Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy III: The Last Command SPOILERS!

As an apology for lack of book reviews, I send this out today: 1st January 2014, American Pacific Time

On May 1993, Timothy Zahn finished the final book of the best-selling Star Wars saga: The Last Command. This time, Thrawn and the Empire press the advantage, but can Luke and company stop insane Jedi Master C'baoth and Thrawn before the New Republic is doomed? Synopsis: The embattled Republic reels from the attacks of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has marshaled the remnants of the Imperial forces and driven the Rebels back with an abominable technology recovered from the Emperor's secret fortress: clone soldiers. As Thrawn mounts his final siege, Han and Chewbacca struggle to form a coalition of smugglers for a last-ditch attack against the Empire, while Leia holds the Alliance together and prepares for the birth of her Jedi twins. Overwhelmed by the ships and clones at Thrawn's command, the Republic has one last hope--sending a small force, led by Luke Skywalker, into the very stronghold that houses Thrawn's terrible cloning machines. There a final danger awats, as the Dark Jedi C'baoth directs the battle against the Rebels and builds his strength to finish what he had already started: the destruction of Luke Skywalker.

The novel opens with Thrawn's fleet, under the Force-precise timing of C'baoth, launches attacks on dozens of worlds, but this plan goes wrong when C'baoth recalls forces to capture and pursue Leia. Thrawn is angered by this; C'baoth uses the Force to force Captain Gilad Pellaeon to prepare the Mount Tantiss facility for his arrival. Luke finds Talon Karrde and informs him that Mara is recovering well and asks for help in the fight against Thrawn; Talon again states that he intends to remain neutral. Mara recovers and is placed in house arrest in the Imperial Palace, but when Imperials attack Coruscant, Mara breaks out and prevents Leia's newly born children--Jacen and Jaina--from being taken captive. Thrawn has thrown asteroids into the orbit of Coruscant, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the planet. However, Ghent figures out that most of the asteroids are holograms and the Republic is able to remove the correct ones without further incident. General Garm bel Iblis leads the attack against Thrawn and the entire outcome rests on the shipyards of Bilbringi. Meanwhile, Talon gathers all the head smugglers and attempts to form an alliance, but set backs occur that are blamed on Talon. Nigel Ferris, eventually and by accident, reveals that he was working for Thrawn and the smugglers join together to help the fledgling New Republic fight Thrawn. Luke, Han, Chewie, Leia, and Mara--with a company of Noghri commandos--infiltrate the planet Wayland and sneak into Mount Tantiss. Delta Source, the illusive informant of Thrawn's, is uncovered by Ghent and is revealed to be a set of trees that record everything its holocams pick up. During the Battle of Bilbringi, Thrawn starts to overpower the New Republic, but the Smuggler's Alliance comes in and helps stave off the impending assault. Lando, Han, and Chewie destroy the Spaarti cloning tanks while the others fight C'baoth. Thrawn's bodyguard, Rukh, kills Thrawn for crimes against the Noghro people and flees. Pellaeon orders a full retreat. During the duel with C'baoth, Luke and Leia are separated from Mara as she battles Luuke, a clone of Luke. She defeats him and kills C'baoth, then they all escape on board the Millennium Falcon as Mount Tantiss explodes. Back on Coruscant, Luke and Mara talk about the future.

All in all, a decent novel that finished the much-beloved EU trilogy by Timothy Zahn. Also, sorry for the late post. Thought I'd programmed this to submit earlier, but you tend to forget things during the busy holiday season. I will hyperlink later. 

Book Review: Star Wars: X-Wing: The Bacta War SPOILERS!

In 1997, Michael A. Stackpole polished off his X-Wing saga with The Bacta War. This time, Rogue Squadron's deprived of New Republic resources as they take back control of Thyferra--the biggest manufacturer of bacta galaxy-wide--from the hands of Ysanne Isard. Synopsis: While the Alliance fleet mounts a major campaign against a deadly warlord, Ysanne Isard has seized control of Thyferra, intending to use its precious supply of bacta to destabilize and destroy the New Republic. It falls to Rogue Squadron--undermanned, deprived of Alliance support and even weapons--to oppose Isard's dangerous designs, defeat her powerful complement of Star Destroyers, and free Thyferra from her iron rule. But when Isard discovers the Squadron's secret base, its ragtag group of pilots must scramble for survival in a winner-take-all battle against Isard's overwhelming and seemingly superior force.

The novel opens with Corran Horn and Mirax Terrik talking about their new found freedom. Meanwhile, Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu check out an abandoned station in the Yag'Dhul system and begin to set up operations. During that, M-3PO (Emtrey) arrives as surplus along with the squads X-Wings and Iella Wessiri. On Thyferra, Ysanne Isard demands to know how Erisi Dlarit's fighter wing in the Thyferran Home Defense Corps is doing; the two get into arguments throughout the story with Flirry Vorru defending Erisi to Isard. Corran and Mirax, now on Tatooine to try and buy supplies from Huff Darklighter--Gavin Darklighter's uncle--but the man proves resistant. Corran meets Booster Terrik--Mirax's father--and he begins to threaten Corran, but Mirax steps in. Booster berates Corran, for saying that his coupling with Mirax would kill his father and nearly kills him (Booster) because his daughter is in love with CorSec.

Mirax puts her father in his place and, with Huff still refusing, starts to give up. Booster, giving up, demands that Huff hand over the supplies to Wedge, which Huff does despite being angry about it. On a trip to Elshandruu Pica, Wedge manages to convince Captain Sair Yonka to defect from Isard's service by promising him credits and a chance to strike back. He agrees and goes into hiding with his ship Avarice (now called Freedom), his crew, and the local Moff's wife. Wedge convinces former ally Tal'dira to join Rogue Squadron. He also gets word from old comrades Elscol Loro and Sixtus Quin and that they plan to join him. Talon Karrde appears briefly to help out, but one of his people, Melina Carniss, sold them out when the convoy was ambushed by Captain Ait Convarion's Star Destroyer Corrupter. Wedge and his Rogues repulse the attack. Karrde discovers her betrayal and wants to kill her, but Booster manages to convince Karrde to use her to live long enough to feed misinformation to Isard in exchange for a gravity well projector.

Bror Jace also shows up, reveals that he didn't die, but secretly snuck back onto Thyferra and helped set up the local resistance. Isard threatens to kill Thyferran Vratix civilians if resistance to her regime hadn't ceased in one month. No longer keeping their base at Yag'Dhul secret, the Rogues bring in the next supply convoy--including Carniss. Carniss leaves a beacon in the system and the Star Destroyers Virulence and Lusankya and begin to destroy the station; Rogue Squadron and its fleet of freighters appear to be fleeing the system. Booster powers up the gravity well projector and locks Lusankya in place with dozens of tractor beams. Captain Joak Drysso attempts to complete the destruction of the space station, but three hundred proton torpedoes launch into the path of Lusankya, however, Captain Lakwii Varrscha of Virulence selflessly moves her ship in front of Lusankya; Drysso thanks Varrscha for her sacrifice and flees back to Thyferra. Booster, aided by the arrival of a Cracken's Flight Group, led by Captain Pash Cracken, was able to convince Captain Varrscha to surrender Virulence without a fight. Booster proceeds to load it up with his people and Cracken's fighters.

With aid from both Iella and Winter, Elscol and Quin, and the entire campaign stratagized, the Battle of Thyferra kicks off. Vorru flees the battle, with Erisi promising to find him and start a life. Corran tracks Isard's fleeing Lambda-class shuttle and, after sufficient warning to Isard, blows it up; the pilot is revealed to be Erisi; Isard has disappeared. Booster and Cracken's Flight Group arrives and convinces Drysso to surrender. Upon inspecting Lusankya, Corran discovers that General Jan Dodonna, Urlor Sette, and the rest of the prisoners were stored elsewhere; Corran vows to never give up looking for them. General Airen Cracken tries to convince Booster to surrender Virulence, but Booster refuses. Corran and Talon suggest that Booster be allowed to keep the Star Destroyer, just minus a few turbolasers to which Cracken eventually agrees. Corran and Mirax marry, then, with Wedge, they tell Booster who gets angry, but calms down eventually. The novel ends with Wedge leading Rogue Squadron back to Coruscant to reintegrate with the New Republic and continue in the hunt for Warlord Zsinj.

All in all, a very great finale to Stackpole's main arc in the popular X-Wing saga. It's too bad that it was followed by the dreck that was Aaron Allston's childish contributions to the series. Great characterization and wonderful battle descriptions make this the perfect book to fully grasp how rich the Expanded Universe truly is. Plus, this book further solidifies the Timothy Zahn-Michael A. Stackpole saga which the fans love.