The New Jedi Order: Star by Star

Star by Star, part of the New Jedi Order series, is a novel by Troy Denning, published by Del Rey in 2001. The paperback version includes the short story Recovery, previously available in eBook format only, as well as a preview of Destiny's Way. Narration for the audio version was performed by Alexander Adams.

American

 * ISBN 034542848X; October 30, 2001, Del Rey, 624-page hardcover
 * ISBN 0375419357; October 30, 2001, Random House Audio, Abridged cassette
 * ISBN 0345428676; October 3, 2002, Del Rey, 605-page paperback

Foreign

 * ISBN 185686605X; October 31, 2001, Gardners Books, UK abridged cassette
 * ISBN 0099410389; October 3, 2002, Arrow Publishing, 560-page UK paperback
 * ISBN 2258053404; October 3, 2002, Presses de la Cité, French paperback (Le nouvel ordre Jedi: Étoile après étoile)
 * ISBN 978-80-252-1414-5; March 16, 2010, EGMONT ČR, 484-page Czech paperback (Nový řád Jedi: Hvězda po hvězdě)

Back cover
In the shadows of a treacherous enemy, the Jedi Knights reach their darkest hour&hellip;

Inside flap
The New York Times bestselling Star Wars series The New Jedi Order'' enthralls readers with its epic drama and thrilling adventure. Now readers will pierce the very heart of darkness, as those fascinating figures in that galaxy far, far away—Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, as well as their children—spring to vivid life to battle their deadliest adversaries.''

''It is a solemn time for the New Republic, as the merciless Yuuzhan Vong continue their ruthless campaign of terror and destruction. The brutal enemy has unleashed a savage creature capable of finding—and killing—Jedi Knights. And now Leia Organa Solo faces a terrible ultimatum from the mighty alien foe determines to conquer the galaxy. If the location of the secret Jedi base is not revealed within one week, the Yuuzhan Vong will blast millions of refugee ships into oblivion.''

''As the battered but still unbroken Jedi scramble to deal with the newest onslaught, Leia's son Anakin lays out a daring plan. A Jedi strike force will allow itself to be "captured" by the Yuuzhan Vong and taken to their stronghold in the realm of darkness, where the Jedi will sabotage the evil empire's deadliest weapons. The leaders of the force are the three Solo siblings. The risks are tremendous. Can the Jedi fight a ruthless enemy without becoming ruthless themselves and falling victim to the dark side?''

Paperback
''It is a solemn time for the New Republic, as the merciless Yuuzhan Vong continue their campaign of destruction. The brutal enemy has unleashed a savage creature capable of finding—and killing—Jedi Knights. Now Leia Organa Solo faces a terrible ultimatum. If the location of the secret Jedi base is not revealed within one week, the Yuuzhan Vong will blast millions of refugee ships into oblivion.''

''As the battered but still unbroken Jedi scramble to deal with the newest onslaught, Leia's son Anakin lays out a daring plan. He will lead a Jedi strike force into the heart of enemy territory in order to sabotage the Yuuzhan Vong's deadliest weapons. There, with his brother and sister at his side, he will come face-to-face with his destiny—as the New Republic, still fighting the good fight, will come face-to-face with theirs&hellip;''

Plot summary
Jedi sisters Alema and Numa Rar are attacked, aboard the Nebula Chaser, by the Yuuzhan Vong's newest creation, the voxyn, which can hunt down Jedi through their Force presences. Numa is killed by the voxyn, but Alema escapes with her corpse.

The New Republic military begins to gain victories in Vong battles on planets outside of Coruscant's solar system, and Lando Calrissian creates Yuuzhan Vong Hunter battle droids that are designed to look similar to Vong warriors to mock them. These YVHs come equipped with weapons powerful enough to destroy the Vong's vonduun crab armor, making them a significant resource in the war against the invaders. Meanwhile, the Jedi learn of this new voxyn threat and, through research done by Cilghal, realize that the voxyn are clones of an original genetically modified beast native from Myrkr. In order to stop it, Anakin Solo suggests, and Luke Skywalker agrees, to send a Jedi strike team to the worldship at Myrkr to destroy the voxyn cloning lab. The idea faced some resistance, mainly from Han Solo who rightly believed that the mission was dangerous and was unwilling to send all three of his children right into Yuuzhan Vong territory. Ultimately, the choice was Luke Skywalker's, who is currently leading the Jedi, who thought that it was their only chance and volunteered himself for the mission. Anakin rejected his offer on the grounds that he was too valuable to the New Republic and the Jedi, as well as being too important and strong for the Yuuzhan Vong to consider taking alive. Instead, Anakin volunteers himself and others follow his lead. Lando gives the strike team two Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids for assistance. The members include Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo, the latter the leader of the whole strike team, and they are accompanied by Alema, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka Djo, Tahiri Veila, Ganner Rhysode, Tesar Sebatyne, Krasov and Bela Hara, Ulaha Kore, Eryl Besa, Raynar Thul, Jovan Drark, Tekli, and Zekk.

Lando, acting as a traitor to the New Republic, convinces a Vong force led by Duman Yaght that he has brought them Jedi in exchange for his homeworld's safety. The Vong take the Jedi, but the latter group, after passing behind enemy lines, escape with the help of their YVH assistants, YVH 2-1S and YVH 2-4S, and use the ship they were captured aboard, the Exquisite Death, to reach Myrkr. Ulaha Kore and one of the YVHs are lost during the team's escape, staying behind to hold back the enemy. After landing aboard the Vong worldship where the voxyn are being cloned, called the Baanu Rass, they encounter the captured Dark Jedi Lomi Plo and Welk, who agree to assist them after being freed from the Vong's clutches. Through encounters with Yuuzhan Vong forces several of the Jedi and their remaining YVH assistant are killed. Using their knowledge of the worldship, Plo and Welk guide the strike team, but are perturbed when they discover that the Jedi have no escape plan. In order to escape, they steal the Tachyon Flier, injuring Lowbacca and abducting the wounded Raynar Thul and M-TD (Lowbacca's translator droid) in the process. Anakin becomes severely injured during one of their many confrontations with Vong forces and ends up sacrificing himself to hold off the warriors while the remainder of the team goes after the voxyn queen, right after Anakin achieves complete oneness with the Force. Jacen, replacing Anakin as leader, orders the remnants of the strike team to steal one of the Vong's frigate ships and escape the worldship while he kills the voxyn queen, who is being cloned several times to produce the voxyn. With the help of Vergere, Jacen confronts the queen and kills it by confronting it in a basal-comb. However, he is then captured by the forces of Nom Anor and Vergere.

On Coruscant, Viqi Shesh, traitor to the New Republic for the Yuuzhan Vong, attempts to kidnap the infant Ben Skywalker for Warmaster Tsavong Lah. Leia Organa Solo senses Anakin's passing and is deeply grieved at the loss of her youngest child. The Yuuzhan Vong invasion on the city-planet begins. During this, Viqi is chased down by Leia after her failed attempt at kidnapping Ben, but Viqi nevertheless escapes and regroups with the Vong. Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker get shot down during the Battle of Coruscant and are almost killed had it not been for the Millennium Falcon saving them. Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya meets his end when Vong forces led by Romm Zqar raid the Imperial Palace and he sacrifices himself with a proton bomb blast, initially in order to kill Tsavong Lah, who, thanks to Vergere, sees through the plan and stays off of Coruscant at the time of the explosion. Fey'lya takes about twenty five thousand Yuuzhan Vong with him, while the adult Solos, Skywalkers and their friends escape Coruscant, looking, despite that this is the ultimate loss of the New Republic, for a better tomorrow to the war.

Behind the scenes
Star by Star lists Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin Solo and other graduates from Jedi academy as Jedi Knights in its Dramatis Personae. However, they are all not Knighted until later in the series with Destiny's Way. It could have simply been referring to all Jedi as Jedi Knights, however, Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, Tenel Ka, Lowbacca, Zekk and Raynar, they were all promoted to apprentice Jedi Knights at the end of Young Jedi Knights.

Kyle Katarn was originally slated to be killed off, but this scene was removed at the last minute in order to leave LucasArts free to do what they wanted with him in the next game in the Jedi Knight series they had just announced.

In the New Jedi Order interview published in The Unifying Force, Shelly Shapiro, the Editorial Director of Del Rey, expressed some regret over the timing of the novel, with the Fall of Coruscant coming so soon after the September 11 attacks.

Originally, Jacen Solo was intended to be killed off during this novel rather than Anakin Solo.

There is a paperback version of the book in circulation that has the back cover image from Edge of Victory II: Rebirth but still retains the original synopsis.

The audiobook has been criticized for it's rather liberal abridgement. For instance, the entire invasion of Coruscant was completely cut out.

As Troy Denning's first foray as a novelist for Star Wars, this book had set up the precedent for major story arcs that would follow the end of The New Jedi Order. For instance, the capture of Raynar Thul under the hands of Lomi Plo and Welk would set up the A-plot in Troy Denning's Dark Nest Trilogy. Jacen Solo's capture under Vergere would begin Jacen's path to the dark side of the Force for the events of Legacy of the Force, though the actual portrayal of Jacen's teaching under Vergere would later take place in Traitor. Alema Rar's downfall to the dark side, which would be portrayed in the Dark Nest Trilogy, had been foreseen by Luke Skywalker following the loss of Alema's sister, Numa.

This is the longest novel in The New Jedi Order, clocking in at 606 pages in its hardcover copies.