Crystal Star . . . is it that bad, honestly?

Sithspawn, the reviews in its Lit Review Forum thread are hilarious! But is it really that bad? It's not popular, but compared to some NJO books, or the Bounty Hunter War, it's sanctity shines.

I shouldn't rate it without rereading it, and considering I haven't done so more than twice since published says something for it.

It's kid's book, aimed at kids, kid characters and all. How does that appeal to the older age audience? The stars of the show are not much more than toddlers. Mind you, toddlers that have an amazing grasp of science and thinking, but hey, it's a different galaxy out there, more advanced, not like this primative Earth where sliding doors are still relatively new.

It was a weird book, and back then, before moving planets and starfighters generating miniture black holes, it just wasn't on. Who had ever heard of a star having an affect on the Force? And bloody how? Just because they're eating each other? Nowadays, we have many places where the Force is prevalent: Dathomir, Nam Chorios, Ossus, and a few others.

But was it that bad? A break from the next Imperial-New Rep battle. Something small scale, quiet.

It was never mentioned how Hethrir found all those Force potentials to later test them. A Force-battery saber was creative. But how the hell does Alderaan look like? I wouldn't have minded knowing its shape and length; to give readers an idea, you know. At that time in publishing, we had never really seen Leia fly a ship, so it made you wonder "She can pilot!"

Luke was horrible, of course. So he can't think properly, big deal. Doesn't mean you turn into a vegetable. Solo was all right, and it introduced a past love interest, the first time in SW we'd seen that. Tigris supplied emotional drive, and the little Solo kidlings would have delighted all those readers of preadolescant age, which I probably didn't spell right.

This book was a first, actually---the characters were creditless! All the time, you see them with limitless funds, resources, dollar dazzlers, but not here. They were borderline poor. How does Luke live, who pays him? It's a silly question, but is it? He gets a government pension?

The precursor to the Vong worldship, the worldcraft. What a massive amount of resources that would have been.

There were some interesting aliens, and for Sith's sake, original! Not endless Corellians, Rodians, Twi'leks. There was the multitentacled Indexter info broker; the ethereal Ghostling, which I think also featured in the hard to locate Anakin Skywalker Episode 1 pocket RPG adventure game book; that Enhanced Human with the odd name.

Waru actually wasn't a bad concept. It's a big galaxy out there, remember. Why not? What ruined him was that transdimensional stunt at the end. But he was a perfectly feasible character.

Was Ferrero mentioned by Isolder in COPL, when stargazing with Djo? But as a Jedi healer it's a pity Rillao hasn't been mentioned, although did Luceno have her in that huge Jedi list at the end of TUF?

Bottom line: 5 /10

One of the more Weird-class books, to be sure, but not that horrible. Yes, TalonCard, I said it again. Read it!

 

My main problem is that is has no action sequences. (Well, there was that farce of a battle at the end... which basically came down to kids in a school yard brawl. And Riallo bit Hethrir ).

A kids book, you say? Maybe... though there are a few sexual references (not that those are unheard of in young adult books, obviously...)

Did I say my main problem was lack of action? That was silly of me. My main problem was that is was simply a dull story.

 

Apart from them drifting totally out of the 'realism' depicted in star wars (by this I mean what is realistic in star wars) and the trans-dimensional stunt at the end, I mean inter dimensional stuff has never been put in the SW univerde and therefore didnt have it place. Other books fine but SW just doesnt do that typ of stuff, infact the whole range of theories that came out in that book just didnt fit, it wasnt what SW was about. and luke wasnt luke the characters where wrong, just plain wrong.. dont take this the wrong way but that author isnt one who can write SW novels. The book would have been great if she'd change the characters, and universe it's set in and not called it star wars.
Some authors like fitting into a pre-made time line and characters and do it well but this author is one who should stick to writing original books.

So in answer no on its own it wasnt that bad but in the context of Star Wars it was horrible.

 

And Car'das's Force teleporting.

 

I thought Children of the Jedi was much worse.

 

I've got it to take on holiday with me this summer. I must say that Crseih station intrigues me, and it has the best sabacc rules

 

I agree the station was interesting...the detail in it's initial description was good.

But that doesn't make up for some bizarre garbage, poor villians, and heros that seem a little dumber then usual.

It ranks only ahead of the New Rebellion on my list...terrible

 

"heros that seem a little dumber then usual."

Reminds me of the Heros in the Thrawn Trilogy.


...Anywho, I have to say I enjoyed Crystal Star, myself.

 

I've never read it. I should one of these days...

 

I actually don't dislike this book. Say what you will about Luke, but the kids were priceless. So cute, and so well done.

And it gave us Lusa! Poor underloved Lusa!

Let's put it this way: When I was introducing a friend who was very new to SW to the EU, I leant her my copy of Crystal Star, but I didn't lend her the Callista books in fear of scaring her off. Shows how I rank them.

 

I read bits and pieces of it when my sister checked it out from the library(mostly the parts with the kids). I didn't think it was that bad, compared to the Black Fleet Crisis. I oughta try reading those again and see if my opinion of it has changed. Keep in mind the author wrote a lot of Star Trek before CS, so that might've seeped into the book.

 

My only real complaint about Crystal Star was probably the really long chapters with very few chapter breaks.

Otherwise I enjoyed the book, it was my 6th(7th if one counts Tales from Mos Eisely Cantina) star wars novel, I liked it as much as I enjoyed TTT, and JAT. I read a few paragraphs a few months back to see if I still liked it, and sure enough not much had changed, still didn't like the really long chapters though.

Ya, the book does have more of a villain of the week star trek feel to it. However having grown up on classic Sci Fi, including Star Trek, I find it fun to have the occasional original villain idea in star wars (say what you will about waru, but he's pretty original as far as star wars villains are concerned), and I find it enjoyable to read the occasional story ideas that are outside the average norm for star wars stories.

Speaking of Star Trek, Thrawn always seemed to me to be all too similar to Spock, especially the one in the Mirror Universe. Little Emotion, always using Logic, Alien(in a crew of humans)... Yet another inversed similarity is that Spock is white but wears a blue uniform, Thrawn is blue but wears a white uniform.

That's to say even if he seemed too much like an villainous Spock, I still enjoyed the story. Even if the heros were partially dumbed in order to make Sp... erm Thrawn smarter.

 

I didnt like this book all that much, but I wouldnt say that it was as bad as say, Planet of Twilight or The Approaching Storm (two of the worst SW books ever written, IMO). The kids got annoying real quick and I got sick of their whining early on. And of, course, how could we possibly forget about the fanboy nightmare Waru... ?

Ironically enough, one of my most prized possessions is a Crystal Star bookmark (it features the front cover and a summary blurb on the back) that my Mom gave me back in Christmas '94 that I still use for all of my books to this day.

 

One of my most prized possessions was a hardback copy of Crystal Star that I found at our book store for only $6 or so. But the reason for it being so prized probably has a lot to do with my age. I was the target audience when I read it- 12, maybe- and money was hard to come by. So when I got this beautiful book, I read it time and time again because it was one of my first hardbacks that I'd bought myself.

I enjoyed everything with the Solo kids. The Firrerrans, I thought, also gave future writers a little room to work with. It's a shame that it got completely ignored by future writers. A reason I've noticed so many people dislike this book is they say that it has no significance in future books. Well, if someone had considered using them, maybe this book wouldn't seem so outlandish.

I digress. My main point is that I like this book, but I understand why so many of you don't.

 

>>"It ranks only ahead of the New Rebellion on my list"<<

That's the other SW book I'm taking on holiday

Actually, both the summaries of TNR and TCS (from TEC) sounded like fun stories.

 

Some parts were a little too Star Treky for me.

 

Ok, this book is without a doubt the worst Star Wars book I've ever read. Hethrir was nothing more than another dark jedi. Waru was a blob a pus from Star Trek. Luke was very out of character. Someone is kidnapped again. I didn't really like the kids parts. Leia's part was confusing. The semi good part of this book was Xaverri from Han Solo Trilogy who was reintroduced.

 

well, considering how long it is its not really a kids book, note the Adult Novel title and 400+ page lengh, i read it when i was 11 but thats just cause my reading level is extremely high, so, its not really a 'kids' book, and yes i dont think its as bad as everyone says but its still horrible

 

"Xaverri from Han Solo Trilogy who was reintroduced"

Other way around actually. Han Solo Trilogy came later, and reintroduced Xaverri. CS was the original source for Xaverri.

 

Crystal Star . . . is it that bad, honestly?

I'd rather live with mono for the rest of my life instead of read that book again.

 

>>Crystal Star . . . is it that bad, honestly?<<


No, it's worse.

The only thing good about it is it shows that the NJO authors are liars for saying Leia is not a good mother. I have never seen evidence of that. She brings her kids with her eveywhere, and had dinner with them every night.

 

This is weird being back in the Lit forum again. Eighty minutes to edit...

 

Oops my bad. Got ya Valiento.

 

Waru still haunts my nightmares.