The book started out well enough but then as i got further into it it became apparent to me it was laughably bad, certainly worse than even the legacy novels. The villain come from the russ manning newspaper strip. Blackhole. This is as laughably bad as Lumiya being brought back into canon in the legacy novels at least as the EU goes.
The storyline is as bad as some of the Marvel Star Wars comics were originally. But this is worse it shows an incredible lack of imagination, and it feels rushed. As a fan of Matt Stovers other star wars novels i am incredibly dissapointed, this was typical work for hire stuff well below his standards.
On top of that the stupid prequel tie ins and mentions in the book were incredibly annoying, and also that the villain escapes and lived in the end of the book to be the next villain in the fate of the jedi series, which is almost inevitable.
There were a couple of amusing points like the holo novel mentioned "Luke Skywalker and the Jedi's Revenge" an obvious reference to the original title for Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Jedi. As well as Brian Daleys Han Solo's Revenge. Stover Dedicated the book to Brian Daley who is dead of course, and the living author Alan Dean Foster who Wrote Both Star Wars From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye.
In Other words they are not even remotely trying anymore. Star Wars as a franchise is now nothing more than a cash cow. The future of star wars is dead as a doornail, unless the original theatrical versions of the movies are put back on the pedestal they belong on and the prequels and special editions, and bad tie in merchandise moved to the trash bin. Star Wars as it is now is a fucking joke, a self parody like Indiana Jones IV. Anything that was good about it or magical is gone. I Still am holding out that last shred of hope that del rey can redeem themselves with the first of the new books by Aaron Allston. But my expectations are pretty much in the shitter for anything Star Wars since 1999.