Razor's Edge

Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion, Book 1

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Times are desperate for the Rebel Alliance. Harassment by the Empire and a shortage of vital supplies are hindering completion of a new secret base on the ice planet Hoth. So when Mid Rim merchants offer much-needed materials for sale, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo lead an Alliance delegation to negotiate a deal.

But when treachery forces the rebel ship to flee into territory controlled by pirates, Leia makes a shocking discovery: The fierce marauders come from Leia's homeworld of Alderaan, recently destroyed by the Death Star. These refugees have turned to pillaging and plundering to survive - and they are in debt to a pirate armada, which will gladly ransom the princess to the vengeful Empire...if they find out her true identity.

Struggling with intense feelings of guilt, loyalty, and betrayal, Leia is determined to help her wayward kinspeople, even as Imperial forces are closing in on her own crippled ship. Trapped between lethal cutthroats and brutal oppressors, Leia and Han, along with Luke, Chewbacca, and a battle-ready crew, must defy death - or embrace it - to keep the rebellion alive.

©2013 Martha Wells (P)2013 Random House Audio

Good story but bad narration

The story is really good if you’re wondering what happened between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Unfortunately the performer’s narration is not that good when it comes to doing the make voices: Luke Skywalker sounds extremely whiny as if he’s gonna start to cry every time and Han Solo sounds like he’s about to take a shit. Also the narrator’s voice does get complacent that you zone out and lose focus in the story because you’ll feel like sleeping.

Star Wars extended universe

You learn more about Leah's post Empire Strikes Back. And learn about what happened. 😉

Great Book, Adequate Narrator.

Where does Razor's Edge rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have no earthly idea.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but I can't due to my busy schedule.

Any additional comments?

Great Book, very entertaining, and brings a new light to the destruction of a certain planet and Leia Organa. I love the why they had written the characters Han and Leia, but their interactions seemed... odd and not in the odd way it should; uncomfortable, skirting around these feelings they've got, etc. No this just felt... well odd. Aside from that the characters were well written and the plot was interesting and drew you in but... the narrator isn't perfect.

Now I don't know if it's something to do with vocal depth or not but all of January LaVoy's men sounded like she was doing one of the those random deep voice impressions of someone. Again I'm not sure if it's just me or maybe the Narrator isn't the best choice for a female narrator but I don't see Marc's or Johnathan's female characters as those random high voiced interpretations. Maybe it's harder to make a deeper voice than a higher voice? I'm not sure.

In the end, though, i had fun with this book, it was interesting, it drew me in, and the overarching story was once you reach the end ties together. I will suggest this to any and all Star Wars fans!

Good book

Nothing against female readers however this book should be read by a guy good book though I probably wouldn't recommend

Horrible Narration

Her narration put me to sleep. I could barely focus on the story. I might just have to read it.

good story, well read. I enjoyed listening to

it . it was enjoyable but as most things in life it could jabe been better and does not add to saga. kind of a one off story

Great Adventure

This was a great adventure to listen to! It was fast paced and kept me interested throughout the whole story.

Killing Time Waiting Foe Next Murderbot to Drop

So I decided to try something else by Ms Wells, not a big lover of Fantasy I decided to give Starwars a shot. A pleasant surprise, unlike other books in the series it really caught the spirit of the original trilogy. I would like to see Disney make this into a series, unlike the vapid plots and stilted dialogue of the current offerings. I really enjoyed it. The narrator was terrific, I'm going to check out titles based on her narration.

eh

This is an affeminate take on early rebellion Han Solo. The author would have done better with Luke, she doesn't understand Han at all.

Lavoy is very good voice for Leia, and I'd like it if she were doing the female roles to Marc Thompson narrations, but her male roles outside of Luke are cringe worthy and take me out of the story completely.

The good news is the story is choppy and uninteresting anyways. It's a series of unrelated and highly coincidental events that feels like it was called in for a quick buck. If you just need star wars content, it's not the worst piece of hot garbage you can find.

Not the typical Star Wars Book

I have been a fan of the expanded universe from the very start - graphic novels, short stories, books, whatever I could get my hands on. I'm oldschool though and I really do like the adventures of Leia, Han and Luke the best and this is a nice look into Leia's world.

As I started this book I was a little put off by the narrator - that being said, I think she does a fantastic job. Ok, granted she is not Marc Thompson but...I think that's the point - this is a book about Leia, not Han, not Lando - Leia and some other very prominent female characters and January Lavoy does an excellent job on every single one. I also think she does a pretty good job of Han and Luke (C3P0 was a little weak but not really distracting)- I would recommend she not try Lando though, that guy is just too smooth.

This book isn't all space battles and shoot-em-up, although it has plenty of that too. Instead I enjoyed getting into Leia's mind, behind the self-assured mask a bit. I would have liked to go even deeper but this was a nice change of pace. Wells does a good job of setting the foundation for the Leia and the woman/jedi she later becomes.

Let your prejudices go - no it's not Thompson, get over it. Let Wells and Lavoy take you into Leia's world.