Star Wars: Crucible

Star Wars Legends: Novels

by Troy Denning

Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and Luke Skywalker return in an all-new Star Wars adventure, which will challenge them in ways they never expected—and forever alter their understanding of life and the Force.

When Han and Leia Solo arrive at Lando Calrissian’s Outer Rim mining operation to help him thwart a hostile takeover, their aim is just to even up the odds and lay down the law. Then monstrous aliens arrive with a message, and mere threats escalate into violent sabotage with mass fatalities. When the dust settles, what began as corporate warfare becomes a battle with much higher stakes—and far deadlier consequences.

Now Han, Leia, and Luke team up once again in a quest to defeat a dangerous adversary bent on galaxy-wide domination. Only this time, the Empire is not the enemy. It is a pair of ruthless geniuses with a lethal ally and a lifelong vendetta against Han Solo. They will stop at nothing to control the lucrative Outer Rim mining trade—and ultimately the entire galactic economy. And when the murderous duo gets the drop on Han, he finds himself outgunned in the fight of his life. To save him, and the galaxy, Luke and Leia must brave a gauntlet of treachery, terrorism, and the untold power of an enigmatic artifact capable of bending space, time, and even the Force itself into an apocalyptic nightmare.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera

302 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Also known as Richard Awlinson.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Den...

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars ⭐️

This book hasn’t gotten a lot of love but I liked it and that’s all that matters! 😉

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a perfect choice to any fan of Star Wars.

If you only watch the films and this is your first novel, it can put you on track about what happened before, during and after the films, not only between the story of the book itself but also with a great resume after the novel where they give the highlights of each Star Wars era and even some recommendation of books or each of those eras and a complete list of all published novels so far. (Obviously this in the "Expanded Universe"'s novels before of the adquisition by Disney of Lucasfilms and "rebooting" the "canonical" books)

And if you are familiarized with the expanded universe of Star Wars in novels (previous to Disney's reboot), also this is a crucial book to get, since indeed it shows a crucible in the lives of the Big Three, Luke, Leia and Han.

You don't want to miss this!

The old gang is back and now they're old indeed. The story is set 45 years after the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Luke and Leia are 65 years old while Han is 75 years old. They are older, wiser and more resourceful. Leia is now a full Jedi Knight with control over The Force and lightsaber at her belt. Luke is the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order, leading them.

They have experienced heavy and painful losses in all these years: sons, wife, best friend. But there is something unchangeble, the strong bond that these three heroes shared with each other. A bond even stronger than The Force!

The story begins when Lando Calrissian, now the owner of a mining company, is suffering pirates' attacks. Han and Leia go on the Millenium Falcon to help and to investigate. Soon enough they realize that something bigger is going on and they ask for assistance. Luke himself decides to go to assist.

This is a great story for both generations of fans, the ones loyal to the original trilogy but also to the ones who joined the saga with the prequel trilogy.

Since you will get recognizable elements of both trilogies here. You will have characters from the original trilogy, besides obviously Luke, Leia and Han, like Lando, C3P0 and R2D2, but also characters from the expanded universe like Ben Skywalker (Luke's son), Mirta Gev (Boba Fett's Grand-daughter) and Vestara Khai, a Lady Sith with a complicated past with the Skywalkers.

So, what are you waiting for?!

Go and read this entertained episode in the great Star Wars saga and...

...may The Force be with you all!

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very entertaining and thrilling standalone story in the EU, that also (unintentionally) serves as a tremendous endpoint for the EU.

Troy Denning really knows how to write Luke, Han, and Leia, and he does a great job here. He also does a great job of writing stories that just feel like "Star Wars with a twist". Here he explores some of his favorite things: classic cantina scenes, new aliens, mystical elements, and exploration of the Jedi's role in the universe.

The book also just has a great epilogue that made me tear up a bit. Denning leaves the door open for more stories, but this absolutely works as a "Last Hurrah" for all of the original cast. I still think Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse is still the best endpoint for the EU, but this works as a really close second place.

It's sad to see it all end here, but it was such a thrilling ride nonetheless.

9 out of 10!

[Bria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is the book that is making me give up on Troy Denning and his Star Wars books. It is not good. As a book that's marketing itself as a step away from the megaseries, it fails epically. If you haven't read Fate of the Jedi then you be absolutely lost here. The only people I would recommend this to are those who sincerely enjoyed that series and who actually want more of the same with a side of Crystal Star.

The Jedi-are-better-than-everyone message in the book frustrated me beyond belief and the last few chapters made me want to just throw up my hands and give up entirely.

Don't waste your time with this book. Really. If you want to read something newer, save yourself and go check out Mercy Kill or Scoundrels or Into the Void.

[Marly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crucible is the latest entry in the post-RotJ SWEU. Set in 45 ABY, a year after the conclusion of the Fate of the Jedi series, the novel focuses primarily on Luke, Han, and Leia as they help Lando face off against the ruthless Craitheus and Marvid Qreph, who are aided by both Mandalorians and Sith.

All the usual Denning tropes are in play: gratuitous violence, fetishistic sexualization of female characters, and Jedi who are casually written to be way too focused on vengeance and retribution. The most glaring problems with the novel, though, are the weak plot, bizarre climax, and the all-too-familiar place the characters find themselves when everything is said and done.

More than once the protagonists voice fear of the Qrephs because they're (apparently) extremely intelligent and "always one step ahead." The problem with this is that while we're constantly told that the Qrephs are geniuses, they don't display any particular cleverness and are actually pretty dependent on Vestara Khai. It doesn't help that we've seen the Skywalkers and Solos face off against Palpatine and Thrawn, villains that actually were cunning. The Qrephs need to be dealt with, true, but the level of fear and lack of confidence espoused by the heroes seems disproportionate to the actual threat.

The idea that it would be possible for the Qrephs to conquer every single aspect of the entire galactic economy is ludicrous, but the biggest downfall to the idea of the brothers as legitimate adversaries is that they're basically a couple of Bond villains. After Mirta Gev and her Mando mercenaries (with a timely assist from Vestara) barely manage to capture Han and spirit him away to their secret base in the heart of the Chiloon Rift, the Qrephs hook him up to some machinery in order to make a map of his brainwave patterns, apparently with the ultimate goal of getting Han to admit that he shot their mother.

Rather than do something sensible like lock Han in a cell and torture him in order to get their readings, the brothers set up an elaborate game of sabacc in which the bets are questions and the loser has to answer them. The Qrephs' initial questions for Han are "How did you feel when Chewbacca died?", "Why didn't you mourn your son Anakin's death as deeply as you mourned the loss of your Wookiee friend?", and "Why did you love your son Jacen less than you loved Anakin?" While this is ostensibly done to produce stress in Han and help the Qrephs get a handle on his brainwave patterns, the choice of questions smacks of Denning clumsily forcing an opportunity to address fan site message board criticism of Han's characterization in the NJO and LotF. The entire sabacc setup is absurd and convoluted and eventually brings Han into contact with fellow prisoners Jedi Knight Ohali Soroc and mad Mandalorian Barduun, which of course leads to the trio's escape.

Denning leaves a few plot threads hanging. When Han denies shooting the Qrephs' mother during their sabacc game/torture session, Marvid tells him "there is a twelve-point-two percent" chance he's lying, and adds that they've killed every other suspect, 15 beings in all. Obviously Han didn't shoot their mother, so who did? We never find out. I understand how it would be difficult to fit that information into the flow of the story, and with the brothers dying at the end of the book it's certainly not important in the grand scheme of things, but given that it's the impetus for the Qrephs' actions throughout the entire novel, the fact that it gets completely dropped two-thirds of the way through stands out.

Additionally, early in the novel, Luke visits with Senator Leuwet Wuul to gather information on the Qrephs. Wuul's young relative, Suuas, is caught spying on Luke and Wuul for the Qrephs, and Wuul promises to take Suuas back to their warren-clan for judgment. Later, Mirta Gev tells Han and Lando that Wuul and most of his staff were killed in an explosion on his yacht. The Qrephs seem to believe that Wuul is dead, but the issue is never addressed again, so his fate remains unclear.

The Qrephs' secret hideout, Base Prime, may or may not be on Mortis (the answer is left slightly ambiguous and probably hinges on whatever plot Denning comes up with for any future books), and eventually Luke, Han, and Leia end up chasing the brothers through a metaphysical gate and into a place where somehow, in Luke's words, they are "literally made of the Force." After a skirmish with the Qrephs that leaves all five characters grotesquely wounded and near death, dark side spirits offer to end their suffering. Our heroes all reject the shadows and then are healed by Force, while the Qrephs accept and become powerful dark side Force-users.

In the showdown that follows, Luke and Leia defeat and destroy the Qrephs and begin to disintegrate and become one with the Force. Leia only manages to come back to herself and re-form her body when she hears Han speak her name, and even then she returns as she was at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Han then has to give her A Concise History of the SWEU up till the present day, watching while Leia ages before his eyes and finally comes back to herself as she was before she began to drift apart into the Force. Meanwhile, Luke has had an epiphany about the nature of the Force ("The dark side was as necessary to life as the light side was…There was only the Force."), and when he finds Han and Leia, "He looked a little older than before the explosion, and perhaps a bit wiser and more at peace with himself."

That wisdom leads Luke, Han, and Leia to realize that they need to take a break, an announcement they make to Ben, Tahiri, Lando, Ohali, Jaina, and Jag. "The Jedi Order was strong and vigorous. The time had come for him to step out of the way, to let his creation grow into something larger than himself."

Therein lies the novel's biggest weakness. After the 22 books that make up the Dark Nest trilogy, Legacy of the Force, Fate of the Jedi, and Crucible itself, we're right back where we were 10 years ago at the end of The Unifying Force: the Jedi Order is strong, Luke has a new understanding of the Force, the Big 3 are taking a step back, and the next generation of heroes are coming to the fore--except Mara Jade and Jacen Solo are dead, Ben has replaced Jacen in the narrative, and all the surviving characters are 15 years older. It's as if everything since Dark Nest has been nothing but an exercise in creating scenarios to air pet theories on past events without really accomplishing anything beneficial to the EU or meaningful to the readers.

Seems worth it, doesn't it?

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this one.

It's a fast read - I can give it that. Exciting, even, at points. But just not really that great.

Between this and the Fate of the Jedi series, I think I'm ready for the inevitable reboot of the EU that will come with the announcement of the sequel trilogy. As someone who has loved the Star Wars novels, that's something I never thought I would say. It just feels like the current EU authors are floundering about with no idea of what direction they want to take the stories in.

[Page · Rating 1 out of 5]

REBOOT!

REBOOT!

REBOOT!

Oh please oh please oh please oh please o great gods of Disney - o great Pluto, o great Mickey, o great Oswald, o great and glorious all-father Walt:

PLEASE put this pathetic excuse for an Expanded Universe out of its bloated, Denning-Dumbed-Down, sad, sad wasted existence and reboot the entire thing, now that it resides in the hallowed halls of the Mouse.

In my dreams, the EU is reset to just after Vision of the Future (I'd love to keep Survivor's Quest, but I'd gladly sacrifice it if it meant everything else published by Del Rey was wiped off the continuity map) -

- but I will settle for resetting it to the end of Return of the Jedi if I must. Yes, I would give up Mara and Karrde and Thrawn and Corran and Mirax and Winter and Rogue Squadron.

Just as long as EVERYTHING touched by Shelly Shapiro and especially Troy Denning is relegated to the dust bin of never-really-happened AU, and Luke, Leia and Han can have continuing adventures that actually, y'know, fit into the universe shown in the films.

I'm not even going to stoop to comment on this steaming pile of bantha poodoo. Suffice to say it's more of Denning's trademark misogyny, torture-porn, and utter disregard for movie continuity. Go write some more game modules, Denning, that's all you have talent for - your writing is the epitome of moving cardboard pieces around a two-dimensional space.

Shame on Del Rey and LFL.

It's your turn now, o wonderful world of Disney - don't fuck it up.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wish I could have liked this book more than I did. Troy Denning has written some of my least favourite Star Wars EU books and this continues that trend. First the villains the Columi were just so bizarre and I had never heard of Columi before and there was little explanation to what they were. Second we have the return of Vestara Khai working for/with these beings for an inexplicable reason, which I presume will be revealed at some point in time. Vestara has always been irritating to me as her character seems to worldly for someone that grew up on a backwater planet totally cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Now she has plans for galaxy domination? Sure. Lastly the ending was totally bizarre. Enter a hippie dippie realm of pure force. Seemed way to out there even for Star Wars. Also this seemed to set up Han, Leia and Luke's swan song as it seems this weird hippie experience they had convinced them that retirement is a good idea. Is this really going to be the end for our fearsome threesome?

[Scott wachter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels like it got thrown together really fast. The plot seems to have been pulled out of a grab bag. You've got Han Solo's past catching up with him, but also cyborg clones (cloneborgs?), and the metaphysical stuff from the clone wars cartoon we're trying to make relevant to the entire setting plus picking up on dangling threads from the last 2 events without actually resolving them. It's messy, very messy.
Every new character comes off flat, and the plot goes from setup mode to climax without a lot of ramping up. It seems like it the second it gets going it's done.
On the plus side, Denning seems to have realized the 'bloah' is never going to catch on as a made up swear word.

postscript: is anyone else sick of of Ship. it's not like it's interesting as a badguy sidekick. he just exists to cock block the heroes until the end of the book. literally deus ex machina.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantasy Review Barn

Forgive the self-indulgent review. I will give my honest opinion for this newest Star Wars book, but I also want to chime in my thoughts on the Expanded Universe in general. Specifically, with the possibility of a reset coming after the Disney buyout what I hope to see in the next go around.

First for a review of the book at hand. I will not even begin to bother with a recap at this point, there is no point. This book would be completely impossible to read without knowing the full and total backstory of all the Star Wars books before it, and even managed to throw some curve balls at me, a man who has been reading these books for over fifteen years.

It was alright. ‘Meh’ may sum it up better. Certainly an improvement over the horrible books I slogged through from Fate of the Jedi. What I appreciated the most in this book was the smaller scale of the conflict. While eventually it became apparent the fate of the galaxy could be at stake, most of the book dealt with a smaller conflict in an out of the way area of the galaxy. This allowed the book to focus on a smaller cast, spend more time with the characters, and lent a bit of believability to the scale of the threat that has been lost in the Star Wars universe for a while. So that was nice, and something I want to get into after the actual review.

What wasn’t so nice was the stupidity of some of the plot lines.
My biggest gripe is a common one. If an author puts a genius/mastermind type character in the book they better be able to back it up. I am not as a reader going to buy their skills if I don’t see it on page. Thus the two main villains of the book lost all credibility for me. Their amazing mental capacities were mundane; they were outsmarted at almost every turn despite us being told otherwise by the narration. They were completely dependent on Vestra, the only compelling character from the Fate of the Jedi series. Their insane method of interrogation involved a card game with a known expert on the game. They backstab almost everyone they deal with yet still find people willing to deal.

Smaller gripes. Han battling a force user and somehow getting a shot into his knee. A space station that stretches time yet the author only using that detail when convenient, otherwise characters outside and in seem to be moving at the same pace. The inconstancy with Mando’s strength here vs earlier books(specifically their lack of it).
The final nail for me was an incredibly dumb ending. Some type of timeless alternate universe where death requires specific circumstances otherwise people come back to life. Or something. Then because it is a timeless area one person has to tell another their entire history together because of unexplained amnesia (but has time to do because time is timeless here). They leave the area by wishing their way out, or clicking their shoes, or something equally outlandish, it didn’t make much sense.

3 Stars. Doesn’t really deserve it, but it was better than the Fate of the Jedi series throughout, so that is something.

Copy for review received through Netgalley.

Now, as promised, a quick word on the state of the EU and what could be a complete reset.

My credentials? Just a longtime fan who has been reading these books for over 15 years. Truth be told I have not really enjoyed the new books since about half way through NJO, I just keep reading to keep up with the story. Staring with Fate of the Jedi I have been more and more lost due to knowing nothing about the Clone Wars era EU.
What got me thinking about this was how hopeful I was for this new book. I saw what I would like to see if a reset happens in the blurb. Specifically smaller scale conflicts rather than the constant escalation that has taken the EU beyond the point of silly. A larger universe where every major threat wasn’t dealt with by the same five people. Of course I didn’t get this from the book, but damn I was hopeful.

So I will lay out what I hope for, and then leave it at that. I want the SW EU to take the Warhammer approach. It is time to leave behind the overreaching arcs, the characters we all know, and instead let every author do their own thing.

-Smaller conflicts/Bigger Universe- The stakes can be just as high, but the later books have tried to focus on everything at once and ending being highly shallow. Let’s do more books like the X-wing series. A small cast of unknowns doing to amazing things, but only within their own roles. It doesn’t always have to be about the fate of the entire galaxy, I would be just as intrigued it was about the fate of one planet, or one unit, or one family (Yes it has been done in a couple books, but few and far between). Larger conflicts have just lead to constant escalation to the point of pure silly. Of course the worse example is the Sun Crusher as a one up to the Death Star. But just as bad is the series of events leading to Abaloth, who is what exactly, pure dark side energy?

-Drop the timeline/characters- The timeline was problematic early on as trilogies were squeezed between other books, and suddenly those later in the sequence had scenes that made no sense. So drop it. It isn’t important if you’re dealing with single systems or groups of people. I have heard people say the best storyline in the EU is from the video game Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, was it hurt by not being in a known timeline? I think not. And it certainly wasn’t hurt by not having a recognizable character. The fact is focusing on Luke/Leah/Han has gone on for far too long. They have their hands in everything and it is not believable. It also makes the universe feel tiny, as no matter what happens you know the whole gang will soon be there.

Worse, with every author dealing with the same characters and timelines the better authors are forced to live with stupid decisions from lesser ones (KJA turning Mara Jade into nothing more than a prize Lando is hoping to win, with Zahn basically retconing the story line by making it all an act later on).

Besides making more compelling stories I see to major advantages to my suggestions. The first is a new reader can truly start anywhere. When reading NJO I often had to look up backstories from the silly Jedi Academy books that it was assumed I knew. In the last installment I had to look up the Mortis Monolith. And of course Aboleth requires a bit of back story for FotJ to click right. The second is I can skip books that get universally bad reviews. Read Zahn and Stackpole, skip KJA and Hambaly, and not lose any of the stories by doing so. Feels good!

Of course none of this will happen. The EU made a lot of money doing it the way they did, and I fully expect that once the new movies come out we will see a new set of books following the continued adventures of about six people as they save everyone from everything.

The End.

Oh, and I have said it before and not stuck with it, but I am so done with these extended story arcs. My Star Wars reading will be limited to X-Wing books and a few old favorites when I need a familiar face.

[Eoghann Irving · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the latest book in the expansive "Expanded Universe" of Star Wars. That is stuff which is not movie canon but generally stays consistent within it's own existence. The EU has been around for a long time and it's built up a pretty complex continuity at this point which can be a problem.

So the core audience for this book is pretty specific. People who not only love the movies, but also have at least somewhat kept up with the expanded universe. And it shows because this book reads like a bridge novel between a bunch of adventures and the next adventure. Which is exactly what it is.

Allowing for that, how does it do? Well it does give us a high action, comparatively stand alone story for the majority of the novel. And while it does rely on what's come before, there's plenty of recap built into the novel so you don't get lost.

If anything it's guilty of over-recapping and in particular there are far too many movie references. Right from the beginning when we're told a bar reminds them of Mos Eisley. Let it go. We know it's Star Wars. You don't need to hit us over the head with it.

Still we get Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia and of course Luke Skywalker all back together again, along with some of the new blood the novels have introduced over the years. And it definitely has the swashbuckling Star Wars feel to it. Plenty of action, plenty of danger, just a hint of spirituality in The Force.

Speaking of which... did we have to be told it was Force lightning every time, or that Luke sensed it in the Force, or that they Force jumped, or that they were using the Force in their words? I know they're Jedi, I get how it works.

The writing in the book is functional, even a little pedestrian really. It does what it needs to do. It delivers the sort of plot a Star Wars fan is going to want. It just doesn't bring much in the way of style with it.

Bottom line, if you enjoy the Expanded Universe and the "new adventures of Luke Skywalker" you're probably going to like this. If you like Star Wars you'd be better starting off earlier in the series really, but if you want to jump in, you'll likely enjoy yourself.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave trying to keep up with the extended chronology of the Star Wars universe a couple of years ago when I realized I was far too many books behind to ever fully catch up.

That doesn't mean that every once in a while I'm not browsing the local library or bookstore and come across the latest Star Wars novel and I don't feel a twinge of wanting to spend some time with old friends again.

In many ways, reading the extended universe novels, I feel like that person who moved away from a group of friends but has dropped by again after a couple of years for a visit. I recognize them but I don't really know them anymore. They've continued to grow and have a certain code that I can't or don't understand simply because I wasn't there to experience things with them.

That's kind of how I felt about Star Wars: Crucible.

I recognized my old friends, but we'd grown apart. And while they were willing to fill me in on the broad strokes of what had happened since we last visited, there were still nuances I was missing. And that led to my not necessarily enjoying this novel as much as I could or should have had we kept up a bit better.

There's some interesting stuff going on here with Luke, Leia and Han all stepping in to help out Lando. But so much of the backstory went over my head that I got frustrated and ended up skimming large chunks of the novel. There are some nicely written action sequences and the story moves at a brisk pace. But I couldn't help but feel a bit left out of things.

I also am not sure how much of an incentive I feel to catch up on what's gone before now simply because I have a feeling a lot of this continuity will be tossed aside when the new movie opens in 2015.

[Eric Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

Now, when I say "meh" about this book, you have to take into account the previous 10-15 Star Wars books I've read. When comparing this to Light of the Jedi, the Fate of the Jedi series, Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy, etc etc etc, merely being "meh" is a monumental step up. So. Meh is good. I'm good with meh. It didn't make me angry. It didn't bore me. It wasn't amazing or anything. But it was competent, which is a whole lot more than I can say about the Thrawn Ascendency, for example. It's also kind of sad that this book is the end of the line for Star Wars Legends. This book sets up stories that we will never see now, and I think I might have liked those stories a hell of a lot more than the last however long it's been since the Disney buyout has produced.

So yeah, when everything else is utter garbage, meh can be pretty good.

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a novel that was billed as a standalone adventure and 'passing of the torch' for Luke, Leia and Han, Crucible is a weak, muddled mess of torture porn and nonsensical Force 'mysticism.' I like Big 3 novels, but there's nothing here to recommend. For Expanded Universe completists only.

Full review: http://clubjade.net/?p=51774

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. Oh boy.

For 2023, I decided to reread the post-NJO books set after the Dark Nest trilogy, especially as I abandoned the Legacy of the Force series after Sacrifice all the way back in 2007. This shakes out to the nine books of the Legacy of the Force series, the nine books of the Fate of the Jedi series, three standalone novels, and five short stories.

This week’s focus: the last chronological novel in the Expanded Universe,Crucible by Troy Denning.

SOME HISTORY:

Crucible by Troy Denning was meant to be a big adventure for Luke, Han, and Leia before they retired from “active duty” and passed the torch onto the next generation like Jaina Solo, Ben Skywalker, and Allana Djo Solo. It was also meant to bridge the gap between the Fate of the Jedi series and both Christie Golden’s Jaina-centric Sword of the Jedi trilogy and Troy Denning’s untitled trilogy. Crucible was released on July 9, 2013, and became the last chronological novel in the Expanded Universe before the April 2014 reboot.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

I didn't know anything about Crucible going into this read; however, multiple people told me that I would not like it, which made me a little intrigued to find out why…

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

When Han Solo and Leia Organa arrive at the Chiloon Rift to help Lando Calrissian with his struggling mining operation, little do they know that threats will escalate and Lando's business will suffer mass casualties. When Luke Skywalker joins them on the scene, the trio undertake to figure out what’s going on and what’s really at stake—and for this mission in particular, the outcome does not look good for our aged heroes…

THE PLOT:

Crucible starts out pretty simple—Lando's having trouble with pirates, and he asks Han and Leia for help—only for it to spiral out of control as the novel progresses. The Qreph brothers want to take over Lando’s business and control the Chiloon Rift, and they’re willing to kill a lot of people to achieve their unknown ends. The trio of old heroes becomes a quartet when Luke answers Han’s call for more help, but we also have Ben Skywalker and Tahiri Veila in the mix, looking for a Mortis Quest Knight named Ohali Soroc who vanished in the vicinity of the Rift.

The Qreph brothers have hired Mandalorian mercenaries led by Mirta Gev, Boba Fett's granddaughter, to enforce their power grabs, and they've also hired a dark side Force user named Savara Raine who is actually Vestara Khai. It turns out that the Qreph brothers are buying up business to conceal their secret Rift base, which is located on a Celestial monolith. (Not Mortis, but similar.) Everything culminates in a freaky-deaky The Crystal Star-esque scene in which Luke and Leia and Han fight the Qreph brothers in a raw powered Force realm. It gets very metaphysical.

CHARACTERS:

Lando is the consummate businessman, so it makes sense that he has another mining endeavor since he’s been mining asteroids since Heir to the Empire. The asteroids in the Chiloon Rift are full of rare minerals and metals, so it also makes sense that he’d seek help with the pirates/hostile takeovers. Lando’s not a key part of the story, but he still feels quintessentially Lando: perfect poker face, loves his friends and family, not willing to retire at the end because Lando will always be running schemes.

We also meet two of Lando’s associates. One is a young man named Omad Kaeg, a native of the Rift who helps the quartet navigate to the Qreph brother’s hidden base. He feels like a young Han Solo character, because he mostly runs off of bravado and luck. (Tahiri made a comment at one point that she wanted to meet him, but then we never really saw that meeting? It felt strange.) Lando’s second-in-command at the mining facility is a woman named Dena Yus, who ends up being a spy for the Qrephs and…a biot. (??) She’s a constructed being, she can’t disobey a direct order from the Qrephs but she also helps them kill 30,000 people (!!) on Lando’s base. I was cognizant of her situation, but she also never asks for help until after the mass casualties have occurred which makes it harder to sympathize with her plight.

Han and Leia set out on this mission because 1) they wanted to see Lando again and 2) the Jedi Council was cool with the idea. I find it interesting that while Leia is one of the older Jedi Knights, she only became a Knight during the Dark Nest trilogy and thus has a lot less seniority than younger characters like her daughter. She’s a good fighter, but Luke and Jaina definitely have her beat. Han and Leia go through the ringer here, which becomes a running theme in Crucible: Luke and Leia are in their sixties, Han in his seventies, Lando even older, so they’re not young and reckless. But so many bad physical things happened to Han and Leia especially that it felt like beating our heroes up until they’re forced to retire. Han and Leia are grievously wounded by the asteroid explosions—Han is captured by the Qreph brothers and then they put probes in his brain and mentally torture him—Luke and Leia are badly injured during a rescue attempt—and that’s not even including the monolith stuff.

There are multiple points in the story where Leia thinks that Han’s dead or vice versa, and they’re willing to wreak havoc to avenge the other. On the one hand, Han and Leia have developed such a great relationship and work so well together that I’m sure the loss of their partner would be devastating…but this constant talk of anger-fueled vengeance made me a little worried about them! Han has his normal sarcastic attitude for most of the story, but even the tone dipped towards DARKNESS at times.

(Also, characters like Marvid Qreph just…reflect on Leia’s attractiveness in a creepy way. I have noticed this before in multiple Troy Denning books. I agree that Leia is a beautiful woman, but why does he constantly highlight this?)

Luke shows up because he’s bored and he wants to see Ben again. (Is Luke Skywalker the best choice to come help Han and Leia in the Rift? Probably not, but he has itchy feet.) Luke ends up running interference between Leia and her constant revenge litany, but otherwise feels less focused here than Han or Leia. Luke is also looking for Ohali Soroc, a Duros woman who was one of the ten Quest Knights sent out into the galaxy to look for Mortis. She came to the Chiloon Rift, and was captured by the Qreph brothers. I’m not crazy about the term “Quest Knight” because all I can think of is the Arthurian overtones. Han encounters her on the Qreph’s base, and she’s OK in the end.

Vestara Khai appears, still on the outs with the Lost Tribe of the Sith and working for the Qreph brothers under a pseudonym, and once the Skywalkers realize she’s there they all want to kill her. I can see Leia taking that approach, because Vestara tried to kill Leia's husband and grandchild in front of her, but Luke? Ben?? Even at the end of Apocalypse, Ben hadn’t given up on Vestara, and I don’t think his first reaction to finding her on the Qreph base would be attempted murder. In a 2014 podcast interview, Denning said that he didn’t think that Ben and Vestara were an endgame relationship, merely a teenage fling, and I get the sense that he doesn’t think Vestara is redeemable. I don’t like that—I didn’t think she was ready to fully embrace the light side after being raised as a Sith in the Fate of the Jedi series, but I would never come out and say “this character is permanently evil.” That implies that people can be irredeemably bad, and (to me) completely contradicts RotJ’s message of compassion and redemption. It felt like Vestara went from being a nuanced character in Fate of the Jedi to a one-dimensional villain in Crucible.

More on the baddie front: Mirta and her gang of Mandalorians are working for the Qrephs because they claimed that they could find a cure for the Fett-specific nanokiller that prevents Mirta and her grandfather from returning to Mandalore. They are lying to Mirta, and have no cure or progress towards a cure. Mirta and the Mandos end up leaving with Vestara in Ship, so perhaps they would have teamed up together at some point. I would expect that to be an uneasy alliance, because Mirta was not comfortable taking any orders from Vestara.

The Qreph brothers want vengeance for their mother, who was an information broker that was killed on Ord Mantell (this harkens back to a choose-your-own-adventure written by Denning for the original Star Wars Roleplaying Game). Han was implicated in her murder, thus the brain probe torture. The Qrephs want power and wealth and galaxy-wide control, and they build the gate to the monolith because they want to become Force-sensitive as well. But they also look like little alien babies with giant heads, so it’s hard for me to shake that mental image. Their first appearance—attempting to intimidate Lando into selling his business—led me to believe that they would be farcical villains, but that was very much not the case. These guys are garbage who do not hesitate to kill thousands.

ISSUES:

I believe that everyone told me that I would hate Crucible because of the violence—and yep, that was my first issue with the novel! It wasn’t graphic, like Star by Star, but there were still a lot of dark and violent scenes here. Asteroids drop on Lando’s mining facility, thirty thousand people die, and Han loses an EYE! (I cannot get over that. It’s remarked on maybe twice and then forgotten for the rest of the book.) Luke and Leia crash land their way onto the Ormni, and they’re badly injured in the process—Leia burns half her hair off. They come out of their Jedi healing trances too soon to avoid Vestara, fight a bunch of Nargons, Leia’s back is all ripped up and Luke has a hole in his abdomen. But Lando pops them in some bacta, and they’re ready to get messed up during the final mystical monolith fight, and die, and come back again. It’s weird.

If the New Jedi Order series was meant to conclude with the original trio passing the torch to the next generation, the books shifted gears from the Dark Nest trilogy onwards by keeping Han and Leia and Luke as pivotal parts of the Star Wars story. So I couldn’t help feeling that Crucible was relentlessly breaking our heroes down to prove why they needed to retire (although I’m not sure how long that retirement was going to stick). I wanted a fun final adventure, where no one was brutally wounded and healed and then crushed chapter after chapter.

I wish the Mortis stuff hadn’t been brought into this story either. Obviously, Denning wanted this novel to bridge the gap between the Fate of the Jedi series and the continuing Abeloth arc and thus the existence of a non-Mortis Celestial monolith, but I wasn’t wild about those Abeloth revelations to begin with. If you had told me going into Crucible that we’d get a climax akin to The Crystal Star, I would have thought that you were crazy. But that’s precisely what we got: everyone fighting in this spiritual realm where Luke and Leia and Han are filled with light and the Qreph brothers are possessed by shadows. The brothers explode into nothing, then Luke and Leia are gone, and Han finds Leia but she’s TESB-Leia and he has to tell her everything that happened in the intervening years while she grows older before his eyes. It reminded me when Han had to go diving into Waru after Luke and Leia! I never thought that “fight to save Lando’s business” would lead to all this metaphysical stuff.

Because my biggest issue with Crucible is that it’s trying to do way too much. It wants to tell an adventure story for the original trio, and bridge the gap between the Fate of the Jedi and future trilogies, and develop the Mortis mythos more. Despite the heavy emphasis on Jadok, James Luceno’s Millennium Falcon was a much more successful “standalone between series” for me. It set up the Jedi madness subplot with Seff Hellin’s brief appearance, but it was mainly about Han and Leia and Allana learning about the Falcon and growing as a family. And it was enjoyable to read! With Crucible, the initial adventure gets progressively darker and complex until it feels less like a standalone and more like a stepping stone to a bunch of canceled novels. I think you could have read Millennium Falcon without any knowledge of the Legacy of the Force series, but Crucible feels uber-connected to the series that preceded it. I think all the Mortis and Celestials and the Quest Knight stuff could have been cut, and in fact works to the novel’s detriment.

IN CONCLUSION:

Crucible provides the reader with one big (final) adventure for Lando and Luke and Han and Leia. Three of them are ready to retire at the end; Lando has a few years and business ventures left in him. Unfortunately, it's pretty dark, and really beats our heroes down as the story progresses—and the conclusion is very, very weird. Having read it, I have to agree with everyone who told me I wouldn't like Crucible, because I think it's too dependent on novels that never materialized and just wasn't fun to read.


Next up: a short story about Jaina, Allana, and Tenel Ka: Good Hunting by Christie Golden.

YouTube review: https://youtu.be/IaZ1m3muW5U

Scum and Villainy Radio - BOMBAD EPISODE (EPISODE #18 FOR 3/28/2014 with Troy Denning interview): https://web.archive.org/web/201405130...

[Milo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2013/05/....

“A fun, fast paced take on some of Star Wars’ most iconic characters.” ~The Founding Fields

Despite all the Star Wars novels I’ve read, I still consider myself fairly new to the Expanded Universe. I’ve never read The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, and I’ve only read a couple of novels set post Return of the Jedi. That means missing out on The New Jedi Order series, and more, and I was a bit unsure about how much Cruicible would expand on past continuity on those novels. Would it be another Star Wars book that I didn’t understand due to the fact I haven’t read a lot in the genre? (See The Lost Tribe of the Sith – Spiral), or would be a standalone book with a few characters in the expanded universe, such as the descendants of Luke and the gang, thrown in. As it turns out, whilst the book’s main focus lies on Han, Lando, Luke and Leia, we still get appearances from characters like Ben Skywalker and Jania Solo, despite the fact that the main focus is on the original three protagonists.

"Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and Luke Skywalker return in an all-new Star Wars adventure, which will challenge them in ways they never expected—and forever alter their understanding of life and the Force.

When Han and Leia Solo arrive at Lando Calrissian’s Outer Rim mining operation to help him thwart a hostile takeover, their aim is just to even up the odds and lay down the law. Then monstrous aliens arrive with a message, and mere threats escalate into violent sabotage with mass fatalities. When the dust settles, what began as corporate warfare becomes a battle with much higher stakes—and far deadlier consequences.

Now Han, Leia, and Luke team up once again in a quest to defeat a dangerous adversary bent on galaxy-wide domination. Only this time, the Empire is not the enemy. It is a pair of ruthless geniuses with a lethal ally and a lifelong vendetta against Han Solo. They will stop at nothing to control the lucrative Outer Rim mining trade—and ultimately the entire galactic economy. And when the murderous duo gets the drop on Han, he finds himself outgunned in the fight of his life. To save him, and the galaxy, Luke and Leia must brave a gauntlet of treachery, terrorism, and the untold power of an enigmatic artifact capable of bending space, time, and even the Force itself into an apocalyptic nightmare."

The action in Crucible is pretty entertaining. It’s a lot of fun to read, which is what I think a Star Wars novel should be. I know major Star Wars characters have been killed off in the past, case in point, Chewbacca, whose death I believe came in Vector Prime, a novel that I still haven’t read, but there was never any point during this novel where I felt that the characters that we’d grown to know and love would actually die, despite the constant level of threat applied to them.

The book, according to the Goodreads reviews, takes place after Fate of the Jedi and sets up presumably the next arc in the Star Wars series, if indeed, there will be one given the Disney takeover. The cast is quite small and focused, allowing for a smaller scale conflict and a tightly-packed read. Denning certainly delivers when he’s writing action, and the fast, page-turning writing really make Crucible entertaining. However, the book isn’t without its flaws though, and there are several things that you need to watch out for,

Firstly, the plot has lots of holes in it, one of the issues presented here is that the genius bad guy doesn’t end up being as intelligent as the character is presented as, completely robbing them of any credibility. They pretty much were beaten constantly right the way through the novel by our heroes, despite the fact that Han gets into some sticky situations.

Whilst I understood who the main characters were and had a larger sense of what was happening than with Spiral, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps I jumped into the deep end here and should be better off going back and reading through as much as the Expanded Universe novels as I can before delving into any books that are released that have been set following this. Some parts were confusing and others were left wanting me to work out how the characters had got to where they are now. I know the rough idea of what happens in the Star Wars Universe, but I would love to read what things they undertake in order to get to that point. There are also a lot of movie references in Crucible, right from the beginning where we find ourselves in a bar that reminds the characters involved of Mos Eisley. It’s a nod to the continuity, but do we really need to have that reference there? I could have certainly lived without it.

The best bit about this novel is probably seeing Luke, Han, Leia and Lando back in action as a team, and the action that they find themselves in throughout the book. Don’t expect anything too groundbreaking, for this novel is not a must read and it certainly isn’t the best jumping on point for a Star Wars book. But it’s fun, pacey and entertaining, basically filling the SW-tie in version of a Summer Movie Blockbuster.

VERDICT: 3/5

PREVIOUS STAR WARS NOVEL: X-Wing: Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston

[Dexcell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yikes. That might've been the worst Star Wars book I've ever read. Literally never held my attention, and it was just a series of Luke, Han, and Leia being brutally injured and useless the entire time, and didn't progress the story at all. What a depressing send off for the Legends era.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The original Star Wars EU is apocrypha now, but there's still value in checking out these far reaching stories for old times sake. Han and Luke and Leia's adventures and struggles have continued long beyond the death of the Deathstar. I am renaming this book: Star Wars: Old People, but, while age and battle has taken its toll here and there, bacta tanks and the Force can still do wonders for our intrepid heroes. Maybe it's time for a little break. But first, let's save the galaxy, one more time!

The Sith are probably still lurking around somewhere, but the more pressing concern is the questionable dealings of a pair of Columi brothers in the Outer Rim that threaten Lando's successful mining operations and the ever fragile peace and prosperity of the galaxy.

It was initially kind of neat to read about the Columi, whose armour I've been sporting for some time in Star Wars: The Old Republic. But the actual characters -- giant brained supposed genius who trip all over the jealous siblings tropes, complete with one of them obsessive over a girl -- were kind of creepy. And not the interesting kind of creepy. The aforementioned girl obsession left much to be desired, as did most of the awkward sexual tensions and flirtings that went on. But I guess that awkward flirting is part of the Star Wars canon.

Or at least it was, until the invention of Poe Dameron.

Crucible most certainly has a problem with the Force as a catch all plot device. I have not read many of these EU books that take place far into the future, but, if this one is to be believed, them damn Jedis are powerful enough to mess up everything, like allll the time. Frankly, the Emperor was right to cull that OP herd to balance the scales. It's not all that fun when you know your heroes are going to win every time (but I don't complain about the concept of Leia Jedi flipping around in Twi'lek cosplay -- which was the one highlight of the story for me.). Speaking of heroes winning, if you're supposed to be geniuses, Mr. and Mr. Columi, why would you decide to "torture" notorious gambler Han Solo by making him play Sabaac? This was one of many silly things that happened in this book, and the silly just kept going right to the end. Because why not throw all these things into an increasingly convoluted plot that takes the heroes into this titular Crucible, which reminded me of something more like a space house of mirrors, complete with clones and time travel. You can never go wrong with time travel plot devices!

This was a fun read, I guess, if only for the opportunity to hang out in the Star Wars realm again, but, if you are interested in the defunct EU, there are far better books out there.

www.bibliosanctum.com

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time I have ever said this: This was so much better as an audiobook. The narrator was incredibly gifted: Lando actually sounded like Lando, Han like Han, Luke like Luke. There was blaster fire and R2-D2 noises. It was so incredibly entertaining I felt like I stumbled on a secret Star Wars story.

With that being said, this was far and away better than the other Star Wars novels I've read that followed our favorite characters. I read a few last year that were just kind of weird, and didn't seem to follow the same characterization we all know and love from the movies. I didn't feel like that here, and I appreciated the effort taken to keep them who they were before.

The story itself is pretty good. As with the movies, it starts off immediately with action. The only problem I had was with the secondary female characters. There's one that's like a cyborg and then one who was Ben Skywalker's old lover and I honestly can't tell you which one was which, and I kept getting confused about which one we were learning about at the time. Aside from that, I was plenty happy with this.

Dear guy who told me to read this one in the Star Wars universe to satisfy my desire to see Han, Luke and Leia: you were right! Thank you!

[TheTick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read a galley copy. Just...blah. No vibrancy from the characters, little real excitement. Seems to owe a lot to the Jedi Knight video games, maybe just go play those again.

[elef · Rating 3 out of 5]

i was stuck between giving this book 2 or 3 stars. there's some parts i like and some parts i got bored but the last hanleia part was so sweet that i decided to give it 3 stars! it was one of those mid books through big series probably but disney hit them before new era and now i feel like most of people get disappointed because they see it as THE final book and had too many expectations. personally i didn't. i knew it was silly original trio book and enjoyed as much as i can. i kinda wish tahiri and ben had more scenes and kinda disappointed that ben and vestara didn't have a moment but it was probably reserved by future projects so i wont complain. i did love seeing tahiri with solo/skywalker family table tho! it was such a good ending. kinda wish disney wasnt so insecure and give us more legends books ESPECIALLY SWORD OF THE JEDI I STILL MOURN FOR UU

[Franck Rabeson · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, a full third of the book is taken up by previews. Recent Star Wars ebooks all have them, but with time those previews are getting longer and longer. It’s getting rather annoying.

Now, Crucible… This was supposed to be the last Big Three book. Well, now that I’ve read it, I feel that Denning’s previous Star Wars novel, Apocalypse, should have held that distinction instead. This book felt empty and useless at the very best.

None of the characters were engaging, not even the heroes I should know and love. The bad guys are all cardboard caricatures, even the characters that were introduced before this book. Savara/Vestara became a generic Sith backstabber, with none of the nuances that made her a valid character before. Mirta Gev has become a barely competent mook with no personality — I get that Karen Traviss’s overpowered, über-perfect Mandalorians were annoying, but Denning’s portrayal of Gev goes too far in the opposite direction. The Qrephs… well, I was half-expecting them to wear monocles, lazily stroking a cat on the side, trading Bond villain quotes with the heroes.

Now, the good guys… Well, besides Lando, I barely even recognized them. They all felt like puppets parroting their lines without any enthusiasm or personality to back them, especially the cameos (Ben, Tahiri, Jaina and Jag). I ended up not caring about them at all, even the half a dozen times when Denning would try to tease the reader about killing them off. The only character I found even remotely interesting was Bhixen… yes, the Togorian Jedi apprentice who appears in a mere few paragraphs in the book’s second chapter. An extra. That’s how bad things are.

This also brings me to a common complaint about Denning: the so-called “torture porn”. Just how many times can you maim and almost kill your main characters for little to no reason? Is there a body count quota for Star Wars books? Do all villains need to commit the most callous mass murders and gleefully torture at least one of the heroes in order to even be allowed to appear in a book? Does Mr. Denning need to give detailed descriptions of the many, many physical wounds he loves to inflict on characters? I remember Tim Zahn or Aaron Allston being able to write interesting books with interesting characters without turning them into gore-fests that wouldn’t feel out of place in the Saw franchise…

In short, Crucible isn’t likely to become one of my favorite Star Wars books anytime soon. I read it once, which is about all the attention I’m able give it.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Synopsis: Forty-five years after the events chronicled in A New Hope, Han, Leia, and Luke visit their old friend Lando Calrissian, who wants them to prevent a hostile takeover of his new Outer Rim mining operation. What was supposed to be a simple meeting turns deadly after an explosion kills several thousand of Lando's workers and injures Han, Leia, and Luke. As they investigate the incident and pursue the culprit, they find that their new enemies have an old adversary on their side, and that all of time and space may be at stake.

My Review: Troy Denning is not my favorite Star Wars author, but he does a respectable job with this one. The novel did take a while for me to get through, and I have read a lot better, but, for this writer, this is superior to his usual works. Some may take issue with the fact that this is a different sort of adventure than what Lucasfilm gave us, but...who wants to read the same thing again and again?

Content Concerns:

Sex: Kissing at worst. 4.5/5
Nudity: None. 5/5
Language: The d-word, h-word, and p-word are used about twice each. Name-calling is also present, though infrequent. 3.75/5
Violence: Though not graphic, violence abounds. A blast kills thousands of people; characters shoot at other characters, sometimes killing them; limbs are lost to light sabers. 2/5
Drugs: Alcoholic beverages are mentioned and drank more than once. 3.5/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: There's little within this book that doesn't fall into that category. 1/5

[Tinika · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading Crucible despite Troy Denning not being one of my favourite Star Wars authors. Han, Leia and Luke are featured one more time as they travel to the outer reaches of the galaxy to help Lando with problems concerning his mining operations. I was also excited to see Mirta Gev, a character sympathetically detailed in The Legacy of the Force series, listed in the Dramatis Personae. What a disappointment this book was! Two of the villains, the Qreph brothers, are ridiculous. They are supposed to be highly intelligent beings, thinking countless steps ahead and being able to read the smallest detail of expression, yet are easily manipulated by the heroes. However, my biggest problem with the book is that the characters are not true to their depictions in the rest of the Star Wars Extended Universe books. The Mandalorians, previously portrayed as a highly-efficient and dangerous fighting force, are seen here as completely incompetent, their highly rated Bes'uliik useless, and their leader, Boba Fett’s grand-daughter Mirta, doesn’t come off much better. Leia is self-righteous and vengeful and both she and Luke are too trigger-happy. The level of violence is unnecessary. Vestara Khai, troubled and hurting at the end of Fate of the Jedi, has lost all the complexity created by her conflicted inner feelings during that series and is now just another one-dimensional villain. I have read many of the SWEU books but I gave up on this one two-thirds of the way through.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is it--the end of an era. The final story of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo.

Perhaps that's the problem. These aren't just characters anymore, they're icons. Yet their final villains aren't. They're below average, in fact. That makes for a book that is merely "okay."

The main villains are the Qreph brothers. They've set up pirate attacks on an asteroid mining facility that Lando owns. However, the pirate attacks are just a ruse to lure Han Solo into a trap. They think Han killed their mother and want revenge. Of course, tricking Han Solo into coming to you means Leia comes with him. And Luke isn't far behind.

That's bad news for the Qrephs as they've also discovered a monolith that, upon proper entrance, imbues people with Force powers, instantly. (Yet, for some reason the Qrephs never enter the monolith and get these powers until the finale of the book.)

Mirta Gev and Vestara Khai also appear, but don't really do anything. Same, really, for Ben Skywalker and Tahiri Veila.

The finale inside the monolith then gets all Force-meta. Not a bad idea, just one that takes too long.

----------------

With the new movies ignoring the Expanded Universe, it's likely that the upcoming Jaina Solo trilogy is going to be the end of this iteration of the EU. It's a shame that the heroes that started the entire Star Wars phenomenon couldn't have gotten a better send off.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around the time The Force Awakens came out, I started on a reading project where I set out to read all of the Expanded Universe novels. It started off as being just the adult novels, and then I branched out to include the juvenile and YA novels that weren't either (a) easy-reader chapter books, or (b) adaptations of other media (save for the movies). Once I pulled that list together, it made up 263 books, and when I sorted them in chronological order in the universe, Crucible was the last one on the list.

So, I made it all the way to the end of the Star Wars Expanded Universe: Legends series.

(Sort of. I still have a bunch of the omnibus graphic novel collections which I didn't try to shoehorn into the regular timeline. I'm going to start on those next. And then there's the new canon, which is currently a little over 100 books.)

Crucible wasn't the last book published, and given how it ends, it sounds like the publishers were ready to open up some new storylines, but this is a nice ending to the entire series. Big storylines have wrapped up, and it ends with this sense of peace and acceptance (and even has Luke, Leia, and Han retire!), so it feels like we come to the logical end of the story that began way, way back with Into the Void (which I read seven years ago!). Given that I seem to like Denning's style better than the average Star Wars author, I'm glad that it ended with one of his books.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts of very strong it picks of after the fate of the Jedi series and was a very enjoyable read until the last 50 pages or so when the book reaches its conclusion. The ending makes no sense it takes the book it a time warp that seems more suited to Star Trek ran tar wars.

[Adam Kiewel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book accidentally ended up being the last in the timeline, it's ironically fitting. While there's still a lot of mystery and more that we should have seen, Crucible ends up wrapping up the journey of the heros in a good note.

As for the story itself, it's clever and entertaining, although it does lose some steam toward the third quarter of the book.
It feels like an epilogue of sorts to fate of the jedi. The downfall, of course, is that more books were planned so its not a true ending or send off of the story. Because of that we are robbed of important interactions that were (again, very ironically) set up to take place during this story and ended up not happening, with the promise of them being finished in the next editions that never ended up seeing the light of day. The worst part is, it feels like some of these interactions should have taken place here, even if it wasn't the final novel. The two biggest flaws of the book end up being that we don't get the same brilliantly written face to face interactions that made Fate of the Jedi so entertaining, and that one or two too many zany ideas ended up getting used in the story for my liking.

And again I have to say, too many things unfortunately were set up here that never got conclusions. We will never know quite what the ending really meant, in terms of a couple of the characters and locations. Sure the mystery adds some kind of charm, but in this case I'd rather just have answers. After all, this isn't a one off movie or novel. It's the final edition in a story built up over 40+ years. Regardless, it could have been a much worse conclusion

[. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, mainly because it's the first YA one I came across that had almost no bad words at all (only the same one was mention: h*ll. And I think there was a word replacing a really bad one: kark[ing]). I'm a little wary to recommend it, mainly because of how it's considered "Legends" now and is not at all related to the timeline with Kylo Ren, etc. There are many things about this story that would confuse you, such as the fact that Leia became a Jedi and Ben is Luke's son. It took a while for me to get used to it, so I enjoyed the story overall.

I fangirled a bit because a moment from the Clone Wars TV show was mentioned at the end, the one where Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka foudn themselves at a monolith with the Ones (I think the Son and Daughter, etc.) If you've seen the show, then you'll know what I'm talking about.

Overall, I think this is a worthwhile read but not to be confused with the trilogy we're currently on.

[Yub Yub Commander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have so much nostalgia for this book. I remember reading it when it had first come out, having just come off Legacy and that trauma, and thinking "I can't wait to see Allana grow up or Jaina and Jag with kids."

It was always my dream as a kid to finally get to where I had a job and could start preordering the new books as they came out. I hate that that ended after this, but I'm glad the EU ended with a fairly wholesome story.