Betrayal

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force #1

by Aaron Allston

This is the era of Luke Skywalker’s the Jedi Master has unified the order into a cohesive group of powerful Jedi Knights. But as the new era begins, planetary interests threaten to disrupt this time of relative peace, and Luke is plagued with visions of an approaching darkness. Evil is rising again–out of the best intentions–and it looks as if the legacy of the Skywalkers may come full circle. Honor and duty will collide with friendship and blood ties as the Skywalker and Solo clans find themselves on opposing sides of an explosive conflict with potentially devastating repercussions for both families, for the Jedi order, and for the entire galaxy.

When a mission to uncover an illegal missile factory on the planet Adumar ends in a violent ambush–from which Jedi Knight Jacen Solo and his protégé and cousin, Ben Skywalker, narrowly escape with their lives–it’s the most alarming evidence yet that sparks of political unrest are threatening to ignite into total rebellion. The governments of numerous worlds are chafing under the strict regulations of the Galactic Alliance, and diplomatic efforts to enforce compliance are failing. Fearing the worst, the Alliance readies a preemptive display of military might in a bid to bring the rogue worlds in line before an uprising erupts. The designated target of this planet Corellia–renowned for the brash independence and renegade spirit that have made its favorite son, Han Solo, a legend.

Something of a rogue himself, Jacen is nevertheless duty bound as a Jedi to stand with his uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, on the side of the Galactic Alliance. But when the wary Corellians launch a counterstrike, the Alliance’s show of force–and a secret mission to disable Corellia’s crucial Centerpoint Station–give way to an armed skirmish. Once the smoke clears, the battle lines are drawn. Now the specter of full-scale war looms between a growing cadre of defiant planets and the Galactic Alliance that some fear is becoming a new Empire. And even as both sides struggle to find a diplomatic solution, mysterious acts of treachery and sabotage threaten peace efforts at every turn.

Determined to root out those behind the mayhem, Jacen follows a trail of cryptic clues to a dark rendezvous with the most shocking of revelations . . . while Luke grapples with something even more dream visions of a shadowy figure whose Force power and ruthlessness remind him of Darth Vader–a lethal enemy who strikes like a dark spirit on a mission of doom. An agent of evil who, if Luke’s visions come to pass, will bring untold pain to the Jedi Master . . . and to the entire galaxy.

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

388 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2006

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

[Petter Avén · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler alert! Read at your own hazard. I will take no responsibility for making you feel sadened by my review, nor possibly bored out of your mind. I do however take all due credit for being a sarcastic smartass even when I in fact like a piece of literature. Which in this case I do.

"Deep are the wounds that civil strife inflicts." The words of the Roman poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus return to haunt me in Betrayal, just as they did in the Dark Nest trilogy. Once again characters that have been around for ever, and that I have come to care about, are pitted against each other. And once again, over a conflict that in some critical sense fails to engage me. This time it is the Corellians who for some reason have concluded that the light burdens that follow membership in the Galactic Alliance are too heavy to bear and decide to secede. Never mind that they endured two decades of Imperial iron rule before they rebelled. Han Solo's fear that the GA would somehow stifle the Corellian spirit is, in my humble opinion, a load of crap. If those people are so adventurous, why don't they build Zonama Sekot class hyperdrives and move their world over to the Unknown Regions? I bet that would spell some Chinese style interesting times for them. Do I sound overly critical of Corellia's motivations and integrity? Yeah, well, maybe. Perhaps I've just had too big a dose of SW over the years and feel that my favourite far, far away and long time ago Galaxy has earned a rest by the time Betrayal begins. However, spoilers have revealed to me that a long and brutal civil war or two are in store for the Skywalkers and Solos. I grow increasingly convinced that a few centuries of peace following the peace accord between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant would have been for the best. Oh well, back to Betrayal! As I have already stated, the Corellian cause fails to move me. If it had, I would have liked this novel even more than I do. For in spite of my harsh criticism, I still find Betrayal to be a good read. It is just that my lack of sympathies for one of the parties in the conflict, just as the case is with Dark Nest, makes it more difficult for me to understand why some characters support it. So who are they? And are there any new characters making their SW debut?

Han Solo. Our beloved roguish smuggler has felt the tugs of a wilder lifestyle many a time since the days of the Rebellion, but he has always decided to stick by his friends and family when they need him. In Betrayal, Han betrays the Galactic Alliance, and more importantly, me, by aiding Corellia with intelligence and his expertice. Even though he should know from experience that his own children and extended family will most likely be in the van of the GA armed forces. And he does it twice, apparently not rattled enough after the first time. I almost found myself wishing that Jaina would become seriously injured as a consequence, just to hammer home to Han the enormity of his choice. Yeah, I know, he does it because he really thinks it may prevent an escalation of the war, but I still think it stinks. Han Solo feels like Han Solo, but he makes the wrong calls.

Leia Organa Solo. This time the jedi princess and former head-of-state has really done it. With the casual and warm affection of a supporting wife who in a different universe would help her husband realize his long planned project of repairing the old family sailing boat, Leia helps Han escalate a small conflict to the brink of another galactic civil war. So Corellia can be free from the "oppressive" Galactic Alliance. To protect the planet's adventurous spirit. So it can produce more maverick heroes. Just in case there's another galactic civil war. See my problem with that reasoning? Yes, of course Leia is disillusioned with politics after everything that's happened in her life. Which is why she should have been retired as a character before she does something so stupid that her long time fans, to whom I belong, begin to think she's gone nuts. Leia Organa Solo feels like Leia Organa Solo, but she makes the wrong calls.

Wedge Antilles. Finally, a character whose choices I can partly understand! My affections for Wedge have lasted through the years and the novels, even though his infallibility is annoying at times. In Betrayal, where two grayish parties are pitted against each other, he opts to sit it all out until the military bureaucrats of the Galactic Alliance decide he is a hazard and have him locked up. Bad idea. Wedge is soon back on Corellia and in a new uniform. After all, he did live on Corellia until his late teens (I think). The facts that Thrakan Sal-Solo is in charge and that his own daughter flies with the Galactic Alliance in the war zone are not enough to put him off. I am not quite sure what to make of that. The decision is as heart-wrenching for Wedge as it is for Han and Leia, but he does it anyway. Still, Wedge Antilles feels like Wedge Antilles and I guess he makes the right call considering what he is put through by the Galactic Alliance.

The overwhelming majority of characters who have fought and sacrificed for so long to establish and defend first the New Republic and its present political entity the GA choose to remain loyal. Most notable are of course the Skywalkers. Luke and Mara are in my opinion well depicted and require no description on my part. However Betrayal features some newcomers. The one I liked the best is...

Syal Antilles. Welcome to the family, flygirl! I know you'll fit right in, shaking leg and all. No, I mean it, with the old generation of pilots retiring it is time for some new ones to grab the flight sticks and steer their snubfighters to fame and glory. Aaron Allston knows well how to do this; it is what I like best about his books. Syal's exclamation; "Daddy, you're retired. Get out of the skies." had me laughing out loud and with true feeling. An extra half star for that one father-daughter encounter alone.

Whew! Half-way through now, I think. Let's get on with the second major development and the characters put through it.

Jacen goes Dark. And then so do I. That's it in short, really. But, if you care (to) bear with me, I will try to outline things a bit more studiously. Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker track down the owner of a mysterious piece of fabric on which is left messages that very obviously to every reader are descriptions and premonitions of Jacen's life and character. Most of them are decidedly Sith, which would start warning bells in every Jedi head but Jacen's. Instead of realizing the danger and that he is in fact being goaded toward a future desired by someone else, Jacen chooses to embrace this path. With him is his apprentice, Ben Skywalker, who has grown into a bright and resourceful boy of 13. He proves himself through his actions rather than what I am told by other characters. Along the way Jacen and Ben meet Nelani Dinn, a young Jedi Knight assigned to duties on the planet of Lorrd where their search has brought them. They encounter crazy and/or manipulated people in hostage situations designed to force Jacen into choosing the safety of the many lives over the few or single. The company eventually meet with a mysterious, dark Force user and have a chat. Together with her, they visit a Sith mansion, which turns out to be inside a hollowed out rock in space, not far from Bimmiel. Well what do you know? And then, surprise surprise, it all goes horribly wrong. And the fact that I, and probably most other readers, knew in my gut that it would was not enough of a comfort.

Jacen Solo. So Jacen eventually reaches the inescapable end of a long slide into an ever growing abyss between himself and most of the galaxy and its residents. For some time and novels he has put himself above others, even manipulating those closest to him in order to prevent visions of the future from coming true. Does this sound familiar from somewhere? If only at a young age he had seen Revenge of the Sith together with me. We could have had a good laugh at how stupid Anakin Skywalker really was and how old Palps goaded and tricked him into becoming evil and kill the one he was prepared to slaughter half the galaxy in order to protect. But... nah, probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Jacen may be ten times smarter than A. Skywalker ever was, but also ten times emotionally colder by the time of Betrayal. That combination causes him to conciously and with a clear mind disregard from common morality. No mindless rage with Jacen, no no. He sees a future through the Force, decides that it is the only one possible unless he "surgically" kills certain people and then sets about doing just that. After all, he has it all so logically laid out: Many lives trump one. You can't make an omelett without breaking a few eggs. Oh, that second one was Stalin, I think. Sorry. I think you get the picture, though. To Jacen the end justifies the means, and has for some time. Now, at long last, he is prepared to personally spill the blood of the innocent to sustain this principle. Also, he gets away with it all by using a forced memory wipe on little Ben. Hide the bodies, no one will ever know... buhu. Jacen Solo feels like Jacen Solo as he could turn out, but not as he necessarily had to turn out. In "Betrayal" he is certainly a whole different person than the serene but humane and empathic young man who emerged from the Yuuzhan Vong war.

Ben Skywalker. This kid really does more than fine for his age, and I do not mean the action scenes. After all, anything can be accomplished in a fictional universe. No, I am talking about Aaron Allston's depiction of Ben's psyche. I can feel I get into the mind of a teenager who is mature for his age, awkward though it may be at times. It certainly beats trying to connect to an adult who behaves like a 13 year old. These are my hopes for young Ben: That he makes it through the hells that a score of authors and evil characters have in store for him without losing his humane ideals. We know from experience that bad things happen to many Jedi that have to be in the line of fire for too long.

Nelani Dinn. Oh dear. I can almost hear the scissors at work. Cutting through the cardboard. She is... Jedi. Idealistic. Beautiful. In love with Jacen. When she was described I almost immediately envisioned her in the Trekkie red shirt. Modest yet form fitting, of course. And I gave her a generous 50% chance of surviving the end of the novel. She did not. And I was not sorry. I mean seriously, she was designed to die by Jacen's hand as a symbol for his rite of passage to Sith-hood and that was it. No reader with a decent sense of drama could avoid seeing it coming.

Okay, time to wrap this review up. Just to be clear, I know I have left out important elements and characters, but I don't think there is much room for more. Unifying Force versus Light and Dark sides will have to wait. Anyway. I like the language used; it depicts characters, environments and action sequences in ways that are engaging and easy to follow. That I do not always like what the characters do is beside the point in that regard. And to be completely honest, I cannot say for sure how I would like them to behave in the situations Aaron Allston conjures. As a long time Game Master of RPG:s I have developed a sense for when the time is right to kill your darlings; these being characters or plots or whatever. However, I find it difficult to stomach my darlings almost killing each other for reasons that are not good enough. No matter how well written Betrayal and subsequent novels depicting the next galactic holocaust may be, I feel most strongly that many of the characters that I have followed from A New Hope and on are now pointlessly being used up. Their ultimate slide into desperation and trauma after too many costly "adventures" have begun to influence how I view them in the original SW movies and early novels. I feel sorry for them. They have such high hopes to make their galaxy a better place and now I know those hopes will all be dashed. Over and over, and at times by some of the original heroes themselves and their kin. Three strong stars to Betrayal by Aaron Allston instead of the five I wish I could give.

[Havva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped reading new Star Wars books after the first few New Jedi Order, but when I saw this one for sale used I thought I'd try it, since it was a new series and I've always liked Aaron Allston. Solo Command and Starfighters of Adumar standing out among all others for their laugh-out-loud humour.

This book was slightly better then the last few Star Wars I've tried, including a number of amusing references to previous events, both in-universe and out (Tycho asked, "Is Han-" "He's fine," Leia said. "Han shot first.") to the point where I was very surprised to finish the book without running onto one "I've got a bad feeling about this."

I enjoyed meeting the children of some classic characters, and the return of the characters themselves, older but not necessarily more mature. I especially enjoyed the return of Admiral Gilad Pellaeon on the side of many of his former enemies, and discovering his (Hebrew) first name, having missed it if it appeared in earlier books.

That aside I did not especially enjoy this book and have no intention of reading any others in the Legacy series, as it is clearly suffering from the same misapprehension NJO did.

If I want to read about bad things happening to good people, good people being forced to do bad things, people doing bad things even though they know better, screwed-up situations with no good solution, older people being too stuck in their ways to see what's in front of then, younger people convinced they know everything and causing untold suffering as a result, and children being put in inhuman situations I can read the news, history, political analysis, or great novelists like Dostoevsky and feel that I've gained something for my trouble.

The point of the Star Wars I grew up with is a fun adventure with little plot, bad special effects, the good guys winning in the end, and Harrison Ford running around being all swashbuckly. And that was exactly what I was hoping for when I picked up a new Star Wars book to relax with at the end of a long week.

There are literally innumerable works of great literature dealing with the serious matters of good and evil, predestination, personal responsibility and conflicted loyalties. The world does not need light entertainment masquerading as another extremely mediocre try at it.

Timothy Zahn, among others, seems to feel similarly.

"Star Wars, to me, is an old-fashioned tale of Good v. Evil, with the heroes stepping up to an overwhelming challenge, working through it with sweat and courage and sacrifice, and ultimately winning the day. "
"But I personally don’t want my fiction to necessarily be “realistic” – I want my fiction to be entertaining. "
"If I want realism and the deaths of people I care about, I can turn on the news."
(From an interview with TheForce.Net)

The grand high masters of lucasville have clearly forgotten what Star Wars started as, and are losing much of their fan base in the process.

And now, having gotten that off my chest, I'm going to get back to my life and probably not think about Star Wars for the next ten years or so.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is off to a crackling start!

[Stephanie "Jedigal" · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good example of the expanded universe, and a good example of author Allston's contributions, but nothing to write home about.

Best thing about this book: a fast-moving plot that never stagnates. Nice balance, as Allston usually does, of balancing emphasis between action sequences and characterization. But unfortunately in this one, both those areas are somewhat lacking. There is no sparkle here.

Another positive note: Jacen Solo once again displays his tendency to think for himself. In this first-in-a-series title, you might wonder whether this time it's going to lead him into the kind of consequences he hasn't had to regret so far. Completists (not a word, I know) will find it reminiscent of Traitor, but not close to the same class.

It's definitely a thumbs up, but if you've got a lot of other SW reading to catch up on, no need to rush to this one. You could even consider waiting for the paperback. And sorry, but I can't resist this opportunity for plugging Allston's Wraith Squadron series from the X-Wing series. They are great!!

[Scott Rhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting in about mid-2015, I made a concerted effort to read every single novel in the Star Wars Expanded Universe series, of which there were well over a hundred titles. Much of this had to do with the anticipation of the long-awaited J.J. Abrams film “The Force Awakens”, the sequel to the 1983 film “Return of the Jedi”. All of the titles in the pre-2015 SWEU are now considered “old canon” or “legends” and have been negated by the new and “legitimate” timeline set by Abrams’s film, per conditions made by Disney when the company purchased the rights to “Star Wars” from George Lucas.

I failed in my attempt. I felt like what Morgan Spurlock must have felt when he was making “Super Size Me”, his 2004 documentary in which he decided to eat nothing but McDonald’s fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an entire month. Fifteen days in, he felt awful and wasn’t sure if he could continue. I felt the same way.

Don’t get me wrong: I love Star Wars, but I, like Spurlock, began to feel queasy and distressed at the midway point. It was roughly around book 20 that I began to realize that this was all just literary junk food: tastes great but not very nutritious. I was also having Star Wars daymares, which is not as fun as it sounds.

So, to spare my addiction, I took a break after finishing the 20-plus book “New Jedi Order” series, which was an accomplishment in itself. Not to brag.

Completely arbitrarily, I decided that I would resume my own personal SWEU reading challenge in 2021, starting with Aaron Allston’s “Betrayal”, the first book in a nine-book series entitled Legacy of the Force.

The late Allston (sadly, he passed away in 2014) wrote a few of the books in the NJO series, and I considered them to be some of the better-written ones. His strengths: he could tie numerous ongoing storylines together seamlessly, which is something not all authors can do. Others in the series tried but the results were clunky and confusing. Allston was a great writer, and he will be missed.

“Betrayal” was published in 2006, and it probably goes without saying how impactful the tragic events of Sept.11 five years prior had on the SWEU and, specifically, this series. To wit, the first several books in the NJO series were written and published before 9/11/01. It has never been an exaggeration to say that the world changed dramatically after 9/11, and the same can be said for the SWEU.

The book’s plot reflects the current events of the world in 2006: The Yuuzhan Vong War is over, and the galaxy is beginning to rebuild. The Galactic Alliance has been formed, out of the ashes of the New Republic, as a way to unite the vastly different worlds. Sadly, only a few years in, and unrest and disunity is already starting to fracture the government.

Planet Corellia, run by the megalomaniacal dictator Thracken Sal-Solo (estranged cousin of Han), has been threatening to leave the GA, claiming that governmental pressures and mandates are hurting the world economy at a fragile time. Sal-Solo is accusing the GA of employing Imperial tactics. He has threatened to re-arm Centerpoint Station, a giant moon-like structure put there by an ancient alien race (See Roger MacBride Allen’s The Corellian Trilogy), and use it as leverage against the GA. Certain members of the Senate and a few Jedi see this a potential build-up to war. Jacen Solo is one of the Jedi who sees this as a potential act of war.

An assault is planned on Corellia, one that is generating controversy as Corellians (including Han) currently living on Coruscant are facing strong anti-Corellian sentiments by other Coruscanti. Acts of protest and other violent outbursts are happening more frequently. The GA has started branding Corellian troublemakers as “terrorists”.

Meanwhile, Jacen is undergoing a very dangerous shift in his philosophical world-view, initiated by a mysterious woman who may be a long-lost Dark Jedi named Lumiya (first appearing in the 1981 Marvel Comics “Star Wars” series, issue #56). His movement toward the Dark Side is progressing, and it is leading him to a point of no return. Unfortunately, he is also responsible for the training of his cousin, 13-year-old Ben Skywalker. Master Luke senses a disturbance, but he is unaware of what is happening.

There is a lot of stuff going on in this novel, as it is setting the stage for the following eight books. For the most part, Allston does a stellar job.

The only real complaint I have with the book (and the series in general) is the fact that casual Star Wars fans who have not read any other book in the SWEU would have a very hard time jumping in with this one. There is too much backstory and too many characters that one needs to know before reading this. This isn’t Allston’s fault, of course.

Frankly, I envy fans coming to the “Old Canon” for the first time. While I like the New Canon stuff, my heart truly belongs to what is now called the “Legends” of the SWEU. The Old Canon had a bevy of great writers and seemed to have a lot more creative freedom than the more recent spate of books, graphic novels, and films being put out by Disney/Lucasfilm. That said, I will continue to enjoy anything Star Wars, old and new. As addictions go, it could be worse…

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

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: book one in the Legacy of the Force series, Betrayal by Aaron Allston.

SOME HISTORY:

If the threat facing the galaxy in the New Jedi Order series was an external force (the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong), the threat facing the galaxy in the Legacy of the Force series is an internal one. From the very beginning of their brainstorming process, the authors decided that the galaxy would be facing the threat of civil war: systems within the Galactic Alliance would want independence, and that would balloon out into a huge conflict. The first book in the series, Betrayal, introduces that element in the form of the rebellious Corellian system, which makes sense—Corellians have never liked being told what to do. Legacy of the Force: Betrayal by Aaron Allston made it to number ten on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of June 18, 2006.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

I didn't have many memories of Betrayal. Since it came out in the summer of 2006, I probably got it from the library while I was on summer break. I knew the overarching plot, but there were a lot of things here that caught me by surprise.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

When a routine mission to Adumar ends with Jedi Knight Jacen Solo and his apprentice Ben Skywalker narrowly escaping with their lives, it's just another piece of evidence that a growing number of planets are dissatisfied with the Galactic Alliance and its push towards centralization. But while events escalate to a boiling point on the planet of Corellia, Jacen begins a journey of his own that threatens to send him down a dark path…

THE PLOT:

Betrayal has to do a lot of heavy lifting to set up the Legacy of the Force series. As the novel opens, Luke Skywalker has been having visions of a man who doesn't exist. Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker uncover evidence of an illegal missile factory on Adumar, which suggests that Adumar is selling weapons to planets behind the Galactic Alliance’s back. (Meanwhile, the Galactic Alliance has swallowed up the Imperial Remnant since the end of the Yuuzhan Vong conflict, and there’s some weird sentiments there.) Corellia is pushing for independence from the Galactic Alliance, and since Han is Corellian he feels like he needs to side with his homeworld—and Han and Leia end up going to Corellia to try unofficial .

The Galactic Alliance ends up sending Jedi and military forces to the Corellian system to force those troublemakers into standing down, but that plan goes horribly awry. Most of the Jedi missions are failures, Ben Skywalker succeeds in sabotaging/powering down Centerpoint Station, and the Galactic Alliance military ends up occupying Tralus. An attempt at diplomacy fails when the Five World Prime Minister is assassinated, and most of the Jedi return to Corellia—except for Jacen and Ben, who head off to Lorrd to try deciphering a mysterious tasseled artifact that was left behind after the attack. The conflict on Tralus culminates in the Galactic Alliance having to withdraw their forces, while Jacen learns the meaning of the tassels and meets a woman named Brisha Syo who reveals many interesting things.

CHARACTERS WHO ARE NOT NAMED JACEN:

Whereas the Dark Nest trilogy focused heavily on Han, Leia, and Luke, Betrayal was more focused on Han and Leia's story, Jacen and Ben's story, and then to a lesser extent Wedge Antilles and his oldest daughter Syal. In particular, Luke and Mara played much smaller roles than I expected, but perhaps the authors will cycle through different main characters in these books.

Luke is having visions of someone who’s not there; it's implied at the end that he's been seeing a dark side Jacen, but I think it's also been explained away that he sees the villain of the Legacy comics, which is set decades after these books. I was a little surprised, though, that Luke was unreservedly going along with the Galactic Alliance military’s plans for Corellia. Luke has always struggled with the degree to which the Jedi should be independent from the New Republic/Galactic Alliance, especially when they financially support the Order, so I was shocked that Jedi were being deployed to preemptively kidnap heads of state! The only person who expresses dismay with this plan is a Bothan PR guy, and no one else seemed to blink an eye.

It's been four years since The Swarm War, but Jaina and Zekk still have this ~*~connection.~*~ It's not what it was at the time of the Chiss/Killik conflict, when they were all part of that Killik hive mind, but they still are mentally linked. Jaina thinks they're just platonic friends, but Zekk is maybe playing the long game here. I wish we could have gotten more with Jaina, especially compared to Jacen’s prominence in the story. She’s just doing her job, occasionally frustrated at orders, and then we get two separate confirmations of what an amazing pilot she is (first from Wedge, and later from her Dad). I am hopeful that Jaina will get more to do in these books, because I was frustrated with how Jaina’s story played out in the NJO series. Of the Solo kids, she’s often the least fleshed out, and other than anomalies like Dark Journey she often takes a backseat to other’s arcs.

While the Galactic Alliance schemes to kidnap the Five World Prime Minister and ol Thrackan, they also trick Wedge Antilles into coming to Coruscant so they can imprison him during their military actions in the Corellian system. Wedge being Wedge, he escapes after a few days, commandeers an X-Wing, flies home, and runs into his daughter (currently serving the Galactic Alliance under a pseudonym). She almost shoots him down, but they have a lil conversation—and then we jump to Wedge serving as a liaison between Thrackan and Five World Prime Minister Saxan. I would have loved some explanation for that, beyond what we get when Wedge talks to Tycho at the beginning of the failed diplomatic mission. It’s presented as a fait accompli, and I would have liked to get more of Wedge’s reasoning behind it. Finally, Wedge is present during Thrackan’s No Good Very Bad Plan to retake Tralus, and presents an alternate plan that would minimize civilian casualties and not force Corellia into continuing this conflict with the Galactic Alliance. (Fortunately, everyone votes for Wedge’s plan. Wedge and Han ultimately carry it out.)

Wedge’s daughter is listed twice in the Dramatis Personae, because Lysa Dunter’s true identity as Syal Antilles is concealed until that first encounter with her father. But Thrackan Sal-Solo attempts to suborn Syal, she shoots Thrackan’s agent, and she gets pulled out of her original squadron and assigned to fly an experimental two-man Aleph-class starfighter. I wish that Wookieepedia had a picture of this ship, because I couldn’t quite picture it, but they don’t.

But the most prominent Corellian in all of Star Wars is Han Solo, so it’s fitting that Allston focuses more on him (and Leia too, by extension). After all, our first hint of this Corellian conflict comes during Han and Leia’s housewarming party for their new apartment on Coruscant. Han does not think that the Galactic Alliance should get involved, and he's upset that the Jedi are doing the bidding of the Galactic Alliance. Han and Leia do a little digging into fleet movements and market trends, and then they head to Corellia to meet with Saxan and delicately/carefully interfere without the Galactic Alliance catching on to their involvement. When the Corellian forces retake Tralus, Leia talks her way onto the flagship of the Galactic Alliance fleet to ensure that nothing happens to Han during the battle—and she realizes afterwards that she put too many innocent people at risk, and she’s not comfortable interfering in that way again. I think part of Leia’s dilemma here boils down to the fact that she’s now a Jedi Knight…but by helping Corellia, Han and she are committing actions that the Jedi Order has not condoned, and I’ll be interested to see if their actions here have consequences for them in later books.

JACEN:

Jacen’s the biggest character in this book, and not just because he’s on the cover. The Legacy of the Force series is the story of Jacen’s fall (although he was already skirting the edge of evil in the Dark Nest trilogy, and especially in The Unseen Queen). It seems that after the Yuuzhan Vong war, Jacen has lost his empathy, which was one thing I appreciated about his character in the New Jedi Order. Even though his inactivity and philosophical dithering immensely frustrated me, he still had this basic human rapport with others. I think his childhood connection with animals was an expression of this, which matured as he grew into an ability to listen and connect with others.

That’s all gone here. It feels like in wanting to avoid anything like the YV invasion from ever happening again, Jacen views lives as disposable. During the ambush on Adumar, he feels a teeny bit of remorse over killing Adumari, but not much. If you’re not a Jedi or part of his immediate family, he doesn’t care about you. And that’s such a sad development to me; Jacen went on a five year journey of knowledge and discovery, and he’s returned from it a cold man. (Even thirteen-year-old Ben picks up on this.) I miss the goofy kid of the Young Jedi Knights books, and even the dithering teenager of the NJO. Jacen in Betrayal is a dark brooding figure, and most of his good attributes have disappeared in the intervening years.

The tassel artifact that was found after that failed diplomatic mission is key to drawing Jacen to the planet of Lorrd, where Jacen and Ben meet up with Nelani Dinn, a Jedi Knight who definitely has a crush on Jacen, and the trio keep getting drawn into these dangerous scenarios that seem designed to judge how Jacen responds to situations. The tassel first caught his attention because one of its lines translates as “He will strengthen himself through pain,” and Jacen feels like that’s talking directly to what he experienced during his time in the Embrace of Pain. The meanings of the other tassel parts also seem to be prophecies that relate to Jacen, and one is in a Sith language.

The trio end up meeting a mysterious woman named Brisha Syo who wants Jacen to travel to her home on a remote asteroid near Bimmiel. Revelations ensue. Turns out, Brisha Syo is actually the Dark Lady Lumiya, who appeared in the Marvel Star Wars comics that were released between 1977 and 1986. Lumiya was originally a young Rebel woman named Shira Brie who had a sort of romance with Luke Skywalker, and then was shot down by Luke because the Force told him that she was an enemy. And surprise, she had been an Imperial spy all along! She was saved by the use of cybernetics and trained in the dark side of the Force by Darth Vader, she wants revenge on Luke Skywalker, and she has a very distinctive outfit complete with a lightwhip instead of a lightsaber.

Lumiya says that Vergere (Jacen’s mentor in the NJO, who turned him over to the Yuuzhan Vong, tortured him, revealed a lot about the Force, helped him escape, then sacrificed herself during Destiny's Way) was a Sith. She was a Sith all along, and Jacen is fated to become a Sith and do Great Things and save the galaxy etc. etc. I don’t know about other readers, but this felt like a huge retcon to me. Star Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion says that Troy Denning wrote a 27-page document called “The Vergere Compendium” that listed all her actions in the NJO, and how they meant that she was a Sith.

That is certainly An Interpretation. I’m just not sure it’s an interpretation I buy. While Vergere did terrible, morally dubious things, she’s always felt more like a Gray figure to me—neither Jedi nor Sith. I’m not sure that this is what Matthew Stover intended, or even James Luceno and Walter Jon Williams intended, but stories always evolve over time. I may not like this retcon—I think it makes more sense that Lumiya is lying to Jacen and giving him events “from a certain point of view” to push him towards her desired outcome—but that’s definitely not the official LotF explanation.

Lumiya tells Jacen that Sith don't have to be cackling maniacal psychopaths, that the Sith who created this asteroid never became like Darth Sidious and never succumbed to unlimited power. Jacen is surprisingly receptive to her ideas, to the point that he’s willing to murder Nelani Dinn and wipe Ben Skywalker’s memories of these events. Jacen has definitely started down a dark path; he's not a Sith at this point, but he is seriously considering Sith ideas. That ain’t good!

ISSUES:

My first quibble: I was surprised by the number of proofreading and timeline errors here. There were several instances where Syal Antilles’s pseudonym Lysa Dunter was given as Lysa Dunton. Zekk is described as younger than he should be, and Nelani Dinn says that Jacen taught her lightsaber combat seven years ago…which is smack dab in the middle of his five-year Force pilgrimage. They originally planned for Betrayal to be set 37 years ABY but instead decided on 40 years ABY, which explains those timeline discrepancies…but I still would have expected an editor to catch those.

A bigger issue: I think that Betrayal is trying to do too much here. Not only is Allston setting up Jacen's Sith journey, but this conflict between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia which will spiral out to other systems. That's a lot to do, and unfortunately the book throws us into this Galactic Alliance military action against Corellia with not a lot of setup. We jump from “Corellia is unhappy about centralization” to the Galactic Alliance parking a fleet in Corellian space and sending in Jedi teams to kidnap Corellian heads of state. I know that the Dark Nest trilogy was all about this Chiss/Killik conflict in the Unknown Regions, but I would have liked to see hints of this situation in those preceding books. It would have helped to have this built up, instead of dropping the reader into the middle of a conflict that we’ve been told has been brewing behind the scenes—with not many examples of it before everything explodes.

Thinking back to the 1990s Bantam books, I wasn't super impressed by the Corellian trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen because I felt like the trilogy had too much filler. But I did think that Ambush at Corellia did a good job setting up the conflict there: Corellia is upset, a human-centric xenophobic idiot like Thrackan has clawed his way into power, Han and Leia arrive on Corellia for a diplomatic function and it’s immediately apparent that events are close to a boiling point. And then in books two and three, those dangerous events occur, their family is split up, we slowly learn more about Centerpoint Station, and there’s a big (rather underwhelming) battle. I would have liked to see something similar here, where we got a better look at those simmering tensions before the actual conflict begins.

Finally, this wouldn't be an Aaron Allston book without a fair bit of humor, but the humor didn’t always fit with the overall tone of the story. I liked the dynamic between Wedge and Han, where Wedge is in charge but Han is always trying to one-up him, but some of the humorous bits felt tonally off to me. I’m thinking especially of the situations engineered by Brisha Syo—Jacen had a tendency to deadpan and make snarky comments during some dark scenes, like the hostage situation in the aquarium.

IN CONCLUSION:

Betrayal introduces the two main conflicts of the Legacy of the Force series: the beginning of a civil war between the Galactic Alliance and some of its member systems, as well as the beginning of Jacen’s fall, courtesy of the Dark Lady Lumiya. There are also big revelations about Vergere’s nature that will have ramifications for everything to come (although your mileage may vary what you think of those). I did feel that Betrayal was trying to do too much at times—that in trying to set up both Jacen's downfall and this galaxy-wide war, the book ended up with a bunch of exposition about long-standing tensions that have been simmering below the surface, without actually showing us many concrete examples of these tensions before the Galactic Alliance vs Corellia standoff.


Next up: book two in the Legacy of the Force series, Bloodlines by Karen Traviss.

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/xdxLJL0aqBc

“Answers from Aaron Allston” (May 30, 2006): https://web.archive.org/web/200606122...

[Hailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

After I first read this book, my immediate reaction was, "I've read fan fiction better than this!" It took Traviss' and Denning's next installments to get me comfortable with the idea of the change in Jacen. Looking back, it makes sense after his capture by the Vong and 5 year journey studying different Force techniques. It took a while, but the book finally grew on me with the witty exchanges and character interactions. I particularly liked this little exchange:

[b]Han straightened, irritably, on the couch. "And Zekk. Who, may I ask, invited Zekk? He's not family."

Luke and Mara managed to say "Not yet" simultaneously.

Han glared at them.[/b]

[Shara · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Review: 6 - Worth Reading, with Reservations

Reservation #1: if you haven't been keeping up with the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe novels, this is, by far, one of the worst places you can jump aboard. While there is some merit in believing that every story set in a franchise should be friendly to newbies, the thing with the Star Wars Expanded Universe is that it's grown so large, with so many important characters that have nothing to do with the movies, that if you pick up this book just wanting to get the further adventures of Han, Luke, and Leia, you are going to be sorely disappointed.

If you are caught up, like I was, you may still be disappointed. This book is… strange. I was accidentally, then on purpose, spoiled for the MAJOR EVENTS that happen in this Legacy of the Force series, so I read this book with a kind of dread, but also with a kind of expectation: I wanted to see just how on Earth the writers were going to pull this off. Betrayal reveals to the readers the FIRST MAJOR EVENT. Which, if you've been reading the books in publication order, shouldn't come as any surprise: it was pretty clear where a particular character was heading after the Dark Nest Trilogy, but still: it's tough, especially when you've been reading this series as long as I have.

Aaron Allston, for his part, does the best he can: there are great moments in this book: fantastic characterizations of fan-favorites like Wedge Antilles, and introductions to promising new characters like his daughter. Allston's trademark humor, while not in full-force, does permeate the book and provide some much needed levity. And the action of the story starts up quick and doesn't let up until halfway through the book, wherein Allston allows the readers and the characters to stop and catch their breath before plunging headfirst into the rest of the action. There's a lot to digest in this book, and I'm torn between thinking that this was the right approach, that we needed to get through this stuff and quickly as possible, and thinking that perhaps the EU powers-that-be could've taken a little more time with it and given the readers a chance to really swallow the Civil War that's brewing. Because it is a tough book to swallow: both the events that are rattling characters' lives and the changes those events wrought in them. If there's anything to walk away from in this book, it's that theme of change, of transformation. It's a fascinating theme, but it's also a very, very painful one.

There's some good stuff in this novel. There's some stuff that I'm not wholly convinced about, so the rest of the series will have to do its best to convince me. However, I don't recommend reading this if you aren't already through the New Jedi Order and the Dark Nest Trilogy, and even that's the bare minimum for you fully appreciate the events of this book. If you've already read this, though, I'd love to hear your thoughts (just don't spoil me, because even though I know the MAJOR EVENTS, I'd like the little things to be a surprise).

[Q. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been on a Star Wars bent lately and decided to read the "Legacy of the Force" series despite its less than stellar reputation. In all honesty this book was pretty good until the very end. The premise of the book is a decent enough one:

A civil war has broken out between the Galactic Alliance and Correlia (Han and Wedge's Native World) over the latter's independence with neither side being completely in the right. However a monkey wrench is thrown into the works when a shadowy Sith kills political figures on both sides and attacks the Skywalker/Solo Clan.

The problem comes at the very end when the Jedi Knight Jacen Solo is tempted by the Sith to the Dark Side because his ability to see the future says that this is the best course of action to prevent death on a massive scale. The idea of the protagonist doing a bad thing to prevent a worse outcome isn't an uncommon occurrence but the way its done here is completely wrong.

Because the thing that ends up making Jacen go rogue is having one conversation with the Sith woman immediately after he's met her which causes him to kill a friend to keep her silent about his change of allegiance. This doesn't work for so many reasons:
*There's no build up. It isn't established (clearly enough anyway) that Jacen has unshakable confidence in his clairvoyance to kill a friend.
*He doesn't agonize even a little bit over his decision to murder someone, AT ALL.
*The argument which turns him isn't very convincing. It boils down to, "Hey maybe your entire belief system is skewed. All those Sith you know about were just bad apples. Wanna join the Dark side now"?

Comparing this turn to others in the franchise makes it come off even worse. Episode III establishes Palpatine has pretty much been working on turning Anakin to the dark side ever since he met him as a child. Befriending him, acting as a kind of paternal figure and confident, isolating and alienating him from his friends and loved ones, filling his mind with half truths, and leveraging the belief that Anakin's wife will die without Palpatine's help. Say what you will about the prequels but Anakin becoming Vader was completely believable.

Also compare the divisive comic series Dark Empire. Luke comes face to face with the resurrected Emperor whom asks Luke to become his apprentice. Luke takes him up on the offer not because he wants to but because he has no chance of defeating the Emperor as is and gaining power from the Dark side is a calculated risk (that utterly fails by the way).

To make this plot point work you would have to do one of two things. Either firmly established that Jacen saw no other way to prevent the death of billions of people other than becoming a Sith and doing awful things or make Jacen a sociopath.

I guess if one good thing came out of this series, it was inspiring the character of Kylo Ren whose character arc and internal struggle is done so much better than Jacen's.
#StarWars

[Eric Sullenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the OG Thrawn Trilogy and most of the X-Wing series this is my next favorite series, but because it is long I think I enjoy it overall all the more. The first few books are suck a strong opening for the series too and I love this all the more. Previously I've only listened to the abridged audiobook, so I'm incredibly grateful to Hidden Gems on YouTube for producing an unabridged version. Star Wars is supposed to be my "I'm drifting off to sleep listening to something familiar nighttime books", but I had trouble putting this aside for my main daytime book and can't wait to move on.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy fuck we are so back

After the relative snooze fest of the previous trilogy, risks are taken with some characters that pushes relationships in brand new directions.

Granted, some of these risks are inexplicable and feel out of character for some of these people, but a) these books have never been very character emphatic (instead emphasizing plot) and b) we haven't really seen characters be confronted with these kinds of decisions.

It's only book One of the series but this is a great and fast paced start with a ton of action.

[Gil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Buch, was ich schon lange hatte, aber noch nie gelesen habe. Schade, dass ich nicht schon früher begonnen habe mich mit dem Extended Universe zu beschäftigen, denn es verspricht eine sehr spannende, unterhaltsam geschriebene Buchreihe zu werden.

Die deutsche Übersetzung hat jedoch einiges an Fehlern.

[Jessica McKendry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay so I read this series as a child and I absolutely loved it, but I hadn’t read the whole series, somehow I missed all the books by Aaron Alston and this was one of the books I missed.

And boy am I glad I didn’t read it as a kid. It is extremely long winded for no purpose, and Aaron Allston’s writing in this is absolutely terrible. Like did he have an editor go over this?

It sucks because the story itself is really interesting and the rest of the series is great. But I literally couldn’t finish the ebook, I had to switch to the HEAVILY abridged audiobook because reading it felt worse than doing math homework. Really too bad that Allston had to be the author for the first book in this series, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned so many people off from reading the rest of it, which isn’t fair because the rest of the series is great (minus the other Allston books if they’re written this poorly). I highly recommend the audiobook to start off this series if you’re considering it, otherwise just skip this book and go on to the next one.

Very disappointing.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite the abrupt turn to the dark side for a main character, surrounded by a lot of political and military incoherence. The story largely focuses on the latter, and only at the very end do you realize "Oh, this was about the dark side." It's hard to believe I used to read these Star Wars novels constantly as what I've been reading lately just doesn't seem to be that great, including this one.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I wish I could give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. I’m giving it a 3 star in absence of that option.)

Ok. So this one took me a while to complete because I had to continually go back and check that I understood what was happening.

This book has a typical 3 act structure.

Prologue - “The man who does not exist”
Act I - Crisis in the Corellian system
Act II - a Murder mystery
Act III - Conclusion of the crisis and murder mystery
Conclusion - “The man who DOES exist”

The actual “Betrayal” as the title refers too seemed to take SOOOO long to happen. But it’s Jacen Solo’s story, the son of Han Solo. This takes place roughly around the time the new movies COULD have happened, so I choose to see this story as alternatives to what we received.

Many stories in the Star Wars expanded universe seem to be in sets of 3’s, like the trilogies we see in theaters. If the novels had been made into movies (they should have been), then the “Thrawn Trilogy” could have been episodes 7, 8, and 9. Then there were several story arc’s leading to this current book.

The Yuuzan Vong arc could have been summarized into episodes 10, 11, and 12 as movies. Then the swarm wars could have been 13, 14, 15. Some other stories happen along the way. I am not dogmatic, but let’s just PRETEND that this book here is ROUGHLY “Episode 16” of an alternate timeline which tasked place 35 years after episode 6, The Return of the Jedi. (ah, make-believe is fun) Since this arc is 9 books long, it’s a “Trilogy of Trilogies.” And yes, I’m CERTAIN that other episodes and stories are worthy of being included, thus rendering my conclusion and episode numbering system heavily flawed. But if you want to know you should read the books, not my reviews. In theory, this arc encapsulates episode 16-24. seriously, what was Disney thinking making the tale of Rey and not THESE?! (Love Daisy Ridley and team though.)

Jacen Solo is 30-ish years old and has a twin sister, Jaina. Both are Jedi knights. They are the children of Han and Leia Organa Solo. Their uncle Luke Skywalker is “Grand Master” of the New Jedi Order. The New Jedi Order is willingly subservient to the new “Galactic Alliance” (referred to as the G.A.), which is a merging of the republic with the last remnants of Emporer Palpatine's empire. Yes. I know. It’s crazy. Also of note, Luke is married to Mara Jade Skywalker.

Jacen (pronounced “Jason”, fight me) is accompanied by his padawan learner Ben Skywalker, Luke Skywalker’s 13-year-old son.

Corellia is Han Solo’s home planet. He is “technically” a retired war veteran and former smuggler who is married to a Jedi Knight who is sworn to uphold the laws of the Galactic Alliance. Corellia has a single central government that manages all 5 planets in its solar system, with Corellia proper being the primary seat of power. Corellian’s populace, like Han’s nature as a Corellian, are inherently independent. As a member of the G.A., they receive certain benefits and are expected to contribute to the G.A. as well. In exchange for doing certain things that benefit the G.A. and its member worlds, Corellia receives protection from outside threats via the G.A. military. But Corellia has been speaking out of both sides of its mouth and are building an army to prepare for a potential conflict in which they will seek to separate from that alliance... This is because they don’t want to lose the benefits of membership. Think Brexit, except with spaceships. And this was written in 2006. So Corellia would be like a stand-in for modern-day Britain wanting to break from the E.U. (in this case the G.A.).

I know this review is marked spoilers, but I will not say more than that. There is a thrilling battle in Act 1, all the characters are introduced, etc. In a transition chapter, the leaders of the G.A. and Corellia seek peace. Then there is a murder mystery and an investigation (I will not name name’s of who did what or when or where. It was a surprise to me what happened. I think all who read will enjoy that they make a brief shift in the genre here).

Act 2 becomes a mission to seek new information and solve the mystery as well as an “inching forward” of conflicts that are not yet resolved between Corellia and the combined military might of the G.A.

Act 3 culminates in a big reveal (dang I’m trying to say as little as possible) but suffice to say it has something to do with the title of this book. “Betrayal.” It also ends with Han and Leia getting directly involved in things they really should be avoiding.

The story cuts back and forth within the same chapter between vast distances. There are B plots and C plots and even D plots. There is a plot for Jacen and Ben, a side plot for Luke and Mara, a plot for Jaina, a plot for Wedge and Han, and a few other subplots, and they all weave among each other. It feels like the author was structuring it as if it were a movie. When one of the plots overstays its welcome or when a character starts doing something boring, we cut to someone else doing something more interesting.

It seems the theme is about the creeping compromise that one takes to slowly lead them to “betraying” someone or something they would have otherwise have protected. Jacen, throughout this 439-page tome, is presented with a sequence of ethical issues one after the next. His decisions slowly will reveal what he is truly like on the inside.

Honestly... did I enjoy it? Yes. But is it GOOD? Kinda.
I don’t come to Star Wars for Shakespeare or deep thought. Jacen is particularly unintelligent and prone to the justification of his actions, and Luke is an enabling boss and negligent father. Ben gets a pass at being naive as he’s a 13-year-old kid, and I know he is trusting of his master, so doesn’t question what’s going on much. But don’t these people have the Force? Well, first of all, the Force is presented differently in the books then it is in the movies, so go into this book (or all Star Wars books) expecting that. People complained about Rey having new force powers in episode 9, but that’s nothing new to these novels.

This entire book’s story would have fallen apart if, at any point, Luke had found out what Jacen had been up too. While the book mentions “private briefings and debriefings” behind closed doors, we never hear them because if the author had to write them, then the characters might have been put into a position where the reader thinks “why isn’t this character telling Luke about this horrible thing they did?!!”

In my humble opinion, they didn’t go about writing Jacen's story with intelligence. Jacen’s motivations and reasoning are lazy and poorly thought out. His philosophy doesn’t add up to the conclusions he reaches without completely throwing away REASONING POWERS. This is probably by design, showing that Jacen has been trained to focus on the wrong things. But if that’s the case, his training was STOOPID.

This also means the villain doesn’t need to be particularly smart. When your protagonist is a dummy, your antagonist doesn’t need big brains to trick them. If this WERE a movie, I would be screaming at the movie screen “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” on multiple occasions where Jacen is concerned.

Meanwhile, Luke is a guy who isn’t very good at his job. Jacen is an idiot whom Luke is 100% responsible for. While Jacen is botching up hostage negotiations and letting people blow themselves up, literally no one thinks, “Gee, maybe Master Skywalker should know this?” No. I’m sure someone would have informed Luke about the activities of his Jedi and what they were up to. It’s utterly STOOPID that he isn’t keeping a watchful, fatherly eye over the very person he is letting EDUCATE HIS SON! This arc is literally called “Legacy of the Force,” and Luke would have known that his “legacy” needs to be carefully trained.

Since Luke does NOT seem to be finding out what is happening, that means either no one is telling him OR he doesn’t care. Which is also STOOPID. Mara is smart-smart-smart, though. I will leave it at that.

Han and Leia get to flex their spy chops, and their motivations and actions seem to be MUCH more intelligent and carefully crafted. All the other side characters grabbed my interest. In particular, there is a family dinner at Han and Leia’s house in or around chapter 4. Han is overwhelmed and surrounded on ALL SIDES by Jedi, all of them being his direct family.

The novel tells a story of political intrigue, a murder mystery that leads the investigators into questionable territory, and a member of the G.A. about to split off into a potential mini-civil war. But it serves the purpose of prepping us for what feels like a massive epic that obviously will span 8 more books. Does it successfully achieve this goal? Yes and no.

Yes, it invests you in likable characters (Jaina and Zekk are personal favorites), and it makes you care about them. But it has many of the same issues that some of the movies have. I get a feeling the author gave it all the effort they could like they care about these characters. I just kinda wish they had thought about what their characters were thinking, and worked their way backward to be sure what their characters believed was coherent to a reasonable state.

I’m not expecting “Mein Kampf” levels of commitment to beliefs. Characters of both light and dark sides of the Force often present thought-provoking arguments for their actions. Despite this, they justify evil and conclusions they are drawn to that come off as lazy and OVERLY unrealistic. More unrealistic than even a Star Wars novel should contain.

So do I recommend Star Wars: Betrayal?

Sure. I enjoyed it because I did not expect a smart story. I wanted one but didn’t expect it. But I did find it a FUN story. There was excitement and drama and moments where I was concerned for characters that I liked. Things were clear, and it was easy to understand what was happening if you paid attention.

But will I read it twice? Nope. I don’t want to listen to Jacen being a dummy anymore than I have too.

I close this review with a single direct quote, which any true Star Wars fan should enjoy.


“Han shot first.”

— Betrayal: Star Wars Legends (Legacy of the Force) (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force Book 1). page 231. by Aaron Allston
http://a.co/iw897Qu

[Russell Nicoletti · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I’ll try to make this completely spoiler free. First off I have to preface I’m not a massive Star Wars fan so I can understand this influences my review. I was recommended this book by a friend for I have seen the movies and there are many elements I do enjoy from the series. The idea of learning about characters and plots outside of the movies was interesting to me and focusing on younger characters and seeing their character growth is always intriguing. I must say though this book to me has two halves. The portions of the story involving action and adventure are incredible. They keep you engaged wanting to understand the full scope of the conflicts. The other half to that coin though is the political aspects of the story. I know Star Wars has so many elements of politics and how governments operate to its core but being stuck reading several clusters of pages of just meetings and people talking was very slow and boring. There were several times I felt this may be my first DNF but I pushed through and I’m happy I did. The character growth of some of the main characters was worth the journey. With all that said I am going to continue the series. The strengths did outweigh the weaknesses for my desire to continue but it doesn’t detract from the struggles it took to get to the end of the journey. This is the justification for my 2 stars; worth the read but potentially painful to get through

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking some big swings with Vergere (NJO) and Lumiya (deep pull from OG Marvel comics). Seems like a grey area approach, which keeps the Jedi v Sith storyline fresh. I kind of liked how Jacen tied up loose ends and takes some big steps toward being Sith. The philosophy being clear cut different than Palpatine’s greed and power driven one, and the idea Vader was too much machine vs organic and couldn’t do all aspects of force mastery is also neat.

I’m interested enough in the idea that they are practicing a grey form of force study that I’ll keep reading the series.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a trip down memory lane! I don’t feel very sophisticated reading it when I have history and psychology books on my shelf, but my 6th grade self loved these stories and it’s nostalgic to enjoy them again. 4 stars for a Star Wars book is a different rating than 4 stars for something more literary, but I’m going to be generous!

[Joshua Riding · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Star Wars novel, and I’m coming into these books (my family left me with a TON of them to thumb through) having really only watched the movies and some of the shows. Honestly, I gotta agree with those people who complained about Disney throwing out the Extended Universe when they got ahold of the Star Wars IP. This stuff is cool to read, with a lot of just the premise alone drawing me in really well.

A lot of the things that people complained about not happening with the newer movies concerning the OT characters actually happened with these books, and it was far more fascinating than the movies. Not to mention the plot of this first book also just being a good Science Fiction/Fantasy plot of intrigue and action and betrayal (heh).

Definitely going to be continuing in this series, and I’d actually recommend these books to most every Star Wars fan, even the ones that did like the direction Disney went with the Original Trilogy characters; and especially the ones that didn’t. If you want a fun and interesting sci-fi read, pick this one up.

[Melenia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audiobook: DNF @ 2%

[Ben Briles · Rating 5 out of 5]

:(

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

*abridged since that was the only audiobook version available 😒

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are times when the end justifies the means. But when you build an argument based on a whole series of such times, you may find that you've constructed an entire philosophy of evil.

3.5 stars, really, but I'll round it up to four for its intriguing premise and Tycho Celchu

Legacy of the Force: Betrayal is an interesting case. Years ago, this was actually the very first EU novel I read, and I remember teenaged me loving my time with it... Well, Jacen Solo's half, that is. The elder Solo son's tragic descent into evil, that's where my attention lied. Everything pertaining to Wedge Antilles and Corellia meanwhile served only to confuse, as I was frankly disinterested in whatever this movie extra and his government were up to. Now that I have worked my way through Aaron Allston's excellent previous Star Wars works, as well as Del Rey's premier multi-book cycle that was the New Jedi Order series, however, my opinions seem to have switched: this novel is a fun and engaging military Star Wars story and a great set-up for a bigger conflict to come, but does a poor job with furthering the "arc" of Jacen Solo!


Following in the Dark Nest trilogy's footsteps, this novel is fundamentally concerned with detached utilitarianism and the consequences thereof, and nowhere is this more clear than with Jacen Solo's story. Just to get it off my chest once more: Jacen subscribing to end-justifies-the-means philosophy is antithetical to his development in the New Jedi Order series, indeed represents a misreading of said novel cycle, and should be viewed as ultimately irreconcilable with the Expanded Universe's goal of providing a cohesive setting. Still, the "Jacen Solo" Troy Denning conjured up in DN was a compelling figure on his own, and Allston picks up that thread and arguably manages to do him one better. Part of that has got to do with narrative focus: The Solo boy somehow managed to elude playing a decisive role in each of the previous trilogy's three final acts (much to the thematic detriment therein...) but LOTF 1, though removing him from the larger political conflict to a certain extent, never truly falls into that trap. Whatever gripes I may have with his development herein, there is no doubt that Allston made a clear attempt at furthering his character. Jacen's maxim informs his every action, he is challenged on his approach to life multiple times, and it is ultimately his cynical rationalism paired with an honest attempt to save the galaxy (and more precisely Luke Skywalker) which leads to his fall. The best scene in Jacen's plot features him try and navigate an impossible hostage situation by doing the only "logical" thing: blow up the hostage taker as well as the one hostage in his immediate vicinity so as to prevent any further lives from being taken. Reprehensible? Yes, but internally consistent and chilling in Jacen's belief that his action served the "greater good". As I said, I will always grieve for the sage-like Jacen we lost after New Jedi Order, but at least what we got in return is interesting on its own.

The disconnect I felt from my previous experience, then, comes from just how gullible Jacen Solo is portrayed as being leading up to his fall. This is where the character's depth falters a bit: While I maintain that the "impossible" hostage situation was well realized, and that Jacen coldly rationalizing the necessary murder of poor, innocent fellow Jedi Nelani Dinn so as to "save the future" (as revealed to him via visions of the future) works great in theory too, the execution is just a bit too convenient. We are reintroduced to the Dark Lady Lumiya, an antagonist from the old Marvel comics with a special connection to Luke Skywalker, and it is through her manipulation that Jacen starts reconsidering his view of the Sith: I mean, what if there was a way for someone to approach the Force from all its facets, necessarily becoming Sith in the process, but all the while maintaining being a good person? Again, just in theory, this works well with Jacen's character. But if he truly is as rational in his decision making as he is said to be, then why does he fall for every obvious lie Lumiya throws in his way? Anyone could tell him that Lumiya's flimsy explanations for her behavior on Toryaz Station are flimsily constructed balderdash, and I am not even going to entertain the narrative of "Oh, Darth Vader could never have been a 'True Sith Lord' as a half-cyborg". We have truly gone full circle with Jacen's characterization here, now he's become just as gullible as he was back in the first half of the New Jedi Order, blindly following Force visions out of pure naivity. I guess there's my NJO connection. He could have at least attempted to probe the Dark Lady's mind like he did Ta'a Chume's back in Dark Nest. It's as if Jacen wanted to become Sith, to just have an excuse to delve deeper into his study of the Force. What a regression.

My second big complaint with Jacen's storyline has to do with the infamous Vergere retcon. Oh boy. Long story short, Vergere was Jacen's mentor during the second half of the New Jedi Order series, a Jedi of the Old Republic who taught him during his Yuuzhan Vong captivity and ultimately helped with ending the war in a non-genocidal way. Since then, she has counter-textually been made out to be the reason for the Jedi's adoption of utilitarianist thought, and it is in this novel that Lumiya "reveals" to Jacen that Vergere was a Sith this entire time, retconning her actions and motives to fit the narrative and give Jacen Solo's fall more ethos. First, I need to bring up the possibility of Lumiya's tale here being a lie meant to further her narrative of benevolent Sith Lords. Indeed, within the parameters of this story alone, this could be true: Lumiya's entire plan to lure Jacen is built on lies and deception, and it is highly possible that her other example of a good Sith, Darth Vectivus, is an extremely elaborate invention of hers as well - thus strengthening her narrative role as a trickster and giving more layers to her plans (indubitably motivated by revenge against Luke Skywalker) while also playing into Jacen's hyper-analytical approach to decision-making. However, this idea falls apart when you just look at the NJO more closely: Vergere's every action in the second half of NJO 14: Destiny's Way relates to stopping the Galactic Alliance from ending the war through utter annihilation of the Yuuzhan Vong species by way of biological warfare, Vergere even sacrificing her life in the process. Allston does address her sacrifice, making it out to be some weird "passing the Sith torch" moment to Jacen, but that is complete nonsense as self-sacrifice has always been a Jedi trait and Vergere even appears to her pupil as a Force ghost shortly thereafter. Unless Jacen's gullibility has truly hit the proverbial rock bottom, then, I cannot see any way in which Sith Vergere can exist as a plot point unless the authors believed in it themselves. What we are thus left with is a deliberate retconning of one of the setting's richest characters just to make way for the next big storyline, not unlike what The Joiner King did previously, and without any regard for the stories that are thus irrevocably cheapened. This is just a sad development. As I said previously, Betrayal is a solid novel in of itself, but it's a shame these authors have given up what made the Expanded Universe special to begin with just to allow these new stories to happen.

...and it's not like this book is a perfect fit with Dark Nest, either! Jag Fel is presumably still stuck on Tenupe, while Tenel Ka is alluded to just once whereas her and Jacen's daughter Allana - one of the Jacen's previous main motivations - is not even mentioned; furthermore, a certain Jedi trio's trip to Dagobah is completely glossed over, as is Leia's Jedi Training with Saba Sebatyne. I can't fault Allston too much for this, to be fair: It is ultimately Troy Denning's fault that the last story did not bring half its loose ends to a close. Further, the fact that Luke Skywalker suddenly feels like himself again instead of being the Jedi Dictator can only be a plus for my case. But it's really surprising just how many continuity flubs there are post-New Jedi Order; it's as if the editorial team stopped caring by this point in Star Wars publishing (which is felt in the prose, as well... Allston gets a bit too much mileage out of the phrase "Jacen grinned" in here...).

This might have seemed like a lot of negativity once more, but I do genuinely believe that the other half of this book is excellent: the rising conflict between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia, incited over what is essentially "states' rights". There are some eyebrow raiser in here - Han Solo becoming a Corellian nationalist just in time for the SkySolos to undergo some familial strife is a narrative convenience par excellence, and the GA and Jedi trying to TAKE THE PRIME MINISTER HOSTAGE before commencing negotiations is possibly the most callous thing those institutions have ever attempted. Perhaps Luke's malevolence did not vanish but rather get absorbed by the people around him. All of that aside, I cannot deny just how much potential this conflict has as a storyline. It reminds me of the Prequels, in a sense: the old and corrupt "supra-planetal" organization falling apart in a tug of war for power, the seceding powers led by a malevolent spirit - in this case the hilariously (and also inexplicably...) returning Thrackan Sal-Solo. What makes the GA-Corellia conflict immediately more interesting, however, is that this time there is actually reason for the audience to have sympathies for both sides. Episode III's "There are heroes on both sides" line was nonsense within its own context, but unlike the Confederacy of old, this up-and-coming Corellia system-led Confederacy has sympathetic elements within it. Chief among them are its Prime Minister(s), who themselves seem to be dragged down by influential elements within their order such as the aforementioned war hawk Sal-Solo. Another thing I admire is how the idiosyncratic choices of smaller fries such as admiral Klauskin are portrayed as having wide-reaching effects, thus finally humanizing Star Wars warfare again. Allston was always great at giving even the most ancillary of side characters a bit of humanity. Finally, I want to give another mention to Centerpoint Station's role in the story. What I like about this is not just the idea of taking this old 90s Star Wars concept and making it the crux of this new story - I always loved Centerpoint's paradoxically ancient high tech allure - but also how it makes this new conflict spring out of the EU naturally. Of course Corellia would use this incredible asset to their advantage. That's one way in which this new series does properly follow in the footsteps New Jedi Order: we have this incredibly rich setting made up of multiple different older stories, so why not bring them together for a strong new narrative? I can't wait to see how this story progresses.

Speaking of things I did not quite appreciate on my first read: Aaron Allston hijinx! Indeed, in spite of the book's focus on gray areas in morality, a good chunk of it still consists of blatantly fun, escapist Star Wars adventuring. The fandom's favorite everyman, Wedge Antilles, is forced out of retirement, imprisoned, and reinstated into the military all while playing retro video games, escaping from captivity, and doing some investigative work. It's good to have some standard pulpy Star Wars fare back, especially when it's embellished by a constant stream of hilarity as well as some genuine emotional beats - perhaps my favorite scene in this book is Wedge and a returning Tycho Celchu, best friends for life but not serving two opposed militaries, just sit down and reflect on life while viewing the gleaming stars above.

Thankfully, this adventurous energy also extends to some new and young cast members as well, including Wedge's own daughter Syal Antilles - perhaps the breakout star of Betrayal? - as well as multiple younger Jedi, most notably Ben Skywalker. Now Ben's an interesting case: brash and perhaps a bit reckless like Anakin Solo, curious like Jacen, and giddily excitable like Jaina - at the beginning of New Jedi Order. In spite of all of that, though, he does come out of the story as his own character in the end, and seems poised to stand up as Jacen's main foil in this 9-book-cycle. That is one part Dark Nest was missing: barring the still absent Nek Bwua'tu, that series simply lacked anything in the wake of promising new stars to inhabit the new post-Yuuzhan Vong War setting. Betrayal, thankfully, sows the seeds for a new generation to liven up this progressively older setting, and I'm very grateful for that.


This was an insightful reread - I came to see a lot more holes in my previously favorite plotline while getting quite invested in everything else. Overall, I view this book in much the same light as The Joiner King: Very solid Star Wars novel and downright interesting on its own, but with poor continuity and baffling character choices. Between the two I definitely prefer Betrayal, simply because the characters are far more likable and having silly Wedge Antilles adventures is a commodity in the "gloomy" mid-00s of Star Wars publishing. Now, let's see how this series develops in the hands of its second author, Karen Traviss.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot:
Betrayal takes place forty years after A New Hope and shortly after the Yuuzhan Vong War. The galaxy is on the brink of a total civil war due to the fact that Corellia and other worlds don’t want to follow the Galactic Alliance’s rules. There is tension building between Corellia and the GA (Galactic Alliance). This causes the Alliance to prematurely attack the Corellian military, which I don’t entirely agree with. I can see why the Galactic Alliance attacked, but I think that the attack would only make the Corellians more upset with the government. The attack is mostly successful, but it did not do it without its downsides. As a result the two sides went to a conference to discuss the matter. While they were there, there was an attack that resulted in deaths on both sides. Both sides blame the other side, so it deepened the rift. Jedi went to investigate the attack and found something that is even worse than you could imagine. In the end Corellia fought back against the GA and emerged victorious. I believe that depending on who you ask, the result was different because to some people it took on a deep personal role.
Characterization:
The main influential characters in Betrayal are as follows: Han Solo (Corellian, married to Leia Organa Solo), Leia Organa Solo (Jedi, Han’s wife, Luke Skywalker’s sister), Jacen Solo (Jedi, son of Han and Leia), Jaina Solo (Jedi, daughter of Han and Leia), Luke Skywalker (Jedi Grand Master, married to Mara Jade Skywalker, Leia’s brother), Mara Jade Skywalker (Jedi Master, Luke’s wife), Ben Skywalker (Jedi, son of Luke and Mara, Jacen’s Padawan), Wedge Antilles (Corellian, retired war hero for the GA, current military advisor for Corellia). The Corellians, Han and Wedge, have great citizenship toward their world, so they are siding with Corellia in the not quite war. Leia is siding with Han because she was committed to him before she became a Jedi. Luke, Mara, Jaina, Jacen, and Ben are sided with the Galactic Alliance because they are Jedi and so are sworn to protect the Galactic Alliance.
Audience:
This book would attract the attention of science-fiction fans, boys and girls alike because there are aliens, futuristic ideas, and time/space travel. People who enj0y Star Wars would love this book because it continues their favorite story with their favorite characters. However if you don’t like violence you should not read this book as it is based around war. This book is a difficult read, so only read it if you are at a high school reading level. I would also recommend that you have a great deal of background knowledge about the events in the Star Wars universe leading up to this point. There is a lot of reference about those events.
Personal Response:
I gave this book a 5 out of 5 stars because I enjoy the Star Wars universe and all it has to offer. I enjoy the different scenarios each of the characters get into and how it seems they all come together in the end. You can learn a lot about character and yourself reading these books. There is also action mixed in with personal conflict, so it gives you all four levels of conflict: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. society, and man vs. self. Overall I find this very informative and exciting.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm writing this review immediately following my second read of this book, the first being in the late 00s upon original release. I felt compelled to do so as with the benefit of hindsight, and dare I say wisdom, this book (and hopefully the series) has a renewed purpose and interest for Star Wars fans such as I.

Robin of yesteryear, slightly indifferent towards what he'd read of the New Jedi Order series, skipped straight to the Legacy of the Force series as it was new, fresh and current. Jacen Solo's story arc, specifically his descent to the Dark Side of the Force mirrored that of his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, then recently depicted in 2005's Revenge of the Sith. Perhaps the two had a little too much in common. I was vaguely aware of the direction the series was destined to take, having been an avid trawler of forums and such at the time. I was excited for what was to come, but I was somehow underwhelmed when I first read this book, and I can't explain why.

However, fast forward to the winter of 2022, some fifteen years after the original release. The landscape of Star Wars fandom is massively different. Countless novels, games, comics have been rendered as "Legends" tier canon following the Disney acquisition of George Lucas' franchise, including this very title. When The Force Awakens was released in cinemas, I thought the movie franchise might be in good hands, and I was pretty certain upon the release of Rogue One that it was worth sacrificing my beloved "Extended Universe" to see new Star Wars content on the big screen. Unfortunately, everything that followed has made me think otherwise.

This is where Aaron Allston's Legacy of the Force: Betrayal comes in. Where Kylo Ren is flat, uninteresting and bland, Jacen Solo is nuanced, complex and prodigious. Where the new movies' Luke is a batty, frightened old man, the late EU version of Luke is wise, deep and paternal. Without intending for this review to be a bash on Disney's interpretation of the Star Wars franchise, I feel like in 2022 this novel shows me more than ever before what I wanted the new movies to be.

While the book is perhaps a little heavy handed in terms of shoehorning old fan favourite characters in, and perhaps one too many fan favourite Star Wars-isms, the storytelling is solid throughout. There's a great mix of drama, suspense, lightsaber swishing and space battles, so as a result it has a fantastic cinematic quality to it.

Part of me wishes I'd have been able to appreciate this book more as a late teen, but perhaps I needed the 2010s and everything that happened both in the galaxy far, far away and in our own world to occur in order for me to properly enjoy everything it has to offer.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of the Star Wars (now designated Legends) books throughout my life, I had spent much of my youth reading the seemingly unending stream of stories (some better than others) up until about 10 years ago, when, upon completely the Yuuzhan Vong series, chose to step away from Star Wars novels and explore other genres and writers. Now with Episode 7 on the horizon and the de-canonization of the Legends novels, I chose to return to galaxy far far away in something of a farewell tour. I wanted to see what ideas will make it to the films and TV series, what won't, and what will be changed and inverted in unexpected ways.

After Troy Denning's lackluster Dark Nest trilogy, I had little hope for LEGACY OF THE FORCE. I knew the premise, I knew Jacen's fate, having spoiled myself years ago, but even so, Denning's trilogy, while acting as a prelude to this series as well as finally tying in the prequel trilogy into the post-RotJ EU just fell flat.

So, I was quite surprised to see how much I enjoyed the late Aaron Alston's first book in the series. While note everything necessarily works -- Jacen's turn, while well foreshadowed still seems sudden, and Lumiya, a little know EU character's sudden appearance and large role left even me, who has a encyclopedic knowledge of the Star Wars universe, confused.

With that said, I throughly enjoyed this novel both as a fan and as a writer.

As an author of licensed material myself, I can understand the thin line an author walks when working with characters that are not only beloved but have a complex history that has existed oftentimes long before you had the chance to put pen to paper.

The biggest thing about most licensed media is the author's inability to make drastic change, and while I've been afforded this luxury in Green Lama novels, for the longest time many of the characters in the Star Wars universe were forced to live an ultimately "safe" world. Luke/Han/Leia would always survive, so would their friends and family. It made the novels feel unimportant, because, really, what's the point of them if at the end of the day the heroes win and nothing was really at stake?

While we did see the deaths of Chewie -- who has more of presence in the movies than he ever did in the novels -- and Anakin Solo -- who had potential but suffered from be the literal third wheel of the Solo children --in the Vong series, the dark turn of Jacen Solo is, for me, a welcome turn of events. It makes the world dangerous while at the same time paralleling Darth Vader's own fall in a way that makes this book more relevant.

I don't know what the rest of the series holds in store, but I'm happy to take the ride, this one last time.

[TheBookHunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Betrayal!

I am happy to begin this series and the first book was very exciting.

Summary:
Legacy of the Force: Betrayal is the story of Jacen Solo, the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia, and the beginning of his journey towards the Dark Side of the Force.

Years following the devastating Yuuzahn-Vong War, the galaxy once again is in a state of turmoil. The Galactic Alliance is dealing with a planetary uprising that could come to full-scale conflict and everyone, including the Skywalker and Solo families are caught in the middle.

Jacen, a hero and Jedi Knight, along with his apprentice and cousin Ben Skywalker, the son of Luke and Mara Jade-Skywalker are dispatched on a mission that ultimately leads them to encounter a Dark Side-adept who manages to seduce entice Jacen with what he desires: A way to bring peace and order to a rapidly destabilizing galaxy.

But at the potential cost of betraying his friends and family in pursuit of this goal and tarnishing his reputation.

Thoughts:

This book was pretty fun with some good political upheaval and intrigue elements, and by the end, Jacen Solo honestly solidified himself as one of my favorite characters. A character that knows the risks of what could happen if he crosses the threshold that his own Grandfather, Anakin Skywalker crossed. Ive already liked his character before from the Young Jedi Knights series and of course the New Jedi Order books, so over the span of many novels we've seen his character evolve, but here he shines as almost an anti-hero, and I can't wait to read through the rest of the series to see him fulfill his destiny.

Underappreciated character in this book who's also my second favorite is Ben Skywalker. He's a smart mouth kid, has much to learn, but he's quick on his wits, can't wait to read more of him! He and Jacen make a great team.

A little frustration I had was this book were Han Solo and Princess Leia going a little out of character, Han especially, being a grumpy old man, who honestly has his head lodged in his a$$ most of the book, but you can sort of move past it toward the end.

Final Thoughts:

If you're like me and are okay with or without reading the lengthy New Jedi Order series, go ahead and pick this up! It's a fun introduction to an epic series with great characters, I'm currently on Book #2 Bloodlines.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit, I'm new to reading the Star Wars EU. I've read different books all across the spectrum of timelines from Old Republic to New Jedi Order, and this is the series that most people have wanted me to pick up (after Heir to the Empire). Overall it was pretty enjoyable.

The plot was interesting and well paced in my opinion, and I was never lost or bored by any of the more politically based story lines. I like the idea of the characters we love being at odds with each other, even if it ultimately doesn't last, and there was a lot of fun to be had in the war on/with Corellia.

I know the basic plot of this series so I know what to expect, I've had most of the major plot arcs spoiled for me and I'm not sure if this will affect my enjoyment down the line. I speak mostly of Jacen and Ben's storyline of course, and I found the beginning of their arc to be pretty enjoyable. It had a relatively interesting mystery and an OK ending. their trip to the Dark Side planet (moon? asteroid?) was interesting and their fights were well done. The only thing that annoyed me was the quickness that Jacen shifted from sympathetic to "WHAT THE HELL, MAN!?" It didn't seem to take Lumiya very long to win him over to her side.

"hey man, the Sith are the cool ones....they can feel emotions and stuff. It's just a different way of doing the same thing, ect ect."

....

"Hmmm...Sounds good to me, I'm going to kill my friend Nelani now because she's HEARD TOO MUCH."

I just felt like the argument wasn't presented well and Jacen's sudden turn and flat-out murder of his random friend was really sudden and weird.

Overall I really liked the book and plan on continuing with the story.Some of the callbacks were horrifying and awkward, example: "Tycho asked, "Is Han-" "He's fine," Leia said. "Han shot first." OUCH, FAIL.

I was surprised however to reach the end of the book on my Kindle at only 60% done or something. Then, there are two or three random Darth Vader stories tacked on to the end. Was it always included at the end or is it a new thing? It just seemed weird is all.

[Zombie_Phreak · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't too bad overall, but it was a disappointment when compared to Aaron Allston's previous work in the Star Wars universe. The last Star Wars book that I am aware of that he wrote was "X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar." Betrayal was written 7 years later and it really shows that Aaron should stick to writing for Rogue Squadron and leave the main characters of the Star Wars universe to other writers.

The appearances of Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu were the true highlights of this book for me as Allston knows these characters intimately and no one can write them as well as he can. However when you look at his portrayal of Han, Luke, Leia and Mara, it's pathetic. Han reads like a spoiled child who wants everything his way, Leia reads like the woman in an abusive relationship who shuts up and agrees with everything her husband says, while Luke reads like a character who is trying waaay too hard to be mysterious and enigmatic. While Mara is just kinda standing there in the background.

The space battles are really well written, just like the old X-Wing novels that Aaron Allston used to write about Rogue and Wraith Squadron. His knowledge of Star Wars vehicles and ships are just as good now as they ever were and they made the rest of the book worth it.

The two worst characters in this book are Ben Skywalker and Jacen Solo. Ben is able to convince an AI supercomputer to go against it's primary programing and basically destroy itself by exchanging a few pages of dialogue about right and wrong. Somehow I thought a super-computer/AI would be smarter than that.

Then later on Jacen is convinced to join the Sith with the following arguement:

Jacen: I'll never join the Sith!
Sith Woman: You have to.
Jacen: Why?
Sith Woman: Cuz if you don't, the Sith knowledge will be lost forever!
Jacen: ... okay!
Sith Woman: Oh, and kill your friend who you've known for the last 10 years.
Jacen: Okay *kills his friend*

However at the end of the book there are two short stories written by Karen Traviss, one of the best Star Wars writers I've seen in a long time.

So it wasn't horrible, but I think Aaron Allston should go back to writing for Rogue Squadron instead of writing for this new batch of Star Wars novels.

[Gus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very good. The main characters are all from the original movies which is very cool. The setting takes place in the galaxy after the Yuuzhan Vong war. The galaxy is starting to rebuild the Galactic Alliance and each other's home planets. Corellia has been very independent as a planetary system and is starting to show signs of wanting to leave the Galactic Alliance and invade other systems with a secret fleet. They are also rebuilding the galaxy's most dangerous weapon, Centerpoint Station. The Galactic leader, Cal Omas, has called on the help of Jacen Solo and his cousin/apprentice Ben Skywalker. Together they must infiltrate Centerpoint Station and destroy it before Corellia uses it to leave the Galactic Alliance. While this is happening, Leia and Han are caught in the middle of a political game between the Galactic Alliance and the Prime Minister of Corellia, Thrackan Sal-Solo, Han's cousin. When there is a meeting at a neutral site to discuss Corellia's position in the Galactic Alliance, an assassination causes mass chaos. Jacen and Ben go to discover and meet Shira Brie, also known as Lumiya. Lumiya is a sith and is also an enemy of Luke, Ben's father. Lumiya plants a seed of dark thought into Jacen that is slowly leading him to be her apprentice and the next Sith Lord.

This book is very clear when it comes to showing Jacen's character change throughout the story. At the beginning Jacen is very brave and selfless towards his use of the force. He also shows a huge understanding of the way the force works. After his meeting with Lumiya he sees the force as a tool for his rising to power. His views become very misshapen and this troubles Luke.

This book is a very good successor to the Star Wars franchise. Any Star Wars fan would love this book because it picks off right where the main characters left off. This book is geared towards both genders at the age of middle school or higher. If you aren't familiar with the Star Wars series then I don't recommend this book for you.