"Vector Prime: Aliens meets Star Wars"

Every time I read a really bad Star Wars book, and it seems to be no reason to continue on with following the story line of the Expanded Universe (EU), there comes along another book that re-establishes my faith in the entire series. R. A. Salvatore’s "Vector Prime" is a book that falls into the later category; it’s exciting and maintains that Star Wars feeling from start to finish (often times I find that some EU authors tend to lose sight of the fact that they’re writing about something based in the Star Wars Universe).

The novel is the first in "The New Jedi Order" series, and is set 20 years after the Battle of Endor. After years of struggling to maintain peace and stability in the galaxy, the New Republic is faced by a new threat that could tear everything apart. At the center of this new threat - Nom Anor, an energetic agitator, stirs up discontent among the detractors of the New Republic.

Out on the Outer Rim, a new enemy (the Yuuzhan Vong) emerges, possessing powers unlike anything ever encountered by the New Republic. And in many ways, this new alien race seems, to me, to be reminiscent of the "Alien" movies; a virtually un-destructable force with unknown origins, hell-bent on total destruction and elimination of anything that isn’t of their kind. Once again, our heroes (Luke, Mara, Han, Leia, Chewbacca) are thrust into the thick of combat, rushing to defend the New Republic that so many others fought and died to get established.

One of the things that I like a lot about this particular novel is that Salvatore does not rely on filling up precious story telling time with pointless rambling on about the turbulent past that the heroes have lived through, only occasionally mentioning something here and there. At the same time Salvatore is able to introduce new elements (the Yuuzhan Vong) into the Star Wars Universe without sacrificing the overall feeling of that universe. In maintaining the feeling of the Star Wars Universe, Salvatore proves that he has at least watched the movies (I’m partially kidding about this, but sometimes it seems that some of these authors are completely oblivious to the very existence of the movies, and they seemingly decide to tell stories that possess very little feeling of that universe at all). And most of all, Salvatore proves to be a good writer in that he has created something that moves quickly, and keeps the reader involved for the entire duration of the story his writing is virtually devoid of cliché and cheesy one liners that seem to dominate a lot of the EU series.

Prior to reading this book there were enough spoilers to almost lead me towards rejecting the book outright (though I’m glad that I took some time to read it in the end). Most prominent of all was the death of Chewbacca (if you haven’t heard about this by now you must be living in a cave, even if you never read the book before), which seems to be a defining moment that demonstrates gravity of this new threat to the galaxy. But despite all of these spoilers, this book has more surprises than could ever possibly be revealed in any review – a great credit to the author.

So, under all of these circumstances I most sincerely recommend that every Star Wars fan read this book (even if the EU doesn’t particularly interest you). Salvatore’s "Vector Prime" is a much-needed breath of fresh air for a series (by this I mean all of the books in the SWEU, prior to Vector Prime) that has, from time to time, become a bit stagnant.

Sean's Rating