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    Edge of Victory II: Rebirth: Star Wars: The New Jedi Order
    Unavailable
    Edge of Victory II: Rebirth: Star Wars: The New Jedi Order
    Unavailable
    Edge of Victory II: Rebirth: Star Wars: The New Jedi Order
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    Edge of Victory II: Rebirth: Star Wars: The New Jedi Order

    Written by Greg Keyes

    Narrated by Alexander Adams

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The Star Wars epic continues its dazzling space odyssey in The New Jedi Order-as Luke and Mara, Leia and Han, and others battle the mighty enemy from beyond the galactic rim.

    The brutal Yuuzhan Vong are scouring the universe for Jedi to slaughter. With no help from the divided New Republic, the Jedi stand alone against their seemingly invincible foe. Han and Leia Organa Solo risk deadly consequences with their controversial tactics to bolster the Jedi resistance. After uncovering a new Yuuzhan Vong menace, Anakin and Tahiri find themselves wanted for murder by the Peace Brigade. To avoid capture, they jump into hyperspace . . . and into trouble far graver.

    Hunted by the Yuuzhan Vong, wanted as criminals by the New Republic, and with unrest stirring within their own ranks, the Jedi find peril everywhere they turn. But even in the midst of despair, while the most fiercest battle of all looms on the horizon, hope arises with the birth of one very special child. . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 20, 2007
    ISBN9780739300626
    Unavailable
    Edge of Victory II: Rebirth: Star Wars: The New Jedi Order
    Author

    Greg Keyes

    Born in Meridian, Mississippi, Greg Keyes has published more than thirty books, including The Basilisk Throne, The Age of Unreason, and The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, also writing books for Babylon 5, Star Wars, Planet of the Apes, The Avengers, and Pacific Rim, and novelizing Interstellar and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. He lives, writes, fences and cooks in Savannah, Georgia. He is found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/greg.keyes1.

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    Reviews for Edge of Victory II

    4/5

    1,182 ratings76 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A great coming-of-age-cum-enlightenment novella. This tends more towards YA than science fiction, but don't let that detract from its power. The story revolves around a mind-reading gestalt community and how they survive in an oppressive, religiously conservative society intolerant of anything or anyone abnormal. Similar in some ways to Sturgeon's fix-up More Than Human.Read as part of A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume 1, an anthology edited by Anthony Boucher.
    • 4/5
      Great science fiction involves you emotionally in a story while expanding your intellectual perspective. This is an excellent example.
    • 4/5
      I feel like I've been saving this one as it was the last unread Wyndham novel I had a copy of (there are more I haven't read that I don't own). In theme this is almost a companion novel in theme to The Midwich Cuckoos - in both books a group of children have special abilities but Chrysalids is told from the children's viewpoint and Cuckoos from the viewpoint of the unaffected adults. Wyndham's very good at the slow build-up of tension in what turns out to be a post-apocalyptic dystopia. But he's also good at making the dystopian world quite understated (I think this is one of the reasons why he is so often accused of writing 'cosy catastrophes') which in some ways is more effective. Strongly recommended.
    • 4/5
      The heavy-handed evolutionary philosophy gets a bit much--okay, way too much, and you think of a bunch of dusty English baby boomer granddads saying things like "change is life" and "ripeness is all" and being indulged in their outmoded opinions on like immigration--but oh it is laid over the rippingest of yarns.
    • 4/5
      Post-apocalyptic world where deviation is pushed to the fringes. A small group of people deviate in an invisible way and must escape.
    • 4/5
      Odd how a best-selling mainstream SF novel becomes, 30 years later, acceptable fare for teenagers. We read it in high school, mostly because of the New Zealand connection I'm sure. Probably the most important science fiction work set in Newfoundland. The moral ambiguity of the ending doesn't some across as nuance on Wyndham's part, just an unexamined belief in the evolutionary superiority of New Zealanders.
    • 4/5
      I really loved this book. A definitely recommendation for anyone that liked The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness.
    • 5/5
      Distopian view of the far future in a post-nuclear world. A frightened, god-fearing community destroy anything varying from the norm. A group of young people realise they have mental powers that set them apart.Thought-provoking about ignorant prejudice, and what society demands as normal, questioning our fear of change, embedded in a fascinating adventure story.
    • 5/5
      One of my favourite books of all time - read it as a child many years ago. The theme of acceptance is even more relevant especially given current political events.
    • 5/5
      Astoundingly still relevant to the world we find ourselves in today's. Whydham reminds us it is the "story" not the setting that is important.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed this one. It's a rare find; I don't care for hard science fiction but the classics I have always enjoyed. So having this author pointed out to me was fantastic.
      The story is compelling. Lots of ideas about insiders/outsiders according to cultural and social norms and conventions...very timely for today's world.
      I'll be looking for other works by this author.
    • 5/5
      A fantastic, blunt story about a small community of strict evangelicals who are too fearful to move forward with their lives, they have to burn and kill anything different. It's a short read and I haven't seen a sequel, but it's worth it to really nail it into your head that being different is something to be embraced, not burned and ignored.
    • 4/5
      In a post-apocalyptic future, nuclear war has destroyed civilization and left numerous genetic mutations. A small community of survivors exists under harsh religious laws - any mutations in plants or animals are destroyed and any mutations in humans are considered blasphemies against God and are sterilized and exiled to a harsh existence in the wild. David is a young boy who discovers that he has a mutation, but it is a hidden one - he and a few other children are able to communicate wordlessly, using 'thought-shapes.' David must live his life in secret, always afraid lest he let out that he's different. The Chrysalids is a condemnation of intolerance and oppression. It stresses the importance of change and evolution in human society, and is still as relevant today as when it was written. This was a re-read for me. The first time I read it I was in school. This time, I was struck by how David and the other children's plight resonated with my own experiences growing up as a lesbian. The cruelty and intolerance of the townspeople, all because of something inherent and unavoidable, and in the telepaths' case invisible, really struck a chord with me. "Still our whole consideration if we were too survive must be to keep our true selves hidden; to walk, talk, and live indistinguishable from other people. . . . We were condemned to negatives, to not revealing ourselves, to not speaking when we would, to not using what we knew, to not being found out - to a life of perpetual deception, concealment and lying." (p. 77)"Why should they be afraid of us? We aren't hurting them," she broke in."I'm not sure I know why," I told her. "But they are. It's a feel-thing not a think-thing. And the more stupid they are, the more like everyone else they think everyone ought to be. And once they get afraid they become cruel and want to hurt people who are different - " (p. 132-133)There are some heart breaking scenes - such as when David's aunt comes begging her sister to help hide her baby from the Inspector who checks for mutations, only to be chastised, told she is an evil heathen and turned away. The cruelty of those who are obsessed with God and "His" image are highlighted - as is their foolishness, since they are condemning their society to a stagnant, never evolving, never progressing, barbaric state. This is a book everyone should read.
    • 4/5
      Wyndham is a wonderful story teller, and this is another of his gifts to us. Humanity is getting a bit much these days. The idea that change is the only constant does make sense, as does the idea that to survive we must evolve. Given that this was written almost 70 years ago, it feels very modern, so little have we progressed. A pity.
    • 3/5
      1000 years after a nuclear apocalypse, some children have psychic powers.3/4 (Good).It's short and engaging, set in an interesting world. It doesn't have much in the way of surprises beyond the early world-building - especially the ending, which very much just wraps everything up because it's time for the book to be over.(Jan. 2022)
    • 4/5
      The message that some people take from this 1955 science fiction classic is 'don't be frightened of change, always look forward and never look backwards. Change is not always for the best especially when a human made apocalypse seems to have wrecked half the planet. In Wyndham's novel the benefits are a new breed of humans with telepathic skills and so better, faster communications might on the surface seem be a boon to society, however faster communication comes with it's own problems and when super telepathic users start to sense the emotions behind the transmitted thoughts then I can see problems. Wyndham doesn't get to examine those issues in this book whose main theme is a small mutant group fighting for their survival. In Wyndham's novel the apocalypse on earth happened three hundred years ago and the novel opens with a society that has looked backwards instead of forwards. They have blamed the destruction on humanity moving too far away from God's image. Of course they know exactly what God's image is from the bible (God made man in his own image) and so in a post atomic world anything that is deemed as mutant is destroyed. The novel is set is the village of Waknuk (or it could be Nuk(e)wak) where one of the younger generation (David) starts to understand that he can read other peoples minds through thought pictures. He discovers there are eight others within a ten mile radius, who have similar gifts, but knowing that his father is one of the most strict enforcers of the law against mutants he lives in fear that his mutant abilities will be discovered. He grows up as quietly as he can, but when his younger sister also develops the gift and is unable to control her much more powerful transmissions it is only a matter of time before the group of telepaths are discovered. David has dreams of a society that are something like the ones that destroyed their civilisation, but the inhabitants of Waknuk have become so insular that David can find out nothing about the people that lived on the earth over 300 years ago. The Waknukians are a farming community who live by the teachings of the bible, they are back in the age of horsepower with only one large ancient steam engine to do the heavy work. They are fighting a battle against mutant crops and mutant livestock as well as mutant people some of whom live in the Fringes where mutations have run wild.Olaf Stapledon's novel Odd John published in1935 explored similar themes to Wyndham's novel and in my opinion delved more deeply into issues facing a mutant group who come to see themselves as an improvement on those around them. Wyndham however keeps his story moving along tightening up on the tensions for a group of people fighting for their freedom to exist and it is told from David's perspective and so there is little space given for reflection on wider issues. The story works well and Wyndham avoids most of the racism and sexism of much science fiction written at this time. In my opinion this is nowhere near as ambitious as Day of the Triffids but one could argue it is more tightly written 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      One of John Wyndham's classics. A must-read for anyone who likes science fiction.
    • 4/5
      I read this in the school library when I was 17. I had never read much science fiction and I found this a fascinating insight into the nature of religious fervor, bigotry and sorrow.
      Not the least because the ability for which the children are hounded seems to us to be an amazing sense much sort after if it exists at all.
      Its an object lesson ignorance.
    • 5/5
      Published in England as The Chrysalids, this book was one of my early favorites. Notable for providing lyrics to one of the early Jefferson Airplane songs, "Crown of Creation" (and one of my favorite understated quotes).
    • 4/5
      Full disclosure: I read this book back in September, right before an unexpected and emergency hospitalization. Had my life followed its normal pattern, I would have reviewed it comprehensively at the time, but instead I'm coming to back to it more than two months later to clean up loose ends. What I do recollect is that I enjoyed the novel very much; there was greater character depth than the Wyndham I've read previously (Chocky, The Kraken Wakes), and both a realism and an urgency to the writing that really pushed me on. You could make a film of this book quite easily, even today, and it would have something significant to say about the lengths we go to demonize those "not like us." Wyndham's use of Christian zealotry, too, seems remarkably prescient (and unusually pointed) for something written in 1955.Where the book falls down, a little, is in its ending, which comes thick, fast, and far too abruptly. Up to that point, however, it's a very affecting and engaging read.
    • 4/5
      I first read this book as a teenager and after nearly 40 years it still wove the same spell over me. A MUST READ for any Science Fiction fan.
    • 5/5
      This is the book in which John Wyndham steps out of his comfort zone of writing 1950s 'cosy catastrophes' and produced something darker, deeper, and much much better. Set in post-apocalyptic Labrador, 'The Chrysalids' is the story of how it is to be different in a closed-minded, backwards-looking fundamentalist religious society. Grim, in short. There is none of the light tone and mild humour of his other works, and it eventually becomes disturbing, not to say harrowing. When I first read this book, these many long years ago, I thought it had a happy ending. I am not at all sure it does, now.
    • 5/5
      I read this book as a teenager and, along with Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, this left an indelible mark on me. I liked this book even more the the Day of the Triffids. Another book I should re-read.
    • 2/5
      I may have read a Wyndham novel when I was at school, but I’m not entirely sure. I do remember reading one of his collections a few years later – if only because the cover art was a blurry photo of an Airfix model of a Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica. From what I recall, the stories were pretty bad. But Wyndham occupies a peculiar position in British sf – considered an important writer in the history of the genre by many, but also widely accepted by the mainstream. Some elements of his novels have even entered British culture, such as the Triffids. The Chrysalids, however, is set in Canada, although it might as well be set in Kent. The Earth has been depopulated by nuclear war, and much of it lies in ruins. In Labrador, in a small farming community, the narrator and seven other kids can all talk to each other telepathically. But they keep it secret, because mutations are ruthlessly culled (if animal) or exiled (if human), although the latter do sometimes have a tendency to turn up dead. Unfortunately, the secret gets out when the narrator is in his late teens/early twenties, Chiefly thanks to his very young sister, who is an extremely powerful telepath, so powerful in fact that she can just about hear the thoughts of people in New Zealand… which comes in useful as New Zealand is apparently a near-utopia for telepaths, and they’re sending a mission to Labrador to rescue the mutant teenagers. But not before the teenagers have been chased into the badlands and have witnessed a battle between the farmers and the mutants. Of course, radiation doesn’t cause hereditary mutation, we know that now, although perhaps they didn’t in the 1950s. The whole “keeping the genome pure” thing is also policed using religion, leading to some all too plausible – and sadly common, even now – Bible-backed bigotry. The narrator’s father is an especially big arsehole in that regard. And yet… it all feels very Home counties. For all the regard in which Wyndham is held, he’s never been an important figure in my map of science fiction, UK-only or Anglophone; and I’ve yet to be convinced he should be considered as important as he is.
    • 5/5
      Mit dem inzwischen siebzig Jahre alten The Chrysalids (auch: Re-Birth; dt.: Wem gehört die Erde?, auch: Wiedergeburt), hat Autor John Wyndham mal wieder einen zeitlosen post-apokalyptischen Roman geschaffen, der viel Atmosphäre und Nachdenklichkeit enthält.Aus der Sicht von David Storm, der zu Beginn des Buches zehn Jahre alt ist, führt uns Wyndham durch seine ernüchternd pessimistische Vision einer Gesellschaft, die sich aus den Resten einer einst fortschrittlichen Menschheit entwickelt hat. In Waknuk, einem der größten und wohlhabendsten Dörfer in Labrador, wird das „Buch der Alten“ als heilige Quelle der einzigen Wahrheit betrachtet. Dieses Buch ist ein Überbleibsel des alten Volks und eine Ansammlung von Normwerten für Flora und Fauna. Die Gesellschaft von Waknuk interpretiert dies Jahre nach dem Vorfall (der nie wirklich aufgeklärt wird, da das wissen darüber mit den Alten verloren gegangen ist) mit religiösem Fanatismus, der leider nichts an Aktualität verloren hat.Abweichungen von der Norm gelten in Waknuk als dämonische Manifestationen und die Waknuker sind besonders streng darin, solche Abnormitäten auszulöschen, auch wenn es bedeutet Neugeborene mit einer Missbildung sofort zu töten. Dass die Fehlbildungen einer nuklearen Reststrahlung geschuldet sind, versteht man in dieser mittelalterlichen Agrargesellschaft nicht und erklärt sie daher mit dem Wirken des Teufels, der versucht die Reinheit von Gottes Werk zu unterwandern.In seiner ursprünglichen Publikation muss Wyndham, wie viele Schriftsteller seiner Zeit, von der Bedrohung des Kalten Krieges beeinflusst gewesen sein, mit der ständigen Bedrohung eines nuklearen Krieges im Hinterkopf. Heutzutage ist es vor allem der religiöse Wahn der dazu führt, dass The Chrysalids kein bisschen gealtert ist und heute ebenso aktuell ist wie vor siebzig Jahren.Der junge David Storm ist von den Vorurteilen seiner erwachsenen Vorbilder noch nicht beeinflusst und die Aussagen des Buches der Alten sind für ihn rein theoretisch, bedeutungslose Worte die er vielleicht auswendig lernt, aber nicht versteht. Als er die gleichaltrige Sophie kennenlernt, die ihm so ganz und gar nicht dämonisch vorkommt obwohl sie einen Zeh an jedem Fuß zuviel hat, fängt der Junge jedoch an zu verstehen und – viel wichtiger – an dem hasserfüllten Glauben seiner erwachsenen Mitmenschen zu zweifeln. Eine gefährliche Denkweise, die sich zuspitzt, als er erkennt, dass es Mutationen gibt, die nach außen hin nicht sichtbar sind und ihn selbst zu einem Abnormalen machen. Im Verlaufe des Buches begleiten wir David, wie er seine telephatischen Fähigkeiten mit wenigen anderen Kindern teilt und in ständiger Furcht lebt eines Tages entdeckt zu werden.Davids Charakter ist ein ruhiger, der vor allem durch seine geheimen Gedanken eine starke Wirkung hat und durch das sehr vorsichtige Leben das er führen muss. Durch seine Augen lernen wir die Welt von Labrador kennen und werden mit dieser kriechenden Furcht vor der Entdeckung konfrontiert, die in Davids Leben und dem der anderen telephathisch begabten Kinder Alltag ist.Was die übrigen Charaktere angeht sind das eher solide Statisten, die wir zwar nicht viel näher kennenlernen, die aber alle eine bestimmte Rolle spielen und dem relativ kurzen Roman zu seiner intensiven Wirkung verhelfen. Davids Vater z.B. ist der ultimative Fanatist, durch den besonders deutlich klar wird, wie gefährlich es ist, wenn man nicht einem bestimmten Ideal entspricht. Davids Onkel Axel hingegen ist die weltoffene und vernünftige Oase in einer strikt geordneten Welt. Er ist der Einzige, mit dem David reden kann un von dem der Junge erfährt, dass es außerhalb Waknuks andere Sichtweisen gibt, aber auch andere fanatische Ideologien. The Chrysalids ist in der Hinsicht ein wirklich spannendes Buch, weil es einen zwingt über die eigene Perspektive hinaus zu blicken und verdeutlicht, dass auch wir selbst von außen betrachtet und bewertet werden.Im letzten Drittel des Buches schwächelt The Chrysalids etwas, da es nach einem eher atmosphärischen Einstieg in eine reine Abenteuer-Hetzjagd ausartet, die in den Fringes ihren Höhepunkt findet. Ein Ort für ausgestoßene oder geflüchtete Mutanten, wo es noch primitiver und herzloser zugeht als in Waknuk. Das unausweichlich folgende Aufeinandertreffen der fanatischen Waknuker und der wütenden Fringesbewohner wirkt daher auch etwas platt und einfallslos. Das letzliche Finale reißt das Ruder dann aber zum Glück noch einmal herum und schließt mit einem nachdenklich machenden, aber Hoffnung spendenden Ende.Fazit:Wenn man sich für post-apokalyptische Bücher interessiert, dann gehört The Chrysalids unbedingt auf die Leseliste. Gerade wenn man nur die aktuellen Dystopien aus dem Jugendbuchbereich kennt, eröffnet einem dieser Roman noch einmal neue Dimensionen in Sachen dystopischer Romane, die mehr zu bieten haben als romantische Dramen.
    • 3/5
      My reaction to reading this novel in 2005.This isn’t one of Wyndham’s disaster novels. You could see it as sort of an amalgam of the species supplanting (specifically homo sapiens) The Midwich Cuckoos (though here the supplanting is by nuclear war engendered mutations as opposed to alien-human hyrbridization) and Wyndham’s famous disaster novels. Here the nuclear war was centuries in the past, and the plot involves a group of telepathic children dealing with their oppressive society which is dedicated to maintaining genetic purity (or, at least, paying lip service to it -- beneficial mutations like giant workhorses are allowed if they only deviate in size) at all costs. Whereas The Midwich Cuckoos was a horror story of man’s supplantation, this novel celebrates the telepathic mutants and the constant change and evolution that is life. It is well narrated by its telepathic hero who briefly glosses over the numerous brutalities inflicted on him and his fellow mutants. At story’s end, a high tech civilization of telepaths is found in New Zealand. The narration isn’t as slick or of the same tone as Wyndham’s Out of the Deeps since the narrator engages in a lot of description.
    • 5/5
      Brian Aldiss is supposed to have coined the term cozy catastrophe to cover John Wyndham's books, but I've never been able to see anything cozy about The Chrysalids, which is my favourite of all Wyndham's books and one of my overall favourite reads from my teenage years. Set in a much warmer Labrador of the far future after a nuclear holocaust has engulfed the world, it depicts an agrarian society where mutations (clearly caused by the high radiation levels) are common. But having no understanding of radiation, and very little understanding of the civilisation that preceded them, people have interpreted its destruction as 'Tribulation' sent by God to punish an evil world. And the only way to prevent tribulation from revisiting them is to root out all mutations, whether human, animal or plant, which depart in any way from the norms laid down by their forefathers. No matter how human a mutant might look, no matter how small might be their departure from the norm, they are merely soulless copies sent by the devil to tempt humans away from the true path laid down for them by God.Into this world comes David Strorm: seemingly born to a secure life as the only son of a prosperous farmer who owns the biggest farm in the district. But his father is also strict in his persecution of mutants, strict to the point of bigotry some would say, and as the young David realises that he is different from virtually all others around him, even though apparently physically normal, his life becomes a struggle to hide his true nature. And when his younger sister Petra is born, the struggle becomes nearly impossible.This is a book which, although short, deals with a lot of underlying questions of what it means to be human. Without giving anything away, I can say that I've always found the ending thought-provoking and disturbing. And even though I've read this several times before I enjoyed it equally as much when re-reading it again. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I've been meaning to read The Chrysalids since it was mentioned in Among Others (reading books Mori mentions hasn't steered me wrong, so far). I'm glad I got round to it. I enjoyed Wyndham's Day of the Triffids, but I enjoyed The Chrysalids rather more: I fell in love with the way he created a whole post-apocalyptic world in just a few pages. I loved all the details of it -- harsh and oppressive as it would be to live that life, it's a fantastic read for someone interested in post-apocalyptic dystopia.

      It wasn't, really, all that new to me, the modern reader. Still, it felt like it was, somehow. It leaves one wanting more, too. The ending is open enough that goodness knows what could happen, and the reader is given plenty they have to work out for themselves.

      Character-wise, I suppose it wasn't that strong, as the only characters who stood out to me strongly were the really central ones. Most of the group, I don't think I'll remember their names tomorrow. David and Rosalind do have a sweetness to them, but at the same time, if I think of what marked them out as people... David's uncle, who kills someone to keep their secret, and supports David and helps him despite his difference, he's actually perhaps the most memorable to me, in a way.

      There is, by the by, a lot of moral ambiguity.

      I'll be keeping my copy of The Chrysalids, for sure. I'll want to come back to it.
    • 4/5
      I was very surprised to find this book as good as I did. In general I don't care for futuristic, sci-fi stuff, and this one does have its holes. However, the discourse on "image of God" and perfection and evolution and change was very good and still relevant. Almost theological and philosophical. I'm sure most of that discussion is over the heads of students who read the book (often gr9 or less academic senior students), but there's enough plot-action to entertain those who just read for story, not philosophy/message.

      I think one of the holes that bothered me most is the telepathy that David has with his friends. How it works isn't well explained. How do they turn it on and off, yet allow it to be on in a way to understand each other's deeper thoughts? Also, their thoughts are described as pictures or images, yet the author conveys them by words. Their thought-dialogues are often complex and abstract -- how are images used to convey such intricate messages? Intuition and feeling type thoughts make more sense than images. But the concept in itself is interesting. Also interesting if you transcribe that method of communication to today's use of text-messaging -- communication across distance in a way that no one else knows (okay, there are some holes in the analogy) that you can turn on and off, but you've never had to meet the person for the communication to exist. Not quite the same, but for me, noticing the similarities added a contemporary angle to the story.
    • 5/5
      "Here's your future" - The Thermals