Splinter of the Mind's Eye [Paperback]

Alan Dean Foster (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine (1983)
• ISBN-10: 0722181825
• ISBN-13: 978-0722181829
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,958,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alan Dean Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as "Star Wars", the first three "Alien" films, "Alien Nation", and "The Chronicles of Riddick". Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first "Star Trek" movie. His novel "Shadowkeep" was the first ever book adapation of an original computer game. In addition to publication in English his work has been translated into more than fifty languages and has won awards in Spain and Russia. His novel "Cyber Way" won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so.

Foster's sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant, but always entertaining short fiction has appeared in all the major SF magazines as well as in original anthologies and several "Best of the Year" compendiums. His published oeuvre includes more than 100 books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Back before Star Wars got domesticated, July 30, 2001

By 

Jack Holcomb (Kirksville, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Star Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book in 1978, when I was seven years old, and I thought it was terrific. I read it again three years ago, and I still think it's terrific. I'm delighted to see that it's still (back?) in print, because I think it has a heck of a lot more spirit and energy than most of the Star Wars franchise drivel being pumped out nowadays.

Reading through the other reviews I see a lot of "I liked it a lot, but"--followed by some complaint about an inconsistency with the subsequently established Star Wars canon. I know that there's a bit of popular mythology out there that George Lucas had the entire Star Wars series plotted out before he put the first one on celluloid, but I'm here to tell you it ain't so (check out Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays by Laurent Bouzereau for the skinny on this). That is, there was no way for Alan Dean Foster to know that Luke, Leia, and Vader were family, or that Vader was a cyborg under all that armor, or that Leia and Han were going to get romantic, or that Luke would get his lightsaber-wielding butt stomped in the next movie, or that Leia would develop beyond the sarcastic damsel in distress we saw in the first movie.

Which is all to say that DESPITE what you read in these other reviews, Foster actually does a pretty terrific job of making this consistent with the characters AS THEY ARE PORTRAYED IN THE FIRST MOVIE. The reason they're different from their portrayals in Empire, Jedi, etc. is that, well, the characterization in the original film was pretty thin. Luke, Leia, Han, Vader--even the droids and Chewbacca--really only developed three dimensional personalities in the second film. So this is a decidedly different Luke and Leia than the ones you're used to, and--swamp planet aside--this doesn't feel like most of the Star Wars that's come since. If the Star Wars that's come since can be compared to Lord of the Rings (epic scope, huge conflict), this is more like one of those original, great Conan novels by Robert E. Howard--well done, fun stuff, but a bit raw.

And THAT'S why you should buy it. ...

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE STAR WARS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN, May 10, 2002

By 

K. Jump (Corbin, KY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Star Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)

The first novel to take the adventures of Luke Skywalker beyond what we now call Episode IV: A New Hope, "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" drops Luke and Leia onto a primitive jungle planet where the stranded duo must contend with bizarre alien tribesmen, ravenous monsters, labrynthine caves, and roving bands of Imperial stormtroopers--all the while coming ever closer to the romance early Star Wars fans thought was written in the stars. While fleeing the Empire's soldiers, Luke and Leia learn from a Force-sensitive old woman that the backwater planet they've chanced on is home to a mythical crystal that can give its wielder heretofore unimagined power over the Force itself. But Luke and Leia aren't the only ones in on the revelation: the promise of even greater power lures Darth Vader himself, setting up a spell-binding climax including a lightsaber duel that compares favorably with any the films have offered thus far. Naturally, no novel written in '78 can jive with the Star Wars continuity as the movies have developed it since then, but that's not the author's fault. Alan Dean Foster has been of the world's best sci-fi writers for years, and "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" is first class storytelling. Contitnuity nothwithstanding, this is an outstanding and thoroughly entertaining stand-alone novel. What else matters?

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting..., August 28, 2000

By 

Guybert - See all my reviews

This review is from: Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Star Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was the first one authorized by Lucasfilm after the release of Star Wars: A New Hope and it is very good. Alan Dean Foster introduced us to a great sidestory with this and he must have helped many people out back in 1978 by tiding them over till the release of The Empire Strikes Back.

The story is interesting enough. Luke and Leia go on a search for the Kaiburr crystal, which is said to make someone indestructible with the Force. Obviously, they have to find it first, to keep it out of the Empire's hands, especially those of Darth Vader.

The best part of this book happens to be the best reason to buy this book: Luke's confrontation with Vader. All I'll say is that there is some great foreshadowing in this meeting. Read it and see what I mean.

Another interesting thing about this book is that it was written in 1978, so Foster only had the first movie to go on. That makes for some interesting interaction between Luke and Leia. Remember, nobody knew they were related yet.

I thoroughly enjoy this book. I'm positive that any Star Wars fan out there would too, so do yourself a favor and buy this excellent book!