The big three, on one last adventure
Star Wars: Crucible is a Star Wars Legends novel written by Troy Denning and released in July 9, 2013. It takes place after Fate of the Jedi and X-Wing: Mercy Kill. It stars Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa-Solo, and is chronologically the last novel published in the "old" EU (in the "main" era of the movies, at least).Han and Leia are at this one cantina called the Red Ronto, and waiting for Lando Calrissian to meet them and discuss the pirate problem in the Chiloon Rift where Lando had established his latest asteroid refinery. Naturally the meet does not go as planned. They do find out that the giant conglomerate Galactic Exploitation Technologies (GET) is involved in this, and inform Luke, who decides to look into it.
The novel follows up on several plot threads from Fate of the Jedi, including the fate of Vestara Khai and the search for the Mortis monolith.
Tropes in this book:
- Artificial Human: Not exactly humans, but the Nargons. Also Dena Yus.
- Avenging the Villain: The Qrephs kidnap Han Solo to get revenge for their mother's death. Not that he killed her; he was just her last customer before being murdered, and they don't really know who killed her. The Qrephs admit to Han that there's only a 12% chance he's the one who did it, but they're going to kill him anyway just to be absolutely certain.
- Ax-Crazy: Barduun, as a result of entering the Monolith.
- Badass Normal: Leia specifically mentions this about Han: He's spent a lifetime keeping pace with a bunch of Jedi, despite having no special abilities beyond a blaster and some good luck.
- Bad Guy Bar: The Red Ronto cantina. Han feels that it reminds him of the cantina back on Tatooine all those years ago.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: The ultimate thought process brought up for the novel is that both The Dark Side and the light exist to balance the Force out.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Marvid Qreph and Craitheus Qreph, who are brothers.
- Book Ends: The story starts in the Red Ronto cantina, and it ends there.
- The Cameo: Corran Horn, Seha Dorvald, and the Solusars all appear briefly at the beginning. Jaina and Jag get slightly larger roles, as they also appear at the end.
- Chickification: Mirta Gev used to be a warrior strong and competent enough to fight a Sith Lord and live. Here, she's shown as being barely competent enough to be a chief of security for the Qrephs.
- Co-Dragons: Savara Raine and Mirta Gev.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: In the first chapter, two Nargons take out two Mandalorians and nearly do for Han, Leia, and their miner friend. Their effectiveness drops pretty rapidly, to the point where a YVH droid near the end is mowing down piles of them at a time.
- Covers Always Lie: In an odd case the Brazilian cover features Luke with a beard, something he never had in Legends unlike the Disney canon.
- The Dragon: Savara Raine (Vestara Khai under a false identity) and Mirta Gev hold the roles to Marvid and Craitheus respectively.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Vestara wants the Qrephs empire for herself. The Qreph brothers are very aware of this.
- End of an Age: Was likely meant to be an in-universe version for the "Big Three" of Luke, Leia and Han. It ended up being the last post-ROTJ novel for the Legends Continuity before the Continuity Reboot.
- From Nobody to Nightmare/Rags to Riches: The Qreph brothers
- Fun with Acronyms: Galactic Exploitation Technologies goes by the acronym "GET".
- The Hero Dies: Subverted Trope. Luke and Leia disappear into the Force, but Han brings them back by saying their names.
- Informed Ability: Marvid Qreph and Craitheus Qreph are Columi and are said to be hyperintelligent. However, this is never really shown.
- Craitheus in particular is really bad at this. While Marvid bounces back and forth in doing intelligent things, Craitheus continually gets overly aggressive and makes choices that sabotage their long term plans - best exemplified in chapters that focus on Marvid.
- Meaningful Name: "Savara Raine" is very nearly an anagram of "Vestara."
- MegaCorp: The Galactic Exploitation Technologies is a giant conglomerate looking to rob the business of the independent miners.
- A Million Is a Statistic: Over thirty thousand of Lando's employees die in a single (almost successful) attempt to kill the Solos. They get forgotten rather fast after the initial shock.
- Mood Whiplash: At some points, it seems to be a light-hearted adventure. At other points, it seems to be a life and death commando mission filled with terrorist acts and other atrocities.
- Motive Decay: All of Vestara's nuanced motives from the previous series have been pretty much replaced by textbook Sith backstab-and-conquer behavior.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Subverted. Han wakes up after being captured to find the Qrephs intend to play sabaac with him... except the bets are all various kinds of tortures to be applied to the loser. And the whole time they're actually recording his brain waves so they can properly program his clone.
- Say My Name: Han brings Luke and Leia back out of the Force by doing this.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Raine and Gev, after the Jedi invade the base (and the Qrephs betray them).
- Riddle for the Ages: It's never made clear whether or not the Monolith was the Mortis Monolith, and even the audience can't be sure.
- Violence is the Only Option: This trope appears. Then again, it's Star Wars, where very little is resolved without resorting to violence.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Accepting the offers of the Force spirits inside the Monolith can turn normal people into powerful and thoroughly insane Force users.
