4/5 Rancors - In Rebirth, the concluding volume of the Edge of Victory duology, Greg Keyes widens the scope considerably from the first book Conquest. This time around there is a familiar Star Wars-style juggling of several important plotlines and more time is devoted to action rather than discussion/exploration. Still, the pace rarely flags, interest is maintained throughout, and it is a worthy successor to the superb first book. Also, even though both books in the duology are on the short side, Rebirth is distinct enough from Conquest that I accept the decision to split the story in half with no qualms. Conquest was an internal character study at heart, while Rebirth steps in to propel the story forward and set the stage for Troy Denning's massive Star by Star.
The title plays into several elements of Rebirth, but at its core appears to represent the rebirth of hope, even in the face of overwhelming odds. Mara Jade's pregnancy has progressed to a critical point and the sudden resurgence of her illness throws her health, along with the future of the Skywalker line, into doubt. The Yuuzhan Vong restart their invasion as they move on the Givin planet Yag'Dhul, a memorable locale where the natives are periodically exposed to the vacuum of space and have evolved accordingly. Shaper Nen Yim returns, demoted from the events of Conquest but developing an alarming desire to exact horrible vengeance on the New Republic and all inhabitants of the galaxy.Tahiri and Anakin travel together as she rehabilitates from her torture at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong. She now has a second personality implanted in her, a Vong that surfaces periodically, much to Anakin's alarm. This split makes her an interesting character, as does Anakin's vision of what she might become. Her rebirth from the depths also shines a light on new ways to bridge the gap between the galaxy's inhabitants and the Yuuzhan Vong, as she understands them in a way no other outsider can.
Political events take an intriguing turn in Rebirth as the government issues an order for the arrest of Luke Skywalker. The concept of this uber-powerful sect of Force-wielding individuals and their uneasy balance with the official government has always been fertile ground but not always fully utilized. Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya is not a one-sided character at this point: sure, he's a career politician, but we see between the lines that he may be a bit more sympethetic a character than he has often been portrayed. Luke's reaction to learning of his pending arrest is completely in character and provocative as a discussion point, depending on how each individual reader views the ideal role of the Jedi.
Rebirth was a bit more of a standard Star Wars Expanded Universe entry than Conquest before it, but it held up fine to the high standard set by its predecessor. The pace continued to be brisk, the dialogue well-writen, and the characters pushed forward in satisfying ways. To this point in the New Jedi Order, the Edge of Victory duology offers the most bang for your buck.
2 comments:
As much as I like the concept of yuzhan vong villains, I still don't get the complete passiveness of the senate and the Republic military. Up till this book all they do is retreat and evacuate. It just doesn't seem logical with the firepower they have. Usually you command the retreat on the global scale like this, when you troops no longer have the ability to be offensive. Here, we barely see troops at all. We know about huge starfleet around core worlds, but seems liek they don't even get tested if they potent enough.
Also, there is something wrong with the population scale in the series. When the book is talking about the evacuation of the planet, they talk about the scale of thousands, hundred of thousands and sometimes of millions, that just doesn't add up.
Here is Leya talks about evacuation of the planet Billibiry (?) - one of the major Galactic ship plant:
""... hundred thousand lives are at stake, General," she was saying. "The Vray are a gentle species. Without an escort, the evacuation convoy will be defenseless against the Yuuzhan Vong.""
Seriosly? You are not talking about Boeing plant (which is about 100K employees), you are talking about THE PLANET that hosts THE BIGGEST PLANT in the galaxy!!! The whole planet is what - the size of the Washington DC Metro area?
And this is one of the biggest population they ever talked in the series. When they tried evacuated Duros, they were talking about the scale of (OMG!) 6000 people!!!
Or what about two squadron (2x12) of X-Wings attacking the Serpidal Vong shipyard?
OMG, 24 X-Wings against the whole yard and they took it down with losing only 10 X-Wings!!!
What a mighty force!!! Then, why can't you put a good use of "few thousand Victory-class Star destroyers" (C) Vector Prime that hang around Core worlds - crap, if you so afraid, take only half of them, and just send the Vong asses back to their intergalactic home deep fried?
Well, I understand that the story would not hold if you bring down logic. If the planet has 6-10 billion people on it and you have enough of the fleet force to evacuate them all, why instead of evacuating not to help that poor 12man Rogue Squadron that was able to withhold Vong attack till you evacuate? So instead of that logic, you make the planets the size of the asteroid and populate them with puny 6K population.
This is always what bugs me in the whole series - non-realistic scale.
Scale is something the Star Wars EU generally diminishes. Witness the written portrayal of the Clone Wars: troop build-ups of ~3mil or less to defend the entire galaxy. My perspective on this subject is that the authors and other creators of the EU may be purposely diminishing statistics in an effort to create a relatable storyline. For example, a modern stadium can hold at least 100,000 fans on average. Even though I could give two hoots about modern sports, I still grok that number on a primal level. When someone tosses out 1,000,000, my brain melts. The smaller figure is something I can cling to.
I fully agree about the number of books spent watching the New Republic do nothing. It is tedious, no two ways about it. Having read these before, I am glad to be at Star by Star already.
Post a Comment