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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Vad hände mellan Rymdimperiet slår tillbaka (episod V) och Jedins återkomst (episod VI)? Läs denna bok! En bra äventyrsroman, fast i rymden.
4/5 stjärnor.
4/5 stjärnor.
I read this for the first time in the summer of 1997. It was my first extended universe book which would lead into my love of the extended universe pre Disney purge. Now that the Skywalker movies are all done, I am going back into the old extended universe.
Due to my nostalgia, this is probably rated higher than it should. It contain the intro of my favorite EU character in Prince Xizor. I enjoyed it every time he appeared.
The book itself takes place between Ep 5 and 6 and prior to when they were called Episodes. It tells how Luke built his green saber, how the plan to rescue Han came about, and a side story about the finding the new Death Star. There is tension between Vader and Xizor for the Emperor’s attention.
I think it still holds up and it was fun to see what Disney/Lucas lifted to make canon later.
Due to my nostalgia, this is probably rated higher than it should. It contain the intro of my favorite EU character in Prince Xizor. I enjoyed it every time he appeared.
The book itself takes place between Ep 5 and 6 and prior to when they were called Episodes. It tells how Luke built his green saber, how the plan to rescue Han came about, and a side story about the finding the new Death Star. There is tension between Vader and Xizor for the Emperor’s attention.
I think it still holds up and it was fun to see what Disney/Lucas lifted to make canon later.
Overall, not a bad book exactly, but I did have two major problems with it. 1. The pacing and lack of plot, and 2. The villain.
For a novel that is pretty much just a side quest, this book really did feel a lot like just a bunch of side quests. Mainly because it doesn't really have a plot, and instead it's a series of events that happen to the gang as either Vader or Xizor try to capture/kill them. There's no real buildup though, and what little tension you could get from a prequel (it is a prequel to Return of the Jedi) kinda falls flat because the villain isn't all that intimidating.
Ok, let me talk about the villain a little bit. There's two villains here, Vader and Xizor, and obviously the crummy villain is...Vader. Haha, nah, of course it's Xizor. You see, he's the head of a crime organization called Black Sun, and he is (allegedly) so close to the Emperor that Palpatine has Vader and Xizor compete for his "affection" like two rival brothers. Here's the thing, though. Xizor is kind of very lame. Literally the whole book we're told (key word being told) that he's muscular and strong and smart and powerful and capable....but we never get to see any of it. He fights once early in the book, but it doesn't do anything for him because he's just fighting some random underling. He spends the rest of the book in his office just waiting for his "plans" to work. And his plans are basically to pay someone to kill Luke. This is sort of the plot, trying to figure out who's trying to kill Luke. But because we as readers know this from the very start, there's no mystery and it makes the characters' investigations feel tedious. He's basically the Godfather without charisma. Or Terry Silver without the hands-on approach to vengeance. He just sits in his bathtub, someone tells him something, and he just Bond Villains like "Hmm, yes, all according to plan."
Honestly, if Xizor had been more interesting or more intimidating, this could have been a cool adventure. There's a few slice of life things here that help expand the world, but not enough to make the book stand out.
For a novel that is pretty much just a side quest, this book really did feel a lot like just a bunch of side quests. Mainly because it doesn't really have a plot, and instead it's a series of events that happen to the gang as either Vader or Xizor try to capture/kill them. There's no real buildup though, and what little tension you could get from a prequel (it is a prequel to Return of the Jedi) kinda falls flat because the villain isn't all that intimidating.
Ok, let me talk about the villain a little bit. There's two villains here, Vader and Xizor, and obviously the crummy villain is...Vader. Haha, nah, of course it's Xizor. You see, he's the head of a crime organization called Black Sun, and he is (allegedly) so close to the Emperor that Palpatine has Vader and Xizor compete for his "affection" like two rival brothers. Here's the thing, though. Xizor is kind of very lame. Literally the whole book we're told (key word being told) that he's muscular and strong and smart and powerful and capable....but we never get to see any of it. He fights once early in the book, but it doesn't do anything for him because he's just fighting some random underling. He spends the rest of the book in his office just waiting for his "plans" to work. And his plans are basically to pay someone to kill Luke. This is sort of the plot, trying to figure out who's trying to kill Luke. But because we as readers know this from the very start, there's no mystery and it makes the characters' investigations feel tedious. He's basically the Godfather without charisma. Or Terry Silver without the hands-on approach to vengeance. He just sits in his bathtub, someone tells him something, and he just Bond Villains like "Hmm, yes, all according to plan."
Honestly, if Xizor had been more interesting or more intimidating, this could have been a cool adventure. There's a few slice of life things here that help expand the world, but not enough to make the book stand out.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was a fun adventure but not the best written. My husband read it to me which was the best part. If you are a fan of Star Wars I would recommend it.
Goodreads really needs to change from out of 5 stars to 10, because I feel like this deserves 2.5(or like a 4 on a 10 star scale). Anyways a friend of mine rated this 2 stars and I was shocked considering this is such a classic of the Legends continuity. Well turns out he was pretty accurate. It's not that this book is BAD it's just not amazing. Xizor is annoying, creepy and doesn't really do it for me at all, and that really drags the plot down because he's at the center. On top of that the short paragraphs, sections and jumps from character to character are extremely annoying. It's not a chapter cliffhanger when two paragraphs later it's back to that character. It's just an annoyance.
lighthearted
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A good but not great Star Wars story. It was entertaining but I also felt maybe a bit too long. I found Vader very compelling but Xizor was a boring Thrawn wannabe and his schtick got old fast.
In the prologue of this book a character refers to the emperor as the guy who was formerly "Senator Palpatine." The book was written in 1996, and the edition I read said that it was the unaltered text. Since Phantom Menace came out in 1999, this means that either Lucas already knew Palpatine's backstory or he liked the idea so much he canonized it.
Sadly, the prose is so godawful that I couldn't make it more than a few chapters into the book.
Sadly, the prose is so godawful that I couldn't make it more than a few chapters into the book.
This was a fun enough book, but ultimately felt rather pointless.
I assumed, going in (perhaps a mistake), that this novel would adequately fill the gap between Empire and Return. It explained how they were physically there with the props and costumes they'd acquired, I guess. But it felt like it didn't delve into character motivations enough—it was the perfect opportunity to show Luke starting to toy with the dark side and it just doesn't happen.
So, with the novel being disappointing on that front, was the story good on its own? It's... fine.
The main villain, Xizor, is serviceable, though incredibly rapey towards Leia, which was uncomfortable to read. The male characters do feel like their movie counterparts (seeing more Lando was great), but the female characters in this book are over-sexualised, which doesn't really fit into what I see Star Wars as (yes, even with sail-barge Leia). The Black Sun was a decent addition though, and the action sequences were exciting enough. Vader's ruminations were interesting at first, but end up quite repetitive especially considering they would be told to Luke in Return.
I also didn't enjoy the writing in the novel. There's constant perspective shifts in the middle of action scenes that I'm trying to visualise. I found it completely unnecessary to mix the scenes; they would have been better separated. Plus Dash Rendarr is budget Han Solo with a backstory that's far too similar to the Xizor's to be interesting.
I appreciate that this was a big deal when it came out, but now it's just a decent story with disappointing presentation. I wanted to like it, I really did. At least I'll be reading the second in the Thrawn trilogy soon, hopefully that will make up for this one.
I assumed, going in (perhaps a mistake), that this novel would adequately fill the gap between Empire and Return. It explained how they were physically there with the props and costumes they'd acquired, I guess. But it felt like it didn't delve into character motivations enough—it was the perfect opportunity to show Luke starting to toy with the dark side and it just doesn't happen.
So, with the novel being disappointing on that front, was the story good on its own? It's... fine.
The main villain, Xizor, is serviceable, though incredibly rapey towards Leia, which was uncomfortable to read. The male characters do feel like their movie counterparts (seeing more Lando was great), but the female characters in this book are over-sexualised, which doesn't really fit into what I see Star Wars as (yes, even with sail-barge Leia). The Black Sun was a decent addition though, and the action sequences were exciting enough. Vader's ruminations were interesting at first, but end up quite repetitive especially considering they would be told to Luke in Return.
I also didn't enjoy the writing in the novel. There's constant perspective shifts in the middle of action scenes that I'm trying to visualise. I found it completely unnecessary to mix the scenes; they would have been better separated. Plus Dash Rendarr is budget Han Solo with a backstory that's far too similar to the Xizor's to be interesting.
I appreciate that this was a big deal when it came out, but now it's just a decent story with disappointing presentation. I wanted to like it, I really did. At least I'll be reading the second in the Thrawn trilogy soon, hopefully that will make up for this one.