Customer Reviews

Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Truce at Bakura is a riveting action packed tale of the days directly after Return of the Jedi. Luke injured by the Emperor during the final battle aboard the Death Star II, is receiving treatment for those life threatening electrical convulsions you see him go through, when he receives a visitation from the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi bidding him to go to Bakura which is in great danger. So Luke in command of a task force with diplomats Han and Leia in tow heads out to Bakura. It was interesting to see Luke Skywalker in command of a military force, something not seen in any of the other Star Wars books. At Bakura our heroes find Imperial forces about to be destroyed by soul sucking aliens. In the interests of the innocents enemies join force and the fun begins. The battles both on land and in space are well written and the story is great. Love, death, betrayel, everything a Star Wars reader could possibly want is here. Han's gloating over the defeat of the Empire at Endor in front of Bakura's Imperial governor is classic, Leia's confrontation with the spirit of Anakin Skywalker is an imporatant aspect to the story, while Luke's romantic feelings for a lovely Bakuran senator are a humanizing influence on a character to often viewed as above human emotions. Overall Truce at Bakura is a great read, well written and I highly recommend it.

"The Truce at Bakura", while not the first book to be published in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" has that honor), it is the first chronological story to take place after "Return of the Jedi". Literally hours after the final battle above the Endor moon, which rebellion forces are cleaning up the aftermath of the vicious and legendary space battle, and signal beacon sent from the fringe world of Bakura arrives in system seeking out the local imperial presence to request help in repelling and alien invasion. Luke, who is still physically and emotionally recovering from his battle with the Emperor and the death of his father, Darth Vader, and Han and Leia, who are also recovering from the battle while exploring their burgeoning new romance, are assigned the duty of taking a task force to Bakura to inform them that the Empire is now longer in power and to also provide whatever assistance they can in helping the Bakurans repel the alien invaders known as the Ssi-Ruuk.

After having read the original Timothy Zahn 'Thrawn' trilogy ("Heir to the Empire", "Dark Force Rising", and "Last Command"), reading "The Truce at Bakura" was a bit of a let down. There are some good moments and good characters to this book, but too often it gets bogged down in the internal politics of the planet (which is still run by an Imperial governor) and the too much time aboard the Ssi-Ruuk ships with the unpronounceable names of the aliens. One of the better characters introduced is Gariel Captison, a young, pretty, strong-willed politician who advocating Bakuran independence and is a potential love interest for Luke. The Ssi-Ruuk are also formidable characters, as fierce an alien race the New Republic will face until the deadly arrival of the Yuuzhan Vong 20 years later. In addition to territorial cravings, the Ssi-Ruuk also seek to enslave huge numbers of the Bakuran people to be used in a gruesome scientific process called 'entechment', which actually transfers the life energies of an individual from their flesh body into a droid controlled ship. These ships are thought to be much more efficient fighters, although the people trapped within them are suffering tremendously.

As with most of the Star Wars novels, "...Bakura" has its fair share of government intrigue and conspiracy, much of which is designed to thwart the efforts by the Republic to help save Bakura. As mentioned before, too much time is spent on the dealings of the government and that does slow the book down considerably. Yet, on the whole "The Truce at Bakura" is a good novel and provides some insight into characters, places, and events that will have a major impact on the Star Wars Universe in years to come.

In general, this was a very good, well written book with a believable plot, and well constructed characters. In fact, I would probably have even rated it five stars if it weren't for certain faults that I will go into in a few moments. The book starts the day after Return of the Jedi when the alliance suddenly intercepts a message to the emperor from the planet Bakura begging for help against a strange alien force attacking them. (apparantly they hadn't yet heard of his death) The alliance goes to help them fight these aliens (the Ssi Ruuk) and have a hard time convincing the strict, Imperial Bakurans that they're friends and only really want to help them. (The hope of course is that they'll eventually want to join and help them fight the remnants of the Empire) Meanwhile they discover the Ssi Ruuk are an even more formidable foe than previously thought, while meanwhile Luke develops a major crush on the beautiful senetor Gaeriel Captison. The book, judging it all together, was excellent, better than a lot of other Star Wars litterature I've read. However, there were certain faults that I have to mention. Let's start with Gaeriel. Actually, I didn't hate her like I thought I was going to, and while she isn't my idea of a strong female she actually turned out to be quite interesting. However, that doesn't cover the fact that she was a complete and total jerk to Luke. Even if she really didn't like him (not the case) she didn't have to be so mean and hurt his feelings like that. Especially since he was going out of his way to be nice to her. I mean this is Luke Skywalker we're talking about here! What in the universe was she THINKING turning him down like that! Also, when this book was written Star Wars history up to five and ten years later had already been written so we KNOW Luke isn't going to end up with Gaeriel, and basically her only purpose is so that Luke can get his heart broken yet again. Also, Luke himself seemed too much like he did during A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and less like the mature Jedi he had become by Return of the Jedi. I sincerly doubt Mature Luke would have fallen for someone like Gaeriel. Actually, it is in fact out of character for Luke to fall in love at all, at least the 'love at first sight, head over heels, puppy love' kind of way they have him do it here. Oh, well. Besides that though though this was a good book, which probably does deserve five stars except I had to knock one off because of Gaeriel's behavior. There is nothing that bad in this book, and anyone could probably read it, child or adult. I personally would probably not have enjoyed this much if I was less mature than I am now (I'm fifteen) but that may not be true for others.

This is a review for both the Hard cover book and the audio Casette.

I read this 10 years ago, as the second book following the Zahn Trilogy. By comparison it was natural to feel disappointed. But over the years, listening to it several times on audio cassette it has grown on me. The question you are asking, with so many SW books to select from should you read this one? Yes.

Luke falls in love. The characters here appear in the Corellian Trilogy. Bakura and Biotechnology used by the Ssi Ruuk is revisited in the ill intentioned NJO series. Though it didn't seem to fit when I first read the book, the story here does fit nicely with the entire Expanded Universe.

On the timeline I have this one at year 4.5 ANH. The story takes place right after the battle at Endor in ROTJ. Ben appears and tells Luke to go to Bakura. Luke, at age 20 is in command and can only assemble a small force after the devastation of the battle they have just fought. Naturally the Falcon, Han, Leia and Chewy are available to assist.

The point of the plot is for the Rebels to help the Imperial garrison on Bakura defend against an invasion that is coming from the unknown regions. The invaders are Large Reptilian creatures that, when they speak sound like flutes playing. They use entechment to take the essence of sentient beings and place that essence inside their machines to run those machines.

This is a book I recommend reading if you are now deciding to read the stories written for the classic era which starts with the Han Solo trilogy and ends with the Zahn Duology and the Dark Horse comic Union. Fortunately, at this writing, Amazon.com had both new and used audio cassettes and paperbacks for sale.

Audio Casette. This is an abridged version that can be listened to in about 2 ½ hours. Anthony Heald is the reader and he is the best. I recommend all the Bantam Audio books for star wars. They do a great job presenting the books with music and sound effects.

I decided after reading TPM by Terry Brooks that I just had to get my hands on as many SW novels as possible, and as much in order as possible. I failed with the latter and stupidly enough jumped from watching a half-dunk Anakin run around a miserable planet with a half-drunk Obi-Wan to watching Luke fall out of love with his sister and then in love with another senator. What is it with Skywalkers and politicians? But anyways. Yes. This book was really good, even though it was a little interesting to acclimate myself to early 90's SW lit. A very well-written book with an intriguing story line that gave new life to characters that seemed to love a bit of their juice by the end of the classic trilogy. The whole fiasco with Luke and Gaeri was so adorable... *sniff* Our little Luke is all grown up and kissing girls that aren't related to him! lol And I loved Leia's new flaw- bitterness. Hatred. Anger. "How could Darth Vader be MY father?!" she wonders... and cries... it was great. But Anakin's entrance... wow... um, yes, so this was 94 or whatever, but after reading RotS, that just is NOT up to par. I loved reading things from Chewie's point of view (Han's decorating sense is SO, well, human! ha ha ha) and the introduction of a character that is actually my age (Dev) was emotionally more attaching.

And yes, there's that wonderful thing that it was written by a woman. Why can't more women write SW books, I say?! We love SW, too! :)

I really like this book, but I have an important question:

On page 81 (paperback-middle of chapter 6), Nereus says, "His Imperial Majesty {aka Emperor Palpatine} should never have trusted a Sith lord."

Was Palpatine not a Sith lord himself? I have always believed that he was. I referred to Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters and all that I have found in the biography of Palpatine regerding the Sith is that Palpatine "and the newest Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, instigated a great Jedi Purge."

Am I missing something?

As the first new SW book to come out after Zahn's legendary trilogy, it suffered quite a bit by comparison. By viewing it objectively after some time has passed, it fares better, but it's still not the best. It picks up IMMEDIATELY after ROTJ. Like, the next day. They get a distress call from an outlying Imperial world, Bakura, telling of an evil foe come to kill them all. So, Our Heroes go out there in force, and there are forced to make a treaty with the Imperials to fight a common foe, the Ssi-ruk. (who are V-ish, lizard aliens) It's one of the most cohesive books in the series. It sets out to tell one story, and that's what it does. However, much of the plot seems borrowed from other sources, and the Ssi-ruk never REALLY seem to fit within the Star Wars universe. (cross the Borg with the Visitors, and you've got 'em) It's not as flashy as many, but it is a solid read, especially if you aren't expecting non-stop action. Definately worth picking up

Being a first time SW novel reader, Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura seemed like an excellent place to start, as it begins a mere 12 to 24 hours after the end of Return of the Jedi (which makes this novel Episode VII, I guess).

Still flush from the success of their critical attack against the Empire, the Rebel Alliance troops receive a distress beacon intended for the Emperor and his more powerful Death Star. It seems the Rim World Bakura is under attack by a hostile and previously unknown race from outside the borders of the Empire controlled universe. Seeing an excellent political, not to mention military, chance to shore up support for the Alliance in the coming chaos that will undoubtedly erupt following the spreading news of the Emperor's death, the usual suspects (Luke, Leia, Han, etc) round up and head out to aid the threatened planet.

As a Star Wars story this is a fairly routine, albeit fun, Space Opera filled with derring do and political intrigue. Some reviewers may grumble that there was far too much political intrigue, but I thought that it was well handled and realistic considering the tale's timeline. The book is filled with nice, little intelligent touches as well, like having the chief Imperial baddie not be some power mad Emperor wannabe. I also liked how Luke suffered some debilitating fallout from his final face off with the Emperor and Leia had to face some serious anger issues stemming from discovering just who her father really was. Sadly Han Solo doesn't get to do much except get jealous and shoot people (for different reasons, not jealousy). Comic relief is provided by C-3PO and R2-D2, naturally.

The reptilian Ssi-ruuk get a pretty high register on the Hissable Villain Rating Scale, the "entechment" of their human prisoners is fairly blood curdling and only surpassed by their abusive treatment and constant brainwashing of their Force strong 'pet'/prisoner Dev (a sad character that ads a bitter dose of pathos to this grand adventure series chapter).

While giving five stars to The Truce at Bakura may prove (with further SW spin-off reading) a tad excessive, the novel was far too entertaining of a read for me to be comfortable with just four stars. Recommended.

Kathy Tyers did an amazing job with this book. I loved the fact that it picked up the day after the battle of Endor (Luke is still healing from his battle with Vader and the Emporer).

I guess it may have started a little slow, and I think the bit about Leia's psycological issues with Vader being her father and all was unnecessary, or over done. But these were truly minor annoyances at most. The rest of the novel made up for it.

I've read a lot of the Star Wars novels. In my opinion, "The Truce at Bakura" by Kathy Tyers rates at the top with Timothy Zahn and Michael A. Stackpole.

I can see why this novel may not appeal to the 12-15 year old reader. But for someone with a little more maturity, who appreciates a well-contrived and well-written story with accurate character representation, and believable dialogue, I recommend reading this book.

I think the author did a particularly good job in her portrayal of Luke Skywalker. I found his thoughts and actions to be in perfect accord with the character defined by the movies.

I only wish Kathy Tyers would write another one.

It was a great book.It's a good book that let's you really see that the war dosn't stop because of the Emporer's death. You also get to see the flaws and specialties of these charachters.Kathy Tyers does a good job of adding layers using fear, prejudices, and the mistrust between the Alliance and the Empire. To make it more interesting there is a human that serves the enemy. His point of view is unsure, but unique. He knows what is happening and why but he dosen't know what to do.What a blockbuster! Read it on my recommendation. I am a fanatic. I would know if their were any no nos or false statements made. Their isn't any.