Lit Lit Exclusive: Dave Wolverton Addresses Fan Criticisms of The Courtship of Princess Leia, & MORE

He's got his own planet,
Although it's kind of wild.
Wookiees love him.
Women love him.
He's got a winning smile!
Though he may seem cool and cocky,
He's more sensitive than he seems,
Han Solo,
What a man! Solo.
He's every princess's dream!


I don't know how anyone can dislike this book.

 

I haven't read this one yet.

 

I'm part of a minority of readers who will always defend such novels. COPL is wacky, but I actually miss things like that. When everything became full drama and serious business at all time, I thought some of the magic had gone. And by the way... Wolverton's witches of Dathomir will always take precedence in my mind. Gethzerion > Talzin.

And also... Star Wood was far worse when it comes to Leia.

 

Clearly, I have a history of thread revival... Specifically for this thread.

Just finished my first reread of the novel this afternoon. I think I might've liked it even more the second time around.

I definitely noticed some things that I didn't like or would've done differently because of how I feel EU canon over the proceeding years treated certain issues better. But, the general story was still so good. I cannot stress enough how much I loved the concept of the witches, especially the light-side witches. I like the Nightsisters as a foil to the "good" witches, and I cannot stand how TCW mangled the Nightsisters.

This time around, I was a bit more put-off by the portrayal of the Rancors. I hadn't remembered how semi-sentient they'd been portrayed. Also, the timeline of travel around Dathomir seemed more flimsy this time.

Conversely, I really enjoyed Isolder's character arc, learning about how a place like Dathomir wasn't all that different than Hapes.

One thing I still don't quite get is just how much exposure to the outside world the witches had. I struggle in my mind trying to figure how many witches really know Basic vs. use the Force to translate for them. After the first couple mentions of the Force being used for translation, everything flows like regular conversation (probably *because* it flows better). Also, how often does an offworlder visit? Why would they? For trade?

I still harbor the tiniest of hopes that I'll write a fanfic someday (yes, I just said that... seriously) that is a multi-generational story of witches, starting in the Clone Wars years, then to the post-Return years, and then to the LOTF years. I had forgotten Teneniel's stargazing/wondering what was happening in the galaxy. I'm somewhat worried that my idea for the witch in the Clone Wars era would seem too much like Teneniel in that respect, but that's also why I wonder how much exposure to offworlders the witches really had.

Hell yes. Gethzerion is a particularly menacing character, and one of the few darksiders I really like in the EU space. Wolverton really sold how the Emperor would be uneasy with the Nightsisters.

 

I read this book during a bad breakup so it would just give me traumatic flashbacks if I decided to reread it as I recognize all of my insecurities through Han's plight and darkness my old friend seeps into every pore.

















But yeah I thought it was a fun read.

 

Yikes. That's kind of heavy.

 

Well I did go through a breakup but I just like making things unecessarily uncomfortable.

 

Nice interview. The scene with the whuffa is the only passage in a Star Wars book that has made me laugh out loud.

 

i love the novel, but it does have issues

 

Yay! Other people resurrected the thread this time, not me!

You mean you didn't LOL at the song of Han Solo?

 

This fan criticism essay for COPL was brought up in the Han & Leia thread.

Any thoughts?

http://hanleiafanficwriters.blogspot.ca/2011/12/courtship-of-princess-leia-review.html

Personally, I thought that the way Leia treated Han immediately after her kidnapping "I hope you like prison food", and for the next few days onward - makes sense. Basically, what Han did ended their relationship.

To restart it, takes him trying to sacrifice his own life to save a bunch of hostages - revealing that he has truly changed - he's no longer that irresponsible any more.

Under normal circumstances, Leia "marrying her kidnapper" would be incredibly creepy.

But with Han's repentance and atonement - I can live with it.

 

That's gonna be a bit tricky, considering the man has no feet.

 

I miss seeing those book displays of the cover of the novel carrying copies of the SW novel at the bookstores back in the 90s.

 

I wish I was really around for that stuff back then.

I usually rented novels from the library and never actually read them when I was like 8ish. Truth be told I never truly got into the EU lit until I was in freshman year of college in 2011 when I read the Thrawn trilogy and ordered the complete Dark Empire trilogy hardcover on Amazon. Twas a good time. I must have read 100 books over the past four years alone

 

Not only that, but the existence of a microcosm of the light side and dark side makes for a fascinating study. That's amongst the reasons why I hate how TCW treated Dathomir so much.

 

In their defence so did they just follow the trend in the then EU.

 

Not sure I follow?

 

Unless it involved specific characters like Teneniel Djo, virtually every post-COPL work that dealt with Dathomir ignored the existence of the "good" witches and just used Nightsisters.

 

Ugh, this book was terrible. It wasn't badly written and parts of it were funny, but Han and Leia just seemed so far OOC from the characters we see in the movies I couldn't reconcile it. Especially when you read the books in chronological order of Shadows of Mindor, COPL, and Tatooine Ghost where they're totally in character in SOM and TG it comes off as even more jarring.

 

I couldn't read this book through my tears. Tears for Zsinj.

I didn't absolutely hate it and thought all the development of Dathomir was brilliantly clever (the societies, the witches, the rancors, etc), but the whole Han/Leia thing was really weird. Reading it after Allston's X-Wing series is also a really bad idea. It's like if Kylo Ren survived the ST and then died in a spin-off flick as a minor background character.

 

I'd say that the majority of book-based EU content after COPL followed Teneniel and Tenel Ka. That at least brings the "good" witches along for the ride, even if the Nightsisters are discussed more (since an enemy is more interesting than a friend, I guess).

I didn't get COPL until a few years ago, many years after I read the X-Wing series. I look at COPL as giving me closure on Zsinj, even though he has so little time in COPL. The lack of an "ending" for me with that storyline in the X-Wing series bothered me about the Wraith books and is partly why I rate them all lower than the Rogue books.

 

Yeah, that's the flip side to what I've always said about Zsinj being a really great example of how there's no "bad" EU characters. Yes, on the one hand Allston was able to take a generic secondary villain and turn him into something really interesting - but when read chronologically, that means the original source looks a little weird.

 

I would not go that far but by the PT era so was most work that dealt with Dathomir Nightsister-centric with barley any mention of the good witches at best. The TCW Nightsister are actually inspired by the 'sisters from the Infinity's End comic storyline

 

Probably the best example of "PT era but includes "good" Witches" was The Last Jedi - set fairly shortly after ROTS.

And weren't those themselves inspired by early PT concept art- the "Sith Witch" of Iain McCaig?