A review by pinkmalady
Death Star by Steve Perry, Michael Reaves
adventurous
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
this book is so frustrating. prefacing that i am incredibly biased towards the new Disney canon, but i've enjoyed all of Legends that i have read with my own two eyes, up until this.
the good:
- darth vader's internal monologue is pretty in-character and it's interesting to get an idea of what he was thinking while a new hope was going on, even if i disagree with some of the character decisions they made due to obvious misinterpretation.
- my enjoyment and the over-all quality of the book began to rise as soon as this novel's story began intersecting more and more with a new hope, because it's kinda hard to fuck up a retelling of arguably one of the most narratively perfect films of all time.
- on paper, i really like daala and tarkin's relationship, but they barely dive into it here.
the bad:
- this book DOES NOT incorporate new details into preexisting canon well. it is hindered by preexisting canon's story beats and preexisting characters' plot armors. it cannot to save its life add or commit AT ALL to anything not totally stupid and irrelevant (like the exhaust port being a total accident! at least rogue one tried to make it meaningful.) new to the lore of the death star or a new hope as a film, or else it'd fuck up canon.
- the misogyny. straight-up the way every single female character in this book is written (besides leia, who is barely present and once again, they kinda can't fuck up thanks to preexisting canon) is misogynistic. they are all there to be bland eye-candy (two of the three main female characters have scenes in which they undress in front of bystanders, the first of which was unnecessary and uncalled for in the story and the character who saw her strip acted uncomfortable about it. like that was just wank for the writers because star wars is allergic to not oversexualizing its alien women, especially twi'leks.) and love interests to the bland dime-a-dozen straight guys that make up the majority of the cast.
- this book has a disdain for tarkin, whom i am obviously biased towards, when they need to be treating him like they would treat every other character who matters in this book. it just doesn't care about him outside of his relationship with daala, i am so sorry to break it to these authors, who obviously project their dislike of tarkin onto vader, whom they obviously really really really like, but tarkin and vader are, if not canonically friends (which they are, even before clone wars came out,) then they are, at the very least, more interesting as friends. i hate when people write tarkin and vader's relationship as this middling, they-both-find-the-other-one-silly-but-don't-say-anything-about-it-to-save-face, barely-there-at-all co-existence. if you're going to make them not like each other, at least TRY to make it interesting.
- speaking of bland disinterest, none of the characters the book is trying to get you to like are likeable, and there are far too many to keep up with, especially early on. i could not get emotionally invested in any of these people. i don't care. maybe if this book was one or two hundred pages longer, it could've handled such a large ensemble cast, but at its current page length, it couldn't take its time with anyone.
- once again, all the painfully forced cishet relationships, which are seemingly only there to tie the characters together more closely so they can all be there for the finale.
the good:
- darth vader's internal monologue is pretty in-character and it's interesting to get an idea of what he was thinking while a new hope was going on, even if i disagree with some of the character decisions they made due to obvious misinterpretation.
- my enjoyment and the over-all quality of the book began to rise as soon as this novel's story began intersecting more and more with a new hope, because it's kinda hard to fuck up a retelling of arguably one of the most narratively perfect films of all time.
- on paper, i really like daala and tarkin's relationship, but they barely dive into it here.
the bad:
- this book DOES NOT incorporate new details into preexisting canon well. it is hindered by preexisting canon's story beats and preexisting characters' plot armors. it cannot to save its life add or commit AT ALL to anything not totally stupid and irrelevant (like the exhaust port being a total accident! at least rogue one tried to make it meaningful.) new to the lore of the death star or a new hope as a film, or else it'd fuck up canon.
- the misogyny. straight-up the way every single female character in this book is written (besides leia, who is barely present and once again, they kinda can't fuck up thanks to preexisting canon) is misogynistic. they are all there to be bland eye-candy (two of the three main female characters have scenes in which they undress in front of bystanders, the first of which was unnecessary and uncalled for in the story and the character who saw her strip acted uncomfortable about it. like that was just wank for the writers because star wars is allergic to not oversexualizing its alien women, especially twi'leks.) and love interests to the bland dime-a-dozen straight guys that make up the majority of the cast.
Spoiler
the only female character (daala, who didn't get a canonical first name until even later after this book, which says it all, really,) in the cast who does anything of note is totally robbed of all her character agency the second they can because it would interfere too much with preexisting canon, is almost fridged but wait they can't do that either because of preexisting Legends canon about her post-original trilogy, and then immediately sent away to never truly be touched on again as a legitimate character. she is purely there to boost up her male love interest, tarkin, and they don't even do a good job at that, either.- this book has a disdain for tarkin, whom i am obviously biased towards, when they need to be treating him like they would treat every other character who matters in this book. it just doesn't care about him outside of his relationship with daala,
Spoiler
and once again, they get rid of her as soon as possible so she doesn't interfere too much with the preexisting plot of a new hope!- speaking of bland disinterest, none of the characters the book is trying to get you to like are likeable, and there are far too many to keep up with, especially early on. i could not get emotionally invested in any of these people. i don't care. maybe if this book was one or two hundred pages longer, it could've handled such a large ensemble cast, but at its current page length, it couldn't take its time with anyone.
- once again, all the painfully forced cishet relationships, which are seemingly only there to tie the characters together more closely so they can all be there for the finale.