-by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
1996-1998
This trilogy of novels delivers all you could want, and a bit more. The more, is a secret society of force-powerful women who shun any form of violence. As much as i will always love Star Wars, there is a part of me that will forever stand apart, for two reasons. One, they indulge in good & evil bifurcation (in these books, the name of the fleet is a big clue) in a world that exists in shades of grey, and two, i am at my core a pacifist who doesn't believe in war or violence. Of course the Jedi only train in "self-defense", but there is an essential element of violence-glorification in all the films. Thanks to McDowell, there is a voice in the Star Wars universe which raises these objections. Much of the tale centers on the relationship between Luke and Akanah, a lost disciple of the secret society, to whom Luke is a barbarian barely distinguishable from the Sith. Akanah mourns the violence inherent in Luke's entire philosophy, and her position is never effectively refuted. The fact that the society is comprised of women, taps into the feminine energy which has been supressed for all of modern human history. The writing in the rest of the plotlines (Leia an embattled President, Han captured and brutalized by a conquering race, Chewie looking after his insecure son, Lando and the droids on a piratical archaeology mission) is equally well done. McDowell would be a credit to any genre.
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