come across as if viewed from a distance or dispassionately. There are too few cameos, except from characters like Kyp Durron and Wurth Skidder.

All in all not a bad go, but something of let down after the first three books. I only hope 'Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse' has a little more focus to it. On the up side Lucerno does portray Han Solo very well, and seems more like his old `Stars' End' self rather than an aging space pirate. My other hopes is that the series doesn't wimp out with its conclusion by trumping up some silly deus ex machina ending, but instead something with vastly more grit and mettle to it. We're not reading Star Trek here, because Star Wars gas always been something better.

May the Force be with you.

The last couple of New Jedi Order books, which were the Dark Tide duology, focused mainly on the various Jedi. So it makes sense in a way that this book is mostly about Han Solo, since he was pretty much ignored in those two books. After Chewbacca's memorial service on the Wookie home planet, Kashyyk, the Solo family returns to Coruscant, where Han runs into Roa, an old buddy from his smuggling days. Desperate to avenge Chewie's death, he agrees to go off with Roa in search of a mercenary band working for the Yuuzhan Vong. At the same time, the Vong allow a New Republic ship to capture one of their priestesses, Elan, and her "familiar," Vergere, a creature that is certainly not a Vong but not any other recognized species either. Elan and Vergere are supposed to pose as defectors so they can arrange a meeting with the Jedi, during which Elan will unleash a disease. Although the outcome was somewhat predictable, quite a few of the twists and turns along the way were anything but predictable. This is another five star book from the New Jedi Order series. I just started Jedi Eclipse (the sequaL), and it's sure to be great as well.

For all those readers of the New Jedi Order series that began with Vector Prime, many will recognize that Han Solo has been somewhat absent from all the other novels that had followed this new direction in the Star Wars universe. He has only been briefly around since the death of Chewbacca and this has allowed authors to invent new characters and breath depth to many others that were previously second stringers or were only supporting characters in earlier exploits.

However, for those that missed your favorite Corellian, he's back, but not exactly the same scoundrel that the princess was so coy about. This novel explores the pain of Solo's loss and a rejection and rebirth of his core beliefs. I thought the novel was a bit slow in the beginning when it came to the memorial service back on Chewie's home planet. Han's feelings were re-hashed over and over again for what seems to be filler material, and you get to feel that Han is now whining. It is understandable to a point, but I soon tired of the lengthy flashbacks. I felt his treatment to Leia and Luke was a bit out of character, but events that eventually unfold probably allow for this justification.

As the story revolves mainly around Han, he finds himself in trouble as always, and it is an entertaining read as he moves from one situation to the next. What he does discover is a situation that places him in the same shoes as his son Anakin, and for the first time really comes to terms with dealing with Anakin as he relates to Chewie's death.

A new character is introduced into this story and he seems like a perfect fit as the new partner for Han. Though he may not replace Chewie immediately, the seeds are sown for a great pairing down the line. This character is very rich in depth and was written very well. He displays a sense of humor that compliments Han's dry wit and sarcasm.

Some interesting turns take place in the New Republic government, somewhat reminiscent of the Empire as it came to power first in politics prior to its militaristic stance that the Rebellion fought against. Other notes: C-3PO contemplates his mortality. Lando is absent. Very little is dealt with the Solo children.

Finally the Vong....I feel that they (as a whole) who were described as an all powerful force to fear from the 1st few books, has suddenly became not only passive, but softened up. I was really excited about their potential as a new threat, but it looks as if they aren't so bad after all. A real shame if the initial intent of the New Jedi Order was to add shake things up and bring back some fun filled tension to a huge galaxy. Hopefully the next books will re-focus this effort. Overall, it was a good book for Han Solo fans.

Well, the New Jedi Order keeps on truckin' and so far it doesn't seem to be running out of steam. While not as good as the Dark Tide series, I'm still having the most fun reading Star Wars since Heir To the Empire came out! This new installment features Han like we all love him, gambler, scoundrel, and master pilot. After all the pathos Han's been going through since Vector Prime, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book brimming with humor, most of it from the interaction between our smuggler and his new Ryn buddy, Droma.

Also interesting is the reappearance of Vergere, the Jedi that Obi-Wan and Anakin (Skywalker, not Solo :) were serching for in Rouge Planet. I hope more comes out of this storyline in the future. I mean, wouldn't it be great if Vergere could hook up with Luke and tell him about the Jedi of old and how his father was as a kid? Great possibilities!

James Luceno does a bang up job continuing the series and I, for one, can't wait to see what he puts Han, Droma and the gang though in the next installment.

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical when I first picked the book up, as Luceno was an author unfamiliar to me, and the NJO series was so filled with complexities and disappointments. However, I have to admit, Luceno has a lucid, flowing style that keeps you enthralled in the novel. I put the book down twice while reading it. Once to eat dinner and once because I _had_ to sleep. With the reintroduction of Han Solo to the playing field, things are looking up for the beleaguered New Republic. Unfortunately, the book is a little lacking in the Jedi presence for a novel supposedly focused on them. Also, I find it vexing that the two major internal problems confronting the heroes were cleared up in the same novel. It makes me wonder what we've got in store in the next installments.