Tag Archives: Death Star

Star Wars: Death Star

by Michael Reaves

Death Star is unlike most other books in the Expanded Universe. The pacing is much slower and there are very few battle scenes. In fact, the first half of the book is spent setting up the scenes and introducing the characters. There are quite a few of them, all from disparate places, whose paths don’t cross until the middle of the book. The second half of the book focuses on A New Hope from the point of view of the Imperials and those who live on the Death Star.

We do get to see a side of the Death Star that’s not revealed in the movies and have some questions answered. The people who built the Death Star, who were they and what did they think of all the destruction? What was the relationship between Tarkin and Vader? Why did Leia look so nicely put together after having been tortured?

There were quite a few romances which I had hoped would progress farther than they did, and the second half of the book could have been more emotionally gut-wrenching than it was. But even so, I did enjoy the book for the chance to glimpse at the lives of those who lived and worked on the most feared battle station of its day.