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Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Following a trail of clues across the galaxy, Luke Skywalker continues his quest to find the reasons behind Jacen Solo's dark downfall and to win redemption for the Jedi Order. Sojourning among the mysterious Aing-Tii monks has left Luke and his son Ben with no real answers, only the suspicion that the revelations they seek lie in the forbidden reaches of the distant Maw Cluster. There, hidden from the galaxy in a labyrinth of black holes, dwell the Mind Walkers: those whose power to transcend their bodies and be one with the Force is as seductive and intoxicating as it is potentially fatal. But it may be Luke's only path to the truth.
Meanwhile, on Coruscant, the war of wills between Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala and the Jedi Order is escalating. Outraged over the carbonite freezing of young Jedi Knights Valin and Jysella Horn after their inexplicable mental breakdowns, the Jedi are determined to defy Daala's martial tactics, override Council Master Kenth Hamner's wavering leadership, and deal on their own terms with the epidemic of madness preying on their ranks. As Han and Leia Solo, along with their daughter Jaina, join the fight to protect more stricken Knights from arrest, Jedi healers race to find a cure for the rapidly spreading affliction. But none of them realize the blaster barrel is already swinging in their direction--and Chief Daala is about to pull the trigger.
Nor do Luke and Ben, deep in the Maw Cluster and pushing their Force abilities beyond known limits, realize how close they are--to the Sith strike squad bent on exterminating the Skywalkers, to a nexus of dark-side energy unprecedented in its power and its hunger, and to an explosive confrontation between opposing wielders of the Force from which only one Master--good or evil--can emerge alive.
Author Notes
Bestselling fantasy and science fiction author Troy Denning was born in 1958. He has written many novels, including the Prism Pentad series and multiple contributions to the Star Wars and Forgotten Realms universes. Denning is one of the founders of the game company Pacesetter Ltd, and he co-designed the Dark Sun Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. He has published under his own name and the pseudonym Richard Awlinson. Denning joined TSR as a game designer in 1981, and was promoted a year later to Manager of Designers, before he moved to the book department. He then worked for two years managing the Pacesetter game company, and had a stint at Mayfair Games. Denning wrote the third novel in TSRs "Avatar Trilogy", Waterdeep (1989), which he wrote under the house pseudonym Richard Awlinson, the book became a New York Times bestselling novel. In October 1989 he rejoined TSR as a senior designer, co-creating the Dark Sun setting with Tim Brown and Mary Kirchoff. Denning returned to freelance writing again in 1991, writing the bestselling "Prism Pentad" for the Dark Sun setting, and the Forgotten Realms "Twilight Giants" trilogy Denning also wrote the Planescape hardcover Pages of Pain "It had to be from the Lady of Pain's viewpoint which is something of a problem, since (as every Planescape player knows) she never speaks and (this was the really good part) the reader must know less about her at the end of the book than he does at the beginning, and nobody knows anything about her at the beginning. In 2010 Troy Denning published his book Vortex and it hit the New York Times Best Seller list.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (1)
Booklist Review
Abyss is the third in a new nine-book series by different authors set in the Star Wars universe. The action-packed series continues to follow the journey of Luke and Ben Skywalker as they travel in search of clues to understand Jacen's descent into the dark side. This time they enter the Maw, a group of barely navigable black holes where Ben and the other young Jedi were hidden many years before. Ben not only has to overcome his fear of the Maw, but he must also fend off a powerful mind force that has been waiting for his return. Deep in the Maw, Ben and Luke find a mysterious space station all too reminiscent of the Centerpoint Station, and they must venture inside to talk to the Mind Drinkers. Back on Coruscant, Han, Leia, and Jaina Solo are barely able to keep the government from encasing all the crazy Jedi in carbonate, especially after two more succumb, and information seems to be leaking to a sleazy journalist. With Luke exiled, the Jedi Council is leaderless and begins to splinter, even as the government attacks escalate. Can the Jedi Order survive until Luke's return? A must-read for Star Wars fans.--Moyer, Jessica Copyright 2009 Booklist
Excerpts
Excerpts
In the Jade Shadow 's forward canopy hung twin black holes, their perfect darkness surrounded by fiery whorls of accretion gas. Because the Shadow was approaching at an angle, the two holes had the oblong appearance of a pair of fire- rimmed eyes-- and Ben Skywalker was half tempted to believe that's what they were. He had begun to feel like he was being watched the instant he and his father had entered the Maw cluster, and the deeper they advanced, the stronger the sensation grew. Now, at the very heart of the concentration of black holes, the feeling was a constant chill at the base of his skull. "I sense it, too," his father said. He was sitting behind Ben in the copilot's seat, up on the primary flight deck. "We're not alone in here." No longer surprised that the Grand Master of the Jedi Order always seemed to know his thoughts, Ben glanced at an activation reticle in the front of the cockpit. A small section of canopy opaqued into a mirror, and he saw his father's reflection staring out the side of the canopy. Luke Skywalker looked more alone and pensive than Ben ever remembered seeing him-- thoughtful, but not sad or frightened, as though he were merely trying to understand what had brought him to such a dark and isolated place, banished from an Order he had founded, and exiled from a society he had spent his life fighting to defend. Trying not to dwell on the injustice of the situation, Ben said, "So maybe we're closing in. Not that I'm all that eager to meet a bunch of beings called the Mind Drinkers." His father thought for a moment, then said, "Well, I am." He didn't elaborate, and he didn't need to. Ben and his father were on a mission to retrace Jacen Solo's fiveyear odyssey of Force exploration. At their last stop, they had learned from an Aing- Tii monk that Jacen had been bound for the Maw when he departed the Kathol Rift. Since one purpose of their journey was to determine whether Jacen had been nudged toward the dark side by something on his voyage, it only made sense that Luke would want to investigate a mysterious Maw- dwelling group known as the Mind Drinkers. What impressed Ben, however, was how calm his father seemed about it all. Ben was privately terrified of falling victim to the same darkness that had claimed his cousin. Yet his father seemed eager to step into its depth and strike a flame. And why shouldn't he be? After everything that Luke Skywalker had suffered and achieved in his lifetime, there was no power in the galaxy that could draw him into darkness. It was a strength that both awed Ben and inspired him, one that he wondered if he would ever find himself. Luke' s eyes shifted toward the mirrored canopy section, and he caught Ben's gaze. "Is this what bothered you when you were at Shelter?" He was referring to a time that was ancient history to Ben--the last part of the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, when the Jedi had been forced to hide their young at a secret base deep inside the Maw. "Did you feel like someone was watching you?" "How should I know?" Ben asked, suddenly uneasy-- and unsure why. By all accounts, he had been an unruly, withdrawn toddler while he was at Shelter, and he recalled being afraid of the Force for years afterward. But he had no clear memories of Shelter itself, or what it had felt like to be there. "I was two. " "You did have feelings when you were two," his father said mildly. "You did have a mind." Ben sighed, knowing what his father wanted, then& Excerpted from Abyss by Troy Denning All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.