As usual, the s are four plot-lines here, Luke and the Sith continue to chase Abeloth (no, the creature didn't actually die in the last book), the Jedi against Daala, the slave revolt, and Tahiri's trial, in decreasing order of importance. Each one has no buildup whatsoever, and one very important result, at least one inconsistency, and an important "what the?" contrivance to make it work.

The most boring and convoluted is the story of Luke, Ben, Vestara and the two Sith who remain with them in the Maw: the High Lord Talon and Vestara's father Khai. While Luke and the two elder Sith search around Abeloth's fountain for some information on her nature (finding some similarities to the Destructors of Keshiri legend -as in Skyborn), Vestara escapes Ben's watch into the horrific planet. Ben follows her, saving her life as she is caught up in a carnivorous tree. Ship also returns, communicating with Vestara and Ben, but not to the other Sith, for some reason. Ben holds Vestara to her word that she will wait for him to tell Luke about Ship before she tells the High Lord. Vestara betrays him at every turn, but Ben keeps giving her chances. She keeps telling him that it's in her nature, being a Sith, but she doesn't act very Sith-like, except for the betrayals.

I find it strange that after the Sith betray Luke and Ben and it turns into a fight, the High Lord has Ben incapacitated in his clutches -within lightsaber striking distance, and actually stops when Vestara tells him to. She has, of course, discovered that Luke actually killed Dyon at the end of Allies, and that Abeloth, despite Luke's certainty of the opposite, actually took on Dyon's body at that time, turning it into hers. It becomes clear as this storyline progresses that Abeloth can take on the body of anyone she has "consumed", for want of a better word.

Why didn't Ship take Abeloth away from that planet, instead of having to distract the others to allow her to take the Jade Shadow? It doesn't make any sense. Ship tells them Abeloth is in the Pool of Knowledge, yet when it takes them nearby, so they have to search for it, Luke becomes certain that she has taken the Shadow -and is correct. But High Lord Talon jumps into the Pool, and comes out transformed, having seen the Jedi Queen on the throne, which is of course Allanah. Apparently Jacen long ago in Balance Point saw a Dark Man on the throne, and his actions in Legacy of the Force successfully altered that future, putting Allanah on the throne, instead. Abeloth takes the Jade Shadow to the Falassani in order to change the future back. They welcome Abeloth, yet are consumed, too. It's not clear by the end what has happened to them as a people.

Luke easily tracks the Jade Shadow to Almenia, where Kueller planned to take over the galaxy way back in The New Rebellion, a book whose title evoked a whole different story than was actually presented. It's too bad there are no ysalimiri gone wild here! Luke pierces the illusions of the Falassani, who have made the entire moon of that planet think it has been subjected to a plague. Even Ben and Vestara fall victim to it, but it's not fully explained how those two get through the illusion. Of course, Luke says Talon's fellow Sith should fall victim to it even though their High Lord has told them it is a lie, but they don't seem to, and neither does Vestara's father.

Luke is taken near to death by Abeloth, but saved so that Talon can do it, in a way-overused cliché. This, of course, gives Luke and Ben a chance to escape. There is a little twist here in that Vestara kills High Lord Talon to save Ben, though she claims it was the only way to save him from Abeloth, who was starting to stick her tentacles into his mouth -yuck! They escape in time to be surrounded by Sith, who were freed from Abeloth's illusion when she fled, but are saved again, this time by the Jedi Stealth-X fighters, which leads us to the next plot point.

The Jedi are happy to end the siege of the Temple by presenting the two cured Jedi apprentices on the steps of the Temple, directly to Daala. Han makes a real show of it for the media, so that Daala has to do the right thing and let them go. But I don't know what point the doctor is supposed to be making by kicking one of them between the legs. Surely even an apprentice can tell when such a danger is coming and protect himself? And as Valin and Jysella prove at the end of the book, these two could easily be biding their time.

Daala releases the siege, but keeps the Horn children as insurance against future Jedi sicknesses. The Masters are furious and want to move against both the fleet in orbit and to rescue the Horn children, but Kenth Hamner won't allow it, still waiting for the commander in chief of the fleet to wake up from his coma at the end of Allies, where I really thought he had been killed. In that book, I couldn't figure out why the authors had put that plan in motion only to derail it almost immediately. The reason was simply incomprehensible setup for this book, something to give Hamner a secret. When the masters learn that Hamner kept a secret -any secret- from them, they dismiss him as their leader. Saba Sebatyne takes over, and the masters decide right away to launch a plan to get their ships past the fleet and rescue the Horns. Incidentally, it was obvious right away that Saba's brood was mating; why it is such a secret is beyond me. Allanah finds them in the last chapters, and has to reveal her heritage as a secret of equal value, or be killed by them (is this part of their culture, to kill fellow Jedi when their nest is discovered?). By the end of the series, I fully expect her to be living with Tenel Ka again, her life an open book at the very least, for all the Republic to see.

But it is implied that Han and Leia were in the temple before the siege ended. How did they get inside? Did the author think they spent the entire siege in the Temple? They attended Tahiri's trial back in Allies, and even sent supplies into the Temple on the backs of rats, so that can't be the case.

Regardless, Han and Leia lead a very confusing rescue of the Horn children, as the Errant Venture hosts a sabaac tournament to hold two hundred very important people hostage as he draws away the fleet preventing the launch of the Stealth-X wings -by destroying several of the planetary mirrors. Booster Terrik sure doesn't mind temping justice to incur jail time if and when he is caught. But I fully expect that nothing will happen, anyway. 

Han and Leia break into the cells where Valin and Jysella are being held, only to find hundreds of other people being held in carbonite in the same storage facility (which infuriates Han, of course). They do manage to rescue the siblings, in an overly-complicated scheme that I had to read three times to figure out. It seems that security forces on the planet have become more inept than before, though, as the rescue is considered successful when the single ship carrying them escapes into the busy skylanes. Didn't the governmental forces successfully chase a bunch of Jedi, including Luke, through all sorts of skylanes not too long ago? Was it near the beginning of Legacy of the Force?

The most important part of this whole plan occurs in the fighter bays of the Jedi Temple. Hamner, not inclined to stay in his quarters even though he has been asked to, shows how beyond help he is by not even pretending to know some apprentices names before knocking them out, and confronting Saba and the other Jedi as they prepare to launch. Hamner raises his lightsaber to Saba, intending to stop the launch at any cost. He and Saba fight, Hamner with more intensity, Saba trying not to kill him. Eventually, he stabs Saba through the body, which I thought should have killed her -certainly blaster shots have killed her kind before, no matter her anatomy (which Hamner knew all too well). He then throws his lightsaber at the control mechanism that holds the doors closed, intending to seal the Jedi inside, so Saba throws him off a scaffold and has to choose between the lightsaber and Luke's choice for leader of the Jedi. She chooses to use the Force to divert the lightsaber, even though she's shown in the past that she could probably do both. Hamner, for his part, though he showed much initiative and skill in the fight, simply drops to the ground and dies, instead of holding his position in the Force or other things that we've seen the Masters do. Still, the fight was intense and well-written, and I did enjoy the battle, though I doubted the spark that initiated it.

Tahiri's trial does not progress much, except to reverse the last-second testimony given by the Imperial whose words were said to seal Tahiri's fate back in Allies. The entire thing felt like filler, with Tahiri getting worried enough she decided to bring in another defense council (her current one appeared to be falling asleep all the time). By the end of the book, she sees how her current councilor is the one who has most wisdom and can probably get her freed -so she dismisses the second one she hired. Yawn.

Finally, Mahdi the news-woman gets her big story, watching over the Mandalorians who have been sent in to stop the slave revolt on ___ at any cost. She records a full-scale slaughter, and dies for her actions. I wish she had lasted more than two books. At least the annoying reporter Tyr lasted three books before he was discredited by Jag Fel. Mahdi's assistant Chev, a former slave himself, takes up her job, as the Jedi arrive to deal with the Mandalorians.

Oh, and speaking of Fel, Jaina makes up with him and now wears the engagement ring again. Yawn, again. And speaking of Jaina, she and Lando discovered a bunch of pirates who are using Sith to engage their targets. There are so many loose ends in this series that it is difficult to tell what is relevant. Is it the Sith, Abeloth, the pirates, something else? I just don't know, and after this difficult read, I'm starting not to care, which is a very bad thing.

I hope the next book gets more focused.