Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover

Luke Skywalker is a murderer, responsible for the deaths of millions of people on Mindor. Or so he tells Inspector Lorz Geptun, who Luke wants to investigate his conduct on Mindor. The Emperor, Palpatine, and Darth Vader are dead, but the so-called "Hand of the Emperor", Lord Shadowspawn, has prepared a trap for Luke on Mindor. Now, all he has to do is wait for Luke to fall into it, and his victory is assured. But will it really be that easy?

Luke has only been a general for a short time. Before that, he was a fighter pilot. But even so, even he can see the entire system is meant to be a trap. And if he can see it after being there for so short a time, what will Lord Shadowspawn have to throw at them, after having been in the system for months?

And while Luke wasn't expecting a ship to shatter the entire ship he's on, he manages to keep the crew that don't die in the impact alive by landing what's left of the ship on the planet of Mindor. And from there, things get really strange. Lord Shadowspawn's troops treat Luke as if he is the new ruler of the Empire, calling him Emperor Skywalker. And he discovers that Lord Shadowspawn is more like "Lord Shadow's Pawn" and that even this is part of the trap. But can Luke keep himself alive and unturned when Lord Shadow is a lord of the Darkness that even the Sith were afraid to plumb?

And when Han, Chewie, Leia, Lando and the whole of Rogue Squadron get wind that Luke's force is under attack and Luke is missing, presumed dead, they won't let him stand alone. But when Lord Shadow tires of trying to break Luke, he looks on Leia, who is just as strong in the force as Luke is, but untrained, to be a godsend. With her mind to take over and her strong body to carry Lord Shadow's consciousness around, he can win at last. But does he know how strong Leia really is, and how Han and Luke won't let her fall?

I enjoy the novels of Matthew Woodring Stover, but something about Luke didn't quite ring right to me in this story. I could buy the beginning, with Luke believing himself to be a murderer and hiring someone to investigate him, and even the story itself, but the ending just didn't ring true to Luke's character, for me, at least. I don't think he'd let the story he lived and felt so strongly about be used as propoganda. Especially when he's so against the stories being told about him all through the rest of the book. Be that as it may, I did enjoy the rest of the book, which essentially pushes Luke up between a rock and a hard place and pushes the rock and the hard place against him with all the relentlessness of a rock-crusher.

I also liked the by-play between some of the lesser characters, although Luke, being an earnest sort of guy, isn't the kind to joke around as much with people he doesn't know. With how he's being pressed in this book, he comes off as sort of grim, but since it suits the situation very well, that's not a bad thing for him. And Luke is definitely the star of the show, here. The other characters, Rogue Squadron especially, don't get nearly enough time to shine in the book. In the end, their use was forgettable because it could have been *any* squadron of X-wing and Y-wing pilots and it wouldn't have made an iota of difference to the book. In fact, it almost seems the reason Rogue Squadron and Lando Calrissian were used was a shortcut characterization for characters that otherwise would have been fairly throwaway.

It's not a bad book, but there are parts that should really have gone under the knife before publication. As a Star Wars story, it's a decent adventure and is quite thrilling in parts. But then I look at the flaws, and this book never makes it out of the "Decent, but uninspiring" category for me. YMMV, but this is not one I'll be recommending, even to rabid Star Wars fans.