Star Wars:
Crosscurrent
“If what you’ve told is correct, your misjump didn’t just move you through space.” He let the moment hang there a moment, allowing Relin to brace himself, then he said, “It moved you through time.”
This book takes place in two different timelines with each coinciding with one another in one dramatic storyline. We begin some 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin during the Golden Age of the Sith. At the moment two large Sith vessels, the Omen (please note the use of the Omen in the Legacy of the Force series of novels as well) and the Harbinger, have located a moon rich with a type of ore called Lignana that can be used to enhance a dark sider’s connection with the Force. A former Jedi named Saes Rrogon who is now a Sith Lord is captain of one of the ships, the Harbinger. The Sith have been traced to this moon on the outskirts of the outer rim by a single Jedi Master, Relin Druur, and his Padawan, Drev Hassin. If Relin can’t stop the Sith from transporting the Lignan deposits to Nago Sadow then all hope for the Jedi and the galaxy may very well be lost.
This all brings us to the present scenario involving a Jedi Knight named Jaden Korr. The time period here is shortly after the downfall of Darth Caedus, AKA. Jacen Solo. Jaden has been haunted by a Force vision related to the above situation involving the ancient Jedi and Sith. Jaden’s real endearing quality as a character in this story is his doubt regarding the direction of the Jedi Order. Jaden has been struggling with Order’s role in the Civil War, political involvement in the Galactic Alliance, and in their overall thoughts as to the Force. The author has cleverly placed another individual in the present day scenario who is also searching for something connected to the Sith and the Jedi of the past. This someone is an Anzat assassin named Kell Douro who has been hired by Darth Darth Wyyrlok who is acting on behalf of his Master, Darth Krayt. This is a great use of characters from the Legacy Comic Book series published by Dark Horse. As for the Anzat himself, his species is a very unusual one in that they use these things on the side of their faces to essentially suck the “soup” as they call it from a living person’s brain, which in turn kills that person in the process. Again check out various Dark Horse comics for a nice visual of this “soup” sucking process.”
After sneaking aboard the Sith dreadnaught, Relin engages in a well written battle with Saes that ends after the Jedi Master loses an arm in a vicous lightsaber battle with his former Padawan. However, before their confrontation, Relin was able to sabotage the Harbinger’s hyperspace drive. Relin’s hope is that his sabotage will prevent the Lignan from being successfully delivered to Dark Lord Nago Sadow. Relin is able to escape the Harbinger aboard an escape pod and hopes to rendezvous with his padawan. However, said Padawan, Drev Hassin, chooses to sacrifice himself in an effort to ensure that the ore isn’t transported back to the Sith forces. Unfortunately the Harbinger is able to deactivate their jump into hyperspace thus preventing their possible destruction via the sabotaged hyperdrive. This chaos all results in the Harbinger making a blind hyperspace into the unknown of space jump. However, Relin’s escape pod is dragged along into hyperspace having been stuck in the wake of the massive Sith dreadnaught.
Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Jaden Korr makes his journey to the outskirts of the outer rim to the planet known as Fhost. From there Jaden enlists the services of a “junk jockey” named Khedryn Faal. Khedryn is the captain of a ship known as the Junker (obviously a salvage ship) and travels with his firstmate and partner Marr Idi-Shael. The first impression of these two feels similar to a funnier and less dangerous version of Han Solo and Chewbacca. Khedryn and Marr have found an ancient distress signal emanating from one of the distant moons on Fhost, which in turn has drawn the attention of Jaden Korr. After a unique encounter with the locals, Jaden and his newly hired friends make a quick exit and head out for the moon in question. However, Kell Douro has made his way to Fhost as well and witnessed the encounter that Jaden and his companions had with the locals. Kell manages to get his hands on the coordinates of the distress signal as well and is driven by the fact that he feels that “Fate” will only be revealed to him after gining on this particular Jedi’s “soup”. If this all sounds a bit confusing or disgusting then chances are that’s because it is!
The story starts coming together when Jaden, Khedryn, and Marr finally reach the moon that Jaden has seen in his vision, which happens to be where the ancient distress signal is originating from. Shortly after their arrival, the Sith dreadnaught, Harbinger, emerges from its misjump into hyperspace. And the past collides with the future at last! The ancient Jedi, Relin, attaches his escape pod to the Junker and has an interesting first encounter with our heroes of the future. After all the introductions are made it’s then agreed that the Force has brought all these individuals together for a reason.
Eventually this odd gathering of heroes splits up into two groups. Relin and Marr take the Junker on a head on course with the Harbinger in an effort to keep the Lignan from falling into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, Relin appears to have fully embraced the darkness that seems to be associated with prolonged effects of being around the Lignan. Thus, Relin is consumed by the desire for revenge against the ancient Sith who’ve taken the life of his Padawan. Marr seems to face the challenge of his life with bravery and determination. Marr also takes the news that he is apparently a Force Sensitive individual all in stride. Meanwhile, Jaden and Khedryn head to the snow covered moon in the small shuttle called Flotsam that was attached to the Junker. On the frozen planet they find an unusual and abandoned Imperial medical lab apparently used during the Thrawn era. There they find destroyed storm trooper armor and uniforms of various classes, but with no formal names or identifications to be found. The discovery is made even more mysterious by the fact that lightsaber damage was caused by clones that were created from the DNA of various Jedi and Sith (including Mara Jade Skywalker, Kam Solusar, and Eperor Palpatine). The clones all went crazy and one in particular had stayed in the lower facility of this medical lab with “Mother”. “Mother” was the name that this specific clone had chosen for the cloning chamber that he was created from. Jaden eventually comes face to face with said clone that apparently looks exactly like a deranged Kam Solusar. Jaden and the clone engage in a vicious battle to the death after all reason is thrown to the wayside. Jaden wins the contest, but then finds himself face to face with the Anzat, Kell, who has tracked him down at last.
Jaden is completely exhausted from his battle with the crazed clone and is totally caught off guard by Kell who seems to be mere moments away from finding his purpose in life at last. Unfortunately for Kell, Khedryn finds his purpose as well with an old Imperial blaster. Khedryn was ordered to go back to the Flotsam by Jaden and did so, but had his own near death experience encounter with Kell. Kell decided not to kill Khedryn, but had chosen to beat him unmercifully instead. However, Khedryn discovered his purpose was not to run away but to go back and help Jaden which he exceptionally did.
The book ends with Relin finally totally succumbing to the darkness aboard the Harbinger and killing his former student and current crazed Sith Lord, Saes. Relin eventually sets the whole Sith dreadnaught ablaze and sends it crashing into the moon in thousands of pieces. Marr is able to guide the Junker on autopilot back to the moon and reunite with Khedryn and Jaden. The story seems pretty much left open as Jaden agrees to further instruct Marr in the ways of the Force. Both Marr and Khedryn agree to help Jaden searth for the remain Sith and Jedi clones. The clones of course have escaped the moon aboard Kell’s ship, so who knows what the future for our new trio of heroes will be?
RATING:
Storyline Importance: 8.6
This score would’ve been much lower had it not been for the fact that the author salvaged some hint of credibility for his story by mentioning that there might be more Jedi and Sith clones and that those clones may have had children. Other than that, dropping names like Darth Krayt and Darth Wyyrlok at the start of the book only to fail miserably in tying those names into the rest of the story with some type of purpose or meaning just makes me ill! Now, if this novel leads to other literature based on the findings of these clones then perhaps I’ll reevaluate this score.
Character Importance: 9.5
Once again, if this storyline continues on in more novels and explains more of an origin or background for the Jedi Knight, Jaden Korr then perhaps this score will increase. It would also be nice to hear more about those crazed Jedi/Sith clones in future Star Wars literature. I will say I did enjoy the past and future characters meshing together so well. However, the story does seem a bit farfetched that a Sith dreadnaught from five thousand years ago could pose a threat to any vehicle in the present era as it seems that speed would be far too big a factor to overcome. The mention of the ship, Omen, at the beginning of the story is also a nice tease by the writer pointing towards the Fate of the Jedi series of Novels.
Excitement Factor: 9.5
Perhaps the story’s saving grace was the author’s ability to paint such a vivid picture with of some great fight scenes, plot twists, and so on that simply made this novel a very enjoyable read. Once again I will rehash the comment I made earlier concerning Darth Krayt and Darth Wyyrlok. I can understand the possibility of Krayt existing during this time period as his lack of aging is explained in the Dark Horse Legacy series. However, Darth Wyyrlok is a different story entirely! I often get the feeling that these first time author in the world of Star Wars literature are not doing their homework.
Overall Rating: 8.9