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

10.

Based on one reading, and how satisfied I was with that read. 10.

There was so much right with this book, just so much. Right on down to a little Mando-bashing by Han Solo. I loved that, it seemed like a nod to the frustrations some fans have been having with the recent pro-Mando treatises we've been getting.

Also, The Force and the Dark... wow. I don't agree with Stover's apparent outlook on the nature of the universe here, but he's always giving us food for thought. I almost felt as if he was giving a couple different messages too. The Dark of Cronal and the Sorcerors of Rhand is used at times for synonym with the Force... and in other places it seems utterly different. As if it is in some way external to the Force or larger than the Force. And that is Cronal's POV. Luke struggles with his experience of the Dark the whole way through the story, and yet he makes some realizations that seem to echo Mace's sentiments in ROTS about Jedi creating or shedding light in the universe. But then we get this idea, also in ROTS, of the light of the Force. Not the light side of the Force, but the light of the Force. We saw this in the ROTS novelization when spirit Qui-Gon is discussing with Yoda how to become immortal in the Force... and it is by surrendering all conceptions of self to the Force enabling a Jedi to join his own light with the light of the Force. He goes so far as to talk about there being no light side of the Force and this idea that what the Sith called the "dark side" wasn't even scratching the surface of the Dark. It's gotten my gears a-turning, and I can't wait to discuss in the metaphysics thread. That's for darn sure.

Definite 10/10.

 

10/10

As I said in the other thread, I bought this party on the strength of the comments (despite the fact I rarely comment here in lit, I DO read to see if there are any works worth sticking my toe into) and on my past experience with Stover's take on AGFFA.

It far, far exceeded my expectations (as I sit here bleary eyed, having stayed up until nearly 3AM to finish it).

Luke was... beautiful, human. Han, such a pirate! Leia... "pricess kissyface" Lando and the droids... Character, character, character....

The exploration of light and dark, in all it's aspects.

The damned STORY (s) - just a fantastic piece of work.

 

I'll just post this little thing I posted in the other Mindor thread, as I liked so much of it that I won't have anything new to say that hasn't been said already. But here are my criticisms for it:

That said, I'd probably give it an 8 or a 9. Probably a 9.

 

WOW!

I cannot believe what I'm seeing...the 9s and 10s from all walks and corners of this community.

Is it finally here? Has redemption come at long last?!

It would have to be the Christmas I told everyone "no more Star Wars books, please."

My eyes are literally welling up as I read some of these reviews! Do I dare trust again?

 

In a word...

YES.

 

If you but buy 1 SW book in 2009 - it should be this one. The only problem that everyone is going to have is that there's a high probability that other works will be unable to match it, but stuff that - that's something to be dealt with later.

For now, buy and enjoy.

Also, the only way we'll get more books like this one is by sending a clear message to DR that it sells and sells well.

 

I can't remember the last time that I was so thoroughly entertained by a post-RotJ novel. I truly enjoyed reading Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor!

Even though the Battle of Mindor was a very dark and brutal event with a huge number of losses on both sides, it still managed to seem so much "lighter" than almost all of the NJO, DN, and LotF. Part of it was due to the welcome humor that was spread throughout the novel. I think far too many authors forget that humor was a huge part of the films, especially the OT.

But the other reason that Mindor seemed "lighter" than much of the recent SW fiction is because there was sort of a hopeful, optimistic feel to it. The heroes were portrayed as smart and capable with a "can do" attitude. They managed to thwart the enemy throughout. Every time I wondered how the heroes were ever going to be able to get out of one seemingly impossible predicament after another, they always found a way. While the villain was crafty and creative, the heroes ultimately were *more* crafty and creative. It was nice seeing heroes really portrayed as heroes with a strong moral center.

I loved the characterizations! Mister Stover wrote the kind of characterization of Luke Skywalker that SOS in general, and I, in particular, have been requesting for almost seven years. Some of the essential parts of Luke, the gentleness, kindness, and compassion have been missing in most of the Luke portrayals since the beginning of the NJO. That's Luke's human "Farmboy" side. Too often authors' "human" portrayal of Luke has consisted of a "flawed", indecisive, "darkish" guy who makes far too many bad decisions and accomplishes little. That's not Luke, and that's not a hero.

Stover's Luke was like the Luke of the films, the one who is smart and resourceful and comes up with surprising solutions to problems. I liked that instead of fighting Kar Vastor, Luke extended his hand to help him. I like that Luke "made friends" with the Melters, who then became his allies. Much like Luke saved his father instead of killing him; Luke rescued Vastor, Nick, and the Melters instead of destroying them.

It was wonderful to not only see Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio in a book again, but to see that they had vital roles to play. Once again, heroic little Artoo saved Luke Skywalker's life. I didn't realize how much I had missed Chewie until this reading this book.

Wedge and the Rogues were in-character and fun to see in action. Lando was great! I enjoyed his humorous comments, but he was also a very intelligent and creative commander.

After Luke, I think the character I most enjoyed was Han. I LOVED all of his humorous lines, but I really liked the portrayal of his relationship with Leia and his loyalty to and special friendship with Luke.

Lord Cronal/Blackhole was a worthy villain, very formidable and chilling. His diabolical plan to take over Luke's body (and later, Leia's) might have been very successful. He had planned everything perfectly, right down to the very last detail of a failsafe escape for himself. That is, it would have been, if not for one pesky Jedi.

I've heard people say that they were disappointed because Mr. Stover used his characters from Shatterpoint: Nick, Kar Vastor, and Geptun. That didn't bother me because they meshed perfectly in the story; they weren't "shoe-horned" in, and because they weren't there to overshadow or best the heroes. In fact, through their eyes we got to see how magnificent Luke really was in this book.

The story kept me interested and entertained. The philosophy was intriguing and cerebral. I'm still processing that part of it, but the idea that the Jedi are the Light in the Darkness sounds good to me.

I'm still not quite sure though why Luke decided to give up his commission. I thought that the decisions he made as a General were fine from what little we saw of the battle prior to the trap being sprung on them by Cronal/Blackhole. Prior to taking on the job of leading the Rapid Response Task Force Luke had even familiari

 

just finished a few hours ago. now i'm what i call a "slow reader", it usually takes 2-3 weeks for me to finish an average sized novel. however this one only took about 3 days. that fact alone should show how much i enjoyed it but heres a few details.

the pacing is literally non-stop. once the battle stops it doesn't stop until 5 pages from the end.

luke. luke. luke. what more can i say? the son of the chosen one not only kicks butt but turns his enemies into friends! when was the last time that happened besides RotJ? even in HttE he kills the nogri assasins without much talk.

pretty much everything i could say has already been said several times. the supporting characters had a purpose and didn't break up the pace of the book.

the only negatives i can come up with are from my own pre-convieved ideas about the story not the actual book itself. i thought we'd get a prolonged battle similar to what we see in the Clone Wars, ending with a saber/sword duel either in a base or on the battle field, kinda like Jedi Trial but starring luke. a part of me still wants to see a good luke vs someone saber duel. (anakin got all the good ones) but still, this was fan-friggin-tastic.

i've already recommended it to all my friends that are SW fans.

9/10 easily be best SW book i've read since the Clone Wars days(and yes i liked those books too )

 

10/10

this book is just absolutely fantastic! i second everything that has been said about it and add that R2 is the true hero behind this saga!
now just let Mr. Stover write those other two Luke Skywalker adventures!

oh just one little out of topic question: are the X-Wing novels all as fun as the Rogue Squadron portions of this book? i still haven't read any of them...

 

6.5/10

I would say a 10 for characterization and a 3 for execution and Meltmassif.

This book started off great and then just kinda oscillated in quality for the remainder of the book. The good stuff was great but the bad parts threw me so far out of the story that I had to struggle just to finish reading.

The Good
-The fleet battles/tactics/Lando/etc. I thought Stover actual wrote some pretty interesting space battles with descriptive skill. He managed to convey the visualization of a battle in ways that few have done since Stackpole.

-The movie characters. Loved Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, Lando and the droids! All of the characterizations were spot on and the dialogue between was fast paced and felt authentic to the movies.

-Lord Cronal and his philosophy - The Dark, although poor written at times (see below), was an interesting metaphysical philosophy for the SW universe. It was different and it was great to get inside a evil character's head for their view on things.

The Bad
-Gravity Technology. The gravity bombs, gravity mines, gravity drives, etc. It's suppossed to be magic SW tech to keep everyone in the system and eventually create the threat of the radiation death but I felt like it was over used. Gravity mines in the asteroids. I'm fine with that. But make the gravity gun something else, or the gravity bombs, or the gravity drives. Too much gravity...

-Semi-realistic physics. Stover decided to use parts of physics that would work in his plot but ignore others. He was all about the hard radiation that couldn't be shielded by SW tech, but flying volcanoes, magic gravity devices, and a bunch of other unnecessary oddities really bugged me. Worlds are collapsing but ships are still together. The Falcon
somehow smashes its way through what seemed like dozens of walls and keeps on going.

-The Dark Scenes - Stover loves his Force philosophizing but the metaphors for the Dark often seemed inconsitent and fell flat. Sometimes there was light, sometimes there wasn't, sometimes they were the light, sometimes they created the light, it just seemed like each scene was made up and there wasn't a consistent vision to the Dark.

-Meltmassif/melters - Stover needed some plot-onium to stitch a lot of these scenes together and it just didn't work. He could have at least used separate "magic" devices for the different There were so many inconsistencies with the meltmassif and its use. It was used to create nerve networks, served as obstacles (walls), attacked people with widely varying degrees of success, power gravity technology, etc. AND not only was this magic rock everywhere, it was also full of sentient energy beings that did who knows what. I feel like making it sometype of Sith technology without including the sentient Melters would have worked just as well without the nonsense. Meltmassif/Melters/and gravity tech ruined this book for me. I would put Meltmassif on the same level as Waru.

IMO, Stover had a brilliant grasp on the SW characters but got lost in his own plot, forcing delays and plot hole after plot hole to be filled with Meltmassif. I think the brief mention about hating rewrites at the end stemmed from him having to rewrite portions of the book several times.

All in all the characters felt perfectly like Star Wars and at times the story did the same. However, as great as it was when it was good, there were times when I wanted to throw the book across the room. Ever since I put the book down, I forget the little humorous parts and quips that I loved but the plethora of sheer irrationalities just grates on me more and more. If anything, I'm furious because I can see the potential this story had and how well Stover grasped the characters but the end result falls so short.

I'm amazed that the book is getting all 9s and 10s honestly.

-The Rebel Gungan

 

I think you issues with the Dark have more to do with Luke's struggling with it than with Cronal's view of the Dark.

Most of the musings on the Dark came from within Luke's POV, and of course he's struggling against that and trying to supplant Cronal's attempt to take over his mind and body... so Luke's struggling against Cronal and trying to assert the Jedi view back into his own mind and make that dominant again. The only time Cronal considers any reality to light is when Luke just overpowers him within himself(Cronal that is) and Cronal is like "it's not just light... it's the Light!" Which essentially destroyed him and all his machinations at that point.

 

COW,



Wondered how you might find it, given that there's brain surgery and skull-sawing in an early part of the book and the battle sequences are brutal.

My fuller comments are in the main thread now you can read them.

 

Okay, I'm going to have to give this book a...9/10.

Everything about this book was great. It took awhile for me to get used to the more casual tone of the novel, but once I did that was something I really enjoyed. Every character was spot on, and I was afraid for characters I knew full well would be making it out of the book alive.

The only thing that drags this book down from the perfect rating...Luke Skywalker is a Jedi in this book. He isn't a general, but a Jedi. What I mean by this (and it's been stated in the thread already) is that the things we've heard about the Battle of Mindor made it seem like a harsh battle where the fanatical Imperials fought to the last man, and Luke being forced to send his men to their deaths against the enemy disillusioned him and made him give up his commission. Instead we got a Force-filled sci-fi story, albeit a bleak one. Don't get me wrong, this book's story was amazing, but I went in to Shadows of Mindor hoping I would get a gritty tale of hardcore New Republic/Imperial warfare (which was there, but with frills like the gravity weapons and metalmassif infecting all the troops and whatnot) only through the idealistic eyes of Luke Skywalker. In that I was disappointed, but it was the only aspect that disappointed me, and only really occured to me after reading.

So yeah, 9/10. Solid as hell book.

 

I'm going to give this book a 9.9/10.

Hobbie POV - Amazing. Everything I could have wanted. The interaction between Hobbie and Janson is second only to Face/Phanan interactions and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hear Hobbie's side of it.

Leia/Han - It was very cute to read the flirtiness between the two again. Leia's jealous reaction seemed slightly un-Leia-like, but I'm willing to accept it and it was done tactfully. (Plus I don't remember much of the courting books so I'm not entirely sure if she ever acted jealous before I just don't remember her doing that, but I could be wrong.) Well done Han characterization though.

Luke - Loved this Luke. Captivating characterization. I lost myself so completely in the book that at one point I didn't think Luke was going to survive despite me knowing where in the timeline this story took place.

Lando - Classic Lando. I enjoy when Lando gets written as a military genius. He's the best character who thinks outside the box and this battle needed that so Lando was perfectly put into that role.

Blackhole - I had no idea what to expect with this character and I'm still not sure. I'm guessing there is a backstory that I am missing (I'll get someone to fill me in). I enjoyed how he had contempt for both the Jedi and the Sith, believed to use something other than the Force. Typical bad guy downfall though, not believing anyone could beat him. Like the possibility that he's still alive and I would love to read more about Vastor and Nick tracking him down.

R2D2 - SQUEEE!!! I did that out loud when I got to the R2D2 POV. Love love love getting inside the droid's circuits and his devotion to Luke (or the order from Leia) is unmatched.

Overall, the story was incredible. The scenes flowed nicely, the book was one I didn't want to put down. The meltmassif properties were a little tough to grasp at first, but it was nice to be challenged and the stuff was used enough that by the end I had a very good grasp of all that it can do.

I feel like there was an extra meaning to the briefing and debriefing, perhaps an OOU meaning. I won't put words into someone else's mouth though, but if that has been addressed in the other thread I'd like to know since I haven't had a chance to read it yet (PM me.)

 

You mean the comment by Luke about How he's not attracted to strong willed red-heads? I think it's because even MS's Luke knows he's better off with a nice Corellian girl that no one's ever heard of!

*joking* Don't toss tomatoes at me!!!

 

No no, something far different. That's not OOU, either.

 

I'll take a stab at it. (I don't think blacking out is necessary in a spoilers thread?)

Perhaps it is related to the vibroshield discussion, or "Now, look, in the story--some of these similies you use are..." and otherwise making fun of other common sci-fi faults? And I just noticed a typo in the book (similies)...

 

Average score: 456.9/50 = 9.14

 

Umm... 3.

I can't believe the reviews. I'm glad most people liked it and weren't dissapointed after eagerly awaiting the book like I was.

I got about two thirds of the way through this before I just put it down because I was simply bored and, at times, rolling my eyes. So many things in the book were tired battles that I simply could not care at all about. The scenes with Han and the redheaded woman were particularly bad; they read like something I'd expect in an old Bantam book that is colecting dust on my shelf.

The prose was weird as well. Stover's books were always so well written that this one jarred me quite a bit. He seemed to add an almost cutesy aspect to it that made me cringe at times. A reviewer above also hit on it and I'm glad to see I wasn't reading the wrong book or something.

The believability factor played a huge part in it for me, too. I can buy almost anything in the Star Wars novels but the moon hat situation was laughable. I actually uttered, "What?" when I was reading the section because I simply couldn't believe what I saw.

Finally, this brings me to the holothrillers. Yes, I see what he was getting at and no it didn't work. At least for me. Once again, this seemed laughable (and not in a laughing with sort of way). It simply didn't feel at all like it belonged in the Star Wars universe and I'm the guy who has no problem if they mention chocolate or eggs or what not. But this just came across as ridiculous.

In the end the words that came to my mind were boring and silly. I wanted to like this and I gave it a hell of a lot more time than I would most books but I simply couldn't justify spending another hour or hour and a half on it.

I take no pleasure in saying any of this as I've nothing agianst Stover. As a matter of fact Traitor and Shatterpoint were two of the best Star Wars books we've seen. Sadly, this one was not. Not even close.

 

8.8/10

As much fun as can be had reading Star Wars

Some things could have been done better. The space battles could be boring and confusing at times. Lando seemed out of character to me. I wanted more Fenn Shysa, Black Hole and Shadow Troopers.

The Shadow's pawn pun was easily guessed before it was revealed. I can't complain about Stover's re-use of Kar Vastor because I've been dying to know what happened to him post-Shatterpoint. Geptun was a genius character from Shatterpoint and I was glad to see him return.

Stover's generous use of Star Wars Galaxy similies amused me. Some of them were quite clever and probably took a lot of effort to birth. One of my favorites: like [insert planet name here] flesh fungus on a three-day old corpse.

Sometimes I pondered if I was reading LSatSoM by Matthew Stover or an in-universe LSatSoM by Lorz Geptun. The debriefing was all kinds of fun. The events didn't quite match Luke's haunted expression from the briefing which makes me think Geptun gave us a PG version of the events on Mindor. We may never know what really happened.

There's a lot about this book that I'd love to discuss. Perhaps I'll go to that other thread, now.

In summation: I loved it. Stover is good at what he does.

 

Odd. I was wondering about that as well.

 

The word was misspelled in the book; it should be "similes".

 

Average score: 475.7/52 = 9.15

 

10/10 Honestly I haven't had this much fun with a Star Wars novel in a long time. This will be on the short list of re-reads for me.