I'm catching up on these rather late, now that the new Star Wars movies are out, they conflict almost completely with everything in this book. I prefer the story line here, but I'm really puzzled about where this is all going with the Yuuzhan Vong. Keyes is a great writer so the writing is smooth and the characters are good, but the plot seems to just plod along without a whole lot happening until the end, which is really not typical of a Star Wars novel. Good, but not really exciting. ( )

more action than previous NJO books ( )

Rebirth is not quite the triumph that Conquest was-- it's too diffuse to be as good a novel. Instead of the sharp focus on Anakin that Conquest gave us, Rebirth divides up a number of characters: Luke and Mara on the run from the government, Han and Leia and Jacen trying to organize the Great River, Jaina and Kyp and Rogue Squadron investigating a Yuuzhan Yong superweapon (picking up a dangling plot thread from Ruin), the shaper Nen Yim trying to save a dying worldship, and Anakin and Tahiri and Corran on a supply run that goes horribly wrong.

It's reminiscent of the expansive approach used by Luceno in his Agents of Chaos approach, but Keyes makes it work much better: each of the threads follows interesting characters, and he hangs a good character development thread on each plot. Han and Leia and Jacen fighting the Yuuzhan Vong is exciting, Star Wars action, but there's also a nice examination and improvement of the relationship between Jacen and his father. I also really liked the birth of Ben Skywalker in the Luke/Mara plot. The strongest of the plots is the Anakin and Tahiri one-- like in Conquest and Emissary of the Void, Keyes keeps the twists and turns coming, providing a rollicking fun adventure that allows some youngsters to grow into the roles of heroes. It's not a great book, but it's one of the better New Jedi Order ones.

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Another solid NJO novel by Keyes. He's not Zahn, or even Allston, but he does a nice job. I'd be interested to see what he could do with a standalone SW story that wasn't in the middle of an established arc.

I find the strength of Keyes's writing to be in his handling of the characters, particularly the volatile Anakin Solo, and even his budding relationship with Tahiri Veila. He even handles C3PO well, something that many SW authors struggle with and something I definitely appreciate.

One complaint I do have is with the utterly simple resolution of Mara Jade's disease. It's a minor point in the book, but I found it so ridiculously stupid that such a major illness that played a fairly major role in the series so far was dispatched with such ease. I was happy to get that particular plot point out of the way, but that resolution needed to be handled better. ( )

A number of different plotlines are going on in this book. Anakin and Tahiri face a threat from the peace brigade after their escape from Yavin 4. Han and Leia work on setting up an underground railroad to smuggle people out of Yuuzhan Vong held territory. Jaina Solo becomes involved in an effort to destroy Vong superweapon. Mara faces difficulties as her pregnancy nears its end and her illness returns.

All of these plotlines run mostly in parallel without much intersection which doesn't give the book any focus as a novel. It's a decent enough read that seems to be mostly filler between more significant volumes in the New Jedi Order series. If you are reading the series, you will want to read this. If not, it's a poor choice as a standalone novel. ( )