3/5 Rancors - There are no vacation days for the heroes of the Rebellion. Finally, the Emperor's reign of terror has been ended, the Empire is in disarray, and the Rebellion is suddenly in a position to start laying the groundwork of a new galactic government. Unfortunately, mere hours after these tumultuous events a distress call from the remote system of Bakura arrives at Endor and it's back in the proverbial saddle for Luke Skywalker and his buddies. The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers tells the story of an alien invasion of the Bakura system, a place "protected" by the Empire but in desperate need of aid. The Rebels must find a way to help the Bakurans while maintaining an uneasy alliance with Imperial Governor Wilek Nereus and his forces.
The alien invaders are an extra-galactic reptilian species named the Ssi-ruuk. Total enslavement of all other life is the Ssi-ruuk reason for their assault on Bakura and other systems. The most unusual aspect of these creatures is the method they use to power their fleet. It is called entechment and involves draining living beings of life to power the vessels and droid fighter with their energy, essentially like transferring their soul to a mechanical device. It is a grotesque concept and certainly serves to underscore the pure unadulterated evil that Tyers' Ssi-ruuk characters represent.
Dev Sibwarra is a Force-sensitive human slave aboard the Ssi-ruuk vessel Shriwirr. Dev is able to soothe prisoners with his Force powers while they are enteched, making for a more efficient process. Spurred by their knowledge of Dev's special abilities, the Ssi-ruuk hope to find a more powerful Force user, one who will be able to facilitate mass-scale entechment of entire worlds. Inexorably their paths and that of Luke Skywalker intersect and Luke becomes the keystone of the Ssi-ruuk scheme for complete galactic domination.
On Bakura, an unbalanced system of government exists where the Imperial Governor holds the real power but the Bakurans are allowed nominal control under his oversight. This system seems to be what the Emperor has envisioned when it is mentioned in A New Hope that the Senate has been totally dissolved and regional governors will hold direct control over their populations. On Bakura, it required a nasty purge to establish Imperial power but things have been relatively peaceful since. Initially the Rebels have difficulty establishing trust with the native leaders, but as the severity of the Ssi-ruuk threat makes itself clear, rapid progress is made toward a new alliance.
One Bakuran Senator is particularly interesting to Luke. Her name is Gaerial Captison and her intelligence and beauty captivate him from the moment they meet. Through the book they develop a strong affinity for one another, but both are at a point in their lives where their careers are going to destroy any serious chance for a relationship. In the novels, Gaerial is Luke's first love interest (well, excepting Leia), although other sources indicate there were women before Gaeri. I found this plotline to be a good attempt at developing Luke further but there were no real sparks between the two.
Plans are forming in Luke's head to find other Force-sensitive individuals in the galaxy and take them under his wing for protection and training. He does everything within his power to bring Dev to his side and help eradicate the damage the years of Ssi-ruuk abuse have done to the boy. This development in Luke's character feels quite natural and a logical extension of his unshakeable belief that there is good in everyone, including his father, Darth Vader.
Tyers does a great job of conveying the after-effects of Luke's electrocution via Force lightning on the second Death Star. His exhaustion and hindered abilities drive home the feel of this story taking place right after Return of the Jedi. I also enjoyed the exploration of Leia's emotions towards her newly-revealed father. While Luke has had time to digest his troubled heritage, Leia has just had the news dumped on her at Endor and is quite understandably extremely resentful.
The other main characters assume fairly typical roles in this story. Chewbacca and Han run around Bakura stirring up trouble and doing some great flying, the droids help out to the best of their ability, and supporting favorites such as Wedge Antilles, Mon Mothma, and Admiral Ackbar make appearances.
The strongest aspects of The Truce at Bakura are the insights into the long road ahead of the Rebellion in building a new government and in dealing with the substantial remnants of the Empire. The Ssi-ruuk themselves are memorable but fit uneasily with the larger Star Wars universe. Entechment feels more like a hard sci-fi than a Star Wars plot device, and the Ssi-ruuk's complete lack of redeeming characteristics make them into one-sided villains. Their unpleasant role as shallow antagonists counterweights the intriguing Imperial/Rebel dynamics to make a solid if not extremely memorable novel.
1 comments:
I would agree with you Andrew that aspects of this book don't sit very well with the Star Wars EU. In many ways, this story kind of feels like a science fiction story shoe-horned into the Star Wars world. I always say to friends that Star Wars is more "space opera" than hard science fiction. While technology is ever-present in the SW EU - it often doesn't become the focus of the stories. For me, Star Wars is a vast tableau involving many compelling characters in adventurs that include elements of drama, comedy, horror, romance and intrigue. Great stuff.
I enjoyed Kathy Tyers short stories in the Tales series of books. While elements of Truce at Bakura feel out of place in Star Wars - I have to admire her story for its sheer prescience. In this one story - Tyers foreshadows three major plot elements in the post-Endor Star Wars EU:
1) Warlordism and Disintegration of Imperial Unity: Moments after being informed of the Emperor's passing - Governor Wilek Nereus starts plotting his next moves. He muses about declaring independence, aligning with the local Moff or making a play for a sinecure on Coruscant by maintaining loyalty to the remains of the Empire. It's pretty clear that Palpatine may have maintained his Empire through cronyism and fear - but on his passing it's staggering how quickly it all starts to fall apart. The Truce at Bakura covers this neatly with Nereus and the defection of Commander Pter Thanas to the Rebel forces. Absent the unifying presence of Palpatine - the New Order is prone to factionalism.
2) Yuuzhan Vong/Ssi-ruuk - The Ssi-ruuk are a nice foreshadowing of alien threats beyond the known galaxy. We know that the New Jedi Order series will introduce the Yuuzhan Vong as a serious threat to the galaxy - but the Ssi-ruuk are the first in a series of such intergalactic terrors that will befall The New Republic.
3) Politics and The New Republic - John Lennon once said that the problem with militant revolutions is that they never turn out to be what was promised. We know from the New Jedi Order series that political dissension and division ultimately tear The New Republic apart. We can see this dissension even in the early stages of The Truce at Bakura between those who would crush the Imperial presence on Bakura outright and those who would prefer a more diplomatic solution.
I felt that Tyers could have done a better job explaining entechment. I presume that the Ssi-ruuk prefered entechment because the battle-droids performed better with life-energy -compared to traditional energy sources. It certainly seems like a very messy and time-consuming method of powering ships and droids!
I thought it was interesting that Tyers briefly mentioned that for the Ssi-ruuk - it was considered apostasy to die beyond their homeworld. Naturally, this would mean much of their war machine would have to be peopled by droids to avoid this risk. She should have made a stronger effort to connect this factor to the Ssi-ruuk's need for entechment.
I enjoyed Leia's reproach of Anakin Skywalker - and I still can't believe that killing the Emperor was such a great act of redemption that it allowed Anakin to become one with the Force and atoned for the millions (maybe even billions) of lives that Vader snuffed out during his reign of terror.
Gaerial Captison's Yin and Yang religion seemed fairly ridiculous -but it was nice to see Luke developing a love-interest.
The Truce at Bakura is a solid entry in the Star Wars EU. It's a good preview of what you can expect for the future - Imperial treachery, intergalactic terrors and lots of politics and diplomacy in that galaxy far far away.
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