Shadows of the Empire (Star Wars) by Steve Perry
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Book Reviews of Shadows of the Empire (Star Wars)
Book Review: "Shadows" is a crowd-pleaser...where's the film version?
Summary: 5 Stars
Steve Perry's Shadows of the Empire, first published in 1996, is the centerpiece of a Lucasfilm multi-media marketing campaign that could be summed up with the tag line "Everything but the movie." Not only was Perry assigned to write the novel, but Kenner (now Hasbro) rolled out a line of action figures, Dark Horse Comics published a multi-issue series, Nintendo released a console-based game for its Nintendo 64 system, and Joel McNeeley (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) composed an original score. In short, all that was missing was the feature film.And what a film Shadows of the Empire would make! Although the novel is part of the Expanded Universe series that started with Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, it's the first of the 1990s-era novels to explore the six-month or so time span between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
In this smartly-written, fast-paced novel, Lord Darth Vader and his evil master Emperor Palpatine still live and Han Solo is frozen in carbonite en route to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine. On that desert planet, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa wait for word from Lando Calrissian and Han's Wookiee first mate Chewbacca that the bounty hunter Boba Fett has landed with his prized captive. But Fett has taken a detour to repair his ship, the Slave I, and has been spotted on an Imperial-held world known as Gall. Deciding it's worth the risk, and with the assistance of Rogue Squadron and a dashing and brash mercenary named Dash Rendar, Luke and his friends mount a rescue attempt.
Meanwhile, on the Imperial throne world Coruscant, Vader juggles his quest to find Luke Skywalker and at the same time contend with the machinations of Prince Xizor, a cunning crime lord and Vader's rival for the favor of their mutual overlord, Emperor Palpatine. Xizor, a Falleen with great intellect, fighting prowess, and even greater ambition, seeks to usurp the former Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord. His plan combines the elimination of Vader's son and the setting of a deadly trap for the Rebel Alliance.
Although the ending is, of course, pre-determined (the events that follow are chronicled in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi), Shadows of the Empire is an exciting and suspenseful book. Vader fans particularly will enjoy this novel; we get glimpses into the Dark Lord's personality that the movies (and their novelizations) only barely hint at. Even better, Perry uses the films (particularly The Empire Strikes Back) as a gold mine of material. The prologue, set inside the Imperial Palace, takes a short but crucial scene from Episode V and gives it new depth and meaning, even though Perry leaves the dialog intact. In the rest of the novel, the author not only creates his own adventures for the Star Wars heroes and villains, but also "sets the stage" for the "official story" as seen in Episode VI. (Indeed, other Lucasfilm-licensed or created projects incorporated Shadows of the Empire into their storyline. In 1997's Special Edition re-release of A New Hope, Asp droids make an appearance, as does Dash Rendar's ship, the Outrider. And Brian Daley made several references to events from Shadows in his Return of the Jedi radio drama.)
Alex Diaz-Granados
Book Review: A very good book, though some things were irritating
Summary: 5 Stars
This book overall, as far as writing, storyline, characters, and intercharacter relations go, was excellent, more than excellent in some ways. However, the book also suffers from stereotyped villians and the all too obvious Han stand-in Dash Rendaar. I read the junior novelization prior to this, and thought it was great, but reading this full version makes it seem almost silly. This book takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and basically focuses on the adventures of Luke, Leia, Lando, Chewie and some other new friends they meet as they try to find a way to rescue Han from Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt. Meanwhile, two mysterious persons put out seperate bounties for Luke, one wanting him alive, the other wanting him dead. As you can probably guess this worries him and his friends quite a bit, since Luke believes one of them is certainly Vader, but who is the other one? Leia decides to contact the major criminal organization Black Sun, led by the infamous Prince Xizor, to see if they can find out who it is. She also hires smuggler Dash Rendaar to keep an eye on Luke, which further adds to the mess, for reasons I won't go into at the moment for the benefit of those who haven't read it yet. One thing that bothered me about this book was that all the bad guys (with the exception of Darth Vader) were completley unbelievable and very annoying at some points. Guri especially was a very stupid add on. She could have been an awesome character, but the way she was portrayed is completely unacceptable by my standards. She is simply a man's stupid fantasy of what a strong female should be and is basically a parady of other, better super spy/assassin type women such as Mara Jade (now THERE was an awesome character). Also, Dash seemed just a little too much like Han, and is obviously nothing but a stand-in. I have to admit, Xizor was a pretty good villian because I found myself truly hating him because of what a complete PIG he was. I also thought that in this book all the characters were accuratly portrayed, even Luke, who a lot of writers seem to have trouble with. I also enjoyed Leia's thoughts on Luke and Han, and how it truly brings to light the fact that she loved both of them, Han in a more romantic way, and Luke in a more protective, almost motherly way. Anyway, I would urge younger readers to stay with the junior novelization of this book, since there are some scenes that younger children will probably find disturbing, but nothing anyone over 12 or so couldn't handle. I myself am fifteen and there was nothing in it that bothered me that much. Every Star Wars fan should definitly read the full version eventually though, and I would even recommend it to those people who are not die hard fans.Book Review: Vader..Good Guy?
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought this book was pretty good. I am a true Anakin/Vader fan, so it was really interesting to see Vader portrayed as one of the protagonists. Some of the scenes were a little wierd: Vader naked?...scary!
Unlike many of the Star Wars books, this one actually follows the story line down to the last detail. Vader has learned not too long ago that Luke is his son. His mission is to find Luke and turn him to the Dark Side so that they can overthrow the emperor. However, Xizor a crime lord, prince and the emperor's #2 man (second to Vader of course) is looking for a way to even a score with Vader. Vader unknowingly killed his family in a scientific experiment gone bad...he wants revenge, but he knows he cannot challenge Vader directly. He finds out that Luke is Vader's son through the emperor (hmmm...) and figures he can get back at Vader by killing Luke. Vader knows that Xizor is up to something and wants to kill him, but the emperor won't let him. So Xizor puts a bounty out for Luke. Now there are two bountys out for him: one to deliver him alive and one to deliver him dead. Luke appears to be the most wanted man in the Universe.
Meanwhile, Leia is pining over Han and Lando is doing everything in his power to find him to redeem himself ("I had no choice!"). She starts to realize in the last movie/book that her feelings for Luke and Han are not the same. They track Boba Fett to a distant system where he is trying to repair his ship, but of course, they dont make it in time, hence episode VI. Leia gets hooked up with this Xizor whom is trying to seduce her with his powerful pheremones. This Xizor is ruthless and very cunning but is still no match for his advisary.
I like this book because it shows Vader starting to rebel against the emperor. His fatherly instincts are coming out because although the emperor agreed to it he could care less about what happened to Luke, which is why he is pitting Vader and Xizor against each other, even though they are already natural enemies. It is also obvious that Xizor is not interested in being the Emperor's pet, but has other ulterior motives for wanting to get close to him. It was pretty cool to see Vader disobey his master, which is rare, maybe unheard of. The conflict within Vader/Anakin is portrayed well here.
This book is very well written because there are no contradictions which occur sometimes in Star Wars books. A must read for Star Wars fans, a good gap filler, although you already know the outcome about Luke/Han.
Book Review: The book that began my venture into the expanded universe
Summary: 5 Stars
After seeing all the hype on TV for the Shadows of the Empire action figures and video game, I was plesantly surprised to find a novelization of it sitting on the shelf at a local bookstore. Now up until this point, I had only a vague interest in the Star Wars expanded universe. Eager to see what all the talk was about (and why this one novel would deserve multimedia treatment above all the others) I picked it up and started reading. From that one book, I now have over two dozen various Star Wars novels in my collection. Some of the novels like Zahn, Anderson, and Aaron Alliston's works have been brilliant. Others have fallen considerably short. Shadows of the Empire remains one of my favorite reads of my collection.SotE is an easily accessible entry into the Star Wars universe. To understand where most of the events come from, the reader only has to referr to the original movies. With this in mind, Perry was rather limited in what he could do and not do. Obviously, the gang would have to attempt to rescue Han Solo, and obviously they would fail, because Han is not rescued until Return of the Jedi. Perry stays with Tattooine, Coruscant, and other familiar planets to make the reader feel more at home - the use of familiar aliens from the Star Wars universe (Barabels, Bothans, Ho'Dins) adds contunity that other books have not used (admit it - most of the later novels have featured one shot alien races) Dash Rendar may be more or less a Han Solo clone, but his use was only as a supporting character. The video game tie-in would be the one to feature his exploits.
One of the amazing things Perry did was introduce a character as memorable and formidible as Grand Admiral Thrawn in the space of one book. Xizor is a crafty villian, with a hint of sexuality that other Star Wars characters don't have, making for an interesting twist. As for the usual characters, they are all depicted as they should be. Luke is still developing his force powers as a Jedi Knight, and Perry's simpler writing style captures his farmboy-to-Jedi transformation. Vader, given that hes been dead for years in the other books, finally gets some extra development. The reader finds out his feelings about the Emperor, Luke, and Xizor, who is Vader's rival for the Emperors favor.
All in all, Perry did an excellent job with SotE. Granted, the book was merely a part of a major multimedia money-making engine - but the idea was well executed, and provides newbie Star Wars fans with an excellent entry into the expanded universe
Book Review: Episode 5.5
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the novel that connects the dots between Episodes V and VI. The novel starts firmly planted in The Empire Strikes Back with the Emperor's holo-message to Vader - but this time from Palpatine's point of view (and although Vader didn't know it, the Emperor was not alone). And then several months later Princess Leia wakes up from a nightmare about Han Solo being frozen on Cloud City.
Many questions arise about the time between the two Star Wars sequels, and this novel has the answers. How did Luke Skywalker, severely demoralized by finding out the true identity of his father and feeling that Obi-Wan Kenobi had lied to him, go from being a Jedi padawan with incomplete training to a confident, powerful Jedi Knight in every way except for his final trial? Who completed Luke's training? How did Luke construct his new lightsaber? Why didn't Boba Fett deliver Han to Jabba the Hutt right away? Who died to make Jabba the most powerful crime lord in the galaxy? How did Leia get her Boushh disguise and thermal detonators? How did Wedge Antilles become the leader of the Rebel's elite X-fighter squadron? How did the Bothans bring the Alliance the information about the second Death Star? If the droids ever tried to pilot the Millennium Falcon through Coruscant while Han was frozen, would you ever tell him about it?
Shadows of the Empire ends with Luke hiding his lightsaber in R2-D2 and recording his message for Jabba. This novel is an adventurous story very worthy of the Star Wars name. And this BOOK even has it's own SOUNDTRACK!
Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire [Enhanced CD]
I also highly recommend the following 5-star novels that are extremely relevant to the prequel trilogy:
Cloak of Deception (Star Wars)
Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul)
Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel)
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars)