The last original mass-market paperback and the penultimate book in the bestselling Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series! At last we learn more of the history of the Yuuzhan Vong invaders--where they come from and why they are out to conquer the galaxy far, far away. And the scene is set up for the final, exciting climax of the series, this November's hardcover STAR WARS: THE NEW JEDI ORDER: THE UNIFYING FORCE!
The Final Prophecy (Star Wars: the New Jedi Order)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Born in Meridian, MS, in 1963, Greg Keyes spent his early years roaming the forests of his native state and the red rock cliffs of the Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona. He earned his B. A. in anthropology from Mississippi State University and a master's degree from the University of Georgia, where he did course work for a Ph. D. He lives in Savannah, GA, where, in addition to full-time writing, he practices ethnic cooking--particularly Central American, Szechuan, Malaysian, and Turkish Cuisines--and Kapucha Toli, a Choctaw game involving heavy sticks and no rules. While researching "The Age of Unreason," he took up fencing, and now competes nationally. Greg is the author of THE BRIAR KING, THE WATERBORN, THE BLAGKGOD, the Babylon 5 Psi Corps trilogy, the Age of Unreason tetrology (for which he won the prestigious "Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire" award), and two New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels: STAR WARS: THE NEW JEDI ORDER: CONQUEST and STAR WARS: THE NEW JEDI ORDER: REBIRTH.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ONE
She was being followed.
She paused and wiped a damp wisp of yellow hair from her forehead, touching in passing the scars that marked her as a member of Domain Kwaad. Her green eyes scanned through the many-legged gnarltrees, but her stalkers weren’t yet showing themselves to the usual senses. They were waiting for something—reinforcements, probably.
She hissed a mild shaper’s curse under her breath and started off again, picking her way over moldering logs, through sluggish mists and dense brakes of hissing cane. The air was a wet fever, and the chirps and trills and bubbling gulps from canopy and marsh were oddly comforting. She kept her pace the same—there was no reason to let them know she was on to them, not yet. She did alter her path subtly—no point in going to the cave until this was dealt with.
Or I could lead them there, she mused, attack them while they deal with their inner demons . . .
No. That seemed somehow like sacrilege. Yoda had come here. Luke Skywalker had, too, and so had Anakin. Now it was her turn. Tahiri’s turn.
Anakin’s parents hadn’t very much liked the idea of her coming to Dagobah alone, but she’d managed to convince them of the necessity. She believed that the human and Yuuzhan Vong personalities that had once shared her body had become one seamless entity. It felt that way, felt right. But Anakin had seen a vision of her, a melding of Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong, and it hadn’t been a pretty vision. She’d thought at first, after the joining that had nearly driven her mad, that she had avoided that outcome. But before she moved on, before she put those she loved at risk, she had to consider the possibility that the fusion of Tahiri Veila with Riina of Domain Kwaad was a step in the fulfillment of that vision.
Anakin, after all, had known her better than anyone. And Anakin had been very strong.
If the creature he had seen was lurking in her, the time to face it was now, not later.
So she’d come here, to Dagobah, where the Force was so strong it almost seemed to sing aloud. The cycle of life and death and new birth was all around here, none of it twisted by Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology, none of it poisoned by the machines, greed, and exploitation all too native to this galaxy. She’d come to visit the cave to explore her inner self and see what she was really made of.
But she had also come to Dagobah to meditate on the alternatives. What Anakin had seen was all of the worst of Yuuzhan Vong and Jedi traits bundled into one being. Avoiding becoming that was paramount, but she had a goal beyond—to find the balance, to embody the best of her mixed heritage. Not just for herself, but because the reconciliation of her dual identity had left her with one firm belief—that the Yuuzhan Vong and the peoples of the galaxy they had invaded could learn a lot from each other, and they could live in peace. She was sure of it. The only question was how to make it happen.
The Yuuzhan Vong would never create industrial wastelands like Duro, Bonadan, or Eriadu. On the other hand, what they did to life—breaking it and twisting it until it suited their needs, wiping it out entirely when it didn’t please—was really no better. It wasn’t that they loved life, but that they hated machines.
There had to be some sort of common ground, some pivot point that could open the eyes of both sides and end the ongoing terror and destruction of the war.
The Force was key to that understanding. The Yuuzhan Vong were somehow blind to it. If they could actually feel the Force around them, if they could feel the wrongness of their creations, they might find a better path, one less bent on destruction. If the Jedi could feel the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force, they might find—not better ways to fight them—but paths to conciliation.
She needed more than that, though. It wasn’t enough to know what was wrong—she also had to know how to make things right.
Tahiri had no delusions of grandeur. She was no savior, no prophet, no super-Jedi. She was the result of a Yuuzhan Vong experiment gone wrong. But she did understand both sides of the problem, and if there was any chance she could help Master Skywalker find the solution her galaxy so desperately needed—well, she had to take it. It was a role she accepted with humility and great caution. Those trying to do good often committed the most atrocious crimes.
They were gaining on her, getting clumsier. Soon she would have to do something.
They must have followed her to Dagobah. How?
Or maybe they had known where she was going before she left. Maybe she had been betrayed. But that meant Han and Leia—
No. There was another answer. Paranoid reflexes were a survival trait growing up in a crèche, but even deeper instincts told her that her friends—adopted parents, almost—could never do such a thing. Someone had been watching her, someone she hadn’t noticed. Peace Brigade maybe. Probably. They would imagine they could curry a lot of favor by turning her over to Shimrra.
She twisted her way through a maze of gnarltrees and then clambered quickly and silently up their cablelike roots. They had once been legs, those roots, as she’d learned when she came here less than a decade and more than a lifetime ago. The immature form of the tree was a sort of spider that lost its mobility in adulthood.
She’d been with Anakin, here to face his trial, to discover if having the name of his grandfather would bring him the same fate.
I miss you Anakin, she thought. More now than ever.
About four meters off the ground, she secreted herself in a hollow and waited. If she could simply avoid them, she would. At one level her instincts cried out for battle, but at a deeper level she knew that her Yuuzhan Vong fighting reflexes had inevitable connections with fury, and she was here to avoid becoming Anakin’s vision, not embrace it. There was a part of her plan that she hadn’t told Han and Leia about—the part where, if the cave confirmed her worst fears, she would cripple her X-wing beyond repair and spend the rest of her life on the jungle planet.
Perhaps, like the spiders, she would sink her limbs into the swamp and become a tree.
She reached out with the Force, to better assess her pursuit.
They weren’t there. And she suddenly realized that she hadn’t felt them in the Force, but with her Vongsense. It had come so naturally she hadn’t even questioned it.
That could only mean her pursuers were Yuuzhan Vong, maybe six of them, give or take one or two. Vongsense wasn’t as precise as the Force.
She reached for her lightsaber, but didn’t unhook it, and continued to wait.
Soon she actually heard them. Whoever they were, they weren’t hunters—they moved through the jungle clumsily, and though they pitched their voices low enough that she couldn’t actually understand what they were saying, they seemed to be gabbling almost constantly. They must be very confident of their success.
A dark shadow glided soundlessly through the undergrowth, and she snapped her gaze up in time to see something very large blot the fragments of sky not occluded by the distant canopy.
Native life, or a Yuuzhan Vong flier?
Pursing her lips, she waited. Soon the distant muttering became coherent. As she’d thought, the language was that of her crèche.
“Are you certain she came this way?” a raspy voice asked.
“She did. See? The impression in the moss?”
“She is Jeedai. Perhaps she left these signs to confuse us.”
“Perhaps.”
“But you think she is near?”
“Yes.”
“And knows we are following her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why not simply call out to her?”
And hope I answer the battle challenge? Tahiri thought, grimly. So they did have a tracker with them. Could she slip around them, back to her X-wing? Or must she fight them?
Moving very slowly, Tahiri shifted in the direction of the voices. She could make out several figures through the understory, but not distinctly.
“At some point we must, I suppose,” the tracker said. “Else she will think we wish her harm.”
What? Tahiri frowned, trying to fit that into her presuppositions. She couldn’t.
“Jeedai!” the tracker called. “I think you can hear us. We humbly request an audience.”
No warrior would do that, Tahiri thought. No warrior would use such honorless trickery. But a shaper . . .
Yes, a shaper or a priest might, a member of the deception sect. Still—
She leaned out for a better view, and found herself staring straight into the yellow eyes of a Yuuzhan Vong.
He was perhaps six meters away. She gasped at the sight of him, and revulsion jolted through her. His face was like an open wound.
A Shamed One, despised by the gods. He dared—her hand went to her lightsaber.
Then the shadow was back, and suddenly something sleeted through the branches, shredding the leaves and vines around her. She snarled a war cry and ignited her weapon, swirling it up to send two thud bugs burning off through the jungle.
Above her, through the now open canopy, she saw a Yuuzhan Vong tsik vai, an atmospheric flier, huge and ray-shaped, and from it snaked long cables. To each cable clung a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. One passed less than two meters from her, and she braced for the fight, but he went on past, oblivious to her presence, striking the jungle floor and uncoiling his amphistaff in the same motion.
A terrible wail went up from her pursuers. She could see them now, all horribly disfigured, all Shamed Ones. They raised their short clubs and faced the warriors.
They didn’t... --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
She was being followed.
She paused and wiped a damp wisp of yellow hair from her forehead, touching in passing the scars that marked her as a member of Domain Kwaad. Her green eyes scanned through the many-legged gnarltrees, but her stalkers weren’t yet showing themselves to the usual senses. They were waiting for something—reinforcements, probably.
She hissed a mild shaper’s curse under her breath and started off again, picking her way over moldering logs, through sluggish mists and dense brakes of hissing cane. The air was a wet fever, and the chirps and trills and bubbling gulps from canopy and marsh were oddly comforting. She kept her pace the same—there was no reason to let them know she was on to them, not yet. She did alter her path subtly—no point in going to the cave until this was dealt with.
Or I could lead them there, she mused, attack them while they deal with their inner demons . . .
No. That seemed somehow like sacrilege. Yoda had come here. Luke Skywalker had, too, and so had Anakin. Now it was her turn. Tahiri’s turn.
Anakin’s parents hadn’t very much liked the idea of her coming to Dagobah alone, but she’d managed to convince them of the necessity. She believed that the human and Yuuzhan Vong personalities that had once shared her body had become one seamless entity. It felt that way, felt right. But Anakin had seen a vision of her, a melding of Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong, and it hadn’t been a pretty vision. She’d thought at first, after the joining that had nearly driven her mad, that she had avoided that outcome. But before she moved on, before she put those she loved at risk, she had to consider the possibility that the fusion of Tahiri Veila with Riina of Domain Kwaad was a step in the fulfillment of that vision.
Anakin, after all, had known her better than anyone. And Anakin had been very strong.
If the creature he had seen was lurking in her, the time to face it was now, not later.
So she’d come here, to Dagobah, where the Force was so strong it almost seemed to sing aloud. The cycle of life and death and new birth was all around here, none of it twisted by Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology, none of it poisoned by the machines, greed, and exploitation all too native to this galaxy. She’d come to visit the cave to explore her inner self and see what she was really made of.
But she had also come to Dagobah to meditate on the alternatives. What Anakin had seen was all of the worst of Yuuzhan Vong and Jedi traits bundled into one being. Avoiding becoming that was paramount, but she had a goal beyond—to find the balance, to embody the best of her mixed heritage. Not just for herself, but because the reconciliation of her dual identity had left her with one firm belief—that the Yuuzhan Vong and the peoples of the galaxy they had invaded could learn a lot from each other, and they could live in peace. She was sure of it. The only question was how to make it happen.
The Yuuzhan Vong would never create industrial wastelands like Duro, Bonadan, or Eriadu. On the other hand, what they did to life—breaking it and twisting it until it suited their needs, wiping it out entirely when it didn’t please—was really no better. It wasn’t that they loved life, but that they hated machines.
There had to be some sort of common ground, some pivot point that could open the eyes of both sides and end the ongoing terror and destruction of the war.
The Force was key to that understanding. The Yuuzhan Vong were somehow blind to it. If they could actually feel the Force around them, if they could feel the wrongness of their creations, they might find a better path, one less bent on destruction. If the Jedi could feel the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force, they might find—not better ways to fight them—but paths to conciliation.
She needed more than that, though. It wasn’t enough to know what was wrong—she also had to know how to make things right.
Tahiri had no delusions of grandeur. She was no savior, no prophet, no super-Jedi. She was the result of a Yuuzhan Vong experiment gone wrong. But she did understand both sides of the problem, and if there was any chance she could help Master Skywalker find the solution her galaxy so desperately needed—well, she had to take it. It was a role she accepted with humility and great caution. Those trying to do good often committed the most atrocious crimes.
They were gaining on her, getting clumsier. Soon she would have to do something.
They must have followed her to Dagobah. How?
Or maybe they had known where she was going before she left. Maybe she had been betrayed. But that meant Han and Leia—
No. There was another answer. Paranoid reflexes were a survival trait growing up in a crèche, but even deeper instincts told her that her friends—adopted parents, almost—could never do such a thing. Someone had been watching her, someone she hadn’t noticed. Peace Brigade maybe. Probably. They would imagine they could curry a lot of favor by turning her over to Shimrra.
She twisted her way through a maze of gnarltrees and then clambered quickly and silently up their cablelike roots. They had once been legs, those roots, as she’d learned when she came here less than a decade and more than a lifetime ago. The immature form of the tree was a sort of spider that lost its mobility in adulthood.
She’d been with Anakin, here to face his trial, to discover if having the name of his grandfather would bring him the same fate.
I miss you Anakin, she thought. More now than ever.
About four meters off the ground, she secreted herself in a hollow and waited. If she could simply avoid them, she would. At one level her instincts cried out for battle, but at a deeper level she knew that her Yuuzhan Vong fighting reflexes had inevitable connections with fury, and she was here to avoid becoming Anakin’s vision, not embrace it. There was a part of her plan that she hadn’t told Han and Leia about—the part where, if the cave confirmed her worst fears, she would cripple her X-wing beyond repair and spend the rest of her life on the jungle planet.
Perhaps, like the spiders, she would sink her limbs into the swamp and become a tree.
She reached out with the Force, to better assess her pursuit.
They weren’t there. And she suddenly realized that she hadn’t felt them in the Force, but with her Vongsense. It had come so naturally she hadn’t even questioned it.
That could only mean her pursuers were Yuuzhan Vong, maybe six of them, give or take one or two. Vongsense wasn’t as precise as the Force.
She reached for her lightsaber, but didn’t unhook it, and continued to wait.
Soon she actually heard them. Whoever they were, they weren’t hunters—they moved through the jungle clumsily, and though they pitched their voices low enough that she couldn’t actually understand what they were saying, they seemed to be gabbling almost constantly. They must be very confident of their success.
A dark shadow glided soundlessly through the undergrowth, and she snapped her gaze up in time to see something very large blot the fragments of sky not occluded by the distant canopy.
Native life, or a Yuuzhan Vong flier?
Pursing her lips, she waited. Soon the distant muttering became coherent. As she’d thought, the language was that of her crèche.
“Are you certain she came this way?” a raspy voice asked.
“She did. See? The impression in the moss?”
“She is Jeedai. Perhaps she left these signs to confuse us.”
“Perhaps.”
“But you think she is near?”
“Yes.”
“And knows we are following her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why not simply call out to her?”
And hope I answer the battle challenge? Tahiri thought, grimly. So they did have a tracker with them. Could she slip around them, back to her X-wing? Or must she fight them?
Moving very slowly, Tahiri shifted in the direction of the voices. She could make out several figures through the understory, but not distinctly.
“At some point we must, I suppose,” the tracker said. “Else she will think we wish her harm.”
What? Tahiri frowned, trying to fit that into her presuppositions. She couldn’t.
“Jeedai!” the tracker called. “I think you can hear us. We humbly request an audience.”
No warrior would do that, Tahiri thought. No warrior would use such honorless trickery. But a shaper . . .
Yes, a shaper or a priest might, a member of the deception sect. Still—
She leaned out for a better view, and found herself staring straight into the yellow eyes of a Yuuzhan Vong.
He was perhaps six meters away. She gasped at the sight of him, and revulsion jolted through her. His face was like an open wound.
A Shamed One, despised by the gods. He dared—her hand went to her lightsaber.
Then the shadow was back, and suddenly something sleeted through the branches, shredding the leaves and vines around her. She snarled a war cry and ignited her weapon, swirling it up to send two thud bugs burning off through the jungle.
Above her, through the now open canopy, she saw a Yuuzhan Vong tsik vai, an atmospheric flier, huge and ray-shaped, and from it snaked long cables. To each cable clung a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. One passed less than two meters from her, and she braced for the fight, but he went on past, oblivious to her presence, striking the jungle floor and uncoiling his amphistaff in the same motion.
A terrible wail went up from her pursuers. She could see them now, all horribly disfigured, all Shamed Ones. They raised their short clubs and faced the warriors.
They didn’t... --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's getting close,
By
This review is from: The Final Prophecy (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 18) (Mass Market Paperback)
The end of this horrible, genocidal Yuuzhan Vong/Galactic Alliance War is coming to a close. After months and years of the Yuuzhan Vong pushing and conquering the New Republic/Galactic Alliance inhabitants all across the galaxy (including capturing the capital homeworld, Coruscant, now known as Yuuzhan'tar), the Alliance finally struck back and began putting the Vong on the defensive. These two opposing forces have finally created the irresistible force meeting the immovable object syndrome. The tension builds and one of the sides will have to break. The forces in play on both sides portend of a spectacular climax. An Alliance Expeditionary Force, led by Luke Skywalker, finally located the living planet Zonoma Sekot, seeming the last hope for ending the hostilities that have plagued the galaxy. On Yuuzhan'tar, dissention continues to permeate the ranks of the Yuuzhan Vong. A politically motivated move by disgraced executor, Nom Anor, to regain power has now gained a force stronger than anything he can control. Using a 'masquer' to conceal his identity and playing upon the reverence the Shamed Ones of the Vong have for the Jedi, Anor created a rebellious movement that has infected all levels of Yuuzhan Vong culture, including certain members of the inner circle of Supreme Overlord Shimmra. What's more, Shimmra's claim of an alleged mandate from the gods to continue to pursue this genocidal conflict is slowly coming under scrutiny. It's becoming obvious to some that Shimmra may actually be a fraud and much of what he preaches, and much of what is central to Yuuzhan Vong culture, may prove to be earth-shatteringly false. So lays the groundwork for the events that take place in the penultimate story of the New Jedi Order series, "The Final Prophecy". Though there is a space battle around the famed Bilbringi Shipyards that involves favorites like Wedge Antilles, Garm Bel Iblis, and Jaina Solo, the primary focus of "The Final Prophecy" deals with an unlikely truce between higher members of the Yuuzhan Vong and select Alliance members (the oft-absent Corran Horn and the enigmatic Tahiri). These Yuuzhan Vong, specifically master shaper and heretic, Nen Yim, wish to seek the truth about the existence of the living planet, the honor of the Jedi, and possible treachery committed by Shimmra. With assistance from High Priest Harrar (a powerful Yuuzhan Vong whose dissident nature is still clandestine), Nen Yim makes contact with the Prophet Yu'Shaa, the leader of the Shamed Ones movement, with the intent of making a secret plea to Galactic Alliance to seek out Zonoma Sekot. Unbeknownst to anyone, Yu'Shaa is really Nom Anor, and Anor plans to use this truce as a means to further his own political agenda. The results of this unlikely and unholy alliance are among the most compelling twists so far in the New Jedi Order series. There are a few things to be said. For starters, it is nice to see Corran Horn back in the fold. He has essentially been MIA since the "Edge of Victory" duology and he was sorely missed. It helps that he was not forced back into the series with an unnatural storyline. He is paired with Tahiri to 'capture' Nen Yim and proceed on to Zonoma Sekot. In Corran's last significant appearance in the NJO, Tahiri was a major factor and there was much that happened between them. Putting them back together and referencing their past was a very smart move. Tahiri has become an even more intriguing character now that she is becoming more at one with the combination of her human and Yuuzhan Vong personalities. She continues to the wild card that keeps events intriguing. What is most fascinating about "The Final Prophecy" is seeing the divide that is taking place among the Yuuzhan Vong. Nom Anor's antics are nothing new, so his actions throughout are no surprise. However, the fact that Vong as high up as a Master Shaper (Nen Yim) and a High Priest (Harrar) doubt Shimmra and begin to develop a respect for the Jedi foreshadows greater dissention among the Yuuzhan Vong. It's become clear that the end result will not be the eradication of Yuuzhan Vong from the galaxy, so it becomes necessary to adjust to the concept of the Vong and the galaxy residents co-inhabiting peacefully. Zonoma Sekot holds the secrets of how this might actually happen, but it's the interactions between Tahiri and Corran with Harrar and Nen Yim that make it seem as though this is a possible destiny. "The Final Prophecy" is a quick read at 300 pages. The end seems near, yet it seems still very much in doubt. It leaves the reader hungry for the final novel "The Unifying Force" and gives a fascinating look at what the future could possibly hold for the galaxy.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat Disappointing,
By Niko "lavrys" (Vancouver, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Final Prophecy (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 18) (Mass Market Paperback)
I think the best one word description for this penultimate novel of the NJO would be "decisive". A LOT of things happen here, to a LOT of different people. In that respect the book is a must-read: skipping it may well cause you to lose track of the overall story arc. In the end, I wasn't sure if this was a boon or a bane though. I felt that the preceding trilogy, "Force Heretic" took too long to accomplish very little and could have easily been condensed into a single novel. The opposite holds true here. The "Final Prophecy" attempts to resolve a few too many issues in very limited space. Which is not to say that it does so badly - merely not as well as it could. It's just that Keys spoiled us with the excellent duology ("Conquest") that he wrote earlier in the series. For example Vua Rapuung was probably in the top 3-4 characters created for the NJO. (He also wrote a pretty good eBook that was published on the Star Wars site - can't remember the name right now). For the most part, Tahiri carries the story. And, unlike the simplistic, cartoony characterizations found in Force Heretic, this Tahiri makes a lot of sense. Keys has taken the time to elaborate and flesh out a rational, complex and likable young heroine. She is also supported by a very strong supporting cast, which includes... just about everyone: a number of favourite characters from the pre-NJO novels as well as all the essential Vong personalities. What I also liked about the casting was that the classic SW heroes (Luke, Leia etc) are not completely dominating the action. There are two main storylines: Tahiri and Corran Horn form a reluctant and mangled partnership with an extremely suprising group of Vong protagonists in a quest for information. (no spoilers!) What makes this so interesting is the diverging interests of each member of the group. What each party is likely to do with the information once they find it is anyone's guess. What's more, Keys is very careful to not give away what the truth really is, even though he keeps dishing out the tantalizing hints. Mind you, this is the part of the novel that I found somewhat disappointing. There was so much that could have happened among these characters and didn't. What's more, a bunch of them are seemingly discarded at the end of the book, probably to clear the stage for the final novel (coming out next month), so we will never know. The secondary storyline serves mostly as filler, but it does add quite a bit of excitement and action to the book, including a couple of well written battles, a bunch more old favourites (Antilles, Pellaeon), interesting tactics, new technologies and generally speaking advancing the story arc nicely. It also suffers from the same sort of impatience, delivering broad strokes rather than detailed pictures and killing off characters with alarming casualty. For example, Pash Cracken makes a cameo, as a general no less, apparently gets killed in battle and a day later Wedge Antilles is musing about it over a drink, practically unaffected. So, at the end of the day, I would recommend this as a pretty good book that could probably have been better simply by being longer.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It;s too short! But at least it is a good read.,
By
This review is from: The Final Prophecy (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 18) (Mass Market Paperback)
After the prior three atrocities in the NJO series, I was so gratified to read this next contribution to the series by Greg Keyes. Unlike those previous three books, this one is neither plodding nor asinine, but is in fact a great read that moves very fast. Despite being of decent length, I had finished in less than two hours. After starting I simply could not put it down!Getting away from the lack of focus in the recent books, Keyes keeps the reader on a much smaller cast of characters. The Zonama Sekot storyline involving Luke and company plays basically no part. This book deals primarily with Tahiri, though Nom Anor and Corran Horn play significant roles. Han and Leia make some necessary rescues as per their standard, while the Happenings on the former Coruscant only appear early on and are not switched back to (which is good since that would distract the reader from the real story here). Tahiri and Corran undertake a covert raid to extract some Vong from their new capital. Their goal is to locate Zonama Sekot and prove its existence. Supreme Overlord Shimrra has eliminated evidence of the planet, perhaps out of fear. The reader is given some clues to the origin of that fear. It really is the point of this book, and the justification for the other recent works, or so it would seem. The Ryn network that such a big deal was made about does play a minor part, and serves to get Han and Leia involved in this story, thought they are really an extraneous story arc. There is some good space combat at a classic location from the Thrawn series. Some of the losses there play a part in the next book, though that is for a later review. There is some of the typical combat innovation in that battle, on both sides of the fight, making it somewhat gripping, though the end can be anticipated. Overall, while there were no real surprises, there were some very nice suggestions and ticklers, which increase the desire to read the succeeding and final volume in this series. I highly recommend this book for any reader of the NJO series. The good thing is that if you stopped because of the previous three books, Keyes does an excellent job of summing everything up (which was better than reading those three books) and moving the story along. This book really took away the bad taste of the last books, and I bought it only for completion. I was very surprised and the result was a truly rewarding read.
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- The Charnel Prince (The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 2) by Greg Keyes in Front Matter, and Back Matter
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