Edge of Victory I: Conquest

Wow.

I'm starting this review with simply that.

For some context, last night I finished ‘Balance Point' and then because I had some time, I decided to start this novel. Before going to bed, I read a whole 95 pages.

Today... I read the rest.

Greg Keyes is a most welcome addition to the team of writers for this series. It's such a massive shame there are no more novels by him in this series because his writing is infectious, and incredibly hard to stop reading.

His writing style is quick, easy to read, and full of twists, turns, and constant narrative hooks that made it impossible for me to put it down all fucking day. If I'm reading in the morning, when free at college, at home before a drive, at home all day until I'm done, you've done a fucking good job.

It helps that this novel had such a good plot thread to continue from the last novel...

Since the Yuuzhan Vong declared that they wanted all of the Jedi, things have turned for the worst for the Jedi. And I fucking love it.

As someone passionate about stories, I always love when things get horribly wrong for our heroes. I'm not sure why, but when things take a darker turn, when all hope seems lost, when a moment like this happens that seems to utterly doom them and be a major turning point, I love it. And this entire novel works on from that.

Suddenly, everyone is their enemy. I fucking adored Luke's confrontation with Borsk Fey'lya, the way he finally seemed to give up on him, to know he is an enemy, and not an ally. And Mara's constant support for Luke was heartwarming. I love how whilst Luke is truly struggling and perhaps in the most despair he has ever been in since he lost his hand, Mara helps him pick himself up. I love them.

This novel focuses largely on Anakin, and my love for him has only continued. He is a troubled Jedi, but an incredibly righteous one, and I love him for it. I adored him under Stackpole and found him massively underrepresented since then. Not anymore of course!

His development has been magnificent, and he has undergone a massive transformation and lots of development. His relationship with Tahiri at first was decent, but ended up being really great. I loved her character, her determination, but also her mix of maturity and immaturity. Her and Anakin are very good for each other.

What I really found myself shocked by was how vulgar this book was. It is not for the squeamish. In fact, it is the grittiest, most uncomfortable novel so far. I love this kinda thing, and I even found myself incredibly uncomfortable at parts.

Everything that happens to Tahiri is vile, but she seems to come out of it stronger, and her and Anakin have various fantastic moments towards the end. But I'm glad that this novel returned to the sickly grit of ‘Vector Prime' which I had felt distinctly missing for some time, but still with the hope and optimism of Star Wars.

Luckily, I am without spoilers for the Yuuzhan Vong!

I truly know pretty much nothing about their galaxy or any of the mysteries around them. So this book was fascinating for me. I felt we got to understand their culture and their galaxy more than ever before, and I am so excited to learn more as the novels go on.

Vua Rapuung was absolutely incredible. He was always interesting, but as his story went on, he truly got so good. I loved how Greg Keyes used him as an immaculate insight into the truth behind the Yuuzhan Vong society, not all of them are perfect, devoted disciples.

His ‘redemption', if you can call it that in our terms, was magnificent, and I love how epic a warrior he was. I especially love the decision for Anakin's helping him inspiring an admiration for the Jedi with some of the Yuuzhan Vong. You can't keep an entire race thinking the same thoughts forever!

There seems to be some dissent in the ranks for the Yuuzhan Vong, and I can't help but feel like this is gonna contribute to some of their future failings.

I feel like I could go on and on about this novel.

It was fascinatingly good. Possibly the best so far. Such a tight-knit book, written so well, so engaging and tense, vile and bold, gritty and fantastical, hopeful yet inspiring so much despair.

Just another immaculate entry into this series.

Onto the next one!

9/10

One of the things that I initially really liked about the NJO series is that the Yuuzhon Vong were completely and utterly alien - that we weren't given any real introduction to them, and didn't know what they wanted. While that was good for the initial novels, it wouldn't be sustainable over the course of the full cycle of novels, so the Edge Of Victory duology comes at a perfect moment.[return]Basically, with this book, we learn a lot more about the culture of the Vong, and we explore how the Jedi are affecting the Vong. I'm always hesitant when sci-fi stories feature ‘warrior cultures', so it's good to see that they have a more varied culture than that (because let's be honest, a culture devoted entirely to warfare would be unsustainable, and would also never develop proper spaceflight technology, as well). The only downside to this book, I would say, is that the Vong biotechnology is a little too deus ex machina - it seems that they can grow whatever they need, whenever they need it, and that reduces some of the tension from the story.