My New Year’s resolution this year was to get really into Star Wars.
No, I’m not kidding.
I decided to take a stab at the Star Wars Expanded Universe – officially licensed books and movies of the Star Wars saga that are outside of the six main films (episodes I-VI). I recently read Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, which is the first book inspired by the 1977 classic film, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye takes place on the jungle planet of Mimban. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia have crashed landed there while en route to a meeting of rebels on a nearby world. On Mimban they discover a secret mining outpost run by the Empire. They also meet local eccentric, Halla, who convinces the pair to help her find Kaiburr crystal, a magical stone that amplifies the power of the Force in whoever holds it. Accompanied by ‘droids Artoo Detoo and See-Threepio and with some local help from a pair of Yuzzem (large, furry creatures not dissimilar from wookiees), Luke, Leia, and Halla run into all sorts of obstacles, natural and man-made, on their way to the crystal and off the planet.
As a longtime Star Wars fan, reading Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was a weird experience to say the least. The world building is decent, the plot is interesting enough, and it was fun to imagine what the characters were up to between the stories told in the movies. That being said, it was hard to separate what I know about the characters from the second and third Star Wars movies released in 1980 and 1983, and what the author imagines for the book, which was written in 1978. In the book, Luke is in love with Leia (like, really in love with her) and the two share some uncomfortably tender moments. Darth Vader shows up to fight Luke face-to-face and loses an arm in the process. Han Solo and Chewbacca are never mentioned by name, and Leia has absolutely no inclination towards the Force whatsoever.
But to be honest, I can forgive all of that. It’s part of what makes this experiment so much fun – to see how the Expanded Universe grows and shifts as the story arc of the films developed. It’s like having a laugh over how people in the past envisioned the future (think Han Solo Adventures (published in 1979 and 1980) next.
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