I definitely enjoyed this one.  Early on I had some issues with how it was written, but that disappeared as I kept reading.  I felt that the writing was geared more toward a young audience (despite the story feeling geared toward a slightly older audience), that it was dumbed down.  It stated the obvious.  It used italics and such in the way I did when I first started out writing, but have come to dislike.  But as I kept reading, I didn’t really notice it as much.  It could be that there as an actual change in the writing as the characters aged, or I could have gotten so invested in the story that I stopped noticing.  The latter is certainly believable.

The story was not overly exciting for most of it, but it definitely kept me enthralled.  I very much enjoy reading Star Wars stories and seeing the events of the movies from different angles.  It was nice to see different perspectives and the events between and beyond what we see in the movies.  I am still disappointed with the discarding of the EU, but I am also excited to keep up with these new stories.  The characters and plot were fairly predictable (partially because it ran parallel to the movies until the end), but not so much that it wasn’t interesting. 

Between that interest and my excess of downtime, this was about the fastest I have read a book in a long time.  Definitely recommended for all Star Wars fans.