Review of Star Wars Death Star

I read a review of this book in SFX at the weekend, which described it as pedestrian; I think they were being kind. I am not expecting a literary masterpiece from a Star Wars novel but Death Star is about as trashy as novels come. It has a ridiculous plot which never goes anywhere populated by a cast of stock characters, a dull and repetitive narrative and despite the claims on the dust-jacket isn’t so much the story of how the Empire’s most feared weapon came into being than a soap opera set in space.

Death Star is a very badly written book, which on occasion repeats itself and towards the latter half borrows directly from the Star Wars script. The editing is atrocious - one example being the misspelling of Admiral Motti’s first name. The plot, such as it is concerns a collection of characters who find themselves aboard the Death Star during its construction and shakedown voyage. There is the ace TIE pilot – Villian Dance (oh dear, what a dreadful name); Memah Roothes who runs the cantina that everyone on the station uses; Nova Stihl who is supposedly an Imperial marine but appears at times to be a stormtrooper (do the authors not realise that the Imperial Army and Navy are separate to stormtroopers?); Tenn Graneet, the chief gunnery officer who pulls the lever firing the Death Star’s super-weapon; an over-sized human male called Rodo who is the bouncer at Roothes cantina and Teela Kaarz who is a prisoner and supposedly architect on the Death Star. The librarian character is so boring he is not even worth a mention. So there we have a cast of bland and uninteresting characters who through some fanciful plot devices find themselves enmeshed in the events of Star Wars: A New Hope.

To remind us that this is a Star Wars novel, Darth Vader makes an occasional appearance, breathing down the neck of Grand Moff Tarkin. But Vader has little to do in this novel other than seethe with anger and think about his Master. Another ridiculous little twist is the arrival of Daala on the station, ostensibly there to hunt down a Rebel saboteur but really so she can have a last fling with her lover Grand Moff Tarkin. During her visit, a very strange thing happens. An implausible Rebel attack is launched against the part-completed battle station involving a Trade Federation ship appropriated by the Alliance and 500 X-Wings! Yes, this really is in the book. In the ensuing battle Daala is injured and suffers a brain injury which leads to short-term memory loss. For some reason Tarkin then decides to pack her back off to the Maw double-quick so she won’t remember anything of her visit to the Death Star! This ridiculous turn of events ensures that the continuity of the Jedi Academy Trilogy remains intact because of course Daala has supposedly been out of contact with Tarkin for years, trapped in the Maw. As for the plot about the saboteur this is never resolved.

Never mind because it seems that every character on the station has sedition on their mind and in another plot contrivance they decide – our band of two-dimensional soap-opera heroes that is – to take off in an Imperial ambulance ship and defect to the Rebellion. Of course, one has to stay behind to be the hero that allows them to escape.

In summary, this is a terrible book not worthy of carrying the title Star Wars on it and if it didn’t, it would be nothing more than bargain bucket trash in the local book-shop. I am surprised that it is so bad considering that the authors have both a respectable career and as the covers remind often, both are bestselling novelists. Make up your own mind if you wish but don’t say that I didn’t warn you.