I loved, loved, loved the scene where the Jedi storm into the GAS storage building. Priceless! It's about time they got the upper hand when it came to the media. Playing Javis Tyrr back against Daala made me sooo happy. I was about ready to put the book down earlier when he was playing against Jaina and Jag. But finally some payback.
I'm so happy Barv and Yaqueel didn't go on a rampage. That would have been...annoying. We've seen too many already. The fact that Han, Leia, and Jaina took care of them right away was perfect.
The tension amongst the Masters! Whoo-hoo...loving it. Not that I don't like the Jedi, on the contrary, but it's also about time that there was dissension in the ranks. I like the fact that things are starting to fall apart. Sometimes you can't be strong until you've been exposed to some of your own weaknesses. And the Jedi Order has been fairly stable internally since it was started. It's just refreshing to see some internal strife.
I actually don't mind the Jaina/Jag relationship. I thought it was handled well. Han and Leia shouldn't have gotten so upset, but then that's a realistic reaction. Also, Jaina is a strong woman, one reason why I like her so much, but she has to have some weak moments. I think we were shown some weak moments in Abyss, and I liked that. Also, Jag always seemed to be thinking of Jaina, even where the Empire was concerned. I thought he was very sweet. Had he been putting the Empire ahead of Jaina, he would never have even thought about telling her about the Mandalorians. So their relationship didn't bother me. Now...when Jag wasn't trusting her, that was a little hard. But, granted, she'd greatly disappointed him the past. I would also have an extremely hard time trusting someone 100% after that.
Luke and Ben's adventure in the Maw! That was so awesome. I loved all the dead people and half-dead people. The journeys Beyond Shadows, everything. I won't go into extreme detail here, but mainly I loved it.
The Sith. Another excellent plot of the book! I couldn't have been happier. These Sith were so refreshing from what we're used to. Maybe it's just because we've only seen them in ones and twos in the last millennium. But the Lost Tribe...awesome. I was so very sad when Lady Rhea died. She was becoming one of my favorite characters of the series.
Last thing I'd like to touch on: Chapter 22. While it was great, I didn't like it as much as others. Anakin was perfect, definitely. First time we've seen him since his death. Mara was pretty good, but I was disappointed in how much she berated herself for racing after Jacen. It just makes her death that much worse. The only positive thing I felt I got from her appearance was the quote I've added to my signature. And of course Luke's reaction. That was very touching. Jacen...the biggest disappointment. I was very sad to hear he wasn't one bit sorry for what he'd done. This saddened me for the rest of the book, until I read Caedus's take on it. Thinking of it that way makes me feel much better, though I'm still sad that Jacen's being smug about the whole thing. So, overall Chapter 22 didn't blow me away, but it did make me cry in a bittersweet sort of way. A great addition to an already great book.
The only con I'm going to point out at the moment is concerning the Mandalorians. I honestly think Denning threw this line in very much on purpose against Traviss:
The entire jetpack assault had been a diversion to help them escape with the PsiCor wallscope, and the Mandalorians were too disciplined - too cold
- to waste a fellow commando's sacrifice by risking the mission just to save a couple of lives.
The line about being 'too cold', Denning so did that on purpose. But anyway.
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