Sunday, February 12, 2012

Champions of the Force: The Review


This week we read the last of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, wrapping up mostly the story line of Luke settling in with his new academy and Leia solidifying her place in the New Republic. The book begins where we left off: Luke is severely injured, really almost dead, and the students at the academy have no idea what to do.

Han, Leia and the twins arrive on Yavin to see Luke. Everyone is understandably quite nervous, and as Han says he isn't looking forward to it Leia agrees and reaches out to squeeze his hand (Zahn equivalent of a kiss, right?) and Han squeezes back "tighter and longer than she expected him to." It's quite sad when they walk in to see him, Leia very grim, Han carrying a twin in each arm and telling them that maybe they can help their uncle Luke get better. The twins ask if he is simply asleep and Leia says that he is, in a way. Jaina decides that maybe if she kisses him he'll wake up, so she goes to kiss him and Leia actually thinks for a moment that it just might work but of course he doesn't move.

Han squeezed Leia's waist so hard that it hurt, but she didn't want her husband to stop holding her. Oh, the poor Solo family. Cilghal is starting to work her healing powers but mostly the students don't really know what to do. Leia asks what happened and Han is quite unhappy to inform her that it was Kyp. Han feels guilty that it's Kyp's fault and decides that he's the only one who Kyp might listen to, so he decides he has to go find him. Leia is not thrilled with this idea but in this case at least this particular mission/separation actually kind of makes sense.

The Jedi students seem almost ready to just give everything up but Leia gives them a really good pep talk to make them snap out of it, and even Han seems amazed at her yet again. But then Leia senses a great disturbance in the Force, as do the other students and even the twins are crying. What happened? Well, Kyp was back at it again.

Kyp had decided his next stop would be Carida to take out those who killed his brother. Well, first he tries to find out what happened to his brother, and he is told that his brother had died, so he decides to, well, crush their sun since that's kind of his ship's thing. He had been conversing with that Ambassador Furgan and they were toying with him to keep him around long enough to take him out, but the Sun Crusher has some pretty strong armor. When they realize they are in big trouble they actually find Kyp's brother, Zeth, and let him go so that maybe Kyp will stop whatever destruction he had set under way, but it's too late. Kyp tries to save his brother and he almost has him, but the sun explodes, taking his brother with it among presumably millions of others. Although not Furgan. So the brother he thought was dead turned out to be alive, except he wound up killing him anyway because he had gone all Dark Side. Not a good day for the poor kid.

This disturbance sort of wakes Luke up, except he is more of an ethereal presence, hovering over his own body and operating pretty much on the same plane as Exar Kun when he manipulates the students. Luke isn't dead but he can watch what is going on and Exar basically tells him of his plans to use his Jedi students.

It's finally time for Han to go:

Standing in front of the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo held Leia in a long embrace. The oppressive humidity of the jungle moon clung to them like wet rags against their skin. Han hugged Leia again, smelling her scent. The corners of his lips drifted upward in a wistful smile. He could feel her trembling against him-or perhaps it was his own hands.

"I really do have to go, Leia," he said. "I've got to find Kyp. Maybe I can stop him from blowing up more star systems and killing more people."

"I know," she said. "I just wish we could arrange to have our adventures together a little more often!"

Han tried unsuccessfully to give her his famous no-care grin. "I'll work on it," he said; then he kissed her long and hard. "Next time we'll manage." He bent down to gather the twins in his arms.


Oh, good. A proper goodbye. Or at least as good of one as we can get in a PG-rated book. I don't know whether to be irritated about the comment on the not having adventures together or glad that at least Leia recognizes that fact and doesn't like it. Han even kisses her one more time before she leaves. And there is a little allusion to the fact that Jacen claims he's talking to some of the animals on the planet, the beginnings of his affinity for creatures.

While all of this is going on, Lando wants to go check out Kessel as a business possibility, he's still trying to pick up Mara who has no interest, and Chewie and Wedge and Qwi are heading back to the Maw to free the Wookiee slaves. But more importantly, remember that guy Terpfen who betrayed Ackbar? Well, now he also knows of a plot to go and kidnap Anakin Solo, and he rushes to Yavin to warn Leia. This is where we learn other flaws in that plan to "hide" him there. Leia doesn't know how to get to Anoth. It was for Anakin's "protection" that only Luke and Ackbar knew how to get there. Luke is practically dead and Ackbar is hiding out on Mon Calamari. Yeah, good planning, guys.

Leia leaves the twins with the Jedi to take Terpfen to find Ackbar so they can go save Anakin and Winter. Again, in this crazy situation, I sort of understand leaving the kids behind. Leave them in presumed safety to hopefully save another one. After they're gone Exar Kun sort of riles up these flying creatures to attack and kill Luke's body, and somehow it seems the twins can hear and see Luke in his ethereal form and Luke sort of manipulates Jacen's body so he can use the lightsaber to fight off the attack flawlessly. I have to say it's kind of funny to picture a two-year old wielding a lightsaber like a Jedi master. The other Jedi understand that the twins can hear Luke, and they tell them that Exar Kun is causing trouble.

Lots of things happening in lots of places. Han has found Kyp and it takes some time for him to gently convince him to surrender. It's a good thing Han is acting rational here. Can I just mention that Han seems a lot more understanding here when this kid goes crazy than when his own son goes dark side later? But anyway... The Jedi students all band together and manage to defeat Exar Kun and Luke finally wakes up. But, much more dire, Winter and Anakin are under attack. Once again, I know that there are some defenses in place, but was it really a good idea to leave this baby protected by only one person? Leia and Terpfen have gotten to Ackbar though, and they are on their way to help.

As you might imagine, they get there before Anakin is taken away. Leia comes face to face with Furgan, who has finally gotten the baby from the nanny droid (even Winter gets nanny droids to help) and says, "Give Anakin back to me," Leia said, her voice dripping with greater threat than an entire fleet of Star Destroyers could convey.

Yeah, can you imagine how scary Leia would be in that situation? They of course manage to save him, and Leia is left holding and soothing her youngest child. See? No good can come of leaving your child to be raised alone on some hidden planet!

Han had taken Kyp back to plead his case before Mon Mothma, who grows closer to death every day. Understandably they are not happy with him, but Han tells them it was as though he was possessed. They decide to let him go back to train with Luke. After that, Han goes back to Yavin and is reunited with his family:

Han Solo set the ship down in front of the Great Temple. He bounced down the landing ramp. Leia and the twins practically tackled him as they rushed to greet him.

"Daddy, Daddy!" Jacen and Jaina cried in peculiarly overlapping voices. Leia, back from Anoth, cradling the one-year-old against her chest, squeezed Han and gave him a long kiss as Anakin played with her hair. The twins jumped up and down against Han's legs, demanding the attention that was their due.

"Hello there, little guy!" Han grinned down at Anakin; then he looked deep into Leia's eyes. "Are you all right? You've got a lot of details to tell me. That message you sent wasn't very explicit."

"Yeah," she said. "You'll get the whole story, when we have some quiet time, just the two of us. I'm glad all of our children are home to stay, though. We'll protect them ourselves from now on."

"Sounds like a great idea to me," Han said, then chuckled and shook his head. "Say, weren't you telling me that I shouldn't go off and have adventures by myself?"


Oh, that was a nice little reunion and just the kind of thing I'd picture. The kids all excited to see their daddy, Han super excited to see his kids, a nice hello kiss and some teasing about which one of them is worse off going alone on their adventures. There's really nothing else to add to make that better. Except for the fact that it appears that they are going to keep Anakin with them instead of sending him back into hiding. Finally!

Kyp is reunited with Luke and of course Luke is forgiving and gives him a chance to redeem himself, which he does. Unfortunately for Han, he almost immediately leaves again, much to his dismay. He had promised Lando, still without his own ship, a ride to Kessel where he is supposed to meet with Mara and take over the mines. Moruth Doole had been hiding out, and they deal with him by leading him to those scary spider things who take care of him once and for all. Things seem like they're going quite well until they see what looks like the Death Star.

It's not quite the Death Star, but a prototype that is more of a wire frame but still quite capable of a lot of destruction. Always another super weapon. The last chunk of this book goes back and forth between a lot of action. Mon Mothma learns that the source of her issues is not a disease, but rather a poison that was given to her through that drink Furgan threw in her face in the first book, obviously completely planned out. Terpfen tells her of this and also informs her that there is no cure. So close to death, she resigns and just after Leia thinks how nice it would be to be a normal person with less galactic responsibilities, Mon Mothma tells her that she has to be the new Chief of State. Well, that kind of messes up those ideas about working less. At least Admiral Ackbar also decides to come back.

Luke decides that in order for Kyp to prove his faithfulness to the Jedi he must destroy the Sun Crusher, so he also heads back to the Maw where they intend to send it. Crazy battles ensue. Han, Lando and Mara are flying the Falcon against the Death Star prototype. Kyp joins in the fray, Chewie and Wedge are in on things and there is far too much action to get into here. What you basically need to know is that the Death Star gets sucked into the Maw and the Sun Crusher follows after it, presumably with Kyp still on board. Except just before it disappears for all eternity, a message cylinder fires from it, which is far too small to fit a human. Unless that human is a Jedi, who pretty much breaks every bone in his own body to stuff himself inside there. So Kyp is pretty severely injured, but alive, but to Han's relief.

Everyone finally comes together again back on Coruscant. There is a debriefing in which Leia is apparently making eyes at Han (I wonder what those eyes are saying?) and they bring Cilghal to see if she can heal Mon Mothma even though she has had barely any training. Of course she does manage to heal her, but even though she will live, she decides that Leia should still be Chief of State. Leia, rather than maybe turning down the position to be with her family more or something, just takes it. Oh, well.

But, we get one last nice little moment for Han and Leia before the book's end, when they are at the opening of new towers to replace the ones that Ackbar destroyed in that crash:

Han stood beside her, dressed in the diplomatic finery that he obviously found uncomfortable, but she thought it made him look dashing. That seemed no consolation to her husband as he chafed under the rough and stiff formal dress.

He must have sensed Leia looking at him, because he glanced down to give her a roguish smile.

He snuggled closer, slipping an arm around her waist and pulling her tightly against him. The wind whipped around them.

"Feels good to relax," he said. "And it's good to be with you, Your Highness."

"I'm Chief of State now, General Solo," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Maybe I should order you to stay home more often."

He laughed. "Think it would make any difference? You know how good I am at following rules."

Leia smiled as the wind stirred her hair. "I suppose the two of us will just have to work out a compromise," she said. "Why does it seem as if the whole galaxy conspires to keep us away from each other all the time? We used to have adventures together!"

"Maybe it's payback for all the lucky breaks I've had," he said.

"I hope your luck comes back soon, then." She snuggled against him.

"Never quote me the odds." Han ran his fingers up and down her back, making her skin tingle. "I feel lucky enough right now." The wind picked up and the hollow music lifted higher.


Well, the whole universe conspiring to keep them apart thing is kind of irritating, but it is quite nice to see Leia thinking of how dashing Han looks, him trailing his fingers up and down her back affectionately, and lots of snuggling.

Wedge and Qwi are apparently starting a relationship, and we get one more set of creepy lines between Winter and Ackbar about how they will be seeing more of each other and how enjoyable that will be (I totally almost just threw up) and back on Yavin at the new academy, Kyp is back and everything is back to normal.

This book, as I said earlier, has a lot of action. Almost the entire final third is battles. Battles on Anoth to get Anakin, battles with a Death Star prototype, battles to save the Wookiee slaves, just a whole lot of action going on. I will say that this book focused a lot more on characters other than Han and Leia. But, as was true in the book before this one, the moments they share together are quite nice. There is always some sort of physical affection - hand-holding, arm squeezing, kissing, snuggling - and of course they do appear to actually love each other and want to be around each other. For that reason I'll give this one a 3.5. It's not quite as good as the one before if only because I feel like as soon as they get together in this book, they are apart again. But aside from Leia once again letting other people tell her what to do all the time, they do act like I'd expect them to act. And I still just love the visual of the little reunion when Han comes back to Yavin and Leia has all three kids.

Overall a fairly enjoyable read, although there were a lot of chapters with a lot of stuff about the Imperials and the Jedi and stuff that may not be as interesting to those of us here. It's shorter than the other two books though and the chapters are a lot shorter and it all moves pretty fast. Pretty enjoyable series overall.

35 comments:

  1. It's almost 1am here, and I should be in bed as I have to be up at 7, but who cares, can't go to bed without commenting on the book review!

    This series was so much better than I remember it. First time I read it was when it was first published, and in hindsight I'd always thought that it was generally pretty poor and that Kevin J Anderson was a bad writer. Looking at it again now, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was mostly a fun read and had quite a few genuinely nice Han and Leia moments. There are a couple of issues with Jedi Search, mainly how Leia is presented, but the other two are much better.

    When they are together, Anderson actually writes Han and Leia as a couple really well. As you mentioned, he throws in loads of physical affection, including some nice kisses (take note Tim!!!) and he quite clearly shows us a couple who are very much in love. Although, I think he drops the ball a bit in Darksaber, but then I may be wrong about that one too, cos it's been a while.

    It's a bummer though, that Leia is made chief of state, when she was hoping to have more time with Han and the kids. Sorry, Leia, dont think that's going to happen...poor dear. Well, at least they've got the children back for good now, no more hiding them away crap, so that's one thing.

    Winter and Ackbar....shudder, ughhh, please stop it now.

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  2. Oh and the cover is nice, good to see Han and Leia together like that on a cover, they don't get many decent covers.

    Unfortunately my UK copy has a DIFFERENT cover, it just has Luke in the centre and Han and Leia are relegated to a small pic on the back!!

    Oh the injustice!!!

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  3. Ok, first I just have to ask what exactly is going on in the background picture. It made me crack up when I saw it.

    Aww, looks like there's some really cute moments in here with Han, Leia and the kids. Very, very glad that they're looking after all their kids now! Anakin might have been scarred for life if he had stayed with Winter while she was 'spending time' with Ackbar (which is a slightly disturbing mental image that I kind of wish I hadn't given myself!).

    Jacen with a lightsabre... kind of reminds me of Yoda in the prequels, when he goes all super jedi warrior with his lightsabre, and it always makes me crack up so much because he just looks so funny!

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  4. I enjoyed it more than I remembered, too. I only really remembered the first book when Han was on Kessel and Leia was just mad that he hadn't called. But there were a lot of nice little family moments. I like the cover, too.

    Yes, Anakin likely IS scarred for life now. I mean, when the guy first picks him up he lifts him by the back of his pajamas and just holds him kind of dangling.

    As for the background pic, just some more Carrie messing around with everyone on set. I have decided on a new theory about these pics, just recently. We all know there are tons of pictures of Carrie being all cute and flirty with almost everyone who was on that set. Kissy faces with Chewie, Threepio, those two copping feels, her and Mark being all touchy feely.... there are only a scant few of these with Harrison. I have decided it is because something was actually going on there so they didn't act like that in public so as not to arouse suspicion of their illicit affair. Let your imaginations run wild now.

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  5. Oooh you've opened a can of worms now!

    Hmmm, "the affair".....we all want to believe they did, don't we? I think there's plenty of evidence that's surfaced over the years that definitely points in that direction. Carrie has pretty much implied it so heavily the past few years that she may as well have said it outright.

    Anyone who hasn't seen Carrie being interviewed on British show "Bring Back Star Wars" should head over to YouTube and search for it. Great interview, and more than a few hints dropped. She has seen Harrison naked, so she says in this interview....let your imagination run with that one!

    As I understand it, the supposed affair began during filming of the first movie and was off and on up until Empire, but I believe by the time they filmed Empire it was all over and done with bar the shouting, which would explain some reports that they fought like cat and dog throughout filming. They of course made up by the time Jedi was made, and have been good friends since.

    Interestingly there are a lot of photos of Carrie and Harrison together between 1977 to 1979. Mostly publicity for the first film, but its just them two on a lot of pics no sign of Mark.

    The winter and ackbar thing reminded me of that Robot Chicken skit with ackbar and Mon mothma out to dinner. I hope when he takes Winter on a date she doesn't order the calamari!

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  6. I just remember Carrie saying it was Harrison's pot that turned her onto harder drugs. Also some story that I think was part of the commentary she did on one of the early DVD editions, about how Harrison took her to a party at Eric Idle's house in London and they were all really, really "happy" during the filming of the arrival in Bespin scene.

    On one hand, who could blame her for wanting to get a look at Harrison naked? on the other hand, assuming you've seen Harrison naked, what in the name of all that is holy would cause you to choose Paul Simon instead?

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  7. I thought she had said that Harrison's pot gave her some terrible experience and to that point she'd been fine with pot, not that his pot turned her to harder drugs. Harrison the pot-head is another thing I like to pretend isn't true even though I've heard far too many things to validate it.

    She didn't say for sure he was naked just that he "wasn't wearing a whole lot." But, well, we can all probably fill in the blanks, right? Poor Carrie and her real-life relationships. Although if anyone else saw she recently co-hosted the (most pointless hour on television in the world) 4th hour of The Today Show (filled in for Kathy Lee so it was slightly more tolerable) and she was asked what any of her exes might say about her. And she said that she was a lot to deal with. She didn't say it jokingly or apologetically, just that it was true. And given her history, that is probably accurate.

    But seriously, if I could go back in time and be invisible I'd just love to hang out on that set and see what was going on between them!

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    1. LoL i got the impression she had a bad experience with Harrison's pot and tried something else instead next time, which she liked so much she was off and running. I suspect even with Eric Idle's tunisian table cleaner and Harrison the pothead, the ESB set was way tamer than the Blues Brothers set to a budding substance abuser. Just sayin'

      Justw got my birthday present to myself,the making of ESB book. Apparently David Prowse was quite the blabbermouth.

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  8. No kidding! To be a fly on the wall. Very interesting theories and stories. And no kidding about picking Paul Simon. Wow. Have there been stories of her and Mark not getting along? I read it in passing, but not sure if just rumor.

    I like this picture. From the photos behind the scenes, she looked like was fun to have around.

    Han and Leia do look pretty nice on this cover. She looks very Chief of State. Too bad she didn't turn them down. But at least they have Anakin back.

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  9. Harrison the pot head is not something I'm totally happy about either!

    I remember Carrie saying about that party at Eric Idle's house and always wonder what they all got up to when I see the arrival at Cloud City scenes.

    One of the other cast, I think Dave Prowse, used to say that Carrie and Harrison practically lived in each others trailers, and that if you couldn't find one of them on set then you knew exactly where to look, or words to that effect.

    Is it also a coincidence that Harrison's marriage broke up right at the time he and Carrie were supposedly getting it on? Maybe. Maybe not! Something we will never know.

    I have never got the impression that Carrie and Mark didn't get on though, Carrie has mentioned how during the first film she knew that he had a huge crush on her. But it seems, like her alter ego Princess she very much had eyes for the other guy!!

    I'm sure most of you have seen those very candid shots of Carrie and Harrison taken in New York, the ones where she's on his shoulders, and he's got a baseball cap on in a couple of them. Do you know the ones I mean? The magazine they appeared in carried the headline...."Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher...madly in love, but worlds apart". Just WHAT does that refer to, does anyone know? I've never seen an article to go with those pics but would love to know what it said, does anyone have it? It could of course be referring to their characters, not actually them, but I always thought these pics were pre Empire, so that casts some doubt on it. If anyone has an answer to that, please share it!!

    Back to the top at hand...(and what was that exactly? :) ) it would have been a totally different EU if Leia had turned down the Chief of State job wouldn't it? Maybe in an alternate universe she did, and had a nice normal family life with Han and the kids...awwww.

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  10. Back to the book for a moment, I forgot to mention that at one point he mentions Anakin having brown eyes. Probably not his fault though, perhaps it just hadn't been decided yet.

    I was under the impression that Harrison's marriage was on the rocks and pretty much over already before ANH even started shooting. I think years of being a struggling actor just made him a miserable person to be around. I am pretty sure he had a thing too with whoever that woman was who played opposite him in Hanover Street, which I did make it through once. The "love story" in that is awful, but Harrison the pilot is kind of entertaining. Isn't it funny how for a guy who's on his third wife he at least made it through some lengthy first marriages. His total married life is still longer than I've been alive.

    As for Mark, I think she mentioned how in the second movie he just was off doing his own thing, so he wasn't with them that much anyway. You can't really be great friends if you hardly work together. I don't know if there was an article to go with those pictures but I know what you mean. You know what, though? The baseball cap is one look that Harrison just doesn't pull off.

    Oh, the book, right. Yes, EU would've been much better if she had turned it down. Stupid Mon Mothma, no wonder we all hate her!

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    1. Yes, there certainly is mention of Anakin having brown eyes. l can't recall in which book they turn blue! I think they should have kept them brown seeing as neither Han nor Leia have blue eyes. I read a conspiracy theory on the force.net once, ridiculous of course, that LUKE is actually Anakin's father. These are the same people that invented the mara had a fling with Anakin Solo theory resulting in baby Ben!

      A lot of the time Han is described as having brown eyes in the EU, Destinys Way mentions his brown eyes a ridiculous amount! But Balance Point says they are hazel! We all know they ARE hazel.

      Yes I suppose Carrie and mark probably didn't spend that much time together during ESB.

      I agree, Harrison and baseball caps, no! I also don't like his hair slicked back, don't think that suits him at all.

      Mon Mothma, queen bitch of the universe, yup!

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    2. There's no telling about recessive genes and all that. Both my parents have hazel eyes, but my brother and I ended up with very blue eyes. They do make Anakin look more like a Skywalker on the covers of the later books? With the theory you mentioned, ewwww. I like that Jaina and Jacen are such a cross between Han and Leia.

      I'm not surprised at all that Leia didn't turn them down. Look how young she was as a senator. But dang, there's a point you have to put your foot down.

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    3. there's a theory that LuKE was his father? Ok, i did not need to know that...

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    4. I don't think anyone is supposed to take it seriously though, so don't let it bother you too much!!

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    5. At some point during these books it mentions Han's hazel eyes. It's annoying because "officially" according to Wookieepedia his eyes are listed as brown. They're definitely not. As for parents and children's eyes, I've got two siblings and all three of us have different colored eyes, obviously our parents could only have two. I've got a set of grandparents who both had blue eyes but had more than one kid who didn't. And those stupid "theories" are just for those really awesome people who love to write and read stories about Luke and Leia being a couple or whatever. There are a lot of them. I mean, you should see some of the things people search for to get to this blog. Yikes.

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    6. Forgive me. Newbie to how blogs work behind the scenes...You can tell how people found the blog? Just curious.

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    7. That's always really bugged me that Han's official eye colour is brown. Admittedly sometimes they look darker than others, but they are most certainly NOT brown by any stretch of the imagination.

      You know what, here's me moaning that Anakin had different colour eyes to his parents and the whole time it never even entered my head that I have different colour eyes to my parents!!!! Can't believe I didn't think of that. Doh!!!

      I can't believe people still 'ship Luke and Leia....get over it!!!!! So do they pretend they aren't siblings or do they actually 'ship them as siblings? Urghh, you know, I don't even want to know.....begone evil thoughts!!!!! We shall never speak of you again!!

      I must mention the background pic.....I adore this pic, it's definitely in my top 3. Glad you cut Mark off, although I kinda like how Harrison appears to be pushing him away. "Back off, she's mine!!!". Perfect pic for the day of lurve......

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    8. We can see what people search for that gets them here, but before anyone gets nervous, we can't see WHO is doing the searching. You can break it down yearly, monthly, weekly and daily and if you look just at today you can see a single person searching for something that is often really random. Mostly it's like, "zyra push blog" or "han leia fanfic writer blog" but sometimes it's some pretty nasty stuff. We can see supposed referring sites, too, but I think a lot of times it's just whatever the last site people were on before they came to us because it often has nothing to do with anything on the blog.

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    9. So do people not actually searching for SW stuff end up here?

      I suppose they do if you say that those random google words are a factor in searches, which is actually quite funny.

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    10. Well, most of them have some sort of Star Wars reference, but it's stuff we would NOT put on the blog. Recently there was a really long search that said, "isn't there an eu book where Luke and Leia have sex?" NO!!! The answer is NO. Lots of people searching for Jabba doing lewd and very specific things to poor Leia. But there are also searches for Han and Leia sex stories. But yes, occasionally the searches don't have anything to do with Star Wars. A recent favorite in that category, and there was more than one search for this, "super sex 2012." We're drawing some traffic we never intended!

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    11. Ugh, I don't know which is worse, people wanting to read about Leia having sex with her brother or Leia being molested by a giant slug.....ugh, some people really are just totally sick. Enough of that...I'll be needing therapy.

      Since Han and Leia have THE most super sex imaginable, that's probably why that super sex search brought them here!!!

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    12. "Super sex 2012" - you know it! All H and L, all the time. :) Of course now that you've mentioned it, you'll get that many more hits.

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    13. "Super sex 2012"? ok, I don't actually want to know what they were trying to find...

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  11. Awww, Wookieepedias quote of the day is. " I love you", "I know".

    Well it is Valentines Day!!! Nice that Han and Leia got a look in. I mean they could have had a quote from Anakin and Padme about sand being rough or being blinded by love and all that crap!!!

    Thanks wookieepedia.

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    1. I saw that last night. Sweet!

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    2. Another website I read daily, Digital Spy, has also given Han and Leia a nice Valentines mention today. They are listed in the top 20 Greatest Movie Couples Ever. The list is in no particular order. No mention of Anakin and Padme.....not surprising really.

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    3. There's some stuff on f---yeahhanandleia. Funny sketch card from Blue Milk Special.

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  12. Alright, I'm really gonna plow through these books. Eventually. I have always liked this cover. Not only because Han and Leia actually look decent (and the pose is awesome) but that background is pretty sweet. Luke is positioned a bit awkwardly though...I'm nitpicking here.

    Ah, Harrison and Carrie. That's always something interesting to think about. About Mark and Carrie, I think it was in the ESB book that Mark mentioned something about he and Carrie always having screaming matches. I also remember Kershner saying something about there being "a lot of affection between Harrison and Carrie".

    Lol...super sex 2012. Nice.

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  13. I like the covers of all of these books. I think the artist did only these three. Not sure why.

    There weren't really any interesting searches for the blog today. Two people searched for "han leia valentine" and someone else searched for "death star cellblock." See, you just never know what might lead you here. Sometimes people search for Han and Leia along with a few explicitly stated body parts.

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    1. They search for body parts???? I take it we're probably not talking arms and legs here!

      You know, I believe we mentioned Twilight and Bella in a thread the other day, so technically all the Twi-hards out there could discover this place whilst searching for their own stuff.

      Maybe they will see the light and be converted when they see what a REAL love story is. Not the stalking that their lot do!!

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    2. Funny. I really doubt they are searching for arms and legs.

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  14. I seem to be (no pun intended) always behind in my reading. Thank goodness for the detailed review. I was able to gloss over the non Han or Leia parts and still understand the story plot. The one scene that sticks out in my head is when the twins are stomping down the ramp of the Falcon, trying to see who can make a louder noise. I can just visualize how cute they are in their little space boots. It makes me wonder, did Han and Leia go shopping for the twins at some galactic Gymboree store? I don't know why that thought makes me laugh. I also liked the cover. It is nice to see Leia in an outfit we haven't seen before. Thanks for the review.

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  15. I like how Han's sexy blue ESB jacket makes a welcome return on this cover! Blue jacket we've missed you! :)

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  16. Okay, hadn't commented on this book review yet, either. I think there were some really good, cute moments in these books with Han and Leia and their young family. One thing that strikes me (and Zyra mentioned it already) is how Han went after Kyp and worked so hard to save him from falling when the same thing happens to Jacen later he just sits around and watches it happen and talks about throwing him out the nursery window. I hate to bring up that quote again, but his dedication to saving Kyp really reminded me of the sorry way EVERYONE (Leia, Luke and Han) handled Jacen's fall.

    Anyway, there's a lot of skip over parts in this book (so it's a good thing I have my tabbies) but the cute parts are really fun to read.

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