This book is being hailed as the last big adventure for the “big three” in the Star Wars universe. I expected something huge. Something that only the leader of the Jedi Knights and the worlds greatest smuggler and scoundrel could accomplish. Something that only the diplomatic prowess of a Princess could negotiate. Did it live up to my expectations?
From the Back: When Han and Leia Solo arrive at Lando Calrissian’s Outer Rim mining operation to help him thwart a hostile takeover, their aim is just to even up the odds and lay down the law. Then monstrous aliens arrive with a message, and mere threats escalate into violent sabotage with mass fatalities. When the dust settles, what began as corporate warfare becomes a battle with much higher stakes—and far deadlier consequences.
Now Han, Leia, and Luke team up once again in a quest to defeat a dangerous adversary bent on galaxy-wide domination. Only this time, the Empire is not the enemy. It is a pair of ruthless geniuses with a lethal ally and a lifelong vendetta against Han Solo. And when the murderous duo gets the drop on Han, he finds himself outgunned in the fight of his life. To save him, and the galaxy, Luke and Leia must brave a gauntlet of treachery, terrorism, and the untold power of an enigmatic artifact capable of bending space, time, and even the Force itself into an apocalyptic nightmare.
I have bittersweet thoughts about this being the last big adventure for these three. I really enjoyed how these characters have grown from the movie characters that we know and love into the grizzled veterans that we see in the expanded universe. Luke and Leia both have run ins with turning towards the dark side, Han becomes a drunk after Chewbacca’s valiant stand in the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong wars, and they also become put themselves aside for the betterment of their children.
You will see them in previous adventures like the forthcoming Razors Edge, but it’s time for them to step down and let the new characters take over and lead. Not before one last grand adventure.
You will get all sorts of little hints of the past, the bar settings, the sabaac tournaments, the three working together to escape the clutches of their villains. It all serves as a reminder of where they came from. It brought back fond memories of each of them.
The thing that Troy Denning does with these three, and he does it well, is show you that they are getting old. They aren’t as fast, they aren’t as durable, and there was even a good scene or two where you thought that one of them was surely going to die. Rather than beat into you and just tell you they are getting old, he shows you through how they react. He shows their strengths through experience and fallacies due to aging.
So how grand of an adventure do they go on? Well, it’s grand in the sense that the universe is in peril, not so grand in the sense that they’re taking on a couple smart business men that want to take over the galaxy. The villains just aren’t as ominous as say an Abeloth or or even a lost tribe of Sith warriors. Marvid and Craitheus Qreph Columi are definitely evil characters, and are able to manipulate just about everyone around them for their own gains, but it kind of came off like Jedi vs. Mobsters. Not befitting of champions of the galaxy
The payoff though is at the end. Without spoiling the end, I almost had a tear in my eye knowing that I wouldn’t be reading a whole ton more about Luke, Leia, and Han. I’m waiting, and dreading, the day when they kill one of them off. It’s bound to happen, and they talk about returning to the force a lot. Fortunately DelRay will be exploring the past in a series of books starting in September.
The Bottom Line: I enjoyed this book. I realize that you can’t have this large giant adventure with these three, I mean, they’re old. They aren’t getting any younger and I think that this does in fact do a good job of giving them one last adventure. Old characters will be re-introduced, and old settings and familiar scenes will replay for you even though they aren’t on Tatooine or the Death Star. It’s not the best Star Wars book you’ll ever read, but the emotional impact of their final adventure will present itself to you in the final pages of Crucible. It didn’t quite live up to my own expectations, but it was satisfying as I closed this chapter of the Star Wars EU.
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Troy Denning is the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi novels: Abyss, Vortex, and Apocalypse; Star Wars: Tatooine Ghost; Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Star by Star; the Star Wars: Dark Nest trilogy: The Joiner King, The Unseen Queen, and The Swarm War; and Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Tempest, Inferno, and Invincible—as well as Pages of Pain, Beyond the High Road, The Summoning, and many other novels. A former game designer and editor, he lives in western Wisconsin with his wife, Andria.