Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye

Rating:
Summary: An awful pastiche
Review: The most glaring inconsistency between this book and Star Wars is the fact that Foster made Leia a pilot. Nowhere in Star Wars is there even a hint that she could fly a Y-Wing.

That aside, Foster is totally unable to capture the tone of the characters. I really tried to hear the actors delivering the lines, but by around the first 1/4 of the book, I had given up in disgust. They only characters he got right were Threepio and Artoo.

Further, the actions on the part of the characters are also questionable. I refer, of course, to the entirely implausible mud-wrestling scene in the middle of town between Luke and Leia.

Lastly, Darth Vader loses the fight by falling down a well. Although this is nice unintentional foreshadowing to Boba Fett's "demise" in the Saarlac pit, that scene sucked as well.

The plot is uninteresting, the additional characters are unremarkable, and we don't even glimpse Han and Chewie. What a waste of paper. Makes me glad I didn't read it back in 1978, where I would have been REALLY offended.

Rating:
Summary: If you like the first three movies...
Review: This book is essential to make the first three movies make sense.
Read this story and then watch the interaction with the three characters from the viewpoint of your new insight and you will say to yourself aha! Clearly the best of any of the star wars books. Hint... The Han Solo books will also give you insight into his character, but they are not nearly as good of a story as "Splinter"
It is also the story that makes "Episode I" into a bad story.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible!
Review: A few things to begin:

1: I know this was the only SW novel in 78.
2: How did this author win any SF award?

So, I read through this book and by page 83 was convinced that Leia and Luke were two little children who constantly bickered and would lack the intellect not to get into a mud fight in the precarious situation they were in.

THIS book is utterly unbelievable. I thought I was sitting in on a 1978 D&D game!

The writing is impossibly immature. Along with petty infighting and Leia's YOU KNOW WHO I AM lines (like that is going to scare big burly miners on an imperial controlled planet????) mixed with a few WORDY paragraphs and that just about sums up this novel.

AVOID THIS NOVEL if this is your first venture into the expanded universe! Not all the SW novels are great ore even good, but the worst of the post 78 novels make this novel look like a bedtime story written by a child.


Rating:
Summary: All we had in '78
Review: This novel, while lacking a little, is still a fun read. I wish that I would have read it years ago before all the other stuff. I am sure it would have been much better then. I am not sure why, but it seems to be just a simple little story that really doesn't excite me as much as some of the others I have read. I honestly think that this is because I read it later than I should have. It is still a good book and a lot of fun for a true fan.