Customer Reviews

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It is a good (not great) story, but the writing is atrocious.
As just a few examples of the flaws in execution:
The dialog throughout was stilted and labored. I continually found myself declaring out loud "People don't talk like that!" or "Nobody would say that!"
Nonsensical events, like civilian freighter pilots knowing during the battle of Coruscant - before the Invisible Hand has crashed - that Kenobi and Skywalker have killed Dooku and rescued Palpatine, do not add to the narrative, they detract from it.
The concept of a Gungan auctioneer must have been very amusing to the author, but in reality, reading the "Weesa hasa" Gungan speech patterns slows the reader down. It breaks the urgency and speed of an auction. The scene in question, rather than being intense and fast moving, is rendered positvely leisurely.
Throwing in an Alice in Wonderland reference made the author feel very clever indeed, I'm sure, but again, it really just breaks the flow of the narrative.
Fairly early on, I knew the ending was going to mirror that of an earlier Star Wars novel, and sure enough, it did. But it wasn't enough for the author to let that reference stand on its own. Instead he had to explicitly call out that earlier adventure.
Numerous times I got the feeling that the author was more intent on showing how clever he was rather than just telling what could have been a very good story, and the book suffered for it. I was honestly shocked to find that the author is a New York Times best selling author. I can only hope that this was not his best effort.
Again, it is a good story, but it is very poorly told. My copy will not have a place on my bookshelf, it is destined for the used book store.

I enjoyed the plot of tracing the origins of the Millenium Falcon leading up to a treasure hunt, but the chase and danger was treated with kid gloves more appropriate for the young reader series. The climax was such a pathetic let down, one wonders how any reasonable person could have concluded that the treasure's purpose could ever have succeeded in its goals. I believe that this story represents a huge missed opportunity. The treasure could have been something or a frozen someone, that could have had long ranging impact on the SW universe and launched a whole new series. Instead it just made for a bed time story.

I found this book very disappointing. It could be my own fault for expecting more out of it than its description as the history of the Millennium Falcon, but really, that's all it is. It has very little new information on the state of the post-LOTF galaxy, and in fact is mostly "old" information about the Falcon, with quite a few 5-10 page soliloquies by previous owners recounting their exploits with the ship. Some people may find that interesting, but I found it boring and unimportant information about characters that will likely never show up again. Characters, I might add, that all managed to survive the 5+ decades, and all the wars in between since they owned the ship, healthy and well with perfect memories of their time with the Falcon. Topping it all off was a very anticlimactic ending that, really, rendered the entire narrative pointless.

I do think there are people that will find the novel and it's information about the Falcon very entertaining, and if that's the case and that's all you're expecting, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Not only is this book THE worst Star Wars universe book I have read(and I have read them all), but it may be the single worst book I've ever read. The plot is just...clumsy, the ending is horrendous, the middle is meandering. Back to the end, was there even a point? Was there a chapter missing or something, I mean, what was that? Worst ending ever. All that for a imitation, and nobody seemed to care? Yep. The history of the Falcon was ok, but the plot, the dialogue, everything was just atrocious.

Hearing that this book was coming out, I eagerly awaited its release. I had it on hold at the library before they even put it on the shelf... I'm so glad I didn't pay for it. I would request a refund. In comparison to the many other books I've read, far more than one would want to admit, Millennium Falcon disappoints. The story is shallow and lacks the exploits Star War's fans like me are used to. One of the best action scenes actually occurs at a pet show. I was waiting for Cesar Millan to make an appearance. The story is fine for background information, but it is anti-climactic. Maybe the purpose is to set-up the next "brand-new epic series?" We'll know in soon enough. In the meantime, I would not recommend this book unless you're a Millennium Falcon fanatic.

I actually own every Star Wars book written with the exception of the pre-episode IV books and some of the juveniles. So I've been reading this series for a long time and can take the ups with the downs in a series this long. I've got to say that this book more resembled the juveniles. Two parties are looking into the history of the Falcon, one working present to past and the other working past to present, but each piece of new information is presented in the same way: "Well, that's an interesting story. Have a seat while I spend a chapter telling you about it." Mild interest was the best I could work up - maybe it was the writing, but it definitely was the story construction. Also, there is this odd interjection (multiple times) of the thought that the Falcon is somehow prescient and has some sort of moral compass. Weird.

A somewhat average book in the star wars series. A book of short stories about the history of the Falcon, much like the tales books from a few years ago, might have worked better.

The story that was used as a backdrop to tell the history of the falcon is weak. The ending is a let down.

Several good stories about the former Falcon owners save this from being a complete bomb.

Did this story start as a kid's book and they decided half way through to make it a full-blown novel? "Watch Jane run! Watch Jane run!" is the feeling I get reading this book. Very disappointing from an author that produced very enjoyable reads, namely Labyrinth and Dark Lord. I'm going to write it off as poor subject matter, we all loved the falcon but never considered it to be somehow alive. I was hoping for a reminiscent trip through the story's we grew up with, not just some collection of random, unknown short stories thrown together to form a novel, which just kept putting me to sleep. This could have been a classic, unfortunate. I like your stuff James; maybe they'll let you write about where Yoda came from, and who was his master anyway?

First off, let me say that Luceno is one of my favorite Star Wars authors- I always look forward to his and Matthew Stover's entries in the series. That said, this book was a disappointment to me. As with all Luceno books (including the Robotech novels, of which I have read a few), it reads easily. He seems to know just how much detail the reader can digest without causing their mind to wander. He is also skilled with dialogue and with understanding the core Star Wars characters. However, although Han has always brought humor to the franchise, it's usually not as the stooge he is sometimes portrayed as here. That, coupled with elements like dog shows and circuses, made it hard for me to believe that this was the Star Wars universe. Add to that, the incredible coincidences of timing and in the multiple ways that the characters' paths kept crossing and plausibility went right out the window. Finally, once the whole thing finally crawled to the "climax," I felt like I'd wasted time and money on a story that really didn't matter to me. For me, the best Star Wars has always been the space-cowboy or space-opera brand. That is missing here. Hoping for a better outcome with LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR.

I've been a big fan of Star Wars in general, and Han Solo in particular for most of my life. With what I consider to be a 'relaunch' of Star Wars Expanded Universe with the New Jedi order books, the Falcon has become more of a character then just another ship. Numerous times, the Falcon's quirkyness has made me wonder why Han keeps it around, and yet just a few pages later, it pulls off the impossible. Be it outrunning Imperial TIE fighters, or surviving a head-on run with a squadron Vong Coralskippers. I can't speak for anyone else, but all these incidents made me wonder: "What don't we know about the Falcon?" This book, answers most, if not all those questions. Is it filler? Yes. But unlike most Star Wars filler books, it actually does serve a purpose, providing a history not just of the Falcon, but also of Han through referances and flashbacks to previous books. As filler, it can be skipped without missing out anything more then a fun story. That said, it's deffinatetly worth reading if you're a fan that (like me) wants a change from the darker tone that most of the other recent books have had. It is worth mentioning, however, that if you haven't at least read the NJO and Legacy of the Force series', the book won't make any sense.

(minor spoiler warning)
I cannot, however, give this book a five star rating. It jumps back and forth between not only the 'present' and flashbacks, but also 2 major groups, doing different things (though with the same end result in mind), in vastly different parts of the galaxy, with other minor groups, also in other parts of the galaxy, thrown in periodically. In the end, James Luceno pulls all these parts together, but the process gets confusing at times.

Overall, I would recommend this book for dedicated Star Wars fans, that have read virtually all the books (chronologically) from Vector Prime on. Everyone else, I would suggest passing over this. It's also to note that while most of the recent books have had a dark 'feel' to them, this book seems to frequently go out of it's way to stay light and fun. Personally, while I think the darker feel of most of the recent books is a good thing, the lighter feel of this book is a welcome change of pace.