The New Rebellion

'The New Rebellion' by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Bantam Press 1996

Set 13 years after RotJ

Story -- someone is going around killing millions of innocents, as well as blowing up the New Republic Senate. A real mega-bad guy who wants to be Emperor and believes the only way to achieve this is to get rid of Luke, Leia and the Solo kids. As usual, there's lots of political in-fighting, especially now that ex-Imperials have been voted onto the Senate. Luke goes to find an ex-student, while Han and Chewie meet up with some old acquaintances.

Original characters from the movies -- pretty good; I especially liked Han back to his 'tough guy' image, flying fast and pointing blasters at everybody.

New characters -- Kueller (bad guy) is suitably convincing. Mara and Karrde are back (a bit) but not many characters from the other novels.

Cover art -- cute, even if there's still no sign of them aging. However, the text does mention that Luke hasn't aged much.

Chicks -- Leia has lots of political stuff to do, as well as angst and a bit of action. A couple of Han's old friends are female and they're OK. That's about it really.

Any good? -- despite not much Mara, this is really good.

Read it? -- yes!

Rating -- 7 out of 10

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