7. Return of the Jedi by James Kahn (1983)

   Return of the Jedi





Boring and wordy. A perfect cover for a bad book. (Wookiepedia)

Summary: With Han Solo frozen in carbonite and a second Death Star under construction, things have never been more dire for the Rebellion. Luke must claim the mantle of Jedi Knight and face down his father, while his friends find a way to stop the Empire's superweapon from bring the galaxy to heel.

What it introduces: 

The Second Death Star

The Emperor (actually showing up in person)

Force Lightning (Mostly)

Jabba The Hutt (not counting that one scene in ANH)

Ewoks (and like 50 other kinds of aliens)

AT-STs

A Wings, B Wings, Mon Calamari Cruisers, and Lambda class shuttles

Admiral Ackbar

IT'S A TRAP!

Crix Madine

Manny Bothans

Commentary: Let's just drop the opening paragraph in here:

THE very depth of space. There was the length, and width, and height; and then these dimensions curved over on themselves into a bending blackness measurable only by the glinting stars that tumbled through the chasm, receding to infinity. To the very depth.

1. WTF?

2.  THE VERY DEPTH

3. Not Star Wars

And really, that's the whole book. If the ANH novel was an OK book, but not very Star Wars, and Star's End was good Star Wars, but a meh book, this is Bad Star Wars and a Bad Book.

Kahn also has the brilliant idea to transcribe the alien/droid languages like this, “Poot-wEEt beDOO gung ooble DEEp!”

Really excited to a line of nonsense dialogue every page or two.

He's obsessed with Luke transitioning FROM BOY TO MAN and manages to squeeze in some refence to it almost every chapter, as well as try to turn sci-fi phrases like "moondew on a meteorite" along with weird double speak like "incongruous, had it not been so totally inconspicuous." 

Ugh.

Review: 1/5 My commentary was mostly review this week, so I guess we're mostly good here. I was really disappointed by how bad this was. I said last week that I actually enjoy Jedi more than Empire, and after the strong showing by Glut (and the generally upward trend in Star Wars novels overall) I was ready to lean back, pop on the soundtrack, and enjoy myself.

Instead, we get someone's freshmen philosophy thesis filtered through a That Guy In Your MFA's novel (if he could lower himself to writing sci-fi).

Disappointing all around, and honestly flirting with, "would the world be a better place if this book didn't exist?" Not recommended for Star Wars fans, sci-fi fans, or readers in general. It feels weird to give an OT novel a skip recommend, but here we are.

Lando Calrissian time next week! See you then.

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