"Splinter of the Mind's Eye," by Alan Dean Foster [Del Rey, 1978]

[image=http://www.theforce.net/books/images/sotme_.jpg]

Synopsis:

Luke Skywalker expected trouble when he volunteered to follow Princess Leia on her mission to Circarpous to enlist their Rebel underground in the battle against the Empire. But the farm boy from Tatooine hadn't counted on an unscheduled landing in the swamplands of Mimban ... hadn't counted on any of the things they would find on that strange planet.

Hidden on this planet was the Kaiburr crystal, a mysterious gem that would give the one who possessed it such powers over the Force that he would be all but invincible. In the wrong hands, the crystal could be deadly. So Luke had to find this treasure and find it fast.

Accompanied by Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio - his two faithful droids - Luke and the Princess set out for the Temple of Pomojema ... and a confrontation deep beneath the surgace of an alien world with the most fearsome villain in the galaxy!

SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE - A Dart's 'Eye' View

As the first novel of the EU, SotME gets special consideration from me - added to which, I *love* the characterisation and the basic set-up. Unlike nearly every other EU book I can think of (closest exception that springs to mind is Dark Journey) this story takes place on just *one* world. It's very much enjoyable.

There *are* some scenes where you can't help but look at them, and wonder: what on Earth? Luke's thoughts about Leia are *much* amusing, bearing in mind Leia's his sister..!!! Characterisation is fairly decent and pretty enjoyable. The entire concept - of the Kaiburr crystal - is very interesting indeed. But probably the thing that I enjoy most about this book, is the exotic alien landscape - with creatures such as the wandrella abounding throughout the pages. My favourite scenes include when Luke and Leia are navigating their way through the tunnels, and Luke's confrontation with a native - in which he has to use the Force to win - is a high point.

One scene is amusing, in light of more recent developments; how many times has Vader lost his hand? He lost it in AotC; according to Mara in TTT, he lost his hand after the Death Star was destroyed; he gets it lobbed off by Luke here; and he loses it to Luke *again* in ESB! Oh him of the many hands - no wonder he wanted to get rid of Luke's just *once* in ESB lol!

While the final confrontation with Vader could have been managed better, you can understand why it *wasn't* - the villain had to survive into the films, and therefore the plotline couldn't possibly be properly closed up. I like the line "I am Ben Kenobi" - as Obi-Wan helps Luke to overcome his former student. Vader's use of a restrained energy sphere, 'kinetite', is one touch I especially like; one of the few books that dreams up its own Force-power!

One point that takes a new depth, in light of the prequels, is that Vader knew the authorisation codes to deactivate Artoo and Threepio... Which makes perfect sense, since he built one of 'em and travelled with both for a while!

Finally, the new character of Halla is very enjoyable in her semi-insanity (well, that's how it felt at points!) - it's a shame she disappeared into EU Limbo, she'd have been interesting to see...

Seven out of ten, I reckon!

One point that takes a new depth, in light of the prequels, is that Vader knew the authorisation codes to deactivate Artoo and Threepio... Which makes perfect sense, since he built one of 'em and travelled with both for a while!

[face_shocked] I forgot all about that.

I liked it intil the end. The power the crystal had was a bit over the top and how come he didn't save the Yuzzem? It healed and returned live to Luke and Leia (I think, I know it healed her burns).

Overall I liked this story. Halla was an interesting character, and the concept of the crystal seemed intriguing.

Unfortunately, I did not like the fact that Han wasn't in the story. They could have got him in somehow. I also didn't like that Vader almost seemed weak, he escaped death a few too many times in the story.

Overall though i'm impressed. Alan Dean Foster didn't have a lot to work with in 1978, and this would have made for a fairly interesting made-for-TV sequel if Star Wars didn't do well at the box office.

Well, I give it an 8.
It's really good written, has a lot of cool ideas, battles and characters. And, on top of it, you can also read it if you don't know anything about other EU (like my Mom did ).

7

I enjoyed it but it seems to be aimed at a younger audience, throughout you read many hints at Luke's feelings for Leia, which are rather disturbing after you've seen ROTJ.

Thought the crystal idea was interesting but SOTME makes Vader look pretty weak compared to the OT.

7


It was good, but not great. Unfortunately the other books don't reference this story hardly at all, which makes this book suffer in my opinion. That wouldn't be THAT big of deal if the book was very well written, but as the above poster stated it does seem to aimed towards younger audiences a bit.

Plus, I would have preferred Luke to not battled Vader in this book.

I actually read this book in 1978 and back then, it was awesome! It was between IV* and ESB and well before rotj so nobody knew luke and leia were twins. I loved Halla and all these years I have wondered what happened to her. Perhaps she went to Zonoma Sekot? You never can tell! Back in 1978, we didn't have internet, chat rooms, etc. We waited around for ANY mention of Star Wars and drooled over anything we could get our hands on (I wish I still had my copy of MAD magazine's satire of Star Wars . . . "Hey, weren't you a munkin in the wizard of Oz" said R2 to an Jawa.)

I have an original copy from 1978. That is one I'll never let out of my hands!


*sorry, I just have a BIG problem with calling Star Wars IV the title of A New Hope. When you've called it Star Wars for over a quarter of a century, it seems trite to call it A New Hope.

I suppose maybe it was good for it's time, so I've been kinder to this book then I would otherwise have been. It's pretty well out dated, doesn't fit in well with much of new timeline(how many times can Luke/Vader fight). If you read it, jstu do it for kicks, not for any real contribution to the SW universe.

5.

Not bad, but not great.

I didn't like the idea of Leia having a lightsaber battle with Vader. Plus - Vader seemed rather weak in this novel.

Being the ONLY EU book I stopped mid-way through...I have to say I was disappointed with it.

It dragged on and on...and not just because I read the graphic novel 1st, but because the whole thing was sooooooo overdone. You can tell it was meant as a possible B-movie sequel if "Star Wars" tanked...because it was like having someone read every action in a movie.

I just finished it - another couple of things that were contradicted later in the EU.

1. Luke uses a lightsaber underwater (to cut the roots of some plants) - he and Leia didn't know if it would work underwater and it did!

2. There is a lot made of Leia not being Force-sensitive. I know she isn't trained, but she wasn't in ESB when she started sensing stuff either.

-- Also, Does Leia ever swim in the EU? In this book, she is so terrified by the possibility she may have to swim that she starts screaming uncontrollably!

I proably read this book every 2-3 years. At times I think it is great, at other times I'm thinking "what was I thinking when I thought this was good?"

Did 3-PO do any translating in the book? Luke could speak Yuzzem (why would he pick such a language to learn...seems like they are not on the forefront of Galactic biggies) and Halla could speak the natives language. And why didn't Luke try to bring back to life the Yuzzem. Good point about that Vader knew the droids codes to turn them off, I havn't thought about that. And really, Leia not force sensative? The only thing I could think of is that she never actually touched the crystal (besides when Luke used it to heal her), so how was anyone to know?

Reading the Annotated Screenplays, if I remember right, at some point in ANH someone was looking for the Crystal to amplify the Force, so maybe Foster just used that idea...or GL told him to flesh it out, maybe for a t.v. movie.

overall, i really like it. however, that's taking into account the fact that it was written before pretty much anything else and the problems that causes.

the main problem i have is the whole final duel. having Luke (possibly possessed by Ben Kenobi?) beat Vader before ESB really kills the whole confrontation on Bespin.

6

It's good, but not terribly important in the grand scheme of things, which is a shame. I wish it could have been referenced more in other EU.

8-I thought it was a pretty decent book and one of my personal favorites.I thought the story was nice and dark and finished it pretty quickly as I couldn't put it down.

6/10
This book sends you back to the first years after Star Wars opened (1977), that naiveté.
Much of it is now irrelevant with the all the preceding movies and EU books.
The relationships seem childish particular between Leia and Luke.

In my mind, this book makes Lucas' claims about having the whole story of both trilogies worked out ahead of time garbage. Why wouldn't he have told Foster, who ghost-wrote the ANH novelization, that Luke and Leia were siblings?

OR!

Lucas didn't plan a thing beyond ANH, and the sibling plot twist was to silence critics who thought the Princess shoulda ended up with Luke...

Liked the book, tho.

Given the fact that SOTME is the first EU novel, I have no problem cutting it a little slack. And as for the Luke-Leia angle, most of it was from the standpoint of Luke's feelings about Leia. Given the fact he did not know she was his sister, I don't feel that the revelation in ROTJ makes things in this book seem any weirder than the ESB lip lock Leia puts on Luke to annoy Han Solo.