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A review by marthmuffins
Star Wars: The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton, Dave Wolverton
2.0
This was... Interesting.
I never really intended to read this book, I'd heard it was weird and it was classed as a romance novel so I never really thought about reading it. That was until reaching the end of Solo Command and coming to a message reading "The story of Han Solo and Warlord Zsinj continues in 'The Courtship of Princess Leia' by Dave Wolverton". After the first four X-Wing books hinted at Zsinj's power and finally getting to see him in action in the Wraith Squadron Trilogy I desperately wanted to know how Han took him down and I guess I found out.
The book revolves around Leia considering a marriage to Prince Isolder of the Hapes Consortium (which may be known to fans of the New Jedi Order and Legacy eras of Star Wars Legends), a matriarchal society which is incredibly sexist towards the men of the Hapes Cluster and while men aren't treated terribly they are just dismissed as "mere men".
Han gets jealous of this and decides to 'convince' Leia (kidnap) to come on a romantic getaway with him to his newly won planet, Dathomir (which may be familiar to fans of The Clone Wars as were all those Witches live) alongside Threepio and Chewie. Dathomir also has a matriarchal society due to only the women being able to use the Force.
Luke and Artoo track down Han with help from Isolder and they are all shot down over Dathomir by Zsinj and we now have a plot.
Characters. Everybody is mischaracterised in this book, everybody. Han is a crazy kidnapper who won't take no for an answer (he also has some really weird comments and jokes "I've seen so much darkness lately"), Leia jumps between stuck up and arrogant, being genuinely useful and a sobbing emotional wreck within the same page, Luke is probably the most accurate of the big three but still he occasionally reverts from episode VI Luke to whiny farmboy Luke, Threepio is annoying as ever and even sings at one point ("What a man Solo!"), Chewie is a massive coward, Lando is never mentioned and Artoo beeps occasionally to remind us he's there.
The new characters are a little strange too. Isolder is a sexy hunk that listens to your feelings and will defend you to the death, Zsinj and Melvar are incompetently evil, all the Dathomirians and Hapains don't understand why everyone is so angry that they treat men terribly.
A lot of weird stuff happens too. Threepio starts singing, Han kidnaps Leia, Han wrestles a hundred metre long Wuffa Worm out of the ground, Luke goes into a strange acid trippy Force hallucination, Rancors start using armour and weapons etc.
Admittedly some of the stuff with Luke and the Force is quite interesting and learning about the old Jedi Order (before the Prequels decided to go in a different direction) was good.
Overall though I liked it. I wouldn't say it's good but it's strange and if you go in not really expecting much and ready to laugh at the weird bits then you should have a good time.
P.S. The fact that the kept calling the Iron Fist a Star Destroyer instead of a Super Star Destroyer in some of it's appearances really annoyed me.
I never really intended to read this book, I'd heard it was weird and it was classed as a romance novel so I never really thought about reading it. That was until reaching the end of Solo Command and coming to a message reading "The story of Han Solo and Warlord Zsinj continues in 'The Courtship of Princess Leia' by Dave Wolverton". After the first four X-Wing books hinted at Zsinj's power and finally getting to see him in action in the Wraith Squadron Trilogy I desperately wanted to know how Han took him down and I guess I found out.
The book revolves around Leia considering a marriage to Prince Isolder of the Hapes Consortium (which may be known to fans of the New Jedi Order and Legacy eras of Star Wars Legends), a matriarchal society which is incredibly sexist towards the men of the Hapes Cluster and while men aren't treated terribly they are just dismissed as "mere men".
Han gets jealous of this and decides to 'convince' Leia (kidnap) to come on a romantic getaway with him to his newly won planet, Dathomir (which may be familiar to fans of The Clone Wars as were all those Witches live) alongside Threepio and Chewie. Dathomir also has a matriarchal society due to only the women being able to use the Force.
Luke and Artoo track down Han with help from Isolder and they are all shot down over Dathomir by Zsinj and we now have a plot.
Characters. Everybody is mischaracterised in this book, everybody. Han is a crazy kidnapper who won't take no for an answer (he also has some really weird comments and jokes "I've seen so much darkness lately"), Leia jumps between stuck up and arrogant, being genuinely useful and a sobbing emotional wreck within the same page, Luke is probably the most accurate of the big three but still he occasionally reverts from episode VI Luke to whiny farmboy Luke, Threepio is annoying as ever and even sings at one point ("What a man Solo!"), Chewie is a massive coward, Lando is never mentioned and Artoo beeps occasionally to remind us he's there.
The new characters are a little strange too. Isolder is a sexy hunk that listens to your feelings and will defend you to the death, Zsinj and Melvar are incompetently evil, all the Dathomirians and Hapains don't understand why everyone is so angry that they treat men terribly.
A lot of weird stuff happens too. Threepio starts singing, Han kidnaps Leia, Han wrestles a hundred metre long Wuffa Worm out of the ground, Luke goes into a strange acid trippy Force hallucination, Rancors start using armour and weapons etc.
Admittedly some of the stuff with Luke and the Force is quite interesting and learning about the old Jedi Order (before the Prequels decided to go in a different direction) was good.
Overall though I liked it. I wouldn't say it's good but it's strange and if you go in not really expecting much and ready to laugh at the weird bits then you should have a good time.
P.S. The fact that the kept calling the Iron Fist a Star Destroyer instead of a Super Star Destroyer in some of it's appearances really annoyed me.