Return of the New Jedi Order, Episode XXI: Rebel Stand by Aaron Allston

Star Wars books two days in a row? What is this, some kind of fanboy blog? Anyway, it's been seven months, but now it's time to wrap up my reviews of The New Jedi Order.

Mass market paperback, 367 pages
Published 2002
Acquired 2002(?)
Reread February 2015

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
by Aaron Allston

Year Three of the Invasion (Months 3-4)
Perhaps the best and worst thing one can say about an Aaron Allston novel is that it contains competent space action. That is to say, this is a novel with little ambition that it accomplishes spectacularly well. There are space battles, interesting tactics, and quips, and there are definitely times I'll take successful nonambition over failed ambition. Allston knows what he wants this book to be, an he does it well, which is more than you can say for a lot of New Jedi Order novels.

One thing I will always remember about this book is thinking that Wedge Antilles could die. Chewbacca showed that main film characters weren't safe, and Anakin Solo showed that main novel characters weren't safe-- next to them, Wedge is small potatoes, so I was on the edge of my seat the first time I read it. The effect is somewhat muted thirteen years later, however.

Next Week: We finally find out what happened to Jacen Solo in Traitor!