Monday, July 10, 2006

Book 50: Planet of Twilight

Planet of Twilight rounds out a loose trilogy which started with Children of the Jedi (Hambly) and Darksaber (Kevin Anderson).  The connection here is that Luke fell in love with a Jedi named Callista and she has lost her powers.  So, she leaves Luke to try to find someway to regain her powers so they can be together.  Nice and soap opera-ish.  That's the connection.  In Planet of Twilight, Leia is on a secret diplomatic mission to Nan Chorios to meet with a leader of a minority faction on the planet who wishes to join the New Republic and seeks assistance.  Leia receives a message to avoid the planet and to not trust the man she is meeting.  Luke receives the same message, only he realizes the message is from Callista.  So while Leia is doing her secret meeting thing, Luke is also going in undercover (the majority of the planet is hostile to outsiders and the New Republic) to find Callista.  Meanwhile, an ancient plague is unleashed on the diplomatic fleet and Leia is kidnapped.  What will happen next? 
 
*Yawn*.  Excuse me. 
 
The problem here is that this book has no lasting implications for the greater Star Wars universe.  Sure, the Death Seed Plague should be this big dangerous thing, and it is...sort of.  I guess I just didn't believe the stakes.  Hambly is a reasonably competent author and I had read one of her non-Star Wars books over a decade ago and enjoyed it.  Star Wars can be a lot of things in that hands of different authors, all valid.  One thing it should never be is boring.  I understand that this is in the eye of the beholder, but this beholder was weary of the novel midway through.  Han and Chewie are just running around not accomplishing anything.  Leia is a captive for a while until she isn't.  Luke goes sort of undercover looking for Callista until he realizes Leia is in trouble and none of it amounts to anything.  All these pages spent describing stuff and I'd swear that nothing actually happens.  The ending of the book with the extra "twist" comes completely out of left field and whether this is setting something up for a future volume or not, it was so random to be absurd. 
 
So.  Skip this one. 

No comments: