Assault at Selonia by Roger Macbride Allen (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy: Book 2)

5/10

Set: 18 ABY

Imprisoned on the planet Corellia, Han Solo finds himself at the mercy of his evil cousin, Thracken Sal-Solo. Thracken plans to restore the Imperial system and seize total power -- no matter what the cost. Han has one chance to stop him. But to do so he must turn his back on his human cousin and join forces with a female alien. Dracmus was arrested as a ringleader in a plot against the corrupt Human League. Now she and Han will attempt a daring escape to Selonia in time to warn Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Lando of Thracken's plan. But can Han trust the alien to keep her word?

Meanwhile, other questions threaten the New Republic -- and the lives of millions. Who is behind the deadly Starbuster plot? Why is someone attempting to take possession of Corellia's powerful planetary repulsors? And what is the secret behind the mysterious Centerpoint Station, and ancient, artificial world of unknown origin that has suddenly -- and inexplicably -- come alive?

The second in Roger Macbride Allen’s The Corellian Trilogy, ‘Assault at Selonia’ picks up three separate storylines as they broke apart at the end of the first book, ‘Ambush at Corellia.’ The fourth storyline – Luke and Lando wife hunting – had been separate the whole time, but until now wasn’t really worth reading.

The Han storyline is repetitive and frustrating, as he deals with an alien who at times tells him lots but then doesn’t tell him anything. There’s lots of crawling.

Leia’s storyline is marginally better as she and Mara Jade find themselves in captivity together. A daring escape continues the never ending stalemate that sees them both suspecting the other for reasons that, honestly, escaped me every time the story returned to them.

The children’s storyline was the best of the Organa-Solo family storylines, as we watch Anakin work his Force mechanics on everything that has machinery. The addition of the Selonian’s into this storyline though is frustrating, and reminds me a little too much of storylines from Keeping Up Appearances.

Luke, Lando and Belindi manage to make themselves more useful than the Organa-Solo parents and that storyline is actually relatively interesting, though I know I had missed some history there because Luke was apparently really upset about a love lost and all that. The addition of Wedge Antilles continues his fluctuating rank journey as he tries to save as many innocents from randomly supernovaing stars.

So no, if you haven’t become invested in the story through the first book, no need to pick it up on recommendation from this one.