| Title | : | Balance Point (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #6) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 009941029X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780099410294 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published October 31, 2000 |
Poisoned by centuries of technological excess, the planet Duro is an unlivable hell, long abandoned by its own inhabitants, who dwell above their polluted world in orbital habitats. But there is no place else to channel the flood of refugees fleeing the murderous Yuuzhan Vong. So a deal is struck: In exchange for a new home, the refugees will work to restore the planet to health, under the watchful eye of Leia Organa Solo.
As tempers begin to flare between the Duros and the New Republic, and between groups of refugees, Han Solo, his son, Jacen, and the Ryn called Droma arrive to keep the peace. They are unaware that Leia is on Duro . . . and that Luke, Mara, and Anakin are on their way, searching for a missing Jedi apprentice. And none realize that the Yuuzhan Vong have chosen this embattled planet as the next target in their brutal coreward thrust.
The unrest only strengthens Jacen Solo's growing belief that a true Jedi should not fight, but should lead others to peace through a deeper understanding of the Force. Now, as the fragile stability on Duro threatens to collapse into violence, Jacen Solo must face his greatest dilemma: At what point does the use of power become aggression? Whatever he decides, his next step could tip the galaxy's destiny toward the light or toward darknessowith the life of someone he loves hanging in the balance . . .
Balance Point (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #6) Reviews
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"Stand firm, Jacen." - Anakin Skywalker
Balance Point is a book about addressing the refugee situation on the planet of Duros. It's definitely a slower book then the rest before this point,and focuses a lot of Jacen trying to figure himself out, he even gives up using the force for awhile until he has to rescue Leia. Then the Yuuzhan Vong attack, knocking the flying cities back down, and the New Republic is sent packing once again.
Overall, it's a good book, and essential to the story, it's just very slow. -
So, in this episode of "All Leia's Children" or "The Yuuzhan Vong and the Restless":
Leia and Han are still having marital problems, but it's nothing that a former-smuggler-turned-hero-of-the-Rebellion and an Alderaanian princess can't handle.
Jaina Solo is injured when her X-wing is shot down by a Yuuzhan Vong fleet, and she is temporarily grounded. She reluctantly goes off to help her mother deal with the refugee problem on planet Duro. Things aren't great between her and her mom: the usual teenage daughter-mother dynamics, exacerbated by the fact that they are both strong in the Force and can read each other's minds.
Annakin travels with his Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara on a secret reconnaissance mission to find a missing Jedi Knight. During the mission, Mara discovers that she is pregnant.
Jacen is still struggling internally about the use of the Force. Personally, I'm getting kind of sick and tired of his whining.
Meanwhile, the Yuuzhan Vong continue to push themselves Core-ward, toward Coruscant.
Kathy Tyers's "Balance Point" is probably the weakest, so far, in the New Jedi Order series, but it's still readable. Honestly, though, the whole space/soap opera thing is getting kind of old... -
"If one pivotal person fell to the dark side...then this time, everything they knew might slide into stifling darkness"
Balance Point takes us about 10 months after Vector Prime. Han is on Duro, acting as an emissary of sorts for the Ryn. His son, Jacen, is with him, attempting to figure out his place in the Force. Jaina is injured and is sent to be with Han and Jacen; Leia eventually makes her way to Duro and reunites with Han. Mara makes a stunning discovery and slowly, a new plot of the Yuuzhan Vong unravels before their very eyes.
NOTE: Based off audiobook (hence some of the future misspellings) and novel.
Kathy Tyers is not unfamiliar to the world of Star Wars. She wrote
The Truce at Bakura, a novel taking place right after "Return of the Jedi". Now, that book I had mixed feelings about. It had some decent characterizations, an interesting story, but felt a bit ho-hum, and the aliens were definitely weird.
So how is Tyers return to Star Wars? About the same as the last book.
Tyers has done a great job summarizing the last book for those who don't want to put up with that frenetic mess and tying up some loose ends. It's hard, in a series, to balance writing to old and new readers, but I think Tyers did a great job. She included a nice little summary of the events of Agents of Chaos II that was a good reminder for old readers (such as me, even though I had just listened to AoCII) and good for new readers with all the high points (sparing them the preceeding book's numerous low points). Tyers wraps up threads introduced in earlier books as well, thus keeping the series' continuity. Han and Leia get back together (excellent quote from Han to Leia: "You probably won't forget some things, but I was hoping you would forgive them), and, honestly, I don't have a clue why Luceno didn't bother to tie that loose end up (it wouldn't have taken that much time, and plus, it's wrapped up here really quickly). She also picks up the "Jacen doesn't have a clue what to do with his life" thread with a very interesting vision/dream sequence and brings closure to that in a fairly bad @ss way that involves facing off with the Yuuzhan Vong (no spoilers from me, no siree!).
The characters under Tyers' pen are also well done. Han and Leia are good (Leia is really well-done); I also found myself more interested in Jaina (I loved it when she expresses her disgust at her absentee parents, though I could've shot Mara's deprecating "But your mom is doing so much good" bull-poodoo--how about you sympathize with your niece when she's opening her heart to you instead of preaching, Macho-Girl?) and Jacen, particularly Jacen with his interesting quest. Luke, however, didn't really strike me as anything extraordinary, Anakin made really almost no major impact (though he had a particularly squicky scene...more in a bit) while Mara was a mixed bag. I liked seeing her go undercover again, but I almost wonder if the whole "Anakin sees Mara in a hot, Kuati outfit and goes ga-ga" was a bit much. MILF much? Also, I loved the exchange between Jacen and Ronga the Hutt over Kyp: "He killed millions" "Oh, that was when he was young". LOL
Even the story is pretty decent. The Yuuzhan Vong are rising in prominence, they are making a more solid stance against the Jedi, which is promising to polarize the galaxy, and they actually get to succeed (this is a big deal, as they are supposed to be conquering our Galaxy Far, Far Away). One of my complaints, if you've read my reviews for the earlier novels of this series, has been how the Yuuzhan Vong are "winning" but all the books seem to show the New Republic "winning". So if the Yuuzhan Vong are supposedly winning, how is it each book ends with the Good GuysTM succeeding in their crazy capers? The war should technically be over...right?
So much praise, so why such a low score? With all the good that is here, there is just so much blah, so much mediocre. Sure, there are good plot threads, but we have more unknown Jedi dying for the sake of dying (I hate characters that die before they are introduced or introduced well--one of the complaints I had about the Bantam novels, in fact). Characters that were prominent earlier (Danni Quee, for one) are completely absent. Annoying characters (Droma...) return. Some of the action/story gets bogged down, possibly because of the audiobook format (such as why Mara is going undercover as a Kuati). We have our major characters, such as Luke and Leia, being biased against species because, as always, ALL Rodians are "aggressive and single-minded" and ALL Hutts would sell their mothers' for a decicred. Ronga's actions, which go somewhat against Hutt "norm" were one of a few attempts to defy this "logic". And then, don't forget the animosity towards Jedi who are actually trying to fight back this threat and not just lying down and letting the Yuuzhan Vong take over every planet in their path.
As an entry in the New Jedi Order, "Balance Point" is a solid, if somewhat flawed, entry. It doesn't overly rely on previous NJO novels, so if you skip (as I highly suggest) the Agents of Chaos books, you won't be missing anything. It keeps the story moving. And we definitely start to see why the Yuuzhan Vong may be winning this war. Just don't expect brilliance on par with Stover, Zahn, and Stackpole, and you should be great. -
The problem with these lengthy series is that some volumes in the series have to be strictly exposition to set up future books. I'm used to seeing that in graphic novel series, but since few book series run that long (save for, say, Discworld or James Bond, but those don't really have an overarching story like these do), I don't see them often in narrative book form. It's one thing to read a graphic novel that's mostly exposition, since they only take a couple of hours to read; novels, though, take far longer, and it's hard to shed the feeling that nothing's happening.
It's not Tyers' fault that she drew the short straw in this series, but boy howdy, was this book boring. What she sets up has the potential to be worth it, but having to get through it all was a chore. It didn't help that I struggled with some of her turns of phrase, or the setting of her scenes (there were a handful of times I got lost going from one sentence to another because of the way she seemed to shift characters at the wrong time), but the biggest frustration had to be Jacen. What Tyers is trying to do here is admirable -- showing someone struggling with the responsibility that comes with using the Force -- but she presented Jacen in the worst way. He was an insufferable teen, facing down the extinction of an entire race, and refusing to use his strengths to help ANYone. It was enough to make anyone want to shake and slap him into doing something useful.
I gave it two stars because the book wasn't bad, but it could have been so much more. -
Hoo boy, where to begin. Trigger warning: there's a lot of nerd nitpicking going on below, it's best to skip it unless you Really Care.
This book was pretty painful to work through. I'm struggling to think of something - anything - that happened in the first 75% of the book to interest the reader that wasn't pure, boring exposition. The book is honestly as grey and lifeless as its main setting, the ruined planet of Duro.
The one think Balance Point did do effectively (though this is not necessarily a positive thing) is make me hate Jacen Solo even more than I already had. Let me see if I understand this correctly, since NJO authors seem to have no rational idea why Jacen is such a whiny prick: he has this dumb vision of the galaxy tilting towards collapse and assumes, based on his hazy interpretation of it (and totally ignoring his previous hugely failed attempts at interpreting visions from the Force which nearly got him killed only like two books ago), that he must give up the Force completely and become some kind of ascetic in order to find out what he "truly is." So he does this, and instead of really probing what it means to be a Jedi or searching for his own personal philosophy, he whines at people who ask him to use the Force, refuses to use it in situations that would save his own life or others, and just sits there waiting for the answer to fall into his lap, continually asking "what do you want from me?!" of nobody in particular.
Then when he finally breaks out of this needlessly emo slump, he... resumes life as normal, seemingly without any growth or development whatsoever? What was the point of all this besides to make the reader hate Jacen for being a whiny little pissant and love Jaina for being everything Jacen isn't? Or was this some inept writer's idea of a deep existential crisis, and somewhere in some writer's garret, does Kathy Tyers look at her depiction of Jacen's "spiritual journey" and take pride in her "deep and thoughtful" characterization of one of the worst characters in the Star Wars Expanded Universe?
Either way, I'm glad it's over. In the future, if anyone is doing a read-through of the NJO series, I would honestly recommend they skip Balance Point. If you're a completionist who's in it for content, I can save you a lot of time and frustration with this summary of important events:
1.) Duro gets taken over by the Vong.
2.) Tsavong Lah demands the galaxy hand over all the Jedi in exchange for "peace" on the last page of the book.
DONE. -
It's less a story than a series of chess moves to take us to the next big moment in the Vong invasion saga, but it certainly succeeds in its character work (if a bit repetitive on the woe-is-me-Jacen Solo front). I believe this is far superior to Kathy Tyers' work on "Truce at Bakura"; anyone who can get me to admire the duplicitous gumption of a Hutt is doing something right.
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Now I remember why it's been nearly 18 years since I've picked up this book. It was so bland... :(
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i can't even , literally can't even right now
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Balance Point is the sixth book in the New Jedi Order series, where the Yuuzhan Vong continue to spread across the Star Wars galaxy, getting closer to the core worlds. This book takes place primarily on or above Duro. The planet is basically uninhabitable but refugees from other worlds have come here into domed huts to seek protection. Hence, the native Duros, are none too pleased. This falls under Leia and Han who reunite for a time, with help from the Ryn, to figure out. However, those you think are on your side, play political games with the enemy.
Meanwhile, Jacen Solo is in turmoil over using the Force, as he had a vision about the galaxy plunging into darkness, based on what he thinks is using the Force aggressively, so he becomes a non-force user. His sister, Jaina, and Uncle Luke, try to persuade him about using the Force. Hence the name Balance Point in the title.
Of course, the Yuuzhan Vong have their sights set on Duro, and lots of action in the 2nd half of the book ensue. Even after 6 books in the series, the names and descriptions of the Yuuzhan Vong ships, creatures, and weapons, gets confusing, so reference the internet for what others have construed of what they look like.
Only 3 stars due to Tyers writing, which flowed well at times, but overall seemed a bit choppy for me.
Still, this series makes puts to shame Disney's 3 Star Wars movies. Maybe they will finally head in this direction, but of course, we would have to have new actors/actresses to play the roles of Luke, Leia, Han, etc. -
Another miss for me in this series..Honestly I made myself finish this ..The only thing the least bit interesting was Mara finds out she is pregnant..Other than that It's them fighting the Vong again which to be quite honest I find quite boring.Also Jacen decides not to use force but then decides to use it ..ugh..The Leia and Han drama continues..Hopefully the next one will be better.
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I struggles so much with this book urgh
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For 2021, I decided to reread Del Rey’s first attempt at a multi-author book series in the Star Wars universe: The New Jedi Order, which was published between 1999 and 2003. This shakes out to 19 novels, two eBook novellas, three short stories, and a tangentially-related prequel era novel.
This week’s focus: the second hardcover release in the New Jedi Order, Balance Point by Kathy Tyers.
SOME HISTORY:
Of the twelve New Jedi Order authors (well, thirteen if you count Michael Jan Friedman), nine were newcomers while three were familiar faces from the Bantam era. (There were also only two female authors, a proportion that I side-eyed a bit--for comparison, the Bantam era featured five female authors out of fourteen total contributors.) Kathy Tyers was one of those familiar faces, having written 1993’s
The Truce at Bakura as well as several stories for the Tales collections and The Star Wars Adventure Journal. Balance Point made it to number thirteen on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of November 19, 2000.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
For weeks after the book was released, Kathy Tyers answered questions on the Jedi Council Forums--her username was Shmi52. Obviously she couldn’t say anything about upcoming releases or plot points, but I remember reading through her answers, and it was fun to encounter a Star Wars author in the wild!
Of the actual book, I remembered Mara’s Big News as well as the Solo family’s decontamination-required haircuts, but not much about the conflict here.
PRINCESS LEIA COSTUME COUNT:
I expected Tyers to give me lots of outfit description, and she delivered. We have Luke, Mara, and Anakin’s Kubaz disguises; the Solos’ various hats and headscarves after their haircuts; Mara and Jaina’s Kuati disguises; Jaina’s visor thing; jumpsuits for the poor shaved Ryn; I could probably keep going but I’ll stop here.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
There is nowhere to channel the flood of refugees fleeing the Yuuzhan Vong but the overcrowded planet Duro. Under the watchful eye of Leia Organa Solo, SELCORE works to restore the planet to health, while Han, Jacen, and Droma arrive in another refugee camp. They are unaware that Leia is already on Duro…and that Luke, Mara and Anakin are also headed their way, searching for a missing Jedi apprentice. And none of them realize that the Yuuzhan Vong have chosen Duro as their next target...
THE CHARACTERS:
In Balance Point, we have multiple characters already on Duro, arriving on Duro, or heading towards Duro. SELCORE has gotten the Duros government to agree to housing refugees in domes on the surface, in exchange for their scientists working towards reversing and repairing the planet’s incredible industrial pollution. Leia is supervising these squabbling groups, and is flying somewhat under the radar--Luke and Mara know that she’s on Duro, but not Han or her children or the New Republic military. She felt slightly more active here than in previous books, and I loved the gesture she made with her hair; as an Alderaanian, she’s also a refugee without a home, she doesn’t want special treatment, and her hair will grow back.
For the first half of the book, Han is estranged from Leia, supervising another refugee camp on the surface and still hanging out with Droma. He’s progressed past his revenge quest in
Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial, though, and is committed to helping both the Ryn as well as other refugees he’s acquired along the way. He’s a good leader, trying to keep the best interests of everyone who depends on him, which is a welcome return of the reformed good guy we knew.
Of all the Solo kids, I am most worried about Jaina right now! During the Battle of Kalarba, she loses her astromech Sparky and goes extravehicular, and remains temporarily blinded for the rest of the book. She’s a little bundle of anger towards everything and everyone, but especially her mother: the NR military couldn’t track her down, and she blames her mother’s career for the Solo kids’ upbringing. She works through some of her issues, but there’s still a lot of anger and resentment boiling under her surface.
Once again, I was frustrated with Jacen for a good chunk of the story. He’s confused and doubting himself after the debacle with Centerpoint Station (as he should! I agree with Anakin there), so he left Coruscant, joined his father and Droma on Duro, and is questioning his use of the Force at all. As Wookieepedia puts it:Jacen has a Force vision of missing a lightsaber tossed to him by his uncle Luke and letting the galaxy fall to the Vong's clutches, followed by a voice telling him to ‘stand firm.’ This leads him to believe that by using the Force any further, he will ultimately tip the galaxy to the Yuuzhan Vong's favor.
He later has a conversation with his uncle, where he explains how hard he’s finding it to lessen his use of the Force. Luke tells him that he either needs to accept and use his talents, or forego using the Force completely. Jacen replies that he’s going to suppress his Force abilities for the rest of his life. JACEN NO?!? In the climax, he realizes that he can’t save his loved ones without the Force, and once again hears the voice saying “stand firm.” He does take a stand, and wins, but it took a lot of extended dithering before he was able to get there.
Remember Randa the Hutt from
Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse? He’s stuck in Han’s refugee settlement, he wants to get home but also wants to harry the Vong forces like Kyp Durron’s squadron. He’s struggling to do good, but he’s inherently selfish, so he ping pongs back and forth between betraying the Solos to the Yuuzhan Vong, alerting the New Republic to the presence of Vong on Duro (except he tells this to Viqi Shesh, oops), and then ultimately sacrificing himself for Leia. He’s a Hutt, but he tried to do better.
Luke and Mara initially start out on Coruscant; Luke has been holding informal meetings, since the NR government won’t sanction the creation of a Jedi Council, and intelligence leads to Mara and her nephew capturing a Yuuzhan Vong agent. This is both important and revealing: the Vong have agents already in place in the capital, and the agent kills herself rather than speak with them. Mara receives some very unexpected news (she’s pregnant!), Luke and Mara talk about it, and then they head off to Duro with Anakin in search of a missing Jedi apprentice.
After multiple books of Mara struggling with her illness and being sidelined from the narrative in favor of other characters, I'm so happy that she's doing well and that she's expecting a child. In
Heir to the Empire, Leia is pregnant before the book even starts, but here we get to see Mara's initial reaction and developing feelings. I think I'm glad that we have a female author for this book, because I'm not sure a male author would have been as interested in interrogating Luke and Mara's thoughts here, and they both get several sweet scenes.
I like Anakin, but he’s much less in focus in Balance Point--perhaps explaining why Lucasfilm and Del Rey were so desperate to add the Edge of Victory duology before
Star by Star. He’s still continuing to figure out how he wants to approach the role of a Jedi, and he both takes directions but is willing to think ahead.
Nom Anor moves around a lot, and very quickly--improbably quickly? We saw him at the end of
Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse talking to Viqi Shesh, and now he’s been masquerading as a Duros on Duro for the last two months?? He confirms that Mara’s illness is Vong-related (which the reader knew, but the characters didn’t), and while he claims to serve the Trickster Goddess he’s mostly just out for himself.
I don’t have much to say yet about Warmaster Tsavong Lah. He’s obsessed with the Jedi, he’s a threat to our heroes, he’s a fair bit conniving himself, and he issues a game changing ultimatum at the end of the book. This is the first time we see him for an extended period of time, so he doesn’t feel completely fleshed out yet.
Side note:
Vector Prime featured multiple female Vong in warrior roles, but the subsequent books either didn’t seem to include any female Vong at all (Dark Tide duology) or only included a few in more stereotypical professions (Priestess Elan in
Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial). I was excited to see the inclusion of more female Vong in Tyers’s book, as we see everyone from a female agent to the Priestess Vaecta to female crewmembers on Lah’s flagship the Sunulok.
ISSUES:
Pace: I felt like the first 90-100 pages were well-paced, then I started to lose interest a little. The last 50 pages likewise picked the pace back up, but the middle felt slow. The “missing Jedi plot”--AKA the whole reason for Luke & co. to come to Duro--didn’t really go anyway, and seemed to primarily exist so they’d be in the same place as the rest of their family.
I found the initial premise--that Leia was on Duros at the same time as Han, Jacen, and Jaina, but they didn’t know--hard to swallow. Han has no Force ability, true, and Jacen was cutting himself off from the Force, but surely Jaina and Leia could have sensed each other? After they’re reunited, every Force sensitive character seems able to sense each other wherever they are, at least enough to keep track of people once the YV attack. *hand-wave shenanigans*
Huge conflict back when the book was released: the Luke/Mara fans were ecstatic, while the Han/Leia fans felt like they’d been shortchanged. And I can see their point… Luke and Mara have multiple scenes together, while Han and Leia’s reunion mostly happens offscreen. And Mara finally receives some good news after multiple books of struggling with her illness, while Leia is tortured and grievously wounded.
I’m also repelled by torture in books, so Leia’s scenes upset me. I can understand that Jacen wasn’t going to act unless the fate of someone he loved (like his mother) was in the balance, but Leia seemed reckless in the scenes leading up to her capture. And while there is a precedent for torture in Star Wars--Leia in ANH, Han in ESB—leaving Leia’s life and continued health in the balance (ha) was perhaps a step too far for me.
This book also made me realize that I had been operating under an absolutely faulty assumption: I knew that Friedman’s Knightfall trilogy was cancelled so that Greg Keyes could write the Edge of Victory duology and focus on Anakin Solo, and that the NJO planning team initially wanted Anakin--not Jacen--to be the overarching hero of the series. So I assumed that Anakin’s fate wasn’t solidified until the series was underway, which explained Jacen’s arc from
Vector Prime to
Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse. But no! The team had settled on Jacen as the hero before the first book was released, which makes his philosophical journey baffling at times to me.
IN CONCLUSION:
Balance Point was the first NJO book to end on a decided loss for our heroes: Duro has fallen, the Yuuzhan Vong are even closer to the Core, and the whole galaxy is now hunting the Jedi Knights. What held it back from being a great read for me, though, was the dragging pace of the middle of the book, not enough focus on Han and Leia, and even more dithering from Jacen to wade through.
Next up: a short detour to the first eBook release in the New Jedi Order series, “Recovery” by Troy Denning.
My YouTube review:
https://youtu.be/etvWLvRLaXY
Jedi Council Forums - Balance Point Q&A with Kathy Tyers:
https://web.archive.org/web/201006180...
Interview with Tyers on Roqoo Depot:
http://roqoodepot.com/2014/12/08/inte... -
Well, lets continue the trend of 2020, the year that sucks, with Balance Point, a Star Wars novel that sucks.
My investment in The New Jedi Order book series declined significantly after the grueling pair of novels in the
Agents of Chaos duology. Now, Balance Point has pretty much ejected any investment I had left right out the airlock. I'm starting to feel a serious case of burnout here: I'm not sure if it's towards the New Jedi Order, the Post Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe, Star Wars Legends, and/or even star wars in general, but I intend to take a break in reading these novels. I'm not going to outright stop, because I am interested in some of the novels later in the series (eg,
Traitor), but after what feels like a waste with these three novels, I don't want to keep going right now.
THE STORY: So how did we get here?
The gist is that the Yuuzhan Vong keep winning battles, and now the planet Duro is the only place where all the countless refugees displaced in the ongoing war can go. All of our principle heroes converge on the planet as well for a desperate stand. Will Luke, Han, Leia, Mara, and the Solo kids be able to stop Warmaster Tsavong Lah and his invasion force? Or will Duro be just another stop on Tsavong's warpath as he closes in on the Galactic Core?
THE BAD: Talk about a plot that should feel big and lead to so much, and yet ends up feeing insignificant and leading to very little. Balance Point positions itself as an important entry in the New Jedi Order, but the way it plays out is more like just another battle with the Yuuzhan Vong. The tone doesn't work in particular due to its placement in the series and what we have gotten from books 1-5. At this point, I'm going to talk spoilers for the books leading up to Balance Point.
1) Chewbacca may have been killed off by the Yuuzhan Vong in
Vector Prime, but the heroes managed to wipe out their forward base on Helska.
2)
Dark Tide I: Onslaught may have tried to tell us that the battle of Dantooine was a disaster, but Michael A. Stackpole was so focused on wish fulfillment and making the heroes look cool that it undermined the intimidation factor of the Vong. So even though technically the heroes suffered a major defeat, it came off as merely a minor setback.
3) Ithor may have been a major setback in
Dark Tide II: Ruin, but the Vong's victory came at the cost of Shedao Shai, the best villain in the series up to this point.
4) The New Republic wins the battle of Ord Mantell in
Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial). 'Nuff said.
5) The battle at centerpoint station was pretty much a draw in
Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse . A Hapan fleet got wiped out, but so did a Vong Fleet. no gains there.
So that brings us to Balance Point: a novel trying really hard to have a hopeless doom-and-gloom tone but it's difficult to take seriously. Even if the Yuuzhan Vong have proven intimidating in previous novels (particularly Vector Prime), when almost all of their victories have been off-page, I'm having trouble believing that this is a hopeless situation for the heroes. The battles we've seen in the first five novels had yet to show the Yuuzhan Vong winning a complete and total victory and making it FEEL like a total victory.
The character work was also a disappointment, particularly with Han Solo. This is supposed to be the novel where he finally rejoins his family after months of losing his way. But the sad thing is that I had to check other people's reviews on this site because there's almost no time devoted to it. It's just a short conversation in between all these aimless sequences, and then its back to even more aimless stuff happening. And after I had to slog through Agents of Chaos, having this little time devoted to the tension between Han and his family is Insulting. You're telling me that after TWO WHOLE NOVELS of Han dicking around the galaxy with Droma as an emotional wreck, THIS is all we get addressing the family split? I CALL BULLSH*T. And you know what? screw it. I've had multiple people tell me how Han Solo's arc in the New Jedi Order makes so much more sense and is more realistic than what we got with Han in The Force Awakens, but I'm saying it now: I liked how the Force Awakens did it better! At least I got to watch a great Harrison Ford performance and I got a couple of scenes with him and Leia trying to make amends. But here, the stuff with him moping about on his own are dragged out to such ridiculous lengths, while the moments where he actually interracts with his family to make amends are glossed over.
Things aren't much better with the other characters, who get set up with little story arcs only to not be followed up on at all in this book. Luke, Leia, Jaina, and Mara all have some interesting character ideas introduced or continued in Balance Point at first, but you'll see pretty quickly that their "development" doesn't really go anywhere. . Jacen and Anakin don't get any meaningful character growth in this novel. And it's quite the crime that this book fails to even make Anakin interesting, after the first 4 novels in the series managed to grow his character brilliantly.
We also get introduced to Warmaster Tsavong Lah, but he's nothing beyond a BBEG (or "Big Bad Evil Guy" for those of you who don't speak Dungeons and Dragons).
THE GOOD: This book is able to rise above the disastrous misfire that was
Jedi Eclipse for two reasons: the first 100 pages, and the final 50 pages.
This book actually had a pretty promising opening. Again, Kathy Tyers actually had many of the characters off to a strong start. Tsavong Lah gets a scary introduction, I almost got tricked into thinking Jaina would finally get some direction in her character journey, Leia promised to finally be somewhat interesting and Luke's struggle to be a good leader would finally be explored again- all of this, after those wonderful setups in
Dark Tide 1: Onslaught.
I also enjoyed the climactic battle and ending to the book, which finally allowed the New Jedi Order to succeed in showing that the Yuuzhan Vong could be somewhat terrifying again, something that I haven't felt in this series for a while.
Lastly, even though I thought the characters were largely very boring in this book, nobody felt out of character. So I guess that can be considered a positive.
THE CONCLUSION: Final rating is 2 stars.
Yikes. What a rough trifecta of novels these last couple of NJO outings have been. The original plan during the development of the New Jedi Order was to follow up Balance Point with the Knightfall Trilogy, a series of novels focused on the character of Danni Quee. Thank goodness that didn't happen, because I would have given up if that was next. I would not have cared if I would eventually reach a Matthew Stover novel or how many times I heard good things about
Star by Star. Danni is one of my least favorite characters in Star Wars after
Vector Prime, and after Agents of Chaos and Balance Point, I wouldn't be able to handle an entire trilogy of novels about her.
Fortunately, the development team decided to go with
Edge of Victory instead. Anakin Solo has been my favorite character in this series by quite a long shot, so a duology centered on him will automatically peak my interests.
But for now, my attempt to read the New Jedi Order for the first time is going on hiatus. At this point, I need a break. I will probably pick this series back up again in a few months iand I get a chance to read
Light of the Jedi and the other novels releasing with the launch of the High Republic Project at the beginning of next year. Whether
Conquest (Edge of Victory, #1) will be the book that reinvigorates my excitement for the New Jedi Order or the one that further drives my motivation to keep going into the ground, the answer to that question will have to wait. -
This Book was recommended to me ages ago and it is the reason I started with the New Jedi Order series in the first place. So I went through five more or less mediocre Star Wars novels to get to this rather disappointing story. As it turns out going through all of them was not even really necessary as everything that has happened in the Yuuzhan Vong crisis so far is summed up on the first few pages (yep, this little has happened in five books).
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy Balance Point. The plot was somewhat interesting and instead of jumping from place to place it was mainly focused on a single location for once. This had the side effect that instead of giving every main character their own little story line, their courses of action seemed to actually fit together and all be directed towards working to fix one common problem.
Personally, I liked the fact that we got to see the entire Solo family together(ish) for once and that some conflicts between them were resolved or at least addressed - although I thought it was rather funny how easily this rift between Han and Leia that other authors have been working so hard on creating was abolished. Plus, we get a glimpse at how depressing and lonely Leia’s life would have been like had she never married and had children (aka she would have ended up living alone with a protocol droid and fixing the galaxy’s problems single-handedly).
However, despite these aspects there were too many annoyances here so that finally the novel didn’t manage to live up to my expectations. First and foremost there is Jacen’s behavior. I can hardly put into words just how annoying he keeps acting here. Jacen has a vision and being unable to properly interpret it, he decides to quit using the force altogether and to be super obnoxious about it. Has he forgotten that his poor interpretation of a vision has almost cost him his life in the past? Of course, while he keeps whining about how important his actions (and lack thereof) are for the fate of the galaxy he feels personally attacked every time anyone questions his behavior.
Unfortunately the other Solo kids’ behavior cannot really compensate his. Anakin is hardly present and while Jaina has her strong moments in this novel she appears like an ungrateful brat from time to time.
On top of that what really bugged me here (and I felt was inconsistent with the past) is the fact that 4/5 of the Solos were actually on the same planet and unaware of it. I mean, Jedi or not, didn’t Leia have a stronger connection with her children through the force in the past? Shouldn’t she have felt Jaina’s near death experience, too? And when the kids finally decided to go looking for their mom (also weird it took them so long - she could have been dead) shouldn’t the first thing to do have been to reach out through the force?
Other than that I felt that while there were interesting chapters scattered throughout the novel, it had quite a few segments that were just boring. Overall, it took a long time for suspense to be built up and only in the very end did it manage to become a bit of a page turner. This has certainly not been the best novel of the series so far but it is not its worst either. Having finished it though, I feel like it’s time for a break. -
Balance Point is a weird book, because, while Tyers’s writing ability is far better than Luceno’s, the book goes absolutely nowhere. For all the hate and disappoint I laid on Luceno’s Hero’s Trial and Jedi Eclipse at least there was a story there.
Like I said Balance Point has talent behind it but unfortunately, it’s so incredibly boring that it’s hard to get though. At 359 pages, the book isn’t long by any means, but it sure as hell feels long when you’re stuck in a story that goes around and around, never really leaving one setting or one main plot. There are about maybe 20-30 pages where stuff actually happens, so it’s not like this one is completely devoid of action, however, those pages are at the very end of the book, which means you’re gonna have to slog your way through 330-ish pages of useless dialogue, repetition, emo Jedi knights, and Yuuzhan Vong who are becoming increasingly more annoying with each successive novel in this series.
Speaking of this series, NJO is quickly becoming a chore to read. I thought, that after Salvatore’s Vector Prime this was something that I’d fly through. The reality is, I’m not. Yes, I’ve read the first 6 books in about 2 months, though, at this point, I’m not exactly eager to rush and pick up the 7th book. I know the series finally seems to pick up steam and actually become much more consistent with Denning’s Star By Star, but that’s still 3 books off. I just can’t bring myself to try and force myself through 3 more inconsistent and disappointing NJO stories.
I think it time to take a break. -
And if the fate of billions rested on a balance point so narrow that one misstep could doom everyone, did he dare even mention his vision until his own path seemed clear?
Well, talk about a late review on my end! Nevertheless, I'm finally here to provide my thoughts on Kathy Tyers' last contribution to the Expanded Universe and the sixth installment in the New Jedi Order series: Balance Point. Though often considered a low point for its slower pacing and controversial characterization of Jacen Solo, I am of the opinion that Balance Point is an overall enjoyable experience and an essential part of the NJO.
Most of Balance Point is set on the toxic, dreary planet of Duro, which has been abandoned by its native inhabitants and is now being partially restored into a hospitable environment as refugees are relocated there. The refugee subplot, previously teased in Dark Tide and later properly introduced in Agents of Chaos, takes center stage here; the main characters are busy tending to the different refugee complexes as the YV's plot to, once again, invade, slowly unveils. In that regard this novel could join James Luceno's preceding two NJO efforts as an unofficial, refugee-centered trilogy within the 19-book series. What comes with such dour subject matter is a gloomy underlying atmosphere. Although never as bloody as Onslaught or Ruin, BP's dour subject matter does sap the experience from some of the hopefulness usually associated with Star Wars and could thus be seen as a deterrent for certain readers. This is compounded by its deliberate pacing; indeed, just like the previous hardcover, Balance Point is the slowest NJO entry so far - an interesting position to be in for sure, as you'd expect what was initially supposed to be the "main" books to be more eventful than the "less important" paperbacks. Instead of exciting space battles, you're left with a more detailed look into the characters' thoughts and feelings for the most part. This creative choice is much appreciated, as far as I'm concerned. By Balance Point, the Yuuzhan Vong threat has become the de facto status quo, so having one novel focus on the "gang" as a whole coping with this post-Sernpidal world is fascinating to see. Balance Point is certainly not the most exciting NJO experience - at points you're left wondering what the point of some scenes is, like with the masked YV agent on Coruscant - but I nevertheless think it was an important direction to go in.
Of all the character subplots we get in Balance Point, Jacen Solo's is the most focused on. I previously slammed Luceno's questionable depiction of Jacen in Jedi Eclipse, and though Tyers' Jacen takes a perhaps even more frustrating turn here, I believe she puts him on the right track again. After enduring the disastrous Centerpoint incident's aftermath and a cryptic vision, Jacen decides to cease using the force completely, all the while aiding the New Republic's refugee program. He refuses the call. Nevermind what not just the fans but also the people around Jacen in-universe think, it's certainly an interesting direction to take the character in. Initially a highly empathetic and energetic kid with a tendency to crack (bad) jokes, he had already lost his jokey attitude upon maturing somewhat (read: being freed from KJA's writing) in Vector Prime. Now, after also discarding his readiness for action, all Jacen is left with is his empathy. So, naturally, he becomes a militant pacifist; not just refusing to make use of superweapons, but refusing action in general. If he's technically gotten worse in Balance Point, why do I prefer him here to his appearance in Agents of Chaos II? I think it has to do with direction. Sure, Jacen refusing to utilize Centerpoint Station by virtue of it being... a mass murder machine is a more sensible thing to do than secluding yourself from the force at all, even if it's just for defense. However, I just could not bring myself to care for JE's Jacen as we get next to nothing to work with in terms of his inner thoughts and turmoil. He's just... there, arrogantly spouting his conviction without ever letting his inherent empathy come through. BP's Jacen, though certainly misguided, is once more the compassionate young man who can engage in philosophical conversations with Uncle Luke about his personal world view. Given that Jacen is the most focal part of these debates, the NJO's thematic through line, I think it becomes obvious that he is this series' main character even in the first third. Sure, Anakin is the idealized hero, the one you would expect to become the next Luke Skywalker, but his story isn't as connected to the main plot; at least not now. Speaking of Anakin, he doesn't really do a lot in this one besides going on some more Stackpolean Mara/Anakin adventures and dismissing his brother. Not much more to say there. Jaina, however, has her best appearance yet in this book. It seems like the Dark Tide duology was the only NJO work to really do anything new with her, as she finally becomes a Rogue Squadron member and has to deal with the loss of a great, new friend. Still, she's decidedly been the third wheel behind her two brothers so far, which is a shame. Balance Point however, though it doesn't feature her as the main character, nonetheless fleshes her out. There's been a bit of resentment towards her mother on Jaina's part since Onslaught, I wanna say, and this is the novel where those misgiving finally come to the surface. I'll save a more detailed Jaina write-up for Dark Journey so for now let me just say that I am very happy she's finally getting to be her own character beyond "skilled fighter pilot". It's a shame that Jacen and Jaina were so unpopular with certain folks at the time. After Balance Point, I can say that all three Solo kids are great to read about.
There are some more characters I want to comment on. First up: Mara Jade. As with Jaina, I think Kathy Tyers takes Michael Stackpole's proverbial crown and gives us the best portrayal of her so far - owing to the ever present struggle male authors have with portraying women to a certain degree, I suppose (not to diminish the importance of Tyers' excellent writing with that comment, of course!). Indeed, presumably just like with Stackpole she consulted Zahn for writing tips and it shows: Mara manages to show both compassion and her strong personality without ever compromising on either. I don't want to spoil exactly what the main event here is, so I'll just say that it's something I believe even the NJO sceptics can get behind. Han and Leia both make appearances too, with their Agents of Chaos storyline ostensibly coming to a close here. Given that the pair take center stage on the cover, you'd expect them to play a key role together, and while Leia does do some important stuff on her own, Han is mostly just... there. Ah well, I suppose for his development this is more of an epilogue rather than the last third, given his previous duology and all. Finally, there's Randa, a Hutt character who, too, was previously introduced in Agents of Chaos. The more I think about it, the weirder the fact that these three novels aren't at least an unofficial trilogy gets; after all, the Ryn are back again, too. As for Randa, he's an anomaly: a Hutt character who, though naturally opportunistic and selfish like all members of his species, has to struggle with his conscience. He's somewhat pathetic for most of the story but interesting nevertheless, kind of like the of this novel. There's an official drawing of him which ultimately cut from the New Jedi Order Sourcebook that illustrates his character quite well; I suggest checking it out to get a better read on him, if interested. This series really does have a lot of great minor characters.
But what about the Yuuzhan Vong? I have almost exclusively sung Balance Point's praises so far but this is one section of the story which doesn't quite hit as well as it should. There is great stuff here, of course: Nom Anor gets better with every appearance and this is the point where his scheming really comes to the forefront. Further, there are a lot of interesting smaller things that make the Vong a more interesting adversary, like the two leviathans deployed by them, or the ritual the group of priests undergoes near the end. However, what disappointed me was the Warmaster Tsavong Lah himself. After being built up for three novels, I can't say I'm impressed: Sure, Lah is threatening and all, a clear member of the Warrior caste, but he's just lacking in terms of personality. Shedao Shai had everything Tsavong Lah has and then some. I'm sure he'll get better later on but for now the Warmaster is in my lower tier of YV characters alongside Da'Gara and Chine-kal. What else fell a bit flat was the Peace Brigade, who are a faceless organization still. The only real Peace Brigade character we have seen so far was Reck Desh, who himself didn't amount to much. The novel does work with YV collaborators, so I'm not sure why Tyers didn't flesh out the Brigade itself more. It's a concept with a lot of narrative potential, I think, so it's a shame that it's getting pushed to the side.
Balance Point is not the best New Jedi Order novel. The dour tone, slow pacing, and some mishaps regarding the handling of the antagonists make for a flawed experience. However, I still think it's a success. The story's smaller scale allows for most everyone's characterization and development to shine through. It's really quite similar to Kathy Tyers' other Star Wars novel, The Truce at Bakura in that sense. Neither is among the best SW work ever, but they nevertheless take our heroes in a fun direction you otherwise don't see a lot in Star Wars. While it's a shame that Tyers never wrote another EU work after this one, she can at least rest assured that her last contribution was a hit. -
I'll be honest. I found it a little hard to read this, because the Duros were hard to deal with. It was tense, and it gave us good insight into Jacen and his attitudes towards the force, and what is defined as aggression.
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Yet another middle-of-the-road entry in the New Jedi Order series.
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As the New Jedi order series moves on, the refugee crisis caused by the war with the Yuuzhan Vong worsens. The ecologically ravaged planet Duro becomes the next settlement site. The indigenous residents of Duro live in floating cities, above the polluted planet. The New Republic negotiates an agreement that allows the refugees to work on rebuilding the planet's eco-system in return for safe haven; Leia Organa Solo will oversee the work. Meanwhile, Han and his Ryn sidekick Droma have also found their way to Duro to work with refugees, but they do not realize that Leia is there. Luke, Mara and Anakin also have business on Duro, tracking down a missing Jedi apprentice. And eventually, Jacen and Jaina make their way to Duro as well. Jaina has suffered an injury while flying with Rogue Squadron and Jacen continues to struggle with whether he can ever use the Force again. He hopes to sue for peace using non-violent means and without using the Force.
Unbeknownst to all of them, Duro is the next planet targeted for a Yuuzhan Vong attack.
I enjoyed this book better than the last several installments of the series. Although the machinations that bring all of our heroes together in one place are a little convoluted, the single location does provide the novel with a certain focus. And Jacen's crisis of conscience provides the hook for the story. From the beginning, we know that this will be his novel and that the decisions he makes will be the key to whatever happens. I am not sure whether I am entirely comfortable with the resolution, but I am glad that they dealt with his concerns seriously and brought them to a climax. It was also intriguing to have the character of Executor Nom Anor return. It makes me wonder what further role he has to play in the meta-story.
This book represents an improvement from the last few installments and is a mildly entertaining read. Nonetheless, I am still waiting for something in the NJO series to really "wow" me. -
Definitely a step up from Agents of Chaos. It does a pretty good job of balancing everyone in the family. Though that could also be because Luke, Mara, and Anakin are together, early on Han, Jacen, and Jaina are together, and eventually everyone's on the same planet dealing with the same situation. Jacen works through a lot and comes to some conclusions, Jaina's having some legit problems with her mother's constant absence from her life, Anakin's totally fine. He's a good kid. Of course, things are still bad with the Vong, and Fey'lya and the New Republic politicians are just as awful and infuriating as ever, but at least we get some small happiness. Before things happen to Tahiri and then the mission to Myrkr and I don't think I'm going to be able to handle it. 😭😭😭
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So! Good! Balance Point deals with the same struggles against the Yuuzhan Vong but it’s centralized in a refugee camp on Duro and all my favorite characters are there. The kids are active vital parts of the story and Leia is at the center trying keep things from falling apart and save lives. Jacen struggle with his role in his famous family and what it really means to be a Jedi, a Skywalker/Solo, a force welder, a young man in the galaxy that’s crumbling around him.
For the first time I found a hutt interesting and not cringe-worthy. Randa is a true hutt but when he realizes that he can’t talk his way out of death, he repents and becomes an ally.
Luke and Mara are back and it was sooooo rewarding. They are the best couple. Luke loves Mara to her core and cares for her with tenderness and patience. He’d do anything for her. She loves him wholeheartedly. The way she teases him and calls him out for trying protect everyone or take the world on single handed. They compliment each other so well. I couldn’t imagine a better coupling than these two. I irks me that the powers that be neglected to make Mara “canon”. I’m just happy that Luke has found love. Love it! -
Rating: 5/10
It's Readable Sure...But Not Memorable
Warning: This review may contain spoilers.
Whilst Balance is certainly one of the better novels inThe New Jedi Order series, it still suffers the same problems as it's predecessors. A lackluster story, a story that is very short with no real depth, sense of excitement and with villains that neither excited or interest you. Thankfully there is a different Audible Narrator for this novel to the previous books - and whilst he not in the same leagues as Marc Thompson when delivering Star Wars books, it still is a massive step up from the previous narrator. At least I try and enjoy what the story is without being taken out of the story every sentence because of the narration. I am going to keep reading the Star Wars: New Jedi Order series, but sadly can't see it improving. -
I loved this book. Tyler’s tells amazing stories. Well thought out and all the pieces come together by the end. Loved watching Jacen’s struggle with understanding his place in the force. The dream he has of the balance between light and dark.
I also loved the relationships in this book. Han and Leia finally reunited. Basically just a hi ya sweetheart and back off to war they both go. Exactly what you would expect from them. Jaina and Leia’s relationship as the young adult faces her mortality and learns a mother’s love. Mara Jade Skywalker is amazing with all she goes through and fights for.
I can’t wait to read more, even though I know where the stories go. -
We take a break from the pull-no-punches glow of NJO for a slower, family-unfriendly adventure with the Solo-Skywalker clan. Despite having a fair plot and decent character development, the lackadasical movement of the story and the extraordinary melodrama might leave one wishing for a Yuuzhan Vong attack if only to liven things up. The way the author keeps interrupting herself midparagraph also may make it tough to concentrate on what ought to be a breeze of a read.The ending - though par for the course so far as we have seen - is respectably entertaining. If you care to see 4/5 of the Solo family shaved bald, this may be the outing for you. A solid 3 Dovin Basals; next, please.
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Balance Point is the sixth book in the New Jedi Order series and the second hardcover. After being split up in the last books, the Skywalkers and Solos all reunite on the planet Duros. The refugee threads of the previous two books are very plot-centric here, the Randa arc from the previous two books ends here, Jacen Solo's story arc is very prevalent, Mara learns she's pregnant with what will become Ben Skywalker (who, while barely in this series, is very much a part of the next few series), we get Warmaster Tsavong Lah in a major role and the return of Nom Anor in his next major scheme.
All these books have been good, though the previous two took me a while to get through. This book and the Dark Tide duology (
Dark Tide I: Onslaught and
Dark Tide II: Ruin) have so far been the standouts. I don't know why, this and the Dark Tide books just seemed to fly off the page. The author of this had only written one other Star Wars novel (which I read decades ago) and a few short stories. Anyway, this was a great book and well worth reading.
A note to those who only want to read the hardcovers: I think you could do it, but you miss so much character development. Events from the paperbacks are mentioned and referenced a lot. I think you'd miss a lot and be wondering "when did that happen?" or "who is that?". -
This entry in the New Jedi Order series is a bit of a departure from the earlier novels. Where they feature grander, epic planetary battles and travel across the galaxy, this novel concentrated on the Solo and Skywalker families as they deal with their ken personal challenges and work to protect a relatively small group of refugees. In that regard it is a more intimate and somewhat philosophically minded novel. The the earlier NJO books.
