Star Wars:
The New Rebellion

“Every government must deal with armed rebellion at some point in its career.  For your friends on Coruscant, the rebellion will come sooner than later.”

This story takes place during the early days of the New Republic.  Princess Leia Organa Solo is President of the New Republic and faces a situation regarding incorporating former Imperials into the New Republic in spite of the lingering hatred she still feels for the now diminished Empire.  From this point, an explosion rocks the Senate chambers and a devastating sense of millions of people dying is felt by Luke and Leia at almost that same moment (similar to what Ben Kenobi felt when Aldaran was destroyed).  Luke senses a former Jedi Academy student named Brakiss around the destroyed Senate Chambers and sets out in search of his former student.  Meanwhile, Han and Chewy follow a lead to Smuggler’s Run (a large asteroid belt that doubles as a hideout for smugglers) to try and find out what became of an old smuggling buddy named Jarril who had asked Han for help.  Some members of the Senate quickly blamed Han for the explosion in the Senate Chambers when it is discovered that he had gone to Smuggler’s Run and after finding curious transmission from a ship which made mention of Solo.
The main bad guy in this story is a man named Kueller (who was once a student at the Jedi Academy named Dolph).  Kueller wears something called a “Death’s Head Mask”.  These masks (known by Luke as a Hendanyn death mask) were worn by the Hendanyn after they reached old age to hide their aging and also to store their memories before death.  The mask molded to the skin and could only be removed after death.  Apparently, Brakiss not only works for Kueller, but is terrified by him as well.  The brief insight into Brakiss’ life at the Jedi Academy was quite interesting.  Apparently, Brakiss left the academy full of anger and fear after Luke sent him to the cave on Dagaboh to face himself.
Han and Chewy run into trouble when they encounter the crime lord in charge of things on Smuggler’s Run, Nandreeson.  The reader learns that the Nandreeson still desperately wants to collect his bounty on Lando Calrissian and he may also be involved with the terroristic activity that Kueller has been behind.  Leia asks Lando to go to Smuggler’s Run after he finds Jarril dead in his ship floating in space.  Nandreeson eventually captures Lando and is the first to make mention of the “New Rebellion” that the New Republic is destined to face.   This was an interesting side story with almost too many details and was almost unnecessary, but was what clued the reader into the whole concept of this “New Rebellion”.
Luke has an interesting run in with Brakiss after getting some helpful information from Brakiss’ mother who tells Luke that there is nothing good left in the man that was once her son.  Brakiss really doesn’t seem interested in fighting and simply wants to die.  Luke offers to take him back to Yavin-4 and help him finish his training, but Brakiss just delivers the message Kueller has left for Luke.  The weird part of this aspect of the story is that Luke simply lets Brakiss walk away.
R2-D2 and C-3PO have a little interesting side story that includes them encouraging a group of astromech droids to rally against Brakiss, who has done his best to equip them all with detonators.  A young man from Tatooine named Cole Fardreamer who initially found a detonator in Luke’s X-Wing while doing some repairs aids R2-D2 throughout different parts of the book. All three of these characters were heroes in their own right in this story.
Han, Chewy, and Lando all kind of save each other and Han meets Mara Jade and Talon Karde in an effort to one up Kueller.  Han carries the Force Immune ysalimari to the planet of Almania in attempt to help Luke and Leia defeat Kueller.  A creature called the “Thernbee”, which helps Luke escape his cell, finds Han and Chewy and appears to eat the ysalimari, cage and all.  Luke finally confronts Kueller in a somewhat disappointing lightsaber battle which ends when Leia shoots Kueller twice in the chest with Han’s blaster.  The final battle was a big disappointment for many different reasons.  Luke’s ankle is apparently hurt to such an extent that he is hardly able to properly defend himself.  Han also leads the Thernbee into the area with the still undigested ysalimari in its belly, which is enough to hinder both Kueller and Luke in the Force.  The fact that Leia shoots Kueller makes this look like a three on one battle thus denying the reader a good one-on-one lightsaber battle between a teacher and his former student.  Another thing, which made no sense, was when Leia removes the mask on Kueller’s face only to reveal a young boy with chubby cheeks…I mean, what in the world is that about?

Storyline Importance: 8.5
This rating will automatically be higher that it probably should be given the fact that this is one of the classic novels in Star Wars literature.  This rating was also helped by the fact that the reader is exposed to many new things which helped lay a foundation for so many future Star Wars storylines.  But, this story will not reach the heights of other classics like the Thrawn Trilogy, Truce at Bakura, or Shadows of the Empire simply because the writing was detailed almost to a fault.  The author also exposed the reader to this New Republic and to allthe future positives and negatives she may be forced to one day endure.     

Character Importance: 8.6
Any story that introduces characters like Brakiss and Kueller deserves at least a little credit.  However, I will say that the Kueller character couldn’t have been more botched up in the end than he was in this story.  This character had so much more potential than what was allowed by this author.  Of course the reader is also exposed to a decent amount of character development to virtually every major and minor character to such an extent that it will thoroughly help out in the scoring of this category.

Excitement Level: 5.4
Unfortunately this is where this book seems to suffer the most.  Detail is important to some extent, but when detail becomes almost too tolerable to bear then the author possibly has made some errors.  I personally could have done without this much detail and would’ve preferred a bit more action and perhaps some more back story on Brakiss and Kueller.  I found it very ironic that so much detail was provided for things that seemed so unnecessary and yet the reader was denied a decent back story and the major villain of the story.  There’s a reason why we don’t see any more Star Wars books by this particular author…this book is probably it!

Favorite Moments:
The brief moments when the reader was fortunate enough to see glimpses into Kueller’s past was rather intriguing. However, I would’ve liked to have seen much more of that.  The only other moment that stood out was when the author finally gave the reader a hint as to what the term “New Rebellion” actually might stand for.  The fight scenes were otherwise dull and sorry excuses for decent lightsaber battles.  The space battle above Almania was a nice read and was fun for any Star Wars fan that is a fan of Wedge Antilles.

Overall Rating: 7.2