Ossus Library Index Star Wars Timeline

ALL TIMELINES


ALL TIMELINES

THE CRYSTAL STAR

A novel by Vonda N. McIntyre (1994, Bantam Spectra)
14 years after Star Wars: A New Hope

The Solo children are kidnapped, and are to be fed to a creature from another dimension. Leia, Luke and Han make different rescue attempts.

 

 

Read September 17th to 21st, 1998  
    What an incredible waste.  I don't know who this book was intended for.  The style of the book was condescending, and the plot was incredibly unbelievable.  The author spoke like the readers were five, but the actions of the five year old kids were better suited to twelve year olds. 

  Jacen, Jaina and Anakin are kidnapped in the first page.  Leia is on a diplomatic mission to a planet where political kidnappings are more of a game and ritual than anything else, so the authorities don't believe the kids are in any danger.

  But Leia knows.  She spends some time trying to get the authorities to listen, but then takes action into her own hands.  It is completely contrived how Chewie and Artoo get to come along. 

  Leia tracks the kidnappers' ship through hyperspace using the Force, even though she claims that she is untrained.  Then she comes across a ship containing the remaining members of a race that was wiped out by Vader.  It turns out that the person who Leia wakes up from hibernation was the lover of the kidnapper, and the mother of his assistant. 

  For the kids have been kidnapped by Hethrir, a former student of Vader, who plans to create a new Empire by the very original name of "Empire Reborn".  He is stealing kids and testing them for Force potential.  The ones with no Force potential he brings into service as helpers, sort of stormtroopers, like in the Shadow Academy, which takes place ten years in the future from this story.  But Vader NEVER had any students, as much as the Emperor might have had force-powerful aids (Dark Empire II), which is highly doubtful in itself.

  The kids who have Force potential he plans to feed to a being called Waru, who uses the energy to stay alive, because this is not his universe.  He needs a large source of the Force to get himself back.

  I can't stand the scenes with Waru.  This is not supposed to be fantasy, where we can dredge up dragons and other strange beings from nowhere. 

  All the scenes with the kids were painful to read.  They seemed so smart, but had to talk in such childish ways.  It was really annoying. 

  Meanwhile, Luke and Han are drawn to the planet that Waru is hiding on, because of reports of former Jedi in hiding.  Of course, the reports deal with Waru, not Jedi, and all the scenes with Han and Luke are completely wasted. 

  The effect of the crystal star overhead (a neutron star about to fall into a black hole) twists the Force, so Luke is essentially put out of his mind.  So he becomes jealous for Leia when Han starts chatting with an old flame.  Even with the effects of this strange star, that is way out of character, and besides, not something I want to read about.

  In all, the book had way too much dialog, and not enough subtlety.  When I have to go through pages of one person speaking, followed by the next person speaking, and a response to that, it makes me think of teenagers speaking:  "..and then I said.. .. And then he said.. .. And then I said.. .. And then he said..." and so on. 

  Not one that I ever want to read again -I don't even want to see references to it in future books.

 
   

Back to Top

All Star Wars material and covers are Copyright Lucasfilm Ltd and the publishers.
All reviews and page designs at this site Copyright (c)  by Warren Dunn, all rights reserved.