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A review by jaredkwheeler
The Ruins of Dantooine: Star Wars Galaxies Legends by Voronica Whitney-Robinson
1.0
Star Wars Legends Project #272
Background: The Ruins of Dantooine was written by [a:Voronica Whitney-Robinson|35065|Voronica Whitney-Robinson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and [a:Haden Blackman W.|7651874|Haden Blackman W.|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and published in December 2003. It is Whitney-Robinson's only Star Wars work. The amount of Blackman's involvement in the book is unclear, but as project lead for Star Wars Galaxies, he presumably consulted on story elements relevant to the tie-in with the game.
The Ruins of Dantooine takes place one year after the Battle of Yavin. The main characters are Dusque Mistflier and Finn Darktrin, but also features appearances by Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, Threepio, Artoo, Lando, Wedge Antilles, and Darth Vader. The story takes place on Naboo, Corellia, Lok, and Dantooine.
Summary: Dusque Mistflier has experienced her share of family tragedy since the rise of the Empire, but all she wants to do is keep her head down and do her job as an Imperial bioengineer, a field she is truly passionate about. But her entire life is upended when she is approached by a dark, handsome Rebel spy with a plea that she can't get out of her mind, and nothing will ever be the same.
Review: I just realized why Voronica Whitney-Robinson was such a familiar name . . . I've read and enjoyed some of her Forgotten Realms stuff. So, when I say that this is one of the worst professionally-published novels I've ever read, I know it's not because she's a bad writer. The style of writing, though, feels like a very poor match for a Star Wars novel at almost every point. The characters speak in stilted, almost high-fantasy phrases (which I guess makes sense?). A lot of this reads like mediocre fan fiction. I'm loathe to blame Whitney-Robinson for that entirely, because I'm sure a lot of the awkward cramming in of movie characters and references was part of her mandate.
The worst thing about the book is that the story takes an almost slavishly-literal approach to adapting an MMORPG, down to including irrelevant side-quests and random encounters. Most of the time, in addition to not being written well (because how COULD you write them well), these episodes defy all logic and destroy any sense of verisimilitude. They also occasionally just outright violate the consistency of the characters.
At one point, for example, our heroes get passage to a world where a pirate lord owes the Rebel spy a favor. He wants to trade his favor in for a ship that they can take to the secret Rebel base on Corellia (yeah, I knooow). When they arrive, the pirate lord doesn't feel he owes quite that much, but he's willing to part with a ship if they'll run a small errand for him. It's something a Rebel spy and one additional person with zero combat experience can easily accomplish, but this *pirate lord* apparently lacks the resources to do it himself. But he does have an armory that he lets them raid to equip themselves (again, this is like watching someone play a video game).
The job he sends them on is to retrieve something that he wants that someone else has. It isn't his mind you, he just wants it. And the people who have it are just guarding it out in the middle of nowhere for no understandable reason. And our heroes just drop in and assassinate them and take it. And sure, this is a boilerplate MMORPG quest, but committing casual murder-for-hire on behalf of a criminal boss isn't exactly typical for the heroes of the Rebel Alliance.
So, anyway, they return to find Han Solo and Chewbacca standing by to escort them to Corellia in the Millennium Falcon . . . but not in the Falcon, you understand. They'll just be flying escort on the ship the pirate is loaning our protagonists. But wait, this is a Rebel agent, on a mission of vital importance. Why does he need to do shady murder favors for a pirate just to get a ride? Can't he call the Rebellion for a ride? Can't he just go with Han?! And this is of course ignoring why they couldn't have just booked passage to Corellia to begin with, or why they need to go to Corellia at all since they literally just go there to tell the Rebel leaders, "Hey, we're going over here." Which the Rebel leaders already knew, too. Just. What is this story.
The cherry on top is an utterly maddening final "twist" that I saw coming way in advance but thought I must be wrong, because "surely they wouldn't write something that dumb." Oh, also, this isn't the book's fault, but it was very distracting to have this nothing, throw-away character named Finn throughout the book when that name has picked up very different connotations within Star Wars in recent years.
I do have to give some real credit, though, for one particular element of this book: Whitney-Robinson really did write herself the perfect device to explain why her nobody character is crucial to everything that happens in the story. That worked, and worked well. And I would never have thought that a biologist character would turn out to have so many diverse and useful skills within a Star Wars story. Props for that. I see from her bio that Whitney-Robinson has a background in biology, which explains why this is the one element of the story that genuinely worked.
But it's not worth it. Don't read this.
F
Background: The Ruins of Dantooine was written by [a:Voronica Whitney-Robinson|35065|Voronica Whitney-Robinson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and [a:Haden Blackman W.|7651874|Haden Blackman W.|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and published in December 2003. It is Whitney-Robinson's only Star Wars work. The amount of Blackman's involvement in the book is unclear, but as project lead for Star Wars Galaxies, he presumably consulted on story elements relevant to the tie-in with the game.
The Ruins of Dantooine takes place one year after the Battle of Yavin. The main characters are Dusque Mistflier and Finn Darktrin, but also features appearances by Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, Threepio, Artoo, Lando, Wedge Antilles, and Darth Vader. The story takes place on Naboo, Corellia, Lok, and Dantooine.
Summary: Dusque Mistflier has experienced her share of family tragedy since the rise of the Empire, but all she wants to do is keep her head down and do her job as an Imperial bioengineer, a field she is truly passionate about. But her entire life is upended when she is approached by a dark, handsome Rebel spy with a plea that she can't get out of her mind, and nothing will ever be the same.
Review: I just realized why Voronica Whitney-Robinson was such a familiar name . . . I've read and enjoyed some of her Forgotten Realms stuff. So, when I say that this is one of the worst professionally-published novels I've ever read, I know it's not because she's a bad writer. The style of writing, though, feels like a very poor match for a Star Wars novel at almost every point. The characters speak in stilted, almost high-fantasy phrases (which I guess makes sense?). A lot of this reads like mediocre fan fiction. I'm loathe to blame Whitney-Robinson for that entirely, because I'm sure a lot of the awkward cramming in of movie characters and references was part of her mandate.
The worst thing about the book is that the story takes an almost slavishly-literal approach to adapting an MMORPG, down to including irrelevant side-quests and random encounters. Most of the time, in addition to not being written well (because how COULD you write them well), these episodes defy all logic and destroy any sense of verisimilitude. They also occasionally just outright violate the consistency of the characters.
At one point, for example, our heroes get passage to a world where a pirate lord owes the Rebel spy a favor. He wants to trade his favor in for a ship that they can take to the secret Rebel base on Corellia (yeah, I knooow). When they arrive, the pirate lord doesn't feel he owes quite that much, but he's willing to part with a ship if they'll run a small errand for him. It's something a Rebel spy and one additional person with zero combat experience can easily accomplish, but this *pirate lord* apparently lacks the resources to do it himself. But he does have an armory that he lets them raid to equip themselves (again, this is like watching someone play a video game).
The job he sends them on is to retrieve something that he wants that someone else has. It isn't his mind you, he just wants it. And the people who have it are just guarding it out in the middle of nowhere for no understandable reason. And our heroes just drop in and assassinate them and take it. And sure, this is a boilerplate MMORPG quest, but committing casual murder-for-hire on behalf of a criminal boss isn't exactly typical for the heroes of the Rebel Alliance.
So, anyway, they return to find Han Solo and Chewbacca standing by to escort them to Corellia in the Millennium Falcon . . . but not in the Falcon, you understand. They'll just be flying escort on the ship the pirate is loaning our protagonists. But wait, this is a Rebel agent, on a mission of vital importance. Why does he need to do shady murder favors for a pirate just to get a ride? Can't he call the Rebellion for a ride? Can't he just go with Han?! And this is of course ignoring why they couldn't have just booked passage to Corellia to begin with, or why they need to go to Corellia at all since they literally just go there to tell the Rebel leaders, "Hey, we're going over here." Which the Rebel leaders already knew, too. Just. What is this story.
The cherry on top is an utterly maddening final "twist" that I saw coming way in advance but thought I must be wrong, because "surely they wouldn't write something that dumb." Oh, also, this isn't the book's fault, but it was very distracting to have this nothing, throw-away character named Finn throughout the book when that name has picked up very different connotations within Star Wars in recent years.
I do have to give some real credit, though, for one particular element of this book: Whitney-Robinson really did write herself the perfect device to explain why her nobody character is crucial to everything that happens in the story. That worked, and worked well. And I would never have thought that a biologist character would turn out to have so many diverse and useful skills within a Star Wars story. Props for that. I see from her bio that Whitney-Robinson has a background in biology, which explains why this is the one element of the story that genuinely worked.
But it's not worth it. Don't read this.
F