Andrew's Review of The Crystal Star

1/5 Rancors - Vonda McIntyre has garnered many accolades over the course of her writing career, including the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards. As such, I can only assume that Ms. McIntyre may have deliberately chosen to write The Crystal Star using simple language and short paragraphs, perhaps targeting a perceived audience of younger children. This book talks down to its reader, most painfully in the very long chapters dealing with the adventures of the Solo children. Names are continuously restated in place of pronouns, as if the reader might not have the attention span to remember which characters are present in a scene. Granted, the storyline does ultimately center around child characters to a large extent, but it feels underserved by being presented as if seen through the eyes of a child.

The events of The Crystal Star revolve around an intriguing area of space in which a white dwarf star is orbiting a black hole and slowly being drawn in by the immense spatial forces at work. Parked near this black hole is Crseih Station, an unpleasant radiation-baked locale used by both the Empire and smuggling groups throughout the decades. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo receive a strange message in an ancient language from Crseih warning of unspecified ominous doings at the station. They set off to investigate, while Princess Leia, currently Head of State of the New Republic, participates in a separate diplomatic mission with the three Solo children in tow. The children are kidnapped and taken aboard a giant worldship owned by Hethrir, a manipulative and cruel Firrerreo (and ex-Procurator of Justice for the Empire) with evil plans for the dozens of Force-sensitive kids he has stolen.

As I mentioned earlier, the Hethrir/children chapters feel interminable and occur too frequently throughout the story. There is a spark of interest in reading about Jacen and Jaina's attempts to escape, but mostly this storyline just plods along, using very basic dialogue and concepts in an effort to present the story as seen by the children. It's a fine line to walk, trying to write a child's POV without coming across as childish, but here it doesn't work and it certainly seems incongruent with most of the other Star Wars Expanded Universe. Also, Hethrir's Empire Reborn idea does not have the grandeur or credibility to seem threatening: he's just not enough of a powerful presence to engender any worry in the reader.

Paling next to Hethrir's shortcomings as an adversary is the central villain of the book: Waru. Waru is a multi-dimensional slab of quivering meat covered in gold scales. He wishes to consume Force-sensitive children so he can gain enough power to return to his own dimension. Hethrir is helping feed him so he can gain additional power and insight in return. Waru is silly, there's no two ways about it. In an attempt to make him threatening, Ms. McIntyre pulls one of the favored tricks of the Bantam era of Star Wars novels: she makes Luke weak and stupid. I've noticed over several of these books a consistent theme in depicting a laughably weak Luke, presumably in hopes of bolstering the new book-based characters or plots in comparison. The idea that Luke would be screaming at Han about perceived infidelity, generally acting irrationally, and is finally seduced by the promises of a giant gold meat-altar? Ick.

The Crystal Star is not a book I can recommend, except to the most avid Star Wars EU enthusiast.