Enemy Lines

by Aaron Allston

Librarian's Note: the ISBN for this book was the same from one of the two component books - ISBN 10: 0739427776

Includes:
• Rebel Dream (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #11)
• Rebel Stand (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #12)

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction

458 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2002

About the author

Aaron Dale Allston was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction.

Reviews

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though both Rebel Dreams and Rebel Stand are better than previous entries into the NJO series, they still contain a plethora of the same drawn out, pointlessly long, confusing, and irritating plot threads. Annoying characters, and, overall, a feel of extending a story far beyond its conceivable reaches.

Allston’s foray into this series is moderately entertaining. He brings up some ideas and actually executes on them, leading to some well written action/set pieces. His Vong are finally back to being a bit more formidable than they were in the last 3 or 4 books. And I feel this was a move in the right direction to get this insanely inconsistent story back on track.

However, I don’t think these 2 books needed to be separated. Despite a slightly better second part in Stand, there was no reason for another 300 pages in this duology. Sure the Lord Nyax side quest was decent (and took us away from the now ridiculously repetitive space battles against the ridiculously repetitive Yuuzhan Vong) but it definitely wasn’t necessary for an entirely new book.

I can’t say that this entire series, as an idea, was bad. I mean, after everything that happened with the Empire and all the other issues to befall the New Republic, having them go up against almost insurmountable odds is a cool concept. The problem, though, is that, as I said, this series has been so up and down and all over the place with wildly different authors and wildly different ideas, that, as a whole, the NJO has been one of the most inconsistent set of novels I’ve ever read...which makes it increasingly hard to enjoy them as you never know what you’re gonna get.