Product Description

THE NEXT CHAPTER IN THE EXTRAORDINARY HISTORY OF THE STAR WARS GALAXY BEGINS HERE. . . .

After a violent civil war and the devastation wrought by the now-fallen Darth Caedus, the Galactic Alliance is in crisis–and in need. From all corners, politicians, power brokers, and military leaders converge on Coruscant for a crucial summit to restore order, negotiate differences, and determine the future of their unified worlds. But even more critical, and far more uncertain, is the future of the Jedi.

In a shocking move, Chief of State Natasi Daala orders the arrest of Luke Skywalker for failing to prevent Jacen Solo’s turn to the dark side and his subsequent reign of terror as a Sith Lord. But it’s only the first blow in an anti-Jedi backlash fueled by a hostile government and suspicious public. When Jedi Knight Valin Horn, scion of a politically influential family, suffers a mysterious psychotic break and becomes a dangerous fugitive, the Jedi become the target of a media-driven witch hunt. Facing conviction on the damning charges, Luke must strike a bargain with the calculating Daala: his freedom in exchange for his exile from Coruscant and from the Jedi Order.

Though forbidden to intervene in Jedi affairs, Luke is determined to keep history from being repeated. With his son, Ben, at his side, Luke sets out to unravel the shocking truth behind Jacen Solo’s corruption and downfall. But the secrets he uncovers among the enigmatic Force mystics of the distant world Dorin may bring his quest–and life as he knows it–to a sudden end. And all the while, another Jedi Knight, consumed by the same madness as Valin Horn, is headed for Coruscant on a fearsome mission that could doom the Jedi Order . . . and devastate the entire galaxy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4317 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-24
• Released on: 2009-03-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345509062
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Aaron Allston is the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force novels Betrayal, Exile, and Fury; the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Enemy Lines adventures Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand; novels in the popular Star Wars X-Wing series; and the Doc Sidhe novels, which combine 1930s-style hero-pulps with Celtic myth. He is also a longtime game designer and was recently inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design (AAGAD) Hall of Fame. He lives in Central Texas.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter Five


 “COME TO COURSE TWO-SIX-NINE.

”  Han, following his wife’s directions, banked the Falcon around and headed toward the government district. Leia, in the copilot’s seat, had her personal comlink to her ear. 

 The Falcon’s comm board was alive with Coruscant Security and traffic monitors warning Han to return to designated ship traffic lanes or be subject to arrest. He growled and switched the thing to silent mode. “They found him?” 

 “They found him. He’s in an X-wing with a hole in the cockpit.” 

 “Armed?” 

 “Fifty—fifty chance. It was in the Senate Building, so it’s either a fully functional security vehicle or some Senator’s unarmed memoriesof- youth vehicle. I’m hoping for the second option.” 

 “Me, too.”  

“Come to two-five-nine.” 

 “Nah.” Han put the Falcon into a dive. His stomach fluttered, and the sensor screen filled up with tiny objects getting larger–small- vehicle traffic at and below building-top level. Flashing down at terrifying and illegal speed, he twitched the controls right and left, nimbly dodging the much smaller civilian vehicles. 

 “Han, what do you think–” 

 Then he was fully among them, streams of traffic above as well as below. He pulled out of his dive two hundred meters below the average height of the buildings. 

 “–you’re doing?” 

 “This way, we’re off the major sensor boards. Only vehicles with line of sight on us will complain.” 

 “I understand that. I mean, why not turn to two-five-nine?” 

 “His course changes are just to jerk us around, to confuse us. I know where he’s going.” 

 “Where?” 

 “The spaceport, right at the edge of the government district. He stole a starfighter; that means he wants to make space. It’s damaged, so he can’t. He needs another one. Right?” 

 “Right.” 

 “When it comes to piloting and pilots, I’m all-knowing.” 

 Leia put an artificial sweetness into her voice. “I’ll never argue with you again.”

  Han snorted and increased velocity. A Coruscant Security speeder following in his wake dropped back, left behind as though it were suddenly standing still. 

  Luke and Ben, in Ben’s nimble red airspeeder, received the transmission with Han’s guess about the spaceport. 

 Luke, at the controls, shook his head, not pleased. The spaceport, comparatively flat and built at a much lower altitude than the surrounding residential, business, and government zones, was not, as most supposed, actually situated at bedrock level. Below it were many levels of machinery, repair hangars, Empire-era emergency bunkers, spaceport employee facilities, and repair accesses. 

 If Han was right and Valin was headed that way, even if he was unsuccessful at stealing another spaceworthy vehicle he might escape into those subterranean regions, making it hard or impossible to find him before he detected his tracking device and destroyed it.  

Their speeder emerged from the skytowers and was abruptly out over the flatter region surrounding the spaceport. It was mostly given over to speeder parking, though it had decorative elements, including tree-spotted grassy regions and a small artificial lake.  

And sensor stations. Almost immediately, the speeder’s comm board began blaring with instructions for them to turn back, to stay away from restricted airspace. 

 “Tell them who we are.” Luke had to raise his voice to a shout to be heard.  

“I bet it doesn’t work. Who’s on the news as a criminal suspect? You are.” 

 “Do it anyway.” Luke put the speeder into a holding pattern, keeping close to the ring of skytowers, not approaching the port itself. The authorities might well decide to shoot down a suspicious speeder– piloted by a suspected criminal or not–heading straight toward an invaluable government and civilian transportation resource. Sabotage and terror attacks had taken place as recently as the war, two years earlier. 

 Ben looked up from the comm board, startled. “We’re not the only ones.” 

 “What?” Luke scanned the airspace above the spaceport. 

 There were a lot of small vehicles there now, most of them airspeeders of one size or another. Some were bigger business vehicles, many with lettering and symbols on the sides.  

From the utility compartment, Ben pulled out a pair of macro - binoculars and held them to his eyes. “That one’s a press vehicle. Turret-mounted holocam on top. That one–hey, that’s Jaina. The big green one–oh, kriff.”  

“Language. What is it?” 

 “It has an oversized driver’s cab and that Skakoan is in it.” 

 Luke frowned. Suddenly everyone knew that Valin was coming here, including press and bounty hunters. That meant open comm channels were being monitored, and people with no business being here were up to date. Daala’s people had to be doing this. 

 Then he saw it, almost at ground level, an X-wing painted in classic First Galactic Civil War grays. Its running lights were off; it was illuminated only by the glows from parking area pole lights–it flew beneath the altitude of the lights themselves.  

“Hold on.” Luke pushed his control yoke forward, sending the speeder into a precipitous dive.  

Ben’s lips were drawn back in a grimace–perhaps because no teenager wants anyone else to endanger his vehicle recklessly, that being the teenager’s own prerogative–but said, “Falcon’s incoming.”  

“Good.” Luke put the speeder on an intercept course, or a collision course if anything went wrong, and switched the autopilot on. He unlatched his seat restraints and slid toward Ben. “Take the controls.”  

He was gratified to see his son’s eyes open wide, but Ben did as he was told; the boy unbuckled, slid under his father, grabbed the controls, disengaged the autopilot. 

 Luke stood up in the seat, drawing on the Force to keep him pinned in place despite the rush of wind threatening to tear him free.  

He counted on Ben to know what to do, and his son did not let him down. Ben leveled off at the same altitude as the X-wing, completing his maneuver just meters behind the starfighter, and drew alongside that vehicle’s port side. 

 Luke sprang across the gap separating his seat from the cockpit. The wind threatened to whip him away, but a boost of Force energy carried him to the fuselage just as Valin Horn was realizing he had a pace vehicle. Luke landed astride the nose, facing astern, staring straight down into Valin’s startled features. 

 Valin yanked up on the X-wing’s armrests. The canopy was suddenly open, snapping backward, and gone, and Valin hurtled into the sky, his pilot’s chair propelled by a crude one-use rocket.  

 “Stang! He punched out.” Han pounded his steering yoke.  Leia looked as aggravated as Han felt. “Can the cargo tractor beam–” 

 “Not strong enough. Can’t compensate for a fast-moving target.” 

 “We have to go after Valin, then.” 

 Han shook his head. “The ejection won’t have left enough controls for Luke to land the X-wing. He may be able to lift it or push it down with the Force . . . but land it with no controls? No. We have to help him.” He heeled over, diving toward the X-wing. 

   “He punched out.” Jaina reluctantly turned her attention from Luke, disappearing toward the spaceport on the uncontrolled X-wing, and returned it to Valin, still ascending in his ejection seat. She banked and headed toward the rogue Jedi. 

 In the passenger seat, Master Kyle Katarn, about Luke’s age, darkhaired and dark-bearded, stretched as if coming out of a nap. “You plan to maneuver underneath and catch him?”  

“That’s right.” 

 Katarn pointed toward another speeder, a large, flatbed cargo hauler with figures standing in the cargo bed. This vehicle rose toward Valin’s position from a much nearer position. “So do they.”  

  Valin’s seat reached its maximum altitude and began dropping. Immediately the short-term repulsor within the seat activated, slowing his descent.  He felt as though he’d taken a tremendous blow to the top of his head, doing no damage to it but compressing the spine beneath. Ejections were always like that–bad, but better than the alternative. 

 And he’d always relish the look...

Customer Reviews

Mixed Bag
Darth Caedus is gone but the Galactic Alliance is suffering from the aftermath of his dark reign. The Jedi have been shouldered with the blame and Luke Skywalker has been banished from Coruscant because he was unable to stop Jacen Solo's turn to the dark side. To make matters worse, Jedi Knight Valin Horn is suffering from a psychotic break that brings even more unwanted attention on the Jedi. In a desperate move, the Galactic Alliance assigns official observers to every Jedi Knight to keep them in check.

After his banishment Luke and his son, Ben, decide to uncover the truth behind Jacen's turn to the dark side and their search leads them to Dorin, home world of the mysterious Kel Dors. While there they uncover some startling revelations that bring a whole new set of problems. Meanwhile, back on Coruscant, the Jedi continue to struggle under the watchful eye of the government and the media. When a rogue Jedi appears suffering from Valin Horn's same condition, the Jedi must find a way to capture him and get the answers they need. All the while they must outwit the government forces that have turned against them.

Outcast was a mixed bag for me because even though I flew through the pages, there were certain elements that didn't work. One thing that works well throughout is Aaron Allston's top notch writing. This story flows easily and Allston does a wondrous job of plopping us right into the middle of the civil conflict brewing around the Jedi. Throughout the story we are treated with a nice balance of action and character development that make this an effortless read. I especially enjoyed the fresh insights into the Kel Dors and it was fun to see grandparents Han and Leia up to their old tricks.

What didn't work for me was how little actually happens in this story. I hate to even comment on this since I enjoyed Allston's writing so much, but that is my straight up initial reaction. Granted, I have not read the Legacy of the Force series, and one could argue that perhaps that hindered my understanding and comprehension of everything going on in Outcast. Honestly, I feel like Allston did a great job of including the perfect amount of background info to set the stage for the story and besides, I didn't encounter anything a little Wookiepedia couldn't remedy. In the end it just seems like very little happened here and I never really felt like any of the heroes were in any kind of danger.

Don't get me wrong though. As I stated earlier, the elements that did work, worked quite well and were enough to keep me going. Star Wars fans will no doubt find plenty here to rave about, but I won't be surprised if many are left with the same impressions that I was. This is the first book in the series, and my hope is that as the series unfolds I will look back on Outcast and have a deeper appreciation for it. In the meantime I am eagerly anticipating the release of the second installment, Omen.

Fate of the Jedi: Outcast
The GA is holding a Unification summit, the Jedi are mistrusted and certain of them are suffering psychotic breaks, and Luke Skywalker is accused of dereliction of duty for failing to stop Jacen Solo before he became Darth Caedus, so he is being partially blamed for everything Jacen did during the Second Galactic Civil War. A stunning opening to what looks to be an amazing new series!

Luke knows the charges are somewhat true and bargins with Chief of State Daala to avoid going to prison. Luke accepts exile for 10 years from Coursant and the Jedi Order. The only chance Luke has of returning before the completion of the 10 years is to discover what caused Jacen to turn to the Dark Side. Luke and his son, Ben (also a Jedi) begin traveling the galaxy to find where all Jacen went during his five year travels to visit different Force-users, trying to learn what caused Jacen to go to the Dark Side. They begin with visiting the planet Dorin, the home of the Kel Dors, the people Jedi Master Plo Koon belonged to. There, Luke begins his quest to determine what all Jacen learned during his travels.

Han and Leia, with their granddaughter Alanna (also known as Amelia) travel to Kesssl to help Lando save his mining enterprise for dangerous groundquakes that are threatening to tear the planet apart.

The Jedi are all assigned government observers to follow their movements and restrict their usefullness.

Jag Fel and Jaina Solo have fallen in love and are having secret meetings. This story line is going to be very, very interesting.

I currently have the audiobook version of Outcast, I am waiting for my book to arrive in the mail. This first books in the Fate of the Jedi series is recorded in its unabridged length, a welcome change to having almost all other Star Wars books be abridged for audiobook. Well done, Random House and Del Ray!

This story promises to bring a welcome new chapter to the Star Wars saga, especially after the devastation that took place during the Legacy of the Force stories. Allan Allston is a wonderful writer, who keeps the story moving. Outcast has a wonderfully written style and keeps the reader engaged. In fact, I am beginning to like Allston almost more than Troy Denning, who wrote my favorite Legacy of the Force novel, Inferno. (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Inferno) I highly recommend Outcast to anyone who loves Star Wars and wants a great new series to read.

May the Force be with us!

excellent opener
The politicians are meeting in a summit on the planet Coruscant to discuss bringing the Imperial Remnant into the Galactic Alliance. Luke Skywalker is arrested at the instigation of Chief of Sate Natasi Dalaa for dereliction of duties. His protégé Jacen Solo turned to the dark side of the force and caused the Second Galactic Civil War when he became Darth Caedus. Dalaa wants to prosecute Luke for his failure to recognize Jacen's turn to the dark because he believes Luke is accountable for the deaths caused by the war.

Luke pleads guilty because he knows the charges are true; he is excommunicated from every Jedi Temple and Coruscant for ten years. He will be pardoned if he can learn what turned Jacen. Jedi Knight Valin Horn has a psychic break that makes him believe everyone he knows is an imposter. The media captures his rampage and the public turns against the Jedi Order leading to restrictions on them. Han Solo, his wife Leia and their granddaughter go to the dying planet Kessel to find out why earthquakes are out of control; they find an underground tunnel complex filled with machines and energy forces that could destroy the orb. Luke and his son Jedi Knight Ben go to Dorin where Jacen studied the native use of the Force hoping to find a clue.

This is the opening act of a nine book saga in which the Jedi have fallen into disgrace as the government and the public believe they are not held accountable for their actions. There is plenty of action and the known characters stay true to their film personalities. Perhaps the only negative is eight books to go in this arc, but if they are anything like the first this will be one of the better Star War entries.

Harriet Klausner