A review by twilliamson
Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster
1.0
If Splinter of the Mind's Eye were the first Star Wars novel you had ever read, you'd be forgiven for thinking the franchise was dead on arrival. The 1978 sequel novel to the 1976 book (or the 1977 film) was originally intended to represent a low-budget sequel in the case that the original film didn't make any money--and it's probably a lucky thing the film went on to break box-office records, because this novel is downright terrible.
The essential problem of the novel is really one of stakes. In the original Star Wars film, George Lucas endears us to his characters by giving us an underdog to root for against an overwhelming evil. Luke Skywalker starts as a farm boy and becomes one of the most important pilots of the Rebel Alliance when he destroys the Death Star; Princess Leia demonstrates her capabilities as Princess and leader by being kick-ass, smart-ass, and daring; Han Solo charms us by showing that even the selfish can grow to become the heroic.
In other words, Star Wars gives us heroes to root for and an antagonist to root against in the form of Darth Vader and Imperial Grand Moff Tarkin. There's a real sensible feeling of stakes, too: the Death Star is a terrible battle station being utilized by terrible people, and it must be destroyed. The heroic story of Star Wars ultimately mirrors the hero's journey itself, using a kind of monomythic structure that makes it feel familiar even if it breaks new ground.
None of that can be said of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a book so monumentally stupid that its saving grace is that it's only about 300 pages long. There is little plot structure to the novel--Luke and Leia stumble onto a planet they don't want to have stumbled onto, and in order to make their way out have to track down a MacGuffin. Their journey leads them into snare after snare before a final confrontation with Darth Vader.
Adding to the plot's absolute nonsense is Alan Dean Foster's exceptionally poor characterization of both Luke and Leia. Leia seldom rises above damsel-in-distress, and her only role in the novel seems to be to externalize Luke's motivation for taking action. Luke, as well, is less the idealistic farmboy than he is extraordinarily horny guardian--and boy is he horny in this book. There's no character arc for anyone in the novel--Luke doesn't change, Leia doesn't change, even Halla, their would-be guide to planet Mimban, doesn't really grow in any significant capacity over the course of the novel.
And for a book about a MacGuffin, it's shocking how absolutely stupid Foster's MacGuffin turns out to be: a deus-ex-machina crystal that has absolutely no consequence for the plot other than to bail out the heroes in the literal last ten pages of the book. There's no substance to anything Foster tries doing here, and it's probably better off forgotten entirely.
Even Foster's prose can't elevate this heap, considering his reliance on onomatopoeia in bizarre places, or his equally cringeworthy alliteration. His purple prose from the beginning of the book has the depth of a shoe's tread and the philosophical complexity of a fortune cookie. The best that can be said about Foster's novel is that he does try to incorporate a bit more of Lucas's lore for Star Wars through some of his character dialogue, but that's the beginning and end of what makes this novel at all interesting.
Otherwise, there's simply nothing to be enjoyed about this bastardization of Lucas's intellectual property. While Foster may have been commissioned to write this non-sequel in the case the first film bombed, it really is better for everyone that Lucas followed up with an actual sequel in The Empire Strikes Back. While Splinter of the Mind's Eye might make for a very amusing (for all the wrong reasons) glimpse into the very early Star Wars expanded universe, it's best to think of it as a glimpse into a parallel universe that is somehow worse than the one in which we're all living.
The essential problem of the novel is really one of stakes. In the original Star Wars film, George Lucas endears us to his characters by giving us an underdog to root for against an overwhelming evil. Luke Skywalker starts as a farm boy and becomes one of the most important pilots of the Rebel Alliance when he destroys the Death Star; Princess Leia demonstrates her capabilities as Princess and leader by being kick-ass, smart-ass, and daring; Han Solo charms us by showing that even the selfish can grow to become the heroic.
In other words, Star Wars gives us heroes to root for and an antagonist to root against in the form of Darth Vader and Imperial Grand Moff Tarkin. There's a real sensible feeling of stakes, too: the Death Star is a terrible battle station being utilized by terrible people, and it must be destroyed. The heroic story of Star Wars ultimately mirrors the hero's journey itself, using a kind of monomythic structure that makes it feel familiar even if it breaks new ground.
None of that can be said of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a book so monumentally stupid that its saving grace is that it's only about 300 pages long. There is little plot structure to the novel--Luke and Leia stumble onto a planet they don't want to have stumbled onto, and in order to make their way out have to track down a MacGuffin. Their journey leads them into snare after snare before a final confrontation with Darth Vader.
Adding to the plot's absolute nonsense is Alan Dean Foster's exceptionally poor characterization of both Luke and Leia. Leia seldom rises above damsel-in-distress, and her only role in the novel seems to be to externalize Luke's motivation for taking action. Luke, as well, is less the idealistic farmboy than he is extraordinarily horny guardian--and boy is he horny in this book. There's no character arc for anyone in the novel--Luke doesn't change, Leia doesn't change, even Halla, their would-be guide to planet Mimban, doesn't really grow in any significant capacity over the course of the novel.
And for a book about a MacGuffin, it's shocking how absolutely stupid Foster's MacGuffin turns out to be: a deus-ex-machina crystal that has absolutely no consequence for the plot other than to bail out the heroes in the literal last ten pages of the book. There's no substance to anything Foster tries doing here, and it's probably better off forgotten entirely.
Even Foster's prose can't elevate this heap, considering his reliance on onomatopoeia in bizarre places, or his equally cringeworthy alliteration. His purple prose from the beginning of the book has the depth of a shoe's tread and the philosophical complexity of a fortune cookie. The best that can be said about Foster's novel is that he does try to incorporate a bit more of Lucas's lore for Star Wars through some of his character dialogue, but that's the beginning and end of what makes this novel at all interesting.
Otherwise, there's simply nothing to be enjoyed about this bastardization of Lucas's intellectual property. While Foster may have been commissioned to write this non-sequel in the case the first film bombed, it really is better for everyone that Lucas followed up with an actual sequel in The Empire Strikes Back. While Splinter of the Mind's Eye might make for a very amusing (for all the wrong reasons) glimpse into the very early Star Wars expanded universe, it's best to think of it as a glimpse into a parallel universe that is somehow worse than the one in which we're all living.