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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Great New Year read! I loved this star wars novel and it had a different kind of bad guy who uses pheromones on Leia, these scenes are really interesting. Shame this novel wasn't a film, it would be a good one.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great star wars book, perfect for star wars fans, would love to see this made into a movie, little disappointed in the ending in regards the a hero and a villain, didn't think the ending should have been as it is was, I understand from a movie stand point thou
adventurous
fast-paced
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
The author has a very strange fixation on describing how attractive every single character is. Also, Leia only exists to be saved and has no personality. It's also strange that the villain's date rape comes across as "cool" and not evil.
Also written at a level I would expect from a middle school boy, not a published author.
Also written at a level I would expect from a middle school boy, not a published author.
This is fun! I have a very mixed history with Star Wars novels (in the sense that I drop almost all of them before finishing them), and I'll be honest that I almost dropped this one. Luckily, the fun prose zips along enough to make it worth the ride.
Prince Xizor is easily the highlight of this novel for me, and watching his cat-and-mouse game unfold almost made up for all of the... weird stuff in here. Luke and Leia don't really sound like themselves, and I can't tell if Dash is meant to seem cool or like a real dork.
I find myself thinking the same thing I always do when I read Star Wars novels: there's fun stuff here, but it gets bogged down way too much by the boring lore.
I've been up for way too long after driving for way too many hours, so I'm not even gonna proof this or anything to make sure it makes sense before hitting send.
Prince Xizor is easily the highlight of this novel for me, and watching his cat-and-mouse game unfold almost made up for all of the... weird stuff in here. Luke and Leia don't really sound like themselves, and I can't tell if Dash is meant to seem cool or like a real dork.
I find myself thinking the same thing I always do when I read Star Wars novels: there's fun stuff here, but it gets bogged down way too much by the boring lore.
I've been up for way too long after driving for way too many hours, so I'm not even gonna proof this or anything to make sure it makes sense before hitting send.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.
This week’s focus: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry.
SOME HISTORY:
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was conceived as a multimedia project, telling one interconnected story through a novel, comic series, video game, trading cards, soundtrack, and toy line: essentially, "a movie project without the movie.” With the release of the Special Editions and Episode One pushed back to 1997 and 1999 respectively, Shadows served as a pilot for the wave of materials that were to come. The novel of Shadows of the Empire made it to number five on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of May 5, 1996, and was on the NYT list for six weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I remembered some of the original characters—Dash Rendar, Xizor, and Guri—but little of the plot. To be honest, I think I got the plot of the Nintendo 64 game confused with the plot of the novel, and the game is both heavily Dash-centric and covers a much wider span of time.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Han Solo is trapped in carbonite, and Leia, Luke, and Lando need to track down Boba Fett before they can rescue him. Meanwhile, Prince Xizor of the Black Sun criminal syndicate conspires to replace Darth Vader as the Emperor’s right hand man by killing Luke Skywalker...
THE CHARACTERS:
I felt like Perry had a pretty good grasp of our main trio! Luke is still struggling with the revelation about Vader, but he’s also growing and maturing as a Jedi. He builds his own lightsaber, and he gains new understanding of the Force. Leia is conflicted—she loves Han and wants him back at any cost, but Luke is still her best friend. So when it becomes obvious that someone’s trying to kill him, for better or worse she heads to Black Sun for intel. (This decision clearly falls on the side of “for worse.”) Lando fills in for Han, yet remains a distinctly different character. He’s smart, he’s suave, and he’s a little cranky about Han’s wonky upgrades to the Falcon.
But Han isn’t here, so Perry introduces a Han substitute: Dash Rendar. He’s a Corellian, he’s from a wealthy family that was kicked off Coruscant by the Emperor, he was thrown out of the Imperial Academy, he has a fancy fast ship and he’s a really good shot. Everyone says that Dash is such a great pilot, and if only he would help the Rebellion! He seems to be in direct competition with Han Solo, but he also feels a bit unnecessary. We don’t need a budget Han Solo, and I would rather have the trio feeling Han’s loss than a hasty substitute smuggler inserted to fill the gap.
I liked Perry’s depiction of Vader. He wants to bring Luke over to the Dark Side, but he still has enough free time to dig into Xizor’s stratagems—and very deviously destroy him. The Emperor is hovering in the background, manipulating the situation like a puppet master. Perry seems to imply, though, that leaking the Death Star II plans to the Bothans is originally Xizor’s idea, and I very much doubt that.
Xizor is royalty, he’s hugely wealthy, he’s the third most prominent person in the Empire, but he’s also independent from all that? Idk. I don’t like Xizor, because outside of his unsettling subplot with Leia, he’s boring. He doesn’t really do anything. I can appreciate he’s an intelligent schemer, but I am very glad that he’s (presumed) dead at the end.
Guri is a human replica droid, the Star Wars equivalent to Blade Runner’s replicants. I liked her as a character, because it’s fun to have a powerful woman running around, but I felt like she was potential rather than an actual fleshed-out character. The existence of a droid that can pass for a human opens up so many ethical and philosophical questions that Perry doesn’t touch on at all. And Xizor boasts that he paid 9 million credits for Guri. That...doesn’t sound like very much? Was she on sale??
ISSUES:
Because Shadows is an interquel, filling the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Perry relies a bit too heavily on flashbacks/memories from ESB. The prologue shows us the scene between Vader and Palpatine in ESB, but from the perspective of Xizor. In the first chapter, Leia has a nightmare that retells the carbonite scene and Luke remembers the cave on Dagobah in great detail while walking on a tightrope. Limited use of flashbacks are helpful to get the reader situated, but these are overly lengthy and ultimately unnecessary.
Perry offers up the backstory behind some elements from RotJ, like Leia’s Boushh disguise and Luke’s black Jedi garb. But the explanations behind them aren’t particularly intriguing. Guri gives Leia the Boushh costume so she can sneak into Coruscant, and Leia keeps it. Dash gets Luke some new clothes on Coruscant, and I guess Luke liked them so much that he kept wearing them into the next film. I guess I’m annoyed because Leia and Luke didn’t actively acquire these items; heck, her Boushh disguise gets a more interesting backstory in the Forces of Destiny cartoon! (S2 E6: Bounty Hunted)
There's also a weird disconnect at times. Leia has to don a disguise to sneak onto Coruscant, but Luke & Lando and then Dash just...hide behind a freighter? And apparently everyone knows this trick? I thought that Coruscant had planetary shields and floating attack stations and all that! Knowing that the Millenium Falcon and the Outrider and Rogue Squadron were duking it out in the skies of Coruscant years before the New Republic tried to retake the planet strikes me as improbable, to say the least.
One of the problems here is that despite Perry’s decent characterizations and exciting action sequences, the story is remarkably static. Despite their best efforts, we know that Han isn’t rescued until RotJ, and that Luke won’t face Vader again for a while. So in a sense, you know how everything is going to end, and Xizor and Black Sun don’t feel like much of a viable threat. (Not to mention that Lando absolutely trashes Xizor’s Palace, and then Vader blows up his skyhook. I think Black Sun will be out of the running for a while…)
But my biggest issue was the following: I think one of the main reasons I never reread Shadows is because the Xizor & Leia plotline deeply unsettled me. Essentially, Xizor is a rich and powerful man who has never been told no. But it goes beyond that: he sexually harasses Leia, but he also attempts to remove her agency. Xizor is a Falleen, and apparently they can give off pheromones that can completely overpower someone’s will. So it’s not enough that Leia has to fend off the advances of a creep, but she has to attempt to do so while she’s drugged. Leia is a strong lady, and she gets her mind back and fights him off, but these scenes were so uncomfortable that I almost abandoned the book. When I read Star Wars books, I’m usually looking for escapism, not nightmare fuel.
IN CONCLUSION:
Shadows is a decent Star Wars story, with some thrilling action scenes at the climax. Perry has a good handle on the canon characters, and it fills in the gap adequately between two pieces of existing canon. Unfortunately, Dash is a disappointing character who can’t match up to Han’s legacy, and Xizor makes me really uncomfortable. It’s worth a read, though, if not a reread.
Next up: [b:Wedge's Gamble|513198|Wedge's Gamble (Star Wars X-Wing, #2)|Michael A. Stackpole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327941416l/513198._SY75_.jpg|2923893] by Michael A. Stackpole.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/52nVYMD14bc
This week’s focus: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry.
SOME HISTORY:
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was conceived as a multimedia project, telling one interconnected story through a novel, comic series, video game, trading cards, soundtrack, and toy line: essentially, "a movie project without the movie.” With the release of the Special Editions and Episode One pushed back to 1997 and 1999 respectively, Shadows served as a pilot for the wave of materials that were to come. The novel of Shadows of the Empire made it to number five on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of May 5, 1996, and was on the NYT list for six weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I remembered some of the original characters—Dash Rendar, Xizor, and Guri—but little of the plot. To be honest, I think I got the plot of the Nintendo 64 game confused with the plot of the novel, and the game is both heavily Dash-centric and covers a much wider span of time.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Han Solo is trapped in carbonite, and Leia, Luke, and Lando need to track down Boba Fett before they can rescue him. Meanwhile, Prince Xizor of the Black Sun criminal syndicate conspires to replace Darth Vader as the Emperor’s right hand man by killing Luke Skywalker...
THE CHARACTERS:
I felt like Perry had a pretty good grasp of our main trio! Luke is still struggling with the revelation about Vader, but he’s also growing and maturing as a Jedi. He builds his own lightsaber, and he gains new understanding of the Force. Leia is conflicted—she loves Han and wants him back at any cost, but Luke is still her best friend. So when it becomes obvious that someone’s trying to kill him, for better or worse she heads to Black Sun for intel. (This decision clearly falls on the side of “for worse.”) Lando fills in for Han, yet remains a distinctly different character. He’s smart, he’s suave, and he’s a little cranky about Han’s wonky upgrades to the Falcon.
But Han isn’t here, so Perry introduces a Han substitute: Dash Rendar. He’s a Corellian, he’s from a wealthy family that was kicked off Coruscant by the Emperor, he was thrown out of the Imperial Academy, he has a fancy fast ship and he’s a really good shot. Everyone says that Dash is such a great pilot, and if only he would help the Rebellion! He seems to be in direct competition with Han Solo, but he also feels a bit unnecessary. We don’t need a budget Han Solo, and I would rather have the trio feeling Han’s loss than a hasty substitute smuggler inserted to fill the gap.
I liked Perry’s depiction of Vader. He wants to bring Luke over to the Dark Side, but he still has enough free time to dig into Xizor’s stratagems—and very deviously destroy him. The Emperor is hovering in the background, manipulating the situation like a puppet master. Perry seems to imply, though, that leaking the Death Star II plans to the Bothans is originally Xizor’s idea, and I very much doubt that.
Xizor is royalty, he’s hugely wealthy, he’s the third most prominent person in the Empire, but he’s also independent from all that? Idk. I don’t like Xizor, because outside of his unsettling subplot with Leia, he’s boring. He doesn’t really do anything. I can appreciate he’s an intelligent schemer, but I am very glad that he’s (presumed) dead at the end.
Guri is a human replica droid, the Star Wars equivalent to Blade Runner’s replicants. I liked her as a character, because it’s fun to have a powerful woman running around, but I felt like she was potential rather than an actual fleshed-out character. The existence of a droid that can pass for a human opens up so many ethical and philosophical questions that Perry doesn’t touch on at all. And Xizor boasts that he paid 9 million credits for Guri. That...doesn’t sound like very much? Was she on sale??
ISSUES:
Because Shadows is an interquel, filling the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Perry relies a bit too heavily on flashbacks/memories from ESB. The prologue shows us the scene between Vader and Palpatine in ESB, but from the perspective of Xizor. In the first chapter, Leia has a nightmare that retells the carbonite scene and Luke remembers the cave on Dagobah in great detail while walking on a tightrope. Limited use of flashbacks are helpful to get the reader situated, but these are overly lengthy and ultimately unnecessary.
Perry offers up the backstory behind some elements from RotJ, like Leia’s Boushh disguise and Luke’s black Jedi garb. But the explanations behind them aren’t particularly intriguing. Guri gives Leia the Boushh costume so she can sneak into Coruscant, and Leia keeps it. Dash gets Luke some new clothes on Coruscant, and I guess Luke liked them so much that he kept wearing them into the next film. I guess I’m annoyed because Leia and Luke didn’t actively acquire these items; heck, her Boushh disguise gets a more interesting backstory in the Forces of Destiny cartoon! (S2 E6: Bounty Hunted)
There's also a weird disconnect at times. Leia has to don a disguise to sneak onto Coruscant, but Luke & Lando and then Dash just...hide behind a freighter? And apparently everyone knows this trick? I thought that Coruscant had planetary shields and floating attack stations and all that! Knowing that the Millenium Falcon and the Outrider and Rogue Squadron were duking it out in the skies of Coruscant years before the New Republic tried to retake the planet strikes me as improbable, to say the least.
One of the problems here is that despite Perry’s decent characterizations and exciting action sequences, the story is remarkably static. Despite their best efforts, we know that Han isn’t rescued until RotJ, and that Luke won’t face Vader again for a while. So in a sense, you know how everything is going to end, and Xizor and Black Sun don’t feel like much of a viable threat. (Not to mention that Lando absolutely trashes Xizor’s Palace, and then Vader blows up his skyhook. I think Black Sun will be out of the running for a while…)
But my biggest issue was the following: I think one of the main reasons I never reread Shadows is because the Xizor & Leia plotline deeply unsettled me. Essentially, Xizor is a rich and powerful man who has never been told no. But it goes beyond that: he sexually harasses Leia, but he also attempts to remove her agency. Xizor is a Falleen, and apparently they can give off pheromones that can completely overpower someone’s will. So it’s not enough that Leia has to fend off the advances of a creep, but she has to attempt to do so while she’s drugged. Leia is a strong lady, and she gets her mind back and fights him off, but these scenes were so uncomfortable that I almost abandoned the book. When I read Star Wars books, I’m usually looking for escapism, not nightmare fuel.
IN CONCLUSION:
Shadows is a decent Star Wars story, with some thrilling action scenes at the climax. Perry has a good handle on the canon characters, and it fills in the gap adequately between two pieces of existing canon. Unfortunately, Dash is a disappointing character who can’t match up to Han’s legacy, and Xizor makes me really uncomfortable. It’s worth a read, though, if not a reread.
Next up: [b:Wedge's Gamble|513198|Wedge's Gamble (Star Wars X-Wing, #2)|Michael A. Stackpole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327941416l/513198._SY75_.jpg|2923893] by Michael A. Stackpole.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/52nVYMD14bc
adventurous
lighthearted
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
Shadows of the empire accomplishes something difficult. It manufactures a fun and effects episode 5.5 that is almost as Star Wars as a project can get.
Steve Perry successfully builds upon the lore available at the time and fills in the blanks in entertaining ways. Personally, I love the scenes involving Luke building his lightsaber. Lightsaber creation is one of my favorite Star Wars mythos. And now knowing what Luke went through to get his new weapon (I know this is technically legends and not canon) it makes the scene on Tatooine with his green blade pop even more.
I liked - but didn't love - the character of Dash Rendar. I understand he's a Han Solo stand-in, but that's all that I saw him as.
Xizor on the other hand, is a great addition to the Star Wars cast. That's because he's an interesting and worthy enemy to Darth Vader. And their constant but subtle posturing for the emperor is a cool storyline. And their conflicting points of view about Luke lead nicely into episode 6.
Star Wars fans who want an effective legends story set in the original trilogy are well served by this book.
Steve Perry successfully builds upon the lore available at the time and fills in the blanks in entertaining ways. Personally, I love the scenes involving Luke building his lightsaber. Lightsaber creation is one of my favorite Star Wars mythos. And now knowing what Luke went through to get his new weapon (I know this is technically legends and not canon) it makes the scene on Tatooine with his green blade pop even more.
I liked - but didn't love - the character of Dash Rendar. I understand he's a Han Solo stand-in, but that's all that I saw him as.
Xizor on the other hand, is a great addition to the Star Wars cast. That's because he's an interesting and worthy enemy to Darth Vader. And their constant but subtle posturing for the emperor is a cool storyline. And their conflicting points of view about Luke lead nicely into episode 6.
Star Wars fans who want an effective legends story set in the original trilogy are well served by this book.
I have a vague memory of when this book came out, thanks in part to being a LucasArts fanboy for many years. I remember it was a major multimedia release, with the game, the book, the comic book, and probably some other materials all tying together to tell the whole story. I remember playing the game, but I never delved into the other material.
Shadows of the Empire was among the first of the Expanded Universe releases after Timothy Zahn rekindled interest in it with the Thrawn trilogy, and it shows. It's a solid read, with enough throwbacks to the original trilogy, along with new characters to breathe new life into the EU. This was the first novel that addressed what happened between Empire and Jedi, and it introduced Prince Xizor, a character who is still prominent in the new canon.
In the story, Xizor is making a play to replace Darth Vader to become the Emperor's right hand through a plot to kill Luke Skywalker. At the same time, Leia is trying to track down Boba Fett and rescue Han from Jabba, and Dash Rendar signs on to help them. Dash is a stand-in for Han, which is unfortunate since he comes across as a carbon(ite) copy of Han in some parts of the story. I'm not sure how much that decision came from Perry, and how much of it came from Lucasfilm.
This is one of the stronger titles in the EU, and is definitely among the must-read books in the universe. I might have to see if I can find the game to see if I can get any more details about the larger story.
Shadows of the Empire was among the first of the Expanded Universe releases after Timothy Zahn rekindled interest in it with the Thrawn trilogy, and it shows. It's a solid read, with enough throwbacks to the original trilogy, along with new characters to breathe new life into the EU. This was the first novel that addressed what happened between Empire and Jedi, and it introduced Prince Xizor, a character who is still prominent in the new canon.
In the story, Xizor is making a play to replace Darth Vader to become the Emperor's right hand through a plot to kill Luke Skywalker. At the same time, Leia is trying to track down Boba Fett and rescue Han from Jabba, and Dash Rendar signs on to help them. Dash is a stand-in for Han, which is unfortunate since he comes across as a carbon(ite) copy of Han in some parts of the story. I'm not sure how much that decision came from Perry, and how much of it came from Lucasfilm.
This is one of the stronger titles in the EU, and is definitely among the must-read books in the universe. I might have to see if I can find the game to see if I can get any more details about the larger story.