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Traitor: Why it's my favourite Star Wars book.

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Bleak Turkey3059 Posts April 23 2015 23:25 GMT #1 I usually have not written many blogs on TL. A couple of them were about myself, my thoughts/emotions etc., while the rest of them were about things not that important and maybe one or two of them had real substance. This however, will be a long one, and probably my longest blog here. Today I want to talk about a book and I decided to do it here. This book in my opinion is the best Star Wars novel in the EU ever written. Now I'm aware that this is a huge statement to make, especially considering how many books there are in the Star Wars EU (literally in the hundreds) My aim in creating this blog post and talking about my favourite book in the EU is to first gather up my thoughts about it, and also maybe to make some of you curious enough to check the Series. Despite some people finding the main villain in the Series "un-Star Wars" , I felt the Series was very, very well done, as it carried us away from the usual Sith v. Jedi or Empire v. Rebels/New Republic type antagonism. For those who have not read the Series and are thinking to read, make sure you don't spoil yourself by continuing. You have been warned. Traitor For those who are unfamiliar with Star Wars EU, I will first try and summarize what New Jedi Order series are about, and where Traitor stands among it. New Jedi Order is a 19 book long series, which take place 21 years after the Return of the Jedi. In a nutshell, the story is mainly about extra-galactic invaders (yes extra-galactic, they have the capability to travel between galaxies) who come to conquer and reshape everyone's favourite "galaxy, far, far away..." The invaders call themselves Yuuzhan Vong, and they are humanoid creatures with a huge hatred for machines (or to put in a more practical way, anything inanimate which is used for a technological purpose). They are not savages without any clue however, as their technology is entirely biological, such as their ships, weapons, clothes, communication devices, buildings...You name it and they have it. Their hatred for machines and technology aside, they also have a religion. Yuuzhan Vong worship a group of gods, all with different names and roles. If I get into detail it will be a long paragraph, therefore I will try to make it short. They have a god for warfare, a god for deception, and a god for intendents and so forth. They are extremely fanatical and dedicated to their religion, and pain holds a huge spot for them. Pain, self mutilation and scarring, replacing one's organs with bio-engineered replacements are everyday things for them. They believe their gods sacrificed themselves so that the universe could be born and therefore, by copying them they believe they can become closer to their gods. Furthermore, they have a cast system in their society, and each caste performs a specific role. Warriors, Shapers, Intendants, Priests and Workers. Shapers are basically their scientists and engineers, they work on maintaining their biotechnology and creating new ones. When they arrive at the galaxy, a huge war breaks out. From that point on, not just the New Republic, but basically the entire galaxy is in a battle for its survival, not just as a species/community but also for its culture. The Yuuzhan Vong want to claim and reshape everything in their own image. Most importantly: The Jedi cannot sense Yuuzhan Vong in the Force, as they seem to be completely outside its boundaries. Nor can they use the Force. I won't get into detail on why they came to the galaxy and what exactly they are after, because that is the not the aim of this blog. I think now it's time to talk about Jacen Solo, one of the two main characters in the book and arguably the most important one in the Series itself when one looks at how he evolved as a character from the beginning. Jacen Solo Jacen is the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, and also the twin of his sister, Jaina Solo. At the start of the series, he is a 16 year old Jedi apprentice. Trained by Luke Skywalker, Jacen is a thoughtful, kind and sensitive boy. He is extremely strong in the Force, rightfully so due to his mother and uncle, but he is not the one to show off and use the Force like a tool. No, Jacen has always been thoughtful and full of doubts, for him the Force is to be understood and lived, not used as a mere tool (except for obvious scenarios like self defense or protection of innocent) Up to Traitor, Jacen has a tough time conforming his character into the events happening around him. His little brother, Anakin Solo, is a talented Jedi Apprentice, as powerful in the force like him, and very talented in combat. His sister, Jaina, is a X-Wing pilot in the New Republic Fleet. While they are out there fighting the good fight, Jacen is not so sure about himself. To be frank, Jacen is not sure about anything. He always makes second guesses, and doubts on which path to take. At some point he actually shuts himself off from the Force due to these thoughts. Kyp Durron and some Jedi Knights disapprove him for this. Suffice to say, he is troubled by the power he wields and the responsibility to use that power correctly. In the book before Traitor, in Star by Star, Jacen and a group of Jedi Knights/Apprentices are sent on a secret mission to infiltrate a Yuuzhang Vong worldship (huge, living ships that the Yuuzhan Vong arrived to galaxy) and take out the Voxyn (terrifying and dangerous creatures who can sense the Force, bred by the Yuuzhan Vong to hunt down Jedi, ) queen to prevent more of them being bred, as their destruction is essential to Jedi's survival if the New Republic is going to win the war. I won't spoil the mission itself as it is very cool to read, but nevertheless, Jacen is captured during the mission by Yuuzhan Vong as a prisoner. At this point we meet the enigmatic Vergere, quite possibly one of the greatest characters ever written in EU (alongside Kreia/Darth Traya in KOTOR 2) Vergere Vergere is a Fosh Jedi Knight of the Old Republic era, who willingly decided to live among the Yuuzhan Vong for more than 40 years. (I won't go into detail on how she got there, but for those who truly want to start New Jedi Order from its beginnings, you can start by reading Rogue Planet by Greg Bear). Vergere is a riddler: getting an answer from her is difficult, you will most likely encounter another question. She always makes one doubt even the most strongly believed rules and principles. Is there a light or dark side to the Force? Are Yuuzhan Vong truly out of the Force, or not? She is truly a really interesting character, and the way her place in the Series was handled by Matthew Stover was simply fantastic. After Jacen is taken prisoner by the Yuuzhan Vong, Vergere takes him to Embrace of Pain, which is sort of a biological torture unit, equipped to cause pain in a variety of different ways. After a long time being tortured by Vergere (who insists and tells him he is merely educating him to maturation), pain literally becomes the only thing that encompasses Jacen's world, and when Vergere finally comes to see him, she also cuts him off from the Force. Jacen's torture at the hands (or rather, appendages/limbs?) of Vergere and Embrace of Pain continued until one day, pain did not held any sway over him anymore, and he was released from the Embrace of Pain. Now, I could continue from here but that would spoil the best parts of the book for a potential reader who is interested in checking it out, and I can talk more about the main goal of this blog, to show how and why this is my favourite book, without doing that. So instead I will talk about how Vergere changed Jacen and the answer to the question of what the nature of the Force is. Vergere claims and insists that there is no light or dark side: The Force is one, and it is not the Force, but the user who is good or bad. Although it's not a new idea (as followers of Unifying Force/Potentium understandings existed at the time and before the Old Republic, such as Qui-Gon Jinn). Jacen is the apprentice of Luke Skywalker, and for Luke Skywalker, the Force is very black and white. Noone can blame him for this as what he had seen up to the moment of Emperor's death, coupled by the teachings of Yoda, made Skywalker the champion of the light side and the sworn enemy of the dark side. Not to mention there weren't too many material on the nature of the Force lying around after the Jedi Purge so he had to do with what he could get when forming the New Jedi Order. This is a hard notion for Jacen to understand. Vergere claims that all that Jacen's been taught up to that point was wrong, and the real truth is cold, dark and terrifying. If as Vergere says, the Force is neither good or bad, but depends on for what purpose it is utilized for and the intention of the user, then this creates a huge burden for Jedi all around, as they can no longer blame Dark Side for all their issues. This causes a big issue for the Jacen Solo already strained by the recent events, however eventually he embraces the idea wholeheartedly, and becomes a great asset against Yuuzhan Vong's designs for the galaxy. He is no longer the young teenager full of doubts and second guesses. Thanks to Vergere, he knows that he merely has to "Choose, and act." Final Thoughts As I said, Traitor is my favourite book in the NJO series, and also in my opinion one of the most deep and well written novels in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Apart from the fact that the majority of the book makes the reader to think about the philosophy of good and evil, which applies not just to Force but to life itself, the book contains one of the most exciting chapters I've read in a book. It's not so often a novel makes me very excited and at the edge of my seat, but the sequence of Jacen in the "Garden", his revelation and what follows afterward is simply incredible. I know it's been a long blog, but I've long wanted to put my thoughts and love about this book into written form and clear my mind, so if you reader, have come to this far, thank you.

Falling Canada11363 Posts April 24 2015 00:52 GMT #2 Hm. I don't remember this book so well, but I remember liking Star By Star because the New Republic was finally pushing back and finding innovations that could deal with all the OP biotech that was blowing them out of space. However, I do remember being very distracted by the Unifying Force that I expect I didn't think too much about what it was doing in the actual story. I was too concerned about whether the Unifying Force was just a red herring false interpretation of the Force or whether they really were rewriting the fundamental nature of the Force. I can't remember what the NJO's final conclusion was on the truth or falsehood of the Pontentium, but I think I just arbitrarily decided it wasn't true, because I didn't like the idea. I think I'd have to reread the series with the intent of seeing what they were intending with the Unified Force. NJO was a shock to the system for me- the first time I read it in high school, I gave up in Agents of Chaos somewhere. It took me until after university before I tried again and I think in the end, I enjoyed the concept. I especially liked amount of military innovation necessary to defeat the Vong. Scrappy technologically inferior vs hidebound overwhelmingly superior biotech. But I still had problems with how utterly foreign the Vong seemed to be from the rest of Star Wars universe.

Shellshock United States97276 Posts April 24 2015 05:08 GMT #3 This blog brings back some good memories for me. I never actually finished all the books in the Vong war. Didn't get around to getting them all. My personal favorite EU books was the X-Wing series. Loved playing the Rogue Squadron games as a kid and reading books focusing on them just really stood out to me. I think I still have a bunch of my Star Wars books in my parents attic. I'll have to go see if I can find them and maybe take them back with me next time I visit and do a little reading.

Falling Canada11363 Posts April 24 2015 07:15 GMT #4 I love, love the X-wing series. I can never make up my mind whether I like the Thrawn trilogy or the X-wing series more, so they always tie in my mind. Not surprisingly, they both had the Empire (or a very, very powerful warlord) as a significant threat, controlling large portions of the galaxy. Skip down to the Jedi Academy series and suddenly the best threat the Empire can muster is three Star Destroyers performing hit and run tactics. Ballantine correctly identified the problem with most of the later Bantam books, which was that the Star Wars galaxy had run out of significant threats. The New Republic won and all that was left was quelling minor rebellions, police action, and political kidnapping. Rather than galaxy wide conflicts, we have a cop serial with the random inter dimension being thrown in for good measure. The solution was a rough transition- I'm not sure, there's something about those first books of defeat after defeat against a seemingly infinitely large enemy. Maybe the quality- I always liked Stackpole's books, but I didn't like his Vong books at the time, which was disheartening. I think Star By Star is when you finally had a sense of the size of the enemy and that they didn't have infinite numbers and resources and thus might be beatable. I feel like I need a second run (third run for the first few books) to re-evaluate, but that's a lot books to hunt for in the regional library.

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