Rating: 
Summary: The First FURTHER ADVENTURE of Luke.
Review: This is a review of the dark horse adaptation of the Foster Novel published Dec, 1996 and the Del Rey Novel published Feb 1978. This is probably the beginning of the Expanded Universe so the story is SW history. The comic strips started in 1978, but were probably written after this book. The first of the Brian Daley trilogy wasn't published until 1979. It was even written before ESB.My copy of the paperback has a forward written by George Lucas written as he was preparing to write ROTJ where he says: Quote - SPLINTER was promoted as a further adventure of Luke Skywalker. It hit the bookstores just as I was preparing to write my own further adventure of Luke, in the form of a script entitled THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. - unquote. History not-withstanding, when compared to what followed this is one of the weakest novels and weakest comic produced in the Expanded Universe - Further Adventures. The pencil work is only fair, the story is weak and the inking is well below current Dark Horse standards. The individual comic issues had some very good cover art, but the TPN cover is one of the ugliest in all of Dark horse. This should probably be only 2 stars, but given its place in SW history I'll give it a 3.
Rating: 
Summary: First remove the plank from your own mind's eye...
Review: Set between the films "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back" This is a good book, though a trifle shorter than the other Star Wars books. That's ok, big print is nice on occasions. Leia and Luke get stranded on a swampy planet en route to an important meeting of sorts. They have a few run-ins with local law enforcement, and get lost in a cave. It gets exciting when Darth Vader shows up on campus.......but why spoil the end?
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: This was the first Star Wars novel I read, and I was really disappointing. While the plot is interesting, there are too many inconsistencies that disrupt the book and pretty much ruin it. <Spoiler alert>
As an example, in one part of the book Luke, Leia and the droids are trying to cross a lake. They find a canoe big enough for two, so Luke and Leia paddle across, and when they get there R2 and 3PO are already there!? Another problem I have is that the description of the planet makes it out to be a muddy mess that is difficult to move around in. There is a sequence where a ground rover type vehicle has trouble getting around, but R2 has no problem getting around on his little wheels. It just didn't make sense. I hope that this is not how the other Star Wars books are, if it is I won't read any more of them. If I had never seen the movies and only read this book, I wouldn't bother with the rest.
Rating:
Summary: HOLDING UP THE STAR WARS SAGA!
Review: This novel is set somewhere between A NEW HOPE and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and really fills in the space between the movies well. In this novel Luke and Leia hear about a stone called the 'mind's eye' that is VERY force sensitive. The mysterious person who tells them this bit of information shows them a splinter of this stone. The story is about theses two rebel leaders and their quest to find strange mind's eye before the evil Darth Vader! A perfect gift for any star wars fan!
Rating: 
Summary: This Piece Just Does Not Fit In
Review: This book, knowing what we know now (January 2003) about the key players in the Star Wars Universe, misses the mark completely in almost every way. Of course, the author at the time (1997, just afer A New Hope) did not know about Leia/Luke/Vader, Luke/Yoda, Leia/Han and other relationships and facts. In this book, Leia is a whining crybaby, screaming in fright at just the thought of the Death Star. Her banter and actions with Luke througout the book are very immature, unintelligent, and unsophisticated, almost like Leia is a 12 year old girl instead of a Senator and leader of the Rebellion. Luke is not much better, very immature and much better with the force than in The Empire Strikes Back, which happens later and AFTER the training with Yoda. I will not spoil some of the plot, but Luke does much more with the force in this book than makes sense based on the following movies and stories. In addition, Vader seems like a different character. In the movies and other books, Vader is a very aloof, menacing and commanding figure. In this book he is like a "normal" bad guy making bogus comments about the people around him and his thougths on things. This book does a complete injustice by de-mystifying Vader and that is a shame. Skip this book, you will be doing yourself a favor as none of the characters "seem" the same as the ones we know from the movies. I wish I had never read this book due to the "skew" in my thinking about the characters. You will lose all respect for Leia by the end as a sniviling wimp, and Luke for "getting lucky" with powers he should not have yet.
Rating:
Summary: Star Wars
Review: This is an interesting story. I like that Luke is a main character in the story. However, the whole Luke and Leia thing is a little weird. This story doesn't seem to fit in as well with the other stories.
Rating:
Summary: A little strange....
Review: Not one of the better SW books (due to lack of backstory at that point in the writing of SW), but still an interesting story. It is a little weird, especially for those of us who know that Luke and Leia are brother and sister, a fact that the characters are unaware of in this novel, due to the time placement. The value of this story is mostly in its addition of facts about the force and related objects, which comes back much later in the SW series.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT READ!!!
Review: Not worth reading unless you actually need to know everything there is to know about star wars. This takes place between A New Hope & The Empire Strike Back. Lets face it, between those two time periods Luke had no more control over the force than an acorn & somehow in this book he is not only able to stand up to Vader & live but actually win in a saber duel. I mean come on, even those little Padawans in episode 2 could have killed Luke. With all that aside I say this is a horrible book, a disgrace to Star Wars & a shame that it was ever written. I give this book one star & im even being generous with that.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and Unlikely
Review: I was not wild about this book. Apart from the beginning, the entire story takes place on a planet. Luke and Leia are the main characters with Chewy and Han being conspicuously absent. I found the pace of the story to be fairly slow moving and in fact, there was a bit in the middle which I didn't even read because I was getting bored with it. When Vader FINALLY appears in the last couple of chapters [I think he was late because he had been looking for his personality which he seems to have carelessly mislaid, but ultimately had to come on down without it] he is like a cardboard cut-out i.e. one dimensional and not very Vaderish - he even laughs at one point! Indeed, no one seems to be particularly in character. There is a scene where Vader and Luke are lifting rocks using the Force: Vader claims his rock is bigger and therefore, his powers are greater, which called to mind not a Dark Lord of the Sith but, a boastful little boy playing "my father's a policeman". It was quite ridiculous. On balance I found the entire story disappointing and unlikely. It is completely out of synch with the rest of the Star Wars universe.
Rating:
Summary: A very disturbing twist on Star Wars
Review: I picked up this book looking to fill in the gaps between episodes. Unfortunately this is the only one between IV and V. At first I had a lot of trouble with the writing style, very bland and boring. Then the author began to throw his own imagination into a plot that was begun by someone else. Luke and Leia act like children and do not show the maturity they did in A New Hope. The authors characters seem to be totally different people. Next with the addition of Luke and Leia's foreplay, I almost couldn't stomach the implications. Even after taking into account that the author did not know where the story was going in later movies, I found his writing style difficult to enjoy due to its simplicity and lack of good character development. If you are looking for a good Star Wars read and not concerned with reading them all, I would suggest skipping over this one because the tone does not fit in with the rest of the saga.
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