Forty years after the Battle of Yavin a dangerous new era in the Star Wars epic begins– the revelations are shocking, the stakes desperate, and the enemy everywhere. As civil war threatens the unity of the Galactic Alliance, Han and Leia Solo have enraged their families and the Jedi by joining the Corellian insurgents. But the Solos draw the line when they discover the rebels’ plot to make the Hapan Consortium an ally– which rests upon Hapan nobles murdering their pro-Alliance queen and her daughter. Yet the Solos’ selfless determination to save the queen cannot dispel the inescapable consequences of their actions, that will pit mother against son and brother against sister in the battles ahead. For as Jacen Solo’s dark powers grow stronger under the Dark Jedi Lumiya, and his influence over Ben Skywalker becomes more insidious, Luke’s concern for his nephew forces him into a life-and-death struggle against his fiercest foe, and Han and Leia Solo find themselves at the mercy of their deadliest enemy . . . their son. Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

Angering their families and the Jedi by joining the Corellian rebels, Han and Leia Solo soon discover a plot to kill the pro-Alliance Hapan queen and her daughter and try to stop it, but it leads to a battle with their son Jacen.

Honor and duty collide with friendship and blood ties as the Skywalker and Solo clans find themselves on opposing sides of an explosive conflict in this first of a new string of adventures. This edition of the "New York Times" bestseller includes two bonus short stories by Karen Treviss featuring Darth Vader.

To bring peace and order to a galaxy at war, Jacen Solo will sacrifice anything - or anyone. Now the moment of choice is at hand. Jacen must pass one final test before he can gain the awesome power of a true Sith Lord: he must bring about the death of someone he values dearly. Who will he choose?

As the stand-off between the Galactic Alliance and its rebellious member states erupts into full-blown battle, the new Corellian leadership develops a desperate plan to draw the Hapan Consortium into the war on their side. But the plot poses a moral quandry for Han and Leia Solo, who cannot abide deliberately spreading the war any more than they can the murder of the Hapan Queen Mother, ex-Jedi Knight Tenel Ka. Taking it upon themselves to save her life - and that of her young daughter, Allana - the Solos set in motion a firestorm of confusion and mayhem that will pit children against parents, bring Luke Skywalker into battle with his foremost nemesis, and leave them at the mercy of one of the Jedi's oldest and most deadly enemies.

In the Stars Wars galaxy, evil is on the move as the Galactic Alliance and Jedi order battle forces seen and unseen, from rampant internal treachery to the nightmare of all-out war. With each victory against the Corellian rebels, Jacen Solo becomes more admired, more powerful, and more certain of achieving galactic peace. But that peace may come with a price. Despite strained relationships caused by opposing sympathies in the war, Han and Leia Solo and Luke and Mara Skywalker remain united by one frightening suspicion: Someone insidious is manipulating this war, and if he or she isn’t stopped, all efforts at reconciliation may be for naught. And as sinister visions lead Luke to believe that the source of the evil is none other than Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith, the greatest peril revolves around Jacen himself. . . .