The Unifying Force

How can I even begin to review the masterfully complex conclusion in its own right, to an already staggering nineteen book series?

I'll try my best.

James Luceno, with only one misstep in writing that I have read so far, is definitely one of the best authors of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. He is the kind of writer that really slowly paces his books to create the best characters, the best tension, and the best setup in comparison to most other writers, and almost always delivers a satisfying conclusion.

But I was still shocked that he conjured up a satisfying conclusion to a nineteen book series. In fact, I'm shocked anybody managed it at all. The careful planning and execution of this series speaks volumes about how disjointed the New Republic era novels were, but also is a testament to how thoughtfully this series was planned out, the mysteries and enigmas sorted out, and everything explained and concluded in a manner only matched by ‘Vision of the Future' which had to weave together inconsistencies and explain away lacklustre planning and bad story decisions, none of which this book had to contend with, merely to build off of the brilliant novels and ideas from the rest of the series, and definitively conclude everything.

I am still left speechless. When I finished the novel, after not moving for what... an hour? Two? Three? I completely lost any semblance of time and just sat and read and read and read... and then I was finished. I laid in my bed for a moment reflecting, feeling as if I had come to the end of a long journey. And I have.

The Yuuzhan Vong have been some of the greatest villains ever conceived in fiction in my opinion. A deadly, terrifying threat, yet also an utter mystery, almost unsolvable. Complex enough to feel real, but so alien to be utterly awe-inspiring, they were quite possibly the most ingenious idea of the entire series.

Nom Anor shone as the most interesting character to me initially, and quite possibly still so. Cunning, conniving, pathetic and cowardly yet intuitive, unlike any other Vong, he came to not only care for his own life, but for nothing but it. He was changed from his time in the Star Wars galaxy, and he became quite an interesting character. A fascinating one.

He came closer and closer to his end, repeatedly just barely escaping again and again, finding new ways to preserve his own life longer, trying any last ditch attempt to save himself until even the very end.

Leading the Shamed Ones against Overlord Shimrra, quite possibly one of the most satisfying moments in the entire saga occurred when Mara Jade Skywalker chased him down, and they had their fiercest battle yet.

Mara, even deactivating her lightsaber, beat Nom Anor repeatedly, countering all of his attacks and utterly humiliating him, he begs for his life, desperate, pleading, completely pathetic, stripped of everything he has built up throughout the entire series, and in a true moment of her character, to show her true strength and change from her days as the Emperor's Hand, she allows him to live

Ultimately, he chooses to let himself die later on, but his character has been one of the most magnificent of the series, one of the most terrible for his actions, beliefs and personality, but one of the most fantastic characters of the entire story. His end was beyond satisfying.

Overlord Shimrra has long been a mystery to me, and I was shocked to learn that my major prediction about him was correct. But what shocked me more, was that there was an even greater twist waiting.

I had long predicted that Shimrra had access to the Force. What I could not grasp, and never would've... was that Shimrra was a puppet. All this time. All these books. Shimrra was nothing. Nobody.

Onimi was the true Overlord. This revelation still hasn't quite registered for me. All this time. Onimi. What? It is utterly fantastic, and absolutely genius, but it has so blown me away that I don't entirely know what to say. I can't believe it.

Firstly, I'm proud I was right about one thing. The Overlord was a force user! But this wasn't what I imagined at all. Secondly and finally really... I'm just gobsmacked to get all British on you for a second. Quite possibly the most insane reveal of the series. I love when something commits to building up an insane twist and pulls it off. I never imagined it could hit me this hard. Wow.

The Battle of Yuuzhan'tar.

What a spectacle. Sometimes hard to visualise, the dogfighting was absolutely insane, one of the largest battles ever, but it was still magnificent. The sheer scale of the battle was unmatched, twists and turns constantly, all hope lost, all hope back again, loss after loss, win after win. An absolute emotional turmoil.

But of course, for me, the true excitement was the ground battles. The Shamed Ones revolt, the Jedi versus Shimrra, what an exciting and well-written action sequence.

Luke fights at his greatest ever, killing an uncountable number, fearless, even tireless, Jacen and Jaina joining him in battle against the slayers, the final showdown with Shimrra. This has been the most exciting battle in the entire saga for me. Completely unmatched.

Still the greatest battle since Luke and Mara Jade defeated Joruus C'baoth at Wayland for me. Even greater. The most satisfying by far. If there was ever to be a time for Luke to die, I would be okay with it happening here in his greatest triumph yet, and it nearly does.

But I'm glad he lives.

Using Anakin's lightsaber, alongside his own, to decapitate Shimrra was not what I was expecting. Absolutely brutal, hard-hitting, and sudden. Like most battles end, it was surprisingly quick at that moment.

But the build up of fighting the slayers, how nearly indestructible they are, just comes to show how much of an absolute unit Luke and his niece and nephew have become, how far Jacen and Jaina have come since the beginning of the war, and how the Jedi are now reaching greater heights than ever before.

This story really could end the entire saga.

Boba Fett had a grand return, if brief, Kyle Katarn was finally included properly, every single Jedi in the Order had an appearance, everybody still living from any of the movies or books had their return, even some unliving!

The reveal that the voice Jacen heard in his vision was actually Anakin Skywalker almost got me emotional too I believe. Of course, for a moment like this, for the spirit of Anakin to speak to him, it is poetic.

Jacen totally becoming one with the Force for a moment and battling Onimi in a Force battle unlike any we've ever seen was astonishing, hard to grasp at times, but so bold and different and climactic. We have never ever seen someone use the Force like this, someone so powerful.

I know from what I've heard that ultimately Luke will become the greatest Jedi to ever live, and in each other book, I'd agree. But it's clear that whilst Luke quite possibly has his greatest moment here too, Jacen for a single moment was the most powerful Jedi ever. What he accomplished was just... something else.

365 trillion lives lost.

I can't imagine the Galaxy truly recovering from this war for a long, long time.

I feel like I've been on a very long journey with these books, and I honestly feel like they've changed me. I'm sorry but like... the movies cannot compare to these books.

I hate to sound like a miserable teenager but I enjoy really gritty, miserable stuff, with tragedy and losses, but a touch of optimism and a hopeful ending. This is what the series accomplished.

So many heartbreaking losses, irreversible stuff that will change the saga forever, but there's still hope and love and righteousness. They won in the end, even if much was lost to get there.

I feel like there is too much to properly say about these books and this conclusion properly. So I think I'll save ALL of my thoughts for the mega video I hope I can manage.

This book totally blew me away and CHANGED me. The entire series has. There's just nothing quite like it.

R.I.P. Chewbacca
R.I.P. Anakin Solo

I hope for more Jaina and Jag, and I'm saddened by how they've left things. I am really curious to see how the Jedi operate in future, and I'm really curious about the state of the characters, their relationships, the government, just... everything.

I hope I become a Troy Denning fan!

Onto the Dark Nest trilogy...

I'm adding this to my review loud and clear that I'm giving this book a rare...

10/10.

James Luceno authors the final chapter to the New Jedi Order series, and given his flair for drama and action, he was a good choice to bring this long tale to an exciting conclusion. As expected, our familiar heroes, Luke, Han, Leia, Mara and others, acquire a new understanding of the Force and bring an end to the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Ok. Now what? Will anyone get to take a vacation now?

Published in hardcover by Del Rey. The hardcover comes with a bonus CD-ROM containing the first New Jedi Order novel, Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore, in eBook format.

Finally, it ends.

In all seriousness, I've enjoyed the NJO series - I don't want to talk about my feelings on the whole thing here, but I posted a blog entry on it at http://theorangemonkey.livejournal.com/176980.html.

So, anyways, The Unifying Force. In this volume we see an end to the threat of the Yuuzhan Vong; there are lots of big actiony scenes as a result, and because it's the last volume in the series, absolutely every character that's been in the series so far shows up. The result of this is that there isn't much character growth or quiet moments in this book, but as most of the individual character arcs have been wrapped up already, that's not too much of a complaint.

In retrospect, the series ends in the only way that it really could have, but it's done in a satisfying way - a large part of the concluding message is “our enemies are more like us than we ever gave them credit for”, which is the kind of moral that could have easily come across as cheesy, but Luceno does a good job of preventing it from being so.