Star Wars: The Crystal Star

By: Vonda McIntyre

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Vonda N. McIntyre continues the bestselling Star Wars saga as the ultimate space adventure unfolds in The Crystal Star.

Princess Leia's children have been kidnapped. Along with Chewbacca and Artoo-Detoo, she follows the kidnappers' trail to a disabled refugee ship, from which children are also missing. Here she learns of a powerful Imperial officer with a twisted plan to restore the Empire. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are cut off from Leia by the death of a nearby star, which has caused a disruption in the Force. They have gone to the planet Crseih to investigate a report of a lost group of Jedi. Instead they find a charismatic alien named Waru whose miraculous healing powers have attracted a fanatic following. As Leia follows the path of her children across space, Luke and Han draw closer to the truth behind Waru's sinister cult. Together they will face an explosive showdown that will decide the survival of the New Republic . . . and the universe itself!© and (P)1994 Lucasfilm Ltd. and TM.

a little darker then most star wars stories

not as amazing as some of Luke's adventures and definitely dark as it delves in child slavery and the bad guy trys to feed Anakin Solo to a demon near the end.

so yeah its not for younger readers at all.

but for the more mature and hardcore star wars fans this is a fun and frightening adventure with Luke, Han and Leia.

4 out of 5 stars good story decent voice work and great sound affects as usual.

Interesting to say the least

I know what you're thinking... Oh no! It's the Marc Thompson fanboy again.

Well you know what I'm going to say initially. I would objectively prefer that this novel and pretty much all novels have full releases. Too often am I hampered of experiencing the full experience of an Audiobook that has been cut down to the point of basically being an episode rather than a movie/series. I am plagued with difficult and busy lifestyle that much of my time is taken up by important things. I can't sit down and read a novel with all the context necessary to see it all unfold when some context not included in the abridged version would still actually hold narrative weight and importance.

I have moments of being busy, but being able to listen to an audiobook to keep my mind sharp and active while doing menial things in my day-to-day life. And audiobooks are where I find that median. NOW! Should a full Audiobook ever happen, you know I'd love if it were Marc Thompson that narrated it. BUT Anthony Heald is not the worst narrator. Infact, since my initial experience and with more exposure to his format, I actually have grown to appreciate his style and emphasis on words. His impersonations on the characters were pretty decent and I knew which character he was immitating before he clarified who was speaking. Very good narrator and top tier sound design as always. Beautifully crafted moments enhanced with well timed traditional Star Wars music and properly placed sounds like Artoo or Chewie.

On the book itself: It's........ Something. Vonda McIntyre certainly had a vision, though some of the vision seems to have been lost. As an EU perveyor and Star Wars enthusiast bent on making continuity fit between non-canon and canon arcs, there are connections I can make appropriately like Hethrir perhaps being a successful Inquisitor and such. Of course, some things I have to omit myself to work with that continuity narrative, but it still helps to strengthen what Ms. McIntyre presented. As a character study, Leia is a shining character for this one. More intuned with her abilities and the resolve to find her children who'd been kidnapped by a Force-Sensitive Dark Jedi seeking power from her youngest and seemingly most powerful child, Anakin.

Luke is noticeably and even sometimes painfully stunted and nerfed in this novel. Thankfully explained away by a sort of dark side influence held over him because of the Crystal Star itself and, to add insult to injury, Waru (More on Waru later). Han Solo, oof, here's the character I think I have the MOST problem with from a narrative perspective. This comes from recently listening to The Courtship of Princess Leia and immediately into The Crystal Star, events that take place 6 years apart from each other and after listening to a rather compelling Han seeking Leia's love over a tragic love-triangle, the dynamic of having a female character from Han's past create some sort of rift (namely more for Luke vs. Han rather than Leia) feels a bit half-baked and almost forced. In fact, I almost feel that her own presence within the story might not have effected the plot if she weren't even there.

Lastly, characters that pertain to the novel... Hethrir is actually okay. Not the greatest villain (AHEM! Thrawn), but decent. A power-craving force-sensitive with a dark past serving Darth Vader who was blessed ironically with a child (Tigris) who didn't have any real force-sensitivity to speak of, creating a heated regression in his care for his own child. Hethrir is a Slavemaster who uses his influence and abilities to control kidnapped children in order to pave the way for an up and coming army, on top of that, he sacrifices many of them to a multi-dimensional being known as Waru.

Waru, is an interesting concept for Star Wars, but not unheard of. While many have expressed opinions on Waru's existence even being a thing at all in Star Wars, there are literally half-a-dozen other deep space "eldritch" like horrors that are sentient, nearly god-like beings that bend the force in many ways that our typical cast of characters couldn't hope to achieve, so I'm more accepting of Waru than others. That being said, the climax at the end was...... Confusing and could basically be chocked down to a "Mental battle that you don't get to watch" as most of it is moreso portrayed through the perspective of Leia and Han's children Jaina, Jacen and Anakin. Once last thing, the book deviates and sort of adds more from Jedi Academy's "kid's misadventures" plot. I really don't mind it and actually like sometimes the whimsical sort of innocent journeys of Jaina, her twin brother, Jacen, and their littlest brother Anakin.

I like it, Picasso.

Pleasantly surprised!

This novel gets a bad rap as far as EU novels go. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It reminds me of when Star Wars wasn't as clearly defined as it is now. Now many of those magical and fantasy elements have been replaced with more hardcore sci fi. Anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Not my favorite author..

I've listened to almost every star wars audio book available. This one sounds like the author is a furry 🙄
I applaud the narrator for puttinguop with it so professionally.

Great Production, weird waru

suffice to say, it's mostly good. waru is very strange almost non-star wars creature but nonetheless I liked it.