"The Crystal Star," by Vonda N. McIntyre [Bantam, 1994]

In one word. Bad.

Waru. No action. Luke the Jedi master being a pushover. Bad.

I agree this book isn't worth your money. Only Glove of Darth Vader series, Children of the Jedi and Planet of Twilight were worse.

 

The only cool thing in this book is Waru, other than that it sucked. I only read it because it was Star Wars and I was hoping it would be better. I mean it just sucks, I better get off before I get banned.

 

This is terrible I give it a 1 and that's just cause it has Star Wars on it's cover.

 

I read this long ago, when it first came out. I hated it. It felt like a Star Trek episode to me.

But I'm actually going to re-read it and see if all the time I've spent going through the other novels somehow gives me a better take on it.

 

Ahem i actually enjoyed it!! Other than the portrayal of luke obviously, that totally murdered his character.

I really liked the bits with the kids in tho...

 

I'm sorry. I was thinking of a different book when I voted. If anyone cares could one vote be taken off the 1? If noone cares I don't care.

 

Now THIS book brings back a lot of memories, and not all of them were bad.

As some have already stated, this lady is a much better Trek writer then Star Wars writer.

IF, you prefer a certain style of Star Wars writing.

Now I'm Pro-Zahn, so you'll understand when I say on that angle, this book was a total disapointment.

However, on the other side of the coin, this writer is an accomplished Sci-fi / fantasy writer.

This story could have easily been told with Trek themes, B5 or another sci-fi setting and it would have went better I'm sure.

In relation to Star Wars, the bad of it was things like NOT a SINGLE blaster was fired in this book. (as I recall anyways, correct me if I'm wrong)

Han with a beard, and 3P0 painted purple if I recall correctly...If that's not a hint this is an out-of-place Star Wars story then I don't know what is.

Luke extending his lightsaber and threatening to attack Han out of resentment for Han cheating on Leia?! Madness.

Behold, I've kidnapped the Grandson of Darth Vader, hail me...hail me and my Lightsaber without a switch...

The intro was funny; Ie, Han's presumption that Ben Kenobi must have been a man-whore.

Charming...

 

I give it a five. Everyone seemed so out of charactor, and the story just seemed unbelievable.

Did anyone else find it curios that so much of the book involved the Solo kids, yet they weren't on the cover?

 

I agree. I loved this book when I was 12, but even then Luke annoyed me. Still...I don't want to vote on it. I don't think I can give it a score, simply because I have good memories of it and I love comparing little-kid solos with big-kick-ass solos. Fun. *hugs copy to chest* Don't hate me for still liking this book! But yeah, Luke sucked, Leia was even worse, and the whole force-thing was just random. The worst line: "I was going incognito!"

 

6/10.

I like what this novel was trying to do. I like that it was a deviation from the usual military-based threat novels. I thought Waru was interesting and creative. I liked Leia's character development, and while the Solo kids were Sueish, they weren't too awful. I like that we had an interesting case of a character who was born without Force powers. I like the tiny plot additions here and there, like Han's concerned reflections on Luke, their desperate money situations, the loyalty and devotion the three core cast members showed to one another in the end.

However, as mentioned above, Luke is horribly out of character at many points in the novel. I liked that an author attempted to explore one his more vulnerable side, poking at his psychological problems, but McIntyre went a little too far. Luke would NEVER threaten or attack a friend. I understand that he's under the influence of the weird star vibes, but I think he has more control than that. The sections of the books dealing with the Solo kids are also absurdly "dumbed down" at many points, and many times I felt the kids acted too adult and knowldegeable for their age.

Over all...could have, and should have, been much better. But this novel holds nostalgic value for me. One of the first books I owned. I liked when it tried to do, even though it ultimately failed.