"Star by Star," by Troy Denning [Del Ray, 2001]

It was quite long, this book. But I liked it very much. 10

 

9.75

Its tied up there with I, Jedi, Traitor, and Shatterpoint, as my favorite EU novel. The pacing the battle scenes, the qiuet moments, they all worked. The only thing that didn't work out was the Mykr action scenes.

Above all else, this book really drives home the notion that a galaxy spanning war is being fought. The space battles have to be some of the largest in the EU, and Coruscant was exactly the apacolyptic, take no prisoners struggle that I imagined.

 

10

This book shattered my heart, It made me ache and weep. The tragedy in this story was so painful and so well done, Denning did a great job in my eyes. I felt so much connection with the characters in this book, that when I got to the climax where everything just went terribly wrong I felt personal loss and pain. Part of me wanted to scream "why? how could you?" and another part of me wanted to give Denning a standing round of applause for this amazing piece of literature.

I strongly suggest reading this book, it's definitely not one to be passed over.

 

Best Star Wars book ever. Period.

 

This was probably my favorite book of the series, next to Traitor...I don't actually know which one I liked best....Though, it was very good, IMO, and I gave it a 10.

 

I give this book a 9.9/10. The only problem with it was invisioning their surroundings at times, such as on the Worldship.
This book is tied with Traitor for my favorite Star Wars book ever....I'm not sure which I like more. I was emotionally drained for several hours after reading it, with Anakin's death and Jacen's capture. Unfortunately for me, I had already read Traitor so I knew that Jacen wasn't dead, but....it was a fabulous book anyways.

 

10/10

What can I say about SbS that hasn't already been pointed out 1000 times b4?
I loved it, I hated it, I hated it some more and then I ultimately accepted it.
Definitely the lynchpin to the entire NJO series, and one of the most immersive novels I have ever read. Regardless of if you are a SW fan or not, this book really captures the imagination with a plot that twists your mind and draws you into a story with enormous events and the consequenses of them. I can't say as I was 100% pleased with the results, but I can't complain about the journey. One hell of a book, no doubt.

 

It ws good but I have one question. WHY!?!?!?! Why did they have to kill anakin? I was looking forward to something happening between hiim and Tahari.

 

My favourite SW book too. Denning did a good job, though he did have some killer stuff to work with- voxyn, a Jedi strike team, Vergere, Tsavong Lah, the attack on Coruscant and of course, Anakin's death.

 

I'm not going to rate it yet since I'm only halfway through. It's pretty good so far. I don't want to be spoiled so I'm not reading other posts here yet. It's just that when a reference is made to Anakin Solo having a beard at this point in the series, I'm startled. Isn't he still, like, sixteen?

 

Well i enjoyed reading it, like already said in this post, it was pretty hard to follow along on the worldship, there were times where i had no idea where they were, and that rarely happens to me. Tahiri dissapearing after Anakin died was pretty stupid, and i also didnt understand why Anakin didnt just stay with the ship they found (that was eventually stolen by the dark jedi) and do his healing trance while the others finished the mission. I know its because she had to make him die, but i think realistically thats what would of happened.

I would of given it a 7 or 8, but i gave it a 1, because im mad that he killed the best character since the movies. I understand they want to keep it real, and noone is immortal, but come on, kill one of the twins, up until this point they have been pretty pointless, ill never understand why they had to kill anakin.

 

I also loved this book, and would give it a 10. Great writing and wonderful book. Truly a gem of the EU books. I thought he wrote all the characters well, especially the young Jedi, whom I didn't know as much about having not read any of the JJN or the YJN series. Thank you Troy!

 

10, a true epic. This book to me, had it all; grittiness, sadness, loss, humour, excitment amd daring etc etc. Sucked me in completely. One of the more 'realistic' Star War's books I've read, no 2D character portrayals here.

 

Absolutely amazing book!!!!

 

I liked Anakin so much and the fact that he an Tahiri were starting to fall in love made it that much more tragic. I really miss him not being in the latest series

 

Anakin's death was quite powerful, I cried. He was my favorite character and if he had to go, that was the way.

That said, overall I was not pleased with the book. It didn't flow very well. Some parts were very exciting and I couldn't put it down, while others were a chore to read. I found it unbalanced and therefore difficult to stay interested in.

 

Great book...huge huge huge self serving mistake with Anakin. That was the worst Idea in EU history...star wars history.

 

So glad that you killed off Anakin. Good job. But don't ever think of bringing him back as a clone, you'le only give relevance to the clone gang.

 

I love Star by Star! It was kinda boring in some parts, but I like the rest, even though Anakin's death was sad.

 

First off, I just got back into the SW EU. The last time I bought Star Wars novels were the paperbacks to Zahn's Thrawn duology (I guess they're calling it now). So I missed a lot since then. Luke and Mara's wedding, the Solo children growing up. I only finished reading "Betrayal" just a couple of weeks ago, so this is my first NJO book and even though it takes place in the middle of the series it turned out to be a really good starting point being such an excellent book.

The author has a great style for action scenes (could almost hear John Williams' score playing . . . . . . . okay, so I had the soundtracks playing softly in the background while I was reading -- don't you judge me! ) and good handle on the established characters. The dialogue rang true even though the characters were much older than in the last books I read, and it seem like I came to know the adult Solo children very quickly, even the other young Jedi in the mission team, so I was sad when they started dying. Not much Luke and Mara, though what there was was almost always priceless, the core of the story centered around Han and Leia, but the book definitely allowed many of the supporting characters to shine, especially the other jedi on Anakin's team.

Which brings us to the big thing in the book. Anakin's death. Even though this is the first book I've read with Anakin it was very sad and heartwrenching. Especially Han and Leia's reaction to it. Now some reviews say that it was overly dramatic, but personally . . . . I'm an uncle, soon to be, six times. I've been an uncle since I was 17. I can't even bring myself to image what losing one of those kids (my oldest niece is 18, but they're all still my babies) would do to me. So I'll dare not say that their reaction to Anakin's death was in anyway overdone.

But this is the way a main character should die in the SW universe. Something ***spoiler*** wasn't allowed in "Sacrifice".

And the space battles in the last half of the books were big and long. Again, some reviews state that the battles were sometimes too long, and I do agree. But, especially in the case of the fall of Coruscant, the battle needed to be big, it needed to be long, and, in conjunction with Anakin's Jedi team and the whole ordeal they were going through, it needed to be exhausting, both emotionally and physically (in my case since I couldn't go to sleep without finishing the book).

So this was a great read and an excellent Star Wars story. The only gripe I had was that whenever anyone spoke about Chewbacca, they would refer to him as "Chewbacca". Now these are people who loved him and were his family. How could they not call him Chewie!? Even if the authors or editors are taking into account the current generation of Star Wars fan, they can't be so stupid that they wouldn't get that Chewie is Chewbacca!? Give the fans some credit. Makes me a little afraid to read Vector Prime now. That the main characters would be calling Chewie "Chewbacca" before he dies

Otherwise I really can't say anything bad about the book. A definite 10.

Joseph B

 

Star by Star was a terrific read. I'm not usually a big fan of Denning's writing, but he sure knows how to put our characters in totally ****ed up situations.

 

I love Star by Star! Poor Anakin. He was one of my favourite characters.

 

It was good but It was just far too depressing for me to enjoy and the reason why NJO doesnt hold a candle to the bantam years. 10 solid books in a row of needlessly dark depressing plots without any shreds of hope is just too much for me.

 

IMHO Anakin's death was the biggest mistake the EU ever made, but at least Denning did his life and death serious justice. The voxyn striketeam plotline was a little ridiculous, but it worked, and was very exciting. The characterizations were solid.

One of my favorites. 10/10

 

Competing for #1 book in the EU, but like some of you guys, I'm not sure whether its really better than Traitor. Its really close. I read SbS, Dark Journey and Traitor all in one day. (I was sick..so I was in bed for almosyt two days though even if I wasn't would still read those books.) It perfect; SbS had the drama and the action, then Dark Jounrey had the sorrow and mounring and then Traitor had the reflection and accpetance part. So in part, I learnt about Anakin's death, felt their anger and denial of it, and then came to accept it. However, SbS, kinda lost me at the end, during the space battle (I'm no fan of space battles AT ALL) and during their jounrey through Myrkr (sp?). I knew where they were at any given moment but not how they had gotten there.

I also felt that Luke's reaction to Anakin's death wasn't nearly strong enough. He just banged his hand on a panel and that was it. Even in Dark Journey, he didn't even say anything about Anakin, i.e. didn't give the eulogy. That was a little disappointing because I wanted to really be shown how Anakin who was the Jedi's biggest hope, would be missed and the initial reactions of hjis friends and family to his death.

It also seemed a little unlikely that Jacen and Jaina would really just let Anakin go kill himself without objecting properly. I would have preferred to see Jaina die...actually. It would have set up the Legacy of the Force series much better for me, seeing the two brothers fight. IMO Jaina hasn't been ,much use for a long time and won't be much in the time to come.