While far better developed in the novelization (in which it works well) the systematic compression distorts an otherwise well-constructed plot device. Finding itself uncomfortably smooshed against an intrinsically juvenile vision, the political undermining herein is just as gunky and malfeased at it was in Episode I. A few examples particularly stuck out at me.įirst, the inclusion of politics should always be a no-no for a franchise… you know… for kids. Yet for all the intrinsic faults of Baron’s second adaptation, its foreshadowing of the faults of the then upcoming trilogy are instructive a harbinger as any. And no character ever gets a chance blossom into anything resembling proper character development due to the page count constrictions.Īlready butchered at the drawing board step, everything was already wrong from the get go. While some sloughing off of content is boilerplate for any comic-novel adaptation, its simplifications are questionable at best and detrimental at worst.

Much to the detriment of an otherwise thrilling novel (and arguably one of the best in the now defunct SW EU canon) abbreviation is the name of the game and the overall quality never arises above mere mediocrity. In order to match the corporate page count threshold, the inherent charm and humanity of the original becomes compressed. Resuming all the bad qualities of the first, everyone’s favorite literary brainlet, Mike Baron continues to debase Timothy Zahn’s excellent vision of the second volume in the Thrawn Trilogy, Dark Force Rising.

Star wars dark force rising book