Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

Rating:
Summary: Many will read this and not put it down until they're done!
Review: All right, Star Wars fans! You waited for the story of what REALLY happened between the Movies (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) and now you got it! Wondering "How did Luke all of a sudden become a Jedi Knight in Return of the Jedi?"? Or maybe "When did the second Death Star start?"? Well, here it is! And if you liked the game... You'll LOVE the book! Han Solo is frozen in Carbonite... Luke Skywalker is becoming a Jedi... And the Empire has the alliance in their grasp! What will happen? The suspense is endless. The battles in this book go into so much detail, you'd swear you were actually there! Pick it up... YOU WON'T PUT IT DOWN! The best Star Wars book to date! Experience Shadows of the Empire!

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad
Review: As with so much of Star Wars, you pretty much have to read the book it ties into to get it all. The effort on LucasFilm's part was overall admirable, although the problem remains when you have large numbersof people who don't read both genres of comic book and novel.

The highlights here are the scenes with Boba Fett and the bounty hunters. The main character material seems almost as filler tie-ins and even the art seems to lax a bit in those categories.

The pencils are good for the most part, while the coloring tends to vary. I've not too fond of Cary Porter's coloring, as it tends to be unrealisting and not dramatic at times. Once again, these flaws tend to be more visible in the 'main-character' plotline.

Buy it if you want some nice Bounty Hunter interaction and the like.

Rating:
Summary: Very good book.
Review: I read this book in 2 hours and do not regret it. It was definetely worth the $10 I paid for it. It gets a little confusiing at times, but you just gotta keep reading it. Now you can find out when and where Luke constructed his new lightsaber, and much more. If you are a star wars fan, you won't regret it, if your not, you probaly won't have any idea whats going on.

Rating:
Summary: An average but interesting book.
Review: SHADOWS is a fairly well-written book and I'm sure it was difficult to write, considering the narrow framework (meaning no plot revelations or allowance of character growth) within which the author had to work. I didn't like Dash Rendar; a totally unoriginal Han "fill-in," and Prince Xizor proved a disappointment because, for all the hype about how powerful he is during the first half of the book, he is proved to be inept and quite easily battled later on. SHADOWS is a clever book and did have its moments, but after reading I felt this book was at best a commercial "probe" to see if the SW franchise could expand its character base...to sell more toys.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel. Definetly worthy of Star Wars universe
Review: This book deals with all that happens between "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi." One of the main charactures is Prince Xixor. He seems to be another of the Emperor's cronies. Like Darth Vader. Han Solo is frozen in carbonite. Leia and Luke are trying to find him and bring him back to "the land of the living." Anyone who enjoys watching the movies and reading the books should read this book without delay.

Rating:
Summary: Luke takes out Vader Enemy
Review: This is a review of Shadow of the Empire which is available as a hard cover book of 340 (ISBN 0553574132) pages, a comic (isbn 1569711836), a novelization of 176 pages (isbn 044013036) and audio cassette (isbn 0553100890). This story tales places between ESB and ROTJ. I always felt it was one of the more important stories of the Expanded Universe given that Xizor became an action figure as did Dash Render and his ship (Outrider). The whole gang is in this one even Han, though is encased in carbonite. We get Vader, the emperor, Fett, Guri, Boosk, 4-Lom, Jabba, Zuckuss and Wedge along with the regular gang of heroes.

Apparently Dark horse did have available any pictures of Lando or Leia because the artists did a lousy job of drawing them. Most of the time Luke was OK, but sometimes he looked like Jessica Lynch. They did do a great job drawing Fett, Vader and dash however.

Everyone is searching for Han, but he has not be taken directly to Jabba. Xizor has risen to lead Black Sun which has thrived since Darth Maul wiped out the old leadership. His newest ambition is to replace Vader as #2 in the empire. Xizor orders Luke killed knowing that Vader wants him alive. Then Xizor captured Leia.

This is one of my favorite of all the EU stories. Steve Perry has created a new and exciting Journey. The novel is 4 stars and the comic is 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. Considering that Dark horse released this in 1997 before some of their awesome new production techniques, this is a very well done comic. The abridged audio cassette is good quality, but at on 2 ½ hours to much is cut.

Rating:
Summary: Intersting filler-in for the novel
Review: Whereas the Shadows of the Empire novel was focused on the normal character, the Rebels and Vader and the new Xizor, the comic's point of view is mainly that of the scum of the galaxy, the bounty hunters and Jabba and his goons. That is where it makes its biggest mistake -- it can't stand alone.

It's laudible that they tried to give an alternate perspective in the comic so fans wouldn't feel like they were just rereading the novel, but on the other hand it doesn't make sense unless you've read the book. Characters just show up and aren't explained, and events that are quite big in the story can't be emphasized enough in the comic due to space restraints. It would have been a much better idea to instead of paralleling the novel, to adapt it entirely to comic form, plus add the bounty hunter stuff.

The art was mixed. The droids, Fett, Vader and most of the bounty hunters looked good, but the more humaniform characters looked messed up and unrecognizable. Leia and Lando in particular looked bad, Dash was strange, and Xizor looked horrible; he wasn't even consistent from panel to panel.

Fortunately, the locations were pretty good, but where this comic shined were the spacefights, dogfights which would do a Rogue Squadron comic proud. There was some interesting use of tactics, all the ships were drawn very well, and the lighting effects and engine glow were very good.

Fett was another problem in this book. He talked too much. We already know he's one of those silent but deadly guys; why authors feel the need to have him give corny one-liners, talk to himself and gloat to his enemies is beyond me. The dialogue throughout the comic was decent, but there were quite a few corny or unecessary lines.

A last note -- this comic was released before it was quite established exactly what bothans looked like, so they are kind of messed up looking.

As a companion for the novel, this comic worked fine, but as a stand-alone piece, it is below par. If you like Star Wars, or if you're a big Shadows fan, then I recommend this one. If not, don't bother.