Quickie Book Review: "Vector Prime" ("Star Wars: The New Jedi Order", No. 1) by R. A. Salvatore

Author: R. A. Salvatore
Published: October 5, 1999 by Del Rey

Synopsis: Over two decades after the Battle of Endor, Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, as well as the entire Solo clan--Han, Leia, and their children Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin--encounter an enemy like none they have ever seen before: Nom Anor, the leader of a race of creatures bent on mass destruction.  The heroes and their allies give it everything they've got, but the alien villains just won't back down, and no one is safe...
The first in the nineteen-volume New Jedi Order series.

My Review: This is actually the best Star Wars novel I've read in a while; lately, the ones I've been reading have been mediocre at best.  Many people have been very critical of this book and the entire series because of the death of a beloved character from the movies in this first volume.  Well, thanks to you all, the Star Wars Expanded Universe has prevented from being what it could have been.  All of the characters that have died in later novels--both in this series and others--were not in the movies, and the current continuity has Han, Leia, and Luke still fighting bad guys while being in their sixties.  Lucas would probably have approved their deaths by now, which would make the stories more believable, if you people hadn't freaked the freak out and shouted from the rooftops how upset you were over one character's death in Vector Prime, and said that you refused to read any EU novels after that happened.  If it was okay for various characters--Obi-Wan, Yoda, Darth Vader, Qui-Gon, Padmé, etc.--to die in the movies, why was it such a problem when one dies in a book with a storyline approved by George Lucas himself? You have ruined the best space opera ever; what a shame.

Content Concerns:

• Sex: None. 5/5
• Nudity: None. 5/5
• Language: One usage of the d-word. 4.5/5
• Violence: Several humans and creatures--including a beloved character--are killed, one by impaling.  There are also a few ship battles.  None of that, however, is gone into graphic detail. 3.5/5
• Drugs: None. 5/5
• Frightening/Intense Scenes: (SPOILER!) Chewbacca dies, which has proved to be too much for readers all over the planet to take. 4/5

Score: 4.5/5