Children of the Jedi - Barbara Hambly

Children of the Jedi - Barbara Hambly - May 1995

A bit of background going into this review. I graduated from High School in May of 1995. Thus, when this book came out, I was in a period of transition, looking forward to heading down to the University of Oklahoma. My love for Star Wars would go with me. However, I will admit that at the time, I really wasn't much of a Science Fiction fan. Oh, I loved Star Wars -- but not Sci Fi. If I wasn't reading Star Wars I was reading Tom Clancy, or Anne Rice. Sci Fi - not so much. I didn't read Asimov... I had done some Clarke, but that's it - and as such I wasn't used to Science Fiction tropes and the like.

At the time, I pretty much despised the book. It's part of the reason I hadn't reread it in years. But now, I see some things about it, I can appreciate it, even if I think it has some rather fatal flaws. But let's consider the book.

The EU - Hambly's writing. Simply in terms of structure, handling of the story, description, things like this, Barbara Hambly shows herself to be quite an author. Rereading this book makes me want to read some of her non-Star Wars works. This book really is skillfully put together. The only slight complaint would be some egregious use of long words. I think Star Wars should be easily read, and some of the words were. . . well, I'm a Classicist who has studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Japanese, plus got a 790 Verbal on his SAT, and once or twice even I went. . . um... ah, okay. However, they were just tossed in once in a while, and no repeats. I can't complain too much about a silver dollar word every 100 pages or so.

The EU - Leia's Emotions. While I don't (as it will be shown later) necessarily like the setting for it, the exploration of Leia's thoughts and emotions, playing between her past on Alderaan and in the Imperial Court with the current plot of the book, was extremely well done. It probably is some of the most... real writing that happens in the Expanded Universe - it seemed real. While I might have preferred to see it in a short story format where it would take center stage, it was really, really well done.

The Bad - Too Much Sci Fi. I think the big flaw of this book is that there was too much Science Fiction in it. What I mean is this - so few of the pages were given to action, or heroics. The main thrust and plot is Luke being trapped, while injured, on a massive ship with a thought controlling AI. A major side focus is whether or not Nichos is really alive. You have pages of computer terminal prompt dialog. While this is fantastic for Sci-Fi, for Star Wars, for Saturday Afternoon action serial, for Space Opera... it's not. Even the destruction of the Eye of Palpatine is rather. . . actionless. The only good action scene is really Leia's escape from Irek - and this isn't enough action for a Star Wars novel. Speaking of which.

The Bad - Irek. Now, as anyone named Eric can tell you, Irek is Eric with the vowels switched. As such, the prospect of having a villain named after me was pretty cool. However, he was lacking. He was just too much of. . . well. . . the same. Is he the heir of the Emperor... or is he the next Vader... or is he whiney Luke but on the dark side. It's a villain without anything to make him his own - except for the ability to mess with droids, sort of. But that doesn't make him a character - his villainy doesn't stand alone. And this is it... until the Del Rey folks just sudden resurrected him as a Plot Device... I mean as "Lord Nyax"... who is even worse than Irek. As a rule of thumb, petulant teens inspiring villains do not make.

The Ugly - Callista. Okay, to be blunt, I hate Callista with a passion. The idea of Callista had such promise - a story of sacrifice, of wisdom. If she had been simply blown up at the end, she would have been a wonderful tragic character. However, she wasn't made to be this, she was made to be a romantic interest for Luke Skywalker, and as such, she fails, hard, and on multiple levels. What are these?

1. Great Romances don't sound like the old game Zork. Seriously, Luke falls in love with a command prompt. This is creepy, especially as it is before you have the full advent of the internet and e-dating and all that. To suddenly fall for the girl in the computer is something that would have been appropriate for Irek, not for Luke.

2. Too perfect. Okay, so the gal with great wisdom of the Jedi (which Luke is always searching for in the Bantam books), who is self sacrificing, suddenly gets the perfect body (ah, the Blonde with the Legs -- who cares who she used to be, we've got a new use for those legs). Her only flaw ends up being that she loses her connection to the force. . . which wouldn't necessarily be a character flaw. In fact (shudder) she could have kept on as a perfect figure with this tragic loss in her past making her perfectly sympathetic.

3. Ethics Fail. Okay, while I suppose Callista taking over Cray's body dovetails with the whole Nichos character, still... um... yeah, this babe I'm mackin' on at the end of the book sort of possessed the body of my student... it turns it into some sort of weird "Don't Stand So Close to Me" setting, except merged with "Let's Get it On" and suddenly supposed to be happy and romantic. Seriously - this is just incredibly creepy.

4. Most Simply - She Ain't Mara Jade. Why try to make a better wheel than the perfect wheel? Just. . . no. The bitter, jaded one is the truly perfect companion to the innocent farmboy. The perfect romance is about being complimentary - and too often that is forgotten. Mara is Luke's equal and opposite. Anything else is just lacking and foolish.

So, what does this mean? Well, I suppose one might read this book without the utter dislike of Callista that I have being a Mara fan and not have this little ball of disgust that I do. And to review, I should overlook that. The book is well written, even if slightly out of place in Star Wars given its lack of action. I will give it a B-. Although it has many redeeming qualities, they tend to be more internal, introspective aspects. It doesn't work as a Star Wars novel. You can do introspection in the Star Wars Universe in short stories, but to drive a novel of 300+ pages - you need something action oriented or earth-shaking in its revelatory nature. This book didn't have that. Still, it's a better book than I remember it being, and I'm glad I reread it.