I was reading AGENTS OF CHAOS II: JEDI ECLIPSE right after all the Hurricane Katrina chaos, and strangely enough, there are quite a few parallels between this book and that event. Sure it sounds crazy, but the primary struggle in this book is how to deal with the countless refugees from planets that have been destroyed. It may not sound like the stuff of STAR WARS, but it makes for a compelling storyline.

At this point in the NEW JEDI ORDER series, quite a few planets have been taken over or completely obliterated by the Yuuzhan Vong invaders. Princess Leia has been busy overseeing the relief efforts and negotiating with planets to provide refuge for these displaced people. It’s not easy, particularly when there are corporations eager to exploit these refugees as a source of slave labor. The corporations know that the Yuuzhan Vong hate droids and technnology, so they are scrambling to get rid of their droids and replace them with flesh-and-bone slaves. Their theory is that the Yuuzhan Vong will allow them to continue operations if they make these important concessions.

It’s STAR WARS, so of course other plotlines are introduced, including a Jedi’s attempt to bond with a Yuuzhan Vong warmaster behemoth, political scheming by the Hutts, an old boyfriend of Princess Leia and a superweapon reactivated by Anakin Solo.

At this point, I’m wondering why this series is called NEW JEDI ORDER because, for the most part, the Jedi are being pussies. Sure, I know that they are all about non-aggression and all that, but their galaxy is being annihilated by these invaders and they won’t take an aggressive stance even if it would mean saving lots of lives. There are renegade Jedi trying to take action, but Luke Skywalker is not in favor of it. This guy makes me long for the ass-kicking Jedi of the prequel era.

Despite my problems with the Jedi, this was still an action-packed, entertaining and super-quick read. The books are kind of starting to blur together. But in a way, this is a good thing, because so far, this feels like a cohesive epic storyline.