Inferno (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 6)

I have come in during the middle of this series and, despite having only a partial view, this book is the best in the series. The book opens with Jacen manipulating Tahiri, who apparently is still swimming in grief over Anakin. A rather sorry state of affairs for a Jedi, if you ask me. Luke is in shock about Mara's death and his killing the wrong person in retaliation. Totally understandable. I mean, this guy has had it rough throughout his entrie life and had finally found some happiness. I would have perferred that Luke and Mara died together, but we can't always get our wishes. Han and Leia are front and center in much of this book and that is a good thing. Jacen/Caedus is becoming very dark in this book. He punishes the home world of his father's best friend just because the planet's inhabitants weren't immediately turning over their ships to him. And it is just typical Sith stupidity is that he doesn't realize that his actions are causing more harm than good. Tenel Ka gets hit between the eyes with just how evil Jacen really is. She trys to make him reconcile with Luke and the Jedi, but Jacen just deceives her and then trys to blow smoke over his trail. Ben is about to get hit with the fact that Jacen is trying to make him into a Sith, too. A character that I really liked in the New Jedi Order series and absolutely despised in the Swarm War Trilogy gets slaughtered to deceive another character. Jaina, Jag, and Zekk are busy hunting for Alema Rar and get side tracked when they arrive at the Jedi Academy on Ossus. The idea of Jacen posting GAG soldiers at the academy to enforce the continuing "friendship" between the government and the Jedi is just plain sick. The commander of the GAG soldiers is totally insane and proved it near the end of the book. The subplot about Alema Rar was rather interesting. A Dark Jedi with a Sith ship who is trying to murder Leia and is currently being hunted by two Jedi and a bounty hunter (I don't like that description of Jag, but I don't write the character titles). Alema goes to the Sith homeworld to try to enlist their help and she hopes to become Jacen's new mentor. Highly unlikly, if you ask me. There are some pretty good space battles in this book. You get a scare in the last 150 pages of the book when Luke and Jaina make a run at Jacen's flag ship. I almost had a heart attack when I read that passage. The lightsaber duel between Luke and Jacen was very well written. I could almost hear John Williams 'Battle of the Heroes' track from Episode III while I was reading it. (Hey, George Lucas! You've got a great possibilty for a new movie in this book, if you ask me!!!) The scene is Jacen's secret chamber on the 'Anakin Solo', just before the lightsaber duel, was pretty hair raising. *READ AT YOUR OWN RISK* Jacen clearly is deceiving himself if he thinks that what he is doing is good for the galaxy. We will see how Mr. Denning writes the final book of this series. I can't wait!! May the Force

Very fast paced and entertaining. Inferno picks up with Luke trying to cope the loss of his wife, Mara. Meanwhile Caedus prepares to launch a decisive strike against the Confederation fleet. Hoping to rely on the Jedi he tries to coerce them into helping him he decides to have a squadron hold the Jedi Academy hostage. Though still grieving Luke leads the Jedi away from Jacen and creates a new alliance. Caedus, of course is enraged, but life sucks, jerk. Anway it leads to an all out fight with Luke and Caedus with Ben's life in the balance. Unforuantely Luke doesn't kill Caedus when he has the chance. My only gripe about the book. But still, Inferno is really entertaining and a good read.

Jacen Solo having abandoned all pretensions at "saving the galaxy" is quite different here then he was at the beginning of book one. Borrowing a page from his Grandfather's book he takes over a Jedi academy to "protect" it. This leads to the first real confrontation between Jacen and the rest of his family. Ben is finally seeing the light about how far down the dark path Jacen has gone. However there are still indications that he could go "dark" Luke for the most part is really out of it trying to deal with the death of his wife (who I never really did care for but hey I'm all for thinning the character herd). The readers are left to wonder if he is just feigning this to be able to get Jacen to drop his guard. I'm not going to spoil it for you about which it is. A new faction of Sith are also introduced what part they are to play in what is left of the series is open to debate. I like them already because one of them commenting about the mistakes that Vader and Palpetine made says "no wonder all it took to bring them down was a farmboy and a prissy princess." I imagine even the best fans have been thinking that for years. Overall-Just a great book and the series just keeps getting better.

I had been rather frustrated with the Legacy of the Force series up until this point. It had been a little too "been there, done that", amongst other complaints. Having said that, I enjoyed Inferno very, very much. Why? Well, suffice to say, and without revealing anything, Inferno could not be as enjoyable without all the frustration that came before it. Troy Denning has written a satisfyling fun entry into the series that I can only hope is but a glimpse of what we can expect for the last three books.

As the EU has progressed we have seen Luke kind of get pushed into the background a little as he allows others of the Jedi Order to battle the evils of the Star Wars Universe but every once in a while we are reminded that Luke can still "Bring It" when he has to and this book is an excellent example of that. Luke is still the son of the "Chosen One" and his power is beyond belief but he seldom uses it in that matter but I don't think Jacen, or whatever he wants to call himself, will forget it after the way that Luke smacked him around with almost no effort in this book. If you're a fan of Luke this book is for you. At one point you will be shaking your head in horror saying no it can't be ... then you will be reminded that Luke is still the MAN.