"If one pivotal person fell to the dark side...then this time, everything they knew might slide into stifling darkness"Balance Point takes us about 10 months after Vector Prime. Han is on Duro, acting as an emissary of sorts for the Ryn. His son, Jacen, is with him, attempting to figure out his place in the Force. Jaina is injured and is sent to be with Han and Jacen; Leia eventually makes her way to Duro and reunites with Han. Mara makes a stunning discovery and slowly, a new plot of the Yuuzhan Vong unravels before their very eyes.NOTE: Based off audiobook (hence some of the future misspellings) and novel.Kathy Tyers is not unfamiliar to the world of Star Wars. She wrote The Truce at Bakura, a novel taking place right after "Return of the Jedi". Now, that book I had mixed feelings about. It had some decent characterizations, an interesting story, but felt a bit ho-hum, and the aliens were definitely weird.So how is Tyers return to Star Wars? About the same as the last book.Tyers has done a great job summarizing the last book for those who don't want to put up with that frenetic mess and tying up some loose ends. It's hard, in a series, to balance writing to old and new readers, but I think Tyers did a great job. She included a nice little summary of the events of Agents of Chaos II that was a good reminder for old readers (such as me, even though I had just listened to AoCII) and good for new readers with all the high points (sparing them the preceeding book's numerous low points). Tyers wraps up threads introduced in earlier books as well, thus keeping the series' continuity. Han and Leia get back together (excellent quote from Han to Leia: "You probably won't forget some things, but I was hoping you would forgive them), and, honestly, I don't have a clue why Luceno didn't bother to tie that loose end up (it wouldn't have taken that much time, and plus, it's wrapped up here really quickly). She also picks up the "Jacen doesn't have a clue what to do with his life" thread with a very interesting vision/dream sequence and brings closure to that in a fairly bad @ss way that involves facing off with the Yuuzhan Vong (no spoilers from me, no siree!).The characters under Tyers' pen are also well done. Han and Leia are good (Leia is really well-done); I also found myself more interested in Jaina (I loved it when she expresses her disgust at her absentee parents, though I could've shot Mara's deprecating "But your mom is doing so much good" bull-poodoo--how about you sympathize with your niece when she's opening her heart to you instead of preaching, Macho-Girl?) and Jacen, particularly Jacen with his interesting quest. Luke, however, didn't really strike me as anything extraordinary, Anakin made really almost no major impact (though he had a particularly squicky scene...more in a bit) while Mara was a mixed bag. I liked seeing her go undercover again, but I almost wonder if the whole "Anakin sees Mara in a hot, Kuati outfit and goes ga-ga" was a bit much. MILF much? Also, I loved the exchange between Jacen and Ronga the Hutt over Kyp: "He killed millions" "Oh, that was when he was young". LOLEven the story is pretty decent. The Yuuzhan Vong are rising in prominence, they are making a more solid stance against the Jedi, which is promising to polarize the galaxy, and they actually get to succeed (this is a big deal, as they are supposed to be conquering our Galaxy Far, Far Away). One of my complaints, if you've read my reviews for the earlier novels of this series, has been how the Yuuzhan Vong are "winning" but all the books seem to show the New Republic "winning". So if the Yuuzhan Vong are supposedly winning, how is it each book ends with the Good GuysTM succeeding in their crazy capers? The war should technically be over...right?So much praise, so why such a low score? With all the good that is here, there is just so much blah, so much mediocre. Sure, there are good plot threads, but we have more unknown Jedi dying for the sake of dying (I hate characters that die before they are introduced or introduced well--one of the complaints I had about the Bantam novels, in fact). Characters that were prominent earlier (Danni Quee, for one) are completely absent. Annoying characters (Droma...) return. Some of the action/story gets bogged down, possibly because of the audiobook format (such as why Mara is going undercover as a Kuati). We have our major characters, such as Luke and Leia, being biased against species because, as always, ALL Rodians are "aggressive and single-minded" and ALL Hutts would sell their mothers' for a decicred. Ronga's actions, which go somewhat against Hutt "norm" were one of a few attempts to defy this "logic". And then, don't forget the animosity towards Jedi who are actually trying to fight back this threat and not just lying down and letting the Yuuzhan Vong take over every planet in their path.As an entry in the New Jedi Order, "Balance Point" is a solid, if somewhat flawed, entry. It doesn't overly rely on previous NJO novels, so if you skip (as I highly suggest) the Agents of Chaos books, you won't be missing anything. It keeps the story moving. And we definitely start to see why the Yuuzhan Vong may be winning this war. Just don't expect brilliance on par with Stover, Zahn, and Stackpole, and you should be great.
Knowing what I know about Jacen Solo's journey after the NJO (unfortunately spoiled to me, but I can hardly complain, admitting that I'm 14 years behind in my tour of the EU), this book takes on greater significance I think than it might have if I knew nothing beyond this book, much less the NJO series. But as it is, I enjoyed this psychological space journey through Jacen's mind as he struggles to find his place in the Force. I also appreciated Tyers' exposition of the big pregnancy reveal. This led me to thinking about how life is treated in the Star Wars universe. It's definitely a pro-life universe. Think about it. Despite the cosmic fantasy that is the Force, what do the protagonists go around doing? Saving lives, protecting lives, respecting lives. Despite the fact that the main idea behind this universe is war, it's not always about shooting the bad guys. There is definite focus on redemption, finding the good in people, even as the bad guys (and even good guys) are blown up in droves. The movies didn't have a chance to give treatment to the philosophy around the unborn but this book definitely continues the theme, as one of the main characters fiercely guards her newly discovered unborn child from the moment she detects it. There is a subtle and admirable scene where she considers the repercussions of being pregnant and instantly puts up a clear standard that this baby of hers will be protected, born and raised. If ever there were a Star Wars book that might be the poster child for the pro-life/Star Wars crossover, this one is it. I rambled a bit about this, but felt it was worth mentioning.The story's plot centers around the Solo and Skywalker clans, as they converge for one reason or another on the planet that has become host to the galaxy's refugees, and the politics, protection and philosophizing that come with being on such a fragile (both environmentally and diplomatically) setting amid a galaxy-wide war. The end of the novel drop finds the invaders dropping a dramatic ultimatum on the citizens of the galaxy that surely will spell doom for the Jedi in the rest of the series.
What do You think about Balance Point (2001)?
This book focused on the attempted defense by the Solo/Skywalker family, and mainly on Mara Skywalker and Jacen Solo. Mara is going through the recovery from a sickness and finding out that she is pregnant. Jacen is having trouble figuring out if you use of the force in any capacity is alright. My text to text is that when i read this i kind of think of stand by me by Ottis redding because even though mara is pregnant and sick the people that love her still stay by her side. Also because Jacen solo believes that a true jedi shouldn't fight but encourage and his fellow jedi's that believe so also stand by his beliefs. My text to self is between me and mara's troubles, because sometimes i have to much on my shoulders to handle i have friends an family and trust in my self to push through it as did Mara. I couldn't think of a good text to world but i do believe that everyone should follow Jacen's beliefs of less violence, and i believe everyone should try to fight through their troubles as did Mara. I gave this three stars mainly because it had a slow start. Yet i can say i enjoyed. It was a good book but i did kind of wanted to kind of quit on it but good thing i didnt.
—Alec Harrison
This book focuses on the attempted defense by the Solo/Skywalker clan of the planet Duro, and mainly on Mara Skywalker and Jacen Solo. Mara is going through the recovery from her sickness and finding out that she is pregnant. Jacen is having trouble figuring out if use of the force in any capacity is alright. The author does an alright job with these issues, but sort of goes overboard with the tough, independant woman part of Mara's personality, in my opinion. Every scene with her is really about how she doesn't want Luke to help her, which just becomes obnoxious. Jacen's issues aren't really that well done either. He sort of comes off as really emo and whiny, instead of allowing you to sympathize with his point of view. The situations themselves are interesting, which sort of makes up for how poorly they are handled.The author sort of does a lot of back referencing to books she wrote in the series that are not really referenced by other authors up to this point. This makes it sort of confusing for someone like me, who has not read that many of the Star Wars books before the New Jedi Order series.Other than those problems, the book falls pretty much in line with what you expect from NJO. The New Republic divided against itself and being overwhelmed by the Yuuzhan Vong, and another planet being destroyed/occupied. I am, by this point in the series, getting sort of tired of this tack, so hopefully there is some glimmer of hope for our heroes in the next couple of books.
—Ren the Unclean
Some what boring, hard to digest. On top of that, by a stupid misstake I read a post that spoiled and ruined this entire series for me. Now I feel like I'm hanging in mid air, don't know what to do. I hate leaving things unfinished, so the stubborn-me wants me to go on and continue reading. On the other hand my common sense tells me to spend my reading time on books I don't know the ending. But honestly, from the spoilers I read, I think the following books would be a pain to read. Also, stay away from the Star Wars Wiki web site. There are no spoiler alerts/warnings whatsoever, just spoilers from top to bottom, page to page. The reason I ended up there, was because of a game character I was researching and ended up reading the entire endgame of NJO series. So don't go there, never go there. Unless you don't read SW books, but if you're reading this then you probably do. All that being said, I think I might give in to my stubbornness and finish the damn series yet.
—Nima Foladi
