Customer Reviews

Star by Star (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 9)

5 star:		(111)
4 star:		(64)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(39)

 

 

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!

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!!

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.

This is one of the most powerful books in the New Jedi Order series, not least of all because of the major twists it introduces to the series' plot arc. As a result, readers are sure to be torn as to whether to love or hate it. Star by Star does start slowly, and some apparent errors occur in the opening chapters (Jaina's status with Rogue Squadron is altered from the last book, for example). The scenes with the adult characters are often slow throughout the book, and in some places Denning insufficiently explains events, leaving the reader wondering how the story got from point A to point B. These are my only trifles with Denning's writing. His character development is good and he manages to breathe life into a number of the rather flat Jedi from Kevin J. Anderson's young readers' series. He also creates an exciting new group of characters--the Barabels, whom we meet in the e-book Recovery (included in the paperback). In addition, Denning writes excellent action scenes. Every chapter about the mission of the young Jedi is a page-turner. This is a blessing in a 600+ page book. On the whole, I think Denning is one of the most skilled writers in the Star Wars franchise.

In part because Denning writes so well, some of the plot is hard to swallow--bad things happen, and Denning emotionally involves the reader in them. Despite the book being a page-turner, I had to read it slowly because I found that the only way for me to deal with how upsetting the events in it were was to take them in small doses. At one point I even wished I could un-read what I had read because it was so depressing. Star Wars fans who prefer to see the franchise's characters cleverly work their way out of tough situations will really dislike this book. However, I appreciated both the realism of what happened here, and Denning's ability to involve me in it. I have read too many Star Wars books that have made me roll my eyes at supposedly significant events and that have left me emotionally indifferent, so I give kudos to Denning for doing just the opposite. Star by Star is a difficult read, but it's worth the trouble.

All Previous authors had been building Anakin Solo character, make us like him and think he was geat with the force, not one with the force as written by Troy Denning. That's it, I will buy no more NJO books.

Like most people, I was devastated when Anakin was killed. Yeah, yeah, it was in a blaze of glory and all and he will be remembered for all time, blah, blah, BUT COULDN'T THEY HAVE JUST KILLED SOMEBODY ELSE?!?!?!? I recognize the need to kill a major character every once in a while, but Anakin was the wrong person to kill. Jacen and Jaina are not the ones you want leading the next generation of Jedi (and who knows what the Vong are going to do to Jacen now that they have him). A part of me is still hoping that Anakin is still alive, even if they have to bring him back in the cheesiest way possible, I really don't care. Anakin used to be the one that was ignored while the focus was on the twins, but now that he had finally stepped to the forefront and achieved his potential, why kill him? Kill Jacen instead. Anakin's ending would have been perfect for Jacen. Anyway, the only reason I will continue to read this now ruined series is to find out what happens next.

Although I have been been a great fan of the Star Wars saga, I am greatly disappointed with the plot and direction of the NJO. After the excellent job that Timothy Zahn did in setting up future story lines in "Vision of the Future," NJO falls flat on its face. I agree with a previous review that it would have been nice to see future story lines expand upon the Chiss and Unknown Regions. After all, there were supposed to be thousands of horrible somethings never seen before in the galaxy. Were there not enough of these horrible somethings upon which to expand and enhance the magnificent saga that preceded?

Also, this entire series has been too dark for too long. It seemed especially macabre to release this after the events of September 11 given the complete destruction of the World Trade Center. As a Star Wars fan, I looked forward to becoming one with the Star Wars Universe as a means of escaping this world.

I also understand the necessity of occasionally killing off an important character, but given the failure of the quality of writing to match up to that of Zahn, the death of Anakin Solo did not come off very well. Now, not only has this been too dark for too long, it is also depressing in both the content and quality.

I never thought I would give a Star Wars novel a negative review, but as this story line so eloquently illustrates to me, things do change. I'm not sure I will buy the next installment in the series.

I read once that George Lucas toyed with the fact of killing Luke in Return of the Jedi, but discarded the idea because he hated it when the major good guys diead. Here we are in Star by Star stunned but acceptant with Chewbacca's death 7 books later after the terrible events of Vector Prime when we are throttled by a second (and to my point of view) a much harsher main character death. This made Star by Star a very difficult book to rate. As enraptured as I was I really couldn't bring myself to enjoy the book after our main character's death. The upbeat of this book is the beautifully emotionally crafted speech that Leia delivers towards the end, and the fact that Luke has gotten his head out of the clouds. I understand the need to add a little suspense in the Star Wars Saga, but this I thought went a little too far. Chewie's death was easier to come to terms with because of the fact that he had lived his life and that he had served the Rebellion and Republic well. Where our young character died before his time.

I am a faithful fan of the whole Star Wars book catalog and I enjoyed this book. But I feel that enough death and destruction has occured with this plot line and it's time for it to end. I feel like I am being strung along and the story is too drawn out. It's time for this series to be over.

Before reading this overview, I would like to state that at the very moment the hero of this story died, I was ready to shoot a hole through the book, then the author, the person who wrote this part of the series and then George Lucas for allowing it. And since it was pretty much bantha poodoo there at the end, I am currently rewriting an alternate series (mostly fan-fic) to recover the lost ground. I hope that if I send it in, it will sate the palate of the fans who suffered from this flawed novel. I apologize to the authors, but this literary choice makes no sense from no angle and there are about three hundred or so reviews to support that argument on amazon alone. If you have in mind a book that will build off of Mr. Keye's work, this is not it. The start did somewhat, but it fell off the cliff and died. I am mourning Star Wars as it stands now.

When I first read the "Star Wars Young Jedi Knights" series, I wasn't expecting too much in the way of details and amazing writing. Despite this, the books turned out to be decent pieces of what one might perceive to be "supersized fan fiction". But they were true to the old characters and enhanced the new ones.

Now, after I finished the last novel of the series, I decided to continue reading the new one "Star Wars: The New Jedi Order". The books are, if anything, more detailed and inclusive of character detail. Each few books may have a new author, but the books maintain a strong consistency nonetheless.

Ok, enough introduction, this book is well into the series, first of all, so, don't think of reading this if you haven't read the first nine novels, beginning with "Vector Prime". That said, this novel continues with the hard and long struggle of the New Republic against the determined and brutal aliens, the Yuuzhan Vong. Despite many previous efforts to eliminate their foes, the Jedi have now lost many comrades and suffered from various political slander and attempts of the traitorous "Peace Brigade" to trade the Jedi for the lives of others.

In the midst of this chaos, and the wavering support from the Senate leader, Borsk, Anakin Solo devises a plan to kill the new weapon being used by the Vong: creatures that can smell and eliminate Jedi along with their sense of the force. Anakin leads a strike force on the planet hosting the Mother of these deadly creatures with Jaina, Jacen, Tenel Ka, his best friend, Tahiri, other young Jedi and the Jedi Knight, Ganner. With his plan to kill their mother, and a risky setup of the "kidnapping" of the Jedi knights by the Yuuzhan Vong in order to infiltrate, Anakin may have swallowed more than he can chew.

With a few errors in the beginning and many new enemies like the Peace Brigade and Vong disguised as allies, the team suffers from moral and sentimental pain. The further in they go, the more the Jedi begin to feel that the Vong are stronger than they expected and the fact that the Vong have found out a secret that may endanger the mission completely to the point of facing a more dangerous enemy than just acid spitting Jedi killers, tragedy is just beyond the horizon. And as the young Jedi knights soon discover, there may be more to heroism than the title and honor. Pain goes hand in hand with success.

An excellent read, this series just keeps getting more interesting (From the beginning, a foe that could not be sensed in the force was an ingenius idea). I highly reccomend this novel. It is a well woven tale of heroism, sacrifice, clever schemes and wisdom that is memorable and eloquent.

Word of warning: I don't want to spoil anything (sorry if I already have), but this book has a much grimmer tone than that of its predecessors and that of the "Young Jedi Knights series". Other than that, just read the book and you will not be disappointed in terms of the fast moving excitement.

Ok, not to drag on the review, but, (Beyond this point, I am spoiling the book, so, if you want to ruin it, read on) SPOILER BEYOND THIS POINT, DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK.



... I must say that right after Anakin Solo's death, the book dropped dead. Period. Anakin was the focus and that focus was shot dead and never revived. Anakin could have easily been a spirit like Ben, since he was one with the force. Secondly, the fact that the story slowed down and became a repeat of "Anakin is dead, let's all be sad and mourn" through at least fifty pages. I was ready to shoot a hole through the book. I liked the whole beginning, it was superbly written, well characterized, developed well, paced precisely, and heading in a good direction. But, it had the wrong ending. Anakin's suposed "destiny" was death. That makes no sense. His death did almost nothing, and was ultimately anti-climatic and jarring. When I finished reading the line "By then, Anakin was gone". I felt like I had been slapped in the face. I reread the line, continued reading and ran scenarios through my head. Anakin's death made no sense. Starting with the question: Why if he was so strong in the force, did he not remain as a spirit, like Ben Kenobi? If he is to be an influence (He didn't quite make a dent before he died) he needs to be a guiding spirit.

Additionally, the fact that the majority of the readers, (let's face it) are teenagers ranging from Anakin's age to the early twenties. That in mind, what is more appealing? A protagonist of age 40 like Han or a protagonist around the age of Anakin? For the readers that usually read these books, the answer is the latter. Also, (Not to press the "romantic idea") but most teens can relate to a friend turned lover relationship, and those tend to be very easy to develope because the friends know each other, so there is very little to explain about why they like each other, it is the progress of that relationship that is appealing to readers. That in mind, Anakin and Tahiri are the ideal pair. Anakin is destined to be a hero and future "Luke" and Tahiri, his best friend, is well learned in the ways of the Yuuzhan Vong. They could have very well suceeded Luke and Mara. And Anakin is a good candidate for Ben's teacher as well. (More reasons listed below). For one, he is supposedly more powerful than Luke, and another reason is that Anakin is very close to Mara, therefore his bond to Ben is closer than most other Jedi. And his teacher was Mara.

I admit, I am not a fan of the censored "happy utopia" that appears in a lot of cartoons and children's books. I support books that stretch to make realistic choices- and that includes death of main characters. BUT only when it makes sense to do so. If this death had been at the end of the series in the last book, it may have been more logical, if the impact of Anakin's death had influenced the Jedi in a more uplifting way. Anakin's character is built to be that support. And Tahiri would have influenced the series too, but not without Anakin, without him, the character is dead weight. Tahiri is a strong female character, no mistake, but Anakin and Tahiri were a team. If Tahiri and Anakin had died, leaving a greater impact and a new opening for more hope, that would have worked.

So, my other objections are similar to those of other reviewers in the sense that the reasons to kill Anakin Solo were not legitimate. I, as a writer myself, know that when a character is crucial and is built up that way and the death can undo that build up and developement, shows a poor choice on the writer's part. Although (above) I stated that there was a consistency, and there was, but as soon as this novel ended, I felt that break. Anakin's character was developed well up to this point, however, he was not done developing. In my opinion, a heroe's death so early, and right smack dab in the middle of the series is a bad idea. Besides the reason I already stated. The second, is that (I am about to spoil further, so, if you have not read past "Star by Star, I suggest you stop reading right now) in "Dark Journey", I noticed that Jaina doesn't need Anakin's death as a conflict to send her into confusion, that anger could have come from Jacen's kidnapping alone. And with the fall of Corucant, there is plenty of conflict for Leia, Han and the others too. I normally do not support the "heroe's death" gamble, in some cases, it is a good thing to have, but not when it upsets and destroys the balance of a story, especially when the story is in the "middle" of a series. That death may have worked better with a non- main character like Ganner. And that still could have affected the whole story in the way needed to make whatever spark the rest of the story needed.
I am not a big fan of romance novels either, but, the fact that Anakin and Tahiri share such a big bond and Anakin is reputed to be "The next Luke Skywalker" between those two, another hope could be sparked and continued. Without it, the other books are trapped into a corner where there has to be "filler like" story. Because Anakin is gone, Tahiri hasn't got much of a role anymore and because Jacen is gone, Jaina has to go off on her own journey of darkness, which so far is hard to read because most of the conflict is "Jaina is sad because she lost Anakin and Jacen". Although, (Sorry, more spoiling) it is apparent that no one really thinks Jacen is dead, (and he's not), so that doesn't make for much of a conflict, and Anakin's death just seems like a sidestep, off beat. The whole first half of "Dark Journey" is about everyone getting over Anakin's death (And not about the Yuuzhan Vong), in the long run, another main character (any one besides Jaina, Jacen, Anakin) could have died, because (Not because the sad part is a bad thing, it makes for a semi-good conflict) Anakin was a character still being built up to inherit the will of the Jedi, then he just died, and to me, his death didn't even seem to be that crucial. Jacen could have easily fought his way out of the cave and the fact that Anakin completely ignored the last promise he made to Tahiri, made very little sense. And if Anakin was one with the force, he would have died the way Obi Wan did (and disappear, then reappear as a spirit), and Anakin was built up to be that strong (especially with the way he died), so that was a blunder too.

I also read into the (Even more spoiler for the end of the series) the end notes and interviews from "The Unifying Force" and I read the answer to the question about Anakin dying and yes for the most part I could see that he could not be the one who went over to the dark side in the series following "The Dark Nest" saga. I agree, completely. Anakin is a character who struggled with identity and I think that if he became the second Darth Vader it wouldn't make sense. Anakin tries to not be that way. I would like this series even less if they had done that. But I don't agree with the statement that NJO was the series where Jacen was the hero. No, nope, no way. The hero was Anakin. The series starts with the Yuuzhan Vong attack and quickly leads into Anakin going on an adventure with Mara and Luke a few times. Then Chewie dies. Han blames Anakin, so again, it's Anakin's struggle. Next, Jacen refuses to use the force, and argues with Anakin. This can be a two way hero thing, but it's Anakin who has the strongest will and struggle through this. Then comes Anakin's new adventures with Tahiri. These two books are all about the two of them. Hands down. Then Anakin "leads" the Mykyr mission. But his leadership skills were only emerging, he was an emerging hero, but still the protagonist of the series. And a likable main character too.

My other question is "Why the younger Jedi?" Yes, I get that most of the older ones are from the original Star Wars, but, if it's a new order, there has to be more new Jedi and most of the new Jedi have been eliminated from the picture. It's not very new if Luke, Leia and Mara end up being the only Jedi left. (Although I know that's not going to happen since I saw the new series starting with "Betrayal"). I agree that Star Wars has died with the final ten or twenty percent of the ending of this novel. It's, no offense intended, very grim and almost "emo". Star Wars is not meant to be like that. With the death of Chewbacca, the series swayed, but recovered, then the new hero, the new Luke of Star Wars was killed and the series died. Dropped dead.

Well, I'm just about done ranting. (My apologies to Ms. Cunningham, I enjoyed her book), but I feel that such an ending of "Star by Star" contained, her book did not have much to work with. The fall of Corucant would and Jacen's kidnapping would have been enough to send Jaina into turmoil, mostly because Jaina is extremely close to Jacen and anything that causes that bond to waver would send her into darkness and Ms. Cunningham adds an intriguing twist to Jaina's and Zekk's relationship, a good choice. That rift WAS built up well in "Star by Star" and was built up on just fine. But Mr. Denning's book seemed to drop its power right after Anakin died because the entire story up to that point (With "Edge of Victory I and II") was about Anakin and Mara, then about Anakin and Tahiri, and before that, Anakin and Jacen's conflicting views could have been expanded, it wasn't ever solved since Anakin just died. And there seemed to be a new relationship forming between Anakin and the new baby, Ben. I personally am fond of "circle plots", when Ben got older, if Anakin was the new "Luke" he would teach Ben, a reversal of the old teacher and student. I think Anakin's death was an unnessary conflict, the story was floating well without it. I think that if Jacen had gone missing, with Anakin alive (Jaina could blame Anakin for Jacen's risk) and there could be a rift there. Or Anakin could blame Jacen's morals as the reason for his death and a rift could form there. With the rift between Anakin and Jacen never sealed, plenty of conflicts could have come up without Anakin dying. In this case (My apologies to Mr. Denning) I would have to say that Anakin's death did nothing for the story's advancement, if anything, it set it backwards. With the mission's almost failure, Anakin could try to reunite the remaining Jedi on his own to repay his comrades and there could be distrust there (Another possible conflict). I could say that having Anakin die (Without creating a new opening for more space to let the story progress) and having other conflicts just dropped for the sake of a forced conflict, is not a good literary choice. Furthermore, the way Anakin died is not very believable to be a proper sacrifice. He died in the midst of a major attack, and was enveloped in the force, the force, which, if he was really as strong as he was built up to be, should have saved him and made him able to blast the Yuuzhan Vong aside, and Jacen and Jaina could have easily helped him out and still accomplished their mission. To boot, both Jacen and Jaina seem to have forgotten that they promised to protect Anakin entirely. They could have gone back and rescued him or lent him force powers. And by the amount that he had accumulated, he could have healed his wounds or regained his strength (the lack thereof had been the cause of his death) and bought enough strength to see his siblings out safely, then battled his way out. Denning's "dying hero" idea, though somewhat relevant to Anakin's previous developement, makes less sense than Anakin getting the powers and making his way out, giving a new hope. The "lost cause" idea is well established enough without a need to pile on the morbidity. This is an idea, some writers like to call "hitting over the head" with an idea, something that gets old fast, and pisses readers off. A lot of alternate situations, (That make more sense) could have happened. The other books following this sound like a drone of doom, and it's not very interesting to read, and this event helped to fuel that glitch. In addition, it is more unbelievable that Tahiri didn't even try to follow Anakin (If she's really as stubborn as Denning builds her up to be) she would not have let Anakin go alone, or at least, she would have turned around and tried to help him out as soon as she felt him hurt. Anakin, starting with the moments where he saved Mara, up to the point where he saved Tahiri, was the main character and focus. His personality was developed and that's why the ending was such a let down, he was supposed to be the new hope. I'm not sure if switching off authors like this was such a good idea, flaws in developement can occur very easily. And cheap anti-climatic endings can emerge when the writer doesn't know what to do. AKA filler. Anakin's death fills in the story conflict gaps that have gaping holes in the sequels to this novel. Though other characters have good conflicts, this idea is a filler. That is what is disappointing, it doesn't feel genuine, it feels off color in relation to the rest of the book and series. (All fans of the Anime series "Naruto" know what I'm talking about). I'm sorry to say this, but if I were Denning's editor, I would not have let this slide, and sent it right back to the drawing board. This series could use a few serious rewrites- if any fans are up to the task, I'd be interested in reading them. Like I said- This is like a super sized fan fiction piece.

Well, if you've read this far, you've had the story almost completely ruined, sorry. But, if you want to read the book and decide for yourself, it is still an enjoyable read, depressing and well written, but the ending choices (As I said before) does not merit the praise that the start of the book should get. To me, it felt as though Denning almost reached the peak of good writing, but fell off. I am hopeful that the rest of the series picks up the slack.