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

by Troy Denning (Author) "The dark sliver of a distant starliner crept into view, a blue needle of ion efflux pushing it across the immense sweep of a brilliant..." (more)
Key Phrases: magma missiles, battle meld, laminanium armor, Yuuzhan Vong, Nom Anor, New Republic (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
A new book in the successful "New Jedi Order" series, created jointly by Del Rey and Lucasfilm, this adventure pits the children of old favorites Luke, Leia, and Han against alien invaders.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
The New York Times bestselling Star Wars series The New Jedi Order enthralls readers with its epic drama and thrilling adventure. Now readers will pierce the very heart of darkness, as those fascinating figures in that galaxy far, far away--Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, as well as their children--spring to vivid life to battle their deadliest adversaries.

It is a solemn time for the New Republic, as the merciless Yuuzhan Vong continue their ruthless campaign of terror and destruction. The brutal enemy has unleashed a savage creature capable of finding--and killing--Jedi Knights. And now Leia Organa Solo faces a terrible ultimatum from the mighty alien foe determined to conquer the galaxy. If the location of the secret Jedi base is not revealed within one week, the Yuuzhan Vong will blast millions of refugee ships into oblivion.

As the battered but still unbroken Jedi scramble to deal with the newest onslaught, Leia's son Anakin lays out a daring plan. A Jedi strike force will allow itself to be "captured" by the Yuuzhan Vong and taken to their stronghold in the realm of darkness, where the Jedi will sabotage the evil empire's deadliest weapons. The leaders of the force are the three Solo siblings. The risks are tremendous. Can the Jedi fight a ruthless enemy without becoming ruthless themselves and falling victim to the dark side?

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 606 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1st edition (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034542848X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345428486
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (258 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #425,342 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 9 in The New Jedi Order Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite simply the best epic SW novel yet!, November 15, 2001

By	Nathan Blumenfeld "mastadge" (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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!

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "There's nothing you can do when you're the next in line...", November 3, 2001

By	Handofthrawn "handofthrawn45" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star by Star (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 9) (Audio Cassette)

The above lyric from Genesis's 'Domino' seems a bit too apt for this series. One of the best characters in the series,a legend among SW fiction, is killed off, nullifying some of the best buildup in the series and cutting its promise short. So many people have died, and for what? Because the authors can't find any other way rto make a good story or even create atmosphere. And that is the most dark and frightening thing about what has become the world of 'Star Wars' novels.

Denning does a good job with the numerous battles and stories, although the whole idea of mutating vornskyrs sounds very forced and just about as absurb as a lot of the other brainless blabber in the series. Denning's a good writer, I'll admit, but at the same time 'Star by Star' plunges into the depths of terrible plotting.

The infamous death is the worst of the series- now we have a well-known character who's been one of the most important in the series who is abruptly killed off. My question: Why? It seems the only way these NJO writers can create a good story is by killing off a major character or decimating some planet. And that's the real tradgedy. Must the SW universe suffer because its writers can't come up with anything original? There are other ways to create drama than killing off people. It especially bothers me that now Greg Keyes' books and the whole death of Chewie now seem to be pointless. Why add that in if the main character is going to be killed?

Furthermore, in 'Star by Star' the enemies just seem faceless and prohibit the possibility of anything deep and philosohpical coming out of the conflict, like in Stackpole's latter X-wing comics. Those were thinking man's books. These are books where you fear for your favorite character's lives every time you turn the page and pray they'll make it to the next. It's a sorry state of affairs if they have to do that for every single book. There's nothing wrong with killing off characters, but something is wrong when you waste their lives and kill them off uselessly. Io took the deaths of Chewie and my beloved Elegos in stride, but now it seems Chewie died for nothing except to create a dark atmosphere that the authors originally couldn't make on their own. Furthermore, the only way they can make these books 'dark' is by killing off people. It's a terrible writer's crutch. Look at some of the segments of Stackpole's 'Mandatory Retirement', especially those on the ground on Ciutric. That's darkness, not because a Rogue dies, but because of the feeling of despair, helplessness, and the ideological clahes that bring out the hypocriscy that plagues both the Rebels and the Empire. Where's that in NJO? Where's the depth? While one may say this war is better because it's one more driven, more fierce, and more 'dark', it also has far less depth. In a political war one can examine to motivations and thought of each and every person involed, as was done in things like 'The Making of Baron Fel'. Here it's just people fighting to survive against a faceless enemy devoid of any signs of good characterization whose only motivation for their deeds is fanaticism, and even that is presented vaugely. The Vong are bad... because they're bad. The Empire was bad because it demonstrated hypocricy and bigotry and incurred a lust for power that destroyed it from the inside. Such elegances are lost in NJO. A good author could make Imperials human. Here nothing can make the vong anything more than mean, cardboard baddies who kill things because Yun Yammka said so.

All I can say is that my interest in 'Star Wars' is rapidly declining, and I'll most likely only keep up with the NJO series through online plot summaries. I've been a huge fan of the Bantham boooks and an expert on many levels of SW. But now it's all falling apart. I'd rather had a tale of revolution and uprising than a bunch of repetitive stories about extragalactic freaks hacking people just to move the story along. Feel free to continue reading NJO series, of course. But this is the most flagrant example yet of why my faith in Lucasfilm and the NJO series is lost, and why this is one once-devout 'Star Wars' fan who is no longer so.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Depressing at best..., April 4, 2002

By	Olivia Williams (Vandenberg, CA USA) - See all my reviews

It's been over 3 months since I read this book and I'm still upset. After investing YEARS of time (and money) into these characters through books and movies, it was extremely shocking to lose a character with so much potential---Anakin Solo.

Feeling rather like a contemporary of Han and Leia's, their children have grown up with mine; I've mentioned their names to my kids and attempted to explain the universe of Star Wars beyond their only knowledge which is of Episode One.

I think I felt betrayed as I bought this book without checking the reviews---I was anxiously waiting for it to hit the stores and couldn't wait to read it.

Strangely, up until Anakin's death, I was totally immersed in the action---there were hits and misses with things (a very negative storyline for one), but I was enjoying the growth of the Solo children---thinking, foolishly, that they would be the next "generation" of heroes to read about. Anakin's death felt abrupt and disjointed---I also checked the end to be sure he really was dead. Then I tossed the book on a shelf---where it still sits, not completely read.

I can't bring myself to continue reading about losses like these---I want my heroes pure and untainted (also a big problem with this series) and living, if not forever, then at least a good, long while...