The Truce at Bakura

"The Truce at Bakura" is an early installment to the Expanded Star War Universe, which was written by Kathy Tyers - who had previously written four other science fiction novels, as well as a travel guide to the northern U.S. Rocky Mountains. This book was neither terribly exciting, nor very interesting - and at the very most this book can be considered somewhat tolerable.

Our story begins just a day after the Rebel victory at Endor - our heroes have barely had time to catch their breats before they areonce again thrown into adventure. The Alliance intercepts a distress call from a distant Imperial outpost on the backwater world of Bakura, which brings the Empire and Rebellion to unite temporarily against a common foe. The new enemy, the Ssi-ruuk - a reptillian alien race which once allied with the Emperor, and now seek to achieve total domination of the entire galaxy. But the temporary alliance is no guarantee, and so Princess Leia is in a race against time to achieve a truce with the Bakurans and the Empire before the Ssi-ruuk attack again. What makes the Ssi-ruuk all the more fierce is the process of entechment, which is the extracting of life energies to support technical/mechanical existence (turning lifeforms into mechanics, droids).

Perhaps the fact that there wasn't much fiction in the Star Wars universe to begin with when this novel was written was a reason why this book seemed to struggle with fleshing out that Star Wars feeling - which this book does have, although it seems a bit strained at times. Another factor in this book's shortcomings could also easily be due to the lack of the author's writing in the genre to begin with (though four previous novels make Tyers far more than a rookie). But what I personally think to be the reason behind this story's shorcomings is a combination of the fact that this book was written when the rebirth of the EU was still young and that Kathy Tyers simply isn't as connected with the Star Wars Universe as the average Star Wars fan.

Actually, when I finally decided to re-read this book (so I could write this review) I expected to be writing a scathing review afterwards. When I first read it in High School I thought it was one of the biggest pieces of trash I ever had the displeasure to read - and so i was expecting to give this one a one Rebel sign review. Of course, I changed my mind after reading it a second time around, and I have to say that it was better (like re-heated mac 'n' cheese or a good chili), but not a whole lot better. There's no denying that tyers can write, so she doesn't suffer from Kevin J. Anderson-syndrome (cool story lines, but sophomoric prose). But this story is just not very exciting, which can also detract from its value, even if it does have that Star Wars feeling and is written well.

And so, my final word is that this book simply isn't worth reading unless you're looking to get into reading EU works (but I might suggest starting with something else) or you've read a great portion of other EU works. It's really not too bad, certainly not the worst thing in print, but I wouldn't push anyone over to get to it.

Sean's Rating