One year after the events of "Darksaber", and the galaxy has quieted down. The only problems the New Republic faces are political, with a rising conflict between the "Rights of Sentients" Party and the "Rationalist" Party.

Leia goes on an unofficial trip to meet a representative of the "Rationalist" Party. She has been sent a secret message telling her not to attend the meeting; instead she includes some unofficial Noghri bodyguards.

Luke is there too - the message is from his lost love, Callista, and he knows she is on the planet...

However, things take a nasty turn. Leia is kidnapped, Luke's fighter shot down - only the droids escape, but for them things go from bad to worse...

By the end of the book, all loose ends have been tied up. The political conspiracy between the Rationalists, the Empire and the Loronar corporation was being manipulated by something FAR worse, and the New Republic is apparently willing to forgo an excessive revenge spree.

Also, a certain female Imperial Admiral pops up in the last couple of chapters, something blatantly tacked on to the end. She has decided to quit the Empire and let the Warlords take over [8 months previously she gassed them all to death, but who's counting?] while she retires to a neutral world. And does Leia insist this war criminal [who used AT-ATs to slaughter a village of unarmed peasants!] be tried an punished? Admittedly, Daala helped Han defeat the forces of evil - but this book's non-interventionist approach is at odds with the X-Wing series, among others. Surely Lucasfilm could have insisted on a certain amount of continuity!

Finally we get an explanation for the disappearance of the Noghri; they were removed due to political pressure and replaced with New Republic troops.

The politics of the New Republic are the most important feature of the book.

• The New Republic cannot interfere in the internal politics of a planet when the majority of the population [brainwashed by a Cult] are isolationists - even when refusing to intervene means a minority will be persecuted. But this is totally at odds with the aggressive interventionism of the "X-Wing" series.
• The NR decides that a race of stupid-yet-sentient creatures called "Bandies" cannot be "enslaved" ... But droids are sentient and sapient, so is it wrong to employ them? What about having a working animal, like a tauntaun or bantha to ride? And how does owning a "slave" differ from having an exclusive contract of employment [no sex, drugs, whatever], such as those the NR no doubt has on its military personnel?
• At one point the Rationalists are described as "petty". Is it petty to want a decent standard of living for oneself and one's family?

In other words, there is hypocrisy where there should be continuity, courtesy of Lucasfilm.

Rating: 75%

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