Agents of Chaos 1: Hero's Trial

Hero's Trial by James Luceno offers us a refreshing change of pace in The New Jedi Order, narrowing the focus from our galaxy-spanning cast of heroes to just one: Han Solo.  Made inconspicuous by grief over the death of Chewbacca for the last two books, Han's four-month spasm of drunken denial comes to an end when a figure from his past appears with information on an old colleague turned traitor.  Meanwhile a Yuuzhan Vong priestess stages a defection as part of a covert operation to assassinate Jedi, and the New Republic braces itself for the next round of conquest.

Hero's Trial gave me exactly what I was looking for after finishing Ruin. After two books of multiple points of view compressed into too-few pages, Luceno lets things breathe a bit by shifting the narrative from a host of Jedi to just Han.  In his freshman effort, he takes up the mantle of resuming the story of Han Solo and leaves me wanting more - more of wisecracking Droma, Han's new foil and emergent partner, more of the enigmatic Vergere, whose story began for me in Outbound Flight, and more of Han rolling his way into situations on the back of a dice.  

The truth of the matter is that I've been sitting on this review for over a week resolving a broken Kindle crisis, and that my impressions of this story aren't as sharp as they could be.  Since Hero's Trial is part of a duology, I will withhold the bulk of my commentary for its sequel, Jedi Eclipse.  The only thing not mentioned already that really stands out in my memory is Luceno's portrayal of large battles, which he performs almost solely through narration.  While the action directly affecting Han gets a more-detailed treatment, all large fleet actions, bombardments, and ground assaults are described in a way that makes me feel like I'm reading a description of a fireworks show or a vibrant painting.  As you can imagine, no such description can really do the thing justice, and so it is with Hero's Trial.

Back next time with Jedi Eclipse, and more Han Solo!