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Ambush at Corellia (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy, Book 1)

Ambush at Corellia (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy, Book 1)

List Price: $16.99
Your Price: $16.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: what do you expect from a trilogy opener?
Review: The cover of the book tells you that this is book one of the Corellian Trilogy. Therefore, anyone who has ever read a trilogy (much less one of the several Star Wars novel trilogies) should know exactly what to expect: lots of character development, a slowly building plot, and no resolution whatsoever. That having been said, this book actually does a great job of living up to those criteria.

Let's face it, the writing in this one is not that great. However, it's definitely worth reading. For one, Han is the central character, an automatic plus. Second, we get to see some scene's with Han and Leia's children (what a novel idea!) and some sense of the "Solo family." And we get a very in-depth look at Corellia, too, a planet often referred to but rarely, if ever, seen. All things said, it' a pretty neat book, just not a really great one.

The best thing about it is that it's not about the Empire. I get rather tired of the Comeback Kings surfacing over and over again. Sure, this trilogy may not be of the same sweeping scale as the films or even Zahn's trilogy, but that only serves to work in its favor. It's different, which is something the universe of Star Wars novels needs more of. (Frankly, I don't really see NJO as the saving grace everyone labels it as; the Yuzhan Vong are just the Empire in disguise if you ask me). Read this book folks. It ain't great, but it is fun. Besides, it's a necessary opening chapter to the trilogy, which does get better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An excellent book with an humourous and chilling story.
Review: This was the first of the 'new' Star Wars books I bought and while I read it for two days I did not take part in any family activiies. Who cares? This book totally refreshed my memory about Star Wars with Mr Allen's amazing ability to write about the popular characters everybody knows about. The main story is centred around The Correllian system tryin to break off from the New Republic and a deadly weapon capable of destroying any star at it's masters will. Mr Allen contains humourous elements such as Lando's mishaps trying to find a wife and Leia's strong in the force children defying the adults and trying to build a 'droid to help tidy their rooms, something I think I could do with at the moment. But there are also very serious factors such as the New Republic governor contemplating the rebellion on the planets and wondering whether they should resort to Empire-like tactics to control them, something which would go against everything the New Republic stands for. I would only reccomend this to people who have at least seen the films but it would be best if they read some of the other new Star Wars book first, such as Timothy Zahn's Empire trilogy begining with 'Heir To The Empire" which one quite major character from them and Kathy Tyers "The Truce At Bakura" because Roger Macbride Allen has cleverly used the Bakurans and the fact that they owed the New Republic a favour. The character development is nicely done with the children being not believed in this book but later on in the story they gain some respect. Also an excellent character was the children's nanny/helper, a rather sensible and strict but kind Drall, on of the stories two main races apart from the humans. A thrilling story which climaxes with a race against the clock in the final two books in this trilogy. So far these are the best Star Wars books I have read and will be firm favourites on my bookshelf for many years. Sorry about the original English spelling

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Surprisingly decent
Review: A friend passed this one along to me and I took it up with some reservation. After reading it I'm now on board and looking to get the second and third in the series. This is not mind blowing by any stretch, but it was great to get back to and take a stroll through the Star Wars galaxy. The pace is fast and the action is well written. The author writes the characters well, treating them with respect but really not taking chances. With the exception with Lando, the choices made are nothing out of the ordinary.
Based on the cover and the title of the book, one think that this is a "Solo and Chewbacca" adventure and from the start of the book it looks that way. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not.
It does however bring up aspects of Han Solo's secritive past and Allen gives just enough insight not to take away from mystery the character. The politics and the star system of Corellia is unique, straight forward and easy to follow and adds some great drama in the book.
My only real critizism is that the author needs to hang around some children. Anakin is by far the worst written. Picture that forcibly cute robot kid on the sitcom "Small Wonder" written into a book and your not far off. While there is some potential there as far as action with Anakin, the dialogue really needs brushing up. He does however manage to make the twins interesting, giving them distinct personalities and abilities. Example: Jacen can understand Chewie, like his father, but Jaina can't.
Also another thing that I loved was Han Solo's take on Indiana Jones profession. It too coincidental to be an accident!

A decent adventure that lacks the emotional pull that the movies and some of the books do. But a good distraction and worth checking out.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good beginning for a better than average trilogy
Review: The first book of the Corellian Trilogy, Ambush at Corellia is a better than average beginning to the trilogy. It deals with the return of Han Solo to his home Corellian system after decades of exile. Allen has a decent grasp of the characters and he writes the Solo children very well. The plot all about exploding stars and solar system wide planetary blackouts is a little hard to take seriously, but overall the story is very well-written. Han Solo is the same rascal often portrayed in previous books, but his more serious, fatherly side does come out strongly in this book. Luke has lost the brooding quality that plagued him in pretty much every book after the Zahn trilogy making his character much more interesting and entertaining. Leia after several books dealing with her being the chief of state still has government work to do, but Allen takes a better more personal approach to her. The Solo mistrust of Mara Jade is out of character, but two memorable scenes really make this a good book:
1. Mon Mothma telling Luke off and his subsaquent preentation of a lightsaber to Leia telling her that she too is a trained Jedi and their subsaquent dual. (The New Jedi Order seems to have overlooked this point). The second is the much more memorable incident early in the book where we see that Han Solo is still the same person with his attack of a better armed probe droid. OVerall this book is a better than average star wars book, and while not the best of the trilogy is certainly a great start.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An enjoyable, yet slow, read
Review: Ambush at Correllia is an interesting read. The only reason why it was given four stars instead of five was because of the extremely slow pace of the novel. The pace almost seemed to be non existent at parts of the book, but that was because Ambush at Correllia seemed to be written to support the action in the other two novels.

Ambush at Correllia, though just background for the other two books, does deliver its story with an interesting narrative. The depth of story and characterization is enough to forgive the very slow pace of the book. As a matter of fact, the action does not begin until the last twenty pages of the novel. Still, with the extremely interesting build-up, it is worth the wait. I hope the other two novels live up to the expectation that the first novel created.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: STAR WARS: Ambush at Corellia
Review: Ambush at Corellia was an excellent prelude to what will be coming next in the trilogy. At times this book wasn't exactly the most exciting, it was more of a mystery of what is to come next. The events taking place in this story are shrouded, and revolve around the conspiracies created by the "hidden leader".
I enjoyed how the author depicted the characters, and how he seemed to know exactly gow each one felt, and how each one thought. The book is mostly filled with puzzles that don't seem to mean anything, until the end when everything almost starts to make sense; but not quite.
I can't wait to see what will happen next in the series, or what will become of the seemingly hopeless heroes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Trilogy opener reminds me of Attack Of The Clones!!!!!
Review: I like this book because of the action. The five planets on Korellia on the verge of Civil War reminds me of the separatist movement in Attack Of The Clones. Anyway! This book is cool. It's cool because i like the kids Jason, Jana, and Anakin. I can't believe that Anakin would have the ability to fix things so they worked! even if he didn't know what they were. That sounds almost like Anakin Skywalker. Lando looking for a rich wife? Wow! that's weird. I'm glad I like this book. It's the first book I've gotten since 1996. Anthony Heald does a good job bringing the characters to life in this book. I highly recommend this to future Star Wars readers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A book of action.
Review: This is book with a lot of action involved within the story line. The story line however moves quite slowly to fit in all the different stories and chatacters but this makes this book no less enjoyable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and i went to buy the rest in the series just because iof this book. It keeps true to the Star Wars atmosphere and for all the Han Solo fans, this is the book for you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun and entertaining, but no work of art
Review: Well, this was definitely an improvement over some of the other Star Wars books. While it's no work of art, the writing style is straightforward and entertaining and easy to understand. Plot wise, the book is excellent, and most of the characters are intact also. Anyway, it's now fourteen years after Return of the Jedi, and it is a time of relative peace in the New Republic. Han and Leia decide they need to get away with their kids for a while, and they go to Han's home planet of Corellia. However, once they get there, they discover (of course) that things aren't as tranquil as they thought. Meanwhile, Lando cons Luke into coming with him on his latest money making scheme: find a rich wife, fast. Altogether as a trilogy starter, this book was pretty good. Not the best series out there, but definitely worth reading. However, I thought Luke was portrayed as being just a little too stiff and formal and akward, and Mara Jade (my favorite character I might add) was just awful. Hasn't she learned anything in the last nine years? She is not the Mara Jade we all know and love, but rather an untrusworthy, half-criminal, and altogether unapealing character. If there is one thing that is Mara Jade, even when she was evil, it was honorable and trustworthy. While she doesn't give her trust often, and she will never give it to just anyone, one she does she would stand by that person to the death. I sincerely doubt this author read the Thrawn trilogy. While naturally not trusting Mara at first, Han and Leia eventually came to like her, and we all know Luke was always her friend, even when she really, REALLY tried not to like him, so why are they so wary of her motives now just because nine years ago she happened to have grudge against Luke for destroying something she was brainwashed from a small child to think was right? Luke forgave her, and they have been friends ever since, so what is the problem. Anakin's character was poorly portrayed as well. The kid is seven years ald and he honestly acts like a three year old, talking in broken sentences and such, and the twins, who are nine or ten now I might add, still play with blocks! Anyway, while casual fans might find this series confusing and silly, I liked it and I would recommend it to any fairly serious fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hans Planet
Review: The Corellian trilogy was great. Ambush at Corellia is full of interesting information on the home planet of Han Solo. The plot and storyline is very interesting and there is plenty of action for the fast pace fans. Roger did a great job on this trilogy and the others of his books I imagine would be just as good as his first. Any Star Wars fan would fine this book hard to put down. I recommend it highly.


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