It's been a long, long time since I read a Star Wars book that knocked my socks off. They're just not what they used to be. As they push into the future, there's also been a trend of going back and filling in every conceivable space between previous books and movies. Unfortunately, these fill-ins tend to create inconsistencies.

Now, this is partly my issue--I'm a stickler for staying with the canon. Other people probably don't find this to be as ridiculously annoying as I do, but I'm going to rant about it a little bit anyway.

So, Timothy Zahn wrote this one. Zahn is basically the example that other Star Wars authors try to follow, right? I mean, he started the whole SW novel thing with the Thrawn Trilogy, which moved the story way forward. He gave us Jacen and Jaina, gave Luke a little kick in the pants to get him moving, and fleshed out the fledgling government that was in place after the fall of the Empire.

But really, Zahn gave us Mara Jade. That's why we love him! He introduced her in the Thrawn Trilogy, as a nemesis of Luke. Turns out that Mara was once the Emperor's Hand, a trusted personal agent of Palpatine, used to bring down treason and corruption in the Empire. So naturally, the death of her master left her quite shaken, especially considering that before he died, Palpatine transmitted a Force message to her. The image was of Vader and Luke joining forces and killing Palpatine with their lightsabers. Also, he leaves her with a directive: YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER. Naturally, she and Luke encounter one another (it's a small galaxy, after all...) and they're forced into some mutual survival situation in which they gain a little understanding about each other. Turns out that Mara was supposed to have been on the sail barge the day that Jabba the Hutt was set to execute Luke and Han. When R2D2 released the lightsaber that Luke caught, it was supposed to have been intercepted by Mara. But Jabba, being the fickle slug that he was, refused to let Mara go on the barge. We all know what happened next. Mara is a bit miffed by this. And this appears to be the entire backstory that she shares with Luke.

But wait! This is NOT the only backstory she shares with Luke! In fact, she has encountered Luke before! They worked side by side but not necessarily together to save an Imperial Governor's wife and daughter...oh, say...ten years ago? In fact, Mara knew Luke's last name at the time and even saw him with a lightsaber. AND she remembered Vader doing a search on him only months before, but chalked it up to coincidence. Hmmmm.

There's a line in this book that really got me. Mara sees Luke in trouble, and decides that he's been helpful to her and "she couldn't very well let him die." She saves him (at this point Luke is pretty inept at the whole Jedi thing) and then goes about her business. Now, wouldn't you think that ten years down the road some of this might get brought up? Or that Mara might be having some major bitterness and regret from that decision that she made, knowing she could have altered the course of history had she just let Skywalker get shot?

See? This is the kind of thing that bugs the crap out of me and probably doesn't bother other people at all. I supposed I could just hang my head and sigh and say, "Fiiiinnnne. This happened, then in the end they fell in love and got married and had Ben and then Mara got killed by Jacen...*sniffle*...and Timothy Zahn didn't even get to be the one to kill her...*sniffle*...AND BEFORE SHE DIED SHE TOUCHED LUKE'S HAIR WITH THE FORCE ONE LAST TIME!!! *sobs*".

I suppose it's best to just not think about it this hard. *sigh*