Official Score = 3 1/2 Devils[/caption]Believe it or not, I have actually been a fan of Star Trek novels for quite a few years, (long before I had ever become a fan of Star Wars novels.) You see Star Trek novels, despite the perceptions of them by a lot of people. Star Trek novels, like their big or small screen representations, are novels that kind of give a positive view of humanity that from what I can see, it generally seems that humanity really believes could happen... But not just that, but it also continues the Star Trek universe in such a way that some times the movies or the TV shows couldn't expand in to... And so knowing that is the case with Star Trek novels, you would think that it would be the same thing with Star Wars novels right? Wrong... For me, for some reason I was under the preconception that Star Wars novels would not only not be fun, but that they would also be kind of cheesy as hell, and that the novels that could be closely related to an, 'Adult' novel, would be more like the young adult novels... Boy was I wrong! You see, I was given a Star Wars novel called, 'Dark Force Rising'... Now at this time I didn't know that this was a trilogy in and of it's self, but the truth is, is I found this novel to be quite fascinating... It was fun to see where, Luke, Leia, Han & the gang were at years after, Star Wars Episode 6: Return Of The Jedi (1983) ended up at...
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="607"]
Luke, Leia, Han & the gang celebrating the battle that took down, ‘The Emperor’, ‘Darth Vader’ and, ‘The Death Star’.[/caption]You see this novel is actually the second in a series of 3, and tells the story of how years after the fall of Emperor Palpatine. Darth Vader & the Death Star in, 'Return Of Jedi', A New Republic is born, and the old Empire has been routed to a small corner of the Galaxy... But during this time the last of Palpatine's major warlords, 'Grand Admiral Thrawn' has marshaled the remnants of the Imperial Military...
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"]
Some of the, 'Imperial Navy'.[/caption]Well in this story it turns out that the Old Republic had created a fleet of Dreadnoughts (the predecessors of the, 'Imperial Star Destroyers'... This would be a huge boon for either side if they could get their hands on them, due to the fact that despite a virus that killed the living element of these ships, that for the most part are automated and would require very little people to control! Well the good news is that Talon Karrde (A smuggler who played a major role in the previous novel and would become an important figure in the expanded universe), had found out their location years ago... The only problem is that not only does Talon know about it, but Grand Admiral Thrawn also has found out where they are and has sent a clone army after the ships! During this time Han and Lando are trying to recruit a veteran former Republic Senator who after a falling out with one of the leaders of the Rebel Alliance and later the, 'New Republic', has been fighting his own private war against the Empire... But the interesting thing is that this guy apparently seems to have control of at least some of the, 'Dreadnoughts.' And also during this time, Leia, Chewie, C3PO, and R2D2 go on a mission that will expose a plot that will help get a new race to join the, 'New Republic'... But in the end, it turns out that Grand Admiral Thrawn, whose forces seem to be growing, also now has the majority of the Dreadnoughts! And it will be up to Luke, Leia, Han and the rest of their gang to stop Grand Admiral Thrawn, before Thrawn has the chance to restore the Empire to it's former glory!
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="200"]
This book is a blast, but I do recommend starting from the first in the series... It will make more sense![/caption]In the end, this book was a total blast... I mean you maybe wondering why I mentioned this book as the first one before I mentioned Book 1... Well the truth is, is this is the first Star Wars book that I had ever read, and the truth is, is it was so good that it has given me a life long love of those novels that I still enjoy today!
