Star Wars:
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor

This book begins with Luke Skywalker reluctantly accepting a position as a General in the New Republic.  The position is a joint command over the New Rapid Response Task Force, which was designed to fight any battle within a couple of days notice.  Supreme Commander Ackbar convinces Luke to take the position after Luke tries to be relieved of his current duties.  Luke’s reluctance comes from the fact that he is only twenty four years old and because he doesn’t like the image that has been portrayed of him by the media (ie. holodrama’s).  Luke leads an all out assault into the Tapan system to destroy the forces of Shadowspawn.  The assault is led against Shadowspawn because he has apparently led various attacks of piracy and terrorism throughout New Republic space.  While this attack is taking place, Han and Leia are negotiating with a group of Mandolorians who are basically holding a planet hostage.  Luke’s task force is ultimately led into a trap and Luke’s battle cruiser (or what’s left of it) is forced to crash land on the enemies’ base planet of Mindor.  Leia, sensing danger, sends han to check it out on his communicator.  However, Han and Chewy take the Falcon straight into the firefight and to the planet of Mindor.  Leia, not wanting to miss out on the fun, convinces Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron (without General Lando Calrissian’s permission) to follow Han and Chewy.  Leia ultimately ends up with Han and Chewy on the planet’s surface.
Shadowspawn turns out to be an excellent character, but not what the reader expects.  Shadowspawn turns out to be a very old man known as Lord Cronal, who once was the Emperor’s Hand and was known to Luke as “Blackhole”.  Cronal was raised by the “Sorcerers of Rhand”; with an interesting understanding of the One Truth: Only power is real, and the only real power is the power to destroy.  Existence is fleeting.  Destruction is eternal.  Cronal believes in something simply called the “Dark” instead of the force.  Thus, destruction should be the end goal and is the eventual end goal of all things according to Cronal.  Cronal refers to his powers as the “Darksight”.  Cronal also explains that Emperor Palpatine was unbeatable and untouchable when his goals were the destruction of all the Jedi and the destruction of the Jedi Order because he was an unwilling servant of the “Dark”.  However, when Palpatine made ruling the entire universe his main goal, then he abandoned the will of the “Dark” and everything began to go wrong for him.  Cronal also states that Darth Vader was nothing more than a bully with a lightsaber who had no real understanding of the “Dark”.  All of this was probably one of the more interesting stories/theories in any Star Wars book I’ve read in quite a while.  Cronal’s mission is to transfer his consciousness into the body of Luke Skywalker and in turn “destroy” everything until he is all that is left. (Chapter ten explains what a bad dude this Cronal really is!)
Lando eventually leads an assault force of his own to the Tapan system, which consists not only of New Republic forces but also of the entire Mandolorian group that had been holding a planet hostage.  Lando had convinced the Mando’s to release the planet they held hostage, since the Empire that no longer existed was supposedly paying them to do so.  Lando then offers to pay them to work for him instead.  Lando ultimately leads a large group planetside on Mindor in an attempted rescue mission.  The reader also finds out that Cronal has in his possession one my favorite minor Star Wars characters, Kar Vastor (the Kick butt jungle dude from the novel, Shatterpoint).  Cronal eventually shifts his attention from Luke to Leia upon discovering (via the “Dark”) that they are brother and sister and especially after realizing that Luke’s force training made transferring his consciousness into Luke’s body too difficult.  Luke works to save Leia from Cronal with the help of another Shatterpoint book character named Nick Rostu.  Rostu was seized by Cronal and made to play the part of Lord Shadowspawn but Luke ultimately saves him and Nick is able to return the favor.  Han and Chewy initially work with a group of locals led by Nick’s girlfriend (unbeknownst to Han) but after having the Falcon stolen that relationship goes sour.
The book gets a bit complicated at parts near the end when the author talks about “darkness” and “light” and Luke being a star and everyone being a star and Leia’s light burning oh so bright in the darkness.  (A bit much in my opinion)  Luke eventually learns to overcome the “Dark” and frees everyone else from the hold that the “Dark” has over them.  However, it appears that most of these unwilling servants of Cronal die in the process of being released.  The planet pretty much is destroyed and thousands of troops die in what appears to be a huge war and Luke still feels heavily responsible for all the deaths.  Why?  I don’t really know…  And to make things even stranger it seems like this Cronal guy actually gets away but is chased by Nick, his girlfriend and Kar Vastor. 

RATING

Storyline Importance: 9.2
The reason I’d choose to go so high with this is because the reader is exposed to some very deep ground breaking stuff that truly impacts how certain big events took place.  This whole “Dark” thing that Cronal was so into is the primary reason.  Secondary reason for such a high score is the further devolpment of such big character like Luke, Leia, and Han.

Excitement Factor: 9.1
The only reason this score just didn’t go off the charts was because the author got a bit “wordy” with some of his space sequences and when he tries in vain to make sense out of the whole “we’re all stars” portion of the book (which had me saying  “What the…”)

Character Importance: 9.7
This category scores off the charts for various reasons.  The reader sees Luke Skywalker’s character grow in leaps and bounds as the story progresses.  The author paints a wonderfully accurate picture of Han and Chewy (captures the humor of these two perfectly).  Leia’s character blossoms and the reader can truly see the chemistry between her and Han.  I was equally impressed with how Lando handled the rank of “General” perfectly under heavy fire all throughout the book.  And of course it’s always a blessing to read how incredible awesome the Mandolorians are.  And I was happy to see Kar Vastor again; however I would have almost not seen him at all if this was all that was going to be done with such an imposing character.  The guy whipped Mace Windu in Shatterpoint and this is all you’re gonna bring him back for?  What a joke!     

Favorite Moments:
My favorite moment in this book was probably the simple fact that we as fans of Star Wars were exposed to something as unusual as the “Dark”.  I found myself just completely in awe for quite a while after reading chapter ten of this book.  Still boggles my mind somewhat…

Favorite Quote:
The best line in the book was when Han called the Mandolorians MESFAC’s (which means Masters of Every Single Flippin’ Aspect of Combat!)  And doesn’t that describe them to the letter!

Overall Score: 9.3