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A review by hidekisohma
Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore
3.0
So I have read quite a few Star Wars books. I've read the Thrawn trilogy, the Darth Bane trilogy, heck, i've even read the Boba Fett resurrection trilogy. So after reading a bunch of these I looked up which book is mandatory old EU reading and this one came up in nearly every list.
Why? Two reasons. 1. Because it's the first book of a lengthy series, but also for one very important reason. This book is INFAMOUS across the internet as the book where Chewbacca dies. So, knowing that, I felt I had to read how it happened. And honestly, this book....wasn't that great.
The biggest issue this book faces is that the first 100 pages is very, very boring. It focuses on this alien guy spending chapter after chapter trying to sabotage this science outpost so that the Republic won't see their extra galactic army coming. And it focuses on him and the scientists talking. It's about as interesting as it sounds. Also for the first 100 pages there's also a lot of political talk. Hooray for space politics!
Once you get past this and the group realizes that there are indeed evil aliens, things start to pick up. But only just. The scene this book is known for takes place about 2/3 of the way through the book. Han is doing a regular run to a planet with Chewie and his son Anakin when they discover that the evil alien people are using a gravity thing to pull the moon onto the planet. They evacuate a bunch of people, but Chewbacca sacrifices himself to save Anakin (Solo. Not Darth Vader) Then they drop a moon on Chewbacca.
Yes. That is how Chewbacca dies. They drop. A moon. on him. I don't know if I should laugh or what, but I was like "Wow... that uh...that's a bit overkill I think."
The book in itself seems to have ADD as it jumps between a bunch of different characters' stories. At one time you have
-Anakin
- Bad guys
- Research Scientist/minor jedi
- Kyp (another jedi)
- Mara/Luke
- Han/Leia
- Jacen/Jaina (Han and leia's twins)
You tend to get whiplash from all the different stories going on at once. Danni (the scientist) is made out to be this important character and I actually had to look her up on Wookiepedia to learn that she actually is important later apparently. (shrug) i...i don't really care about her so...yeah.
Mara (Luke's wife) also has this disease. Why or how? I don't know. She just kind of does. And she's dying from it, but since she's a jedi she can fight it off while they try to find a cure. That's kind of just.. in the sidelines though.
It seems like they spend so much time setting crap up in this book that when they have to resolve it, it's done in a flash. They spend 100 pages building up this evil sabotage guy, Mara kills him in 2 pages. They spend another 50 pages dealing with this giant evil tentacle monster that telepathically controls the bad guys? Killed in 4 pages with no up close conversations. I get this was meant to be a setup book, but DAMN this book took me longer than it should have. If I could have given it a 2.5 I would have but it wasn't BAD enough to be a 2 so i'll give it a 3. The next book in the series is by a different author so hopefully in the next section things move a little faster. Either way, once you get past the first 100 pages it's not BAD, that first 1/3 is just a HUGE schlog to get through though. If you can get past that, it's a decent enough read. The bad guys are interesting enough that i'll eventually read the 2nd one. I hope there's more stuff that happens though.
Why? Two reasons. 1. Because it's the first book of a lengthy series, but also for one very important reason. This book is INFAMOUS across the internet as the book where Chewbacca dies. So, knowing that, I felt I had to read how it happened. And honestly, this book....wasn't that great.
The biggest issue this book faces is that the first 100 pages is very, very boring. It focuses on this alien guy spending chapter after chapter trying to sabotage this science outpost so that the Republic won't see their extra galactic army coming. And it focuses on him and the scientists talking. It's about as interesting as it sounds. Also for the first 100 pages there's also a lot of political talk. Hooray for space politics!
Once you get past this and the group realizes that there are indeed evil aliens, things start to pick up. But only just. The scene this book is known for takes place about 2/3 of the way through the book. Han is doing a regular run to a planet with Chewie and his son Anakin when they discover that the evil alien people are using a gravity thing to pull the moon onto the planet. They evacuate a bunch of people, but Chewbacca sacrifices himself to save Anakin (Solo. Not Darth Vader) Then they drop a moon on Chewbacca.
Yes. That is how Chewbacca dies. They drop. A moon. on him. I don't know if I should laugh or what, but I was like "Wow... that uh...that's a bit overkill I think."
The book in itself seems to have ADD as it jumps between a bunch of different characters' stories. At one time you have
-Anakin
- Bad guys
- Research Scientist/minor jedi
- Kyp (another jedi)
- Mara/Luke
- Han/Leia
- Jacen/Jaina (Han and leia's twins)
You tend to get whiplash from all the different stories going on at once. Danni (the scientist) is made out to be this important character and I actually had to look her up on Wookiepedia to learn that she actually is important later apparently. (shrug) i...i don't really care about her so...yeah.
Mara (Luke's wife) also has this disease. Why or how? I don't know. She just kind of does. And she's dying from it, but since she's a jedi she can fight it off while they try to find a cure. That's kind of just.. in the sidelines though.
It seems like they spend so much time setting crap up in this book that when they have to resolve it, it's done in a flash. They spend 100 pages building up this evil sabotage guy, Mara kills him in 2 pages. They spend another 50 pages dealing with this giant evil tentacle monster that telepathically controls the bad guys? Killed in 4 pages with no up close conversations. I get this was meant to be a setup book, but DAMN this book took me longer than it should have. If I could have given it a 2.5 I would have but it wasn't BAD enough to be a 2 so i'll give it a 3. The next book in the series is by a different author so hopefully in the next section things move a little faster. Either way, once you get past the first 100 pages it's not BAD, that first 1/3 is just a HUGE schlog to get through though. If you can get past that, it's a decent enough read. The bad guys are interesting enough that i'll eventually read the 2nd one. I hope there's more stuff that happens though.