The Courtship of Princess Leia, Chapter Two

[sunnyskywalker]

My motives for doing this readthrough.
Chapter One.

And now we skip over to Luke for some Foreshadowing of Doom^TM. This chapter is shorter, and parts of it are almost good!

• The clean feeling assured Luke that the ruins had once been inhabited by a good Jedi who mopped his floors, did his laundry, and took out his trash frequently.



• Sorry. Actually this fits very well with the Emperor's “emotional bloodstain” (or whatever it was) from the Zahn trilogy. Good Jedi leave behind good feelings, and Sith leave behind nasty feelings.



• A flock of snow demons Hapan Dragons, snow demons...what next, witches in lizard skins? Oh, wait.



• The Whiphid whistled a long reply [...] and Luke translated by the power of the Force. By the power of Grayskull! I didn't know the Force was a universal translator. Must be handy.



• "Having sighted an enemy, honor demands that I attack." At least he doesn't throw down a gauntlet or sound a horn to announce it.



• The Whiphid wore a weapon belt as its not his or her or their? only article of clothing, and from the array hanging there, it pulled free a blackened iron morning star honor, morning star -- the Whiphid must come from the same fantasy universe as the Hapans.



• With a weapon in each huge fist, it charged over the tundra, right-clicking to cast its barbarian Warcry as it ran.



• On the dirt floor immediately behind the rock, Luke found the boot prints of Imperial stormtroopers, still preserved after all these years. Luke studied the prints, wondering if any would have belonged to his father. Darth Vader probably would have had to come. Only he could have killed the Jedi Master who had lived in these caverns. I actually like this passage. It's believable, it's understated (which really stands out in this book), it's sad and touching, and it's something I can believe Luke would think.



• I also like the description of the tunnels that immediately follows. The “stale scent of rodent dung and fur,” the drained power droid, the heater with the cables chewed through – such a clear picture, and so refreshingly subtle after the long descriptions of the Hapans' dazzling silky garments and long legs.



• Luke followed the tunnels toward Balin's Tomb Shelob Honeyduke's the clean feeling of the Jedi. Was there a trail of bleach?



• The body was gone, dissipated as Yoda's and Ben's had. Did he take the Shaman of the Whills correspondence course with Qui-Gon? The secret of overcoming death is not very secret, is it?



• A stream of opalescent energy shot out as the lightsaber hummed to life. That's the second mention of opals in this book. Did I mention they're supposed to be bad luck? I have a bad feeling about this...



• A curator of records for the Jedi at Coruscant Did he work with Jocasta Nu? Who is this guy?



• But the recordings were blasted and burned to cinders [...] All of it gone. The knowledge and deeds of a thousand generations of Jedi. I think this is one of the saddest parts of the book. Reading about destroyed records can make me tear up. It's like the stories about the Great Library of Alexandria.



• Luke finds some non-burned records, and a “sense of peace” leads him to one called Repulsed by the Witches, starring a younger, greener Yoda. The holo is fragmented, but Luke sees enough to be shocked at what Yoda got up in centuries past. There are cryptic references to the Chu'unthor and to Dathomir, Planet of Space Amazons.



• Also, as George Lucas hasn't told anyone about padawans yet, Yoda refers to fourteen acolytes being killed.



• perhaps [Dathomir] was a small place, a moon on some planet on the Outer Rim, so far from civilization that it had fallen into a sword-and-sorcery novel.



• Luke felt certain that he would find it, sometime, somewhere. The author promised!



• The Whiphids built a bonfire and roasted the snow demon, and the young danced while the elders played their claw harps and otherwise provided quaint, low-tech charm. The grizzled old storyteller, the wide-eyed boy with a Secret Destiny, and the spunky girl who wants to be a hunter too despite the laws of the clan have their own adventure after Luke leaves. Jeez, I know Star Wars is science fantasy, but this this is a bit much. The Ewoks were at least relevant to the plot.



• Luke has a vision: Luke stood in a mountain fortress of stone, looking over a plain with a sea of dark forested hills beyond so, generic fantasy setting, and a storm rose [...] Luke could feel a malevolence hidden in those clouds and knew that they had been raise through the power of the dark side of the Force. They are evil, evil clouds. Metaphorical clouds of DOOM!



• Or else Storm is raining on someone's parade. She does Sith lightening now too, you know.



• It was as if a storm of pure dark Force raged over the countryside, and suddenly, amid the towering clouds of darkness see, Han, I told you that you should leave the darkness to Luke that thundered toward him, Luke could hear laughing, the sweet sound of women laughing. Malevolently, but sweetly, I assume. He looked above into the dark clouds, and saw the women borne through the air along with the rocks and debris, like motes of dust, laughing. We get it. They're laughing. And the clouds are dark.



• A voice seemed to whisper, "The witches of Dathomir." Just in case you hadn't figured out that we're going to Dathomir from that holo, let's whack you over the head a bit.

Onward to Chapter Three!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I've never read this book, and now I'm glad I haven't. However, these notes are clearly the best way to not read the book and still enjoy it!

Bravo!


~Rel Fexive

[sunnyskywalker]

Thanks!

[davincorros.livejournal.com]

HAH! You are absolutely brilliant. I'm laughing harder than I've laughed... well, at least since a few nights ago.

This is damn funny <.

[sunnyskywalker]

Glad you liked it!

[morgan-d.livejournal.com]

A flock of snow demons Hapan Dragons, snow demons... what next, witches in lizard skins? Oh, wait.

Yeah, that really is starting to sound like a space fantasy, isn't it? Oh, wait. ^__^ Seriously, I liked the idea of the witches community, and I also liked the idea of them living in harmony with the Rancors.


I didn't know the Force was a universal translator.

Yeah, that's when I started to fidget. Wolverton was waaaaay too liberal on the use of the Force, IMHO. It's one thing if Luke could sense the Whiphid's general intentions, but an actual translation?


I actually like this passage. It's believable, it's understated (which really stands out in this book), it's sad and touching, and it's something I can believe Luke would think.

Same here. One of the few moments I recognised Luke in the book.


The body was gone, dissipated as Yoda's and Ben's had Did he take the Shaman of the Whills correspondence at the same time as Qui-Gon? The secret of overcoming death is not very secret, is it?

In Wolverton's defense, the book was written way before Lucas messed up with the Jedi death thing in the prequels.


That's the second mention of opals in this book. Did I mention they're supposed to be bad luck?

Are they? I had never heard of it. I love opals.


Jeez, I know Star Wars is science fantasy, but this this is a bit much.

I suppose each one draws the line in a different place then. I really don't get why the elements you've mentioned so far have bothered you so much. They didn't bother me. The Ewoks didn't bother me at all, I like them, but I know many SW fans despise RotJ because of their existence. As far as I'm concerned, SW is a sword-and-sorcery story in space, so... *shrugs*

Yeah, I definitely liked the book a lot better than you did. ^__^

[sunnyskywalker]

Luke, how we treasure your few in-character moments in this book!

I would love to see a retcon for the disappearing Jedi, actually. He did know how to disappear, and now we know that few Jedi did, so there must be an interesting story there. Maybe he discovered little clues in the Archives, and somehow turned Qui-Gon onto the subject, but they never got to reconnect after Qui-Gon met the Shaman of the Whills and this guy had to figure out the rest on his own while waiting for Vader...

There's a little bit about opals here and here. I had a better link, but the page vanished :( Anyway, the superstition developed in the 19th century, possibly because diamond merchants didn't like it encroaching on their market and possibly because of a Sir Walter Scott novel. In ancient times, opals symbolized various things, including "foresight and prophecy" and "hope and purity." This makes Wolverton's use of opal imagery very appropriate - it could mean bad luck, or togetherness, or something or other about the future. This redeems him somewhat, I think.

You know, I maybe it isn't the fantasy aspects so much as gratuitous fantasy aspects. Witches - fine, we already have Jedi, and they're basically wizards. But snow demons? Why are they demons? If they were significant and actually benefitted from being associated with demons (of whatever variety), then that would be cool. But they could be snow hawks and it wouldn't make any difference, so it feels off to me.