SHALLOWSSHADOWS OF THE EMPIRENot a very polite way to title a review, but unfortunately the description is rather apt. However before I proceed, I should first introduce the product: Shadows of the Empire is part of the pre-Star Wars Special Edition promotions designed to juice people back into the realm of Star Wars. Primarily based on the 64 bit Nintendo game (which has yet to be released), the first dose of Shadows that people have been exposed to are the book and the comic.
Set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Shadows of the Empire is the first book to be allowed to explore the Star Wars universe in an area where the post-Jedi novels could not. For the first time, Darth Vader is alive and well, the Emperor is still ruling with an iron fist, and Han Solo remains in the clutches of Boba Fett, trapped within the confines of his carbonite prison. Without a doubt Shadows offers a lot more to the Star Wars fan because it has the ability to fill in a lot of holes and shape a lot of situations that occur before Jedi, thus becoming a crucial and integral part of Star Wars lore.
However Shadows of the Empire, for all its perceived hype, is a major disappointment both as a book and as a part of the Star Wars universe. Previous Star Wars novels like the Heir to the Empire series have exposed us to quality writing with quality stories, and even though a few of the post Jedi novels have been let-downs, Shadows has not come out as the ultimate in Star Wars literature as it should have. This is the first time in over 15 years that we have been able to read a story where the major characters for the Imperial Empire are still in existance and just with this thought alone in mind, Shadows should have been a dynamic read.
So what went wrong? The first hint of concern I had took place with the book’s physical size. Although it’s a hardback, the type font is rather large and the lines use double spacing, this means that the book is only a fraction of its perceived length. I was surprised by this because I was expecting Shadows to be bordering on epic proportions.
Once you start the read, it doesn’t take long before you discover that Shadows of the Empire is lightly written. Details are skimmed over and situations fly by much too quickly. Very little time is spent in one place or in one situation, and just when you wish for some depth to a scene or a character’s thoughts, you have moved on to something else. In my view, Shadows has a writing style just fractionally above a "young readers" level, which is extremely frustrating. I recently read a review by XXX in XXX where the writer suggested that corners in the evolution of Shadows were severly cut due to tight deadlines; this seems like highly plausible explanation. But the cost of having the writer shave off quality to keep the publisher happy has produced a loser in this particular game, us. The fans, the readers. We have had to pay for someone else’s haste. How sad.
Even with the knowledge that Shadows was written in a hurry doesn’t cover some serious mistakes. The most obvious is the poor portrayal of the characters. Luke Skywalker especially is shown to be a person who is far more reckless than would be necessary. His dual with Darth Vader in Empire would have undoubtedly left him a lot less eager to simply jump into ludicrous situations without thinking them through first. In Shadows his willingness to just fly into an Imperial dockyard to try and rescue Han is simply stupid, and not like the character at all. People do not just rush into situations like that without some kind of idea about what they are doing, especially when other people are being put at risk. It is also not physically possible to face up to a bottomless squad of TIE Fighters and expect to win. I think Steve Perry felt that X-Wing pilots could take on anything in any numbers in the universe and still expect to come out on top, which is definitely not the case.
Another major error was the statement that Darth Vader destroyed Alderaan. I nearly blew my stack when I read this. Everyone knows Governor Tarkin was the man responsible for that action, Vader never said a word the whole time the event took place (in fact he even said himself that destroying planets was insignificant next to the power of the Force - someone obviously didn’t take note of this).
So who is Dash Rendar anyway? Shadows has found a replacement for Han Solo, who is out of action due to his carbonite confinement, and yes it’s another Han Solo, but this one has a different name. This "space cowboy" character does nothing to create a feeling of individuality nor interest, especially as his exploits eventually begin to grate on your nerves. The attempt to give Rendar some semblance of feeling fails miserably with the sequence involving the torpedo that he is unable to destroy before it kills a swag of Bothan pilots. The writing is poor and it’s very hard to feel sympathetic about this tragedy - especially at the end of the book when our heroes find that the torpedo was a special one which is impervious to destruction, this of course this is only discovered after Rendar’s death. "How could he have known that the torpedo was indestructible and that it wasn’t his fault the Bothans were killed." I kid you not, it really does read like that.
One thing you will quickly discover once rocketing through the pages of the book is that the main focus of Shadows is not the power of the Emperor, Darth Vader, nor the Rebellion, but a new character to the scene, Prince Xixor. Xixor is the embodiment of the perfect Star Wars character - so the writing would have you believe. Perry has decided to expand one master character and Xixor is it. Much time is spent developing this creation so as to give the impression that he is superior to absolutely everyone else. This of course is a little hard to accept since Xixor exists in the form of written pages in a single book only, whereas everyone else in Star Wars has the added history of being around a lot longer, commanding a far more respect from Star Wars aficionados.
When it’s all said and done, Shadows is not all bad and should still be looked at by anybody who considers this review to be a little too negative. The story does have some good scenes including things, like how Leia receives the Boushh outfit, Luke getting his Jedi clothing, and the end sequence when Luke is recording his message to Artoo for Jabba the Hutt. Also the inclusion of the Ho‘din Spero, who features in the Star Wars: Glove of Darth Vader kids book series was a nice touch.
In the end I was hoping (expecting?) that Shadows of the Empire would have had the depth and superiority of Heir to the Empire. At a time when people are seeing thinly veiled Star Wars novels roll off the production line, Shadows promised to get back into the true spirit of Star Wars and overshadow all other books in this field just with the wealth of characters at its disposal alone. I can imagine there are now more than a few potential authors wishing they’d had the opportunity to play in this particular garden - if only to perfect the smell of the roses and not just grow them.