The New Jedi Order: Dark Journey

The New Jedi Order: Dark Journey, the tenth book in the New Jedi Order series, is a novel by Elaine Cunningham, published on January 29, 2002. It contained an excerpt of The Approaching Storm.

Publisher's summary
The New Jedi Order continues as Jaina Solo struggles with anger and despair after the Jedi Knights' harrowing adventure behind enemy lines.

''Though the Jedi strike force completed its deadly mission into Yuuzhan Vong territory, the price of success was tragedy: not everyone made it out alive. In a daring getaway, hotshot pilot Jaina Solo stole an enemy ship, taking along her fellow survivors&mdash;and leaving behind a huge piece of her heart.''

''With the enemy in hot pursuit, Jaina is forced to seek haven in the unprotected, unfriendly Hapes Cluster, where the Jedi are held responsible for a past tragedy&mdash;and where the royal family has grim plans for their famous Jedi guest. Even more sinister are the intentions of the Yuuzhan Vong, desperate to capture Jaina for a hideous sacrifice.''

''Grief-stricken and obsessed with revenge, Jaina is blind to these threats&mdash;and to the overpowering evil dangerously close to consuming her. In the coming conflagration, Jaina will be fighting not for victory or vengeance, but for her very being&hellip;''

Plot summary
Taking place just after The New Jedi Order: Star by Star, Jaina Solo and the rest of the survivors from the Jedi Myrkr strike team, including Lowbacca, Zekk, Ganner Rhysode, Tenel Ka Djo, Tahiri Veila, Tekli, Alema Rar, and Tesar Sebatyne, escape the Yuuzhan Vong worldship they were sent to in order to destroy the voxyn, Jedi hunters created by the Vong, by escaping in Executor Nom Anor's ship, the Ksstarr. Along the way, Jaina's oldest brother, Jacen, was captured by the Vong and his execution is delayed until Jaina could be kidnapped, due to how much the Vong take it seriously for twins to fight to the death in their culture. The survivors take the body of Jaina's youngest brother, Anakin, so he can have a proper funeral.

Meanwhile, back at Coruscant, the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong are still fighting, and during the battle, Kyp Durron's X-wing squadron and the Ksstarr join the fray. When the battle is lost to the Republic, the survivors of that battle, including Kyp, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker, along with the Ksstarr, all escape the captured New Republic capital planet.

The survivors from the battle escape to the Hapes Cluster, which had lost its major Fleet in the Battle of Fondor nearly two years before in the war against the Yuuzhan Vong and is still recovering. The Cluster is now opening itself to refugees in the Yuuzhan Vong War, and on Hapes itself, Prince Isolder has had several assassination attempts on him due to his leading of their loss at Fondor. Queen Teneniel Djo of Hapes is losing her will to live because of the loss of her unborn child during the Battle of Fondor, and former queen mother Ta'a Chume is seeking a replacement for Djo. As for the survivors of the strike team, they all feel through the Force that Jacen Solo is now dead from the Yuuzhan Vong, except for Leia, who is certain that Jacen is still alive, and Jaina, who also strangely did not feel her twin's death. Jaina suspects that her anger and rage over Anakin's death had distracted her sense of Jacen, though she now cares very little of the dark side of the Force. Her reasoning is that because the Jedi and the New Republic dithered during the war, she finds that this has caused very little action in comparison to what all of the Jedi and Republic could have done had they not had, in Jaina's opinion, nonsense arguments over the matters of the war.

Jaina finally begins to understand the Ksstarr with Lowbacca and contacts Warmaster Tsavong Lah of the Yuuzhan Vong. She discovers the frigate's nature, she realizes it is in tribute to Yun-Harla, the Trickster goddess of the Vong, since Nom Anor worships Yun-Harla. In an attempt to mock the Vong, Jaina renames the Ksstarr the Trickster after Yun-Harla's nature and how Eminence Harrar and Khalee Lah relates her deceptive talents to Yun-Harla. This would be considered blasphemy among the Yuuzhan Vong's culture if Harrar took this consideration seriously, and may even lead to his dishonorable execution. When the Trickster finally arrives on Hapes, Anakin is cremated and Jaina and Lowbacca begin to find ways to scramble the Trickster 's location.

Ta'a Chume, seeing how much of a warrior Jaina is, plans to have Jaina marry Isolder so she can lead Hapes to war against the Yuuzhan Vong. Since Tenenial Djo is too weak to lead Hapes into war against the Yuuzhan Vong and Chume's own granddaughter, Tenel Ka, pledges her allegiance more to the Jedi than to Hapes, Jaina seems to be the proper candidate for queen mother of Hapes. During all this, Jagged Fel of the Chiss Fleet arrives to Hapes to support the New Republic after his failure at the Battle of Ithor early in the war. Kyp Durron becomes a member of Jag's fleet and in order to understand the more, Jaina becomes Kyp's apprentice, despite her disregard for him prior to the fall of Coruscant. In the end, Tenenial Djo dies from poisoning thanks to Ta'a Chume's machinations, and despite the former Queen Mother's attempts, Jaina refuses to become the next queen mother of Hapes. Ta'a Chume's granddaughter, Tenel Ka, becomes the new queen. Jaina's attempts at scrambling the Trickster 's location succeeds in defeating the Vong twice when Hapes is pitted against them, and even results in Khalee Lah committing suicide out of humiliation.

Behind the scenes
There are several continuity errors in the book:
 * Dark Journey lists Jaina, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka and Zekk as Jedi Knights in its Dramatis Personae. However, they are all not Knighted until later in the series with The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way. It could have simply been referring to all Jedi as Jedi Knights, however, they were all promoted to apprentice Jedi Knights at the end of Young Jedi Knights.
 * Page 287 of the first paperback edition states that Tenel Ka "held her mother's hands in both of hers". However, Tenel Ka has only one hand at this point in continuity.
 * The book describes the Yammosk jammer as being a series of comm units that vibrate on the hulls of Yuuzhan Vong ships, preventing the Yammosk from concentrating. In every other book, the jammer transmits the gravitic equivalent of white noise to the Yuuzhan Vong forces, and is based on a ship native to the galaxy.
 * Ta'a Chume says that Tenel Ka is older than Jaina, but Tenel Ka is one year younger.
 * Jaina says that the misson on which Jacen was implanted with a Yuuzhan Vong slave coral was mere months before, when it was over a year previous.
 * On page 188 of the paper back edition (at least), Jaina and Lowbacca are in the Trickster. When a large 'glob of gel' falls off of Lowbacca's fur, it says "and landed on the duracrete floor". This isn't possible, as the Yuuzhan Vong don't user inorganic materials, such as duracrete, in their ships, since they are living.
 * On page 283 of the paper back edition (at least), Kyp's name is incorrectly spelled "Kip".
 * Lowbacca was, 'other than Jaina, the only civilian granted access to this secured site.' but Jaina was a member of the armed forces.

Aside from the cancelled Blood Oath novel that was supposed to have been written by Elaine Cunningham, taking place around the end of Legacy of the Force, this is the only Star Wars novel written by Cunningham.

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of Dark Journey.