About book Hero's Trial (Agents Of Chaos, #1) (2000)
Welcome back, Han Solo! We missed you!The Yuuzhan Vong have a new plan to kill the Jedi: send Elan, a priestess of the Deception sect, into their midst as a defector and poison them. Meanwhile, Han Solo finally comes around and starts to come to terms with his grief.NOTE: Based on audiobook and novel.I find myself at odds trying to rate this book. On one hand, when I first read this, I was bored stiff. The language was too heavy, the plot too invisible, the characters too mediocre. On the other hand, the abridgement outdid the actual book (rare praise indeed!) and trimmed away the fat of Luceno's writing and left a pretty darn decent book.Let me stop you now and say this: this review does spoil who died in Vector Prime (which you probably already know by now). So if you haven't heard who died and don't want to know, skip to the last paragraph.The book opens with Harrar, a priest Yuuzhan Vong, debating life, religion, and the Jedi with a Gotal priest. It was really well done scene and definitely made me interested in the rest of the novel. The Gotal struck a nice balance of being independent, yet hopeful of the Jedi.The introduction of the new character, Harrar, also opens the galaxy to religion, something that really hadn't been very prominent before (unless it was them crazy whackos kidnapping Leia's kids or somesuch galactic mischief). The Yuuzhan Vong have a very violent religion, and this is our first peek at it.Then we move to Kashyyyk and Chewie's wake. I loved the ceremony but...why did it take 6 months to get around to his wake? Most religions have the wake sometime within the WEEK of a death. Is this a Wookiee thing? Were they unsure of his death? Luceno, tell us! Not to mention, Mara's absence because of her illness was stupid. Mara is family; she should have been there to commemorate Chewbacca's death.It's about this time that I pick up on the Luceno-isms. Strange words like "arboreal" and "polyglot". Info-dumping (though I did like the continuity nods in some respects). And none of the characters, from Han and Leia to Luke and Mara feel authentic.Let me be frank: this book is about Han coming to terms with Chewie's death. I am not going to diss too much on how long it takes for him to grieve (though 6 months of doing NOTHING does seem a bit excessive), but I will say this book should not have come after the Dark Tide duology. It should have been concurrent. While Leia is doing her shame dance to get Jaina into Rogue Squadron (btw, if you are a Jaina or Jacen fan, skip this book, they are barely in it), Han should have been out there with Roa, trying to find Reck, not at home at Coruscant drinking himself to oblivion. FOR SIX MONTHS. Apparently.Han and Chewie were close, but I can't imagine him drinking for 6 months, suddenly becoming sober and THEN deciding to leave to avenge his partner. Talk about delayed reaction!While I liked how Han and Leia endured difficulties in their marriage, both characters felt like they had to be warped in order for the separation to occur. I kept wondering why Leia was so sedate and meek; why doesn't she snap out at Han for his behavior? Yes, he is grieving and she knows this, but have people act like people! Lovers say mean things to each other, sometimes at their lowest points. Don't ruin Leia's character just to split our couple apart.The other "couple" in this book is Luke and Mara, who are really only present to provide "tension" to the whole infiltrator plot. Oh, nos, Elan has poison and wants to meet the weakened Mara! Whatever will we do?! Their character is nothing like what has been established and Mara appears even more of a wimp than Leia.But, let me stop stalling. Let me just get to the character everyone wants me to talk about. Droma. Ah, a more thinly veiled excuse for a sidekick replacement I have never seen! Firstly, Droma's species is the least convincing and most disturbingly similar depiction of a real world ethnicity (the Roma, more often known by the more derrogatory "gypsies") I have ever seen. Colorful, odd dress? Check. Fortune telling? Check. Nomadic? Check. Dancing and singing? Check. We can now add it to the following list:Neimoidians -> AsianToydarians -> JewsGungans-> BlacksRyn-> RomaMany apologies to all of the above ethnicities. I am embarrassed for each and every one of you. If it makes you feel better, remember: whiny, bratty, immature Anakin is Caucasian.As if that weren't bad enough, I don't like how hard Luceno tries to make Droma Chewbacca's replacement. Han is taking Chewbacca's death so hard, he is separated from his wife and kids. Why do we need a poor excuse for a sidekick? Why can't we honor Chewbacca's memory without the chirpy insanity of a poorly drawn character?Harrar isn't a bad new character, Vergere is great to see (love her bit of deception!), but does Elan have to be YET ANOTHER sexy female? Why is Yuuzhan Vong beauty so similar to human acceptable beauty? Shouldn't she be hideously scarred? But, oh, no, can't have anything like that! Women are objects meant to be manhandled and oogled at. I still have yet to learn my lesson.As the fourth entry in the NJO, Hero's Trial is a great example of "too little, too late". We should have seen Han grieving much earlier. We should have had fights between Leia and Han earlier. We should have seen the priests a little earlier so it didn't feel like, once again, new author = new enemy. But still, it's got a decent story, and it's not often I can say that an abridged audiobook improved my perception of the book. I should probably rate this higher, as it is one of Luceno's best books in Star Wars EU, but I will knock down for all the above stated reasons.
Hero's Trial is a perfect example of what James Luceno is capable of as a writer. With incredibly rich character depth and compelling action sequences, Hero's Trial explores Han Solo better than any other book out there.As we saw in the two books prior to this, Han has been racked by the death of his longtime friend and copilot, Chewbacca. Full of angst about the future ahead without Chewy, Han lashes out against his family and friends, and especially his son, Anakin, whom he partially blames for Chewie's death. Here, in Hero's Trial, Luceno is tasked with bringing Han out of the shadows of depression.The Vong are still out there, taking and reforming everything in their path. One of the people the Vong have steamrolled over is the wife of Han's old buddy, Roa. But the Vong are not solely responsible for Lywll's death, a mutual friend of both Han and Roa has turned his back on the New Republic for both profit and extended life, and now it is up to Han and Roa to stop him before the trail of bodies is extended.What I like most about Luceno's writing in this book is that he was able to give Han someone to latch onto without making the "new guy" a replacement for Chewie. It would have been easy for Luceno to mold Roa into a Chewie-like figure to soften up Han on his path to recovery and acceptance. However, Luceno never makes Roa a carbon copy of the big guy, rather a fellow pirate that Han can relate to and help bring some light to his darkened mood. But the Han storyline is only one of many great story arcs in this book. The Vong continue their march across the galaxy and towards the core worlds, but Luceno delves deeper into the Vong intelligence and molds a story of deception by defection. Two enemy Vong break free and defect to the New Republic, but is it true, are they really defectors? Luceno also opens the door for Mara Jade as well, as a little known species of avian-like race may hold the cure for her disease. The New Republic fleet is handed some much needed victories. Anakin makes progress on his road to forgiveness from his father. And C3PO explores what it means to be alive and dead. Hero's Trial is a study in how to balance a book. Plenty of character depth offset by compelling and meaningful action sequences. Historical facts embedded into the story instead of just blurted out in the author's narrative. A linear layout that pulls the reader along without losing them.All-in-all this is my favorite Luceno book and one of the better Star Wars books I've read. Read it. Today.
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Luceno has an unfortunate tendency to use twenty words in a sentence where less than ten would serve:"The narrow pressbonded lanes were crowded with spindly Myneyrshi, armored Psadans, humans, and Noghri, but interspersed among them were small groups of Bimms, Falleen, Bothans, and other species, lingering in front of hotels or sipping drinks at streetside cafe tables."I suppose this habit of species name-dropping serves to add some degree of authenticity for fans of the Star Wars universe, but it adds nothing to the story. Similarly, Luceno regularly drops references (often in clumsy dialog) to previous events in the Star Wars novel series, so that this volume serves as a kind of extended advertisement for all the previous books. On a less serious note, Luceno uses the word "jizz" on more than one occasion to describe some kind of alien music, leading to some unintentionally amusing passages.If you can get past these annoyances, the story itself is interesting, focusing more on Han Solo than previous books in this series have. Luceno is particularly adept at rendering space battles into prose, which is probably harder than it looks. I wouldn't say there's anything here to change your mind if you're not already interested in reading these books, but if you're looking for an amusing diversion with your Star Wars chums, this one ain't bad.One other note: I've been reading this on and off for at least six months, and never felt compelled to read it more frequently.
—Chazzbot
standard for the star wars extended universe. however, i have never read anything by luciano in this genre before and i was pleasantly surprised by his handling of the EU. new diction appeared, a rarity for the SW genre, and his pacing felt a little more fresh than the old hands have been pumping out. unfortunately, the core character's (from the George Lucas universe) were hardly touched by luciano. when they were it proved less adept than expected. he hasn't had the opportunity to meditate on the solo family's minds. aside from that, more of the tragedy we have come to expect from the yuuzhan vong invasion.
—brendan
Han Solo se remet difficilement de la mort de son meilleur ami Chewbacca. Il blame même son fils Anakin Solo d'en être responsable. Il est tellement affligé qu'il refuse de venir en aide à Luke et Leia pour le combat et l'aide des réfugiés. Il s'en va se promener à travers la galaxie et fera des rencontres qui pourraient le faire changer d'avis.C'est très bien comme livre. L'auteur focus surtout sur la peine que ressent Han Solo face à la mort de Chewie. On le suit se promener de place miteuse en place miteuse à la recherche de trouble pour oublier ses douleurs.
—Yves
