Allies

May 1, 2010
After their adventures on Dathomir, Luke and Ben are determined to return to the Maw and confront Abeloth, the evil power that is making the young Jedi go crazy. The newly discovered Lost Tribe of the Sith are also interested in the Maw and make an uneasy alliance with Ben and Luke. While normally Jedi and Sith would rather kill each other than work together, these Sith are a little different, and as an outcast, Luke cant get help from other Jedi. Most of the book focuses on the preparations for and the journey into the Maw; the story of Han, Leia, and Alanna, by contrast, takes up only a few small scenes. Even with much of the book devoted to setup, however, the tale doesnt lack for tension, as the alliance between the Sith and Jedi teeters on a knife edge. Golden introduces a new theme here, ending slavery, and she does a good job balancing the larger series plots against the story arc of a single volumeno easy feat for the fifth installment in a nine volume-series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)