Troy Denning

I still don't know why Luke Skywalker was so opposed to Jedi taking action in the earlier New Jedi Order books, and thus why he suddenly decides it's okay to take action here isn't really explicable. But, I'm glad he does because though it isn't quite as good as Conquest, Star by Star is the book that really kicks the New Jedi Order up a notch. While Luke, Leia, Han, and company try to do what they can as the Yuuzhan Vong advance on Coruscant, Anakin Solo leads a team of Jedi apprentices show more on a strike team to destroy the voxyn queen, the "mother" of Force-sensitive, Jedi-hunting creatures starting to plague the galaxy. Unlike the ponderous space strategy of the earlier books, this is really effective.

It's a little different for Star Wars, but it works. Denning brings concepts into Star Wars that are new but work with what we've seen before. The Jedi shadow bombs are a clever idea, but I love the Jedi battle meld, which is used to co-ordinate the actions of the strike team, but also to really make that strike team come to life as characters: this is a group of desperate people, pushed to their limits, and it's utterly engrossing to read about. Anakin Solo was brought to life by Conquest, and Denning really sustains that development here, plus lifting up Jacen and Jaina for the first time in the series. Meanwhile, Leia and Han's adventures on Coruscant are the danger-a-minute escapes you'd expect from them; other than the strike team, these are the best segments of the book-- you can see why Denning went on to write Tatooine Ghost, as he gets these characters perfectly. There are even nice parts for Lando and C-3PO! Heck, he's even the first NJO writer to treat Borsk Fel'lya as a genuine character, and not just an improbable obstacle for our heroes.

Famously, this is the book that kills Anakin Solo. Though I'm disappointed it had to happen given how much Del Rey mishandled the Solo kids in the years to come, the death scene itself is incredibly well done, and it's the right choice for both the book and the series. Anakin consumed by the Force as he dies to save his teammates-- it's marvelous. And then... that scene where Leia and Han find out... you can feel their grief, I got shivers just from reading it. How utterly devastating. This is the emotional low point of The New Jedi Order, this is its The Empire Strikes Back, and it promises that nothing will ever be the same again...

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Star Wars Crucible was the last in the legends series before Disney came in and ruined everything.

As always for the Star Wars audiobooks the audio-phonic story telling was amazing.

The story felt a bit rushed, I think they could have done multiple books here.

Grand Master Luke heads off to help Hann and Leia when they haven't been heard from,and he hopes to hear from his son Ben Skywalker.

Hann plays a lot of Sabacc, and I kept wondering if anyone actually made a game for sale. An internet show more search leads me to believe several have. Denning has a way of telling of the love Hann has for Leia in a way that just makes my heart weep.

Much of the later part of the book takes place in this sort of reverse force black whole that had some...interesting subplots built into its existence.

All and all it is an ending to the Legends series, and it actually does sort of give an actual ending, though not the one the story leads you to think you'll get. It does seem a bit rushed, but I don't think the authors were actually ready to end it, but had been instructed to by the media giants associated, so they did the best they could.

Crucible isn't officially part of any other Legends series, so in theory you could read it on its own, you certainly don't have to have head everything leading up to it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it all on its own. show less

Would it be that Troy Denning had been writing Star Wars novels ten years earlier, because in many ways, this is the novel that The Courtship of Princess Leia should have been. Bridging the gap between Courtship and Heir to the Empire, Tatooine Ghost takes Han and Leia to Tatooine so that they can recover an important painting at auction. But what it ends up doing is confronting Leia with her past: the grandmother she never knew and the father she doesn't want to.

Tatooine Ghost links show more elements revealed in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones into the original Star Wars characters to great effect: the sequences where Leia reads the diary of Shmi (surely one of the most underrated Star Wars characters) are excellent, even riveting, despite their flashback status. These are used to drive Leia's emotional journey-- which is paralleled with her physical journey. This is a harrowing escapade for Leia, Han, and Chewbacca. I doubt that any other Star Wars stories have revealed the harshness of Tatooine quite so effectively as this one.

What Denning also does well is write the Han/Leia relationship. I think this can be a tricky one to manage, because you have to be true to the films in depicting their characters-- which don't really show Han and Leia in a committed relationship very much. But Denning manages to get their characters spot on, and yet portray the depth of the commitment they have to one another.

There are a lot of things to like about this book: a good role for Chewbacca, random prequel characters like Kister and Wald, a Thrawn cameo, and best of all, the Squibs! Denning doesn't forget that Star Wars should be zany and funny. I loved it everytime they showed up and caused trouble, well-intentioned in their own way.

The pacing could maybe be better-- the second half drags a little bit as they travel through the desert so much-- but on the whole this is one of my favorite Star Wars novels. show less

Having finished The New Jedi Order after an awful long time reading, I thought it would be nice to read the Dark Nest trilogy, a follow-up to its events five years on of which I had fond memories. The first book is decent: parts of it are fun, while parts of it meander a bit too much. Denning always does a good job with Han and Leia; the interactions and adventures of the two of them are always fun to read in his hands. I'd really like to see him tackle more books like Tatooine Ghost, that show more allow them to go on an adventure without all the baggage of telling some galactic threat story. The Killik nests and the joiners are also some pretty interesting concepts, a little more sci-fi than Star Wars usually gets, but Denning pulls it off here, I think. On the other hand, I don't think he really gets the version of the Force that was advanced in Traitor, and I really dislike what he begins to do with Jacen here (which will culminate in Jacen's fall to the Dark Side in the tremendously misjudged Legacy of the Force). On the whole, this volume is fun, but the seeds of what will make the later Dark Nest books not as fun are present, as well. show less