Rating: 
Summary: Fish out of water
Review: For the first 100 pages or so, I was captivated. The plot Salvatore was developing held a lot of promise, and I really wanted to see him use that to good effect. But the further I read, the more disappointed I became. Salvatore basically builds the plot up to this amazing level and then drops it right on its backside with a hastily tossed-together series of anticlimactic, highly improbable, horribly written events that lead to a wholly unsatisfying and unbelievable (as well as factually completely impossible) ending. In addition to the sloppy last half of the book, Salvatore seems to have gotten quite a few things completely wrong with regards to the Star Wars universe, and I'm amazed the editors at Lucasfilm didn't catch his massive errors. I consider myself fairly knowledgable regarding the Star Wars universe, but by no means a fanatic, and yet I still managed to notice several glaring problems. Light sabers working immediately after being underwater, TIE Fighters with hyperdrives, sensors not being able to detect ships with the sun behind them, a craft so tiny that the pilot must shed his clothes to fit inside it (and yet, when necessary for a daring rescue, the craft holds two people plus equipment), and the list goes on and on. The first half of this book held a lot of promise, but Salvatore has demonstrated that he has no ability to skillfully finish what he starts, nor does he seem to show any desire whatsoever to remain factually accurate within the universe for which he's writing. I really wish they'd been able to get Mike Stackpole, Timothy Zahn, or even Kevin J. Anderson to write the first book in this series. As it is, I'm very disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: A stunning recovery for the Star Wars genre.
Review: A stunning recovery for the Star Wars genre. I had read most of the Star Wars books, which were getting very old and tired. As noted in my last Star Wars and previous reviews, every story basically had the same old plot. However, the Empire finally surrendered (in the last one) and Lucas's folks essentially hired R.A. Salvatore to start a new series called \"New Jedi Order\" or NJO. He did an excellent job. While the main characters, Luke, Leia, Han haven't changed that much, Han and Leia's children are almost adults and play a much more active role now, there is a new, much more exciting enemy and R.A. even killed a major character. The first one I can remember since Darth Vader.
Rating: 
Summary: The new era of Star Wars stories begins here
Review: 'Vector Prime' stands as the jumping point for a new era in the Star Wars continuity. For an armful of books now, Luke Skywalker and the gang have been cleaning up the mess that began when the original trilogy of films ended. Now, after 25 years of backstory, the evil Empire has been vanquished. Now a new threat arises, as a mysterious and violent race of beings have emerged and threaten to conquer the galaxy. Time to grab those blasters and lightsabers once more! I enjoyed Vector Prime a lot more than many fans have, and although it isnt a great book, its certainly lightyears better than some of the other garbage that has been printed under the Star Wars name. The story is a great start for this brand new era. Salvatore manages to juggle both classic and Expanded Universe characters and employ them in a unified direction. Too many authors have succombed to temptation in using and reusing the characters from the original trilogy. While thats not a bad thing (and probably a popular decision) I feel it's important to usher in new characters and cement them in the continuity. Its the only way to assure the future of the series, and Salvatore does a satisfactory job. Also, a move that the author made in the story - killing off a MAJOR character in the novel - was unpopular and was met with great contreversy, but I felt it added depth to the universe. Now, nothing is definate and everything is up in the air, creating far more suspense than the past novels had. [...]Star Wars has always been more fantasy than sci-fi, and Salvatores past experiance with the Forgotten Realms books offered up so much promise. Unfortunately, he seemed to concentrate more on the biology of the aliens than the swashbuckling nature that made the movies so great. All in all, a good book and a great start to a whole new universe.
Rating:
Summary: Star Wars Review
Review: MY ONLY PROBLEM WITH THIS BOOK, AND THE NJO SERIES IN GENERAL IS THAT THEY DONT INCLUDE THE CHARACTERS THAT I SO BELOVED IN ANDERSON'S YOUNG JEDI KNIGHTS SERIES. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THEM. besides that, i thought this book was fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting...but not Star Wars caliber
Review: While poking through the sci-fi/fantasy section, my mom pointed out to me about a new Star Wars book. I imediately perked my ears. I read the back, and learned more about it. I always liked the kind of dark destruction that NJO offers, so I bought it. It sat on my shelf for about a year before I finally read past chapter two. Just coming off of a Star Wars reading frenzy from Zahn's Hand of Thrawn, I picked up Vector Prime, reluctantly. First of all, the sentimentality dampened my excitement. Luke on the front, with grays. Nobody likes that. But I read it. It was interesting...but not Star Wars caliber. (Hmmmm...where have I seen this before). It was okay. It had much of that fantasy feel to it, and Star Wars should only be sci-fi. They should've gotten a veteran (like Zahn, Stackpole, or Anderson) to write the first book. The first book in a series is supposed to be teh gateway into teh series and catch your interest. In my opinion, the gate became a valley, and only a fierce fan of SW will survive the trek. -- And a note about Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin - - I am as big a fan of Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie (sob!) and the others as you all are, but as much as we all hate to admit it, we do get older. I like seeing the adventures of new characters in the world of Star Wars. But, believe me, we will never hear the end of the original guys.
Rating:
Summary: A great start to the NJO series
Review: This book was written superbly. It is a great way to start off the New Jedi Order series. I was getting tired of reading duologies and trilogies, only to have the first book hint to you that the New Republic would win by the second or third book. This book is totally different. A new threat surfaces beyond the known rim of the galaxy, called the Yuuzhan Vong. Their goal: galactic domination. They bring weapons and technology far superior to that of the New Republic, and even the Jedi are rendered helpless against them. For where the Force should be is...nothing. So Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, Mara Jade, Anakin, Jacen and Jaina Solo, along with Lando, set out to stop them. Will they succeed? I'd just like to point out, as some of the other reviews have seemingly not noticed, the Yuuzhan Vong are NOT from this galaxy. Hence, lightsabers DON'T have to be able to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong weapons. It's really a great change since Vision of the Future, when Luke and Mara's lightsabers wouldn't cut the cortosis ore in the cave.
Rating:
Summary: Best Science Fiction series since the Dune Chronicals
Review: A novel of great suspense and imagination, the Yuuzhan Vong are the most horrid and menacing creatures since the Alien monsters, their inability to be effect of the Force shows the stressing limits the Jedi will have to deal with in this series. The idea of the biotech of the Vong is a amazing characteristic (just like the Zerg in “Starcraft” ) the coralskippers, the amphiastafts (did I spell that right?), the thud bugs, the ooglith mascaras, the only problem is with the dovin basals. No matter how strong they are, they won’t be able to pull Super Star Destroyer into faster-then-light-flight. Light speed with any convention means at that tech level out side of making an artificial worm hole is impossible--so far. The bureaucracy of the New Republic is perfect, they’re no better then the empire, all they’re worried about is protocol and political agendas. By the time that the Senate did get off it’s hands in the later books, it was too late. Still a five year epic is full of surprises, we just about done for the first year, with four more years of suspense and heart throbbing action, more characters could bite the dust (POOR CHEWIE, oh well, doo-doo happens.) Anakin could turn to the dark side! Jacen will need to take another death in his family to get out his philosophical rute and take action. Some Jedi might find it necessary to sell their souls. I can’t wait!!
Rating: 
Summary: Excuse me for being nostalgic
Review: So here we have the newly-unveiled future of Star Wars. Well, I guess that I'm not too excited about this. It's not just the book, its the concept of the series in general. I'll go into that first before the book itself. The previous books and comics fit together to create a cohesive tale of revolution. It came together in pieces, bits and bits being filled in almost randomly. Past and future came together bit by bit, rvelations of the past giving way to an already established future. the authors were left alone to collaborate if they so choose, make their own tips of the hat to other stories, even tie in with them if they so chose. Now, such things are no more. The stories and general plot direction have been already mapped out and the storties are going in a linear fashion, utterly destroying the element of a complex story with almost innumerable pieces. Also, the basis isn't that great either. Instead of a story about revolution with the possibilites for moral, ethical, and person struggles to go along with space battles, (like in Stackpole's X-wing books and comics) here we have a bunch of wierd, grotesque alien invaders from anothergalaxy coming in to beat up everybody five years after the war. In my mind, this pretty much ruins everything. Here we have people who spent their whole lives fighting a war, testing their determination and minds. Then they get five years before some mose baddies come in and try to kill them. And these baddies aren't nearly as interesting as Imps. Look at Imperials like Baron Fel- such a character is virtually inconceivable with Yuuzhan vong as villains. Indeed, they are overall more two-dimensional foes. It really does shatter a sense of history that was created by the previous array of books and comics. I don't care about drama and adventure- the NJO series has truly broken a strong sense of reality that people like Zahn and Stackpole had helped define, instead replacing it with a Saturday morning serial-type string of adventures. And, in an attempt to darken things, I guess the heads of the NJO series felt they had to destroy a world or two and kill off several predefined characters in every book or duology. Now onto the book itself. Once again, we have a good Fantasy writer transplanted into Sci-Fi. I'm not a fan of such by any means. I like the Sci-Fi elelment of Star Wars far more than the fantasy. Indeed, his writing just doesn't fit. Kyp Durron always seemed very heavily distorted. In Anderson's Jedi Academy books, he was a bit of a confused kid with redeeming qualities and a good heart overall. Here he's a brash, belligerent loudmouth. The overall state of the Jedi is logical and believeable, but why did they have to ruin a perfectly fine character like Kyp to do it? And I'm not going to go into the infamous death. How that will work out remains to be seen in full. Anytime a character is killed off, it only really works if it has a strong effect on the other characters. In this case it does, but time will tell if Han becomes a stronger person because of it. I can't blame people for being mad, but sometimes you have to deal with it. Take, for example, Ibtisam from Stackpole X-wing Rogue Squdrom comics. Perhaps the most unforgettable page in 'Mandatory Retirement' is Nrin Vakil, surrunded by fellow Rogues and Kapp Dendo's commandos, on his knees with his hands over his head in front of Ibtisam's covered body. In the end, as 'Isard's Revenge' proves, good comes out of it for Nrin and he sees things through clearer eyes. If the same will happen here, I do not know. so I reserve my judegement. i'm not fond of how this has initated a string of killings of previously defined characters, though. So the book has problems. Elements of adventure are there, yes, but I'll admit that I still don't like the overall direction the world of SW novels is heading. Reccomended, I guess, because it does start off a whole new piece of the StarWars saga. Oh, I'll continue to follow along, and feel free to do so yourself. But I don't think anything will come along that will parallel the welll-crafted story of revolution and war that is being left behind.
Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as it's made out to be...
Review: First of all, this book is by no means as terrible as most people say it is. I know most of this is due to the hard facts that this book brings to light, (Mara getting sick, Chewbacca dieing,) (my apologies to those of you who have been living on Alpha Centairi and haven't found that out yet) yet even so, I was one of those glad to see a bit of reality find it's way into Star Wars. In real life, there is no bubble of safety. People we love die, and there really is nothing we can do to stop it. True, Chewie's death broke my heart, but I had read the spoilers before hand, so I was prepared at least. Though, if they had decided to kill one of my favorites, such as Luke, or Mara or even Han or one of the kids I would probably be just as devastated as some of the Chewie fans are now. I have to admit I'm actually more shaken up over Mara Jade (my favorite character) being sick than anything else that happened in this book, and she isn't even dead yet! Anyway, this book actually takes place about 21 years after Return of the Jedi. That may sound like a big enough space of time that you would need to have read every bit of Star Wars fiction written so far in order to understand this one, but actually this book does a great job of starting with a clean slate. All you really need to know is that by this time the Rebellion has renamed itself The New Republic and has conquered most of the galaxy before making it's peace with the bare remnants of the Empire, which now exists in only a shadow of it's former glory, in one little corner of the galaxy. Han and Leia are married and have three teenage children, Jacen and Jaina (twins, age sixteen) and Anakin (age fifteen). Luke is married by this time too; to Mara Jade, a former Imperial assasin. Anyway, the basic premis of the book is that a new extragalactic threat (Yuuzhan Vong) has risen, and our heroes, (and their children) must fight it. Warning also: this book has quite a bit more graphic violence than most of the Star Wars books that have come before. Don't get me wrong, it's quite tastefully done, and not at all just for shock value. As another reviewer pointed out, if this were a movie it would have to cut a lot to avoid an R rating. This was actually quite surprising since I would hand most of the other Star Wars books to a ten year old with a clear concience, but this one, well, let's just say it would have to be a pretty special ten year old. As to the overall writing quality of this book I'd have to say about medium/high. Things were described well, but the first half of the book felt slightly strained and until Chewbacca's death it's almost completely devoid of emotional significance. Also, being that this is the first adult book written so far that takes place after Vision of the Future I was hoping to see at least a connection between Luke and Mara. Some readers complain that in this book they don't act is if they're married even, but they do, just as if they've been married around forty years rather than six. Loving, supportive, yet platonic, and often prone to pointless bickering. Don't let this throw you off the series though; stick with it, and read the next book at least, since it takes much better care of their relationship. Mara wasn't exactly herself in this book, but I guess she certainly has her reasons, and I forgive her. However, it was so awesome when she beat up that Vong guy and totally stunned him with her fighting prowess, disease and all! Anyway, not the best book ever, but definitely 'worthy'. Might want to read a couple others for backround first, but not really neccesary if you're not inclined to do such a thing.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly captivating book, stop whining!
Review: I can't possibly think of a reason to not like this book. Salvatore once again proves himself to be one of the most imaginative and intelligent story tellers in any genre of fiction out there today. He is at the top of his game here and I can't wait to get my hands on anything new he writes in any story setting....Salvatore will come back to the series now and then to inject his unique writing stylings into the mix. It was a very good read.
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