alphaalexis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
yak_attak's review against another edition
3.0
Review/Thoughts on Twitter
https://twitter.com/serswjm/status/1263875170059587586?s=20
(Spoilers)
https://twitter.com/serswjm/status/1263875170059587586?s=20
(Spoilers)
clayton_sanborn's review against another edition
4.0
Thinking I should have read The Truce at Bakura beforehand lol
blancwene's review against another edition
2.0
For 2021, I decided to reread Del Rey’s first attempt at a multi-author book series in the Star Wars universe: The New Jedi Order, which was published between 1999 and 2003. This shakes out to 19 novels, two eBook novellas, three short stories, and a tangentially-related prequel era novel.
This week’s focus: the second book in the Force Heretic trilogy, Force Heretic: Refugee by Sean Williams and Shane Dix.
SOME HISTORY:
Sean Williams and Shane Dix didn’t expect a lot of media attention for their Star Wars book deal, but that was not the case. Williams was unfortunately misquoted in their local paper, making it seem as though they were writing the scripts for Episodes VII-IX, not a trilogy in the New Jedi Order book series. Prequel fever was raging wild at the time, so Australian media ran with this story--even though it was absolutely incorrect. Force Heretic: Refugee made it to number eight on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of May 18, 2003, and was on the NYT list for two weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I have no memory of this book at all. Did I buy it? Did I read it? Who knows!
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Rife with hostile cultures and outright enemies, the Unknown Regions hold many perils for Luke Skywalker and the Jedi searching for Zonama Sekot, the living planet that may hold the key to dealing with the Yuuzhan Vong. Meanwhile, Han and Leia journey on their quest to knit the unraveling galaxy back together, but betrayal and deception await them on Bakura…
THE CHARACTERS:
As with [b:Force Heretic I: Remnant|55546|Force Heretic I Remnant (Star Wars The New Jedi Order, #15)|Sean Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403181057l/55546._SY75_.jpg|54132], Refugee is divided into three main subplots: Han & Leia, Jaina & Jag, and Tahiri’s mission to Bakura, following up on a rumor passed along by the Ryn network; Luke & Mara, Jacen & Danni Quee, and Tekli & Saba Sebatyne’s continued search for Zonama Sekot, this time in Chiss territory; and Nom Anor’s new life as Yu’shaa the Prophet and his increasingly desperate attempts to get a spy into Supreme Overlord Shimrra’s court.
The Solo team (I don’t want to keep typing out all their names) arrive at Bakura in the middle of a very tense situation--the Bakurans are allying themselves with the P’w’ecks, who overthrown their Ssi-Ruuk overlords (our old foes from [b:The Truce at Bakura|302618|The Truce at Bakura (Star Wars)|Kathy Tyers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718249l/302618._SY75_.jpg|591520]). While Han and Leia pursue the diplomatic side, Jaina follows up on more information from the Ryn network that leads her to Malinza Thanas. The orphaned daughter of Gaeriel Captison, Malinza is part of a political group that wants to end interference from Imperial or Republic forces, so that Bakura can govern itself (not surprising, after what happened in the Corellian trilogy…). Jaina’s not particularly good at investigating--she remains in the dark for most of the story, and is betrayed by multiple individuals--but since she’s not a trained investigator, I was OK with her screw ups.
Because as it turns out, the P’w’eck have not been emancipated, but are still in league with the Ssi-Ruuk! Between Blaine Harris’s bomb during the consecration ceremony and Prime Minister Cundertol’s secret agreement with the Ssi-Ruuk, our heroes end up in a very bad situation towards the end. The threat of entechment (how the Ssi-Ruuk steal people’s spirits to power their droid fighters) hangs over everyone’s head, but especially over the heads of Jag and Twin Suns Squadron.
Luke and Jacen begin the novel running from hostile aliens--but don’t worry, they’re all OK. They’re subsequently contacted by a Chiss officer, who gives them clearance to enter the Chiss capital of Csilla. They met with officials from the Four Ruling families, who allow them to search the Expeditionary Library for references to Zonama Sekot, but they have a short timeframe to do so: only two days.
They arrive at the library, they’re surprised that the library is totally analog (all physical books, no databases); they look through a lot of books; they meet Baron Fel again, as well as his wife Syal Antilles and daughter Wyn; they take a short break to foil a scheme against Baron Fel’s family, and then return to the library. They run a search for systems that have acquired new planets, and find nothing. Jacen in particular is upset by this deadend, because what’s the point if they don’t find the location of Zonama Sekot? There’s possibly a little development on the Jacen/Danni relationship front, except Jacen doesn’t answer her--he has an eureka moment, runs back to order a search on all systems that have acquired new moons, and bingo.
Side Tangent - Archival Rant:
It was funny at first when Luke and company were flabbergasted by the presence of actual physical books in the Expeditionary Library, but then I started to think: surely one of them (like Luke) has seen physical books before? I know that the Jedi of old loved their holocrons, but there had to have been ancient Jedi texts in paper form as well!
And while I can understand holding onto physical items and not depending wholly on a digital collection (files can become obsolete, or be corrupted, or even hacked), I’m surprised that the Chiss don’t have any sort of digital backup. Rare books can be damaged or destroyed--back things up!
Finally, Saba mentioned that the air of the library was warm and dry, and it was making her scales itch. Dry, yes: it’s recommended that paper collections be kept at 30-50% humidity--too wet and you’ll start to grow mold, but too dry and the pages will begin to crack. But archives shouldn’t be warm at all; again, the Smithsonian recommends that paper-based collections be kept at 35-65℉ or 1.6667-18.3333℃. Libraries shouldn’t be toasty warm--that’s why you shouldn’t keep your books in non-climate-controlled places like a garage or a shed.
BACK TO CHARACTERS:
Nom Anor is growing his congregation of Shamed Ones (and increasingly, Vong from other castes as well), but he needs to know what Shimrra is planning. Nom Anor and Kunra catch, interrogate, and kill a spy in their midst, so they know that the priests are trying to infiltrate their Jeedai heresy. But fortunately, they soon bring a priestess of the deception sect into their heresy (side note: after so many books of Nom Anor dithering about using his poison eyeball, he finally uses it--and immediately has an “oh shoot, wrong decision” reaction), and are finally able to overhear what Shimrra’s up to. Spoiler alert: not much; things are going badly.
I find the Ssi-Ruuk intriguing, since they’re rather different from other reptilian yet human baseline species we’ve encountered in the Star Wars galaxy. Trandoshans have two arms and two legs, and they’re basically human-sized lizards. Barabels have two arms and two legs, and a tail, and they’re (again) human-sized lizards. But the Ssi-Ruuk are different, and look more like sentient dinosaurs. Their language sounds like fluted whistles (thus their human-given pejorative of “Fluties”), their weapons are different, and their technology is driven by the subjection of others. They’re foreign to the rest of the galaxy, which makes them so unknown and frightening.
Prime Minister Cundertol, on the other hand, was odd. He’s a very suspicious figure--in league with the Ssi-Ruuk, inhumanely strong and fast--and it turns out that he’s a human replica droid. The OG Cundertol was enteched into a HRD so that he could achieve immortality...but he’s in turn killed by a Yuuzhan Vong agent masquerading as a Ssi-Ruu. (Which...I know they’ve developed many different ooglith cloakers, but the Ssi-Ruuk are so far from the human baseline that I’m not sure how a cloaker can mimic them? But whatever.)
We learn a little bit more about the Chiss, although this will become confusing and convoluted and overwritten in later books. We meet another Fel kid, which brings the number of named Fel children up to four: Davin (deceased), Jagged, Cherith (deceased), and now Wyn. There’s mention of a Cem, but they’re not confirmed to be a Fel kid.
ISSUES:
I continued to struggle with the lack of chapters--thinking about it further, I think my problem comes down to Williams and Dix not committing fully to a no-structure, continuous story. I have no problem reading the Discworld books, but apart from the ones with Moist von Lipwig (which are structurally Victorian/Edwardian pastiches) the books are one continuous chapter-less story that I felt free to put down whenever. But the Force Heretic trilogy still pays lip service to a traditional structure (prologues and epilogues, distinct numbered parts) so once I reached one of those definite stopping places, it was hard for me to pick the book back up.
If I felt like Luke’s Imperial Remnant subplot in Remnant was vastly more important than Han and Leia’s mission to Galantos, the subplots felt flipped in importance in Refugee. Luke’s team don’t accomplish much here; I like fictional libraries, but they spend far too much time faffing around in the Chiss library before Jacen miraculously finds Zonama Sekot’s location at the end. Even the action element (the plot against the Fels) felt lesser than what Han & Leia and Jaina & Jag were dealing with.
But as much as I enjoyed the Bakuran subplot, I’m not sure how much enjoyment a new reader would get from it. The P’w’eck leader explains a little bit about the Ssi-Ruuk, but there’s an assumption that the reader has already read [b:The Truce at Bakura|302618|The Truce at Bakura (Star Wars)|Kathy Tyers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718249l/302618._SY75_.jpg|591520] and doesn’t need to be completely filled in. I suppose that’s the downside of these “tying up loose ends from the Bantam era” subplots--you need to have read those Bantam era novels to actually derive any satisfaction from the conclusion. In Tyers’s novel, entechment is described (and shown) in detail, and becomes a terrifying prospect to our heroes; in Refugee, though, we never see it in action, so it’s not as scary a threat as it could be.
And finally, the pace continued to be far too slow in this book. The beginning set off with a bang, with Luke and Jacen running from hostile Alien-esque aliens and Han and Leia’s motives immediately questioned on Bakura, but once those initial incidents were resolved the pace slowed considerably. It honestly didn’t start to pick back up until Part Four: Consecration, which meant that most of the book was slow going. Again, it was hard for me to pick the book back up when I knew that the reading process was a bit of a slog.
IN CONCLUSION:
Refugee definitely felt like a middle book to me: we don’t have a lot of progress with the Zonama Sekot search until the very end; Nom Anor’s congregation is growing and he finally has a high-ranking official in his heresy, but any big confrontations or revelations are pushed back until book 3; and while I found Han and Leia’s mission on Bakura interesting (it was fun to revisit stuff from [b:The Truce at Bakura|302618|The Truce at Bakura (Star Wars)|Kathy Tyers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718249l/302618._SY75_.jpg|591520]), Tahiri’s fate is left hanging. I think that there are some fun ideas here, I just wish that the structure and the pace didn’t make it so easy to put this book down.
Next up: a short story from Star Wars Insider issue 75, set in-between Force Heretic: Refugee and [b:Force Heretic III: Reunion|842591|Force Heretic III Reunion (Star Wars The New Jedi Order, #17)|Sean Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407356361l/842591._SY75_.jpg|2307450]: [b:Or Die Trying|58010521|Or Die Trying (Star Wars The New Jedi Order, #16.5)|Sean Williams|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|90905428] by Sean Williams and Shane Dix.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/LTDoxn0yzrY
Smithsonian Institute Archives info on temperature and humidity for archival collections: https://siarchives.si.edu/what-we-do/preservation/environment
February 4, 2003 TheForce.Net interview with Sean Williams and Shane Dix: http://theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/williamsdix.asp
December 23, 2003 TheForce.Net interview with Sean Williams and Shane Dix: http://theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/williamsdix2.asp
This week’s focus: the second book in the Force Heretic trilogy, Force Heretic: Refugee by Sean Williams and Shane Dix.
SOME HISTORY:
Sean Williams and Shane Dix didn’t expect a lot of media attention for their Star Wars book deal, but that was not the case. Williams was unfortunately misquoted in their local paper, making it seem as though they were writing the scripts for Episodes VII-IX, not a trilogy in the New Jedi Order book series. Prequel fever was raging wild at the time, so Australian media ran with this story--even though it was absolutely incorrect. Force Heretic: Refugee made it to number eight on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of May 18, 2003, and was on the NYT list for two weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I have no memory of this book at all. Did I buy it? Did I read it? Who knows!
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Rife with hostile cultures and outright enemies, the Unknown Regions hold many perils for Luke Skywalker and the Jedi searching for Zonama Sekot, the living planet that may hold the key to dealing with the Yuuzhan Vong. Meanwhile, Han and Leia journey on their quest to knit the unraveling galaxy back together, but betrayal and deception await them on Bakura…
THE CHARACTERS:
As with [b:Force Heretic I: Remnant|55546|Force Heretic I Remnant (Star Wars The New Jedi Order, #15)|Sean Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403181057l/55546._SY75_.jpg|54132], Refugee is divided into three main subplots: Han & Leia, Jaina & Jag, and Tahiri’s mission to Bakura, following up on a rumor passed along by the Ryn network; Luke & Mara, Jacen & Danni Quee, and Tekli & Saba Sebatyne’s continued search for Zonama Sekot, this time in Chiss territory; and Nom Anor’s new life as Yu’shaa the Prophet and his increasingly desperate attempts to get a spy into Supreme Overlord Shimrra’s court.
The Solo team (I don’t want to keep typing out all their names) arrive at Bakura in the middle of a very tense situation--the Bakurans are allying themselves with the P’w’ecks, who overthrown their Ssi-Ruuk overlords (our old foes from [b:The Truce at Bakura|302618|The Truce at Bakura (Star Wars)|Kathy Tyers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718249l/302618._SY75_.jpg|591520]). While Han and Leia pursue the diplomatic side, Jaina follows up on more information from the Ryn network that leads her to Malinza Thanas. The orphaned daughter of Gaeriel Captison, Malinza is part of a political group that wants to end interference from Imperial or Republic forces, so that Bakura can govern itself (not surprising, after what happened in the Corellian trilogy…). Jaina’s not particularly good at investigating--she remains in the dark for most of the story, and is betrayed by multiple individuals--but since she’s not a trained investigator, I was OK with her screw ups.
Because as it turns out, the P’w’eck have not been emancipated, but are still in league with the Ssi-Ruuk! Between Blaine Harris’s bomb during the consecration ceremony and Prime Minister Cundertol’s secret agreement with the Ssi-Ruuk, our heroes end up in a very bad situation towards the end. The threat of entechment (how the Ssi-Ruuk steal people’s spirits to power their droid fighters) hangs over everyone’s head, but especially over the heads of Jag and Twin Suns Squadron.
Luke and Jacen begin the novel running from hostile aliens--but don’t worry, they’re all OK. They’re subsequently contacted by a Chiss officer, who gives them clearance to enter the Chiss capital of Csilla. They met with officials from the Four Ruling families, who allow them to search the Expeditionary Library for references to Zonama Sekot, but they have a short timeframe to do so: only two days.
They arrive at the library, they’re surprised that the library is totally analog (all physical books, no databases); they look through a lot of books; they meet Baron Fel again, as well as his wife Syal Antilles and daughter Wyn; they take a short break to foil a scheme against Baron Fel’s family, and then return to the library. They run a search for systems that have acquired new planets, and find nothing. Jacen in particular is upset by this deadend, because what’s the point if they don’t find the location of Zonama Sekot? There’s possibly a little development on the Jacen/Danni relationship front, except Jacen doesn’t answer her--he has an eureka moment, runs back to order a search on all systems that have acquired new moons, and bingo.
Side Tangent - Archival Rant:
It was funny at first when Luke and company were flabbergasted by the presence of actual physical books in the Expeditionary Library, but then I started to think: surely one of them (like Luke) has seen physical books before? I know that the Jedi of old loved their holocrons, but there had to have been ancient Jedi texts in paper form as well!
And while I can understand holding onto physical items and not depending wholly on a digital collection (files can become obsolete, or be corrupted, or even hacked), I’m surprised that the Chiss don’t have any sort of digital backup. Rare books can be damaged or destroyed--back things up!
Finally, Saba mentioned that the air of the library was warm and dry, and it was making her scales itch. Dry, yes: it’s recommended that paper collections be kept at 30-50% humidity--too wet and you’ll start to grow mold, but too dry and the pages will begin to crack. But archives shouldn’t be warm at all; again, the Smithsonian recommends that paper-based collections be kept at 35-65℉ or 1.6667-18.3333℃. Libraries shouldn’t be toasty warm--that’s why you shouldn’t keep your books in non-climate-controlled places like a garage or a shed.
BACK TO CHARACTERS:
Nom Anor is growing his congregation of Shamed Ones (and increasingly, Vong from other castes as well), but he needs to know what Shimrra is planning. Nom Anor and Kunra catch, interrogate, and kill a spy in their midst, so they know that the priests are trying to infiltrate their Jeedai heresy. But fortunately, they soon bring a priestess of the deception sect into their heresy (side note: after so many books of Nom Anor dithering about using his poison eyeball, he finally uses it--and immediately has an “oh shoot, wrong decision” reaction), and are finally able to overhear what Shimrra’s up to. Spoiler alert: not much; things are going badly.
I find the Ssi-Ruuk intriguing, since they’re rather different from other reptilian yet human baseline species we’ve encountered in the Star Wars galaxy. Trandoshans have two arms and two legs, and they’re basically human-sized lizards. Barabels have two arms and two legs, and a tail, and they’re (again) human-sized lizards. But the Ssi-Ruuk are different, and look more like sentient dinosaurs. Their language sounds like fluted whistles (thus their human-given pejorative of “Fluties”), their weapons are different, and their technology is driven by the subjection of others. They’re foreign to the rest of the galaxy, which makes them so unknown and frightening.
Prime Minister Cundertol, on the other hand, was odd. He’s a very suspicious figure--in league with the Ssi-Ruuk, inhumanely strong and fast--and it turns out that he’s a human replica droid. The OG Cundertol was enteched into a HRD so that he could achieve immortality...but he’s in turn killed by a Yuuzhan Vong agent masquerading as a Ssi-Ruu. (Which...I know they’ve developed many different ooglith cloakers, but the Ssi-Ruuk are so far from the human baseline that I’m not sure how a cloaker can mimic them? But whatever.)
We learn a little bit more about the Chiss, although this will become confusing and convoluted and overwritten in later books. We meet another Fel kid, which brings the number of named Fel children up to four: Davin (deceased), Jagged, Cherith (deceased), and now Wyn. There’s mention of a Cem, but they’re not confirmed to be a Fel kid.
ISSUES:
I continued to struggle with the lack of chapters--thinking about it further, I think my problem comes down to Williams and Dix not committing fully to a no-structure, continuous story. I have no problem reading the Discworld books, but apart from the ones with Moist von Lipwig (which are structurally Victorian/Edwardian pastiches) the books are one continuous chapter-less story that I felt free to put down whenever. But the Force Heretic trilogy still pays lip service to a traditional structure (prologues and epilogues, distinct numbered parts) so once I reached one of those definite stopping places, it was hard for me to pick the book back up.
If I felt like Luke’s Imperial Remnant subplot in Remnant was vastly more important than Han and Leia’s mission to Galantos, the subplots felt flipped in importance in Refugee. Luke’s team don’t accomplish much here; I like fictional libraries, but they spend far too much time faffing around in the Chiss library before Jacen miraculously finds Zonama Sekot’s location at the end. Even the action element (the plot against the Fels) felt lesser than what Han & Leia and Jaina & Jag were dealing with.
But as much as I enjoyed the Bakuran subplot, I’m not sure how much enjoyment a new reader would get from it. The P’w’eck leader explains a little bit about the Ssi-Ruuk, but there’s an assumption that the reader has already read [b:The Truce at Bakura|302618|The Truce at Bakura (Star Wars)|Kathy Tyers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718249l/302618._SY75_.jpg|591520] and doesn’t need to be completely filled in. I suppose that’s the downside of these “tying up loose ends from the Bantam era” subplots--you need to have read those Bantam era novels to actually derive any satisfaction from the conclusion. In Tyers’s novel, entechment is described (and shown) in detail, and becomes a terrifying prospect to our heroes; in Refugee, though, we never see it in action, so it’s not as scary a threat as it could be.
And finally, the pace continued to be far too slow in this book. The beginning set off with a bang, with Luke and Jacen running from hostile Alien-esque aliens and Han and Leia’s motives immediately questioned on Bakura, but once those initial incidents were resolved the pace slowed considerably. It honestly didn’t start to pick back up until Part Four: Consecration, which meant that most of the book was slow going. Again, it was hard for me to pick the book back up when I knew that the reading process was a bit of a slog.
IN CONCLUSION:
Refugee definitely felt like a middle book to me: we don’t have a lot of progress with the Zonama Sekot search until the very end; Nom Anor’s congregation is growing and he finally has a high-ranking official in his heresy, but any big confrontations or revelations are pushed back until book 3; and while I found Han and Leia’s mission on Bakura interesting (it was fun to revisit stuff from [b:The Truce at Bakura|302618|The Truce at Bakura (Star Wars)|Kathy Tyers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718249l/302618._SY75_.jpg|591520]), Tahiri’s fate is left hanging. I think that there are some fun ideas here, I just wish that the structure and the pace didn’t make it so easy to put this book down.
Next up: a short story from Star Wars Insider issue 75, set in-between Force Heretic: Refugee and [b:Force Heretic III: Reunion|842591|Force Heretic III Reunion (Star Wars The New Jedi Order, #17)|Sean Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407356361l/842591._SY75_.jpg|2307450]: [b:Or Die Trying|58010521|Or Die Trying (Star Wars The New Jedi Order, #16.5)|Sean Williams|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|90905428] by Sean Williams and Shane Dix.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/LTDoxn0yzrY
Smithsonian Institute Archives info on temperature and humidity for archival collections: https://siarchives.si.edu/what-we-do/preservation/environment
February 4, 2003 TheForce.Net interview with Sean Williams and Shane Dix: http://theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/williamsdix.asp
December 23, 2003 TheForce.Net interview with Sean Williams and Shane Dix: http://theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/williamsdix2.asp
jessicaelisa's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
internpepper's review against another edition
2.0
Del Rey started the New Jedi Order to get away from people trying to overthrow the New Republic and blame the good guys. So in this book, we get a plot about people trying to overthrow the New Republic and blame the good guys. What?
Danni and Jacen have no chemistry together. Why are they making this a thing? The only good thing I have to say about this book is that Tahiri's struggle with Riina is a welcome addition to the series and the EU as a whole. Also, I only have three books left. "Thank the maker!"
Danni and Jacen have no chemistry together. Why are they making this a thing? The only good thing I have to say about this book is that Tahiri's struggle with Riina is a welcome addition to the series and the EU as a whole. Also, I only have three books left. "Thank the maker!"