Force Heretic I: Remnant

This book was an interesting read in a lot of ways, but it's 15 books into a 19 book long series, so if you haven't been following it, the rest of this might not make a lot of sense to you. First was that in it we see further development of the “Jeedai heresy” amongst the Yuuhzang Vong, and learn a bit more about their cultural values. On top of that we see the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic start to work together, and we see the appearance of one of my favourite science fiction ideas: the sentient planet that moves throughout the galaxy under its own willpower. I loved the idea when it was Mogo from GLC, and when it was Ego the Living Planet from Thor and Silver Surfer comics, and I love the idea here, where it's the planet Zonama Sekot.

What really surprised me about this novel, though, is that it's another Star Wars novel where the EU characters really come into their own. While most of the movie characters do appear here, the meatiest roles of the book go to Jedi Knight Tahiri, Jagged Fel, and Gilad Pellaeon. It's amazing that a series based on a film would get to that point, where the main characters of the film have become secondary, but that's how the Star Wars universe has evolved, and I think it's just great. I especially loved Pellaeon in this book; he's very clearly an Imperial character, but one that you want to root for anyways.