Christmas in the Stars by Maury Yeston (writer); Meco Menardo (producer); Anthony Daniels and Jon Bon Jovi (performers) (1980, RSO Records)

As I did last year, I’d like to mark the holiday season on this blog by taking a look at some Star Wars-related Christmas kitsch. Christmas in the Stars is, as you may have already guessed, a Star Wars Christmas album. Someone, somewhere, thought this was a good idea, even after The Star Wars Holiday Special (or, if you prefer my pet name for it, the Abomination of Desolation).

Christmas in the Stars is a concept album of sorts, in which C-3PO and R2-D2 are inexplicably working in a toy shop with a crew of other droids for one “S. Claus.” Many of the songs are variations on well-known Christmas tunes, but others are wholly original. It’s really difficult for me to decide which type of song is worse on this record.

The album is nine tracks long. Let’s look at them one by one, shall we? If you’d like to listen along, just click each song title, where I’ve included a link to where you can find each track uploaded on YouTube.

“Christmas in the Stars”

The album opens with the title track. This begins with a very brief skit that establishes that R2-D2 and C-3PO are celebrating Christmas, and that Threepio is pretty excited about it. The skit is insufficient, however, in explaining just why the droids are celebrating (or even know about) Christmas. Of course, it’s silly to nitpick continuity gaffs on something like this; I’d except the conceit of the album gladly… if it were good.

After the skit, we get our first taste of what nearly this entire album is going to be—Anthony Daniels as Threepio speaking, rather than singing, his part with marginal rhythm, while a chorus sings in the background and Artoo beeps and blats at almost musically appropriate intervals. The choral part is mixed pretty low, almost so much as to make them entirely superfluous.

We’re also introduced here to the other droids in the workshop, chastising one another about playing with the toys they are supposed to be preparing. These droids’ voices are pretty annoying, but more on that later.

Chewbacca finds himself under a sprig of mistletoe with one of these droids, and apparently kisses it. One of the other droids quips, “Only a Wookie would kiss a droid for Christmas.”

…Uh, ha, ha?

“Bells, Bells, Bells”

The first song leads directly into this one, with Artoo asking Threepio about the sound at the end of “Christmas in the Stars.” Threepio explains to his counterpart that it’s the sound of bells.

Really? I can accept, for the purposes of this record, that C-3PO and R2-D2 are filling the position of Santa’s elves, but am I really expected to believe that they don’t have bells in the Star Wars galaxy?

Throughout the song, Threepio explains bells to Artoo. The entire song is built around the most forced rhymes possible. My favorites are from the beginning of the song:

“I cannot believe the question.

It’s like, ‘What is indigestion?’

Not that bells and indigestion are the same

I cannot believe the query.

That you’d ask, ‘What is Einstein’s theory’

Compared to ‘What are bells?’ seems almost tame.”

Ugh!

“The Odds Against Christmas”

In this Christmas classic, C-3PO expands on how unlikely the Christmas holiday is by telling us that the invention of the wheel, the signing of the Magna Carta, or the discovery of North America by Europeans could have happened on December 25^th. Interesting choices, given that, in the case of the latter two examples, Christmas was already an established holiday.

“What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)?”

In doubtlessly the most grating, annoying song on the album, the nameless backup singer droids take center stage as they ponder what they’re going to do about getting Chewbacca a Christmas present. Every joke is based around the fact that Chewbacca has a lot of hair; this becomes tiresome very quickly.

This appears to be an attempt at a Muppet-esque, humorous kid’s Christmas tune, but it fails in every possible way. The only rivals these robots have in terms of how irritating they sound is the cast of Family Guy. Until I reached this track, I never thought I’d actually miss Anthony Daniels’s Shatner-inspired vocal style.

By the way, the droids decide to give Chewbacca “love and understanding, and goodwill to men.” Cheap bastards.

“R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas”

In this song, Threepio introduces Artoo to a bunch of heretofore unmentioned children who apparently want to show their love and appreciation for the little droid. Who the hell are these kids?

I’m not sure, but I do know that they’re led by Jon Bon Jovi, in his first professional recording. This would be his lamest song, if it weren’t for “It’s My Life.”

“Sleigh Ride”

To the tune of the original “Sleigh Ride,” C-3PO explains to Artoo how music works. Aside from being baffled by why R2-D2 is so ignorant of everything about life, I’m struck by the irony of Threepio explaining signing technique in spoken word verses.

“Merry, Merry Christmas”

This is another one from the horrible back-up droids. There’s a callback to “What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas?.” They’re apparently really proud of that one.

A choice line from this song: “Here’s a toy robot/ That goes to sleep/ Can you believe the way he does it is by counting sheep?” Is this a Phillip K. Dick reference? 

“A Christmas Sighting (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas)”

We get another sketch here, where the robots are in a panic about having to leave before “S. Claus” arrives. We’re not told exactly why. Maybe he hates droids, and doesn’t serve their kind there.

Regardless, one of the droids speculates that S. Claus doesn’t exist. This prompts Threepio to tell a story to the contrary—a story which differs from the original “Night Before Christmas” only in a few token Threepio-isms about cowardice and keeping track of odds. Honestly, I could go the rest of my life without hearing another reimagining of this poem.

“The Meaning of Christmas”

There’s one more skit here, in which we discover that “S. Claus” is not, in fact, Santa, but Santa’s son. Is this a joke? What the hell is the point of this—other than allowing a vocalist that doesn’t sound like anyone’s conception of Santa Claus to sing as that character?

Anyway, Threepio asks the Santa-kid what Christmas means. S. Claus responds with the standard secular warm-and-fuzzies, leading a chorus in a completely unearned emotional climax to the album.

This song is sooooooo looooooong! Halfway through, S. Claus launches into what amounts to a separate song about making every day like Christmas. This is probably the best song on the album, but that isn’t saying much. Like everything else on this record, its sentiments ring false and are transparent as the exercise in cynical commercialism that they are.

Christmas in the Stars is nowhere near as bad as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Unlike that nearly feature-length snore-fest, Christmas in the Stars falls mostly into the “so bad it’s good” column. Most importantly, it’s shorter. Nevertheless, I’d recommend against listening to the whole album. Check out “What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas?” and “R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and you’ll get the idea.

If you decide, in the Christmas spirit, not to send me hate mail for dissing Bon Jovi and Family Guy, or if I don’t otherwise hear from you, have a great holiday, and I will see you back here next week!

Allegiance by Timothy Zahn (2007, Del Rey)

…Aaaand we’re back. Again, apologies about the hiatus. Reviews will continue as normal for the next month and a half or so, and I’ll likely have to slow down again once the next semester begins.

Alleigiance is Timothy Zahn’s first Star Wars novel set during the events of the original trilogy.  This was of particular interest to me when I picked up the book; I’ve always felt that Zahn’s characterization of the main Star Wars cast was spot-on, but he was always writing versions of those characters that were extrapolations of what they’d be like five, ten, or fifteen years after the original trilogy. 

Unsurprisingly, Zahn proves just as adept at writing a still largely inexperienced Luke Skywalker, a Han Solo still reluctant to fight for the Rebel cause, and a young Leia Organa already knee-deep in politics. As usual, Zahn doesn’t neglect any of the characters, giving everyone something interesting to do. Leia must attempt to iron out a conflict between squabbling factions of the Alliance, while Luke and Han try to get to the bottom of some pirate attacks on Rebel supply lines. The character dynamics feel just right for a story set less than a year after the events of A New Hope.

Allegiance wouldn’t be a Zahn Star Wars novel if it didn’t include one of Zahn’s recurring original creations. Here, we get to see Mara Jade in action as the Emperor’s Hand, one of Palpatine’s deadliest agents. He’s referred to it before, but here, Zahn shows us an interesting contrast within Mara: she’s a hardened Imperial agent, fighting relentlessly and without pity against the Empire’s enemies; on the other hand, she is kept entirely naïve by Palpatine, believing the Empire and its Emperor to be a good, legitimate government with the best interests of its citizens at heart. There is a significant “cool” factor to every passage that follows her on one of her missions, but her tense interactions with Darth Vader were my favorite thing about this book.

Zahn adds some new protagonists in this story, as well. Five Imperial Stormtroopers, when confronted with the choice between a career of slaughtering innocent civilians and holding fast to what they’d believed the Empire stood for, choose the latter, eventually killing an Imperial Security Bureau agent and fleeing their command in a stolen ship. Rather than simply lying low, however, they begin to enforce justice in the name of the Empire as the Hand of Judgment.

These three disparate stories are connected through a web of piracy and political corruption that proves to be classic Zahn. Allegiance is another notch in Zahn’s running tally of rock-solid Star Wars books. His characteristic blend of political intrigue and nail-biting action sequences is in full force here.

More importantly, however, Zahn is still at the height of his powers in terms of characterization. The characters from the films behave exactly as I’d expect them to behave at this point in the saga. Zahn naturally manages to write Mara Jade well in this context, giving us a glimpse into a part of her life that we most often only hear about. He successfully introduces a new group of characters and slowly develops them throughout the course of the novel so that, by the time I closed the back cover, I was eager to hear more about their adventures.

As with all of Zahn’s novels, I’d recommend Allegiance to any hardcore Star Wars fan. Aside from Heir to the Empire, it is the most accessible of Zahn’s Star Wars novels for fans new to the expanded universe. While you’ll probably appreciate it more if you’re familiar with Zahn’s other Star Wars books, it isn’t a bad entry point, either.

You may have noticed, if you read this blog regularly, that I haven’t updated on schedule in a few weeks. 

I’ve been extremely busy lately, with very little time for anything not school/work related, let alone time to keep up with The Stolen Data Tapes. I thought, before this month started, that I’d be able to keep up, even with the extra responsibilities. I was wrong. I’m sorry that I didn’t anticipate this earlier.

I’m writing now to let you know that I’m not going away permanently. This semester ends on December 14th, and I expect to be able to resume regular reviews either on that day or, at the latest, the following week. Things will then continue as normal throughout my winter break.

The following semester, I’ll most likely have to slow things down again, but rather than go on a complete hiatus like I did this semester, I’m going to try for one or two reviews a month. 

In the meantime, I still have time to check my Tumblr account, so if you have any questions or comments you’d like me to address, feel free to drop me a line.

Otherwise, I’ll see you in December. May the Force be with you!

-Dan

Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn (2006, Del Rey)

In nearly every one of Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars stories, mention is made of Outbound Flight, a failed exploratory expedition meant to map the galaxy’s Unknown Regions.  In Survivor’s Quest, we learned that the expedition ended in disaster when hostile aliens attacked it and forced it to crash-land on an isolated planet, leaving only a comparatively small group of survivors behind.

Outbound Flight, the novel, gives us all the details of just how that went down.  Set between the events of Episodes I and II, Outbound Flight contains some of the trappings of the prequel trilogy heretofore unknown in Zahn’s books: the politics of the Old Republic, the machinations of the sinister Darth Sidious, and scads of Jedi, including Obi-Wan Kenobi and an adolescent Anakin Skywalker.

Zahn utilizes these elements and characters pretty well, but more interesting here are Zahn’s returning original characters: Jorj Car’das, first introduced in Zahn’s Vision of the Future, appears here as a young smuggler who gets in way over his head when the ship he’s on gets attacked by an angry Hutt and subsequently bailed out by a group of Chiss led by one Mitth’raw’nuruodo. That, as you may know, is the full name of Thrawn, here a commander in the Chiss Ascendancy’s military whose tactical genius is already in evidence.

Jorus C’baoth, whose crazy clone we met in Heir to the Empire, turns out not to be a far cry from his doppelganger. Even as a Jedi, he is power hungry and believes that the ability to use the Force should give a Jedi unmitigated authority over everyone and everything. This results in him attempting—and more or less succeeding in—a takeover of Outbound Flight, even going so far as to take the children of other members of the expedition by force to be trained as Jedi. C’baoth’s apprentice, Lorana Jinzler, is forced to make decisions again and again about whether to defer to the elder Jedi’s wisdom or to follow her own conscience.

Surprisingly, the problem with Outbound Flight, for Palpatine/Sidious, is that it’s travelling into the Unknown Regions, where a group of aliens who have plans to one day invade the galaxy, are likely lurking. If Outbound Flight makes contact with the “Far Outsiders,” the invasion could happen before the galaxy is ready for it. When Thrawn finds out about this from one of Palpatine’s cronies, he agrees to destroy Outbound Flight if necessary.

This, compounded by C’baoth’s stubborn refusal to listen to reason and the appearance of the bloodthirsty Vaagari, leads to an intense and very messy confrontation in the novel’s climax.

When reading Outbound Flight, one is reminded of how just how many intriguing elements Zahn has added to the Star Wars universe. Jorus C’baoth, the Chiss Ascendancy, and Outbound Flight itself are all people and things that were introduced over a period of fifteen years before this novel was written. Luckily, Zahn makes the payoff worth it with an engrossing narrative and great character dynamics. To an extent, I feel as though the inclusion of all that stuff about the impending Yuuzahn Vong invasion, plus the entire Vaagari plot, makes for one plot element to many and messes a bit with the pacing, but even this can’t detract much from an otherwise pitch-perfect Star Wars novel.

This edition also includes the short story “Mist Encounter,” which Zahn wrote way back in 1995 for the seventh issue of the Star Wars Adventure Journal. I’ve never read the ’95 version, but according to Wookiepedia, some changes were made to harmonize the story more with the prequels.

In “Mist Encounter,” a group of stormtroopers runs afoul of what they think is a group of hostile aliens on a mist-shrouded planet. This apparent group handily dispatches several of their number from the concealment of the mist. It turns out that this isn’t a group at all, but one person—namely Thrawn, in exile for his actions during the events of Outbound Flight.

Unfortunately, the story’s placement in the back of Outbound Flight kind of gives the Thrawn reveal away, but I suspect it would have come as a surprise if I’d read it in more of a vacuum. Regardless, the story is tautly paced, and is quite effective at creating a prevailing mood of tension and paranoia. Previously out-of-print stories like this one are a great case for Del Rey to release more Star Wars short story anthologies.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. If you’ve any questions or comments, or are curious about what I think of this Disney buyout situation, feel free to hit up my ask box. Otherwise, I’ll catch you back here next Friday, when we’ll look at Zahn’s next Star Wars book, Allegiance.

Red Harvest by Joe Schreiber (2010, Del Rey)

In Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op investigates the murder of one Donald Wilson and, in doing so, encounters widespread corruption in the town of Personville.

…

Whoops. Wrong book. I was thinking of this one:

Joe Schreiber’s Star Wars novel shares nothing in common with Hammett’s classic detective story other than its title. It’s a prequel to his earlier Star Wars book, Death Troopers, which I reviewed around this time last year. In it, we discover how the zombie virus from Death Troopers came to be, more than three thousand years before.

The novel is largely set on the world of Odacer-Faustin, a cold, inhospitable planet that houses a large Sith academy. This setting is a good choice on Schreiber’s part; not only is it convenient for the novel’s plot, but before the undead ever get involved, there is already something of the horrific about a bunch of teenagers and young adults being formally trained to embrace hatred, spite, and backbiting.

The academy is run by a Sith lord known as Darth Scabrous, who, like all good megalomaniacs, wants to be immortal. To achieve this end, he has a bounty hunter bring him a special breed of black orchid which possesses sentience and certain other special properties.

The orchid requires the presence and nurturing of a Force-sensitive to survive, and so Hestizo Trace, a member of the Jedi Agricultural Corps, is apprehended by a Whiphid bounty hunter named Tulkh and dragged to Odacer-Faustin along with the flower she’s been nurturing.

Scabrous adds the orchid to whatever mix of snakes, snails, and puppy dog’s tails that he’s been working on, killing one of his human test subjects and then bringing him back to life… as a zombie.

As I’m sure anyone with a passing familiarity with horror has guessed, the newly raised zombie carries a viral contagion, and from here, things begin to go to hell in a hand basket.

In this book, Schreiber does an excellent job developing setting and mood. The reader is constantly reminded of the cold and desolate landscape, painted entirely in white, black, and various grays. Schreiber also takes a page from H.P. Lovecraft and uses things like the improbable geometry of the Sith academy’s architecture to convey a sense of disorientation and unease. The descriptions of zombie mealtimes are pretty effective, too.

Where this book falls a little short of its predecessor is in the realm of character. This book has a larger cast than Death Troopers, including a number of Sith students and the aforementioned Sith lord, bounty hunter, and Jedi Agricultural Corps member. The characters are not bad, and their personalities are developed enough, but their backgrounds and relationships to one another lack the depth of emotion and interest that was present in Death Troopers, making it more difficult for me to feel especially terrible when a group of zombies decides it’s chow time.

Despite this, Red Harvest is a quick, entertaining read, and certainly recommended for anyone who’s a combination Star Wars/horror fan.

Enjoy your Halloween, and check back here next week for my review of Timothy Zahn’s Outbound Flight.

Dark Tide II: Ruin by Michael A. Stackpole (2000, Del Rey)

The conclusion of Michael Stackpole’s two-book New Jedi Order story-arc has the New Republic, along with forces commanded by Gilad Pellaeon of the Imperial Remnant, desperately scrambling to defend the planet Ithor against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Ithor, a lush jungle world that has figured heavily into other expanded universe tales, is also the native world of a particular pollen that has been discovered to have a lethal effect on the Yuuzhan Vong’s living armor. It is also a strategic point in the Vong’s invasion that, if taken, would allow their forces access deeper into the galaxy.

Of at least as much interest is Luke, Mara, and Anakin’s quest to hunt down Daeshara’cor, a Twi’lek Jedi who is convinced that the superweapons of the old Empire are needed to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong. The theme of weighing ends against means is prominent in this book, and is driven home in Luke’s assertion that, if the Jedi used superweapons against the Vong, “in their place we would have a hundred Darth Vaders.”

Stackpole builds toward the battle for Ithor with his usual skill, juggling a large cast of characters and delivering a series of edge-of-the-seat space battles. He also writes melee combat very well, with several duels between Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong brandishing amphistaffs, which are basically snakes that can become rigid and are tough enough to resist a lightsaber (somehow).

Stackpole continues to handle characters well, letting the Solo kids begin to mature through self-reflection, contemplating the reasons for their feelings and actions. This is a theme common to all of Stackpole’s Star Wars work. I think that, in this regard, his books have a valuable lesson to teach about conflict resolution. 

This book also introduces us to Jagged Fel, son of Baron Soontir Fel and future love interest to Jaina Solo. In this book, Jaina and Fel are clearly intrigued by one another, but we see as many differences between them as similarities. In contrast to Jaina’s generally upbeat attitude, Jag’s normal state of being is grim determination. This leads to some interesting and, at times, amusing interaction between them.

Even the Yuuzhan Vong, of whom I’ve not been the biggest fan so far, are handled well here. Stackpole introduces Shedao Shai and his subordinate Deign Lian. Their views are quite different, with Shai willing to learn about the “infidels” in order to better conquer their galaxy, and Lian believing that any dealings with them are blasphemous. Simply by introducing some complexity and variation among the ranks of this new enemy, Stackpole manages to make them a little more compelling. He increases interest further by giving Shedao Shai a personal grudge against Corran Horn for having killed two of his relatives in the previous book, culminating in a one-on-one duel.

The book ends on a pretty dark note, with biological life on Ithor destroyed by the Vong and the blame being unjustly placed on Corran Horn by the New Republic media. Unlike in Vector Prime, the tragic and cataclysmic events in this novel, while still shocking, feel as though they emerged naturally from the plot, rather than blindsiding the reader for the sake of blindsiding the reader.

Dark Tide II: Ruin is a typically entertaining Star Wars adventure from Stackpole. It’s sad to know that he hasn’t written any more Star Wars, but at least he left the expanded universe on a high note, giving the authors that would go after him a lot of material to work with and doing a lot to increase my interest in The New Jedi Order.

PLEASE NOTE: A lot of work has been piling up for me lately, and it’s been causing me to get a little behind in my reading for this project. I’ve had to rush to get the last few reviews done in time. To remedy this, I’m going to take a week off of reviewing a novel next week to get myself a little bit ahead in my reading again. I may still review something on Friday, but it probably won’t be a full-length novel. 

I apologize, but considering that this is only my second lapse from consistency in nearly a year and a half, I don’t feel too terrible.

Dark Tide I: Onslaught by Michael A. Stackpole (2000, Del Rey)

The New Jedi Order series continues directly from the events of Vector Prime into a two-book arc called Dark Tide. The planet Dubrillion, which successfully repelled an attack by the nefarious Yuuzhan Vong, doesn’t prove quite as resilient to the second wave of the Vong invasion, triggering a large-scale evacuation.

Meanwhile, Anakin Solo accompanies Mara Jade to Dantooine, where she and Luke hope some rest will slow the progress of her disease. On separate missions, Luke and fellow Jedi Knight Corran Horn discover that the Vong have made thralls of many citizens of the Outer Rim—and already have a significant foothold in the galaxy.

All of this leads to a decidedly pyrrhic victory and a few loose threads to be picked up again in the second Dark Tide.

If you read my review of Vector Prime last week, you’ll recall that I was underwhelmed by the plot developments of the NJO series thus far. On the other hand, if you’ve been reading these reviews for a while, you might remember that I’m generally very fond of Michael Stackpole, whose last two Star Wars books were this novel and its sequel.

So, does Stackpole manage to pull me in and keep me invested in a story about which I have some pretty big misgivings? More or less.

In Stackpole’s X-wing novels, primary characters from the Star Wars films make appearances, but do not figure heavily into events. Here, he has an opportunity to play with those characters a little more, and handles them well, emphasizing Luke and Leia’s leadership abilities and giving us a small glimpse into Han’s grief over Chewie’s death, which he appears to be dealing with primarily through drink.

Stackpole makes good use of other expanded universe characters like Mara and the Solo kids, continuing the development of their stories that began in Vector Prime. Anakin learns not to use the Force as a tool of convenience, Jacen finds himself in doubt about his future as a Jedi, and Jaina joins Rogue Squadron.

Unsurprisingly, Stackpole also checks in on some of his own characters. Corran Horn is now a fully realized Jedi Knight, and Gavin Darklighter has become the commander of Rogue Squadron. For someone who has been following the expanded universe for a while, it’s great to see all of these characters interact in the same book.

One of my biggest complaints about Vector Prime was that the Yuuzhan Vong were uninteresting, un-Star Wars-like villains, the individual members of which were lacking in distinctive personalities. While I enjoyed Onslaught, it does little to solve this problem. No Vong are featured prominently in this book as anything other than a relatively faceless enemy, with the exception of Shedao Shai, a Yuuzhan Vong commander who Stackpole introduces in an epilogue. I assume Shedao Shai will figure heavily into Dark Tide II: Ruin.

Dark Tide I: Onslaught is a solid effort from Stackpole, eminently readable for its hightly competent character work and, as always with Stackpole, a load of nail-biting space dogfights. While the Yuuzhan Vong still aren’t very interesting, the aforementioned elements make the book worth reading, and the novel’s ending has me curious about the next one.

Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore (1999, Del Rey)

Vector Prime is the first novel of a nineteen-book series called The New Jedi Order. These were the first post-Return of the Jedi books published under the current Del Rey license. The basic idea behind this lengthy series was that, in contrast to the Bantam Star Wars novels, the Del Rey books would be a series of ongoing, chronologically sequential events with an overarching narrative, rather than a loose conglomeration of trilogies and stand-alone novels.

The marketing push for The New Jedi Order was arguably the biggest an expanded universe storyline ever received. Popular fantasy author R. A. Salvatore was chosen to write the inaugural entry in the series, and a commercial was released for Vector Prime narrated by Mark Hamill, reprising his role as Luke Skywalker. I’d embed the video, but Tumblr doesn’t seem to want to let me do that, so you can check it out here.

In terms of plot, Vector Prime is a lot like the pilot episode of a TV series: mostly expository, establishing character relationships, introducing new characters, and generally setting up a new status quo. It’s been twenty-one years since Return of the Jedi (that’s 25 ABY, if you’re keeping track). Leia has reduced her role in New Republic politics, Luke is considering reestablishing the Jedi Council as it was under the old Jedi Order, and Han and Leia’s children are now quite close to being full-fledged Jedi. On a gloomier note, Luke’s wife Mara is suffering from a mysterious and, in all other cases, terminal disease.

The disease, we learn late in the novel, is a weapon of the New Jedi Order series’ antagonists: the Yuuzhan Vong.

The Vong are a race of aliens from beyond the galaxy. They are followers of a religion revolving around a pantheon of bloodthirsty deities, the belief that technology is an abomination… and the notion that it’s their destiny to conquer a certain galaxy far, far away. The story of Vector Prime details the events leading up to, and the initial battles of, their invasion.

The book also includes the first death of a major character from the Star Wars films. Chewbacca sacrifices himself in favor of Han’s son Anakin Solo, stranding himself on a planet about to be decimated by its own moon.

It’s a lot of momentous stuff with a lot of impact on the expanded universe chronology packed into one book.

So, is it any good? Well, yes and no.

R. A. Salvatore is a good writer, capable of conveying powerful emotional catharsis— and that’s evident in this book. Mara’s quiet struggle through her illness; Luke’s efforts to support his wife without taking away her dignity; the debate between Anakin and Jacen over the role of the Jedi in the galaxy; and especially Han’s profound grief after Chewie’s death, all ring true. Old and new characters, and their relationships to one another, feel exactly as they should, and there are many emotionally touching passages to be found here.

Salvatore’s action passages, including one-on-one duels, narrow escapes, and sprawling space battles, succeed at holding the reader’s interest and conveying a sense of intensity. A few of them are among the best I’ve read in a Star Wars book so far.

For me, though, the major plot elements leave a lot to be desired. From what I can gather, the book was basically plotted by a committee comprised of editors, authors, and Lucasfilm advisers. George Lucas himself even got involved a little bit, but mostly only to veto ideas that would too closely resemble the upcoming prequels, and to shut down some truly god-awful proposals, like killing Luke Skywalker.

As it is, Salvatore purportedly received death threats from crazed fans over the death of Chewbacca. That’s absolutely deplorable, and would be even if he’d actually had anything to do with the decision to kill the character. If you’re that sort of fan, you want to go home and rethink your life.

Being a relatively sane person, I don’t harbor any ill-will toward anyone involved in Chewbacca’s death, but I do think it was very poor storytelling. The idea behind killing Chewbacca was that, with a main character dead, the reader would get the impression that nobody was safe, and that anything could happen in this new series. I suppose that Chewbacca’s death accomplished this, but getting rid of a character that was already underused in previous books, and getting rid of him a relatively unceremonious fashion, was a cheap and uninspired way to do it. I love the work of Joss Whedon, but Star Wars is not Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Firefly. In this interview, Timothy Zahn points out (and I happen to agree with him), that Star Wars isn’t some parable about the grim realities of war and death; it’s “an old-fashioned good-versus-evil saga,” and killing characters for no better reason than to keep readers guessing isn’t consonant with that thesis. Unlike Zahn, I’m not against killing off major characters, period, but they certainly deserve deaths of a more heroically significant order than the one Chewie got.

Perhaps more problematic than my issues with the shock-death of Chewbacca are the Yuuzhan Vong. I’m far from sold on these villains, and they’re going to have to carry a nineteen-book series. Pumping up the Vong on the back cover as “an even darker enemy” than the Empire was an unwise comparison to invite, given that they don’t come anywhere close to being as compelling as Palpatine or Vader. These aliens have some interesting characteristics, like their religious fanaticism and their biotechnology, but these concepts do nothing to overcome the fact that the Yuuzhan Vong characters in Vector Prime share utterly interchangeable personalities.

In Vector Prime, there is a lot of good writing on display, and the characters feel right. The idea of a more cohesive series of Star Wars novels is a good one, and despite my misgivings, Salvatore did leave me interested in what will happen next. It would be unfair to judge such a long series on just its first entry, in the same way that it would be unfair to judge a lengthy television series on its pilot; that said, The New Jedi Order has its work cut out for it if it’s going to impress me.

Survivor’s Quest by Timothy Zahn (2004, Del Rey)

Survivor’s Quest serves as a kind of companion piece to Troy Denning’s Tatooine Ghost. As that novel focuses on Han and Leia’s relationship, Survivor’s Quest features Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, as they attempt to unravel the secrets of Outbound Flight, a Republic-sanctioned exploratory expedition sent to the fringes of the galaxy, where it met with destruction fifty years prior to the novel (set three years before the New Jedi Order series).

Like Tatooine Ghost, this book draws a number of connections to the (then-new) Star Wars prequels. Plenty of references to the Trade Federation, the “Naboo incident,” and the Battle of Geonosis are in evidence, and the novel’s climax features a confrontation with an antique droideka.

More interesting, however, are the connections Timothy Zahn makes to history he’d established in his own previous Star Wars tales. Here we learn more about the rest of the Chiss (the late Grand Admiral Thrwan’s species), and the ultimate fate of the Outbound Flight project.

The Chiss contact Luke and Mara about turning the remains of Outbound Flight, which they’ve located, over to the Jedi for study. Also along for the ride are a group of aliens who claim the crew of Outbound Flight saved their people from destruction fifty years ago, and members of the 501^st Stormtrooper Legion, affiliated with Thrawn’s less malevolent incarnation of the Empire.

Repeated sabotage and murder attempts, the discovery that Outbound Flight isn’t full of dead people after all, and sudden betrayal from an unexpected source all make Survivor’s Quest an engrossing read. Zahn also spends plenty of time on character drama. He doesn’t lay the romance between Luke and Mara on very thick, but convincingly writes a relationship build on love, trust, and cooperation that is heartwarming in its simplicity. The ending, in particular, made me smile.

Zahn also provides plenty of new and interesting protagonists, my favorite of whom is Dean Jinzler, an old man seeking answers about his long-dead Jedi sister and trying to cope with his feelings of resentment over having been overshadowed by her in his parents’ eyes.

Fans who have read and enjoyed other Timothy Zahn Star Wars fiction will find this book very satisfying. The great characterizations and original characters, tight pacing, and wide scope one would expect from Zahn are all here. Additionally, this novel pays off on hints and references made throughout all of Zahn’s previous Star Wars books. Survivor’s Quest raises a lot of questions, too, teasing his subsequent Star Wars novel, Outbound Flight.

Also included in the paperback edition is “Fool’s Bargain,” also by Timothy Zahn and originally published as an e-book.

The story takes place prior to the events of Survivor’s Quest, following the Aurek-seven unit of the 501^st Stormtrooper Legion as they prove they’re not like their predecessors in white armor by liberating a world from an oppressive tyrant. In the process, they pick up a nonhuman recruit, destined to surprise the pants off of Luke in Survivor’s Quest.

While it doesn’t stack up to its full-length companion, “Fool’s Bargain” is entertaining and keeps the pages turning. Zahn has the germ of some pretty interesting characters in the story’s stormtrooper protagonists; it’s a bit of a shame that they fade mostly into the background in Survivor’s Quest.

Scourge by Jeff Grubb (2012, Del Rey)

If you and your friends have ever played through the 2002 Star Wars Roleplaying Game module Tempest Feud, Scourge may give you a sense of déjà vu. This book, published earlier this year, is a novelization of that gaming module. The expanded universe has, for most of its existence, drawn heavily on Star Wars RPG material for alien races, spacecraft, technology, and the like, but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that an entire roleplaying adventure has been adapted into novel form.

Both Tempest Feud and Scourge revolve around a dangerous form of spice called “tempest” that triggers blinding rage in its users and around a family of Hutts. Popara the Hutt is a rarity among his species—a relatively honest business-being. Popara asserts that he does not deal in hard spice, and is thus not responsible for the tempest. Of his sons, one of them, Mika, apparently takes after his father and is perhaps even more mild-mannered. The other, Zonnos, is a more typically power-hungry Hutt.

In adapting Tempest Feud, author Jeff Grubb (probably best known for his hand in developing the Forgotten Realms campaign setting) had to create a cast of original characters to stand in for the generic party of player characters for which the adventure had originally been designed. Here, he does a great job. Grubb doesn’t give us an onion’s worth of layers in these characters, but each is distinctive, and their dialogue really pops. Mander Zuma, a Jedi archivist, is totally out of his element in any combat situation, let alone dealing with drug cartels and backstabbing crimelords; Reen Irana, brother to Mander’s apprentice Toro, who was killed by the tempest spice, moves from a desire for vengeance to a concern for the greater good; and Eddey Be’ray fills the “dependable wise-ass” archetype quite nicely. The interactions between these characters are punchy, fun, and occasionally moving; most of all, they remind me of the dynamics that develop between characters in a great roleplaying campaign.

The story of Scourge is mystery-based. Who’s behind this new drug? Who keeps trying to foil Mander, Reen, and Eddey at every turn? Who wants Popara the Hutt dead? In this aspect of the book, I was disappointed. While I didn’t have all the details figured out, I saw the mastermind’s identity coming from miles away, and found the result much less interesting than it could have been.

That’s not to say that, just because I knew the destination, the journey wasn’t worthwhile. As I already said, the characters are pleasant to read. Also, Grubb writes action with a frantic pace that makes an already short book move along at a steady clip. Scourge is very light and very breezy, but it’s a pretty good time, too, and it’s worth picking up if you’re looking for a way to pass a rainy day.