Shadows of the Empire

AUTHOR: Steve Perry
COPYRIGHT: 1996
TIME FRAME: Rebellion -- between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

Shadows of the Empire marks a significant project for Lucasfilm. It was created as a new story with all the sorts of tie-ins a Star Wars movie might get, such as toys and a video game. There were comic books as well as the novel, and even a soundtrack album of score composed to coincide with the story. And I'm happy to report that the book itself is worthy of this treatment. After slogging through a few lackluster novels, I'm happy to say this one feels like a Star Wars movie in the best ways possible. It does a great job connecting the dots between the two movies without ever feeling like those points aren't justified by the story.

The main plot revolves around the crime organization Black Sun and it's reptilian leader, Prince Xizor (pronounced Shee-zor, apparently). Xizor wants revenge against Vader for killing his family, so he sets his sights on killing Skywalker. To do so, he cozies up to the Emperor and attempts to play him against Vader in a way. The release of the plans for the new Death Star was done by Xizor, with the permission of the Emperor. Thus, when he says in the movie that he was the one who allowed the information to leak, he is telling the truth. And that bit about how "many Bothans died to bring us this information"? That's a central moment in the first half of the book. We actually get to see that, and why the Bothans died.

We pick up the story with Luke and the gang on Tatooine awaiting Boba Fett's return to Jabba with Han. Luke has gone off to Kenobi's old place so that he can study the ways of the Force from Ben's old notes. It is here that he constructs his new lightsaber. I really like the way Perry plays Luke's arc over the course of the book from where he was in Empire to his proclaiming himself a Jedi Knight by the end. He hits all the points that he had to between movies organically. Just watching the movies, you go from "let's go save Han!" to everyone at Jabba's palace, but there are things that had to happen between. We find out how Leia got her Boussh bounter hunter costume too. This story allows us to learn how those things happened.

Ultimately, all the characters get caught up in a little goose chase first based on info that Boba Fett had been spotted elsewhere, but this quickly turns to the discovery of a plot to kill Luke, while the Alliance is teased with important secret information. Han is frozen in carbonite for the duration and you might think the book would suffer without him, but it never does. Lando does fine as a surrogate, and we get a new character, Dash Rendar, who is a cocky space cowboy sort like Han Solo turned up to 11. Perry also plays character moments about Han's absence that work, such as Leia pondering her feelings for Han and Luke. There's a moment where she even recalls his last words: "'I know'? What was that?!" Chewie has taken Han seriously when he said he had to take care of Leia now. Chewbacca is now Leia's personal bodyguard, to her sometime annoyance.

The story structure also allows for parallels to the first movie. It opens on Tatooine, there are some space battles, rebels gaining secret plans. And it climaxes with Leia being held captive on Coruscant in Xizor's castle, and Luke having to rescue her. They even sneak in in Stormtrooper uniforms. There's a cameo appearance from one of those "eye-stalk" aliens, as they sneak into the building via the sewer pipes. But these parallels feel like homages, and not retreads. Perry even sneaks in a 1138 reference.

There are a few oddities here when you consider it in the grand scheme of things that now includes prequels. The mention of palaces on Coruscant feels odd, having seen the city. The Emperor is said to live in a "castle", and that word just feels wrong to me (Vader has one too, apparently). There's a wonderful bit where we learn that chamber Vader was in during Empire is a healing chamber, and he's trying to use the Dark Side to heal himself. This nicely ties into dialogue from Revenge of the Sith, suggesting that with the Dark Side you had the power to reverse death. Perry suggests that the Emperor looks the way he does because the Dark Side has literally eaten away at him. This now conflicts with what we saw in Episode III, unless you consider that his "Force lightning" comes from the Dark Side, so it's sort of true. But I like that he tried to give a reason to something that at the time we had no knowledge of. In terms of how this book fits in with the other novels, it's curious that Mara Jade is so conspicuously absent, considering she's the Emperor's Hand at this point. But then, maybe that's addressed in the Thrawn trilogy; I don't remember. I'll find out when I get there.

For me, really the only thing that seems to fall flat about this book is the title, since I'm not sure what Shadows of the Empire is meant to connote. Does it refer to Black Sun "shadowing" the Empire? But the novel itself was surprisingly good and you can tell that Lucas seemed to like it too given the little nods to it that have cropped up in the prequels and the special editions. It's well worth reading if you're curious about what happened between the films, much more so than most of the novels written to date between Episodes IV and V. It even has Threepio flying the Millennium Falcon! By the time the last pages came, and Luke was recording his message for Jabba, I'd had a good time reading it. If you read only one Star Wars novel in your life, you could do worse than this one.

GRADE: A