This definitely wasn’t as good as I remember it being, which is sad. But it was still good!
It’s just, I remember swooning pretty hard during the scene where Luke and Mara Jade finally confess their love. I remember it being epic, and significant (both in terms of importance and length). And reading that scene again, it didn’t feel either of those things. I guess I was bringing the swoon myself last time, which makes sense. I was very practiced at doing that in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. (I definitely didn’t remember that the love confession scene involved what is essentially mind-sex, and then an immediate marriage proposal. I guess I was just hoping for text than subtext leading up to that moment, so it didn’t feel so out of place.)
Anyway, that complaint aside, the sci-fi/space opera part of this book is absolutely spot on. Zahn creates an epic cast of characters to join the already existing ones, whom he serves pretty well. In fact, Zahn’s Luke is much more developed than movie Luke, even if his Han is somewhat less of a smart-arse.
The scope of the story was great. I love the whole trajectory of this book being about finally ending the Empire, not by defeat, but with a peace treaty. And I love that the way to oppose that isn’t by outright simple defeat or super weapon (things Star Wars writers both tend to over-rely on), but by infiltration and instigation of civil war. I love that Zahn acknowledges that not everyone in the Empire is faceless and Evil. The Empire is made up of people, and people are complicated. Pellaeon is a good guy who just happened to believe in an institution that sucked hairy donkey balls. What are you going to do.
I seem to remember that further Zahn books after his initial trilogy and this duology only produced diminishing returns, so I don’t know if I will be re-reading any of them. Maybe next year, if The Force Awakens reignites my Star Wars love even more.
