Review: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (1996)

'It was natural, the Force, but this part always felt like magic.'

★★★★

An exciting adventure that takes place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I had a blast reading this. It was a very fun and exciting read. Going into this novel, I had played the game previously, so I had a brief idea of the story. I knew who Dash Rendar was, so it wasn't new or a surprise to me when his character was introduced. There are many things that I enjoyed about this novel. I loved the story and how the characters were handle

The story is simple yet so fun. This book picks up right after The Empire Strikes Back. Our heroes are on Tatooine, searching for Han Solo, who has been frozen in Carbonite, while also running into trouble. Darth Vader is not the main villain in this story. Instead, a creature from the Falleen species, who is a member of the Black Sun named Prince Xizor, is the main villain. His goal is to kill Luke Skywalker and take Vader's place as the Emperor's second in command. So, our heroes have to deal with him, and so does Vader, even though they don't work together.

Steve Perry does a great job with Luke's character. During this novel, Luke is all alone. He's training himself while constantly thinking about what Vader told him during their duel on Cloud City. Luke wishes he could talk to Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan does not appear once in this novel, nor does Yoda. Steve Perry could have easily broken the canon by having Luke go back to Dagobah before Return of the Jedi, but he doesn't. We also see Luke maturing in this novel and becoming more powerful, like he is in Return of the Jedi. Leia also gets a bit of development in this novel. Chronologically, Luke and Leia don't know that they're siblings, so Leia is struggling with her feelings between Han and Luke. And, like Luke, she is thinking about the last thing Han told her before he was frozen.

Despite the many positives in this book, there were also some weird things, like Xizor being a giant pervert and creep. However, I tend to put those aside and don't let them ruin my experience when I read this novel.