Better than the first one. So far, I’m not nearly as impressed with these Zahn novels as I thought I’d be. Perhaps I should have started with these instead of New Jedi Order, because I think my expectations are a bit higher after having read those.

The characters do start to get more interesting in this novel, especially Mara. Her whole background and starting to rationalize Luke is actually believable for once. However, she doesn’t play any major role in the book until at least 200 pages in. Wah wah.

Unfortunately, the main antagonist, Thrawn, annoys me to no end. There’s no way he should be able to predict all the other characters’ actions all the time. And the couple of times he actually does mistakes, it’s very random and inconsistent. Annoying and unbelievable.

The climax was pretty exciting, but somewhat contrived. Oh hey, all the characters are all back at the same place at the same time! What a kerrazy coincidence!

All that being said, I am quite intrigued for the final novel in the trilogy.