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Del Rey's New Jedi Order series is an attempt to "propel the legendary epic into the next milennium", according to the dust jacket. What this entails, essentially, is the introduction of a new menace to replace the vanquished Empire, as well as the shift of the newer characters (such as the Solo children) to the foreground of the stories.

Now, it's possible that I'm a little biased, here; with the exception of the original Thrawn trilogy of books by Timothy Zahn, I haven't really enojoyed many of the expanded universe novels for Star Wars, and in the past couple of years, I've sort of gradually stopped paying attention to the storylines at all. I think (and really, this is just my opinion) that a lot of the post Zahn-trilogy novels were written by utter hacks, who focused mainly on introducing new superweapons and unbelievable characters to their novels, rather than on good writing. The worst part of that, I think, was not so much the fact that their novels were poorly written, but that they caused my interest in the novels at all to wane, which meant that I missed out on any of the novels that were good.

Recently, however, I purchased the revised edition of Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars roleplaying game, and while I didn't like it as much as the West End Games precursor, it still interested me enough to want to try my hand at running it. Now, because any players I might game with would certainly know a little something about the storylines, and seeing as the New Jedi Order era sounded intriguing, I decided to plunge back into the Star Wars novel line with R. A. Salvatore's Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order line. I was fortunate enough to receive a copy for free from a friend; although that should have perhaps been a warning to me, I fecklessly carried on, heedless of the dangers.

Vector Prime is a hardcover novel with a sort of photoshopped cover of what appears to be the computer-aged face of Luke Skywalker alongside a sort of translucent New Republic insignia in the background, and a skeletal face with beetle legs sticking out of it at regular intervals. Personally, I think it lack something compared to the more traditional cover paintings of the earlier books, but if we were judging the book by its cover, there would be no point to this review, would there now?

The book begins with Princess Leia Organa Solo, her daughter Jaina, and Mara Jade Skywalker (Luke's wife, and a character originally appearing in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy), on the bridge of Skywalker's shuttle, the Jade Sabre. Mara is suffereing from some sort of disease which has so far killed everyone woh has caught it, although she is so far only in a weakened state. The three of them, along with one of the ubiquitous Noghri bodygaurds and C-3PO, are on their way to the two low-technology planets of Rhommamool and Osiran, where charasimatic Rhommamoolian agitatator Nom Anor has brought the two worlds almost to war. We learn through the characters' dialogue that although Rhommamool and Osiran have almost no spacecraft, their orbits bring them so close together that in two weeks, the planets will be able to exchange missile fire.

The Jade Sabre leaves hyperspace to so the New Republic cruiser Mediator already station by the two worlds to help keep the peace. The Jade Sabre is hailed by Rodian mercenaries working for the Osirans, who request that Leia and company follow them to Osiran before they speak to Nom Anor. Leia declines, and the shuttle is pursued by four fighters from Osiran. Although Leia intends to outrun them, an X-Wing, "the new XJ version", piloted by a Jedi, intercepts the pursuing fighters and blows one to pieces. The others retreat, and Leia heads to the Mediator to grill the ship's commander about the rogue fighter, which Leia feels has disrupted the negotiations.

The X-Wing, we learn, was piloted by Jedi Knight Wurth Skidder, who does noy fall under the command of the Mediator's captain, Commander Ackdool. After yelling at Ackdool for a bit, Leia switches her ire to Skidder, who regards the whole incident with nonchalance. After a brief and angry lecture, Leia informs Skidder that she'll tell Luke, who will make him reimburse the Osirans for the damge he's caused.

We then cut to Rhommamool, where a group of antitechnology fanatics in league with Nom Anor are rounding up droids and destroying them in an atmosphere of hysteria and elation. At the same time, Leia and Mara provide the reader with some handy plot exposition by way of a discussion about Nom Anor, who, we learn, is an anti-technology, anti-Jedi, anti-New Republic orator. Also, he doesn't seem to register to the force. We also learn that with so many Jedi now roaming the galaxy, there are quite a few who've bcome rather gung-ho, and take the law into their own hands.

From there, it's a transition to Nom Anor's point of view, as he looks out over a mass droid-smashing. We learn that he doesn't really care one way or another about the Rhommamoolians, although he does seem to hate droids and Jedi. In addition, he apparently has superiors to report to.

From there, we shift to ExGal-4, a sort of scientific monitoring post at the edge of the galaxy; ExGal is a society that looks for extragalactic life. ExGal-4 has, unbeknownst to its inhabitants, been infiltrated by an alien named Yomin Carr, who is disguised as a human. Carr is a member of a species called the Yuuzhan Vong, who rely on organic, rather than technological equipment. His function is to serve as an advance scout for an invasion fleet coming from another galaxy. To facilitate this, Yomin has released a number of small beetle-like creatures which are slowly terraforming the planet; he also plans to disable the communications equipment that would allow the scientists to warn others of the approaching Yuuzhan Vong armada.

Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and his nephew Jacen Solo are attending a New Republic Advisory Council conference on Coruscant, to discuss the formation of a Jedi council. This is where I think the plot started to fall apart for me. The New Republic government is portrayed as a bunch of squabbling opportunists; I don't regard this as real-world implausible, of course, as that sort of thing has happened to many rebel movements once they've gained power, but this creates a fundamental problem in the Star Wars universe: the good guys we've loved and rooted for are worse at governing than the Empire, which was always portrayed as a bunch of scheming and ambitious Moffs trying to get ahead. What's worse, part of the problem is portrayed as being the fact that the nonhumans that are now more well-represented in the Republic's leadership are more concerned with power and getting their own back against humans, instead of leading well. Somehow, this strikes me as a sort of "white man's burden" situation, where once the humans aren't around to guide the aliens, they fall to squabbling amongst themselves. Other readers may differ, of course. Anyway, the forum is used as an excuse by the opportunistic councilmembers to attack the actions of the Jedi, and it degenerates into a shouting match. Luke and Jacen then have a little dispute over whether or not the Jedi need a council, and it's off to the Millennium Falcon.

We then cut back to Nom Anor, where we learn that he created the disease which infects Mara Skywalker, and that is is actually a sort of poisonous spore, rather than a true disease. Furthermore, we learn that Nom Anor is also a Yuuzhan Vong, which by this point should come as no suprise to the reader. As it turns out, Leia and her entourage are just about to meet with Anor, and so he hurries to speak with them. The negotiation is of course unfrutiful, especially as Nom Anor is dressed as Darth Vader. The reviewer would interject here that the charismatic power of people dressing up as, say, Reinhard Heydrich is pretty low, and that he would hazard a guess that any demagogue dressing like Darth Vader in Star Wars would be in for a rough time. But, of course, that has nothing to do with the story. At any rate, Leia and company leave the meeting in a huff.

The book cuts back to Luke, Han, and the rest of the gang at Coruscant, where they're planning to take a trip to the Outer Rim to visit Lando in hopes of digging up information on some Jedi that are taking the law into their own hands.

Mara, Leia, and Jaina, meanwhile have returned to Coruscant. While they head to the Falcon to meet up with Han et al, Jacen and his brother Anakin disagree about Jedi philosophy while lightsaber dueling. The reviewer again hastens to comment: lightsabers don't seem like the best, or even the safest choice for dueling, especially for children. Anyway, Mara, Leia, and Jaina meet up with the rest of the gang, and they all decide to go to see Lando together.

The book heads back to the ExGal-4 site, where a strange comet has earlier been deteced approaching the galaxy. This is of course in actuality the vanguard of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion fleet. Some of the researchers decide to head up in their shuttle craft, but the majority remian behind, and Yomin Carr starts to kill them, albeit subtly.

Back on Rhommamool, Nom Anor launches nuclear missiles are Osiran, planning the attack in such a way as to make it next to impossible for the Mediator to detect them until too late. Presumably, the Jedi was somehow unable to detect the missiles, or even feel a premonition of their launch, but as that isn't too terribly far-fetched, I won't dwell on it any more than I already have.

A lot of exposition follows, as the main characters (Luke, Leia, Han, etc.) make their way to whatever Lando's newest business venture is. As it turns out, it is the Constituionally-mandated whacky mining scheme; Lando is obligated to have a new one in every Star Wars novel cycle, and Vector Prime isn't going to break with tradition. Lando is mining asteroids, and as a side business, he allows pilots to fly through the asteroid fields in specially-modified TIE fighters that have shields "loaned" to them by his space station. The basic idea of it is that the pilots fly until they bounce off an asteroid; the longer it takes you to hit one, the higher your score is.

From here on in, the novel moves along towards the inevitable confrontation with the Yuuzhan Vong advance guard, the death of Chewbacca, who's flattened under a planetary moon, and various other happenings. The book has doubtless been snapped up by most rabid Star Wars fans, who will doubtless defend it, and pretty much any other Star Wars-related novel, to the death. I for my part, however, found the book disappoining. I've heard a lot of good things about R. A. Salvatore's game-related fiction for AD&D, and I hoped to see what everyone was so excited about here. Unfortunately, Salvatore's style is one I find particualrly annoying, with an excess of exclamation marks (which I HATE, especially outside of dialogue), and a level of writing ability that at best barely rises above most mediocre game fiction. Unfortunatel,y I don't really feel that the book captures much of the Star Wars flavor, or even the way the characters interact, which, along with the space battle scenes, is the meat-and-drink of a Star Wars novel. The space battles themselves are not terribly exciting, and I found myself skimming through them quickly to get to the end of the book faster. Part of the problem may be that Salvatore isn't used to writing science-fiction, and is more comfortable with the AD&D books he's written for years. It is unfortunate that the New Jedi Order line does not have a more august beginning.

That being said, I'm still reading NJO books. Not because I like them, but because I have to, if I want to be able to make head or tail of the New Jedi Order era for the roleplaying game. Similarly, I'm sure that many Stars Wars fans are suffereing through the novels just because it's Star Wars, which is a rotten shame, but not something that this review is going to change.

Vector Prime
Vector Prime Capsule Review by Edward McEneely on 20/11/02 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average) Here there be spoilers. Product: Vector Prime Author: R. A. Salvatore Category: Novel Company/Publisher: Del Rey Books/Lucas Books Line: Star War: The New Jedi Order Cost: 24.95 Page count: 387 Year published: 1999 ISBN: 0-345-42844-7 SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Edward McEneely on 20/11/02 Genre tags: Science Fiction Space	Del Rey's New Jedi Order series is an attempt to "propel the legendary epic into the next milennium", according to the dust jacket. What this entails, essentially, is the introduction of a new menace to replace the vanquished Empire, as well as the shift of the newer characters (such as the Solo children) to the foreground of the stories. Now, it's possible that I'm a little biased, here; with the exception of the original Thrawn trilogy of books by Timothy Zahn, I haven't really enojoyed many of the expanded universe novels for Star Wars, and in the past couple of years, I've sort of gradually stopped paying attention to the storylines at all. I think (and really, this is just my opinion) that a lot of the post Zahn-trilogy novels were written by utter hacks, who focused mainly on introducing new superweapons and unbelievable characters to their novels, rather than on good writing. The worst part of that, I think, was not so much the fact that their novels were poorly written, but that they caused my interest in the novels at all to wane, which meant that I missed out on any of the novels that were good. Recently, however, I purchased the revised edition of Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars roleplaying game, and while I didn't like it as much as the West End Games precursor, it still interested me enough to want to try my hand at running it. Now, because any players I might game with would certainly know a little something about the storylines, and seeing as the New Jedi Order era sounded intriguing, I decided to plunge back into the Star Wars novel line with R. A. Salvatore's Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order line. I was fortunate enough to receive a copy for free from a friend; although that should have perhaps been a warning to me, I fecklessly carried on, heedless of the dangers. Vector Prime is a hardcover novel with a sort of photoshopped cover of what appears to be the computer-aged face of Luke Skywalker alongside a sort of translucent New Republic insignia in the background, and a skeletal face with beetle legs sticking out of it at regular intervals. Personally, I think it lack something compared to the more traditional cover paintings of the earlier books, but if we were judging the book by its cover, there would be no point to this review, would there now? The book begins with Princess Leia Organa Solo, her daughter Jaina, and Mara Jade Skywalker (Luke's wife, and a character originally appearing in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy), on the bridge of Skywalker's shuttle, the Jade Sabre. Mara is suffereing from some sort of disease which has so far killed everyone woh has caught it, although she is so far only in a weakened state. The three of them, along with one of the ubiquitous Noghri bodygaurds and C-3PO, are on their way to the two low-technology planets of Rhommamool and Osiran, where charasimatic Rhommamoolian agitatator Nom Anor has brought the two worlds almost to war. We learn through the characters' dialogue that although Rhommamool and Osiran have almost no spacecraft, their orbits bring them so close together that in two weeks, the planets will be able to exchange missile fire. The Jade Sabre leaves hyperspace to so the New Republic cruiser Mediator already station by the two worlds to help keep the peace. The Jade Sabre is hailed by Rodian mercenaries working for the Osirans, who request that Leia and company follow them to Osiran before they speak to Nom Anor. Leia declines, and the shuttle is pursued by four fighters from Osiran. Although Leia intends to outrun them, an X-Wing, "the new XJ version", piloted by a Jedi, intercepts the pursuing fighters and blows one to pieces. The others retreat, and Leia heads to the Mediator to grill the ship's commander about the rogue fighter, which Leia feels has disrupted the negotiations. The X-Wing, we learn, was piloted by Jedi Knight Wurth Skidder, who does noy fall under the command of the Mediator's captain, Commander Ackdool. After yelling at Ackdool for a bit, Leia switches her ire to Skidder, who regards the whole incident with nonchalance. After a brief and angry lecture, Leia informs Skidder that she'll tell Luke, who will make him reimburse the Osirans for the damge he's caused. We then cut to Rhommamool, where a group of antitechnology fanatics in league with Nom Anor are rounding up droids and destroying them in an atmosphere of hysteria and elation. At the same time, Leia and Mara provide the reader with some handy plot exposition by way of a discussion about Nom Anor, who, we learn, is an anti-technology, anti-Jedi, anti-New Republic orator. Also, he doesn't seem to register to the force. We also learn that with so many Jedi now roaming the galaxy, there are quite a few who've bcome rather gung-ho, and take the law into their own hands. From there, it's a transition to Nom Anor's point of view, as he looks out over a mass droid-smashing. We learn that he doesn't really care one way or another about the Rhommamoolians, although he does seem to hate droids and Jedi. In addition, he apparently has superiors to report to. From there, we shift to ExGal-4, a sort of scientific monitoring post at the edge of the galaxy; ExGal is a society that looks for extragalactic life. ExGal-4 has, unbeknownst to its inhabitants, been infiltrated by an alien named Yomin Carr, who is disguised as a human. Carr is a member of a species called the Yuuzhan Vong, who rely on organic, rather than technological equipment. His function is to serve as an advance scout for an invasion fleet coming from another galaxy. To facilitate this, Yomin has released a number of small beetle-like creatures which are slowly terraforming the planet; he also plans to disable the communications equipment that would allow the scientists to warn others of the approaching Yuuzhan Vong armada. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and his nephew Jacen Solo are attending a New Republic Advisory Council conference on Coruscant, to discuss the formation of a Jedi council. This is where I think the plot started to fall apart for me. The New Republic government is portrayed as a bunch of squabbling opportunists; I don't regard this as real-world implausible, of course, as that sort of thing has happened to many rebel movements once they've gained power, but this creates a fundamental problem in the Star Wars universe: the good guys we've loved and rooted for are worse at governing than the Empire, which was always portrayed as a bunch of scheming and ambitious Moffs trying to get ahead. What's worse, part of the problem is portrayed as being the fact that the nonhumans that are now more well-represented in the Republic's leadership are more concerned with power and getting their own back against humans, instead of leading well. Somehow, this strikes me as a sort of "white man's burden" situation, where once the humans aren't around to guide the aliens, they fall to squabbling amongst themselves. Other readers may differ, of course. Anyway, the forum is used as an excuse by the opportunistic councilmembers to attack the actions of the Jedi, and it degenerates into a shouting match. Luke and Jacen then have a little dispute over whether or not the Jedi need a council, and it's off to the Millennium Falcon. We then cut back to Nom Anor, where we learn that he created the disease which infects Mara Skywalker, and that is is actually a sort of poisonous spore, rather than a true disease. Furthermore, we learn that Nom Anor is also a Yuuzhan Vong, which by this point should come as no suprise to the reader. As it turns out, Leia and her entourage are just about to meet with Anor, and so he hurries to speak with them. The negotiation is of course unfrutiful, especially as Nom Anor is dressed as Darth Vader. The reviewer would interject here that the charismatic power of people dressing up as, say, Reinhard Heydrich is pretty low, and that he would hazard a guess that any demagogue dressing like Darth Vader in Star Wars would be in for a rough time. But, of course, that has nothing to do with the story. At any rate, Leia and company leave the meeting in a huff. The book cuts back to Luke, Han, and the rest of the gang at Coruscant, where they're planning to take a trip to the Outer Rim to visit Lando in hopes of digging up information on some Jedi that are taking the law into their own hands. Mara, Leia, and Jaina, meanwhile have returned to Coruscant. While they head to the Falcon to meet up with Han et al, Jacen and his brother Anakin disagree about Jedi philosophy while lightsaber dueling. The reviewer again hastens to comment: lightsabers don't seem like the best, or even the safest choice for dueling, especially for children. Anyway, Mara, Leia, and Jaina meet up with the rest of the gang, and they all decide to go to see Lando together. The book heads back to the ExGal-4 site, where a strange comet has earlier been deteced approaching the galaxy. This is of course in actuality the vanguard of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion fleet. Some of the researchers decide to head up in their shuttle craft, but the majority remian behind, and Yomin Carr starts to kill them, albeit subtly. Back on Rhommamool, Nom Anor launches nuclear missiles are Osiran, planning the attack in such a way as to make it next to impossible for the Mediator to detect them until too late. Presumably, the Jedi was somehow unable to detect the missiles, or even feel a premonition of their launch, but as that isn't too terribly far-fetched, I won't dwell on it any more than I already have. A lot of exposition follows, as the main characters (Luke, Leia, Han, etc.) make their way to whatever Lando's newest business venture is. As it turns out, it is the Constituionally-mandated whacky mining scheme; Lando is obligated to have a new one in every Star Wars novel cycle, and Vector Prime isn't going to break with tradition. Lando is mining asteroids, and as a side business, he allows pilots to fly through the asteroid fields in specially-modified TIE fighters that have shields "loaned" to them by his space station. The basic idea of it is that the pilots fly until they bounce off an asteroid; the longer it takes you to hit one, the higher your score is. From here on in, the novel moves along towards the inevitable confrontation with the Yuuzhan Vong advance guard, the death of Chewbacca, who's flattened under a planetary moon, and various other happenings. The book has doubtless been snapped up by most rabid Star Wars fans, who will doubtless defend it, and pretty much any other Star Wars-related novel, to the death. I for my part, however, found the book disappoining. I've heard a lot of good things about R. A. Salvatore's game-related fiction for AD&D, and I hoped to see what everyone was so excited about here. Unfortunately, Salvatore's style is one I find particualrly annoying, with an excess of exclamation marks (which I HATE, especially outside of dialogue), and a level of writing ability that at best barely rises above most mediocre game fiction. Unfortunatel,y I don't really feel that the book captures much of the Star Wars flavor, or even the way the characters interact, which, along with the space battle scenes, is the meat-and-drink of a Star Wars novel. The space battles themselves are not terribly exciting, and I found myself skimming through them quickly to get to the end of the book faster. Part of the problem may be that Salvatore isn't used to writing science-fiction, and is more comfortable with the AD&D books he's written for years. It is unfortunate that the New Jedi Order line does not have a more august beginning. That being said, I'm still reading NJO books. Not because I like them, but because I have to, if I want to be able to make head or tail of the New Jedi Order era for the roleplaying game. Similarly, I'm sure that many Stars Wars fans are suffereing through the novels just because it's Star Wars, which is a rotten shame, but not something that this review is going to change.