You can find plenty of book reviews, so I will keep mine short and sweet. This is yet another excellent book in this series. I highly recommended all these books to any Star Wars fan. The major plot line of a small team of rebels going on a mission against the Empire really feels like what Rogue One could shape up to be. If so, I think that movie will be excellent - even without any Jedi! This books seems to wipe away the EU Legacy novel Shadows of the Empire. I am perfectly fine with that!
Comparing this to the other two books of this Adventures trilogy that I have already read, Weapon of the Jedi and Smuggler's Run, I am glad I save this book for last. You can see the trajectory of the new character, Ematt, even though he makes just brief appearances in the Prologue/Epilogue and the main story.
This book has the most tantalizing hints to what may be in The Force Awakens. I speculate that Mon Mothma has disbanded the military after the Empire was defeated. The Resistance is a special task force created solely as a check against the growing threat of the First Order. I suspect the job of this task force is containment and I expect them to fail, which leads to Episodes VIII and IX.
What I really want to capture here in this blog are the major elements of the story for future reference. Part of the marketing of these books is that hints about The Force Awakens have been planted in the story. So here it goes!
Prologue:
- Leia: "We are on the brink of war again - one we may not survive"
- "You are the leader of the Resistance, a critical check on the designs of the First Order. You are a symbol of the Resistance and an inspiration to all soldiers...." [Perhaps no organized military. This is a task force to counteract this growing threat]
New Depths for Legacy Characters:
- Leia - has tingling feeling she has learned to trust - it means action
- Nien Nunb - helped Leia save the remaining Alderaanians, former smuggler. Team pilot.
- General Madine - strategist chief (heads up commandos)
- Mon Mothma - Alliance Chancelor from Chandrila
- Admiral Ackbar - Leader of the fleet. mentioned only.
New Depths for Legacy Story:
- Threepio belongs to Luke, which he loans to Leia
- After Hoth, Mon Mothma decided to break up the Alliance into several smaller task forces.
- Having to fight against Imperial propaganda
- The Empire plans to destroy Chandrila and Mon Cal with Death Star II. Willing to destroy a people based on the opinions of a few.
New Characters:
- PZ-4CO - female droid, writing memoir for Leia, "Peazy"
- Major Ematt (first appeared as Lt Ematt in Smuggler's Run). A man Leia has fought alongside for so many years.
- Kidi Aleria - Cerean race. Team communications.
- Major Lokmarcha - Dressellian race. Team commando
- Antrot - Abednedo race. Team tinkerer and demoltions expert
- Captain Khoine - Imperial in charge of Corva Sector.
- ___Yom
- x Pirates
- Lt. Ematt - brief appearance
- Admiral Naatz - (mentioned only)
- Admiral Vassa - green skinned Duros (mentioned only)
- General Veertag - (mentioned only)
- General Tantor - (mentioned only)
- General Cracken - intelligence chief (mentioned only)
New Locations:
- Zastiga - on the edge of the Outer Rim. Secret meeting of top level Alliance
- Sullust - Homeworld for Nien Nunb. Secret S thread boosters exist to create a hyperspace route to the Galactic edge, including Endor. This "Sanctuary Pipeline" is an important military secret of the Empire.
- Corva Sector - On the opposite side of the galaxy from Endor. Made up of several systems including Basteel, Sesid, Jaresh, and Galaan.
- Galaan - Mostly unformed system with a yellow moon.
- Basteel - Mountainous. Covered in caves.
- Sesid - Water world. Resort and pharmaceuticals.
- Jaresh - Wooded/plains? Founded by religious enclave.
- Shieldmaiden - Star destroyer of Capt. Khoine
Plot Notes
- The theme of duty, without emotion
- Scatter protocol mentioned again (as in Weapon of the Jedi)
- The theme of rebels sacrificing their lives to protect Leia
- The theme of old codes and new codes (mentioned in ROTJ as the Rebels try to sneak onto Endor). Intentionally using codes that are suspect to have been broken.
- Book is set a few weeks after the Bothans acquire the Death Star II information
- Operation Yellow Moon (named after the Galaan system)
- Torture droid programmed to continue without listening to confession. Keeps going until told to stop.
- Mellcrawler - space yacht used for mission
- Rebels steal shuttle Tydirium from Shieldmaiden before it self-destructs! (One would think that this would have tipped off the Empire that this shuttle shows up. But perhaps tied up in bureaucratic inefficiency. Also, the Emperor *wants* them to land, so that would have been smoothed over anyway.)
- Conclusion: Yes, duty but also love for others (Mon Mothma suggests as well - can't live just for duty). Must be balanced.
- Unanswered question: Peezy memoir of Leia's childhood on Alderaan.
Epilogue:
- Poe Dameron - needs to learn balance between duty and love for others. Old enough to hear Leia but no enough to listen. Best pilot in the Resistance
- News of Jakku? Major Ematt says yes.
- General Leia is in center of actions and she likes that.
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