Lit spliters of the minds eye

is this a good book to read whats it about ?

 

It's about Luke and Leia hooking up. It's pretty hot.

 

Personally, I preferred Hair to the Umpire.

 

Indeed, Trak.

And you can never go wrong with a Darth Mall book.

 

yeah I like union. (comic)

 

Yep, and Chewie and Artoo is thrown in the mix. Leia went wild when artoo used his little elctro devise....

 

Too far.

I was okay with twincest, but bestiality and robo-sex is just too far.

 

Bestiality? Since when do Wookiees count as animals? That's just racist.

 

I enjoyed SOTME, and have read it numerous times since the early '80's - everytime I read the book I notice something new. It's one of my favorite pieces of EU literature. An added plus to this is the superb cover painting by Ralph McQuarrie; this is one of my favorite pieces of SW art, and IMHO would be suitable for framing on a wall, it's that good.

The book really holds up well, and is prophetic of Luke's abilities in ESB; this was originally published in February 1978, less than a year after SW hit theatres & more than two years before ESB came out:

- Luke is able to use force telekenesis to move a rock out of the water & hit a Mimban warrior who is choking him.

- Luke is able to sense Vader's presense from a distance away (in the underground caverns).

I have 0 problems with the fact that what we saw here seems to be contradicted in the subsequent films. Just like the original 1977-1986 Marvel SW comics, I see Splinter as a product of it's time - i.e., it was written well before the release of ESB so any continuity contradictions are very excusable.

I don't know whether SOTME was ever planned as a "sequel" to ANH; however, it's interesting that the Kaiburr (sp?) crystal was actually in one of the draft script treatments of ANH as something that enhanced Luke's force abilities when he was attacking the Death Star in his X-wing fighter at the end (this was mentioned in the superb Making of Star Wars book, 2007). This was obviously taken out of the final script, however.

I myself own the small PB copy of SOTME that was reprinted circa 1994?!, but have always wanted a larger HC copy. Based on what I know, this novel has not been reprinted in HC since it was first released in the late '70's; the one version I've seen was owned by a library, and this was a "sci-fi book club" exclusive. I have no desire to try to track down an older, potentially beat-up copy w/yellowing pages, so, it would be great if this were re-issued as a HC; I wouldn't mind a "special edition" version (as was done with the 20th anniversary of HTTE 3 years ago), but a straight, no frills re-issue would work for me as well.

 

It was, in case ANH failed, Lucas wanted a cheap to film sequel and since SOTME pretty much has no space stuff and is set on one planet with easy to create sets it would have certainly been able to make on the cheap. Also the reason that Han is not in it, because Ford had not signed up for sequels yet.

 

For what it's worth, my suggestion is to skip this book unless you're a completionist.

I found that the book has not aged well, is poorly written, has even worse characterizations, and is entirely inconsequential. It is a really, really bad book.

And I'm not even referring to the often blown-out-of-proportion Luke/Leia "romance" in the book. It's non existent. They both kinda-sorta have feelings for each other, and it's awkward. Nothing more. What happens between them in The Empire Strikes Back is far more "incestuous" than anything that happens in this book. I've never understood why people constantly mention it when talking about this book.

 

Re-read the Han Solo trilogy last May and thought I'd give Splinter a go. Haven't read it since the early 90's. It has a certain charm but . . . it's just not very good, IMO. Not a fan. Great cover though. It's too bad it was conceived as a low budget movie treatment cause there's very little real action and that's what ADF excels at. On a side note if you want to read a cool ADF/Lucas book find The Dig based on the Lucasarts game (created by Steven Spielberg, no less!) it's a really good read.

 

Why are you typing like this?

 

I think one of the issues that people have with SOTME is the fact that there is so much SW EU that has come out from the 1990's-on, i.e. comic books, novels, video games, etc. Many of the plots/stories in this "new" EU are especially fast-paced, etc. So, SOTME, in comparison, may seem somewhat archaic.

That being said, my favorite SW EU are the late '70's - '80's stories, i.e. SOTME, the '77-'86 Marvel comics series, the UK comics (reprinted last year in the DH Wild Space Omnibuses), the Brian Daley Han Solo novels, and the L. Neil Smith Lando Calrissian novels. Nolstagia has a lot to do with this, of course, but I also find these stories better written (in some cases) to the later EU.

From the '90's-on, many of the books being released were, to be totally honest, boring & didn't hold my interest i.e., Truce at Bakura, The Courtship of Princess Leia, The New Rebellion, etc. The Jedi Academy novels were alright, but IMHO the writing wasn't that great in these either. Granted, the Tim Zahn novels (HTTE Trilogy, etc.) were superb, but IMHO his books were the exception rather than the rule...

 

I liked the book the last time I read it a couple years ago. It's before ESB so you have to make some allowances.

anakinfansince1983 A Padme/Jar Jar relationship? What the? People like that?

 

I've seen Jar Jar/Padmé in picture form. Not by choice. Jarmé (or is it Padjar?) was the last ship on my mind.