I'm not sure why this wonderful book has been so harshly reviewed. It is certainly the best Star Wars novel I have read; it has more of the emphasis on character and spiritual issues and less of the "military" focus of the (also excellent) Zahn books. Many reviewers focus on the perceived flaw of "too much description." Perhaps the issue here is that many Star Wars readers really want a movie and not a book. And many Star Wars novels attempt to satisfy this desire. So, don't pick this up unless you enjoy books as literature. The descriptions are beautiful and really carry the reader to truly alien places. The subplots about what it means to be authentically who you are weave together without feeling like they were constructed to do so. The characters of Cray and Nichos are well-drawn and their dilemma creates both existential and romantic angst. The vanished Jedi children, visible as "ghosts" to Leia, in their happiness and freedom, contrast with the terrible, pitiable " creatures" in the tunnels. Luke's "mission impossible" aboard the asteroid spaceship, and the humor and horror of the mind-altered aliens aboard, is exciting and memorable. The characterization of classic Star Wars alien races like Jawas, Sand People, and Gamorreans is very good. Overall, the dreamy and often depressing style which put so many other reviewers off is remarkably effective and does not make the book any less Star Wars-like.
For me, one of the big flaws of the Expanded Universe has been that many of the adventures seem like mere trivial episodes which don't have lasting implications, don't show us anything new about the characters, aren't truly thought-provoking, and just don't need to have happened. Children of the Jedi feels like a series of really significant events in the lives of the characters. I feel I know more about even C3PO and R2D2.
I'll close this review with a debate topic for Star Wars novel fans. Was it a good idea to link all the novels into one universe, so that each author was required to take into account the events of all the other books? While it's nice to have a continuity to follow and see new characters like Mara Jade pop up, it also seems to hamstring the authors, limiting what their imaginations can show us. No big changes can occur because the drawing board has to be left open for other writers. What if, instead, there had been no imposed continuity? Then each author would be beholden only to the movies, and could do whatever they wanted without fear of contradicting other authors or changing the universe to much for future authors. The the readers would truly not know what to expect- Luke could die, Vader could turn out to be alive, Earth could be discovered, and so on. Then when the book ended those ideas wouldn't ruin future novels.
Perhaps even if the large continuity was maintained, there could have been "imaginary" stories, the way the old DC comics used to do - stories where Superman and Lois got married or Batman died, that were outside the continuity.
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