The New Jedi Order: Edge of Victory I: Conquest

Edge of Victory I: Conquest, the first book in the Edge of Victory Duology, is a novel by Greg Keyes, published by Del Rey in 2001. Narration for the audio version was performed by Alexander Adams.

American

 * ISBN 0345428641, April 3, 2001, Del Rey, 291-page paperback
 * ISBN 037541682X, April 10, 2001, Random House Audio, 2 abridged cassettes (3 hrs.)
 * ISBN 0739316613, October 12, 2004, Random House Audio, Abridged cassette

Foreign

 * ISBN 8372457654; Amber, 248-page Polish paperback

Publisher's summary
''No longer content with the destruction the Yuuzhan Vong have already sown, Warmaster Tsavong Lah has demanded the heads of all the Jedi. Now the Jedi Knights are in terrible danger&mdash;and none more so than the young students at the Jedi academy on Yavin 4. Already the sympathizers known as the Peace Brigade are in the Yavin system&mdash;and a Yuuzhan Vong fleet is not far behind.''

''At Luke Skywalker's request, Talon Karrde mounts an expedition to rescue the young students. Anakin Solo has his own ideas. Impatient, and figuring that forgiveness is easier to come by than permission, he takes off for Yavin 4 in his X-wing.''

''When it comes to confidence, courage, and raw Force talent, Anakin has few peers. But when his friend Tahiri is separated from the other academy kids and captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, even Anakin may be in over his head. For the aliens have a different future in mind for Tahiri, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their horrific ends&hellip;''

Plot summary
After Warmaster Tsavong Lah of the Yuuzhan Vong proclaims the Jedi to be captured to stop the Vong invasion of the galaxy in the previous novel, Balance Point, Jedi are now being hunted down across the galaxy and are either killed or captured by the Vong and/or the Peace Brigade. And on Coruscant, the New Republic figures out the Yuuzhan Vong will be taking over Yavin IV, which is where the Jedi praxeum is being held. Anakin Solo disobeys both his Uncle Luke and the New Republic and he goes to Yavin IV to save the Jedi there. After he fights Peace Brigade forces stationed around orbit of the moon, he reaches the praxeum and he meets up with Master Ikrit and Anakin's old friend, Tahiri Veila. They and all the other Jedi, including Corran Horn's children, Valin and Jysella. But Peace Brigade and small Yuuzhan Vong forces attack the praxeum, kill Ikrit and capture Tahiri while Anakin manages to hijack one of the Brigade vessels with Valin and Sannah and he has the vessel crash a long way from the praxeum. Later, the full Yuuzhan Vong force that came to claim the moon finally arrive, kill the Peace Brigade forces stationed at Yavin IV and take over the jungle moon.

Anakin, vowing to save Tahiri, leaves Valin and Sannah with a captured Peace Brigade member and begins a long trek back toward the praxeum. Meanwhile, the Yuuzhan Vong shaper caste, lead by Master Shaper Mezhan Kwaad and her aide, Nen Yim, decide to begin shaping Tahiri and the whole jungle moon of Yavin IV themselves, both mentally and physically for Tahiri, into making her think she is a Yuuzhan Vong. Back with Anakin, his long trek takes him into a fight with Vong forces that destroys the crystal in his lightsaber and his weapon becomes useless to him now. Another confrontation with Vong forces nearly kills him had it not been for a rogue Vong who saved him and tended his wounds.

As the New Republic figures out about Anakin's presence and intentions on Yavin IV, the rogue Yuuzhan Vong reveals he is Vua Rapuung. Rapuung tells Anakin the only reason he saved him was because the Vong warrior's body chemistry had been physically altered by a Yuuzhan Vong shaper to shame Rapuung by deforming him and he needs Anakin's help to get to the praxeum and shame the shaper further. Since the Jedi praxeum is Anakin's destination anyway, the young Jedi agrees and travels with the shamed Vong warrior, and along the way, the two develop an uneasy relationship because of their cultural differences that neither finds appealing toward the other. When Anakin and Rapuung finally arrive to the praxeum, Anakin is disguised as a slave for Rapuung and the young Jedi begins to understand the ways of the Vong in his false services to them. Along the way, Anakin discovers a lambent crystal that he puts into his lightsaber as a new blade. And not only does he become one with his old weapon again, but his connection with the lambent makes him able to detect the Yuuzhan Vong in a non-Force sense, albeit as unclear presences.

Anakin and Rapuung's nature is revealed to the entire Yuuzhan Vong at the praxeum and they fight their way to get to Mezhan Kwaad, who was the shaper that shamed Rapuung, as she is also taking the Vong-shaped Tahiri off in one of the Vong vessels. Anakin and Rapuung stop her and has her reveal what she did to the rogue Vong warrior, as well as revealing to the Vong she never believed the Vong gods exist, thus fulfilling Rapuung's revenge. She attacks Anakin and Rapuung and mortally wounds the latter. But the shaped Tahiri decapitates Kwaad and Anakin reminds Tahiri about who she really is and how much Anakin loves her. Tahiri is reminded about who she is but her Vong knowledge stays with her.

The Vong of the praxeum proceed to attack Anakin and Tahiri, but Rapuung states as he lives, no one will touch Anakin, honouring the young Jedi as a warrior after he helped him. Then Vua Rapuung fights the Vong and dies in the battle, leaving Anakin and Tahiri on their own from the Vong as they steal Kwaad's ship and escape the praxeum with all the other captured Jedi. They get shot down, but survive. They're chased on foot from the Vong, but they get saved by Talon Karrde and his forces, along with Corran Horn, new from his self-imposed exile on Corellia since after the Battle of Ithor in Dark Tide II: Ruin, and Booster Terrik. Along with Valin, Sannah and the captured Peace Brigade member, all the protagonists get saved from the Vong and return home.

In the aftermath, Anakin and Tahiri become valuable assets in the Yuuzhan Vong War because of Anakin's fuzzy sense of the Vong and Tahiri's knowledge of them in the aftermath of her shaping. The novel concludes with Nen Yim planning to do heresy of the Vong tradition to defeat the New Republic.

Shaping
This book shows that the Yuuzhan Vong have a caste known as shapers. The shapers plan on 'remaking' the captured Jedi into Yuuzhan Vong. According to the plan, they will also keep their Jedi abilities—a deadly combination. Tahiri Veila is the only shaped Jedi. The Yuuzhan Vong implanted false memories, their language, and more into her, using a provoker spineray in an attempt to prevent her from remembering her old life.

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of Edge of Victory I: Conquest.