Cover Artist: Drew Struzan

The New Republic faces the dual threats of Durga the Hutt and a reunified Empire under Admiral Daala. With the help of an Imperial General Sulamar and Bevel Lemelisk, Durga plans to build a superweapon whereby he can hold the New Republic hostage to his demands. On the other side, Admiral Daala forces the different warlord groups to work together by cutting off their leadership and placing herself at their head. While this is going on, Luke Skywalker is taking time off from his duties at the Jedi Academy to travel around the galaxy with Callista to help her recover her connection to the Force. Durga's workforce consists of a hive mind species that is easily distracted, so Lemelisk finds many errors during the construction of the Hutt superweapon, called the Darksaber, that he has to correct. General Crix Madine of Republic Intelligence leads a small team of agents to find the Darksaber, where he calls down the Republic fleet before dying. While they try to escape the fleet though, they are destroyed when the weapon fails to fire against a few asteroids. Admiral Daala, with the assistance of Vice-Admiral Pellaeon, sends several fleets to harass the New Republic. A fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers is sent to Yavin IV to destroy the Jedi training academy to be followed by Daala on the Super Star Destroyer Knight Hammer. During the assault, Dorsk 81 gives up his life to use the Force to push the first fleet away before Daala arrives. After many adventures, Luke and Callista arrive back at Yavin IV just as Daala launches her assault. During the fight, Callista makes the decision that her path doesn't lie along the same path as Luke, and so flies up to the Knight Hammer in a stolen TIE Bomber and proceeds to destroy it from the inside out before disappearing.

My only real complaint about this book is that there is so much going on, it's hard to describe everything that happens without seeming like just retelling the story. It's not a bad thing that so much is going on, in fact most of Kevin J. Anderson's Star Wars novels are like this. In all, not one of the best Star Wars books, but I found it readable.