The New Jedi Order

The first book of the NJO

In the fall of 1999, only months after the Phantom Menace released (largely criticized for being too kid-oriented) the Star Wars expanded universe launched a book series that would take Star Wars to darker places than it had ever been before. If the Star Wars prequels let fans down, then the New Jedi Order was the antidote for that disappointment.

The nineteen-book series ran from 1999 – 2003 and starts 21 years after Return of the Jedi. It was the furthest into the future any Star Wars project had yet explored. The story focuses on an invasion of the Star Wars galaxy by an alien race called the Yuuzhan Vong. 

The Yuuzhan Vong are not from the galaxy and cannot be sensed through The Force. The Vong are ultra-religious and shun any form of technology that is not organic. They embrace pain and even scar and disfigure themselves to add to their social status.

Among the weapons used by the Vong are amphistaffs, living snake-like staffs that can be used as a spear or a whip. They wear crab-like armor that blasters and lightsabers fail to penetrate. Even their space-fairing vessels are made of living coral.

Vong with Amphistaffs

 It doesn’t take the Yuuzhan Vong long to start occupying and destroying the planets of the galaxy and the New Rupublic and New Jedi Order struggle to defend themselves from the new threat.

Jaina, Luke, & Jacen surrounded

Among the major defenders of the galaxy are the Solo children; The elder twins, Jaina & Jacen, who both flirt with the dark side in these novels and the youngest son, Anakin, named after his grandfather.

         The New Jedi Order was criticized, by some, for being too dark. Without giving too much more away, some bad shit goes down for a lot of characters. The New Jedi order was the first piece of the EU to start killing off main characters and they start off in a big way. 

Even if you have not read the New Jedi Order books, you probably know that they kill Chewbacca off in the first act. Though this is a huge spoiler for the first book, I don’t consider it to be a huge spoiler because it’s been 15 years and if you haven’t read the books by now, maybe that fact will draw you in to reading them.

It will be interesting to see how the writers of Episode VII handle the expanded universe, especially this fact. Do you ignore that Chewie dies and just bring him back to life? Do you just reference his death and expect film fans to go back and read these 19 books (plus the other 300 books in the EU) to catch up?

Regardless of its effects on the Star Wars universe, The New Jedi Order achieves at least three things that the prequels do not.

1. Advancing the Star Wars universe into new, unpredictable territory

2. Giving the fans a dark narrative with adult themes

3. Bringing out a new, deadly enemy with enough depth to be feared and intriguing at the same time.

Luke & Mara

The New Jedi Order books are written by some of the top Science Fiction & Fantasy writers out there including R.A. Salvatore, Michael Stackpole, James Luceno, & Aaron Allston. So if you haven’t read them yet, don’t waste any more time.