Star Wars: Shadow Games by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

In the declining days of the so-called Star Wars "Expanded Universe," there were largely two kinds of books: tedious ongoing event series (like Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi) and very disconnected standalones (such as Paul Kemp's Crosscurrent). The former category I gave up on as the ongoing narrative kept getting worse and worse, but the latter I kept buying, on the basis that a standalone adventure could be the kind of fun I want out of a Star Wars tie-in.

Star Wars: Shadow Games
by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Published: 2011
Read: September 2024

This one I did not pick up at the time, as it came out after I largely stopped buying Star Wars novels, but I just picked it up from my local library and gave it a quick read. Set shortly before the original movie, it's about Dash Rendar, a mercenary who I guess was significant in Shadows of the Empire, but as I last read that back when it came out in 1997, I can't say I really remember him. Dash is hired to be a bodyguard to a holostar whose been experiencing a number of threats on her life; along the way, Han Solo manages to insert himself into the narrative as well.

At this point, fun standalones are what I want out of the EU, but this one didn't hit the mark for me. Too fast, too many complications that ultimately got ridiculous, too little emphasis on character. I think there was probably an interesting story to be told about Dash's state of mind, his reluctance to join up with a group like the Rebellion and so on, his dealing with the trauma of his past, but the novel doesn't really go into that in a meaningful way. It's kind of just there when it ought to be the crux of the story, I think.

Also I am no longer a continuity nut as I once was, but seemingly everyone in the galaxy knowing Prince Xizor was the leader of Black Sun is a pretty big inconsistency with what is literally the only other book to feature Dash and Xizor. So though I appreciate this book was allowed to exist, it's much more of a miss than a hit.