Star by Star

INTRODUCTION

Star By Star, although with little issues I will touch upon later, is quite easily the best novel so far.

Troy Denning's first foray into Star Wars is an extremely bold behemoth, which amounts to six hundred pages in total, and it took me around four days to fully read.

Now did it need to be six hundred pages?

I'm not sure. But it definitely needed to cross the three hundred barrier every novel so far hasn't strayed far from, and I'm glad it did that at least.

There are various sorts of sections of the plot focusing on different aspects, different planets, different conflicts. A lot needed to be set up. So I didn't mind the slower pace on a whole.

VOXYN

I think the Voxyn are a brilliant concept, with a magnificent design realised in the Japanese cover art by Tsuyoshi Nagano. Eight-legged, acid spitting creatures, they are extremely ferocious and a true threat to the Jedi.

Animalistic hunger felt through the Force is a magnificent concept to create a magnetic tension any time they're around. With how bold this series is anyway, Troy Denning takes it up a notch, and you are seriously concerned a major character will die to a Voxyn at any moment, as very often they take down Jedi built up through the book as major players.

Shock after shock!

YUUZHAN VONG

The Vong's perspective in this book was probably the best written it has been yet. With Vergere and Nom Anor competing constantly, and the warmaster Tsavong Lah pushing bold tactics and being the most ferocious he has been yet, everyone feels like a proper threat.

Their side of the story is more interesting than ever as we see them often struggle to predict and fight Jedi, but having much more success with the New Republic, continually outsmarting them and defeating them.

Their losses to the Jedi cement (to me) the superiority of the Jedi, as in one encounter they uttery destroy the Yuuzhan Vong and save countless refugees, even if this doesn't amount to what the Vong soon accomplish.

THE INVASION OF CORUSCANT

As I repeatedly mention in my reviews, I'm not one for the space battles in Star Wars. And I felt that whilst this book leaned a little too much into them at times, the battle of Coruscant was, for the most part, extremely engaging.

The plot with Ben being captured was a bit much for me, and felt kinda pointless. But Leia's fight with Viqi Shesh just captivated me, you really do want Viqi dead, and are even rooting for her recklessness.

Han gets to be a bit more of his old self here, and Luke and Mara are brilliant in this sequence of the novel.

I always love when the villains of something are winning and everything seems hopeless, so it's really, terribly devastating but also awe-inspiring for Coruscant to finally be taken, and taken so early.

It really feels like the New Republic are done for, and that the Jedi are the galaxy's last hope. I almost find it hard to believe Coruscant has been taken so early, and the amount of lives lost in the battle is just terribly shocking. Countless civilians, countless refugees, so many more Jedi and fighters lost in battle.

Things have never been worse, and I love it,

LEIA'S CHARACTERISATION

I felt that Leia was distinctly at her best here.

So far, she has probably my favourite design in the entire Star Wars saga, with her flowing white robes reminiscent of her costume in the very first movie, she looks extremely regal and powerful, and with her shorter, still growing hair, she looks really cool, more of a fighter than a princess than ever before, and it has to be my favourite look for her.

Her striking, crimson, ruby lightsaber is also just fantastic, and I love the idea of a Jedi, rather than a Sith, with a red lightsaber. Something I admire about the EU was how the lightsabers had more personality, more freedom, more individuality, and it really helps with Leia here. She basically looks sick as fuck.

I also adore that she finally felt so utterly done with politics. It has been a critique of mine in previous novels from the New Republic era that they always delegated Leia to mere political drama, and rarely any of the action she was known for in the original trilogy. And it more or less stuck as her status quo in these novels.

But with her declaring herself finished with the Senate, and engaging in various fight scenes with her lightsaber, she feels more like a Jedi than ever, and I pray to see it continue, or at least a positive balance.

ANAKIN SOLO

I always knew of Anakin's fate since before I read these novels, and I very recently had it spoiled for which novel it would be.

But I am happy to report that I still found it extremely upsetting when he died in battle!

Anakin was my favourite of the Solo children. In this book, he was seventeen I believe, which is my age, so I felt a bit closer to him. I loved how he was a bit more emotional, a little bit reckless, and has an obsession with becoming a hero.

He wanted to change the meaning of Anakin from Vader, to a great Jedi. And he most definitely succeeded. It's absolutely heartbreaking to have someone so young die in war, and I feel the novel better than any other does a great job of showing the horrors of true war, on a grand scale with the Yuuzhan Vong.

Leia's despair shatters me, and I never thought we'd ever see Leia like she is here. She feels totally helpless, and just screams upon feeling his death. It is terrifying, it is horrifying, and it really upsets me to think about, enough to feel myself tearing up typing it!

I rarely get beyond tearing up, or a single tear when anything in media upsets me, but this novel almost got me crying properly. I felt three tears roll down my cheeks, and I felt like I'd start sobbing!

I loved Anakin so much. I miss him too.

JACEN & JAINA

Jacen and Jaina take Anakin's death in two different ways.

There was Jacen's calmness, and the other - Jaina's reaction - I was ecstatic to have not had spoiled for myself.

As for Anakin, he was upset, crying even. But with his aspiration to be a proper Jedi, all of his beliefs on sacrifice and the rights and wrongs of the Force, I really admire his reaction. He is heartbroken too, but doesn't allow it to consume him or get in the way of his mission.

Ultimately leading to him being left behind as he fulfils the mission, ‘tricked' by Vergere (who I still don't believe is completely evil!) I feel really bad for Jacen. He doesn't get to shine as strongly as his siblings in this book, but he's still really great.

Jaina finally gets to properly, seriously shine in this one. Her absolute rage and fury leads to her doing some things very stupid, finally breaking her numbness with all of the death and loss of the war building up on her. I can see her never being the same again.

What I never, ever expected, was what she immediately did next.

Force lighting! Is it just me, or is Jaina the fucking coolest ever with force lighting? Leaning fully into her rage, she commands force lightning upon the Yuuzhan Vong, and kills many in her rage. It is a fucking fantastic moment, exceptional for her character, and completely, utterly unexpected. I am so thankful no one spoiled this for me!

I feel that her character and grief is to be more fully explored in the next novel, but this was already just amazing!

BORSK FEY'LYA

I really hate Borsk. But he almost redeemed himself in this novel.

Fully backing the Jedi almost the whole way through, surviving an assassination, politically assassinating Viqi herself, and sacrificing himself to deliver a blow to the Yuuzhan Vong, and to stay with Coruscant in his death, knowing his political career was over, and that he wouldn't be remembered well.

I don't believe he should be remembered well. He was a terrible person in almost every case, using the war and its inner conflicts to his own gain, but he really started to turn around towards the end, and it seemed like he was really trying his best to save everyone.

I almost found myself upset at his death too.

CONCLUSION & MINOR CRITICISMS

Overall, this was a fantastic book. It was heartbreaking, tragic, imaginative, gritty, dark, and utterly hopeless, perfectly in line with the series, and a true mighty blow to our heroes.

It isn't entirely perfect, though. Maybe Denning's later career with Star Wars, or his shorter books will improve upon this, but I found his writing a little bit of a mixed bag.

First of all, the book was definitely just a bit too long. There were a few sections that just went on too long, one of them being the space battle for Coruscant. He was very good at writing these sequences, and they were easy to follow at least, but they went on just a bit too long for my liking.

Another was that I found he didn't describe Yuuzhan Vong scenery, technology, the worldship, the planet of Myrkr, etc. For a lot of the plots revolving around the Solo kids and their mission to Myrkr, I found myself absolutely baffled at the scenery, and really struggled to imagine it.

I couldn't grasp for the life of me what the interior of the worldship looked like, and for absolutely ages, I hadn't even grasped that they had moved from Myrkr to a worldship, or how!

He did, however, perfectly handle an enormous ensemble cast of characters, and it did feel like he did an exceptional job with everybody. Writing Luke and Mara's romance wonderfully, Han and Leia's healing relationship, the Solo children at their best, Talon Karrde and Lando in on all of it too, he was really good.

He also came up with some brilliant concepts, such as Lando's Yuuzhan Vong killer droids, that sounded really cool when reading, and turned out to be really useful.

So generally, it's an exceptional book. It broke my heart and shattered it, and has turned things really, really dark for the New Republic.

I am eager and excited for more.

9.5/10