by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry.
I was actually pretty disappointed by this book. Steve Perry has been in my good graces for a long time–he’s produced some really good Star Wars stuff in the past (Shadows of the Empire, anyone?), and Michael Reaves has been steadily winning me over with his Lorn Pavan stories. So when I got through this book and all it was was a dull walkthrough of the Death Star’s construction manual.
Some bits that I did like were scenes from the film done from the opposite point of view, but still, even these were just cop-outs that emphasized how unenthusiastic the writers were about the project. Catchphrases, clichés, and generalizations made up the majority of this book, coupled with excessive technological description that most Star Wars fans read SW books to avoid. When it descended into going over ANH for me, I wrote it off in sheer boredom–how many novelizations does the first movie need? Regular people should have been cool to read about. And yet.
Anyway, it’s a harmless canonical book; just don’t be surprised when it turns into explication of what you already know, and don’t expect really fun or exciting, fresh characters like in Perry and Reaves’ other works. Check it out on Amazon.com.
