Making Good on the Jesus Analogy: Meaningless Reviews in a Galaxy Even Further Away
Before Disney rebooted the Star Wars Universe, there were a bunch of dog-eared paperbacks describing the adventures of Luke, Leia, Han, etc in the years following the events of the movies. This is a review of one of these stories, which is itself one of nineteen in a series. For the rationale behind such an ill-advised quest, click here. For the previous entry in the series, follow this link here. In this edition, everyone runs out of moves….
Number nine, halfway through the series, Troy Denning’s Star by Star. Published in October of 2001, and coming in at 624 pages, the longest single story in the series by a long shot.
George Lucas himself made only two contributions to the New Jedi Order series. Despite this being the same era in which Jar Jar was brought into the world, and the same era in which no one was around to tell him no, Lucas made a wise call and stated that the Yuuzhan Vong couldn’t use the Force. This call is part of the reason that the series was able to head in a new and unexpected direction, which I have mentioned before.
The other major decision involved the younger generation of Jedi. Originally, Jacen Solo was slated to die about halfway through the series, allowing Anakin Solo to assume the mantle of leadership. George, hilariously, heard mantle of leadership and Anakin in the same sentence and somehow thought it was hewing a little too close to the story he was working on at the time.
Anyways, Lucas directed his writers to do something about that “overlap.” So they did. Which brings us to this story, dear reader, and let me just tell you this right now: They certainly did something about it.
The shortest plot rundown you’re likely to find:
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Cast:
Everyone. Everyone is in this. Look, if they matter in this one, I’ll just let you know.
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The tone of this one is set immediately. Here, guess what happens in the opening chapters:
A): A Jedi gets her face melted off with acid
B): The Yuuzhan Vong mutilate a captain beyond all recognition and then murder the entire crew
C): A refugee ship carrying ten thousand refugees is destroyed in cold blood
D): All of the above
It’s D, which stands for dark. It’s like the overall mood of Empire Strikes Back, only dialed up to eleven.
Also in the vein of Empire, there’s a hidden base operated by the heroes of this story, only in this case it’s for the Jedi. There’s a lot of the same base-under-construction vibes in this one.
The Yuuzhan Vong create a creature that is designed to hunt and kill Jedi. It’s got an acid attack, supersonic screech attacks, blood that emits neurotoxins when exposed to air, retroviruses that grow on its toe pads, and the ability to sense Force Users. They’re called Voxyn. They kill a whole bunch of Jedi. They’re all made in one place, far behind enemy lines, and so Anakin Solo devises a plan and creates a strike force of Jedi to deal with the threat
This novel features the scientist Danni Quee, who hasn’t been seen since the opening book in the series. She’s working on breaking down the Yuuzhan Vong war coordinators, the brain jellyfish things known as yammosks. There’s some real fun scenes of her flying in combat situations, and has a sort of Enigma Code breaking feel to it, which is dope.
As a result of those two plotlines — The voxyn threat and the yammosk jamming — massive amounts of Jedi are needed. As a result, the full scope of the New Jedi Order is shown, for the first time all series. This one has large groups of Jedi, all coordinating, fighting, and dying together. It’s similar to the feeling of watching Daenerys finally set sail for Westeros— latent power finally set in motion.
The last ten percent of the book or so features a very tedious baby kidnapping subplot that drags out across an otherwise interesting backdrop of Coruscant under attack. Miss me with that.
This novel is the most graphically violent yet. There’s a scene when a Yuuzhan Vong soldier gets squished in his own armor. It’s gross. Following the general trend of American Media, there is apparently no issue describing these scenes, but any time sex is involved, the writer is very careful to tiptoe around coming out and just stating it, which is a ridiculous double standard and tot —
*Takes deep breath, realizes what I’m advocating for*
Uh, not that I want graphic sex scenes in these books. It-It’s about the double standard — You know, I’m not saying that I need that or anything —
*Starts sweating*
I think I’ll just drop it.
Kyp Durron, rogue Jedi, is finally brought back into the fold, not with coercion or arrest, or any appeal to rationality, but rather by Luke formulating a secret plan and then telling literally every Jedi and Jedi ally except Kyp, who then continue to drop cryptic hints around Durron until he finally breaks down and swears allegiance to Luke. It’s petty. I’m about it.
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Nom Anor Hot Seat Ranking:
He’s ambitious, he’s talented, he’s heading for…..something. Scale is ranked from 1 to 7, with 1 indicating disaster and 7 meaning the fulfillment of his wishes
Despite his cowardice (a mortal sin to his species) in the last book, Nom Anor ended the last novel at a 5. In this one, that rating goes down, not because his cowardice was found out nor because of any dressing down by his superiors, but rather because Nom Anor discovers he now has a rival. Vergere, the mysterious avian character from earlier in the series, has returned and earned the attentions of the warmaster, and Nom Anor’s prestige and importance wanes as a result. That, and Vergere is craftier than Nom Anor, and routinely maneuvers him into traps. He spends a lot of this one getting dunked on by a giant bird.
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Death Star Watch: To ensure authenticity, always check to see if a planet is destroyed. Accept no substitute!
The planet is called New Plympto, and the Yuuzhan Vong destroy it with some unspecified poison that wipes all life from the surface. It happens just prior to the opening act. RIP, Plymptoites. Er, Plymptoese. Uh, creatures from New Plympto.
Death Star Count for Star by Star: 1
Death Star Count for The New Jedi Order: 6
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Cliches in a Galaxy, Far, Far Away
It may be grim, violent, and often depressing, but there isn’t a whole lot of repurposed cliches in this thing. In fact, I didn’t see any. Here, enjoy this picture of Jacen Solo looking like an idiot.
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Jar Jar Binks Award for Worst New Addition:
The Voxyn are a nice plot device for raising the stakes, and the author knows how to use them well. That said, this is apparently what a Voxyn looks like:
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Final thoughts (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD):
There’s two major developments in Star by Star, both resolving subplots that have been in effect for at least three books. First, the Yuuzhan Vong make good on the invasion of the Core Worlds, and capture the city-planet of Coruscant, the capital of the New Republic.
The New Republic is splintered, its military scattered and demoralized. Leia makes a nice, Dunkirk-style speech, except if Winston Churchill gave the speech after the Germans had taken London.
Second, everyone’s favorite Teen Jesus, Anakin Solo once again makes his way into an impossible situation, only this time, his luck runs out. He dies, but not before buying time for his siblings and his friends to destroy the Voxyn threat. It’s sad, and spectacular. Anakin goes out in a literal blaze of glory as he becomes one with the force, casting shadows on his enemies.
The Voxyn threat is eliminated, but six Jedi are killed, including Anakin, another is abducted. To make matters worse for the Jedi (and the Solo family specifically), Jacen Solo is taken prisoner by the Yuuzhan Vong. Jaina Solo, already suffering from what looks like post traumatic stress disorder, is now spun off into darkness.
Anakin was the Jesus analogue for the New Republic, and his death was heroic and tragic, but unlike Jesus, he isn’t coming back. Someone else will need to be the messiah.
All darkness aside, Star by Star is a rather deft entry in the series. Troy Denning skillfully shows the ways in which an endgame is produced by exhausting all other moves:
In politics, Borsk Fey’lya (the embattled chief of state) runs through his moves, throwing his lot in with the pro-Jedi sentiment in the senate, followed by his outright military support of the Jedi, the empowerment of generals that will defend Coruscant at all costs, despite heavy collateral damage, and finally sacrificing himself with a gigantic bomb, taking 25,000 (the numbers in this series are grotesque) Yuuzhan Vong soldiers with him.
Anakin Solo’s strikeforce plays their set, always improvising through increasingly worse odds. Anakin and Jacen sacrifice themselves in necessary gambits to achieve their common goal.
Even on the other side of the metaphorical board, the Yuuzhan Vong play out their remaining moves. The Warmaster Tsavong Lah literally sacrifices his arm to the gods. The New Republic foils his initial plan for Coruscant, costing him nine hundred warships, so he’s forced into a different strategy, which succeeds, but at the cost of additional hundreds of warships and three different Yammosks. He’s out of moves, and has almost no pieces left, but he is successful, which is all that matters for the time being.
You’ll want to read this one. It’s too centrally located and too important to skip.
This has been Meaningless Reviews in a Galaxy Even Further Away, in which your intrepid author blogs about some Star Wars Fiction.
