Opalescence

I’ve heard about how good the series of X-Wing novels are among the Star Wars novels.  Written mostly by Michael Stackpole, they’ve garnered a lot of praise and attention among fans of Expanded Universe material, lagging in popularity only behind Timothy Zahn’s holy trilogy, Heir to the Empire.  I’ve read the first X-Wing novel, long ago, and while it was very entertaining, I don’t think I had the patience to really figure out the starfighter dogfights and how they were written, so I’m sure a lot was lost on me at the time.  I decided not to continue reading the series.

About ten years later, a friend of mine lends me Starfighters of Adumar, and says it’s one of the funniest and most entertaining books in the entire Star Wars line.  Impressed that the X-Wing series made it to nine books (and likely more after that), I decided to give this piece by Aaron Allston a crack.

To say I was impressed would be quite an understatement.  Not only was the story well-written, exciting, and chock full of humor (mostly embodied in the character of Wes Janson, to whom most Firefly fans will quickly compare that show’s pilot character, Wash), but it really went a long way towards renewing my enthusiasm for looking at further X-Wing novels in the future.  Aaron Allston has a knack for characterization, and also proves deft in writing a good action piece with bits of political intrigue, plotting, and even a little romance.

Wedge Antilles, former leader of Rogue Squadron, is now a general in the New Republic military.  After a mutual and amiable breakup with his long-time on-and-off girlfriend Qwi Xux, decides he needs to take a break from his duties and figure out what to do with his life.  He is instead sent on a diplomatic mission to a far-off, backwater planet called Adumar, whose people worship fighter pilots and whose torpedo production capabilities would make them a potentially invaluable ally… or a dangerous foe, were they to side with the remnants of the Empire.  Untrained in diplomacy and cursing his superior’s indifference to his needs, he nonetheless agrees to the assignment, and takes his three best pilots, Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson, and Derek "Hobbie" Klivvian to Adumar with him.

Upon arrival, Wedge figures out that things are not always what they appear to be.  While he and his men are afforded heroes’ welcomes by the native Adumari, he finds that they are also courting representatives from the Imperial Remnant at the same time.  Also, the internal  social, political, and economic landscape of Adumar makes its potential for joining the New Republic as one world a tricky maneuver at best, one about which Wedge is not very optimistic.  Add to this an encounter with a former friend and lover; assassination attempts; Janson’s love for the natives’ clothes and weaponry; a formidable young Adumari aide whose attraction to Wedge is obvious; and a rogue New Republic Intelligence operative whose real motives clash with Wedge’s, and the stage is set for an entertaining, intriguing, and fulfilling tale.

And all that praise comes before you factor in the starfighter sequences.  Allston writes as fluidly as these kinds of fast-paced scenes require, and by virtue of that (and hopefully my ability to  now comprehend a little more), these scenes are hard to put down.  Wedge has really matured as a pilot and as a commander, and he really gets a chance to shine near the end of the book, leading a fighter assault against an enemy with not only greater numbers, but better equipment.  His skills as a leader are key to the offensive, and really show why he is a fan favorite.

Many other characters get their chances to shine in this book, Wes Janson in particular.  With his sophomoric sense of humor and impulsive wit, he really does a good job of lending levity to what would otherwise be a pretty grim group of pilots.  In one memorable scene, he interrupts a court game, insults an Adumari noble, and challenges him to a duel, mocking him all the while.  It’s schoolboy humor at its best, and you can’t help but love this character.  Also of note are Tomer Darpen, the diplomatic aide and former fighter pilot whose motives are soon seen to be less than noble and often at cross purposes with Wedge and his men; Hallis Saper, the mission documentarian whose often peculiar appearance belies a cunning information gatherer; and Iella Wessiri, an Intelligence operative with connections to Wedge’s past, and possibly his future.

Overall, this book is a wonderful read, and I highly recommend it to Star Wars fans as well as those who enjoy action, humor and fun in their science fiction.  If nothing else, you have swords that shoot your opponents upon making contact, adoring fans who like to demonstrate their enthusiasm by killing their idols, and X-Wing pilots wearing women’s clothing at one point to avoid detection by the masses.

With all that said, what can there possibly be not to like?

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I’ve been a fan of the Star Wars novels since the early-mid 90s, when Timothy Zahn put ink to paper and turned out the classic Heir to the Empire trilogy.  While I recall a general dearth of reading activity at this time–I was in high school, and the required reading I had to do gave me an aversion to reading in general–this seems to be the exception, along with some other escapist fiction like Star Trek and Dune.  And The Hobbit.  Anyways…

I continued to read as many of these books as I could when they came out, and quickly learned that in  the Star Wars paradigm, as with all others, there were books I really liked (like the Jedi Academy trilogy, Rogue Squadron series, and The Courtship of Princess Leia) and there were books I was not so fond of (Children of the Jedi, Vector Prime, the Corellian trilogy).  By the time I finished undergrad, I was a bit burnt out on them, and hadn’t really picked one up and read it until now. 

It feels good to be back.

Set after the end of the New Jedi Order novels (most of which I haven’t yet read), the story involves several of the Young Jedi Knights answering a call only they can hear and abandoning their duties during the reconstruction of the galaxy in the aftermath a war.  They depart for the Unknown Regions, and soon after a government of aliens known as the Chiss demands to know from the Galactic Alliance why these Jedi are interfering in their affairs. 

Unable to explain why their Jedi have suddenly gone rogue, Luke, Mara, Han and Leia decide to go after them.  They find a colony of insectoid aliens along the borders of Chiss space; the Young Jedi Knights, who have strangely started to exhibit a shared consciousness with the insects and refuse to abandon them; and the Unu, a former Jedi, now the colony leader, whose radically altered persona and enhanced powers seem an advanced state of what is beginning to happen to Jaina and the other Young Jedi Knights. 

It seems the Chiss have been starving the border colonies, and the rogue Jedi have been thwarting their latest attempts.  Unable to understand why the Chiss would do this, Luke and company are torn between solving the mystery and pulling the Young Jedi Knights back into Alliance territory, where they can hopefully be saved from the shared mind.  Add to these the complications of yet another nest of insects attacking them–one to which the Unu and his colony are mysteriously blind–and the increasing willfulness of the Young Jedi Knights, and it becomes clear that this is a story that is both complex and exciting.

This is definitely one of the better Star Wars books I can remember reading: the pacing is good, the characters are engaging, and the plot, though sometimes a little convoluted, is nonetheless interesting and understandable.  Denning obviously knows the characters from both eras, and is not afraid to develop and change them in challenging ways while still keeping true to their basic nature.  There are also flashes of humor, from Han’s distaste of bugs to Mara’s caustic wit, that deliver the occasional laugh without distracting from the overall story.

There are some interesting elements that are obviously developed from the NJO era, such as the New Philosophy the Jedi have with regard to the Force.  I won’t go into details, but it really takes the idea of the Light and Dark sides of the Force and turn it on its ear somewhat.  I find myself wondering how wise this will be in the long term, but for the present it makes for some interesting speculation, and eventually I’m sure, plot and character devices.  Jacen is also becoming an intriguing character,  with his exploration of other cultures and ways of using the Force, though I can still get annoyed with both him and his twin sister Jaina (who at times I wanted to slap in this novel). 

Since this book is the first of the Dark Nest trilogy, I can’t give a full assessment of the overall story.  There is a cliffhanger (of sorts), but, like with many "first" episodes in a trilogy, this one resolves enough to where it can stand on its own.  With that said, I’m also eager to see what happens in the upcoming novels, which is no small compliment to Denning’s storytelling ability.  If his other efforts are this good, I may have to go back and start hunting for the novels I’ve missed.

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