The JC Lit Reviews Special: LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR (Spoilers)

I swear there was. Did they delete it? I can't even find it on google. I just finished True Colors and was going to read the thread before starting Order 66.

 

So what's your overall rating, Charles?

 

10/10

I'd make it a 9/10 but it's really a breath of fresh air after so much grimdark.

 

10/10

Amazing. The most fun I've ever had reading a Star Wars book. Dark, but only in such a way that reminds us what it means to be one of the good guys in the Star Wars universe. Funny, thrilling, scary... everything that good Star Wars should be.

 

9/10

This book reaffirms all the magic that Star Wars contains.

Artoo helps save the day? Check.

Luke affirms the light against the magnitude of the Dark? Check.

We have a suitably evil and unique villain in the form of Cronal? Check.

Han and Leia develop their against-all-odds romance? Check.

The Rogues, Lando, and Stover-originals like Nick provide hilarious banter? Check.

It's a classic swashbuckling adventure of Rebels vs. Imperials? Check.

In this novel (which took me a day to tear through), Matt Stover has brought out the magic of the OT while not forgetting the new mythos of the PT or the highly-detailed history of the EU, and through it all, there's still a sense of the author providing sly hints as to what this story's really about (for example, his references to Luke Skywalker and the Dragons of Tatooine, his use of Imperial propaganda surrounding the Battle of Endor, and his closing line from Geptun's perspective about "rewrites").

If anyone's wondering why I gave it a 9 instead of a perfect 10, it's only because I wish the story could have been just a bit longer, and that there hadn't been quite so much rehashing of Shatterpoint characters. Geptun and Nick I can accept, but to put Geptun, Nick, and Kar Vastor all in the same story? Might as well have added a battle-scarred Depa Billaba and a one-handed Mace Windu, while we're at it. Beyond that, this story was perfect.

But all the words at my disposal will not do this story justice. Go ahead and read!

 

Average score: 197.15/21 = 9.39

 

Charles, I really like how you broke your review down. I would only offer one suggestion. "Really, at the start of the work, the author seems to be struggling to get a handle on the character of the Son of the Son of the Suns." should read "Really, at the start of the work, the author seems to be struggling to get a handle on the character of the Son of the Chosen One."

Luke's not his own son

 

The Son of the Suns is the Chosen One so there's no problem...

 

Great book. Loved all the characters, and after reading such a great Lando, I'm starting Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu. The one thing that stops me from giving it a 10 is the meltmassif. I just didn't like it for whatever reason. It seemed that around every corner there was more meltmassif. Other than that, great read. Great cover too.

9.5

 

10/10.

My post-reading review/impressions can be found here, but I just want to point something out: We all went into this book with ridiculously high expectations. And Stover blew those ridiculously high expectations out of the water.

Luke Skywalker is a hero. And I don't think that anyone else has painted that picture as clearly, and without a shadow of a doubt, as Stover has in this book.

Unlike the Jedi Knights of old...
He is not afraid of the dark.

And neither is Stover. Why? Because Stover presented a dark, bleak, and terribly depressing view on war, on the Force, and on the entire universe. He did it with his usual engaging, detailed, original, and fantastically-written style, a style that gets deeper into the mindsets of characters that we thought we had known for years --- but upon reading Stover's take on them, we get to know them better than we ever have (in this case, for 31 years). But despite maintaining all of the aspects of a Stover novel that we all know and unconditionally love, this book stood apart from the previous three in one important, refreshing, and ultimately perfect aspect.

In this book, the dark was defeated. In this book, we saw the complete and unconditional triumph of the light.

 

9.8/10

I'd give it a 10/10, but the bleak nature of the book inspired shivers as well as awe. Then again, that's exactly what I would expect from Stover.

When I first picked up the book, I already knew about the massive loss of life on Mindor. However, I was genuinely surprised by the way that loss of life came about. I was expecting a colossal ground battle, leaving scars for Luke due to the pain and death around him. Instead, we did get massive death early on, but Luke's fight is primarily not as a general but as a Jedi. His fight, essentially, is against Lord Shadowspawn himself and for the individuals he meets; except for his commands as "Emperor" for Shadowspawn's troops to stand down, Luke doesn't specifically fight for the large scale things.

On the other hand, while the tone was bleak, I found it to be refreshingly different from the kind of ambiguous bleakness in LotF. We have tough choices in both LSatSoM and LotF, but in LotF, the darkness detracted from the heroism of its characters; in LSatSoM, it only made the heroes seem more heroic, even with the amount of pain it caused them.

Along the same lines, the heroic Luke that has virtually disappeared from LotF reappeared in LSatSoM. Matt Stover shows that heroes don't need to be always certain, always confident, or even always successful, but can still remain strong figures by overcoming their uncertainty. I wrote an eighteen-page paper examining how heroism in Star Wars really comes down to the human connection characters forge with their audience, and Luke fits the bill perfectly: in LSatSoM, he is not only strongly associated with light (brilliant descriptions there, too) but also the kindness, empathy, and devotion that was so apparent in the Luke of the OT. These characteristics have all but vanished in the gaunt, weighted Luke of LotF, and I sincerely hope they reappear in that time frame sometime soon.

For the other characters, I'm equally satisfied with the way Stover has portrayed them. All of the characters develop in some respect, sure enough, but Stover still manages to sustain their core throughout the novel. Luke faces a whole lot of darkness, but still retains his light and his empathy. Leia faces darkness as well, but displays her strength and begins to come to terms with her heritage. Han also balances two aspects of his personality well: his independence and his loyalty to his friends.

I've never much cared for Lando, but I wasn't bored by the passages focusing on him. His dialogue with Fenn Shysa was also often quite humorous, and served as a nice counterpoint to the darkness pervading the novel. At the same time, we also get humor from Artoo and Threepio, and in the form of Nick Rostu.

I was surprised to find Kar Vastor in this book (and Geptun, but I hadn't remembered his appearance in Shatterpoint while reading, so this was less of an issue) in addition to Nick Rostu, but in the end, I think it was a nice touch. Especially interesting was Vastor's redemption of sorts and his last words to Luke, which have already been quoted many times on the boards. It's especially interesting because Stover wrote Vastor as such an evil character in Shatterpoint -- given that an author probably wouldn't write his own creation out of character, that only makes Luke seem all the more heroic.

In summary, I have to say that Stover did indeed surpass all of my expectations for LSatSoM. The novel didn't turn out quite the way I had expected, but I wouldn't call this a bad thing; in fact, in hindsight, I think I would have liked Luke's more personal journey as a Jedi better than increasing pain from tough decisions as a wartime general. In addition, while I began feeling apprehensive that there wouldn't be enough Luke in the novel, I ended up intrigued by even the parts without Luke, due to the excellent characterization and weaving of plotlines throughout the novel. And despite the inclusion of three Shatterpoint characters, it never seemed contrived; there was no expectation of greatness or importance for these charac

 

10/10

Awesome novel. Brilliantly executed. Great Pacing.

 

9.5/10

It wasn't a perfect book, but it's the best Star Wars book that I've read in years. Before reading this, Matthew Stover was at the top of my list along with Timothy Zahn. After reading this, he easily remains up there.

 

man these are big numbers. whats the record for highest rated book?

 

ROTS has a 9.5, I believe.

 

Nope. Two different prophecies by two diffeent groups referring to two different individuals. SotS = Whills prophecy and CO = Jedi prophecy

 

...And Darth Millenial is the Sith'ari, as long as we're making things up.


Just finished this book last night. Only honest improvement I could think of was that it was just begging to be written in the same OTT style as the ROTS novel was. You could tell Stover was tempted to do exactly that, I think. Some lines/references from the ROTS novel snuck in there.

I freaking loved Cronal. This guy is just hilariously ineffective for being a raving, um...not exactly sure what to call him. Redneck not-Sith, maybe.

Nick and Kar reappearing again was interesting, though it's been so long since I read Shatterpoint I might as well have been reading about totally new characters. For some reason, my mental image of Kar kept wanting to be a really mad silverback gorilla.

9.5/10. Just write OTT, Matt.

 

nothing made up. When you actually read the two prophecies and who they were written about by Lucas and who they were written by in story you know they are different and refer to two different people and events.

Wildly off-topic, so back to reviewing of the greatest SW EU eva

 

8/10

I enjoyed this book, I really did. Seeing all the gang back together, including Lando, was great, and there was a nice mix of space combat and the action on the ground. The characters were all portrayed well, especially Luke and Lando. Despite this, there were a few things in the novel that caused the lower rating. At times it seemed to address trivial matters, like the holothrillers. It seemed like Stover was trying the balance the bleakness of all the deaths with a little humor. While I'm sure there were holos made of Luke and Han, I don't see Luke spending his time working on the scripts.

I would have also liked to see more closure between Luke and Nick. It's implied that they talk at the end, but we never see that conversation. I'd have loved to see Nick and Luke debate over some of Mace's ideas. Also, having Nick and Kar go after Cronal together seemed unrealistic, after what they went through in Shatterpoint. Sure, they have a common enemy now, but I think that there is too much bad blood between them already.

Overall it was a good book that I enjoyed, but there were a few things that bothered me. Stover remains one of the best SW writers, but this work is not quite on a level with Stover's other Star Wars works.

 

9/10. The book could have done with being just a tad longer; I was wondering if everyone simply forgot about the Nagai-Tof War that raged after Bakura; as someone who hates the prequels and associated materials, I haven't read Shatterpoint, so a little more background on the characters from that novel would have been enjoyed; and the meltmassif started to get a bit old by the end.

But otherwise, bloody near perfect.

 

3/10

This novel was... nothing. There was no substance to the story, just some mindless action and rehashing of old characters. There wasn't really any emotional content, other than Luke's angst!ing. Which is in and of itself absurd; he's been blasting TIES and stormies left and right for years without a secod thought, but when he pulls the plug on a bunch of people who have already had their brains destroyed, he goes all emo. And does he handle this angst(!) like a mature person, or even a human being, for that matter? He doesn't just quit being a Jedi, he didn't just resign and let that be the end of it (although he did resign, which is good since his showing as a general was on par with Daala's antics). He doesn't even kill himself like any self-respecting nutjob. He hires someone else to investigate an event which he already knows every detail of so he can... what? Stand a warcrimes trial for killing enemy combatants who were actively fighting? Last time I checked that isn't a warcrime.

Those elements alone would have taken it into five-point territory, but now the fun really begins. First off, Stover apperently has a very bad case of Call a Rabbit a Smeerp Syndrome; and he just loves talking about smeerps. I mean, I know that he couldn't really refer to things in real life, but instead of saying "popped like a Snorgdaflxian Blood Berry" he could have said "berry" with out loosing any meaning. Seriously, it seemed like he was trying to shoehorn in as many alien-sounding similies as he could. Also, Jango clones at Mindor. Seriously? They'd all be the equivalent of ninety-year olds. And we have X-Wings who are, and I quote "hundreds to one" by TIE Interceptors. After several hours of battle, both sides' strength is, apparently, the same. The TIEs have somehow failed to simply drown their enemies with numbers, and the X-wings have surivived without inflicting any serious casualties.
When the stormies all go nuts, they, as POV ninety-year-old character Klick reflects, have "...a burninng need to kill someone. Anyone." But apparently "anyone" means the good guys, because despite intense bloodlust with absolutely no control behind it, they don't shoot at each other. The author doesn't bother to give even the tiniest explanation for this.

The whole book is nothing but poorly-executed action and sensationalistic prose, all in all one of the worst SW books I've read.

 

I haven't finished the novel yet, but I glanced at the last page and it looks like Stover pokes fun at himself a little for all the similies you mention. I've noticed a few though it hasn't grained on my patience, yet. If a Clone ages twice as fast as a normal human (which would jive with the Clones' appearance in AoTC) then Klick is closer to 70 Clone-years-old - which is not out-to-pasture age for denizens of the GFFA.

 

Actually, for them seventy seems the equivalent of forty or fifty. But how many forty or fifty-year olds do you see flying jet fighters?

 

Yeah, not many.

 

To be fair, he's a General equivalent in Star Wars who is the leader of Black Hole's massive starfighter fleet.