Star Wars: The Courtship of Princess Leia in The Expanded Universe

Apr 06, 2008 Keith rated it did not like it

Shelves: star-wars, favorites

Stars: 1
Re-read? No
Recommend to: Nobody really. Maybe very casual fans but there are better options.

This is a book that I remembered very fondly from my youth, and I was really looking forward to getting to it on my complete read of the EU. I was shocked at how poorly it held up to my memory. This book is really bad on almost every level, but I'll cut it some slack because this was one of the earliest books written in the EU. It reminds me of the early Marvel Star Wars comics where anything goes Stars: 1
Re-read? No
Recommend to: Nobody really. Maybe very casual fans but there are better options.

This is a book that I remembered very fondly from my youth, and I was really looking forward to getting to it on my complete read of the EU. I was shocked at how poorly it held up to my memory. This book is really bad on almost every level, but I'll cut it some slack because this was one of the earliest books written in the EU. It reminds me of the early Marvel Star Wars comics where anything goes. Just look up the awesome Jaxx from the comics. He was a rabbit that was an expert in martial arts. This book has a lot of silly stuff like that.

The biggest problem with the book is the complete destruction of the beloved characters from the OT, primarily Han and Leia. Wolverton was destroying them long before Disney did. (view spoiler)

Han is pathetic and Wolverton doesn't capture his voice at all. A good example is how he sincerely calls Leia Princess. Leia and Han both appear unstable. They'll be fine one second and immediately angry and yelling over a tame comment. Then, (view spoiler) Also, Han and C-3PO are suddenly friends. He tells him, "You and I have been together for a long time. I never turn my back on a friend." It's like Wolverton didn't watch any of the scenes that had Han Solo in them from the OT.

I give Wolverton a bit of a pass on this, but he goes way overboard on force abilities.
(view spoiler)

There are a lot of silly things that don't really fit the universe.
-(view spoiler)
- The Hapans are just ludicrously rich and powerful. Each planet, I think of thousands, would give a gift early in the book. Twelve of the poorest each gave a star destroyer. One of the many gifts were hundreds of rainbow gems. Wolverton says each one could buy a Calamarian Cruiser. These were the most powerful ships in the rebel fleet at the battle of Endor. If you had hundreds of these, you might be the most powerful naval power in the galaxy. Hapes is so absurdly rich that this is nothign to them. This cluster should be more powerful than the Empire ever was.
- (view spoiler)
- Who would play cards against a Gotal? This species can at minimum read your emotions and can sometimes read your mind.
- Wolverton goes out of his way over and over to talk about how all Hapans have this incredible beauty. But then a guard walks in and she has a "rare" beauty. What?
- A minor plot point (view spoiler)
- Wolverton is really wild on strengths of ships and how battles work. (view spoiler)
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-(view spoiler)
- We get more of the stupid moral debate in Star Wars regarding killing and the light side of the force. The mentality is "don't you dare kill someone in a pitched battle because that is the dark side" but then the very next scene Luke is chopping someone's head off. There is a scene where they don't kill someone in battle because that would be bad. It is followed up on the same page with Luke using the Force to tell Leia to turn on the engines, which incinerates a bunch of witches. That's different?
- It is wild to me that this was the introduction to Zsinj. He is done so much better in the X-wing series, but it is a strange choice to have him be a focus on your series after I read this book, which came out first. (view spoiler)
- I was annoyed by the second page of the book. (view spoiler)
-Just look at this absolute gem of a passage. Han overhears people saying this: (view spoiler).
- This line was hilarious and made no sense. (view spoiler)
- Hyperspace travel is a mess in this one. (view spoiler)
- We learn at the end that (view spoiler).
- Wolverton wanted to culture on the planet to be interesting but he wouldn't go all the way on it. (view spoiler)
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- In this silly universe, every ship has override codes that the local port authorities have. (view spoiler) This may be in the running for the dumbest thing in the book.
- (view spoiler)
- Another classic line: (view spoiler)

First reads: 4 Stars (2001/2005) ...more

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Aug 27, 2009 Jeff Diamond rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

The Courtship of Princess Leia was a good read. One of the things that is entertaining about the Expanded Universe is that it . . . well, is expanding. Dave Wolverton (or David Farland??) did a really good job at coming up with a world like Dathomir that has a culture, people, and history of its own. Sometimes I wonder if that is a prerequisite for writing in the Expanded Universe. Regardless, it's an entertaining read, especially if you're a huge Star Wars geek like I am. ...more

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