Reviews

Kathryn: It took me a few months after the release of Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader for me to actually read the book. Frankly, I hadn’t enjoyed either The Unifying Force or Labyrinth of Evil as much as I’d hoped. I am, however, a self-proclaimed Vader-phile and have an unhealthy fascination with Palpatine. With those two personality quirks, I decided to look forward to the day when one of my friends sent me a copy.

And, in true Kathryn fashion, I plowed through it in less than a day. That is not to say that I skimmed it. I simply get certain books and can’t wait to see where the story takes itself. If it is all that I hoped for, I will then go back and reread my favorite scenes or commit certain lines to memory.

I was, on the whole, thrilled. It had all of the classic thrills of Star Wars that we have come to expect both on-screen and off. There were imaginative saber-fights. There was an abundance of long-awaited name-dropping. There was even an element of my personal favorite—dramatic irony out the wazoo.

With that in mind, let me express what pleased me about the book first. The plot, by and large, was an imaginative yet realistic assessment of the early Empire. On the one hand, original characters were Jedi struggling to decide where the Force will take them after the obliteration of everything they have known. Luceno introduced the credible conflict of code vs. conscience with the introduction of one Jedi’s mother. There was the further complication of a Jedi Padawan forming a possible Attachment to a fellow traveler.

Additionally, we finally experienced first-hand the early frustrations of the Chosen One recognizing his limitations and coming to terms with a spiritual and physical imprisonment. We saw the skeleton crew of the Rebel Alliance recognizing the need for political and moral audacity in the face of a Galaxy ruled by a supreme evil. In classic Luceno style, the two central plots met each other in a delightfully unexpected manner on Alderaan and then came to a breathtaking climax on Kashyyyk.

Now, those of you who know my English-major propensity to dislike something about everything may be arching an eyebrow and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Don’t worry. I do have one major ‘beef’ about this book and it’s a fairly crucial one in my mind. This concern has to do with things that I have noted in others of Luceno’s books. To whit, I have issues with the credibility of some of his characterizations. This is not to say that he is consistently lacking in that area, only that it seems to be a habit.

Let me take the example of Bail and Breha Organa. Bail was characterized fantastically as a man who has to strike a balance between his duties to his family and his duty to the ideals of the fallen Republic. His characterization answers as many questions as it raises. Conversely, the Queen of Alderaan, a potentially formative and formidable character, does almost nothing in the book but show up in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was bad enough that we only saw Leia’s mother for ten seconds in Revenge of the Sith, but to trivialize her as a foolish figure was simply heartbreaking.

In short, if you are looking for a good read that will provide you with thrilling combat sequences, thrilling political intrigue and empathetic interpretations of a difficult time, read this. It is, for the most part, worth it!