Book Review: Star Wars: The Crystal Star

Book: Star Wars: The Crystal Star by Vonda N. McIntyre

Edition: Paperback

Rating: 3 stars

Review:

Star Wars books are generally hit or miss for me with The Crystal Star falling somewhere right in the middle.

It was told in three rotating yet eventually connecting plots. The story opens with Leia dealing with the realization that her three children, five year old twins Jaina and Jacen and their three year old brother Anakin, had been kidnapped while she had been visiting the small planet Munto Codru. In the process of the kidnapping, Chewbacca had been injured but what hindered Leia's start in looking for her children was that the officials had believed the abduction was a simple yet standard kidnapping with nothing that she should have to worry about, according to officials the children will be returned as soon as the abductors issue a ransom. This is something that happens on this planet fairly often. However, instead of trusting her instincts that something was wrong and this wasn't a typical Munto Codru abduction, she actually listened to the officials and continued her dignitary duties.

Leia was so out of character in this book was beyond laughable. It was as if the writer didn't know anything about Leia which is why I figured her personality was so off. The Leia in this book second guessed herself a lot throughout the story and had a lot of misplaced anger which she initially directed at Chewbacca for not stopping her children's kidnapping. Leia is good is high pressure situations and should not have been painted as unsure or hysterical when she should have taken charge of the situation. If it wasn't for R2-D2 (with assistance from Chewbacca) sort of tricking her to get her aboard her ship, Leia probably would have never left to go in search of her children.

As to where the children were, it was indeed the worse place for them to be in. They had been taken by Hethrir, a former Imperial officer who had plans to restore the fallen Empire. They soon realized they were not the only children that had been taken. Their circumstance immediately became one of cruelty as Hethrir's command was law. Despite Jaina and Jacen dealing with a bleak and depressing world they now lived in, they remained defiant refusing to give in to their current situation. Unlike the other children who were already browbeaten into submission.

Meanwhile, Han, Luke and C-3PO traveled to the Crseih Research Station to investigate a report of lost Jedi. However, meeting their contact Xaverri, who turned out to be an old friend of Han's, the reports were not about lost Jedi but something more disturbing. There is a powerful being named Waru who has amassed a following for his healing abilities.

Luke was also out of character but not as bad as Leia was. I know this is an older book (it was published in 1995 and is no longer considered part of continuity) but there were elements of Luke that were right on point and feel like you're seeing the natural progression to who he eventually becomes in the current Disney owned Star Wars universe.

This wasn't bad but it had a slow start and the ending felt rushed. A lot of time and pages were wasted drawing out all three plots before they merged into one story. A good editor could have reduced this 413 page story by getting rid of some of the redundancy and slow moving scenes. Leia's characterization was by far the worse but it didn't ruin some of the interesting points of the story.