This book is the fifth in the Legacy of the Force series set 10 years after the end of the NJO, 40 years ABY, and follows immediately from the fourth in the series Exile by Aaron Allston. This is Karen Traviss's first hardcover and second book in the LotF series.

Sacrifice starts with a glimpse into the mind of Mara Jade Skywalker, worried about her son who is still missing after the events of Exile and musing on what she should or should not have done about Palpatine during her time as an Emperor's Hand. At first reading this seems like an interesting but simple look at her reflecting on her past, but on re-reading the book it is clear that this is of vital importance to decisions made by the character as events unfold.

We then return to Ben who is returning from his mission in the Sith Meditation Sphere. His seemingly successful mission prompts Jacen to assign him an even bigger mission, one that has the potential to have an enormous impact on the course of the war against Corellia. Even though at the end of Exile it was clear that Lumiya did not think that Ben was Sith apprentice material, it seems that Jacen still thinks of Ben as his protege.

In this book things really heat up in the political sphere. There is very little in terms of battle action (although we are introduced to a couple of new starships in the battles that are a part of the story) but there are significant changes afoot. To go into any more detail would be to provide too many spoilers.

As I have said in previous reviews, I generally don't like real-life parallels, but there are so many nods/references in this book that are clearly relevant to plot development, I have changed my mind about this to some degree. I am sure that there are many soldiers out there who would love their commanding officers to take the approach to kit supply problems taken by Jacen in this book. Also, the legislative amendment drafted by my favourite new droid, HM-3, believe it or not, does have some basis in reality and should be a lesson to all out there to keep an eye on the legislative process. There are also a number of historical references (eg, the nosito pups) which are rather chilling.

There has been a considerable amount of controversy generated by this book.

The major controversy centred on "the" Sacrifice is not one I am going to deal with in this review in any detail as I prefer not to include too many spoilers, but suffice it to say that this is fiction, nobody lives forever and us readers have to cope with it. The way that the climax of the book was written was engrossing and believable and a tribute to the character at the centre of it.

At first reading I thought that the reactions in the force were a little disappointing (especially in contrast with Denning's handling of the death of Anakin Solo in NJO: Star by Star), but on reflection and re-reading it was actually near perfect. The starkness of the responses mirrors the way the particular characters feel. The numbness is well and truly reflected in the short descriptions. There is then excellent development of the subsequent responses in the final chapters of the book.

Another controversy relates to the amount of space given to the Mandalorians in this book. This is one that I completely fail to understand. Whilst I am an unashamed fan of this author's work, I have never been big on Boba Fett and Mandalorians in general (and I certainly can't get my head around the language) but I have enjoyed the RC books and the Mandalorian plots for the interesting stories that they are. The Mandalorian sub-plots followed in this book were not in the least disappointing, and I suspect that we may have seen more than a couple of ties between these sub-plots and the next RC book which is to be released in October.

As for the "controversy" about a particular Mandalorian couple - well, I don't understand what the hoo-ha is about. There's a nice Mandalorian couple with an adopted daughter and grandchildren. So what? The important thing is that Beviin is of great support to Boba and may or may not be the next Mandalor, and Medrit makes an important discovery that may mean that Mandalore will once again be self-reliant and have more power than previously envisaged. It will be interesting to see how this develops in the author's next book, Revelation and how it will tie in to the central characters and , hopefully, the series' final battle.

I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Troy Denning's Inferno, as well as the final instalments by Allston, Traviss, and Denning - for which we now have the titles: Fury, Revelation and Invincible.

This is continuing to be one of the best series the EU has on offer. Now, repeating myself yet again, if only it would bring Jaina and Jag back together it would be near perfect...

Del Rey has an excerpt from the first chapter of the book at this link.