I had this book for a year before I actually read it. Since I primarily bought it for the great, poster quality, painted, full page illustrations it didn't matter. Besides I was under the impression that it was a "juvenile", a kid's book. Yeah, right, this is about as much a juvenile as is Heilein's _Starship Troopers_. There are some very gritty combat scenes here- and very well developed characters of depth. This is amazing in a novella of less than 120 pages (after you subtract the illustration pages.) There are hack writers out there that would have told this same story in 300 or 400, or more, pages, but Dietz does it in less than 120 without ommitting any detail, atmosphere, or continuity. That's the mark of a very skilled writer. Combined with the cover quality illustrations this book is practically a cinema quality experience all by itself. Moreover, I had not read the first two books of the trilogy, nor played the games, yet the book held together on its own.
Another thing, for a book that is so good on the combat and technical atmosphere, the metaphysics are also very satisfying. The tale of Lord Hoth and the Army of Light is truly worthy of the best of the Star Wars mythos. Indeed, it could almost be a grand finale in itself.
As a measure of how "in" to this I got, I finally ordered that universal remote shaped like a light saber for the TV. Hey, I needed a new remote anyway....
