Well, I must admit this one surprised me. It was starting to seem as if the series was past it's golden days, and I wasn't expecting much from this one, but it surprised me, as these books tend to do, by being not only well-written, but also having a unique and inspiring plot and well defined characters. Anyway, in this book Qui-Gon has a disturbing vision of Tahl, his childhood friend, in serious danger. He takes Obi-Wan and heads back to the temple immedietly, only to find her about to depart on a mission to a planet they had set to rights several years earlier, that is coming apart at the seams once again. The Jedi Council forbids him to go after her, but he ignores their warnings and follows her anyway, and what he finds is quite disturbing... Meanwhile, Qui-Gon also is somewhat perplexed at the sudden deepening of his feelings towards Tahl. Is it possible he could be falling in love? As you can probably guess, this book full of action and excitement as well as character stuff, so fans of either will be satisfied. My only real problem was that I didn't like that it skipped over so much time. (two years) In Deceptions it was fairly obvious that taking a Padawan was an issue for Tahl as well as Bant, and being that it has been a recurring theme throughout the series, I assumed it would be delt with, but now it has just been skipped over, so we'll never know what made Tahl change her mind about Bant. As for the Tahl/Qui-Gon thing, well, I could see it coming even in book five when she was first introduced, but being that these books are aimed at 8-12 year olds, (though older teenagers and adults read them shamelessly) I didn't think it was something they would address in this series. I'm not a big fan of romance at all, but there are some exceptions, and I happen to like this relationship. The down side is that since Tahl doesn't appear anywhere in Episode 1, we can only assume she dies in the next couple of books, which annoys me greatly, since she's always been one of my favorites. What's interesting about this is that it comes to terms with something that's never been mentioned before. It's fairly obvious that in the new order of Jedi, love and marriage between Jedi or even Jedi and non-force sensitives is no problem whatsoever, since we have examples such as Luke and Mara, Kam and Tionne, among others I'm sure; but when is this shown in the old order? It will be interesting to see how the Council reacts when they hear. Anyway, fans of the series will love this one, but if you're just starting out, read it from the beginning so it will make sense.