not as good as i remembered sadface

This book is still much, much, much better than a lot of the Star Wars novels I’ve read, but it’s not as good as I remember it being. Granted, my standards weren’t suuuuuper high in 2004. I was young, and very, very distracted by the whole THING of being a freshman in college. Plus, all I realllllly cared about was Luke/Mara Jade and kissing and such, and that is definitely something that this series is focused on (although most of it occurs in the second book, not this one). This one is all Zahn fucking shit up in the galaxy, like PEW PEW Empire PEW PEW Rebellion, oh no Bothans genocide Fake Thrawn surrender and such and such CIVIL WARRRRR.

I may be drunk.

There are so many conflicting motivations going on in this book, and shit is complicated up in there. It’s definitely not a satisfying book on its own. It doesn’t have an arc, and nothing life-altering happens in the book at all. It’s all set up, and it ends on several cliffhangers. You need to read both books of the duology to get a full story arc (and if I’m remembering correctly, which may very well not be the case, it turns out to be a doozy).

Anyways, I’m going to go drink more sangria and maybe watch some Star Trek: Voyager. Yup. I was watching Star Trek while writing about Star Wars. OH THE MADNESS.