Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 5)

Next to Inferno (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 6)this has to be my favourite book in the Legacy of the Force series. How do I begin to review this book? Well, it opens with Ben returning from a mission that Jacen deceived him to go on. This is the beginning of the end for Jacen's tyranny over Ben. I noticed that Ben isn't quite as devoted to Jacen in this book as he was in the earlier books in this series, which is a good thing. Maybe he will finally realize that Luke and Mara aren't as unfair and tyrannical as he thought in the past. Jacen is going so totally dark that it is rather amazing that it is taking this long for the GA and so many other people to notice. And his take over of the GA is rather unbelievable. To get there, he tasks Ben to murder the Head of State of the system whose rebellion was the starter of the war. Jacen's behavior isn't going to help the situation one little bit. During the killing of the afore mentioned Head of State, one of the members of the GAG blows up his ship, with himself inside so that Ben can escape. This doses Ben with some common sense and he really begins to realize that Jacen isn't his friend. This realization gets even more stunning when Ben overhears a coversation between Jacen and Lumiya. The main complaint that I have about this book is that Karen Traviss spends WAY too much time analyzing Boba Fett and trying to make him into a character who people should feel got a bum rap during his early life and therefore should be considered a good guy who made some bad choices. Give me a break!!! Fett is an amoral bounty hunter who happens to have gotten thrust onto the readers by an author who likes to bore her readers with everyother page being about Fett and the Mandolorians. It could be interesting information in a book about Fett and the Mandolorians, not at all necessary in a series of books about the Skywalkers and Solos. At least there was more time devoted to the Skywalkers and Solos in this book than there was in Bloodlines (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 2) and in Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 8). Speaking of the Skywalkers and Solos, Mara Jade Skywalker was really front and center in this book. The cover artist made Mara look really good for this book. I hope I look that good when I am almost 60! Because I read the books that follow this book first, I had a pretty good idea of what happened in this book before I read it. Mara goes back to her past as the Emperor's Hand and you get to see just what she was like in those days. She goes after Lumiya and you get a pretty amazing duel between two former Emperor's Hands. It is a shame that Mara was unable to finish Lumiya off at that point, it would have saved everyone in the Star Wars universe a lot of pain and grief. Luke takes a side role in this bokkas he seems to do in alot of the previous books in this series. I just wish that he had insisted that BOTH he and Mara go after Lumiya. Maybe what happened in this book

Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 5) I bought this as a gift for my son , he loves everything Star Wars!!

Book was a good read. Book arrived in a very timely fashion. Book arrived in excellent condition.

A ruthless political leader escalates a war in order to serve his ambitions. Parents are faced with how far gone their estranged child has become. A government is betrayed and a group of minor nations form a very dangerous alliance. Does this sound like Star Wars? In this excellent novel, Karen Traviss seamlessly fuses the Space Opera elements of Star Wars with the dirty political and family strife at the peaks of the Galactic Republic. Family is a key theme here, not only the Solos and the Skywalkers, but the infamous Boba Fett as well. Boba Fett finds himself to be part of a family and a living culture, and we learn much about the fascinating Mandalorian nation. Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker find how much their estranged son, Ben, has matured without them. Han and Leia Organa Solo realize that their beloved Jacen may be following his grandfather's path, with galaxy spanning consequences. There is nothing clean or neat about the events of Sacrifice, and that is to the good: stories so powerful are rarely wrapped up simply. I look forward to each new installment.

Let's face it, people who like the Star Wars universe books like space opera. The New Jedi Order series has lots of great space battles, Jedi (-Sith) battles and narrow escapes from overwhelming odds. I've read almost all of them (although the clone wars is a bit much for my taste). Karen Traviss's Sacrifice is up there with the best of Zahn and others, but remarkably, not for the space opera. The NJO series as a whole moves from space opera to family Saga. Karen Traviss here has written a fairly complex contrast of the key characters and their families (all disfunctional in one way or other): The Skywalkers, the Solos and the Fetts. It is wonderful to see how the characters all work at coping with the problems of their own families and wayward family members, and how a variety of approaches are shown and ultimately compared. Being the father of my third teenager at this point, a lot of this hit home and gave me things to think about besides Luke's super-jedi-powers and simple light vs. dark stuff. Very highly recommended.