Exile is the fourth book in the Legacy of the Force series of Star Wars novelizations that I’ve been reading and reviewing.

This book advances the story into territory that I think is as dark as I’ve ever read in a Star Wars Expanded Universe novel and I can only see it getting darker.

Still on the run, Han and Leia Solo find themselves at the mercy of their old friend, that lovable scoundrel Lando Calrissian. While his men affect repairs on the Millennium Falcon, he provides them a decoy ship so they can resume their involvement in trying to end the war. (The ship he provides him with is the “Love Commander” and he installs himself as captain over Han and Leia, all three in disguise. These sequences had me laughing hysterically. I missed Lando.)

Meanwhile, Lumiya, healed from her altercation with Luke Skywalker at the end of the last book, is doing her best to manipulate the war between the Confederacy (led by Corellia) and the Galactic Alliance. This entrenches Jacen Solo deeper into his work and further toward the dark side. She also arranges for Ben Skywalker to be tested. She and Jacen need to see if he is fit to become Jacen’s Sith apprentice and, to that end, they send him on a solo mission halfway across the galaxy to the Sith homeworld.

Predictably, Ben’s disappearance trouble’s his parents, Luke and Mara Skywalker who are frantically looking for clues to his whereabouts, but they also become aware of the shadowy tendrils of the dark side manipulating the events of the galaxy.

Aaron Allston’s return to the Legacy of the Force series was a welcome one. His sense of storytelling is fun to read and he’s plumbs the depths of the dark side in a way that, by the end, gave me a crawling feeling down my spine.

The action and adventure in this novel was certainly fun to read, and the diverging storylines that always seem to intersect by the end are a thrill to experience.

The shock of this book comes at the end, though, and I’m excited to see where it takes me next. You see, in order for Jacen to become a Sith Lord, he needs to sacrifice a loved one and take a Sith name and in the last line of the book, he makes his choice.

I don’t want to tell you who that choice is, but suffice to say that I’m pretty sure this next book, Sacrifice, is going to blow my mind.

Once again, I’d like to register my frustration about the fact that I’m enjoying these books so much. I feel like Michael Corleone being pulled back in after trying so hard to get out.

But it’s worth it.

To get Exile on Amazon, click here.

Other reviews in this series:
Betrayal
Bloodlines
Tempest