The plot continues to thicken as Zayne Carrick and his con-man colleague Gryph wind up on the front lines of the Mandalorean War while the Arkanians Jarael and Camper have to deal with Camper's mysterious past in large-scale mad science. Carth Onasi, one of the characters from the Knights of the Old Republic videogame, makes a good showing here, and we get to see his background from the Mandalorean War days. The pace slows down a bit for some more exposition, a welcome change after the action of the previous volume. ( )

The KotOR series has really grown on me. The characters are still a bit wooden and cliched, but the storyline is developing quite nicely. The story of the apparently deceived/malicious Jedi tracking down a padawan who's been framed for murder works better in each volume. The side stories of Mandalorian renegades is intriguing as well. There are several other subplots that are also falling into place. ( )

While the Star Wars novels seem to be languishing these days, the comic books are on fire-- and when I say "comics", I mean these comics, John Jackson Miller's Knights of the Old Republic series. Miller takes Star Wars back to a place it hasn't been since A New Hope-- a motley group of heroes caught up in galactic events, just barely staying ahead of being crushed by, well, everything. Plus, they're hilarious in all the right spots-- Marn Hierogryph, Snivvian con man-turned-restaurant owner, is the sort of character I was born to love. This set of issues is a little weaker than the previous ones, mostly because it splits the characters up, and their interaction was a high point of previous volumes. Still, you can't fault Miller for being willing to experiment and shake things up when necessary. The main characters-- Zayne, Gryph, Jarael, Camper, and so on-- are as fun and interesting as ever... but this series is also as willing to have a bit of darkness (just as A New Hope obviously was), and it is all the better for it.