A review by brassaf
Traitor by Matthew Stover

5.0

Dang, Stover. You did it again. After having read his novelization of Episode III I knew this guy had something no Star Wars author I've read had. A refreshing way to spin a Star Wars tale. His switch between third/first person is effective and helps the story play out almost cinematic in my mind. As I read the tale, I tried to keep spoiled knowledge of future story lines out of my head in order to enjoy the transformation of Jacen in this series, but it was hard. But the book works anyway, despite knowing what happens to Jacen down the road. If you don't know, don't go looking! I hope for you an unspoiled read! Basic plot summary: Jacen is in captivity, but his captor is really a sub-contractor for someone else, and they both have different agendas. Meanwhile Jacen continues his exploration of the Force, what it means to use it and be a part of it, and gets sucked into an existential and philosophical line of thinking that he eventually owns. There are precious few characters in this installment, but even the one that appears mostly toward the end is given fair, honest, and moving treatment in the pages. Bravo, Stover. You're a solid 2 for 2 by my count. I suppose I need to read [i]Shatterpoint[/i] to see if his first Star Wars novels was just as solid as his 2nd and 3rd!