Right after the Battle of Endor, the discovery of a message pod intended for the Emperor sends Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and the droids to far-flung Bakura, an Imperial territory that is under siege by aliens who use human souls to run their tech. Leia hopes that a truce with the Empire will be the first step towards something greater. But if they all end up dead, it'll be for naught.

Back in 2023, I - for some reason - took it upon myself to read every novel Kathy Tyers released in the 1980s and 1990s, so I have become well versed in her style from that period. I found myself noticing the usual elements she favoured back then, which frankly became repetitive in her original work, but here she does a decent job of adapting them to the nascent Expanded Universe (this book was published in 1994, just as the EU kicked into overdrive). The only exception is Gaeriel, who is not unique to Tyers' writing or particularly interesting. Ignoring that issue, I'd say the weakest element of this book was the battle sequence at the end. It felt a bit muddled.

As a kid, who hadn't yet discovered Firebird et al, I adored this book. The corners on the cover of my copy have fairly worn away. Even now I have to admit that Tyers' style does make it stand out among the others of its era. It's memorable. Interestingly, her use of an invading alien force is revisited later in Legends, while the concept of a religion where using the Force is seen to harm the galaxy has cropped up in Disney's High Republic project.

She was either ahead of the curve or extremely influential. That kind of wins my respect, regardless of the quality of this book.

Fern has spent years as a bookseller, doing nothing of note. Something feels off, so she transplants her shop next door to her friend Viv's in Thune... and yet, something is still off. Instead of talking to Viv, Fern gets drunk and passes out in the cart of a legendary elf transporting a very strange bounty. Fern soon finds herself far from Thune and her chances of apologising to Viv are now very slim...

The main selling point of the previous two books, for me, was the cosiness. Brigands & Breadknives lacks that cosiness, which makes it feel too similar to the typical fantasy journey story - basically, not what I was hoping for when I picked this up. If you look past that disappointment, which I sometimes managed to do, this is a vaguely amusing story where the real treasure is the friends we made along the way. Never mind that it was a big of a slog to get through...

And is there a reason that Bradlee is an anagram of Baldree? lol​

Lorelei is a half-fae queen with a neighbour set on conquering the continent and ousting all of faekind. Gerard de Moireul, infuriatingly resistant to her charms, is a general who wouldn't hesitant to obey orders to attack her land. Lorelei needs to change his mind somehow. So she abducts him and whisks him away to the fae realm, where she doesn't intend to lose...least of all her heart.

I adored the first book in this series because it was totally up my alley. This one was a little less so, I could tell that from the blurb, but I love the world Burgis has created so of course I had to jump back in. The fae tournament wasn't all that interesting and it felt rather weak to me. I was thinking I wouldn't enjoy any aspect of Lorelei and Gerard's story... but oh those intimacy scenes were top notch. Reluctantly, I have to admit that I was won over.