'The Crystal Star' by Vonda McIntyre  

Bantam Press 1994  

Set 10 years after RotJ 

 book cover
Story -- the Solo kids are kidnapped, and Leia takes Chewie and Artoo to try to find them. Han and Luke are already off on an adventure, following up rumours of some Jedi Knights. Guess what - they all end up on the same planet (how do they DO that?!) Unfortunately, the sun is about to go 'boom' and the planet has a couple of baddies (one nasty, one REALLY nasty). Leia makes a new friend, Han meets an old flame...

Original characters from the movies -- not great, especially Luke. Maybe he's affected by the star or something, but he seems to be too angry, gullible, etc. Even the droids don't quite ring true.

New characters -- Waru (weird), Hethrir (excellent baddie; didn't like him), Rillao (could have made more of her), Xaverri (liked her!).
 
Cover art -- OK. At least they seem to have aged a bit.

Chicks -- Rillao and Xaverri (don't hear from them in other books) and Leia.

Any good? -- has its moments, just not many of them. Hasn't this kidnapping thing been done to death yet? And where the hell were the Noghri? Not much action, not much political stuff, and I didn't like the characterisations. However, this is the first novel to deal with the Solo children as individuals.

Read it? -- if you must, although it doesn't add anything to the series as a whole.

Rating -- 3 out of 10
 

Return to Timeline