Star Wars: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry

If you've ever listened to Paul Harvey, then you know he's famous for telling us the rest of the story. Authors Steve Perry and Michael Reaves must have listened to Harvey a lot, because in their new collaborative novel Star Wars: Death Star, that's exactly what they do. Give us the rest of the story of the fearsome Death Star, that is, the Empire's moon-sized ultimate weapon with enough firepower to destroy an entire planet.

Well, most of the rest of the story anyway. As the reader delves in to this latest literary installment in the Star Wars saga, the top-secret Death Star is nearing completion after nearly two decades of labor under the direction of one Wilhuff Tarkin, ruthless servant of the evil Emperor Palpatine himself. The station orbits the forbidding and aptly names prison planet Despayre, source of much of the slave labor required to build it.

And as the station prepares to enter service, we are introduced to a cast of characters whose paths are destined to cross when they board the mighty battle station, willingly or not. And they come from all walks of life: a doctor, an imperial pilot and stormtrooper, a crack gunner destined to pull the trigger that can end a world, a librarian, a barkeep, a bouncer, and even a smuggler. And how they deal with their respective roles in the creation and operation of the Death Star is the fabric that is woven into the pages of Star Wars: Death Star.

Authors Perry and Reaves are, of course, no strangers to the Star Wars universe. Having written Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
and Star Wars: Darth Maul, Shadow Hunter respectively, they are well acquainted with George Lucas characters, and indeed make good use of them here. Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Admiral Motti all have roles to play as the Death Star takes shape. Even expanded universe character Admiral Daala makes an appearance, if only as Tarkin's sex toy.

Mostly, though, the action surrounds the new characters as we are first introduced to them and fate slowly brings them together. And that is a problem, because while mildly amusing, most of them are not really all that endearing to us, and as I read the first half of the book I found myself wondering where all this was going, and only mildly enjoying the story. Then too, there are plot elements that are entered into and never fully explored.


Part of that, too, is because the authors tend to belabor the construction subplots in the wrong area. A description of the physics behind the mighty superlaser is interesting enough, but we learn more about the construction of the cantinas in the long run. In once scene, a major character takes cover in a dress shop. A dress shop.....on the Death Star? Sorry, that just didn't work for this reader.

An interesting facet of Star Wars: Death Star is the way that the story is eventually interwoven with the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. At times this is a very clever device, especially when Perry and Reaves explain events in the context of what we now know from the three prequels. They also give us a little more of those events as seen from both the major and minor players. But even this can be tiresome at times, as the authors quote verbatim lines and scenes from the film, doubtless to stretch the novel out to its 363 pages.

All in all, the second half of Death Star recommends it to serious Star Wars fans.