A review by guyswede
The Crystal Star by Vonda N. McIntyre

1.0

I love Star Wars books. They're somewhat of a guilty pleasure, the extended universe is a fun escape to a place where a bit of excitement is always happening.

Except in The Crystal Star, good gravy this book is terrible. Do you remember Q from Star Trek? The guy who could travel through space-time with a thought and possessed omnipotent, omniscient abilities? Well, imagine a Star Wars version of Q that is an amorphous foul-smelling blob with a series of severe mental handicaps.

Seriously. Except the situation keeps getting worse. Luke mysteriously loses control of his force powers, but inexplicably only sometimes; and, unimaginably, Threepio stands out as by far the most level-headed character throughout contrived crisis after contrived crisis.

You know what, forget the one-star rating. This book is a must-read, solely as a benchmark for terrible sci-fi/fantasy. Maybe I'm biased; I read it smack-dab in the middle of a one-hundred-book Star Wars EU binge, and it was the worst by an incredible margin. My verdict stands:

This book is awful.