Literature / Tales from the New Republic

1 Following

Despite the title, the stories span dates from circa the Battle of Yavin to the height of the New Republic in 18 ABY. About half were reprinted from issues 8-14 of West End Games' Star Wars Adventure Journal, while others were written for it but were orphaned when the magazine was discontinued in 1997.

1. Interlude at Darkknell by Timothy Zahn and Michael A. Stackpole
2. "Jade Solitaire" by Timothy Zahn
3. "Gathering Shadows" by Kathy Burdette
4. "Hutt and Seek" by Chris Cassidy and Tish Pahl
5. "The Longest Fall" by Patricia A Jackson
6. "Conflict of Interest" by Laurie Burns
7. "No Disintegrations, Please" by Paul Danner
8. "Day of the Sepulchral Night" by Jean Rabe
9. "Uhl Eharl Khoehng" by Patricia A Jackson
10. "The Last Hand" by Paul Danner
11. "Simple Tricks" by Chris Cassidy and Tish Pahl

This anthology provides examples of the following tropes:

• The Atoner: Kyp Durron in "Simple Tricks", guilt-ridden for having caused destruction of the planet of Carida (described in The Jedi Academy Trilogy).
• Con Man: Gender-Inverted: Ghitsa Dogder, a professional con artist, runs clever scams in "Hutt and Seek" and "Simple Tricks" with the help of her partner Fen Nabon.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover depicts the destruction of one of the Death Stars, but none of the stories are set at either the Battle of Yavin or Endor.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Boba Fett, making short work of a whole Imperial garrison singlehandedly (though not without help of a load of gadgets and his preprogrammed ship), to get to his bounty, who was hiding in the center of it.
• A Day in the Limelight: Hal Horn and Garm Bel Iblis both serve as protagonists in "Interlude at Darkknell". Until this, Horn was a Posthumous Character and Bel Iblis only had a supporting appearance.
• Dying Dream: "The Longest Fall" opens with an Imperial captain who expects to be on the receiving end of a You Have Failed Me by High Inquisitor Tremayne. At first it looks like Tremayne had Force choked him nonfatally, then let him go. He makes it all the way back to the bridge of his Star Destroyer ... before collapsing on the floor of Tremayne's office with his neck broken.
• Fake Wizardry: Ghitsa Dogder pretends she's a Jedi in "Simple Tricks" to get money from rubes as part of a con by faking telekinesis with small, hidden repulsorlifts. However, word spreads, so an actual Jedi gets sent to check Ghitsa out.
• False Flag Operation: The Imperials blame the bombing which they committed to murder Bel Iblis on the Rebels, claiming it was done as he planned to denounce them publicly (the opposite from the truth) in "Interlude at Darkknell".
• Fantastic Slurs: Exploited by Hal Horn in "Interlude at Darknell". Ysanne Isard is undercover as a local detective but he's suspicious of her, so he deliberately calls his visit to the backwater planet a "Rimstint" (i.e. stint on the Outer Rim) and refers to the locals as "indigs" (from "indigenous"). She doesn't react, which tells him she's not who she says she is.
• Frame-Up: In "Interlude at Darkknell" Ysanne Isard frames her father Armand for high treason near the end to take his place as Director of Imperial Intelligence.
• Friendly Enemies: Moranda Savich, a thief, and Hal Horn, a CorSec officer chasing her, in "Interlude at Darkknell". She even openly admits that if it's him who eventually catches her, she at least knows that she would be treated fairly. Along the story Horn even saved her from being shot in cold blood by one of Ysanne Isard's henchmen (by blurring his vision with his secret Jedi abilities). Moranda, in her turn (and without even knowing that he had saved her before), went to great lengths to set him free when he was forcefully recruited by Isard to assist her in her own investigation (and was facing a grim prospect to be disposed of when he was no longer useful for her or to be caught in the crossfire in case a fight ensued over the piece of information Isard was after).
  Moranda: Strange as it may seem, Garm, over the past few years I’ve gotten sort of used to having Horn on my tail. He’s a pretty good opponent, you know, well worth matching wits against. I rather enjoy that sort of challenge. Besides, I know that if he’s the one who brings the hammer down on me, I’ll be treated fairly.
• Impersonating an Officer: Ysanne Isard and her subordinate Trabler are Imperial Intelligence agents. They pose as Darkknell Special Security, a part of the planetary police, to get Hal Horn (himself a police Inspector from the Corellian Security Force) on their side. He quickly realizes this and has them arrested later for it by genuine Darkknell Security officers while making his escape in "Interlude at Darkknell".
• The Juggernaut: Boba Fett, in "No Disintegrations, Please". This means, more than usual (see Curb-Stomp Battle). Not that it helped him to get to his quarry, eventually... (see Obfuscating Stupidity).
• Klingon Promotion: The conclusion of "Interlude at Darkknell": Ysanne Isard frames her father Armand for the misadventure on Darkknell that led to Garm Bel Iblis getting away with part of the Death Star plans, and for the murder of Bel Iblis's family at the start of the story, getting his job and resulting in his execution.
• Lightning Lash: In "Jade Solitaire", the overseers of a slave operation use "neuronic whips", which generate an electric charge to trigger pain cells, to torture the slaves. Mara Jade, undercover to rescue a kidnapped girl, allows herself to be tortured with one as part of her infiltration.
• Mad Artist: Adalric and Jaalib Brandl are a father/son team of Dark Jedi who are also theater actors.
• Master of Illusion: Hal Horn uses the Force to momentarily blur the vision of Isard's partner as he shoots a fleeing suspect In the Back, reducing a lethal wound to merely serious and allowing the suspect to escape.
• Misplaced Retribution: "The Longest Fall": Captain Jovan Vharing is executed by High Inquisitor Tremayne for operational mistakes that caused the deaths of sixty prominent Imperial citizens... except the whole attack was ordered by an overeager officer of the watch, Senior Lieutenant Leeds, who detected what he believed to be a Rebel signal while Vharing was asleep and didn't bother to inform his C.O. until it was all over. It is pretty standard that The Captain is ultimately responsible for everything that happens aboard their ship, but, as Vharing probably rightly remarks in his Internal Monologue, summary execution for something you weren't even consulted on is a bit much.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Rivo in "No Disintegrations, Please", first appearing as a horror-stricken sniveling coward, who runs under the wing of his brother, an Imperial general, for protection from the bounty hunter on his tail. As it turned out, it had been Rivo's plan all along, to use his brother and his brother's men as a shield to cover his successful escape from Fett, while the latter was busy tearing through a heavily protected Imperial garrison.
• One-Man Army: In "No Disintegrations, Please" Boba Fett is sent against an entire Imperial Army garrison and wins, although his quarry manages to escape.
• Professional Gambler: Kinnin Vo-Shay in "The Last Hand", a legendary gambler, considered by many to be absolutely unbeatable, as well as his opponent Doune, also an ardent and skilled gambler (and a Sore Loser to boot).
• Psychic Strangle: "The Longest Fall": Captain Jovan Vharing, commander of the star destroyer Intimidator, is Force-choked to death by High Inquisitor Tremayne for operational mistakes that led to the deaths of sixty Imperial citizens (which Vharing tried and failed to pin on a subordinate).
• Show Within a Show:
  • "Uhl Eharl Khoehng" takes its title from a famous Corellian theatrical tragedy about a king called the Edjian-Prince who wars with a trickster spirit of the forest and ends up destroying his own kingdom in his hubris. The play is enacted in the story by Adalric Cessius Brandl, a Jedi Master-turned-Imperial Inquisitor, his son Jaalib Brandl, and Fable Astin, a Rebel Alliance captain and fugitive Jedi who seeks out the Brandls to train her to fight a dark Jedi named Vialco.
  • In "No Disintegrations, Please" the story about Boba Fett engaging a whole Imperial garrison is a tale, told by an old storyteller to a group of children. It is revealed by the end of the story, though, that he was basing his tale on experience from his own life, being himself the one who had eventually outfoxed Fett in that battle.
• Sore Loser: Doune, a rich gambler, in "The Last Hand", known for his habit of hiring thugs to disintegrate his too successful opponents or to extort the won money back from them.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Fen Nabon and Ghitsa Dogder, respectively, in "Hutt and Seek" and in "Simple Tricks". Not that Ghitsa isn't skilled in combat, too, but being a con artist, she relies more on her smooth tongue and her cunning, and she is pompous and cares a lot about her looks; this makes a contrast with the rough-edged smuggler Fen.
• Whole-Plot Reference: "The Longest Fall" is a Setting Update of Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", featuring an Imperial officer who is executed for failure by High Inquisitor Tremayne. The entire story is his Dying Dream as Tremayne Force chokes him to death.
• You Have Failed Me: "The Longest Fall": Captain Jovan Vharing, commander of the star destroyer Intimidator, is Force-choked to death by High Inquisitor Tremayne for operational mistakes that led to the deaths of sixty prominent Imperial citizens—except it wasn't actually his fault: the attack was ordered by a subordinate, Senior Lieutenant Leeds, while Vharing was asleep.