Subject: Review of _The_Crystal_Star_ by Vonda McIntyre

From: [email-masked] (Doug Ingram)
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 17:54:23 GMT

The Crystal Star
                          by Vonda McIntyre
                 Review copyright (c) 1995 by Doug Ingram

	_The_Crystal_Star (_TCS_) is a chapter in Bantam Spectra's
continuing history of the Star Wars Universe after the movie trilogy.  _TCS_
takes place 10 years after the end of _Return_of_the_Jedi, and after all the
other books in the entire Bantam Spectra series that have been published to
date (December 1995) except for Roger MacBride Allen's "Correlian Trilogy".
In this review, I will take the luxury of assuming the reader is familiar
with the major characters in the Star Wars universe.  Spoilers will be kept
to a minimum.

	_TCS_ opens with Han and Luke on a brief "vacation" of sorts that
also doubles as part of Luke's continuing mission to find new potential Jedi
to continue the tradition.  The two are visiting a strange trading station
situation on a small planetoid very near to a black hole that is quite close
to engulfing a nearby white dwarf star that is spiraling in.  Meanwhile,
Princess Leia opens _TCS_ by discovering that her three children (the twins,
Jacen and Jaina, and Anakin, the youngest) have been kidnapped.

	Leia and Chewie eventually find the trail of the kidnappers and take
off after them, eventually stumbling upon a few surprises left over from the
remnants of the old Empire and finding some additional help along the way.
The children, as it turns out, have been kidnapped and interned in a "boot
camp" of sorts for young children with Jedi potential, run by an evil
faction left over from the Empire.  They try a variety of ways to escape,
but before they can hope to have any success, the head of the camp, an evil
man with some Jedi powers named Hethrir, spirits Anakin away for some kind
of "purification ritual."

	On their "vacation", Han and Luke (and Threepio) meet one of Han's
old flames (Xaverri) and a strange creature named Waru who seems to hold
both great power to heal and some hidden purpose that seems all too sinister
to Han.  To make matters worse, Luke feels his Jedi abilities and his
connection to the Force slowly fading away, and he grows more and more
desperate to find the source of the problem, even to the point of seeking
out the "healer" Waru for some sort of help.  The two main plots threads
eventually coincide with Waru, Hethrir and the rest of the main characters
playing a major role in Hethrir's attempt to "purify" Anakin (and trying to
stop it).

	The obvious measuring stick for _TCS_ is the overall quality of the
rest of the books in the Star Wars series.  Like it or not, McIntyre is
writing in the Star Wars universe and so she must "play by its rules" in
some sense to have success and to satisfy her audience.  I don't think she
completely succeeded.  The one quality of _TCS_ that really stands out in
comparison to the rest of the books in the Star Wars series is a lack of an
"epic" feel.  McIntyre never really succeeds in making any characters
threatening (with the clear exception of Waru), and there really only seems
to be real danger for Luke in this book and not the other characters,
despite the kidnapping plot (a creative disappointment due to its
inevitability in any novel involving a powerful family with small children)
and various other threats.  The problem with Luke's danger is that it only
develops thanks to Luke's behaving very much out of character (more on this
later).

	I think McIntyre made a deliberate effort here to make this
installment in Star Wars have a somewhat lighter tone, often referring to
Han and Luke's travails in a rather casual light (which is fine in some
places and not in others) and referring to Leia's rescue attempts and the
twins' escape attempts in a very whimsical tone, enticing the reader to take
the threats somewhat lightly.  For some novels this might work, but it just
doesn't feel right in the Star Wars universe.  George Lucas made Star Wars
great by making it an epic, not a romp (many fans, myself included, felt
that the emphasis of _Return_of_the_Jedi_ on the Ewoks was a bit of a
disappointment...a very MINOR disappointment, of course).

	With one exception, however, McIntyre's characterization is right on
target and a joy to read.  Han, Threepio and Leia are all very strongly
written, and one can easily recall mental images from the movie series
virtually any time one of these three characters is in a scene.  Luke, on
the other hand, seems to have regressed in this book, and McIntyre tosses
out all of the character development we've seen of Luke in both the movie
series and the novels that preceded _TCS_.  Upon the fading of his Jedi
powers, Luke's self-confidence vanishes and he resorts to nearly attacking
Han and making himself a burden to everyone rather than an asset.  I think
the same threat to Luke's well-being could've been accomplished without this
and could have generated a little more surprise and excitement.

	Of the villains, Waru is clearly the best drawn.  Xaverri, as Waru's
assistant and Han's old flame (it's not really clear what "side" she's on in
the novel), is an interesting new character that I hope to see again in
future novels.  Hethrir and the minor villains at the Jedi "boot camp" just
don't come off as being all that sinister, despite their foul deeds.  In the
final confrontation, in fact, one might expect the main villain, Hethrir, to
have a stature similar to that of Vader or even the Emperor.  Unfortunately,
he compares more favorably to a televangelist.

	Of the three main plot threads, Han and Luke's is the best, mainly
because of the presence of four of the best-written characters in the book
(Waru, Xaverri, Han and Threepio) and the fact that Waru is really the only
ominous potential threat in the book.  Leia's search is a bit contrived, to
say the least, but it doesn't detract at all from the book.  The twins'
experience in boot camp is clearly the weakest of the three.  Anyone who has
had the pleasure of reading Orson Scott Card's _Ender's_Game_ (another
"children's boot camp" sort of novel, but it's GREAT) will cringe at some of
the passages.

	The fairest way to judge _TCS_ is to ask: Without the backing of the
Star Wars universe, does _TCS_ stand out on its own as a particularly strong
story or particularly good novel?  The answer is a qualified "no".  There
are parts of this book to enjoy, and the truly devoted Star Wars fan will
probably never be disappointed by any new material in this genre.  If you're
following the Star Wars series (there is a timeline in the back of _TCS_), I
don't think it would do you much harm to skip this installment.  The other
books tend to refer back to earlier stories enough to make this possible.  I
only hope that future books keep a somewhat higher standard, closer to that
set by the first five post-_Jedi_ books by Tyers, Wolverton and Zahn.

Doug Ingram -- [email-masked] // "Carpe Datum."
	More SF reviews:  http://www.astro.washington.edu/ingram/books.html

%A McIntyre, Vonda
%T The Crystal Star
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York
%D 1994
%G ISBN 0-553-57174-5
%S Star Wars