The Crystal Star
                          by Vonda McIntyre
		
                 Review copyright (c) 1995 by Doug Ingram

[Bibliographic information at the end of the article.]

	_The_Crystal_Star (_TCS_) is a chapter in Bantam Spectra's
continuing history of the Star Wars Universe after the movie trilogy.
_TCS_ takes place 10 years after the end of _Return_of_the_Jedi, and
after all the other books in the entire Bantam Spectra series that
have been published to date (December 1995) except for Roger MacBride
Allen's "Corellian Trilogy".  In this review, I will take the luxury
of assuming the reader is familiar with the major characters in the
Star Wars universe.  Spoilers will be kept to a minimum.

	_TCS_ opens with Han and Luke on a brief "vacation" of sorts
that also doubles as part of Luke's continuing mission to find new
potential Jedi to continue the tradition.  The two are visiting a
strange trading station situated on a small planetoid very near to
a black hole that is quite close to engulfing a nearby white dwarf
star that is spiraling in (if that sentence sounds awkward, you should
see the description in the book).  Meanwhile, Princess Leia opens _TCS_
by discovering that her three children (the twins, Jacen and Jaina,
and Anakin, the youngest) have been kidnapped.

	Leia and Chewie eventually find the trail of the kidnappers
and take off after them, eventually stumbling upon a few surprises
left over from the remnants of the old Empire and finding some additional
help along the way.  The children, as it turns out, have been kidnapped
and interned in a "boot camp" of sorts for young children with Jedi
potential, run by an evil faction left over from the Empire.  They
try a variety of ways to escape, but before they can hope to have any
success, the head of the camp, an evil man with some Jedi powers named
Hethrir, spirits Anakin away for some kind of "purification ritual".

	On their "vacation", Han and Luke (and Threepio) meet one of
Han's old flames (Xaverri) and a strange creature named Waru who seems
to hold both great power to heal and some hidden purpose that seems
all too sinister to Han.  To make matters worse, Luke feels his Jedi
abilities and his connection to the Force slowly fading away, and he
grows more and more desperate to find the source of the problem, even
to the point of seeking out the "healer" Waru for some sort of help.
The two main plots threads eventually coincide with Waru, Hethrir
and the rest of the main characters playing a major role in 
Hethrir's attempt to "purify" Anakin (and trying to stop it).

	The obvious measuring stick for _TCS_ is the overall quality
of the rest of the books in the Star Wars series.  Like it or not, 
McIntyre is writing in the Star Wars universe and so she must "play
by its rules" in some sense to have success and to satisfy her audience.
I don't think she completely succeeded.  The one quality of _TCS_ that
really stands out in comparison to the rest of the books in the Star
Wars series is a lack of an "epic" feel.  McIntyre never really succeeds
in making any characters threatening (with the clear exception of Waru),
and there really only seems to be real danger for Luke in this book and
not the other characters, despite the kidnapping plot (a creative
disappointment due to its inevitability in any novel involving a powerful
family with small children) and various other threats.  The problem
with Luke's danger is that it only develops thanks to Luke's behaving
very much out of character (more on this later).

	I think McIntyre made a deliberate effort here to make this
installment in Star Wars have a somewhat lighter tone, often referring
to Han and Luke's travails in a rather casual light (which is fine in
some places and not in others) and referring to Leia's rescue attempts
and the twins' escape attempts in a very whimsical tone, enticing the
reader to take the threats somewhat lightly.  For some novels this might
work, but it just doesn't feel right in the Star Wars universe.  George
Lucas made Star Wars great by making it an epic, not a romp (many fans,
myself included, felt that the emphasis of _Return_of_the_Jedi_ on the
Ewoks was a bit of a disappointment...a very MINOR disappointment, of
course).

	With one exception, however, McIntyre's characterization is
right on target and a joy to read.  Han, Threepio and Leia are all
very strongly written, and one can easily recall mental images from
the movie series virtually any time one of these three characters is
in a scene.  Luke, on the other hand, seems to have regressed in this
book, and McIntyre tosses out all of the character development we've
seen of Luke in both the movie series and the novels that preceded
_TCS_.  Upon the fading of his Jedi powers, Luke's self-confidence
vanishes and he resorts to nearly attacking Han and making himself
a burden to everyone rather than an asset.  I think the same threat
to Luke's well-being could've been accomplished without this and
could have generated a little more surprise and excitement.

	Of the villains, Waru is clearly the best drawn.  Xaverri,
as Waru's assistant and Han's old flame (it's not really clear what
"side" she's on in the novel), is an interesting new character that
I hope to see again in future novels.  Hethrir and the minor villains
at the Jedi "boot camp" just don't come off as being all that sinister,
despite their foul deeds.  In the final confrontation, in fact, one
might expect the main villain, Hethrir, to have a stature similar
to that of Vader or even the Emperor.  Unfortunately, he compares more
favorably to a televangelist.

	Of the three main plot threads, Han and Luke's is the best,
mainly because of the presence of four of the best-written characters
in the book (Waru, Xaverri, Han and Threepio) and the fact that Waru
is really the only ominous potential threat in the book.  Leia's search
is a bit contrived, to say the least, but it doesn't detract at all
from the book.  The twins' experience in boot camp is clearly the
weakest of the three.  Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading
Orson Scott Card's _Ender's_Game_ (another "children's boot camp"
sort of novel, but it's GREAT) will cringe at some of the passages.

	The fairest way to judge _TCS_ is to ask:  Without the backing
of the Star Wars universe, does _TCS_ stand out on its own as a 
particularly strong story or particularly good novel?  The answer
is a qualified "no".  There are parts of this book to enjoy, and the
truly devoted Star Wars fan will probably never be disappointed by
any new material in this genre.  If you're following the Star Wars
series (there is a timeline in the back of _TCS_), I don't think
it would do you much harm to skip this installment.  The other books
tend to refer back to earlier stories enough to make this possible.
I only hope that future books keep a somewhat higher standard, closer
to that set by the first five post-_Jedi_ books by Tyers, Wolverton
and Zahn.

Doug Ingram // d.ingram@tcu.edu // "Carpe Datum"
	http://personal.tcu.edu/~dingram/books.html (for more reviews)

%A McIntyre, Vonda
%T The Crystal Star
%I Bantam Spectra
%C New York
%D 1994
%G ISBN 0-553-57174-5
%S Star Wars