Showdown at Centerpoint by Roger Macbride Allen (Star Wars: The Corellian Trilogy: Book 3)

5/10

Set: 18 ABY

When a loyalist ship approaching Selonia is blasted out of space, Han Solo quickly realizes that rebel forces are turning planetary repulsors into weapons of immense destruction. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian manage to discover the terrifying secret of Centerpoint Station. It is the infamous Starbuster itself, and its next programmed nova, hard-wired in, is set to annihilate a chosen star, its inhabited worlds, and millions of innocent lives. There's only one way to stop it: blow up the station. But as a massive rebel fleet closes in on Centerpoint, Hah, Luke and their friends will discover time is running out.

Then the true leaders of the rebellion reveal their identities, and issue their final ultimatum: The New Republic must withdraw all claim to power over the entire Corellian sector. With the future of Corellian freedom at stake, Han and those loyal to the Republic must somehow resist. But how can they possibly stop the deadliest weapon the galaxy has ever known?

Finishing the Corellian Trilogy by Roger Macbride Allen is ‘Showdown at Centerpoint,’ though I can’t really remember much of a showdown to be honest. The non-existent and contrived storylines come to a conclusion in this book, and by this time I was a little confused as to why I had been so entertained when I started reading Macbride Allen.

Yes, there is a lot of action. Everyone finally manages to meet up, kind of, and the real villains make themselves known, sort of.

Macbride Allen unfortunately fell into the Captain Kirk syndrome of having Leia have to do everything herself, which for the President of the New Republic seems a little unwise. Han continues to be totally ineffectual making him one of the least noteworthy characters in this series, leaving Chewie and the children to take centre stage.

This entire book could have salvaged some measure of enjoyment for me if it wasn’t for the absolutely baffling decision made towards the end of the book by a mother and a captain. Self sacrifice is all ok, but I literally could not point to a reason or benefit to back up their decision making process. In the end, it was unexplained and downright idiotic for this mother to leave her daughter orphaned for apparently no reason other than a two minute heroic scene which turned out to be not too heroic after all.

Definitely the least favourite of this trilogy, I wouldn’t recommend you run out right now and find this no matter the cost. As I said at the beginning, if you have the books and don’t have anything else to read, spend a weekend reading them. But don’t put too much more into it than that.