25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
So much potential. So little delivered., December 16, 2002
This review is from: Planet of Twilight (Star Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)
Barbara Hambly has twice proven to be incapable of handling the reins of the Star Wars Universe. She is supposedly an accomplished science fiction. While that may be true in other stories, she lacks the understanding and ability to embrace the Star Wars novels and create compelling episodes in this ongoing series. Her first attempt was "Children of the Jedi", which was a long, ponderous, and slow book. If a novel like this is slow, it's a cardinal sin in writing. The reader gets bored and then frustrated with the book and is tempted to put it down permanently. The disappointing thing about "Children of the Jedi" was that the story, itself, had a great deal of potential and could have (should have) been a rousingly exciting novel.
"Planet of Twilight" is Ms. Hambly's second attempt at a Star Wars novel. Sadly, it fails for all the same reasons that "Children of the Jedi" did. It is long, ponderous, and slow. Her prose is so wordy that she sometimes takes up to an entire page to describe items or scenes that should only take a sentence or two to describe. An editor could have helped her dramatically here. Her 'cutesy' terminology also causes the reader to do a double- take and wonder if they read what they just read. Some examples have her referring to a coffee-like beverage as 'coffeine' and a potato-like substance as 'topatoes'. It seems to indicate a lack of true imagination and it's slightly insulting to the reader who would much rather she used the original words or develop completely different words.
"Planet of Twilight" is comparable to "Children of the Jedi" in the sense that it has an equally interesting plot that is completely muted by Hambly's writing style. In this story, there appears to be a Death Seed plague that is infecting the galaxy and causing massive loss of life. In an attempt to find out what has happened and establish diplomatic ties with the Chorios system, Princess Leia traveled to the planet of Nam Chorios, where most of the distress seems to originate. It seems the Death Seed plague is actually a species of insect-like creatures called 'drochs' that can suck the life energy out of people. Unfortunately for Leia, she gets trapped on the planet by its evil ruler, Seti Ashgad and he suspicious assistant Dzym. Because of the strong defensive system set up on the planet, she is also unable to be rescued for quite some time. Luke Skywalker, of course, tries to save his sister while also tying up the loose ends of the Calista romance.
There are moments when this story seems like it could really take off and captivate the reader. Alas, Hambly continually confounds the reader with her writing. I can only hope that Hambly does not get another chance to write Star Wars novels. People read these stories because they are looking for an escape. They want an entertaining read that flows and isn't too much of a struggle to read. This isn't a novel for a school book report. If the writer's style makes the novel too much of a chore to read, the reader is just going to put it aside and not read it anymore. That is the true mark of the failure of a Star Wars novel and it is exactly what has happened with "Planet of Twilight".
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
When will the hurting stop?, March 31, 2000
This review is from: Planet of Twilight (Star Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)
Please don't plunk down your hard earned money for this. The action sequences (when there were any) were terrible. The plot was pretty improbable, but occasionally I found the plot to be half way decent, kind of like those old B movies. The problem was that some of the characters acted inconsistently, or they failed to act in character. Leia in particular bothered me, she was incredibly indecisive. The way characters interacted was also questionable, and the dialoges were often iffy. Buy The Courtship of Princess Leia, or Heir to the Empire instead.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
seeds of a decent story, July 10, 2006
This review is from: Planet of Twilight (Star Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)
Planet of Twilight rounds out a loose trilogy which started with Children of the Jedi (Hambly) and Darksaber (Kevin Anderson). The connection here is that Luke fell in love with a Jedi named Callista and she has lost her powers. So, she leaves Luke to try to find someway to regain her powers so they can be together. Nice and soap opera-ish. That's the connection. In Planet of Twilight, Leia is on a secret diplomatic mission to Nan Chorios to meet with a leader of a minority faction on the planet who wishes to join the New Republic and seeks assistance. Leia receives a message to avoid the planet and to not trust the man she is meeting. Luke receives the same message, only he realizes the message is from Callista. So while Leia is doing her secret meeting thing, Luke is also going in undercover (the majority of the planet is hostile to outsiders and the New Republic) to find Callista. Meanwhile, an ancient plague is unleashed on the diplomatic fleet and Leia is kidnapped. What will happen next?
*Yawn*. Excuse me.
The problem here is that this book has no lasting implications for the greater Star Wars universe. Sure, the Death Seed Plague should be this big dangerous thing, and it is...sort of. I guess I just didn't believe the stakes. Hambly is a reasonably competent author and I had read one of her non-Star Wars books over a decade ago and enjoyed it. Star Wars can be a lot of things in that hands of different authors, all valid. One thing it should never be is boring. I understand that this is in the eye of the beholder, but this beholder was weary of the novel midway through. Han and Chewie are just running around not accomplishing anything. Leia is a captive for a while until she isn't. Luke goes sort of undercover looking for Callista until he realizes Leia is in trouble and none of it amounts to anything. All these pages spent describing stuff and I'd swear that nothing actually happens. The ending of the book with the extra "twist" comes completely out of left field and whether this is setting something up for a future volume or not, it was so random to be absurd.
So. Skip this one.
-Joe Sherry
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