Review of
The Courtship of Princess Leia
Published:
April 1994
Reviewer Rating:
Avg User Rating:
(3.47)
Picking up this book, I knew it would be a good one. How could a SW book be called "The Courtship of Princess Leia" and not be a few steps from perfect? Below, I put my "running thoughts" on the book; just a list of my musing as I went through. That is the bulk of this review. I occasionally listed chapter markings to say where thoughts entered my mind. But first, here is a sort of Tl;dr of the running thoughts, collecting my general impression of the book. I'll put a tl;dr of this tl;dr in the comments Spoilers ahead, of course.
To be completely honest, I had a lot of bias going into this book. I was expecting it to be really bad, so that definitely influenced a bit of my opinion at first. The opening cringey inner dialogue from Han definitely didn't help my initial opinion either. Reading through the book, basically anytime Leia and Han talked was an obnoxious waste of time. They were both very wishy-washy and completely toxic. This seemed very out of character to me, and unfortunately, they weren't the only one's that seemed out of character. Even as far as Chewie and R2 were written strangely, reacting to things in ways that just don't make sense.
The writing style in this book is ridiculously strange, and I'm tempted to say it was often grammatically incorrect. It messed with the flow of my reading continuously. Only near the end did I finally "adjust"; I eventually started omitting the word "and" and phrasing the following clause as a new sentence. I was actually a little shocked to find Dave Wolverton writing dialogue in the same clunky way he writes action and plot... very confusing.
On occasion, there were things that didn't seem to follow continuity to me. Gave Wolverton a freebie there though, since this book is from the early 90s, so he wouldn't have had much to reference. I even ended up learning a few things about Canon-Legends, such as rancors being semi-sentient and Legends Dathomir being lush and green.
Unfortunately, a big issue to me throughout this book was the amount of pointless information thrown around causing a lot of loose ends at the book's resolution. Generally, when I read a fiction book, I like everything that happens to be of eventual relevance to the story. So many conversations that took place in this book and details that were mentioned came to nothing at all. From previously influential prisoners that are given a sudden backstory to Luke's whole purpose of coming to Dathomir (The Chu'unthor), things just were not resolved in this book.
All in all, I cannot deny, the actually story was pretty decent and entertaining. I think if this book were rewritten and cleaned up a good deal, it could really be something. That said, the story is only a part of the book, so with all of the issues mentioned and in comparison to other excellent books I've read, this is only a 2/5. Boohoo.
Fun fact from Wookieepedia: "This novel had two main covers. The reason for the second cover is that sales were not as high as expected. It was thought this may have been due to a misconception that it was a romance novel, rather than action. On this basis, a more action-oriented cover was made for the paperback release."
Read on for my running thoughts on the book.
*Calamarian cruiser? Wouldn't it be Mon Calamari Cruiser?
*Empire didn't destroy jedi artifact (lightsaber) and old master had become one with force, like Ben and Yoda (few jedi knew this ability) (ch1)
* apparently 400 years ago, jedi reported to a high master in a throne room (sound more like the Emperor on Dromund Kaas than the Jedi Council)
*r2 has no records of Dathomir... naice
*Force seems a bit too powerful. Luke just translated a being's gesture into a paragraph of dialogue
*han is a wuss
*SW Romeo n Juliet?
*Han is a sappy poetic baby (@his dream in ch3)
*"Han leaned back, rested his head against Leia's breast, and she knew what he was thinking" Ch3 an actual sentence.
*This guy (Dave) has to end at least one sentence per paragraph with an adjective....
*"most of the refugees from Alderaan... ...were off planet when the Empire attacked." Most, but not all? So some people were on the planet when attacked and survived the explosion?
*Han's girlfriend's boyfriend wants to buy him a ship, aww
*Okay, Han is officially getting cucked.
*This is supposed to be set 8 ABY, so after at least 4 years of dating, it's really sad to see just how shallow, untrusting, and generally toxic Han and Leia's relationship is. They get into yelling matches so fast over spilled bluemilk.
*A lower level casino on Coruscant "literally had not seen sunlight in more than ninety thousand years" because of planetary levels... since 90,000BBY (ch5) Coruscant became an ecumonopolis around 90,000BBY, but it took a bit more time for it to build up all the levels. If this casino was on one of the lower levels that was built roughly that long ago, I doubt it would be inhabitable anymore.
*This writing style is actually getting on my nerves now. So many commas!
*"Isolder sat up in bed, closed his eyes, thinking." "She found Han at the door, holding a starburst plant." "Leia took it, smiled warmly, and Han kissed her." This is from Leia's dialogue, typed exactly as printed: "You should see what the queen mothers have built over the centuries: Their cities are beautiful, stately, serene." How does garbage like this get published? Why am I still reading it?
*This author decides to give in-depth explanations to the most random things. We basically just got the instruction manual for an alternate version of sabaac called Force sabaac. Ch5
*Dathomir is located in the Drackmar System? I thought it was in the Dathomir System... Well, this book was written in '94, so I guess I'll cut him some slack.
*"Threepio studies the words for 3.12 seconds..." I couldn't possibly express how little I care that it took him 3.12 seconds. This ain't a google search. Ch6
*How does 3PO have a favorite poem? He's a droid.
*3PO = Counselor droid? What about Protocol droid?
*"Aboard the Bith counselor ship 'Thpfftht'...". Could you sound that out phonetically for me?
*Random Imperial Analyst was blessed by Pope Vader at a parade when he was younger, now he hears force very clearly. Ch7, Colorized
*Holy cow, at first it was just Han bein a flimsy, spineless worm, but now Leia is being a cold hard insensitive being.
*Great, the author uses his weird comma-heavy writing in combat and dialogue too. On that note, none of the character's dialogue varies from each other; they all sound like the same person.
*"He drew his robes tight around him, felt the lightsaber hanging at his side. Something in the air warned him to keep it handy, so he unclipped it, put it in a pocket." I'm pretty sure a lightsaber would be more "handy" when hanging from a lightsaber clip as opposed to in a pocket... whatever (Ch9)
*Luke is using his lightsaber as a lantern inside a dark but popular bar/casino. Nice. He's also threatening to chop people's hands off. Double Nice. Ch9
*This guy really likes making up new alien species, which I'm usually okay with, but sometimes I feel like it's just laziness to not learn about the many species already available to choose from.
*It should be a crime to write that Chewbacca's eyes widened in surprise... twice in the same combat scene. I'm having a deal of trouble imagining that.
*Wolverton is animating all the characters, especially 3PO and Chewie in ways that absolutely do not fit their character.
*Man alive, when did Han get to be so mean to Chewie? He's treatin the dude like a slave. I thought they were friends :(
*All of the sudden, Leia does not handle life or death situations well at all and is effectively losing her shit. What happened to the chick that stands up to Vader? None of these characters are being written true to who they were in the OT in the slightest. (Ch11)
*You know, I have to be honest, putting aside the cringey romance, out-of-character behaviors, and generally crappy writing, the actual story isn't half bad.
*Teneniel's dream felt more like a flashback until the end but whatever. (Edit from after I finished book: this had no relevance to anything)
*Chapter 16, it's been probably 50 pages since any banter between Leia and Han. I'm actually really starting to enjoy this story! The writing is still ehh though.
*I like the idea of Isolder being an apprentice to Luke, despite his culture's general disdain toward the jedi. Not too sure how I like Luke's mentality of Isolder being a test-run apprentice, since he wouldn't be powerful enough to turn into an unstoppable enemy like Vader. At that point it felt like Luke was using Isolder. (Edit from after I finished book: this had no relevance to anything)
*Referenced Iron Age technology (ch17)
*Ahh the Leia/Han banter continueth
*Han and Leia have been "broken up" for like a week and Leia is already referring to him as an old friend... They never even broke up tho.
*The scent of leaf mold has been mentioned quite a bit in this novel
*The overuse of repetition in dialogue (eg "You'll be fine, you'll be fine...") is makin me go bonkers
*Han's been far too nice to 3PO throughout this whole book.
*Did Teneniel just give her life to a Nightsister? Why? I get the attempt at redemption for her own brief submission to the dark, but she still had hope. The nightsister is already fully dark. Luke tested those waters with the young sister who he thought would turn from the dark. Teneniel could have given her life force to literally any of the good guys, like maybe Luke who, at this point has "died" from a very anticlimactic fight against Getherzion. Ch23 (Edit from after I finished book: this had no relevance to anything--Teneniel is still alive and the Nightsister still dying. Eventually, Leia got the clan healers to save the Nightsister, but then the Nightsister was never mentioned again. What was the point?)
*Whoa whoa whoa, okay, beginning of Ch24 is dumb. Teneniel apparently is not fully dead--shocker, and Isolder is kissing Leia right in front of Han, who doesn't care anymore. But what about a few chapters earlier when Isolder was growing away from Leia and liking Teneniel more? Somebody played the reverse card on us!
*There we have it, Nature healed Luke. All the little critters looked at him and he was healed. Haleiluyur.
*Okay now we're back to Isolder really loving Teneniel.
*C'mon Han, there's no way it feels good to be "kissed hard" when two of your molars were pulverized not even 5 minutes ago via the force. No way bro... Ch26
I suppose that old prophecy about Getherzion killing Isolder won't come to pass after all... so then what was the point of that character (Mother Rell, was it?) that could see the future. Nothing at all came of it. She served no purpose at all.
*And what of Isolder being an apprentice of sorts to Luke? Literally nothing ever happened there. Luke taught Teneniel more, and even there, she didn't learn much other than she can use the force without chanting. Just a useless filler.
*After Luke piloted the Falcon for a bit, Han said his face was bruised (I'm assuming in the same fashion as the nightsisters') due to his intense usage of the Force. Does this mean he was using the dark side???
*Baby shark do doo do do do do baby shark! (End of ch26)
*WHAT! First sentence of ch27 says that Han gathered sisters from all of Dathomir's clans for a feast the next day at Singing Mountain. I thought a big point of the struggle in battle was that the other clans were too far away to respond quickly. Unless you mean to tell me Han took them all in Falcon and did some fast negotiating with hostile natives that don't know him at all... fat chance in my head.
*Perhaps my memory is wrong, but I believe I recall much earlier in the book, Han telling Leia that there was more to Isolder than meets the eye: inferences that he is planning something devious and does not actually want Leia out of love. This whole time I've been waiting to see his ulterior motives, but it seems like he's actually a pretty stand up guy. His mom sucks tho.
*What the heck? The Queen Mother, Ta'a Chume, one of the more truly evil characters, and definitely the most powerful and assertive, is just crumbling to her son's demands. What a load of hogwash. And it ain't no force manipulation on her, otherwise Wolverton would have explicitly said so as he has many times before. This makes no sense. Ch27 (final chapter)
*What about that rando prisoner who Leia recognized as a thought-to-be-dead former-Alderaanian scientist (i think it was a scientist, maybe politician)? I thought for sure she would have played some role... why else would she be mentioned at all? More unfulfilled crap filler.
*Okay, I spoke a little too soon about Mother Rell. She's come back in the last chapter to give Luke some Jedi records given her by Yoda off the Chu'unthor. And the records are reader disc, not holocrons lol. I guess holocrons may not have been a thing yet. Still, this doesn't change the uselessness of Rell's prophecy for Isolder.
*I was getting rather worried that the Chu'unthor would serve no purpose to the story. I still thought it would be much more relevant to the whole story. In the end, its really just been a minor detail, that helped Luke on his mission of finding more jedi stuff... but truth be told, we didn't need the Chu'unthor at all, since Luke didn't even get the jedi records from the ship.
*Okiedoke, now that Han and Isolder aren't fighting for the same gal, they're two peas in a pod. Makes sense
*Alright, yeah, really unimpressive ending. Usually when I finish a good book, I feel the weird impulse to read the last paragraph/sentence over and over. Didn't feel that at all. Quite anticlimactic.
*I feel there were a lot of loose ends here. If this were a real life story, the loose ends would obviously be fine and normal, but its not, its work of fiction. In my mind a good book will have virtually no unresolved details, so this misses the mark. Perhaps I'm feeling hypercritical though, having just finished The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, where Jeter made sure basically ever detail had an impact of the story.
*Getherzion was a really shallow villain. We didn't see much of her and her whole motivation was "grr I'm angry, I wasn't off this planet so I can potentially rule the world." And she died from being blasted by an ISD. Couldn't we have had an actual Luke vs Gethezion battle?
*These legends Dathmiri witches are much more agreeable than those in legends. I think I'd be fine living among them ;)
*I'll be interested to read the follow up with what happens within Hapes with Teneniel as the next Queen Mother. I've already had a little spoiled from Wookiepedia, but there's still plenty of stories to get the full details from!
To be completely honest, I had a lot of bias going into this book. I was expecting it to be really bad, so that definitely influenced a bit of my opinion at first. The opening cringey inner dialogue from Han definitely didn't help my initial opinion either. Reading through the book, basically anytime Leia and Han talked was an obnoxious waste of time. They were both very wishy-washy and completely toxic. This seemed very out of character to me, and unfortunately, they weren't the only one's that seemed out of character. Even as far as Chewie and R2 were written strangely, reacting to things in ways that just don't make sense.
The writing style in this book is ridiculously strange, and I'm tempted to say it was often grammatically incorrect. It messed with the flow of my reading continuously. Only near the end did I finally "adjust"; I eventually started omitting the word "and" and phrasing the following clause as a new sentence. I was actually a little shocked to find Dave Wolverton writing dialogue in the same clunky way he writes action and plot... very confusing.
On occasion, there were things that didn't seem to follow continuity to me. Gave Wolverton a freebie there though, since this book is from the early 90s, so he wouldn't have had much to reference. I even ended up learning a few things about Canon-Legends, such as rancors being semi-sentient and Legends Dathomir being lush and green.
Unfortunately, a big issue to me throughout this book was the amount of pointless information thrown around causing a lot of loose ends at the book's resolution. Generally, when I read a fiction book, I like everything that happens to be of eventual relevance to the story. So many conversations that took place in this book and details that were mentioned came to nothing at all. From previously influential prisoners that are given a sudden backstory to Luke's whole purpose of coming to Dathomir (The Chu'unthor), things just were not resolved in this book.
All in all, I cannot deny, the actually story was pretty decent and entertaining. I think if this book were rewritten and cleaned up a good deal, it could really be something. That said, the story is only a part of the book, so with all of the issues mentioned and in comparison to other excellent books I've read, this is only a 2/5. Boohoo.
Fun fact from Wookieepedia: "This novel had two main covers. The reason for the second cover is that sales were not as high as expected. It was thought this may have been due to a misconception that it was a romance novel, rather than action. On this basis, a more action-oriented cover was made for the paperback release."
Read on for my running thoughts on the book.
*Calamarian cruiser? Wouldn't it be Mon Calamari Cruiser?
*Empire didn't destroy jedi artifact (lightsaber) and old master had become one with force, like Ben and Yoda (few jedi knew this ability) (ch1)
* apparently 400 years ago, jedi reported to a high master in a throne room (sound more like the Emperor on Dromund Kaas than the Jedi Council)
*r2 has no records of Dathomir... naice
*Force seems a bit too powerful. Luke just translated a being's gesture into a paragraph of dialogue
*han is a wuss
*SW Romeo n Juliet?
*Han is a sappy poetic baby (@his dream in ch3)
*"Han leaned back, rested his head against Leia's breast, and she knew what he was thinking" Ch3 an actual sentence.
*This guy (Dave) has to end at least one sentence per paragraph with an adjective....
*"most of the refugees from Alderaan... ...were off planet when the Empire attacked." Most, but not all? So some people were on the planet when attacked and survived the explosion?
*Han's girlfriend's boyfriend wants to buy him a ship, aww
*Okay, Han is officially getting cucked.
*This is supposed to be set 8 ABY, so after at least 4 years of dating, it's really sad to see just how shallow, untrusting, and generally toxic Han and Leia's relationship is. They get into yelling matches so fast over spilled bluemilk.
*A lower level casino on Coruscant "literally had not seen sunlight in more than ninety thousand years" because of planetary levels... since 90,000BBY (ch5) Coruscant became an ecumonopolis around 90,000BBY, but it took a bit more time for it to build up all the levels. If this casino was on one of the lower levels that was built roughly that long ago, I doubt it would be inhabitable anymore.
*This writing style is actually getting on my nerves now. So many commas!
*"Isolder sat up in bed, closed his eyes, thinking." "She found Han at the door, holding a starburst plant." "Leia took it, smiled warmly, and Han kissed her." This is from Leia's dialogue, typed exactly as printed: "You should see what the queen mothers have built over the centuries: Their cities are beautiful, stately, serene." How does garbage like this get published? Why am I still reading it?
*This author decides to give in-depth explanations to the most random things. We basically just got the instruction manual for an alternate version of sabaac called Force sabaac. Ch5
*Dathomir is located in the Drackmar System? I thought it was in the Dathomir System... Well, this book was written in '94, so I guess I'll cut him some slack.
*"Threepio studies the words for 3.12 seconds..." I couldn't possibly express how little I care that it took him 3.12 seconds. This ain't a google search. Ch6
*How does 3PO have a favorite poem? He's a droid.
*3PO = Counselor droid? What about Protocol droid?
*"Aboard the Bith counselor ship 'Thpfftht'...". Could you sound that out phonetically for me?
*Random Imperial Analyst was blessed by Pope Vader at a parade when he was younger, now he hears force very clearly. Ch7, Colorized
*Holy cow, at first it was just Han bein a flimsy, spineless worm, but now Leia is being a cold hard insensitive being.
*Great, the author uses his weird comma-heavy writing in combat and dialogue too. On that note, none of the character's dialogue varies from each other; they all sound like the same person.
*"He drew his robes tight around him, felt the lightsaber hanging at his side. Something in the air warned him to keep it handy, so he unclipped it, put it in a pocket." I'm pretty sure a lightsaber would be more "handy" when hanging from a lightsaber clip as opposed to in a pocket... whatever (Ch9)
*Luke is using his lightsaber as a lantern inside a dark but popular bar/casino. Nice. He's also threatening to chop people's hands off. Double Nice. Ch9
*This guy really likes making up new alien species, which I'm usually okay with, but sometimes I feel like it's just laziness to not learn about the many species already available to choose from.
*It should be a crime to write that Chewbacca's eyes widened in surprise... twice in the same combat scene. I'm having a deal of trouble imagining that.
*Wolverton is animating all the characters, especially 3PO and Chewie in ways that absolutely do not fit their character.
*Man alive, when did Han get to be so mean to Chewie? He's treatin the dude like a slave. I thought they were friends :(
*All of the sudden, Leia does not handle life or death situations well at all and is effectively losing her shit. What happened to the chick that stands up to Vader? None of these characters are being written true to who they were in the OT in the slightest. (Ch11)
*You know, I have to be honest, putting aside the cringey romance, out-of-character behaviors, and generally crappy writing, the actual story isn't half bad.
*Teneniel's dream felt more like a flashback until the end but whatever. (Edit from after I finished book: this had no relevance to anything)
*Chapter 16, it's been probably 50 pages since any banter between Leia and Han. I'm actually really starting to enjoy this story! The writing is still ehh though.
*I like the idea of Isolder being an apprentice to Luke, despite his culture's general disdain toward the jedi. Not too sure how I like Luke's mentality of Isolder being a test-run apprentice, since he wouldn't be powerful enough to turn into an unstoppable enemy like Vader. At that point it felt like Luke was using Isolder. (Edit from after I finished book: this had no relevance to anything)
*Referenced Iron Age technology (ch17)
*Ahh the Leia/Han banter continueth
*Han and Leia have been "broken up" for like a week and Leia is already referring to him as an old friend... They never even broke up tho.
*The scent of leaf mold has been mentioned quite a bit in this novel
*The overuse of repetition in dialogue (eg "You'll be fine, you'll be fine...") is makin me go bonkers
*Han's been far too nice to 3PO throughout this whole book.
*Did Teneniel just give her life to a Nightsister? Why? I get the attempt at redemption for her own brief submission to the dark, but she still had hope. The nightsister is already fully dark. Luke tested those waters with the young sister who he thought would turn from the dark. Teneniel could have given her life force to literally any of the good guys, like maybe Luke who, at this point has "died" from a very anticlimactic fight against Getherzion. Ch23 (Edit from after I finished book: this had no relevance to anything--Teneniel is still alive and the Nightsister still dying. Eventually, Leia got the clan healers to save the Nightsister, but then the Nightsister was never mentioned again. What was the point?)
*Whoa whoa whoa, okay, beginning of Ch24 is dumb. Teneniel apparently is not fully dead--shocker, and Isolder is kissing Leia right in front of Han, who doesn't care anymore. But what about a few chapters earlier when Isolder was growing away from Leia and liking Teneniel more? Somebody played the reverse card on us!
*There we have it, Nature healed Luke. All the little critters looked at him and he was healed. Haleiluyur.
*Okay now we're back to Isolder really loving Teneniel.
*C'mon Han, there's no way it feels good to be "kissed hard" when two of your molars were pulverized not even 5 minutes ago via the force. No way bro... Ch26
I suppose that old prophecy about Getherzion killing Isolder won't come to pass after all... so then what was the point of that character (Mother Rell, was it?) that could see the future. Nothing at all came of it. She served no purpose at all.
*And what of Isolder being an apprentice of sorts to Luke? Literally nothing ever happened there. Luke taught Teneniel more, and even there, she didn't learn much other than she can use the force without chanting. Just a useless filler.
*After Luke piloted the Falcon for a bit, Han said his face was bruised (I'm assuming in the same fashion as the nightsisters') due to his intense usage of the Force. Does this mean he was using the dark side???
*Baby shark do doo do do do do baby shark! (End of ch26)
*WHAT! First sentence of ch27 says that Han gathered sisters from all of Dathomir's clans for a feast the next day at Singing Mountain. I thought a big point of the struggle in battle was that the other clans were too far away to respond quickly. Unless you mean to tell me Han took them all in Falcon and did some fast negotiating with hostile natives that don't know him at all... fat chance in my head.
*Perhaps my memory is wrong, but I believe I recall much earlier in the book, Han telling Leia that there was more to Isolder than meets the eye: inferences that he is planning something devious and does not actually want Leia out of love. This whole time I've been waiting to see his ulterior motives, but it seems like he's actually a pretty stand up guy. His mom sucks tho.
*What the heck? The Queen Mother, Ta'a Chume, one of the more truly evil characters, and definitely the most powerful and assertive, is just crumbling to her son's demands. What a load of hogwash. And it ain't no force manipulation on her, otherwise Wolverton would have explicitly said so as he has many times before. This makes no sense. Ch27 (final chapter)
*What about that rando prisoner who Leia recognized as a thought-to-be-dead former-Alderaanian scientist (i think it was a scientist, maybe politician)? I thought for sure she would have played some role... why else would she be mentioned at all? More unfulfilled crap filler.
*Okay, I spoke a little too soon about Mother Rell. She's come back in the last chapter to give Luke some Jedi records given her by Yoda off the Chu'unthor. And the records are reader disc, not holocrons lol. I guess holocrons may not have been a thing yet. Still, this doesn't change the uselessness of Rell's prophecy for Isolder.
*I was getting rather worried that the Chu'unthor would serve no purpose to the story. I still thought it would be much more relevant to the whole story. In the end, its really just been a minor detail, that helped Luke on his mission of finding more jedi stuff... but truth be told, we didn't need the Chu'unthor at all, since Luke didn't even get the jedi records from the ship.
*Okiedoke, now that Han and Isolder aren't fighting for the same gal, they're two peas in a pod. Makes sense
*Alright, yeah, really unimpressive ending. Usually when I finish a good book, I feel the weird impulse to read the last paragraph/sentence over and over. Didn't feel that at all. Quite anticlimactic.
*I feel there were a lot of loose ends here. If this were a real life story, the loose ends would obviously be fine and normal, but its not, its work of fiction. In my mind a good book will have virtually no unresolved details, so this misses the mark. Perhaps I'm feeling hypercritical though, having just finished The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, where Jeter made sure basically ever detail had an impact of the story.
*Getherzion was a really shallow villain. We didn't see much of her and her whole motivation was "grr I'm angry, I wasn't off this planet so I can potentially rule the world." And she died from being blasted by an ISD. Couldn't we have had an actual Luke vs Gethezion battle?
*These legends Dathmiri witches are much more agreeable than those in legends. I think I'd be fine living among them ;)
*I'll be interested to read the follow up with what happens within Hapes with Teneniel as the next Queen Mother. I've already had a little spoiled from Wookiepedia, but there's still plenty of stories to get the full details from!
