I should have listened to my inner voice on this one. I couldn’t recall much of The Crystal Star as I hadn’t read it since it came out in 1994, but I remembered I didn’t care for it a lot.

And that’s weird, because generally I like Vonda N. McIntyre’s work. She wrote the novelizations for Trek II, III and IV, and also the first novel in the PocketBook series, The Entropy Effect. She created a number of things that became canon, including Sulu and Uhura’s first names.

She had a wonderful handle on Trek, but honestly, I found that her take on Star Wars didn’t have the space opera sweep that the films, and the other novels to that point had. With a number of the other stories to date I could hear the themes of John Williams at work, but this time out, I didn’t hear it.

Leia, Artoo and Chewbacca take her ship, Alderaan in pursuit of a kidnapper who has taken her children, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin. The children have been taken by a group known as the Empire Reborn, some of whom are a little force-sensitive.

Of course, this story is going to come together with the other story at work. Han, Luke and Threepio are on a strange planet near a black hole and a crystallized white dwarf. There they encounter a strange cult and a being known as Waru.

There is an effect on Luke and his connection to the force, and not everything is safe or is as it seems.

There’s something going on for sure. But it doesn’t have that bang-flash of Star Wars storytelling. The narrative usually goes fast and faster, and you can even see the wipes in your mind’s eye when the scene changes. But none of that seems to be happening here.

McIntyre is a great storyteller, but, and I hate to say it, this one didn’t work for me. It definitely felt more science fiction than space fantasy and at no point was I really engaged with it. There were touches that I did like, everyone seems to be donning disguises and Han grows a beard.

There’s also a bit of a look at Han’s past through an old flame that shows up, which causes he and Luke some problems.

With so many Star Wars novels not all of them are going to be winners, it’s just bothersome that it was by an author that I’ve previously enjoyed.

There’s more adventure to come however, and next time a new story gets underway, The Corellian Trilogy’s first book, Ambush at Corellia!