A review by fandom4ever
Assault at Selonia by Roger MacBride Allen

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Star Wars: Assault on Selonia picks up where Ambush at Corellia left off. Everything is really set into motion now, with Corellia announcing its breakaway from the New Republic and the threats being made. 

I loved seeing and learning more of the two other dominant species in the Corellian sector: the Drall and Selonian. To learn their culture and how they interact with the humans and the events going on was great world-building and further filling in of the galaxy. Specifically I really enjoyed the parts on Drall of the Solo children’s tutor Ebrihim and his aunt and getting to read how they’re trying to get to the bottom of what is really going on and the mysterious archeological digs. 

I’m happy to report that Luke and Lando’s portions were much better this time as they were indeed pulled into the Corellian crisis, though from the outside which allowed for a fuller picture of how the New Republic was responding. It’s also here that we get callbacks to the novel, The Truce at Bakura. 

I was also surprised to find that Mara Jade factors into the story here for the first time (in story timeline, not publication history) since the Thrawn trilogy. I both loved and was annoyed by it. I loved that Mara finally got to show up again, but was annoyed because if I had to listen to Leia and Han voice their distrust of her one more time; I was going to lose it. It’s been years since she tried to kill Luke guys, get over it! 

Despite being called ‘Assault on Selonia’, characters only find themselves near (not on) Selonia in the last 40ish pages, which is also where the action starts to take place as everyone makes their final approach into the system. It wasn’t a bad book, it once again kept my attention and kept me reading, and had some really good moments, but it wasn’t an amazing entry either. I wonder if this series should have been a duology rather than a trilogy, to help make it a tighter story. But the book did do its job of further setting up the plot, answering some questions while posing more mysteries, and I’m really curious how this will all play out in the third and final book of the Corellian Trilogy!