Reckoning Review

ALL TIMELINES


		RECKONING A novel by Jude Watson (2008, Scholastic Paperbacks) The Last of the Jedi, Book 10 19 years before and Star Wars: A New Hope Ferus arranges to have resistance leaders meet at his secret asteroid base, while Clive and Astri race to reveal a traitor in their midst.

		Read May 12th to 15th, 2016, in paperback
		The first half of this book was so intense and well-written that I had very high hopes. Unfortunately, the second half devolved back into the clichés that faulted the later books of this series and the previous one. The ending for Ferus was unexpected, but makes a certain amount of sense, as opposed to the way the others died or Trever’s worse fate. Spoiler review: Although I saw it coming, I don’t think Flame’s portrayal in previous books, especially where the story is portrayed from her point of view, lend itself to that particular conclusion. But the way the author handled Flame in the previous stories was consistent with her being a traitor, especially the way she didn’t let Flame in on any secret discussions. That point is irrelevant now, as the most important secret was revealed anyway, and Vader used it to good effect. I’m not sure how I feel about Ferus being able to contact Obi-Wan at any time. Wouldn’t somebody be able to trace the call? I’d expect that the Emperor has already bugged Ferus’ comlink, but I guess not. Given his role by the end of the book, I guess it makes sense. But I don’t think it’s necessary. It turns out that the action at the end of the last book, where the Unknown’s hiding spot was invaded was completely undone here, because everyone we know survived, and they find a new temporary place to live. By then, Ferus has decided to bring them all to the asteroid base. I liked the way Flame negotiated the sale of the starships, with Jedi help, at the trade show. Of course everything she mentions comes true, from the false transponders to the spaceworthiness. And of course they have a communications blackout, which is not consistently used. The blackout itself is because the author doesn’t want Clive and Astri to be able to contact Ferus. But they contact Tomra on the asteroid, and he tells them that Flame is a traitor. I guess it was easy for him, because Tomra himself ended up being a mole, as well, which completely ruined any chance of credibility this story had of tying things up properly. Clive and Astri nearly have a run-in with Darth Vader at Flame’s house, where he goes away empty-handed and angry, but that’s no different from most of the plots in these books. It doesn’t amount to anything except confirming what we already knew –that Eve Yarrow (Flame) is in the the pay of the Empire. I only wish it was less intentional. The adventure in delaying their arrival at the asteroid base was well written and fun. It seems that the Empire has suddenly become more efficient, because it has eyes everywhere, even in black-market shops like the one Ferus visited. I liked the way he recruited a swoop gang to hide him while he escaped back to his ship. On the other hand, the Empire has apparently forgotten to monitor all communications. Like his talk with Obi-Wan, I don’t know how Ferus managed to talk with Trever to have the ship prepped. If the Empire was after Ferus, shouldn’t they have impounded the ship, too? The climax of the book occurs after they abandon Flame on a deserted planet (she has another way to communicate with Vader, though), and bring everyone to the asteroid. Ferus is worried about tracking devices, so he shows up late, and gets to watch Vader incinerate the asteroid. I didn’t get a sense of the weapons he used for that –was it a Death Star prototype, just the normal weapons from a Star Destroyer, or something else from the factory at Despayre? Regardless, nearly every character from this series has now been killed. Lune is smuggled out after they discover that Tomra is a mole, so Ferus and Trever pick him up, and Vader doesn’t notice. The end of the series was always going to be depressing –how else could it turn out? But I think there are still too many loose ends, and Trever’s fate is just horrible! They use Zan Arbor’s drug to wipe out Trever’s memory of the entire series. He’s back to the boy we first met in the first book. Ferus thinks it’s for the better, but I think that just puts him in the same category as Mace Windu and the young Yoda, who dictated with so many absolutes and without consideration of the people they were dictating to. Ferus gets a happier ending, at least until A New Hope. Obi-Wan tells him everything, and he settles down on Alderaan, to watch over Leia the way Obi-Wan watches over Luke. Who knows –maybe he got off the planet before the Death Star arrived. That was the actual reason for Ferus to discover that Vader was Anakin. It was implied that they would duel or at least have some sort of fight. But they don’t. The only reason was for Ferus to gain knowledge about Anakin’s children, so he could be Leia's watchdog.