The New Jedi Order

In 1998, Sue Rostoni, managing editor for Lucas Licensing, and Shelly Shapiro, editorial director for Del Rey Books, joined with novelist James Luceno to plot The New Jedi Order series.

"[3] The Yuuzhan Vong species was based on the character Nom Anor, introduced in the Dark Horse Comics series Crimson Empire; he subsequently appeared in several New Jedi Order titles.

[5] The book received much controversy for the death of Chewbacca (the first and only time a major film character has been killed off in the now non-canon Star Wars Expanded Universe), despite George Lucas's approval.

[10] The alien race known as the Yuuzhan Vong are preparing for their invasion on the Star Wars galaxy by covertly disrupting the peace established by that of the New Republic ever since the fall of the Galactic Empire years previously.

Two Jedi Knights named Corran Horn and Ganner Rhysode are sent a mission to Bimmiel, an Outer Rim planet, to find university students that were taken from the Yuuzhan Vong and are missing at the moment.

Though the conquest of the world is successful, Jacen, in a bid to save his mother, Leia, from certain doom, confronts the Vong Warmaster Tsavong Lah in combat, embraces the Force once more, and defeats him.

Rapuung, meanwhile, offers to sacrifice his own life against the nearby Vong warriors in order to allow Anakin and Tahiri to escape, as a token of his gratitude of helping him accomplish his goal of exposing Kwaad.

Kyp tells Jaina that he has scouted the Sernpidal for some months now and has discovered the Yuuzhan Vong have been using the time offered to them in the wake of the galactic invasion's halt in order to build a giant superweapon that could threaten the stability of the New Republic.

Her efforts are further hindered when another Master Shaper named Kae Kwaad, obviously within the same domain as the late Mezhan, forces Nen Yim to concoct rather ridiculous experiments that do nothing to forward the progress of repairing the dying worldship.

The fifth story of the novel focuses on Jacen Solo traveling throughout the galaxy trying to avoid Yuuzhan Vong and their supporters, considering the special bounty that Warmaster Tsavong Lah put on his head.

Their friends and allies, including Anakin, Tahiri (both of whom shared a kiss at Yag'Dhul that will prove to further their relationship in the future), Corran, the other Solos, and several others arrive just in time to meet the newborn Ben.

Former Chief of State Leia Organa Solo faces a difficult crisis; the Yuuzhan Vong want to know the location of the secret Jedi base, and if the New Republic does not provide this information within one week, they will violently destroy millions of refugee ships.

In order to foil the threat posed by the voxyn, Anakin Solo and the Jedi Council consider sending a specialized all-Jedi strike team to take out the cloning facility.

In the end, however, with the help of her friends and family, Jaina overcomes the temptations of the dark side, remembers her place as a Jedi, and rejects Ta'a Chume's offer to become the next Hapan Queen Mother.

However, Shesh makes up a lie that allows her to live when she says that the shapers that grafted Tsavong Lah's artificial arm had intentionally set it to rot; the purpose of this is to force him to secretly do their bidding, or he would become a Shamed One.

Though the Remnant's leader, Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, refuses the offer, he does give them the locations of the Galactic Empire's old hideaways in the deep core in order to help the Republic's war against the Yuuzhan Vong.

One method meant to accomplish such a task is through Alpha Red, a biological virus developed by New Republic agent Dif Scaur and Chiss scientists that had been successfully tested to eliminate anyone and anything with Yuuzhan Vong DNA.

The Yuuzhan Vong agent provocateur Nom Anor, who suggested the assault on Ebaq 9, is obliged to give his life for his plan's failure, but he disguises himself and hides beneath Yuuzhan'tar's (formerly Coruscant's) streets.

Luke Skywalker leads a Jedi mission to find the lost, living world of Zonama Sekot,[17] and on his way helps repel a Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the Imperial Remnant, formerly the Empire.

After Harrar is knocked off a cliff from his brief encounter with Nom Anor, Tahiri and Corran are rescued by Luke Skywalker, his wife Mara, Jacen Solo, and Saba Sebatyne, and they are all taken to shelter before Zonama Sekot jumps into hyperspace.

Soon, Sekot, taking on the form of Nen Yim, reveals to the Jedi that Nom Anor's attempt to kill the living world has failed, and now, it is returning to known space to fight the Yuuzhan Vong.

Even with all of the advancements they made in the war against the Galactic Alliance, problems continue to plague the Yuuzhan Vong's capital planet thanks to the World Brain, and the heresy espoused by the Shamed Ones is still as strong as ever, even without Nom Anor's leadership.

Nom Anor himself has been inducted back into the elite as Prefect of Yuuzhan'tar thanks to his actions on Zonama Sekot, but even he can't quell the fire that he sparked in the Shamed Ones as Yu'shaa, their Prophet.

As the Yuuzhan Vong arrive at Mon Calamari and battle the opposing Galactic Alliance forces, Han and Leia Organa Solo, along with a few allies, infiltrate the Vong-captured Caluula in order to eliminate the resident yammosk there.

Just before it seems that Nas Choka's forces would win at the Battle of Mon Calamari, they suddenly make a hasty retreat back to Yuuzhan'tar, where Zonama Sekot has appeared in the capital planet's skies, causing various disasters and eliciting more opposition from the heretics.

On Yuuzhan'tar, Luke Skywalker, his wife Mara, Jaina and Jacen Solo, Tahiri Veila, and Kenth Hamner all join up with Captain Judder Page's commandos in order to storm Shimrra's Citadel and kill the Supreme Overlord, ending the Yuuzhan Vong War once and for all.

As Onimi readies Shimrra's coffer to launch into space, an awakened but still weakened Jaina is told by the Shamed One, who believes that she is the human avatar of the Vong Trickster goddess Yun-Harla, that he had attained his Force powers by grafting yammosk DNA to his own neural tissue in order to emulate the gods' works in creating the universe.

As the Alliance and their Yuuzhan Vong allies take hold of Shimrra's Citadel, Luke is carried away, and Han and Leia follow Nom Anor's lead in order to find Jaina and Jacen at the control level of the Supreme Overlord's coffer.

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, the Solos are saved from the dying yorik-trema, and Jacen is able to use Mara's tears and his own to concoct a chemical, as the late Vergere has done, to cure Luke of Shimrra's amphistaff poison.

Choka agrees to collect all remaining Vong throughout the galaxy so that they will be deposited on Zonama Sekot and be taken away into the Unknown Regions, where they will be safe and learn to acclimate their culture to peace and also reclaim their connection to the Force.