34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quite simply the best epic SW novel yet!, November 15, 2001
According to fellow NJO author R.A. Salvatore, one of Troy Denning's strengths is that he "can tell a BIG story, keeping control of all the side details, as well as anyone." And he's right. Star by Star is one of the three biggest SW novels ever, perhaps THE biggest, and it is also, quite simply, the best. Star by Star, marking the beginning of the third year of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, is an important novel in the New Jedi Order arc in that it's the centerpiece of the series. This book doesn't center on any one character, but instead gives all the main characters (The movie characters, Mara, the Solo twins) approximately equal time. He gets all the characters in character, except for one, but more on that later.
Before I continue this review, I think that something needs to be cleared up. Yes, there is a major death in this book. Yes, it is sad. What people don't seem to understand, though, is that Denning didn't arbitrarily decide to kill this character, any more than Salvatore arbitrarily decided to kill Chewbacca. The New Jedi Order series is something new in Star Wars literature - a story arc. The major plot points are planned and decided, by a committee of authors and editors, well in advance of the writing of the individual novels. The reason this character was so built up in previous books was so that, like the death or hate it, the audience would care, would feel the impact. The death was not randomly thrown in as "shock value" or to piss off the fans. They are trying to show that this is war, and in war, people die, especially those who undertake suicidal missions. I applaud the NJO creative team for not shying away from such a move.
As to the characters and situations, I was very pleasantly surprised. Both sides of the conflict showed remarkable innovation in tactics and technology that had been, for the most part, sadly lacking in many of the previous books. The political scenes were some of the strongest I have read in a Star Wars novel - in fact, Borsk's first scene in this book is one of my new favorites. For the first time, and perhaps the last time, we actually get inside Borsk's head - and you might actually like what you find there. Unfortunately, he is the one character who was slightly out of character, but I loved him all the more for it. Lando, who's been neglected in the New Jedi Order series, is back in best form, as is the enigmatic but interesting Vergere, Danni Quee, Ganner, and many other old faces. The Yuuzhan Vong characters are getting better fleshed out then ever - I even found myself feeling for Tsavong Lah at times. The Jedi enter the fray with some finality, and the space battles were on a magnitude never before seen in Star Wars...simply amazing.
Despite all that this novel has going for it, there are a few flaws. The Voxyn, the new Yuuzhan Vong creations, were obviously more than a little influenced by the Aliens from the film of the same name, and several scenes from the book felt right out of that film. However, to balance that out with have the YVH droids...but enough on that. All I can say is...READ THE BOOK. And don't lose heart...I know it's dark, but this is only the middle of this saga of the New Jedi Order. Great job Troy!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Timothy Zahn COME BACK!!!!!, December 30, 2001
I understand that there are somethings that need to happen in order to keep series and storylines interesting to people. If Luke Skywalker was still fighting Jabba the Hutt no one would read the novels because they all end the same. When Timothy Zahn began this new wave of stories after Jedi, he did it with flare. He made sure that they characters from the original series were invovled and active and still managed to incorporate new characters slowly and carefully...(Mara, the solo children, etc.) That is how you incorporate change and generate interest.
Killing off one character is understandable, Killing off another (and one of great importance with a flowering storyline) is unforgivable. If you wanted to keep things interesting why didn't you have one of them (the solo kids) turn to the darkside and continue the storyline through getting them back? Yes, it's been done before, but that's better than killing loved and interesting characters.
I want Timothy Zahn to come back and show these authors how it is done. Focus on the new baby, play with the relationship theme, that's where we were heading in the first place with Tahiri wasn't it?
I will read the next novel to find out what happens, but if it doesn't get better you would have lost another dedicated star wars reader........SHAPE UP PEOPLE. You have a lot of redeeming to do!!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Begining of the end for the expanded universe, February 12, 2009
This review is from: Star by Star (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 9) (Mass Market Paperback)
First off, I wanted to say that I am writing this review in retrospective because it represents the moment that everything took an irreversible downhill slide in the star wars EU. For those of you who have not read the rest of this series or finished through the Legacy of the force series, stop reading here. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
I am not someone who believes that fictional characters should live on forever and I actually really liked the overall dark tone of the NJO. I felt that Chewie's death in Vector Prime was extremely sad but also a bold and stunning new direction. After that event, I felt for the first time that NO ONE was safe and that all bets were off in terms of who would survive. This was terrific because it made everything I read after this much more suspenseful and edge of your seat dramatic. That was actually one of the major reasons I loved the x-wing series so much because with each mission everything was tense as you never knew who would make it in the end. With the advent of the NJO, all of a sudden all the main characters, who were previously untouchable, now had a very real chance of not making it. On top of that, Chewies death was extremely heroic and cemented his selfless life of sacrifice for those he loved. Yes it sent Han into a tail spin, but that also made for great story and even made it that much more powerful when he began to come out of his grieving and re-establish his relationships with his family.
Having said all that, killing Anakin Solo in this book was not only a huge mistake, but also a defining moment that goes against everything star wars ever represented. It was the wrong direction on so many levels and ultimately weakened all of the story telling from this point on. Yes, it also struck a cord with me because he was my favorite character and definitely the most interesting and arguably the most well developed character in the EU aside from Mara Jade. Had he lived into adulthood, I have no doubt he would have surpassed even her in terms of deep and interesting character development (unless they were always planning on sending the surviving solo boy on a one way path to the dark side no matter which one they chose to off-which proved to also be a mistake in the end).
However, aside from my personal favorable bias towards the character, his death also destroyed the spirit and fun of star wars because of who he represented. Quite simply, Anakin was the hero: strongest in the force of the new generation of Jedi knights, most potential to develop to be even stronger and definitely the heir to Luke Skywalker's role as leader of the new jedi order. In addition, given the supremely dark tone of the NJO and the LOTF that followed, his character was greatly needed to maintain some type of beacon of hope in the midst of all the death and despair. After he died, the NJO became a pointless exercise to try and unrealistically lift someone else (Jacen) up to the status that Anakin was already naturally rising toward. The problem with this was that, of those remaining, nobody had been developed in that way. None of the up and coming cast ever showed that leading role stability and potential. Jacen was always inconsistent, unstable, to brooding or to contemplative and Jaina was always more or less of an immature brat and an endless whiner (and don't even get me started on Joiner Jaina in the dark nest books). As of Star by Star, no other jedi knights had been developed over such a long period of time as the Solo kids, so neither of the remaining two could believably step into Anakin's role after he died.
As if all this wasn't bad enough for the EU, consider these additional drawbacks to Anakin's death:
- the story arc and interesting developments in the NJO came to a grinding halt as prophesies about Anakin and Tahiri were left unfulfilled and nothing ever came of Anakin's unique ability to sense the Vong in the force or of any further insight into his lightsaber.
- Chewies heroic sacrifice to save Anakin was cheapened.
- Tahiri's character, who was becoming interesting as well due to her budding relationship with Anakin, became all but pointless to the story line. Even during the LOTF no one seemed to quite know what to do with her. The best they could come up with was for her to continue grieving over Anakin 10 years after his death! This of course wouldn't have been an issue had he lived.
- How much more interesting would Jacen's fall to the dark side have been if Anakin was still around to actually TRY and legitimately redeem him. No one else seemed to care and Anakin's character was to selfless not to. Also, Jacen's confrontation with Jaina was pretty anticlimactic mostly because by that point they had no remaining relationship with each other. Admittedly, I believe Jacen's fall fit his character, but this could have been SO much more dramatic with Anakin in the picture. To any who would argue that that would have made to many main characters in the LOTF, I say rip rip out boba fetts pointless and endless page time and give it to Anakin and you would have had a much more cohesive story.
- The solo kids also represented the biggest link in establishing characters that readers could begin to care about as much as the original movie cast. The backlash over Anakin's death showed readers had already begun to really care about the character. Also, when the original cast started to get old and phased out, we had the solo kids to bring star wars into the next generation. This is an even bigger issue now with Jacen's death. All we have left is Jaina? She was always the weakest link now she's supposed to be the one to usher us into the new generation? Give me a break.
- With Jacen and Anakin both dead and Leia beyond child bearing years, the Solo name ultimately dies. This is unacceptable because star wars in any upcoming generation should always have a Solo and a Skywalker to root for. Ya sure the Solo bloodline continues (for now) in Jaina and Allana but it wont be the same without a boy to pass on the actual name.
- It would have been really cool to have had Ben as Anakin's apprentice especially because Anakin and Mara had been developing a strong bond. Well, at least we still have Mara, she was always developed well....o wait, she's gone too....
Some would argue that Ben Skywalker is the new hope I argued that was the essence of Star Wars earlier. Ok, undoubtablely that's what he's being shaped into, but ill bet you the majority of younger aged EU readers who loved Anakin the most likely aren't even reading at this point and could care less that Ben's role right now seems to be simply covering for the pointless event of Anakin's death back then. Besides, Ben as a teenager now still doesn't seem to me to be as interesting as Anakin was during that age. Also, to me a galaxy that has Anakin and Ben (a strong Solo and a strong Skywalker both carrying on the name) seems much more fun and intriguing than today's alternative. Rooting for these characters no matter how dark the stories became would have given Star Wars a very strong base as our beloved movie characters inevitably passed away.
To sum it all up, if someone important had to die in Star by Star, the best candidate would have been Jaina really. I'm sure her death wouldn't have been as shocking or have hit readers as hard as Anakin's but that was the ONLY benefit to his death in the midst of COUNTLESS drawbacks. Her death still would have driven the rest of the big players to despair and moved the story along. Think about it, Jaina's character has always taken a back seat to both her brother's even after Anakin's death. In the entire LOTF, she was nothing more than a bit player until the last two books when she's brought to the forefront simply to fight with Jacen. If she was the ultimate protagonist in the story, why the heck wasn't she given more to do throughout the arc. That's a different complaint though. The bottom line is Anakin's death was a total and complete waste and ripped away most of my enjoyment of the post rotj EU. I'm still an avid fan and ill still read anything else that's published, but the next generation of Jedi after Luke and co. and the integrity of the Solo name itself is forever tainted just because of the lack of foresight on the part of all the higher ups. I feel especially sorry for the authors who put so much work into the development of the Solo brothers (and applaud Mr. Stackpole for trying to stand up for Anakin's importance) only to see the potential for so many great story possibilities die forever.
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