The Courtship of Princess Leia

'The Courtship of Princess Leia' by Dave Wolverton

Bantam Press 1994

Set 4 years after RotJ

Story -- the Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, a group of very wealthy planets, wants Leia to marry her son Isolder. Leia seriously considers it, as the Alliance really needs the cash! So Han 'kidnaps' her and takes her to isolated Dathomir to try to change her mind. Luke and Isolder follow, trying to reach Han before the Queen Mum does. But the planet has lots of nasties, including a group of Force-strong 'witches'.

Original characters from the movies -- not very convincing. Leia's a bit pathetic, Han more so.

New characters -- Isolder (a bit shallow), Queen Mother (could have been more scary), Nightsisters of Dathomir (ditto).

Cover art -- very pretty, especially for guys with a wedding-dress fetish (you know who you are!).

Chicks -- Leia (a bit wet), Queen Mum (the power of the throne passes through the female line - yes!), Teneniel Djo (one of the 'witches') claims Luke as her slave! ;-) And it's nice to see some female baddies.

Any good? -- not as much mush/romance as I had expected. Very little action. Luke has another crush (*sigh*). At the risk of sounding sexist, I feel this would have been better if it had been written by a woman.

Read it? -- if you must.

Rating -- 3 out of 10

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