The Courtship of Princess Leia

Just four short years after the events that led to the Empire's defeat at Endor is where Dave Wolverton's "The Courtship of Princess Leia" takes place. The Empire still is very powerful at this point in the course of the Galactic Civil War. And the Alliance is still very weak, possessing a fleet that is composed of a mish-mash of ships scattered throughout the galaxy. Because of this the Alliance must seek to find more powerful allies in their struggle against the Empire.

It's at this most vital moment in the Alliance's struggle that the Hapes Consortium, a cluster of sixty-three high-tech worlds, comes along offers its goodwill - with a catch. Princess Leia must marry Prince Isolder, son of the Queen Mother of Hapes. In reaction to this, Han goes off and acts in a rash manner, by tricking Leia and kidnapping her to take her to the wild planet of Dathomir (which he won in a game of Sabacc) - where he hopes to win back the favor of the woman he loves. Soon after, Luke forms an unlikely alliance with Prince Isolder to track down the runaways. And that's just the begining of the adventures that lead our heroes to discovering many secrets from the past, "witches" possessing Force ability, and a foe more dangerous than can possibly be imagined.

This is really a pretty good book, and though I had been told that many time, I had to see for myself, because for some reason I had always seemed to think that this book would just be lame. Well I was pleasantly surprised, and I think any of you out there who haven't already read the book will be too. If there were anything that I had to complain about this book though, it would have to be the fact that the book tends to read very much like a pure fantasy novel. Now yes, I know that at heart Star Wars is fantasy, but I'm talking more along the lines of D&D fantasy - all this book lacked were the dragons (it had wizards galore). But Wolverton pretty much walks a fine line between Star Wars and that kind of fantasy, and this time a hit was scored with that unique style that he brings to the Star Wars Universe.

And so I can find no reason to really discourage anyone from reading this book. It's jammed packed with action from start to finish - and it's certainly worth the time and effort to read. Enjoy!!

Sean's Rating