J. J. Gardner

The further adventures of Luke Skywalker and his friends in their continuing battle against Darth Vader and the evil side of the Force.

The Rebels Strike Back… The war against the evil Galactic Empire is in its final stages. The Imperial forces are building another Death Star. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker saves his friends Han Solo and Princess Leia from the clutches of the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Without the help of the wise Jedi Master, Yoda, Luke struggles to become a Jedi Knight. Armed with the power of the Force—and backed by Han, Leia, the small but strong Ewoks, and other Rebels—Luke must face Darth Vader and the merciless Emperor in a fight to the death. Can Luke defeat the dark side of the Force? The future of the galaxy lies in his hands....

What it means to be a warrior has become a pertinent issue of our time. What makes some men and women perform extraordinary deeds on the battlefield? What makes them risk their lives in the pursuit of victory? And do their successes or failures in combat bring them happiness, melancholy, or fulfillment? Max Hastings's "authority [and] humanity" in depicting "the realities of combat" (Alistair Horne, The Wall Street Journal) has been greatly praised on the release of his previous book, Armageddon, which documented the last eight months in the European theater of World War II. In Warriors, Hastings takes up the experience of fourteen soldiers and airmen, together with one remarkable sailor, who fought in the wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, portraying their triumphs, follies, and, sometimes, tragedies. We meet Baron Marbot, an exuberant cavalry officer who joined Napoleon's army at the age of seventeen and fought through Waterloo in a happy and shameless pursuit of glory; paratrooper "Slim Jim" Gavin, an orphan who enlisted in World War II to escape his miserable boyhood and went on to become America's youngest general since Custer; Nancy Wake, a dashing Australian who fought for the resistance in Nazi-occupied France; Avigdor Kahalani, an Israeli officer hideously burned in the Six-Day War, who, six years later, was one of the tank commanders who saved his country during the defense of the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War. Each of Hastings's pen portraits depicts a unique and remarkable human story. A tribute to the valor of these fighters and a searching study of combat in modern history, Warriors enhances our understanding of the hearts and minds of the people who serve in war. It is also an appealing book for the reader who is drawn to tales of heroism, human drama, and some of the most exotic characters of modern times.From the Hardcover edition.