Tatooine Ghost
So after reading the wonderful NJO: Star By Star by Troy Denning and hearing about the wonderful things that are in Tatooine Ghost, I decided to get a few more Star Wars books to entertain myself throughout the summer.
I checked out which other NJO books were worth it, and found that Destiny’s Way and The Unifying Force were good. I was debating with myself whether or not to get the Aaron Allston NJOs but decided that I wanted to finish with it as soon as possible.
Then, I decided to get Labyrinth of Evil which apparently occurs right before Episode III. Also on the list was Zahn’s Heir to the Empire, the first of the Thrawn Trilogy, which I really need to read.
Then I got Darksaber because I heard it was awful.
So I’ve just finished Tatooine Ghost. Tatooine Ghost takes place five years after the Battle of Endor, so the Empire is still around and is still a force to be reckoned with. It takes place shortly after The Courtship of Princess Leia and it’s been six months that Han and Leia were married. Chewbacca is still around, and they’re flying around in the Millenium Falcon heading to Tatooine to get an Alderaanian painting called Killik Twilight, which incidentally has a secret code for thousands of New Republic spies still operating in Imperial territory.
The best thing about this book is how it ties in with the movies and other books. For one thing, the Imperials pursuing the Solos were lead by a certain red-eyed Imperial Officer. That’s right, Thrawn is in the book, although he’s not mentioned by name. You know it’s him though, because of the amazing tactic-ry and the whole art thing.
Even bigger are the ties to Episodes I and II. Tatooine Ghost is the first post-RotJ novel to be written with the Prequels released. A large portion of the story is Leia discovering Vader’s past as Anakin Skywalker. She meets Anakin’s friends from Episode I (like Kitster and that Rodian kid) and learns about his childhood and his freeing himself and winning the podrace.
At one point, Leia discovers Shmi Skywalker’s journal that she hoped to give to Anakin one day. Of course, he never got it. But, from the journal we learn more about Watto and Shmi, and how Cliegg Lars freed Shmi. There were even glimpses of Anakin’s podrace and Anakin killing the Tuskens where he found his mother.
The story takes the Solos to various places like Mos Espa (where Anakin lived), the Lars household (Luke’s home), the Tusken camp where Anakin killed all of them, and even Obi-Wan’s home.
Of course, having references to Episode I, there was an ever so small speaking part by Jar Jar.
This book manages makes the first two Prequels much more important. That’s some amazing work. I’m looking forward to more of these post-RotJ novels.