Edge of Victory II: Rebirth (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #8) in The Expanded Universe

Nov 24, 2015 Scott Rhee rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars, movie-tie-in, science-fiction

Greg Keyes's second book in his Edge of Victory duology, "Rebirth," suffers the same problem that many previous books in the New Jedi Order series suffer from: way too many story lines going on at once.

Part of the problem is the vast---and growing---dramatis personae of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Each new author in the series seems to bring a new character or two to the mix, which is great, except one almost needs a character chart to keep track of them all.

In this book, Keyes has storylin Greg Keyes's second book in his Edge of Victory duology, "Rebirth," suffers the same problem that many previous books in the New Jedi Order series suffer from: way too many story lines going on at once.

Part of the problem is the vast---and growing---dramatis personae of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Each new author in the series seems to bring a new character or two to the mix, which is great, except one almost needs a character chart to keep track of them all.

In this book, Keyes has storylines involving: Corran Horn, a character created by Michael Stackpole; Kyp Durron, a character created by Kevin J. Anderson; Mara Jade, a character created by Timothy Zahn; and, of course, several Yuuzhan Vong characters created by R.A. Salvatore. There's also a new character added to the mix: Ben Skywalker, the newborn child of Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, who plays a significant role in later series.

I don't envy any reader trying to jump into this series in the middle, without reading all of the prior 15+ books. I don't think it would make much sense, as there are simply way too many major events that are referred to in passing and way too many characters with complicated backstories.

Not that Keyes's book isn't still immensely entertaining. He can write a damn good space battle scene, and this book ends with a whopper of a climactic space battle involving Kyp Durron's X-wing squadron, General Wedge Antilles's Rogue Squadron, Jaina Solo, and an alleged Yuuzhan Vong super weapon the size of the Death Star. (I use the word "alleged" because the purpose of the super weapon is an integral part of a major plot twist within the story.)

It behooves me to mention the KISS between Anakin and Tahiri, a relationship that readers have apparently watched grow in the Young Jedi Knights series of books for young adults (roughly 14 in that series alone), a series I have not read yet. In keeping with the whole cheesy space/soap-opera feel of the series, I have a feeling that this kiss is as significant an event as any other in this book. ...more

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