You May Read When Ready

Death Star (Star Wars Legends)
by Michael Reaves & Steve Perry

The Empire is close to finishing construction on the Death Star, a technological terror that will end all wars and any spark of resistance. But a space station this size needs personnel - both to bring it to life and to make sure it functions as intended. Slaves and prisoners. Pilots and gunners. Archivists and guards. Bartenders and stowaways. Most of them will not escape their fate.

I'm usually quite harsh in reviews of books that fail to present a plot, but somehow Death Star just works. It explores the background noise of A New Hope and the lower decks (so to speak) of the Death Star, giving us what feels like a behind-the-scenes tour and showing the effect that seemingly small lives can have on the grand scheme of things. Had this novel not been so steeped in misogyny (a constant failing of these two authors), I'd have viewed it on par with Disney's later Rogue One.

This book's greatest crime, unquestionably, is the ham-fisted insertion of Admiral Daala. It could have been acceptable... had the authors not gone too far and then annoyingly relied on amnesia to fix things. Happily, other references to Legends novels weren't too obtrusive.

These various failings aside, I really enjoyed Death Star and easily became engrossed in it whenever I had the time to peruse its pages.

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