A REVIEW

THE LAST COMMAND: Star Wars Book Three by Timothy Zahn (Bantam Press 1993 pp407 £9.99)
STAR WARS 3: ZORBA THE HUTT'S REVENGE by Paul Davids and Hollace Davids, illustrated by Karl Kesel (Bantam 1993 pp94 £2.99)
STAR WARS 4: MISSION FROM MOUNT YODA by Paul Davids and Hollace Davids, illustrated by June Brigman and Karl Kesel (Bantam 1993 pp95 £2.99)
a review by L J Hurst


Timothy Zahn has finished his trilogy with another blockbuster. Admiral Thrawn, who has planned to take over the universe, is defeated and the lunatic C'baoth who has Jedi powers is undone. All only comes to an end after a multitude of plots, hair's-breadth escapes and chases across the universe, but when it does it gives an impression of being like Mae West's choice in men:- satisfying through being big and stupid. I am not sure whether it was part of Zahn's intention that I felt an identity with Thrawn in his cunning battle plans, but I did, and I'm not sure what this says about the heroes of the films and books.

On the other hand my feelings about the other two books are much more certain: they suck. Aimed at a readership in the age-range 9+, they make unattractive reading. Three things explain this: firstly, (and even Timothy Zahn has problems with this, which makes me think it is intentional), the dialogue is full of a twee familiarity; secondly, the world is filled with polysyllabically named devices, so you find characters saying "'Han and I will navigate, Chewie,' Princess Leia said. 'I think Han still doesn't believe how well I can fly a Corellian Action VI Transport spaceship. Shall I show him?'" And thirdly, the authors randomly use longer more cumbersome words when they could have used shorter synonyms (such as timepiece for clock, appreciative for thanks, illuminators for lights). Examined closely because of these last two points the books make difficult reading (rating 75 and 76 respectively on a Flesch analysis), about as difficult as adult novels by Mary Gentle, Van Vogt or Gene Wolfe, and 10 points more difficult than one of Robert Heinlein's juveniles aimed at an older, teenage readership.

What all three books have in common is a tendency to appear to be technical, and to work on the appearance. So in Zahn, for example, Princess Leia lands on Honoghr and goes where there is "what appeared to be the food storage/preparation module from a small spaceship". The simple English word for a food storage/preparation module on any kind of ship is galley, but the Princess who is familiar with the handling of a Corellian Action VI Transport spaceship is unfamiliar with such a term apparently. Or is it Zahn's attempts at defamiliarisation that leads him to these convolutions? Most likely it is.

If the universe of STAR WARS is strange enough should it need to be portrayed in this way? In MAD MAX II, Max and his captive, the Autogyro Pilot, walk through the desert; when the picture fades in we know they have been walking and talking for a long time. "Lingerie," says the Pilot. "Do you remember lingerie?" There is the portrayal of another world, no longer anything like our own. The roots of these books are too shallowly sunk in this one.

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This review first appeared in VECTOR The Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association

© L J Hurst 2001