Andrew's Review of The New Rebellion

3/5 Rancors - Kristine Kathryn Rusch's The New Rebellion is a standalone tale set thirteen years after the events of Return of the Jedi. Our familiar heroes from the Original Trilogy are all present and accounted for. Princess Leia Organa continues in her role from prior books as the New Republic's Chief of State, and while she may not have had much time to further her Jedi training, she has developed her political skills considerably while maintaining her sense of loyalty and caring that made her such a beloved leader of the Rebellion. Luke Skywalker continues to oversee his Academy on Yavin IV as he searches for a sense of purpose and mission for the Jedi. Han Solo is happily married to Leia and the three Solo children keep him, C-3PO, and Chewbacca hopping, as children are wont to do.

The New Rebellion deals with what happens when a splinter resistance faction becomes the government and must start granting a voice to all citizens under its rule, including its former enemies. Various ex-Imperials have started to gain power in the New Republic Senate, and Leia struggles with accepting their presence and not judging them by their checkered pasts. A mass bombing in the Senate early in the book does not make Leia's life any easier, especially when she must sift through the aftermath to determine responsibility and a course of action. This is fertile ground to explore as Ms. Rusch gets into Leia's psyche and examines the balance between career and family concerns.

From the bombing the story branches into three primary plots: the first, Leia's efforts to lead the government through the crisis; the second, Luke's journey to track down Kueller, a malicious Force User linked to the terrorist plot; and lastly, Han and later Lando's adventures at Smuggler's Run, a group of asteroids housing numerous sentients on the wrong side of the law. Some Star Wars novels have a tendency to introduce storylines without much balance or connection to the main storyline (see Lando's adventures in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy), but Ms. Rusch adeptly juggles the three and brings them all together quite satisfactorily in the end.

I particularly enjoyed Han's travails at Smuggler's Run and Lando's attempt to aid him. The asteroids house distinctly varied environments, including Skip 5, which contains caverns full of sand and Jawas, and Skip 6, crime lord Nandreeson's swampy lair. Amphibious Nandreeson forces Lando to tread in fetid, murky water to keep himself from drowning as punishment for a past difference between the two. It's quite an evocative sequence: I could almost feel my own arms getting tired as Lando struggled to hang on to life. Han's barnstorming rescue of Lando is reminiscent of the lack of planning and spirit of adventure in his escapades on the Death Star in A New Hope.

Kueller, once known as Dolph, is a failed Jedi candidate from Luke's past. He is accompanied in his villainous schemes by Brakiss, another of Luke's ex-associates. Kueller wears a skull-mask and is seemingly rather akin to Skeletor from Masters of the Universe in appearance. Kueller was a flat antagonist for me. There's not enough feeling generated from the Luke/Kueller/Brakiss back-story to emotionally invest me in the personal outcome of their struggle. I felt empathy as Kueller wantonly destroyed sentients with his bombs hidden in droids, but the final conflict mostly engaged me via the rarity of seeing Luke and Leia fight together and the unexpected role in the battle of the Thernbee (an animal native to Kueller's planet Alamania). Brakiss and Kueller were both ciphers to me, and while their plot was well-realized, they weren't especially memorable as individuals.

The New Rebellion is a solidly entertaining Star Wars tale with a strong vibe of the Original Trilogy. My primary reservation about it is the lack of connection I felt to the new characters and to the actual significance of Kueller's plot. The bombs housed in droids is an innovative concept and kudos to Ms. Rusch for developing a story involving both sides of the Force without explicitly relying on the Sith as a plot device.