Why do I not have a Star Wars icon?
Mar. 3rd, 2012 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleRead last night: Star Wars: Shadow Games, a small-concept adventure centered around minor character Dash Rendar. I was excited for this one because usually the people who publish the Star Wars books only greenlight big, epic adventures starring the main cast, so I figured something like this had to be really good to get approved.
No such luck. There were four easily catchable slip-ups in canon within the first chapter, and some timeline confusion -- nothing critical to the plot, but as a big-time Star Wars nerd, they were very noticeable, and I can't imagine why the LucasArts research & editing crew didn't pick up on it. The plot and prose were schlocky but workmanlike, but the cast was colorless and flat, and all the things that made Dash Rendar an interesting character in his first appearance were missing here -- which is good, because someone exhibiting his recklessness and amorality wouldn't have done the things the plot required him do. Really not sure how the author could be a big enough Star Wars nerd to have the idea to write this in the first place -- it's working in obscure corners of the universe -- and then so utterly fail to bring off the details.
As a pulpy adventure novel, it was so-so. As a Star Wars adventure about a specific character, it failed.
No such luck. There were four easily catchable slip-ups in canon within the first chapter, and some timeline confusion -- nothing critical to the plot, but as a big-time Star Wars nerd, they were very noticeable, and I can't imagine why the LucasArts research & editing crew didn't pick up on it. The plot and prose were schlocky but workmanlike, but the cast was colorless and flat, and all the things that made Dash Rendar an interesting character in his first appearance were missing here -- which is good, because someone exhibiting his recklessness and amorality wouldn't have done the things the plot required him do. Really not sure how the author could be a big enough Star Wars nerd to have the idea to write this in the first place -- it's working in obscure corners of the universe -- and then so utterly fail to bring off the details.
As a pulpy adventure novel, it was so-so. As a Star Wars adventure about a specific character, it failed.
