The New Jedi Order: Star by Star

The New York Times bestselling Star Wars series The New Jedi Order enthralls readers with its epic drama and thrilling adventure. Now readers will pierce the very heart of darkness, as those fascinating figures in that galaxy far, far away—Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, as well as their children—spring to vivid life to battle their deadliest adversaries.

It is a solemn time for the New Republic, as the merciless Yuuzhan Vong continue their ruthless campaign of terror and destruction. The brutal enemy has unleashed a savage creature capable of finding—and killing—Jedi Knights. And now Leia Organa Solo faces a terrible ultimatum from the mighty alien foe determined to conquer the galaxy. If the location of the secret Jedi base is not revealed within one week, the Yuuzhan Vong will blast millions of refugee ships into oblivion.

As the battered but still unbroken Jedi scramble to deal with the newest onslaught, Leia's son Anakin lays out a daring plan. A Jedi strike force will allow itself to be "captured" by the Yuuzhan Vong and taken to their stronghold in the realm of darkness, where the Jedi will sabotage the evil empire's deadliest weapons. The leaders of the force are the three Solo siblings. The risks are tremendous. Can the Jedi fight a ruthless enemy without becoming ruthless themselves and falling victim to the dark side?

The novel begins with R2-D2 accompanying Jaina Solo and Mara Jade Skywalker to fetch two Twi'lek Jedi Alema and Numa Rar. The twin sisters, however, are attacked aboard the Nebula Chaser by the Yuuzhan Vong's newest creation, the voxyn, which can hunt down Jedi through their Force presences. Numa is killed by the voxyn, and Alema escapes with her sister's corpse.

The New Republic military begins to gain victories in Vong battles on planets outside of Coruscant's star system, and Lando Calrissian creates Yuuzhan Vong Hunter battle droids that are designed to look similar to Vong warriors to mock them. These YVHs come equipped with weapons powerful enough to destroy the Vong's vonduun crab armor, making them a significant resource in the war against the invaders. Meanwhile, the Jedi learn of this new voxyn threat and, through research done by Cilghal, realize that the voxyn are clones of an original genetically modified beast native from Myrkr. In order to stop it, Anakin Solo suggests, and Luke Skywalker agrees, to send a Jedi strike team to the worldship at Myrkr to destroy the voxyn cloning lab. The idea faced some resistance, mainly from Han Solo who rightly believed that the mission was dangerous and was unwilling to send all three of his children right into Yuuzhan Vong territory. Ultimately, the choice was Luke Skywalker's, who is currently leading the Jedi, who thought that it was their only chance and volunteered himself for the mission. Anakin rejected his offer on the grounds that he was too valuable to the New Republic and the Jedi, as well as being too important and strong for the Yuuzhan Vong to consider taking alive. Instead, Anakin volunteers himself and others follow his lead. Lando gives the strike team two Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids for assistance. The members include Jacen, Jaina and Anakin, the latter the leader of the whole strike team, and they are accompanied by Alema, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka Djo, Tahiri Veila, Ganner Rhysode, Tesar Sebatyne, Krasov and Bela Hara, Ulaha Kore, Eryl Besa, Raynar Thul, Jovan Drark, Tekli, and Zekk.

Lando, acting as a traitor to the New Republic, convinces a Vong force led by Duman Yaght that he has brought them Jedi in exchange for his homeworld's safety. The Vong take the Jedi, but the latter group, after passing behind enemy lines, escape with the help of their YVH assistants, YVH 2-1S and YVH 2-4S, and use the ship they were captured aboard, the Exquisite Death, to reach Myrkr. Ulaha Kore and one of the YVHs are lost during the team's escape, staying behind to hold back the enemy. After landing aboard the Vong worldship where the voxyn are being cloned, called the Baanu Rass, they encounter the captured Dark Jedi Lomi Plo and Welk, who agree to assist them after being freed from the Vong's clutches. Through encounters with Yuuzhan Vong forces several of the Jedi and their remaining YVH assistants are killed. Using their knowledge of the worldship, Plo and Welk guide the strike team, but are perturbed when they discover that the Jedi have no escape plan. In order to escape, they steal the Tachyon Flier, injuring Lowbacca and abducting the wounded Raynar Thul and M-TD (Lowbacca's translator droid) in the process. Anakin becomes severely injured during one of their many confrontations with Vong forces and ends up sacrificing himself to hold off the warriors while the remainder of the team goes after the voxyn queen, right after Anakin achieves complete oneness with the Force. Jacen, replacing Anakin as leader, orders the remnants of the strike team to steal one of the Vong's frigate ships and escape the worldship while he kills the voxyn queen, who is being cloned several times to produce the voxyn. With the help of Vergere, Jacen confronts the queen and kills it by confronting it in a basal-comb. However, he is then captured by the forces of Nom Anor and Vergere.

On Coruscant, Viqi Shesh, traitor to the New Republic for the Yuuzhan Vong, attempts to kidnap the infant Ben Skywalker for Warmaster Tsavong Lah. Leia Organa Solo senses Anakin's passing and is deeply grieved at the loss of her youngest child. The Yuuzhan Vong invasion on the city-planet begins. During this, Viqi is chased down by Leia after her failed attempt at kidnapping Ben, but Viqi nevertheless escapes and regroups with the Vong. Luke and Mara Jade get shot down during the Battle of Coruscant and are almost killed had it not been for the Millennium Falcon saving them. Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya meets his end when Vong forces led by Romm Zqar raid the Imperial Palace and he sacrifices himself with a proton bomb blast, initially in order to kill Tsavong Lah, who, thanks to Vergere, sees through the plan and stays off of Coruscant at the time of the explosion. Fey'lya takes about twenty-five thousand Yuuzhan Vong with him. The adult Solos, Skywalkers, and their friends escape Coruscant, looking, despite the catastrophic loss of the New Republic capital, for a better tomorrow to the war.

In 1997 and 1998, an earlier invasion storyline was developed which explored a different story than what would become the New Jedi Order series. This initial story pitch involved Anakin as protagonist, one in which he would nearly be corrupted by the dark side by a female villain (who would also serve as a romantic interest), eventually leading to a confrontation by Jacen and Jaina in a final battle of "intense sibling rivalry;" this confrontation would have resulted in the death of Jacen Solo, after a conflict with an extragalactic Sith species. By May of 1998, this story conception was reviewed by George Lucas himself, who felt that many elements of the story pitch lacked originality and too closely mirrored the prequels. Among other things suggested (including suggestions which led to the creation of the Yuuzhan Vong), Lucas suggested changing the primary character to Jacen instead of Anakin. Following this, the series pitch was totally rewritten and underwent significant changes, eventually becoming the New Jedi Order story.

In the new story pitch, the New Jedi Order story team decided to focus the story around Jacen Solo's development, and planned on utilizing Anakin in a false protagonist capacity, leading eventually to his death midway through the series. It was at this point that the novel outline for Star by Star was drafted. This pitch was approved by George Lucas in 1998, and development of the series began officially. Although an urban myth has been repeated that George Lucas later intervened during the production of the series to kill Anakin, this is not true; Troy Denning later confirmed in a radio interview that before Vector Prime was written, it was already written in the story bible of the series that Anakin was slated to die in Star by Star, confirming that this was the intention of the NJO story team before publication of the series began.

Regarding the scale of the novel as Denning's first Star Wars novel, "It was a little bit intimidating, but not only that -- Coruscant falls, which was, to my mind, almost as big a deal as killing Anakin. So it was a big surprise, and it was intimidating, but also, I took one look at the list of plot points that they had in the original story bible, and I realized it was going to be a big, big book -- and big in terms of being pivotal, so I was really exciting about doing it," Denning remarked later in 2014 about writing the novel.

Upon release, Star by Star made the New York Times Bestsellers List, entering the list at #11.

In an interview with Shelly Shapiro, the Editorial Director of Del Rey, she expressed some regret over the timing of Star by Stars release. The novel, which depicts the Fall of Coruscant, was published shortly after the September 11 attacks.

• ISBN 9780345428486; October 30, 2001; Del Rey; US hardcover
• ISBN 9780345428677; October2002; Del Rey; US paperback
• ISBN 9780307795571; June 28, 2011; Del Rey; US eBook
• ISBN 0099410389; October 3, 2002; Arrow Books Ltd.; UK paperback
• ISBN 2258053404; October 3, 2002; Presses de la Cité; French-language paperback
• ISBN 9788025214145; March 16, 2010; EGMONT ČR; Czech-language paperback

• "Bookshelf" — Star Wars Insider 56
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• The Essential Reader's Companion
• Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle, Updated Edition
• Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition