Shadows of the Empire

'Shadows of the Empire' by Steve Perry

Bantam Press 1996

Set between ESB and RotJ

Story -- Luke, Leia and the gang chase after Boba Fett to try to rescue Han. The new baddie on the block, Xizor, is trying to usurp Darth Vader and gain the favor of the Emperor. He learns Vader is searching for Luke, so tries to capture the young Jedi to present him to his master. But if he can't get him alive, dead will do... Then he takes a shine to Leia. Uh-oh!

Original characters from the movies -- written pretty well, with some new insights into Darth Vader.

New characters -- Xizor bugged me more than scared me (I actually felt sorry for poor Darth Vader!) But his female side-kick Guri is awesome!

Cover art -- excellent, although according to the text, Xizor is supposed to be handsome...

Chicks -- Leia and Guri. Cool.

Any good? -- not bad at all. Ties up a lot of loose ends between the two movies (eg. where did they get those outfits?). I would have liked to have seen more Boba Fett, and possibly more confrontation between Vader and Xizor.

Read it? -- if you haven't already decided in your imagination exactly what happened during this time, then give it a go. If you have decided, then throw all these thoughts out the window and just go with the flow of the story.

Rating -- 7 out of 10

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