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Star Wars Legends: Novels
Star Wars: Death Star
“THAT’S NO MOON.”
–Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Death Star’s name says it all, with bone-chilling accuracy. It is a virtual world unto itself–equipped with uncanny power for a singularly brutal purpose: to obliterate entire planets in the blink of an eye. Its annihilation of the planet Alderaan, at the merciless command of Grand Moff Tarkin, lives in infamy. And its own ultimate destruction, at the hands of Luke Skywalker, is the stuff of legend. But what is the whole story, and who are the players, behind the creation of this world-killing satellite of doom?
The near extermination of the Jedi order cleared the way for Palpatine–power-hungry Senator and Sith Lord–to seize control of the Republic, declare himself Emperor, and usher in a fearsome, totalitarian regime. But even with the dreaded Darth Vader enforcing Palpatine’s sinister will, the threat of rebellion still looms. And the Emperor knows that only abject fear–and the ability to punish dissent with devastating consequences–can ensure his unchallenged control of the galaxy. Enter ambitious and ruthless government official Wilhuff Tarkin, architect of the Emperor’s terrifying dream come true.
From inception to completion, construction of the unprecedented Death Star is awash in the intrigues, hidden agendas, unexpected revelations, and daring gambits of those involved on every level. The brightest minds and boldest egos, the most ambitious and corrupt, the desperate and the devious, all have a stake in the Death Star–and its potential to control the fate of the galaxy.
Soldiers and slaves, loyalists and Rebels, spies and avengers, the innocent and the evil–all their paths and fates will cross and intertwine as the Death Star moves from its maiden voyage to its final showdown. And a shadowy chapter of Star Wars history is stunningly illuminated in a thrilling, unforgettable adventure.
–Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Death Star’s name says it all, with bone-chilling accuracy. It is a virtual world unto itself–equipped with uncanny power for a singularly brutal purpose: to obliterate entire planets in the blink of an eye. Its annihilation of the planet Alderaan, at the merciless command of Grand Moff Tarkin, lives in infamy. And its own ultimate destruction, at the hands of Luke Skywalker, is the stuff of legend. But what is the whole story, and who are the players, behind the creation of this world-killing satellite of doom?
The near extermination of the Jedi order cleared the way for Palpatine–power-hungry Senator and Sith Lord–to seize control of the Republic, declare himself Emperor, and usher in a fearsome, totalitarian regime. But even with the dreaded Darth Vader enforcing Palpatine’s sinister will, the threat of rebellion still looms. And the Emperor knows that only abject fear–and the ability to punish dissent with devastating consequences–can ensure his unchallenged control of the galaxy. Enter ambitious and ruthless government official Wilhuff Tarkin, architect of the Emperor’s terrifying dream come true.
From inception to completion, construction of the unprecedented Death Star is awash in the intrigues, hidden agendas, unexpected revelations, and daring gambits of those involved on every level. The brightest minds and boldest egos, the most ambitious and corrupt, the desperate and the devious, all have a stake in the Death Star–and its potential to control the fate of the galaxy.
Soldiers and slaves, loyalists and Rebels, spies and avengers, the innocent and the evil–all their paths and fates will cross and intertwine as the Death Star moves from its maiden voyage to its final showdown. And a shadowy chapter of Star Wars history is stunningly illuminated in a thrilling, unforgettable adventure.
363 pages, Hardcover
First published October 16, 2007
228 people are currently reading
3040 people want to read
About the author
Michael Reaves
130 books211 followersMichael Reaves is an Emmy Award-winning television writer and screenwriter whose many credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twilight Zone, Batman: The Animated Series, and Gargoyles. His novels include the New York Times bestseller STAR WARS: Darth Maul- Shadowhunter and STAR WARS: Death Star. He and Neil Gaiman cowrote Interworld. Reaves has also written short fiction, comic books, and background dialogue for a Megadeth video. He lives in California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 335 reviews
October 30, 2025
While Michael Reaves and Steve Perry's 2007 novel "Death Star" was, sadly, negated by Gareth Edwards's (far-superior) 2016 film "Rogue One", the novel is still worth reading for die-hard Star Wars fans.
Edwards's film, which is now canonical, provided an answer to a question that Star Wars fans argued about for decades: how did one single design flaw---a poorly located ventilation shaft---cause the catastrophic destruction of the Death Star, and how did the Rebel Alliance get their hands on the information?
The answer to that question was definitively and eloquently answered in the film, also providing depth and pathos to a wonderful cast of new characters that would never appear in future films, mainly because everyone died in the end. (Oops, sorry for the spoilers...)
Reaves/Perry's novel doesn't bother to delve into answering that question. Hovering in the background is an attempt to align the story within the novel with the events of the 1977 film "Episode IV: A New Hope", but they aren't really interested in shedding light on how the Rebels came across the data or what the data actually was, because, until "Rogue One", all of that was simply a MacGuffin anyway.
What Reaves/Perry's novel does, and does well, is answer the now-classic argument in Kevin Smith's 1994 film "Clerks" as to whether the independent contractors, medical workers, business owners, and miscellaneous non-Imperial personnel on board the Death Star were innocents and collatoral damage when the Rebels---specifically, Luke Skywalker---blew it up. The answer, of course, is yes.
The novel follows a lot of characters, including a doctor, a librarian (and, yes, the Death Star apparently had a library), a pub owner, and a few soldiers, all of whom were not quite happy with the Imperial agenda. It is a gentle reminder that not everyone who works for the Other Side or the Enemy is evil. They may just be stuck in a bad situation and can see no way out.
Edwards's film, which is now canonical, provided an answer to a question that Star Wars fans argued about for decades: how did one single design flaw---a poorly located ventilation shaft---cause the catastrophic destruction of the Death Star, and how did the Rebel Alliance get their hands on the information?
The answer to that question was definitively and eloquently answered in the film, also providing depth and pathos to a wonderful cast of new characters that would never appear in future films, mainly because everyone died in the end. (Oops, sorry for the spoilers...)
Reaves/Perry's novel doesn't bother to delve into answering that question. Hovering in the background is an attempt to align the story within the novel with the events of the 1977 film "Episode IV: A New Hope", but they aren't really interested in shedding light on how the Rebels came across the data or what the data actually was, because, until "Rogue One", all of that was simply a MacGuffin anyway.
What Reaves/Perry's novel does, and does well, is answer the now-classic argument in Kevin Smith's 1994 film "Clerks" as to whether the independent contractors, medical workers, business owners, and miscellaneous non-Imperial personnel on board the Death Star were innocents and collatoral damage when the Rebels---specifically, Luke Skywalker---blew it up. The answer, of course, is yes.
The novel follows a lot of characters, including a doctor, a librarian (and, yes, the Death Star apparently had a library), a pub owner, and a few soldiers, all of whom were not quite happy with the Imperial agenda. It is a gentle reminder that not everyone who works for the Other Side or the Enemy is evil. They may just be stuck in a bad situation and can see no way out.
September 27, 2016
There are problems with all licensed fiction.
Then there are problems with Star Wars licensed fiction.
My general complaint about licensed fiction is the hacky prose. I like direct writing. When I tried to reread the "Aliens" series of books as an adult I was struck by the sub-Dean Koontz clumsiness of the prose. It's all like that, even when there's a good story or even a good idea involved.
My issues with Star Wars licensed fiction are multiple. The first I feel was best addressed by Gabe from Penny Arcade when he said, "This jackass just said that something can go 'through a ferrocrete bunker like a neutrino through plasma.' I get it, man. It says 'Star Wars' on the cover. I know I'm reading about 'Star Wars'. It's like, do they not have butter in space? Or hot knives to cut it with?"
Even the most basic metaphor has the nouns swapped out for some hokey space equivalent.
My other issue in most extended universe stories is the constant, CONSTANT references to famous scenes from Star Wars movies. There's a high probability that you've already seen the movies at least once if you're braving the fiction, making it ridiculous for Luke Skywalker to spend multiple pages reminiscing about that time he totally hung out with that Yoda guy.
Beyond that, there's the general issue of it all being humorless, a sad state of affairs common to sci fi and George Lucas, making it a double wammy when his hired nerd mercenaries write his prose.
Death Star has a premise so good it almost bucks the trend. It's a story about the construction of the Death Star and the issues of people running various aspects of the operation.
And for most of the book it actually works, clumsy prose, dorky metaphors, and humorlessness aside. Pointing out that the guy pulling the trigger on the giant cannon might feel conflicted with essentially being a genoicide gunner is compelling, as is observing that a million people got blown up by Luke Skywalker while Han Solo went, "Yee haw!"
It made me realize there's probably a disgusting asteroid belt of junk and scorched bodies that someone might feel the need to clean up at some point.
They really address the Star Wars universe in a morally ambiguous way that almost undermines the Star Wars mythos rather deviously.
Until the last fifty pages of course, when half the characters we've grown to sympathize with make a daring escape from the Death Star at the last minute. As is Lucas' way, defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory.
Damn it. Damn it to hell. My high school acting teacher once said that a traditional tragedy is where you know it's going to end badly from the beginning. What could be more tragic than the stories of people doing mundane do-nothing jobs on the Death Star? You're going to get blown up, and it wasn't even your fight.
But why go for a dramatic and powerful ending when you can take the people-pleasing cowards way out by having them ride off into the sunset having a corny conversation about what their plans are for their new lives.
It gets the one star primarily for the ending.
Then there are problems with Star Wars licensed fiction.
My general complaint about licensed fiction is the hacky prose. I like direct writing. When I tried to reread the "Aliens" series of books as an adult I was struck by the sub-Dean Koontz clumsiness of the prose. It's all like that, even when there's a good story or even a good idea involved.
My issues with Star Wars licensed fiction are multiple. The first I feel was best addressed by Gabe from Penny Arcade when he said, "This jackass just said that something can go 'through a ferrocrete bunker like a neutrino through plasma.' I get it, man. It says 'Star Wars' on the cover. I know I'm reading about 'Star Wars'. It's like, do they not have butter in space? Or hot knives to cut it with?"
Even the most basic metaphor has the nouns swapped out for some hokey space equivalent.
My other issue in most extended universe stories is the constant, CONSTANT references to famous scenes from Star Wars movies. There's a high probability that you've already seen the movies at least once if you're braving the fiction, making it ridiculous for Luke Skywalker to spend multiple pages reminiscing about that time he totally hung out with that Yoda guy.
Beyond that, there's the general issue of it all being humorless, a sad state of affairs common to sci fi and George Lucas, making it a double wammy when his hired nerd mercenaries write his prose.
Death Star has a premise so good it almost bucks the trend. It's a story about the construction of the Death Star and the issues of people running various aspects of the operation.
And for most of the book it actually works, clumsy prose, dorky metaphors, and humorlessness aside. Pointing out that the guy pulling the trigger on the giant cannon might feel conflicted with essentially being a genoicide gunner is compelling, as is observing that a million people got blown up by Luke Skywalker while Han Solo went, "Yee haw!"
It made me realize there's probably a disgusting asteroid belt of junk and scorched bodies that someone might feel the need to clean up at some point.
They really address the Star Wars universe in a morally ambiguous way that almost undermines the Star Wars mythos rather deviously.
Until the last fifty pages of course, when half the characters we've grown to sympathize with make a daring escape from the Death Star at the last minute. As is Lucas' way, defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory.
Damn it. Damn it to hell. My high school acting teacher once said that a traditional tragedy is where you know it's going to end badly from the beginning. What could be more tragic than the stories of people doing mundane do-nothing jobs on the Death Star? You're going to get blown up, and it wasn't even your fight.
But why go for a dramatic and powerful ending when you can take the people-pleasing cowards way out by having them ride off into the sunset having a corny conversation about what their plans are for their new lives.
It gets the one star primarily for the ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2011
Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry is not a Star Wars novel that just happens to be written by Reaves and Perry -- it's a novel by Reaves and Perry that just happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. That's an important distinction, and may explain why fans of Perry and Reaves collaborations (or of Steve Perry and Michael Reaves individually) will enjoy the novel immensely, but Star Wars fanboys may be dissatisfied. The book is, in fact, an absorbing character study of a handful of ordinary people stationed on the Death Star just prior to its completion -- a TIE fighter pilot, a conscripted architect, a battle-weary surgeon (who is a character from a previous work by the same authors), a storm trooper who is also a martial arts expert, etcetera. We watch as each of these men and women (and several others) come to terms with their rationalizations for serving the Empire. As the Death Star begins taking millions of lives, each of these characters is forced to make a decision about the future.
The Death Star is a setting, not a central plot point, and thus it is dealt with only in passing (though we do get a better picture of what such a large station would actually contain). There are a few interesting passages elaborating on the relationship between Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, which is not quite as two-dimensional or as clear-cut in terms of authority as it might appear in Episode IV.
Of particular interest to me was the subplot involving the chief gunner aboard the Death Star, a loyal Imperial trooper who, eager to fire "the big gun," realizes to his horror that he has become a killer of planets after the Death Star goes operational. A few of the other characters will seem eerily familiar -- particularly a cantina owner and her loyal security man -- to anyone who has read Steve Perry's work (starting with The Man Who Never Missed). The prison-planet setting in which the novel opens is particularly familiar ground for Reaves and Perry, who collaborated on the excellent The Omega Cage (which is about a prison break from a bleak, futuristic penitentiary on an inhospitable world).
Towards the end of the novel, scenes are taken verbatim from Episode IV and woven into the tales of the various characters, in some cases amplified slightly as we hear the thoughts of those involved. Given that any fan of Star Wars knows how the novel must end, it's no mean trick that the reader will still be curious to see how this novel ends.
I enjoyed Death Star immensely and would recommend it to both those who enjoy work in this genre, but to fans of Reaves and Perry especially.
The Death Star is a setting, not a central plot point, and thus it is dealt with only in passing (though we do get a better picture of what such a large station would actually contain). There are a few interesting passages elaborating on the relationship between Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, which is not quite as two-dimensional or as clear-cut in terms of authority as it might appear in Episode IV.
Of particular interest to me was the subplot involving the chief gunner aboard the Death Star, a loyal Imperial trooper who, eager to fire "the big gun," realizes to his horror that he has become a killer of planets after the Death Star goes operational. A few of the other characters will seem eerily familiar -- particularly a cantina owner and her loyal security man -- to anyone who has read Steve Perry's work (starting with The Man Who Never Missed). The prison-planet setting in which the novel opens is particularly familiar ground for Reaves and Perry, who collaborated on the excellent The Omega Cage (which is about a prison break from a bleak, futuristic penitentiary on an inhospitable world).
Towards the end of the novel, scenes are taken verbatim from Episode IV and woven into the tales of the various characters, in some cases amplified slightly as we hear the thoughts of those involved. Given that any fan of Star Wars knows how the novel must end, it's no mean trick that the reader will still be curious to see how this novel ends.
I enjoyed Death Star immensely and would recommend it to both those who enjoy work in this genre, but to fans of Reaves and Perry especially.
September 9, 2021
This was a good read, I liked it. It wasn't amazing, certainly. But it was nice to see a slice of life story about Imperial citizens. Of course they all joined the Rebellion at the end. That's always how these Imperial centric books go, it's a shame, but at least it made sense in this one. I liked the bouncer and the force sensitive martial artist characters. It's a shame they both ended up dead.
For a story about a bartender, a librarian, an imperial gunner, a guard, a doctor, and a smuggler, it wasn't bad. I liked the brief portions with Vader and Tarkin as well. Admiral Daala showing up to get laid was odd, but her having a head injury and amnesia explains why she's so nutty during the New Republic Era, at least.
One weird spot in the book had a Lucrehulk battleship randomly show up and start attacking the Death Star with 500 X-Wings. It didn't even feel like it fit in with the rest of the book. 500 X-Wings? That's an absurd number of ships for the small Rebellion at this point and it was hinted there was more on board. Very strange scene overall. Still, a solid book from near the end of the Legends era.
For a story about a bartender, a librarian, an imperial gunner, a guard, a doctor, and a smuggler, it wasn't bad. I liked the brief portions with Vader and Tarkin as well. Admiral Daala showing up to get laid was odd, but her having a head injury and amnesia explains why she's so nutty during the New Republic Era, at least.
One weird spot in the book had a Lucrehulk battleship randomly show up and start attacking the Death Star with 500 X-Wings. It didn't even feel like it fit in with the rest of the book. 500 X-Wings? That's an absurd number of ships for the small Rebellion at this point and it was hinted there was more on board. Very strange scene overall. Still, a solid book from near the end of the Legends era.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2010
Death Star or How I Learned to Fall Asleep and Leave the Empire
Normally, I do not bother buying the hardcover editions. They are rather expensive and hard to carry around. But when I saw this one signed by both authors, I figured why not. Ever since the movie, The Empire Strikes Back, I have adored the Empire. So, I leapt into this one as soon as I had the opportunity.
As Star Wars geeks know, the Death Star has been around in various stages since around the time of The Phantom Menace (as mentioned in the book, Rogue Planet). But only after Revenge of the Sith has it been possible to start construction on this beast of a weapon. With construction underway, the Empire is having some difficulties. Labor problems, sabotage, and power struggles are only the tip of the iceberg, as we know that the ominous weapon is about to have an infamous encounter with a simple farm boy.
What I Liked:
From the moment I saw him in A New Hope, Grand Moff Tarkin has fascinated me. I will be bold and say that he is probably my favorite Imperial, but most certainly the epitome of an Imperial officer. I enjoyed reading about him in Rogue Planet and hearing about him in Jedi Academy Trilogy. But these appearances didn't cut it; he was much younger or a side-long character shown in flashback. Being able to see him just before his big screen debut is fun and enlightening. Not to mention that the authors actually do a pretty good job of maintaining his characterization, as seen in A New Hope.
This leads to my next favorite attribute about the book: it is about the Empire. So many of the Star Wars Expanded Universe books have been set after the Empire is destroyed (post-Jedi) that characters like Tarkin and Darth Vader don't get a chance to be ominous (or alive). Even more recently, with the release of the prequels, much time is spent (understandably) with the Clone Wars. So now that the story line is mostly finished, it is great that authors get to have some reign in the twenty year (according to Star Wars continuity) Imperial reign. It is even cooler to see what the Imperials thought of the actions during the movie (but this is also a point that I have a problem with, see below).
Furthermore, some important questions were answered. If the Jedi had only been extinct for a mere twenty years, why did no one seem to remember them? Well, the book explains that with "Because such talk is banned, adults shut up and don't tell their children". This is why Luke is not so knowledgeable about it (and also explains why Leia is). Even the midichlorian concept is somewhat explained. With all the floating pieces in the Star Wars continuity, it is nice to see books that attempt to fill in the gaps.
What I Did Not Like:
Well, this book was not nearly as enjoyable as I had hoped. I found many problems with it, which caused me to lack interest and thus take forever to finish it.
1.Too many characters. At first glance, the Dramatis Personae doesn't seem to be very imposing with a cast at about a dozen names. I mean, the Republic Commando novels had several characters, but most of those were very sidelong characters (which, by the way, I did not enjoy; in my opinion, the Dramatis Personae should be reserved for major characters). In Death Star, each name mentioned in the Dramatis Personae is given multiple point of views (pov). With about 360 pages and 13 characters, this gives approximately 27 pages per character. Let me repeat that: only 27 pages can be devoted to each of the equally important characters. How is a person supposed to develop any bond to characters if they, on average, have only 27 pages to talk about themselves?
2.Poor characterizations. Hand in hand with too many characters, comes poor characterization. Besides perhaps Tarkin, Darth Vader, and Celot Dil, the characters are as flat as an empty tortilla shell. Atour is not even introduced until about halfway through the book and even then, you keep wondering why the authors bothered to throw him in. Daala goes from being a strong female Imperial officer to a Mary Sue of an atrocious kind (I do not think this is anything like what Kevin J. Anderson had in mind). I forgot all about Kornell from the MedStar dulogy. Reading his "entries" made me realize why I had forgotten him (e.g., he made little impression). Memah and Rodo have a worthless backstory (who cares how they got onto the Death Star!). I could see Nova's "Jedi" potential coming from a mile away. Tenn, Motti, and Villan had potential but not enough time (Tenn grew more interesting towards the end with his conflict over firing the Death Star, but it was hard to feel it as I didn't really know him). And Teela...oh, don't get me started on her. Being able to "reject" Darth Vader's mind presence and being a super-architect (architects deal with drawings; engineers do the design work, the calculations, and the analysis)...let's just say, she wasn't my favorite character. All these people at the end meet in a very contrived fashion and decide all together that the Empire is bad and needs to be destroyed. For once, I would like to see someone in the Empire who wasn't power hungry or desiring to join the Rebel Alliance. Where are those dedicated to the Imperial cause?
3.Story starts too early. This one took me some time to notice, but when I did, I wondered how I missed it. The story starts with a (very brief) backstory of where the character is and how the character finds him/herself on the Death Star. This could work if the characters were better, but since the characters are so vague and uninteresting, reading about where they are pre-Death Star and how they get on the Death Star redefines the word "boring".
4.Little action. About the most exciting part of the first section of the book is when Celot Dil escapes Despayre and gets onto the Death Star. The second part, which covers the material in the movie, is much more action packed, but seriously, for a Star Wars book, this is one of the least action-packed books I have read.
5.Unknown timeline. How long does it take to go from the beginning of the book to the end? As an old professor used to say: "Yes". To me, it would make sense for a few years to pass, but how much time actually passes is never clearly stated. All we know is that the book does terminate at 0 BBY. Not very helpful.
6.Excessive detail. Ever wanted to know how the Death Star's guns worked? What sort of detail had to be placed into designing the Death Star? The details of a surgery? Well, this is the book for you. I know it wasn't for me. I nearly fell asleep when Tenn talked about how he didn't trust the engineers (what is it with this book and bashing engineers?) with the Death Star's guns or when Teela went to painful extents to talk about how difficult her job was. If I wanted this much detail, I would have gotten a non-fiction book about these things.
7.Romance. Gosh! Don't let these guys near romance! All three of the romance stories are completely bungled up. The Tarkin/Daala angle might have been interesting had Daala not been reduced to a play toy. Memah/Celot's romance made me gag. And seeing how Teela and Vil got together was nothing new at all. Please, please, please, Michael, Steve, never, ever, ever write a romance sub-plot again!
8.Unanswered questions. How do the Rebels get the Death Star plans? How do they sabotage the Death Star? How does Admiral Daala find out the information about the destruction of the Star Destroyer before people who were actually there? Why in the heck does the Death Star have a "fem" store when the Empire doesn't even approve of female officers? Well, if you wanted these questions answered in this book, just stop right now. They won't be.
9.Movie Overlap. This point is one of those gray areas. On one hand, I really enjoyed reading about the Imperials' perspectives, their feelings, thoughts, etc. On the other hand, I got tired of the word-for-word account of the movie (and how everyone gets to see Princess Leia, Han, Luke, and Chewie). A little goes a long way.
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Star Wars language is about as rough as it gets.
Twi'lek females are described in a slightly sexualized manner. Tarkin calls Admiral Daala to the Death Star for a "personal" briefing. One scene includes him in bed and Daala coming out of the shower. He also talks about how on fire he is despite his age. Romantic sparks fly across the Death Star along with the innuendos attached to the romantic situations.
Despayre is a prisoner planet, filled with violence and death. Nova Stihl is a martial artist. He and Rodo, the bouncer, end up in a few fights. Also, several big explosions (i.e. Alderaan) occur in the book.
Overall:
I was hoping for so much to happen in this book. I was looking forward to Tarkin, Darth Vader, and Admiral Motti. I was looking forward to seeing how the Death Star was constructed. I was looking forward to seeing how the Rebels stole the plans. I was looking forward to seeing the Empire in full bloom.
Man, am I disappointed! Tarkin, Darth Vader, and Motti are here...in between almost 12 other characters. The Death Star is constructed...but it sure isn't the focus of this novel. The Rebels stole the Death Star plans? Golly, I would never have known from this book! At least the Empire is in full bloom...but no one is dedicated to it once they find out how "bad" the Empire is.
Ultimately, I really don't think the long wait to find out what happened before young Luke's fateful adventure was worth it. The novel, written by authors who deftly created the MedStar duology (and outdid themselves, in my opinion) and their own individual accomplishments (remember the stunning Shadow Hunter by Reaves or the amazing Shadows of the Empire by Perry?), write the most boring, fluff novel that I have seen in the Star Wars universe. And they named it "Death Star"? Hm, I think a better title would be: "Bored Star". Even the second act, much more action packed than the first, could not save the book. Very poor entry into the Star Wars world. I would not recommend.
Normally, I do not bother buying the hardcover editions. They are rather expensive and hard to carry around. But when I saw this one signed by both authors, I figured why not. Ever since the movie, The Empire Strikes Back, I have adored the Empire. So, I leapt into this one as soon as I had the opportunity.
As Star Wars geeks know, the Death Star has been around in various stages since around the time of The Phantom Menace (as mentioned in the book, Rogue Planet). But only after Revenge of the Sith has it been possible to start construction on this beast of a weapon. With construction underway, the Empire is having some difficulties. Labor problems, sabotage, and power struggles are only the tip of the iceberg, as we know that the ominous weapon is about to have an infamous encounter with a simple farm boy.
What I Liked:
From the moment I saw him in A New Hope, Grand Moff Tarkin has fascinated me. I will be bold and say that he is probably my favorite Imperial, but most certainly the epitome of an Imperial officer. I enjoyed reading about him in Rogue Planet and hearing about him in Jedi Academy Trilogy. But these appearances didn't cut it; he was much younger or a side-long character shown in flashback. Being able to see him just before his big screen debut is fun and enlightening. Not to mention that the authors actually do a pretty good job of maintaining his characterization, as seen in A New Hope.
This leads to my next favorite attribute about the book: it is about the Empire. So many of the Star Wars Expanded Universe books have been set after the Empire is destroyed (post-Jedi) that characters like Tarkin and Darth Vader don't get a chance to be ominous (or alive). Even more recently, with the release of the prequels, much time is spent (understandably) with the Clone Wars. So now that the story line is mostly finished, it is great that authors get to have some reign in the twenty year (according to Star Wars continuity) Imperial reign. It is even cooler to see what the Imperials thought of the actions during the movie (but this is also a point that I have a problem with, see below).
Furthermore, some important questions were answered. If the Jedi had only been extinct for a mere twenty years, why did no one seem to remember them? Well, the book explains that with "Because such talk is banned, adults shut up and don't tell their children". This is why Luke is not so knowledgeable about it (and also explains why Leia is). Even the midichlorian concept is somewhat explained. With all the floating pieces in the Star Wars continuity, it is nice to see books that attempt to fill in the gaps.
What I Did Not Like:
Well, this book was not nearly as enjoyable as I had hoped. I found many problems with it, which caused me to lack interest and thus take forever to finish it.
1.Too many characters. At first glance, the Dramatis Personae doesn't seem to be very imposing with a cast at about a dozen names. I mean, the Republic Commando novels had several characters, but most of those were very sidelong characters (which, by the way, I did not enjoy; in my opinion, the Dramatis Personae should be reserved for major characters). In Death Star, each name mentioned in the Dramatis Personae is given multiple point of views (pov). With about 360 pages and 13 characters, this gives approximately 27 pages per character. Let me repeat that: only 27 pages can be devoted to each of the equally important characters. How is a person supposed to develop any bond to characters if they, on average, have only 27 pages to talk about themselves?
2.Poor characterizations. Hand in hand with too many characters, comes poor characterization. Besides perhaps Tarkin, Darth Vader, and Celot Dil, the characters are as flat as an empty tortilla shell. Atour is not even introduced until about halfway through the book and even then, you keep wondering why the authors bothered to throw him in. Daala goes from being a strong female Imperial officer to a Mary Sue of an atrocious kind (I do not think this is anything like what Kevin J. Anderson had in mind). I forgot all about Kornell from the MedStar dulogy. Reading his "entries" made me realize why I had forgotten him (e.g., he made little impression). Memah and Rodo have a worthless backstory (who cares how they got onto the Death Star!). I could see Nova's "Jedi" potential coming from a mile away. Tenn, Motti, and Villan had potential but not enough time (Tenn grew more interesting towards the end with his conflict over firing the Death Star, but it was hard to feel it as I didn't really know him). And Teela...oh, don't get me started on her. Being able to "reject" Darth Vader's mind presence and being a super-architect (architects deal with drawings; engineers do the design work, the calculations, and the analysis)...let's just say, she wasn't my favorite character. All these people at the end meet in a very contrived fashion and decide all together that the Empire is bad and needs to be destroyed. For once, I would like to see someone in the Empire who wasn't power hungry or desiring to join the Rebel Alliance. Where are those dedicated to the Imperial cause?
3.Story starts too early. This one took me some time to notice, but when I did, I wondered how I missed it. The story starts with a (very brief) backstory of where the character is and how the character finds him/herself on the Death Star. This could work if the characters were better, but since the characters are so vague and uninteresting, reading about where they are pre-Death Star and how they get on the Death Star redefines the word "boring".
4.Little action. About the most exciting part of the first section of the book is when Celot Dil escapes Despayre and gets onto the Death Star. The second part, which covers the material in the movie, is much more action packed, but seriously, for a Star Wars book, this is one of the least action-packed books I have read.
5.Unknown timeline. How long does it take to go from the beginning of the book to the end? As an old professor used to say: "Yes". To me, it would make sense for a few years to pass, but how much time actually passes is never clearly stated. All we know is that the book does terminate at 0 BBY. Not very helpful.
6.Excessive detail. Ever wanted to know how the Death Star's guns worked? What sort of detail had to be placed into designing the Death Star? The details of a surgery? Well, this is the book for you. I know it wasn't for me. I nearly fell asleep when Tenn talked about how he didn't trust the engineers (what is it with this book and bashing engineers?) with the Death Star's guns or when Teela went to painful extents to talk about how difficult her job was. If I wanted this much detail, I would have gotten a non-fiction book about these things.
7.Romance. Gosh! Don't let these guys near romance! All three of the romance stories are completely bungled up. The Tarkin/Daala angle might have been interesting had Daala not been reduced to a play toy. Memah/Celot's romance made me gag. And seeing how Teela and Vil got together was nothing new at all. Please, please, please, Michael, Steve, never, ever, ever write a romance sub-plot again!
8.Unanswered questions. How do the Rebels get the Death Star plans? How do they sabotage the Death Star? How does Admiral Daala find out the information about the destruction of the Star Destroyer before people who were actually there? Why in the heck does the Death Star have a "fem" store when the Empire doesn't even approve of female officers? Well, if you wanted these questions answered in this book, just stop right now. They won't be.
9.Movie Overlap. This point is one of those gray areas. On one hand, I really enjoyed reading about the Imperials' perspectives, their feelings, thoughts, etc. On the other hand, I got tired of the word-for-word account of the movie (and how everyone gets to see Princess Leia, Han, Luke, and Chewie). A little goes a long way.
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Star Wars language is about as rough as it gets.
Twi'lek females are described in a slightly sexualized manner. Tarkin calls Admiral Daala to the Death Star for a "personal" briefing. One scene includes him in bed and Daala coming out of the shower. He also talks about how on fire he is despite his age. Romantic sparks fly across the Death Star along with the innuendos attached to the romantic situations.
Despayre is a prisoner planet, filled with violence and death. Nova Stihl is a martial artist. He and Rodo, the bouncer, end up in a few fights. Also, several big explosions (i.e. Alderaan) occur in the book.
Overall:
I was hoping for so much to happen in this book. I was looking forward to Tarkin, Darth Vader, and Admiral Motti. I was looking forward to seeing how the Death Star was constructed. I was looking forward to seeing how the Rebels stole the plans. I was looking forward to seeing the Empire in full bloom.
Man, am I disappointed! Tarkin, Darth Vader, and Motti are here...in between almost 12 other characters. The Death Star is constructed...but it sure isn't the focus of this novel. The Rebels stole the Death Star plans? Golly, I would never have known from this book! At least the Empire is in full bloom...but no one is dedicated to it once they find out how "bad" the Empire is.
Ultimately, I really don't think the long wait to find out what happened before young Luke's fateful adventure was worth it. The novel, written by authors who deftly created the MedStar duology (and outdid themselves, in my opinion) and their own individual accomplishments (remember the stunning Shadow Hunter by Reaves or the amazing Shadows of the Empire by Perry?), write the most boring, fluff novel that I have seen in the Star Wars universe. And they named it "Death Star"? Hm, I think a better title would be: "Bored Star". Even the second act, much more action packed than the first, could not save the book. Very poor entry into the Star Wars world. I would not recommend.
July 5, 2025
This was a very fun book to read. Normally I don't enjoy the books that are light on plot (ie the Medstar Duology), but this book was still quite a lot of fun to read. I think that Reaves and Perry have a good balance of character and familiarity of worldbuilding and callbacks that I really enjoyed.
My one real negative about the book is that I thought the book had just a few too many POV characters for its size. I think maybe 2-3 could have been trimmed down and it would have flowed better as a story. I understand what Reaves and Perry were trying to do with this many POVs, as they wanted to show the various facets of the cog of the imperial machine on the Death Star. Still, it could have been reduced.
I also thought that perhaps the major plot of the book, which doesn't really start until the second part of the book, should have picked up earlier. As a result, the first half of the book is really just seeing what life is like on the Death Star for regular people, mixed with a small plot featuring Tarkin, Vader and Daala.
On that subject, Daala and Tarkin together...is just so strange.
The themes in the book about how regular people react to horrifying acts (ie blowing up Alderaan) I thought was handled well. It moved a little fast at the end, but it made sense. Its' exploring the exact opposite themes that a book like "Lost Stars" explores, which I find fascinating. Lost Stars explores when good people just continue accepting the horrifying things, whereas this book explores when those people decide to take action.
I did really enjoy seeing the back and forth of Vader and Tarkin's perspective and how they viewed each other. It felt very much like a James Luceno book at times, as did the information about the Death Star.
The end was a little cheesy, but was overall well done.
As a whole, I'll give this book an 8 out of 10.
My one real negative about the book is that I thought the book had just a few too many POV characters for its size. I think maybe 2-3 could have been trimmed down and it would have flowed better as a story. I understand what Reaves and Perry were trying to do with this many POVs, as they wanted to show the various facets of the cog of the imperial machine on the Death Star. Still, it could have been reduced.
I also thought that perhaps the major plot of the book, which doesn't really start until the second part of the book, should have picked up earlier. As a result, the first half of the book is really just seeing what life is like on the Death Star for regular people, mixed with a small plot featuring Tarkin, Vader and Daala.
On that subject, Daala and Tarkin together...is just so strange.
The themes in the book about how regular people react to horrifying acts (ie blowing up Alderaan) I thought was handled well. It moved a little fast at the end, but it made sense. Its' exploring the exact opposite themes that a book like "Lost Stars" explores, which I find fascinating. Lost Stars explores when good people just continue accepting the horrifying things, whereas this book explores when those people decide to take action.
I did really enjoy seeing the back and forth of Vader and Tarkin's perspective and how they viewed each other. It felt very much like a James Luceno book at times, as did the information about the Death Star.
The end was a little cheesy, but was overall well done.
As a whole, I'll give this book an 8 out of 10.
April 5, 2022
what a fantastic book ! while watching the films i always thought - the tie fighter pilots , the storm troopers , every one in the empire were evil because they were trying to kill the luke and others , but seeing the lives of a lot of these people , pilots , storm troopers , the guy who pulls the trigger of the huge laser on the death star , even a librarian they all have theyre own stories ie being drafted in to an army out of fear of death , you realise that a lot of these people are actually good guys / women . whats interesting is that this book goes back and fourth between the lives of 8 or so characters witch is quite brilliant seeing all theyre stories happen , usually ive only seen this happen with two characters . onto six days of condor by james grady
May 23, 2024
For 2024, I decided to pick up where I left off after 2022 and reread books published between 2004 and 2011—a hodgepodge of Clone Wars, inter-trilogy, and Original Trilogy stories, plus a smattering of Old Republic Sith. This shakes out to twenty-one novels and four short stories, mainly consisting of the Republic Commando series, the Darth Bane trilogy, the Coruscant Nights trilogy, five Clone Wars books written by the Karens, and four standalone novels.
This week’s focus: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry.
SOME HISTORY:
In Kevin Smith's 1994 film Clerks, one of the titular characters argues with his buddy that since the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi is under construction during the film, it's not just populated by Imperial goons but by innocent contractors as well. Michael Reeves and Steve Perry took that idea as the starting point for their novel Death Star, showing the Empire's greatest weapon from the point of view of people who are initially allied with the Empire but slowly come to realize that perhaps this is not the cushy job they were promised. Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry made it to number fifteen on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of November 4, 2007.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I own a hardcover copy of Death Star, primarily because the cover art is by John Harris and I love his artwork. (He also did the cover art for the Dark Tide duology in the New Jedi Order series.) However, I had never read it until just this year. (I might have read it sooner if I knew that Uli Divini appeared in it!)
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
The Death Star was created for a single purpose: to obliterate planets in the blink of an eye and ensure the Emperor's iron-fisted rule of the entire galaxy through fear. But before Luke Skywalker blew it up with a proton torpedo in A New Hope, it was a construction site—home to countless individuals, from Imperial officers to architects to archivists to bartenders to convicts…
THE PLOT:
We know that the implementation and the construction of the Death Star took a while, as the plans were in existence as early as Attack of the Clones, but Death Star really only covers a three year span from three years before the Battle of Yavin right up through the events of A New Hope. The dramatis personae lists thirteen characters, and eleven of those listed characters are viewpoint characters in the novel.
The book is divided into two sections: Part I - Construction, which deals with (you guessed it) the construction of the Death Star over the prison world of Despayre and the necessary setup to get all these disparate people onto the battle station, and Part II - Shakedown, which shows the Death Star nearing its completion and Tarkin beginning to test its potential—until the Death Star plans are stolen by the Rebel Alliance, and everything cascades from there. Since Part II covers a lot of the same beats as A New Hope, it contains a fair bit of dialogue and scenes verbatim from the film.
CHARACTERS:
1. Atour Riten, archivist
Why does the Death Star have a librarian on board? Why not, it’s certainly big enough! Of all our viewpoint characters, Atour is listed first but appears last, as he doesn’t get introduced until Chapter 25 / 75. Atour serves the Empire because it serves his own self interests, as he’s not above blackmailing people to get what he wants. The Rebels get a copy of the Death Star plans because Atour stashed it in his own private archive offworld, and he starts questioning his involvement in the Empire after the destruction of Alderaan. He comes up with the plan for escaping the station, but has to remain behind to give the authorization for their ambulance shuttle.
2. Celot Ratua Dil, Zelosian prisoner
Ratua was a smuggler imprisoned on Despayre for an incident not of his own doing, and he bribes his way into a cargo shuttle headed for the Death Star and ends up running around willy-nilly with forged documentation because the station’s absurdly big. Ratua is another one who’s only out for himself, but he falls in love with the Twi’lek bartender onboard and the destruction of Despayre makes him throw in his lot with the other would-be defectors.
3. Admiral Conan Antonio Motti
Admiral Motti was originally meant to be given the first name of “Zi,” but George Lucas went on Conan O’Brien’s talk show and promised to name a SW character after him. So Motti became Conan Antonio Motti, and before publication every instance of his original first name had to be changed (and they missed one, around Chapter 40 or so). Motti is very ambitious and politically minded, and he views this post on the Death Star as a stepping stone to something even more important—but he’s also dumb enough to pick a verbal fight with Vader, and we know how that went.
4. Darth Vader
Vader sees the Death Star as useful, but (obviously) nothing compared to the power of the Force. He’s initially brought in because of Rebel sabotage attacks on the station, but that plotline never goes anywhere as they never root out who the saboteurs are. After Vader captures Princess Leia, he brings her back to the Death Star and the events of A New Hope unfold. It was interesting to get Vader’s viewpoint once he realizes Obi-Wan is aboard, though—he knew his old Master was alive, he’s confident about their eventual confrontation, but when Obi-Wan vanishes into the Force he is deeply thrown by what just happened. He brushes it off, though, and while he senses Luke Skywalker’s potential he has no idea about Luke’s connection to him.
5. Dr. Uli Divini
A welcome return from Jedi Healer! Uli was conscripted into the Clone Wars as a young prodigy surgeon, and since doctors are valuable the Empire won’t let him quit. Twenty years on, he’s bitter and resentful about his forced continued service. The Star Wars radio drama had a doctor treating Princess Leia after the torture/interrogation, and Uli has been retconned into the role. That experience leads him to throw in his lot with the others who want to leave.
6. Memah Roothes and Rodo, Twi’lek bartender and human bouncer
Memah originally owned a bar in the Coruscanti underworld, but after it’s destroyed in a fire she accepts the Empire’s offer of running a bar in this new battle station and brings her bouncer Rodo with her. Memah’s a good egg who’s good at her job, and she falls in love with Ratua. While Rodo is listed in the dramatis personae, he’s never a viewpoint character; he fights off troopers and is killed while the other defectors escape.
7. Sergeant Nova Stihl
Stihl was a guard on the prison world of Despayre, who’s transferred up to work on the Death Star. He’s somehow both one of the troopers when Leia and co. get out of the trash compactor, and a guard in the conference room scene when we find out that Dantooine was abandoned, which is a little odd but he seems to be filling in wherever needed. He’s also Force sensitive, which we see through several dreams of future events—and the destruction of Alderaan seriously effects him. Like Rodo, Stihl sacrifices himself so that the others can escape during the Battle of Yavin.
8. Teela Kaarz, architect
Teela is a political prisoner down on Despayre who’s brought to the Death Star to work in her original field of architecture. She’s a Mirialan like Luminara Unduli or Barriss Offee, and she recognizes that the thermal exhaust port is unnecessary so close to the main port—but in typical contractor fashion, it’s not written down and gets built anyway. The Rebellion probably thanks Teela for this design flaw, and Teela is only further disgusted by the Empire when they destroy Despayre and Alderaan.
9. Lieutenant Vilian Dance, TIE pilot
Vil Dance is gung-ho for the Empire, but some of his assignments—destroying a ship of escaping prisoners, attacking Rebel ships who make no moves to defend themselves—shake his confidence in the Empire’s cause. He starts a relationship with Teela, and ends up being the pilot on their getaway ambulance.
10. Chief Gunnery Officer Tenn Graneet
Tenn Graneet is the guy who ultimately fired the Death Star superlaser, destroying the prison world of Despayre and the peaceful world of Alderaan. A career gunner since the Clone Wars, he thinks the Death Star will be the capstone of his career, but realizing the capability of the battle station eats at him inside. He realizes that he’ll be considered the villain who killed two billion plus people, doesn’t want to fire it anymore but knows someone will do that job, and freezes during the Battle of Yavin so that Luke Skywalker’s torpedo will succeed. Poor Tenn.
11. Grand Moff Tarkin (and Admiral Daala)
Tarkin has had a vision for the Death Star from the beginning, and sees it as the perfect way of enforcing the Empire's will on the galaxy. The Empire will rule by fear, and once the Death Star blows up a few measly Rebel bases no one will challenge his authority. Tarkin recognizes that the Emperor and Vader have power which he does not understand, but he still thinks the Death Star will be greater than any magical dark side. The continuing Rebel sabotage disturbs him, though, and in a circuitous route of self-justification brings his mistress aboard the battle station.
Daala is listed in the dramatis personae, but like Rodo we never get her POV. We get some Revelations about Daala’s past, and I’m not sure how I feel about them. She’s very young and bright, and she’s eager to dig into this sabotage business, but during a Rebel attack on the station her ship is hit and she’s injured by shrapnel. The surgeons are able to remove it from her head, but she has memory loss of the last year and it’s also implied that the impulse-control part of her brain may have been affected as well. I’m not sure I like “brain damage” as the explanation for why Daala is hyped up as the youngest, most amazing Admiral ever in the Jedi Academy trilogy only for her battle record in that trilogy to be absolutely atrocious. None of the later books, like Legacy of the Force or Fate of the Jedi mention this at all!
I think that Death Star makes it very clear that Tarkin likes Daala because she is an attractive young woman, and he fast-tracked her career as a result of their (frankly worrisomely) romantic involvement. However, he would drop her like a hot potato if it looked like she would impede his career. Daala was good at simulations, but never got the chance to hone her skills in real life and instead was locked away in the Maw for years on end. There’s an uncomfortable power dynamic at play here that I don’t think Daala ever picked up on; everyone makes jokes about the Moff’s girlfriend, and I don’t think they would have openly made those comments if she wasn’t obviously promoted beyond her abilities.
ISSUES:
Death Star has a lot of interesting ideas—I like the concept of learning about the normal people on the Death Star and not just the Imperial superiors—but I couldn’t help feeling that the novel was somewhat half-baked. That feeling partially came from the overwhelming amount of setup that unfolded in Part I: Construction. We meet each character, one by one, then we see how they end up on the Death Star, one by one—by the time we got into Part II: Shakedown, the book took off for me, but there were a lot of pages to turn before it got to that point.
Although Part II ended up with a separate problem thanks to all the A New Hope scenes: there’s lots of dialogue directly from the film, just with the addition of a character like Vader’s viewpoint. They didn’t really add anything to my existing knowledge of the film; I was expecting behind the scenes stuff or the conversations Tarkin and Vader were having before the film scene, but most of it was just verbatim movie stuff. Despite gaining some additional insights from Motti and Vader, it mostly felt like rehashing things I already knew.
Death Star also has a lot of viewpoint characters and chapters for a 360-odd page book. There’s eleven viewpoint characters, and 75 chapters total. I ended up keeping a cheat sheet of which character POVs we got in each chapter, and found that despite each chapter being on average 5 pages long, sometimes you’d end up with seven different viewpoints in the same chapter—especially in the latter half of the book. With such short sections, I felt like we learned surface level details about most of the characters but didn’t always get the chance to dig into these character’s heads and gain deeper insights.
But my biggest issue with Death Star related to how there was an overarching theme to the novel (there were good but misguided people on the Death Star, Vader and Tarkin and Motti not included) but not much actual plot. Rebel saboteurs bomb things left and right, but that’s never resolved—Vader comes in and questions people with no results, none of our viewpoint characters are Rebel saboteurs, and while Daala says she’s looking into it we never find out the result of her investigation because of her head injury. Rebels launch a weird attack on the nearly-finished Death Star while it’s orbiting Despayre but this does nothing other than wound Daala? I’m not sure why this was here other than for Vil Dance to feel bad about making double ace while killing Rebels who made no attempts to defend themselves, because it was such a silly strategic move. I guess that failed attack explains why Tarkin is so dismissive of the Rebel starfighter runs during the Battle of Yavin?
If there’s any plot at all, it’s that many of these viewpoint characters are perfectly happy to work for the Empire until the destruction of Despayre but especially the destruction of Alderaan. But I’m not sure Reaves and Perry achieved their message of “there were good but misguided people on the Death Star” either when a big chunk of the viewpoint characters ran away and defected to the Rebel Alliance during the Battle of Yavin. I can understand Lucasbooks and Del Rey wanting a book about the Death Star because who doesn’t want to know that story? It’s just a pity that the end result was inexplicable Rebel sabotage, a whole lot of bureaucracy, and limited insight into these characters.
(Side note: Vader chasing our escaping heroes during the Battle of Yavin was very silly. I know, I know, he and his wingmates were the only starfighters out there and probably would have queried a random ambulance ship launching, but I think the ridiculousness of their escape is further highlighted by the fact that they escaped from both the Death Star and Vader in his TIE Advanced.)
IN CONCLUSION:
I think your enjoyment of Death Star will probably come down to how much you like these characters, and how much you sympathize with them. (I like Uli Divini thanks to Jedi Healer, but I felt more lukewarm about some of the newer ones.) I felt like Reaves and Perry were trying to do too much with Death Star—there are interesting insights into Tarkin, Motti, and Vader, but the rest feels like they took an interesting concept and themes but ended up with a rather half-baked and lackluster execution of them. Reaves and Perry have an amazing track record (Shadows of the Empire, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, and the Medstar duo) so Death Star isn’t poorly written; it's just aimless and rather plotless in the end.
Next up: the second book in the Darth Bane trilogy, Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn.
YouTube review: https://youtu.be/wc-CiqV2V5E
"I've always thought that Luke felt pretty bad for a few days after it was over"- Interview with Michael Reaves (November 11, 2007): https://web.archive.org/web/201904131...
This week’s focus: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry.
SOME HISTORY:
In Kevin Smith's 1994 film Clerks, one of the titular characters argues with his buddy that since the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi is under construction during the film, it's not just populated by Imperial goons but by innocent contractors as well. Michael Reeves and Steve Perry took that idea as the starting point for their novel Death Star, showing the Empire's greatest weapon from the point of view of people who are initially allied with the Empire but slowly come to realize that perhaps this is not the cushy job they were promised. Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry made it to number fifteen on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of November 4, 2007.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I own a hardcover copy of Death Star, primarily because the cover art is by John Harris and I love his artwork. (He also did the cover art for the Dark Tide duology in the New Jedi Order series.) However, I had never read it until just this year. (I might have read it sooner if I knew that Uli Divini appeared in it!)
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
The Death Star was created for a single purpose: to obliterate planets in the blink of an eye and ensure the Emperor's iron-fisted rule of the entire galaxy through fear. But before Luke Skywalker blew it up with a proton torpedo in A New Hope, it was a construction site—home to countless individuals, from Imperial officers to architects to archivists to bartenders to convicts…
THE PLOT:
We know that the implementation and the construction of the Death Star took a while, as the plans were in existence as early as Attack of the Clones, but Death Star really only covers a three year span from three years before the Battle of Yavin right up through the events of A New Hope. The dramatis personae lists thirteen characters, and eleven of those listed characters are viewpoint characters in the novel.
The book is divided into two sections: Part I - Construction, which deals with (you guessed it) the construction of the Death Star over the prison world of Despayre and the necessary setup to get all these disparate people onto the battle station, and Part II - Shakedown, which shows the Death Star nearing its completion and Tarkin beginning to test its potential—until the Death Star plans are stolen by the Rebel Alliance, and everything cascades from there. Since Part II covers a lot of the same beats as A New Hope, it contains a fair bit of dialogue and scenes verbatim from the film.
CHARACTERS:
1. Atour Riten, archivist
Why does the Death Star have a librarian on board? Why not, it’s certainly big enough! Of all our viewpoint characters, Atour is listed first but appears last, as he doesn’t get introduced until Chapter 25 / 75. Atour serves the Empire because it serves his own self interests, as he’s not above blackmailing people to get what he wants. The Rebels get a copy of the Death Star plans because Atour stashed it in his own private archive offworld, and he starts questioning his involvement in the Empire after the destruction of Alderaan. He comes up with the plan for escaping the station, but has to remain behind to give the authorization for their ambulance shuttle.
2. Celot Ratua Dil, Zelosian prisoner
Ratua was a smuggler imprisoned on Despayre for an incident not of his own doing, and he bribes his way into a cargo shuttle headed for the Death Star and ends up running around willy-nilly with forged documentation because the station’s absurdly big. Ratua is another one who’s only out for himself, but he falls in love with the Twi’lek bartender onboard and the destruction of Despayre makes him throw in his lot with the other would-be defectors.
3. Admiral Conan Antonio Motti
Admiral Motti was originally meant to be given the first name of “Zi,” but George Lucas went on Conan O’Brien’s talk show and promised to name a SW character after him. So Motti became Conan Antonio Motti, and before publication every instance of his original first name had to be changed (and they missed one, around Chapter 40 or so). Motti is very ambitious and politically minded, and he views this post on the Death Star as a stepping stone to something even more important—but he’s also dumb enough to pick a verbal fight with Vader, and we know how that went.
4. Darth Vader
Vader sees the Death Star as useful, but (obviously) nothing compared to the power of the Force. He’s initially brought in because of Rebel sabotage attacks on the station, but that plotline never goes anywhere as they never root out who the saboteurs are. After Vader captures Princess Leia, he brings her back to the Death Star and the events of A New Hope unfold. It was interesting to get Vader’s viewpoint once he realizes Obi-Wan is aboard, though—he knew his old Master was alive, he’s confident about their eventual confrontation, but when Obi-Wan vanishes into the Force he is deeply thrown by what just happened. He brushes it off, though, and while he senses Luke Skywalker’s potential he has no idea about Luke’s connection to him.
5. Dr. Uli Divini
A welcome return from Jedi Healer! Uli was conscripted into the Clone Wars as a young prodigy surgeon, and since doctors are valuable the Empire won’t let him quit. Twenty years on, he’s bitter and resentful about his forced continued service. The Star Wars radio drama had a doctor treating Princess Leia after the torture/interrogation, and Uli has been retconned into the role. That experience leads him to throw in his lot with the others who want to leave.
6. Memah Roothes and Rodo, Twi’lek bartender and human bouncer
Memah originally owned a bar in the Coruscanti underworld, but after it’s destroyed in a fire she accepts the Empire’s offer of running a bar in this new battle station and brings her bouncer Rodo with her. Memah’s a good egg who’s good at her job, and she falls in love with Ratua. While Rodo is listed in the dramatis personae, he’s never a viewpoint character; he fights off troopers and is killed while the other defectors escape.
7. Sergeant Nova Stihl
Stihl was a guard on the prison world of Despayre, who’s transferred up to work on the Death Star. He’s somehow both one of the troopers when Leia and co. get out of the trash compactor, and a guard in the conference room scene when we find out that Dantooine was abandoned, which is a little odd but he seems to be filling in wherever needed. He’s also Force sensitive, which we see through several dreams of future events—and the destruction of Alderaan seriously effects him. Like Rodo, Stihl sacrifices himself so that the others can escape during the Battle of Yavin.
8. Teela Kaarz, architect
Teela is a political prisoner down on Despayre who’s brought to the Death Star to work in her original field of architecture. She’s a Mirialan like Luminara Unduli or Barriss Offee, and she recognizes that the thermal exhaust port is unnecessary so close to the main port—but in typical contractor fashion, it’s not written down and gets built anyway. The Rebellion probably thanks Teela for this design flaw, and Teela is only further disgusted by the Empire when they destroy Despayre and Alderaan.
9. Lieutenant Vilian Dance, TIE pilot
Vil Dance is gung-ho for the Empire, but some of his assignments—destroying a ship of escaping prisoners, attacking Rebel ships who make no moves to defend themselves—shake his confidence in the Empire’s cause. He starts a relationship with Teela, and ends up being the pilot on their getaway ambulance.
10. Chief Gunnery Officer Tenn Graneet
Tenn Graneet is the guy who ultimately fired the Death Star superlaser, destroying the prison world of Despayre and the peaceful world of Alderaan. A career gunner since the Clone Wars, he thinks the Death Star will be the capstone of his career, but realizing the capability of the battle station eats at him inside. He realizes that he’ll be considered the villain who killed two billion plus people, doesn’t want to fire it anymore but knows someone will do that job, and freezes during the Battle of Yavin so that Luke Skywalker’s torpedo will succeed. Poor Tenn.
11. Grand Moff Tarkin (and Admiral Daala)
Tarkin has had a vision for the Death Star from the beginning, and sees it as the perfect way of enforcing the Empire's will on the galaxy. The Empire will rule by fear, and once the Death Star blows up a few measly Rebel bases no one will challenge his authority. Tarkin recognizes that the Emperor and Vader have power which he does not understand, but he still thinks the Death Star will be greater than any magical dark side. The continuing Rebel sabotage disturbs him, though, and in a circuitous route of self-justification brings his mistress aboard the battle station.
Daala is listed in the dramatis personae, but like Rodo we never get her POV. We get some Revelations about Daala’s past, and I’m not sure how I feel about them. She’s very young and bright, and she’s eager to dig into this sabotage business, but during a Rebel attack on the station her ship is hit and she’s injured by shrapnel. The surgeons are able to remove it from her head, but she has memory loss of the last year and it’s also implied that the impulse-control part of her brain may have been affected as well. I’m not sure I like “brain damage” as the explanation for why Daala is hyped up as the youngest, most amazing Admiral ever in the Jedi Academy trilogy only for her battle record in that trilogy to be absolutely atrocious. None of the later books, like Legacy of the Force or Fate of the Jedi mention this at all!
I think that Death Star makes it very clear that Tarkin likes Daala because she is an attractive young woman, and he fast-tracked her career as a result of their (frankly worrisomely) romantic involvement. However, he would drop her like a hot potato if it looked like she would impede his career. Daala was good at simulations, but never got the chance to hone her skills in real life and instead was locked away in the Maw for years on end. There’s an uncomfortable power dynamic at play here that I don’t think Daala ever picked up on; everyone makes jokes about the Moff’s girlfriend, and I don’t think they would have openly made those comments if she wasn’t obviously promoted beyond her abilities.
ISSUES:
Death Star has a lot of interesting ideas—I like the concept of learning about the normal people on the Death Star and not just the Imperial superiors—but I couldn’t help feeling that the novel was somewhat half-baked. That feeling partially came from the overwhelming amount of setup that unfolded in Part I: Construction. We meet each character, one by one, then we see how they end up on the Death Star, one by one—by the time we got into Part II: Shakedown, the book took off for me, but there were a lot of pages to turn before it got to that point.
Although Part II ended up with a separate problem thanks to all the A New Hope scenes: there’s lots of dialogue directly from the film, just with the addition of a character like Vader’s viewpoint. They didn’t really add anything to my existing knowledge of the film; I was expecting behind the scenes stuff or the conversations Tarkin and Vader were having before the film scene, but most of it was just verbatim movie stuff. Despite gaining some additional insights from Motti and Vader, it mostly felt like rehashing things I already knew.
Death Star also has a lot of viewpoint characters and chapters for a 360-odd page book. There’s eleven viewpoint characters, and 75 chapters total. I ended up keeping a cheat sheet of which character POVs we got in each chapter, and found that despite each chapter being on average 5 pages long, sometimes you’d end up with seven different viewpoints in the same chapter—especially in the latter half of the book. With such short sections, I felt like we learned surface level details about most of the characters but didn’t always get the chance to dig into these character’s heads and gain deeper insights.
But my biggest issue with Death Star related to how there was an overarching theme to the novel (there were good but misguided people on the Death Star, Vader and Tarkin and Motti not included) but not much actual plot. Rebel saboteurs bomb things left and right, but that’s never resolved—Vader comes in and questions people with no results, none of our viewpoint characters are Rebel saboteurs, and while Daala says she’s looking into it we never find out the result of her investigation because of her head injury. Rebels launch a weird attack on the nearly-finished Death Star while it’s orbiting Despayre but this does nothing other than wound Daala? I’m not sure why this was here other than for Vil Dance to feel bad about making double ace while killing Rebels who made no attempts to defend themselves, because it was such a silly strategic move. I guess that failed attack explains why Tarkin is so dismissive of the Rebel starfighter runs during the Battle of Yavin?
If there’s any plot at all, it’s that many of these viewpoint characters are perfectly happy to work for the Empire until the destruction of Despayre but especially the destruction of Alderaan. But I’m not sure Reaves and Perry achieved their message of “there were good but misguided people on the Death Star” either when a big chunk of the viewpoint characters ran away and defected to the Rebel Alliance during the Battle of Yavin. I can understand Lucasbooks and Del Rey wanting a book about the Death Star because who doesn’t want to know that story? It’s just a pity that the end result was inexplicable Rebel sabotage, a whole lot of bureaucracy, and limited insight into these characters.
(Side note: Vader chasing our escaping heroes during the Battle of Yavin was very silly. I know, I know, he and his wingmates were the only starfighters out there and probably would have queried a random ambulance ship launching, but I think the ridiculousness of their escape is further highlighted by the fact that they escaped from both the Death Star and Vader in his TIE Advanced.)
IN CONCLUSION:
I think your enjoyment of Death Star will probably come down to how much you like these characters, and how much you sympathize with them. (I like Uli Divini thanks to Jedi Healer, but I felt more lukewarm about some of the newer ones.) I felt like Reaves and Perry were trying to do too much with Death Star—there are interesting insights into Tarkin, Motti, and Vader, but the rest feels like they took an interesting concept and themes but ended up with a rather half-baked and lackluster execution of them. Reaves and Perry have an amazing track record (Shadows of the Empire, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, and the Medstar duo) so Death Star isn’t poorly written; it's just aimless and rather plotless in the end.
Next up: the second book in the Darth Bane trilogy, Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn.
YouTube review: https://youtu.be/wc-CiqV2V5E
"I've always thought that Luke felt pretty bad for a few days after it was over"- Interview with Michael Reaves (November 11, 2007): https://web.archive.org/web/201904131...
July 12, 2018
This book really exceeded my expectations. Being a Star Wars book, I was interested enough to pick it up, but given that it appeared to focus on the story of an inanimate battle station, and a story which has been covered before by A New Hope, I approached it with the expectation that it would not be up there with the best books of the Star Wars saga. In addition, critics had condemned it as boring, slow and too long. Assuredly, it did take a couple of chapters to get into. The protagonists, our "ordinary beings", were new, so they needed to be introduced and given a little while for the reader to care about them. This took up the first six chapters, and it was a little disjointed, jumping from one new character to the next in order to get all the introductions done. However, once this part was over and done with, the plot starts to move along at a steady pace. Once you get to this stage, the book becomes a real page turner. Usually, each chapter deals with one of the characters, the next chapter jumping to another one, and so forth, but each chapter is just long enough to provide an extra titbit of meaty information or action for our characters, and just short enough that you’ll be eagerly turning the pages to find out what happens to them next, and whilst you’re doing that, you find out the next little bit of what happens to that character you read about three chapters ago, and so forth.
The big names appear where appropriate, and oversee events throughout – Motti, Daala, Tarkin and Darth Vader – but they do not overshadow the book. The stars of this show are our nine ordinary guys – plus of course, the Death Star itself. That said, the brief scenes with our bigshots do reveal a bit more information about them, their motivations, and this period in the Star Wars galaxy, and in addition, some of most exciting scenes involve incidents where our ordinary guys come face to face with their formidable superiors – there’s a hilarious scene where one of them encounters Darth Vader coming the opposite direction down a corridor, I won’t say any more, but it was pure gold. Because we’re mostly sitting on the shoulders of the ordinary folk, these encounters with the higher ups, who will already be familiar characters to Star Wars readers, become thrilling, nerve-wracking and awe-struck – like an average joe running into a celebrity on the street. This speaks of the quality of this collaboration of authors, that they have made brief encounters with these highly familiar characters, exciting and new again. The ordinary characters do strike you as quintessentially ordinary, yet each of them has a unique backstory, finely tuned personality, and their own reasons for being on the Death Star. There wasn’t a massive amount on the backstory of these characters, but there didn’t need to be – these were totally new characters that the readers wouldn’t care for yet, an extensive backstory would have been unnecessary, and enough was given for the purposes of establishing their origins and the point from which they all begin. I sort of sensed that the individual strands would come together in the end, but despite that, the story was still engaging.
Another criticism that was levelled at this book was that the ending was boring – a tiresome retelling of the original, Episode IV: A New Hope film, except from a different point of view. After reading it myself, I feel this is an unfair criticism. The reappearance of film scenes are few in number, and built up a steadily increasing pressure all the way to the end – will our protagonists make it off the Death Star before Luke drops a proton torpedo into its reactor core? In addition, I thought these scenes were great because it showed that new characters could interact with an established story and still get away with the whole thing being plausible as canon. Perhaps one criticism that can be made is that the book is a little lacking in action, and it was slightly conventional that the two couples survive, also there were hints that there might be a confrontation scene between Darth Vader and Kornell Divini who puts in an illegal request for medical information on midi-chlorians in response to a patient’s affliction, but . Such a scene would have been fantastic. Nevertheless, the writing is high quality, the pacing perfect, and the characters detailed and realistic.
7 out of 10.
The big names appear where appropriate, and oversee events throughout – Motti, Daala, Tarkin and Darth Vader – but they do not overshadow the book. The stars of this show are our nine ordinary guys – plus of course, the Death Star itself. That said, the brief scenes with our bigshots do reveal a bit more information about them, their motivations, and this period in the Star Wars galaxy, and in addition, some of most exciting scenes involve incidents where our ordinary guys come face to face with their formidable superiors – there’s a hilarious scene where one of them encounters Darth Vader coming the opposite direction down a corridor, I won’t say any more, but it was pure gold. Because we’re mostly sitting on the shoulders of the ordinary folk, these encounters with the higher ups, who will already be familiar characters to Star Wars readers, become thrilling, nerve-wracking and awe-struck – like an average joe running into a celebrity on the street. This speaks of the quality of this collaboration of authors, that they have made brief encounters with these highly familiar characters, exciting and new again. The ordinary characters do strike you as quintessentially ordinary, yet each of them has a unique backstory, finely tuned personality, and their own reasons for being on the Death Star. There wasn’t a massive amount on the backstory of these characters, but there didn’t need to be – these were totally new characters that the readers wouldn’t care for yet, an extensive backstory would have been unnecessary, and enough was given for the purposes of establishing their origins and the point from which they all begin. I sort of sensed that the individual strands would come together in the end, but despite that, the story was still engaging.
Another criticism that was levelled at this book was that the ending was boring – a tiresome retelling of the original, Episode IV: A New Hope film, except from a different point of view. After reading it myself, I feel this is an unfair criticism. The reappearance of film scenes are few in number, and built up a steadily increasing pressure all the way to the end – will our protagonists make it off the Death Star before Luke drops a proton torpedo into its reactor core? In addition, I thought these scenes were great because it showed that new characters could interact with an established story and still get away with the whole thing being plausible as canon. Perhaps one criticism that can be made is that the book is a little lacking in action, and it was slightly conventional that the two couples survive, also there were hints that there might be a confrontation scene between Darth Vader and Kornell Divini who puts in an illegal request for medical information on midi-chlorians in response to a patient’s affliction, but . Such a scene would have been fantastic. Nevertheless, the writing is high quality, the pacing perfect, and the characters detailed and realistic.
7 out of 10.
June 4, 2017
My opinion on this book is... not neutral.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f35...
It's weird because this book shouldn't matter to me since it was part of the Legends universe and a minor tie-in. However, the very premise of the book really just gets my gourd as an author. It's a book which is born from the conversation between Dante and Randal in Clerks. It's about the wrong Death Star but the premise is the same: "What about all the dudes on the Death Star who didn't deserve to be blown up when Luke Skywalker dropped his torpedo down its thermal exhaust port?" The janitorial staff, baristas, and guys who ran the cafeteria, basically.
Well, the answer to that question was IN Clerks as they had a guy talk about how your politics is going to influence your job anyway. If you're going to take a job working for the Empire on their doomsday weapon then maybe you should note it's dangerous. Both for you and the nameless billions who perished on Alderaan (and a planet called Despayre it turns out).
Next, the fact this question is being asked is reducing Star Wars' conception of war to an even more childish level than a series made for children ages 4-400. Because, goodness knows, good people might get HURT in war when planets are on the line. Biggs, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Porkins, all those Rebels in the Tantive IV, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, and Gold Leader being among the many people who died because of the Empire.
This book is basically a story about a bunch of nice people on the Death Star who get caught up in the war. It's the ending, though, which bothers me. It's so tonally dissonant and completely wrong-headed I literally had to restrain myself from throwing the book. The only time I've ever had to do that was with Kevin J. Anderson's Dune prequels. What bothered me? What drove me to such anger? Warning - it's a spoiler for the book. You have been warned.
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They all live at the end but for the guy who blew up Alderaan. Yes, they all escape at the end during the Battle of Yavin. No, the Empire doesn't chase them down with TIE Fighters or shoot them during their escape. They, instead, reach the surface of Yavin IV and join the Rebellion against the Empire.
What the Force? You mean to tell me, you wrote a book about humanizing all the nameless cogs in the Empire's ultimate death machine and then you had them NOT DIE during the climax? They did that as a JOKE during Phineas and Ferb's Star Wars special. I mean, what's the point of doing the book if you're going to do that? I mean, it negates everything!
The writing isn't bad, I guess, and it has my favorite appearance of Admiral Daala in the franchise but I just don't understand what was going through the writers' heads.
4/10
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f35...
It's weird because this book shouldn't matter to me since it was part of the Legends universe and a minor tie-in. However, the very premise of the book really just gets my gourd as an author. It's a book which is born from the conversation between Dante and Randal in Clerks. It's about the wrong Death Star but the premise is the same: "What about all the dudes on the Death Star who didn't deserve to be blown up when Luke Skywalker dropped his torpedo down its thermal exhaust port?" The janitorial staff, baristas, and guys who ran the cafeteria, basically.
Well, the answer to that question was IN Clerks as they had a guy talk about how your politics is going to influence your job anyway. If you're going to take a job working for the Empire on their doomsday weapon then maybe you should note it's dangerous. Both for you and the nameless billions who perished on Alderaan (and a planet called Despayre it turns out).
Next, the fact this question is being asked is reducing Star Wars' conception of war to an even more childish level than a series made for children ages 4-400. Because, goodness knows, good people might get HURT in war when planets are on the line. Biggs, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Porkins, all those Rebels in the Tantive IV, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, and Gold Leader being among the many people who died because of the Empire.
This book is basically a story about a bunch of nice people on the Death Star who get caught up in the war. It's the ending, though, which bothers me. It's so tonally dissonant and completely wrong-headed I literally had to restrain myself from throwing the book. The only time I've ever had to do that was with Kevin J. Anderson's Dune prequels. What bothered me? What drove me to such anger? Warning - it's a spoiler for the book. You have been warned.
>
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They all live at the end but for the guy who blew up Alderaan. Yes, they all escape at the end during the Battle of Yavin. No, the Empire doesn't chase them down with TIE Fighters or shoot them during their escape. They, instead, reach the surface of Yavin IV and join the Rebellion against the Empire.
What the Force? You mean to tell me, you wrote a book about humanizing all the nameless cogs in the Empire's ultimate death machine and then you had them NOT DIE during the climax? They did that as a JOKE during Phineas and Ferb's Star Wars special. I mean, what's the point of doing the book if you're going to do that? I mean, it negates everything!
The writing isn't bad, I guess, and it has my favorite appearance of Admiral Daala in the franchise but I just don't understand what was going through the writers' heads.
4/10
January 14, 2013
Death Star was an enjoyable tale that was sort of prequel, but also ran concurrently to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The novel centers around the construction of the original Death Star. Grand Moff Tarkin shares the stage along with Darth Vader as the main villains in the novel. Vader is involved periferally at first before taking the main stage.
The book starts with the introduction of an eclectic group of characters including the owner of a cantina, an escaped prisoner, and a fighter pilot. Their lives run concurrently, and for a time, it didn't readily appear how they were going to figure in the outcome, but eventually their story lines melded. I enjoyed the weaving in of these new characters and a new storyline into the existing plot of A New Hope. It was pretty seamless and the backstory added depth to the story. On top of that, I found the writing to be very professional and competent. If you enjoy sci-fi and Star Wars, then this is something that you will want to read.
Carl Alves - author of Blood Street
The book starts with the introduction of an eclectic group of characters including the owner of a cantina, an escaped prisoner, and a fighter pilot. Their lives run concurrently, and for a time, it didn't readily appear how they were going to figure in the outcome, but eventually their story lines melded. I enjoyed the weaving in of these new characters and a new storyline into the existing plot of A New Hope. It was pretty seamless and the backstory added depth to the story. On top of that, I found the writing to be very professional and competent. If you enjoy sci-fi and Star Wars, then this is something that you will want to read.
Carl Alves - author of Blood Street
March 5, 2012
This book finally sheds some light on the discussion from "Clerks". What about all the innocents on the Death Star? This book follows a selection of people who all end up on the Death Star - civilian contractors, prisoners, conscripted staff, soldiers, etc. - and follows them from the start of building right up to the climactic (but well known) finale.
It wasn't a bad book by any means but it was nothing illuminating either. It was interesting to see what was going on around scenes from "A New Hope" but it needed something more.
The quality of Star Wars novels has really dropped these last couple years.
It wasn't a bad book by any means but it was nothing illuminating either. It was interesting to see what was going on around scenes from "A New Hope" but it needed something more.
The quality of Star Wars novels has really dropped these last couple years.
August 22, 2025
the good: we get to see the development of the station as well as a ton of background information from what we already know.
The information gained about the station itself, while surprisingly limited, is interesting
We see a very different (numerous different) perspectives from where the viewing lens typically is. its a very unique point of view
The pacing and prose are for the most part well done and helps move the story along at an enjoyable rate
the bad: parts are campy, overly convenient, or corny. there were numerous sections where I had to roll my eyes and get through it. One example is how easily a large group of strangers comes together and develops a bond, leading their conversation to dangerous places far too quickly and easily. this was especially bad at the very ending.
the characters. while some were "fine" and maybe even borderline "good" none were actually very interesting. not one was even close to great. on the flip side of that, there were a couple that had moments that had me begging for luke skywalkers x wing to race down that trench. That's not a great look when the characters themselves were meant to be the main intrigue of the book.
The technical. it amazed me how much technical jargon they threw in. advanced medical terms, advanced physics, engineering, martial arts. I would expect maybe half the audience to fully understand one or two of those subjects. I doubt there was double digit readers that could truly appreciate every single aspect of them
the odd. there were one or two scenes that just felt like they didn't belong. one in particular comes to mind that I would imagine was meant to make the reader think something from the movies was happening when it wasnt. It resulted in a very odd and out of place scene that did nothing other than serve as a convenient path for one character to have some very forced development. most of the development in this entire story was forced and convenient.
Tarkin and Daala get their own footnote here too. Tarkin was fairly well written for the most part, and it was very obvious to me that he should have been the focal point of the story. Daala on the other hand, I have mixed feelings about. The two together were written about as well as anyone could write this disaster set up by Kevin J Anderson. It still wasnt great. It seems like the authors set up an excuse for why Daala is a terrible character in every other story she's ever been in. I would have been ready to give them an entire additional star if they had simply been more explicit with saying exactly that: that she was messed up.
TLDR/final takeaway: this story is fine, definitely not great. the plot was very thin and relied surprisingly more on the characters, which i couldn't really buy into. The writing made the story enjoyable enough despite me disagreeing with practically the entire setup for this novel. Tarkin was written very well. it isn't even close to the conversation for top 25 star wars books, and should be moved down your list accordingly. it is still worth reading if you plan on going through the timeline, especially if you appreciate the 90s books- which it tended to feel like at times
The information gained about the station itself, while surprisingly limited, is interesting
We see a very different (numerous different) perspectives from where the viewing lens typically is. its a very unique point of view
The pacing and prose are for the most part well done and helps move the story along at an enjoyable rate
the bad: parts are campy, overly convenient, or corny. there were numerous sections where I had to roll my eyes and get through it. One example is how easily a large group of strangers comes together and develops a bond, leading their conversation to dangerous places far too quickly and easily. this was especially bad at the very ending.
the characters. while some were "fine" and maybe even borderline "good" none were actually very interesting. not one was even close to great. on the flip side of that, there were a couple that had moments that had me begging for luke skywalkers x wing to race down that trench. That's not a great look when the characters themselves were meant to be the main intrigue of the book.
The technical. it amazed me how much technical jargon they threw in. advanced medical terms, advanced physics, engineering, martial arts. I would expect maybe half the audience to fully understand one or two of those subjects. I doubt there was double digit readers that could truly appreciate every single aspect of them
the odd. there were one or two scenes that just felt like they didn't belong. one in particular comes to mind that I would imagine was meant to make the reader think something from the movies was happening when it wasnt. It resulted in a very odd and out of place scene that did nothing other than serve as a convenient path for one character to have some very forced development. most of the development in this entire story was forced and convenient.
Tarkin and Daala get their own footnote here too. Tarkin was fairly well written for the most part, and it was very obvious to me that he should have been the focal point of the story. Daala on the other hand, I have mixed feelings about. The two together were written about as well as anyone could write this disaster set up by Kevin J Anderson. It still wasnt great. It seems like the authors set up an excuse for why Daala is a terrible character in every other story she's ever been in. I would have been ready to give them an entire additional star if they had simply been more explicit with saying exactly that: that she was messed up.
TLDR/final takeaway: this story is fine, definitely not great. the plot was very thin and relied surprisingly more on the characters, which i couldn't really buy into. The writing made the story enjoyable enough despite me disagreeing with practically the entire setup for this novel. Tarkin was written very well. it isn't even close to the conversation for top 25 star wars books, and should be moved down your list accordingly. it is still worth reading if you plan on going through the timeline, especially if you appreciate the 90s books- which it tended to feel like at times
December 20, 2024
As a big fan in particular of the era post-Order 66, I’ve been especially interested in stories that take place in this part of the histories of Star Wars. And Michael Reaves has written a couple of books set in this time period where I’ve not only enjoyed his general approach to the material, but I’ve fallen in love with some of his characters. One of my biggest complaints though, has been how many plot threads and many characters end up being spread across a story. Death Star is in every way a continuation of all of these things.
The first half was the most enjoyable for me, as it introduces some interesting characters in a time period that I find riveting, in settings that are often unique and flesh out the world in a way that feels satisfying.
I continue to be annoyed with stories that feel the need to portray Darth Vader from any inside perspective, as I think he works best as a character shrouded in mystery and observed from afar by other characters. I will now add Tarkin to this list of characters I not only don’t want to know what he’s thinking, let alone anything about his sex life…
The second half of the book was most disappointing when it continued to introduce more characters who’s perspectives were followed, and as the gang of characters who were already being developed began to coalesce into similar arcs. I think my least favourite element though, was how often it regurgitated the events from the films. If I wanted to read a book adaption of a film, that’s what I’d have chosen to read; what I wanted was something that brought new material, and this book only half-delivers on that front.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there are many more novels set during this period of time and I’m becoming convinced that the ones that do will continue to follow this trend of focusing too much on the characters and events that have already been realized in the films, rather than focusing primarily on building out the world.
One last thing about the book is that I kept thinking about how great the premise would be for a miniseries. Similar to Rogue One, there would always be a looming reality of events to come, but if you were focused on characters not integral to the existing films, it would leave space to explore in ways that this novel did well.
Perhaps I’ll dive more into the other eras of Star Wars and see if I can find some more interesting world building and unique characters that aren’t as tied to the films.
The first half was the most enjoyable for me, as it introduces some interesting characters in a time period that I find riveting, in settings that are often unique and flesh out the world in a way that feels satisfying.
I continue to be annoyed with stories that feel the need to portray Darth Vader from any inside perspective, as I think he works best as a character shrouded in mystery and observed from afar by other characters. I will now add Tarkin to this list of characters I not only don’t want to know what he’s thinking, let alone anything about his sex life…
The second half of the book was most disappointing when it continued to introduce more characters who’s perspectives were followed, and as the gang of characters who were already being developed began to coalesce into similar arcs. I think my least favourite element though, was how often it regurgitated the events from the films. If I wanted to read a book adaption of a film, that’s what I’d have chosen to read; what I wanted was something that brought new material, and this book only half-delivers on that front.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there are many more novels set during this period of time and I’m becoming convinced that the ones that do will continue to follow this trend of focusing too much on the characters and events that have already been realized in the films, rather than focusing primarily on building out the world.
One last thing about the book is that I kept thinking about how great the premise would be for a miniseries. Similar to Rogue One, there would always be a looming reality of events to come, but if you were focused on characters not integral to the existing films, it would leave space to explore in ways that this novel did well.
Perhaps I’ll dive more into the other eras of Star Wars and see if I can find some more interesting world building and unique characters that aren’t as tied to the films.
January 6, 2021
Pretty slow build-up and not much happens for most of the book. I'm not sure what I expected from a book about the Death Star, but I appreciated that the authors try to tell a story about some of the 'normal people'/pawns of the Empire that just happened to be in the Death Star before/when it blew up. Clearly a battle station of that size would have required many, many people to operate, and the consideration of many people who were there who were 'innocent' or not there by choice was interesting.
Ultimately though, I think there were way too many characters, and none of their stories were particularly compelling or interesting. Combined with the way it's written, with short snippets of scenes from each character's point of view, sometimes just for a few lines, and like 70+ chapters, with each break seemingly a bit arbitrary--the whole thing felt more like I was reading a screenplay or something rather than a novel, like a camera is cutting back and forth for each 'scene'. It was like, a book that's just a series of snapshots of different people's lives/internal monologues who all happened to be intertwined with the Death Star, and then on the side the main events of A New Hope are happening (which was interesting, to have it told from the empire's perspective).
The fact that all these insignificant characters are mere ants in the Death Star but ultimately have some slight influence on the Rebel Alliance's success to destroy the station makes them a bit more interesting and consequential, but it comes too little, too late. They could have cut a lot of the build-up if it was just for that. I think I see what they were trying to do with this story, like telling the tales of the people who happened to be there, and how they reacted to the Death Star's power/purpose, but it wasn't particularly well done and read in a way that was too disjointed and not like a coherent novel.
Oh also I did appreciate that they seemed to know their Star Wars EU lore and made multiple references to existing characters/events.
Ultimately though, I think there were way too many characters, and none of their stories were particularly compelling or interesting. Combined with the way it's written, with short snippets of scenes from each character's point of view, sometimes just for a few lines, and like 70+ chapters, with each break seemingly a bit arbitrary--the whole thing felt more like I was reading a screenplay or something rather than a novel, like a camera is cutting back and forth for each 'scene'. It was like, a book that's just a series of snapshots of different people's lives/internal monologues who all happened to be intertwined with the Death Star, and then on the side the main events of A New Hope are happening (which was interesting, to have it told from the empire's perspective).
The fact that all these insignificant characters are mere ants in the Death Star but ultimately have some slight influence on the Rebel Alliance's success to destroy the station makes them a bit more interesting and consequential, but it comes too little, too late. They could have cut a lot of the build-up if it was just for that. I think I see what they were trying to do with this story, like telling the tales of the people who happened to be there, and how they reacted to the Death Star's power/purpose, but it wasn't particularly well done and read in a way that was too disjointed and not like a coherent novel.
Oh also I did appreciate that they seemed to know their Star Wars EU lore and made multiple references to existing characters/events.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2024
The Empire is close to finishing construction on the Death Star, a technological terror that will end all wars and any spark of resistance. But a space station this size needs personnel - both to bring it to life and to make sure it functions as intended. Slaves and prisoners. Pilots and gunners. Archivists and guards. Bartenders and stowaways. Most of them will not escape their fate.
I'm usually quite harsh in reviews of books that fail to present a plot, but somehow Death Star just works. It explores the background noise of A New Hope and the lower decks (so to speak) of the Death Star, giving us what feels like a behind-the-scenes tour and showing the effect that seemingly small lives can have on the grand scheme of things. Had this novel not been so steeped in misogyny (a constant failing of these two authors), I'd have viewed it on par with Disney's later Rogue One.
This book's greatest crime, unquestionably, is the ham-fisted insertion of Admiral Daala. It could have been acceptable... had the authors not gone too far and then annoyingly relied on amnesia to fix things. Happily, other references to Legends novels weren't too obtrusive.
These various failings aside, I really enjoyed Death Star and easily became engrossed in it whenever I had the time to peruse its pages.
I'm usually quite harsh in reviews of books that fail to present a plot, but somehow Death Star just works. It explores the background noise of A New Hope and the lower decks (so to speak) of the Death Star, giving us what feels like a behind-the-scenes tour and showing the effect that seemingly small lives can have on the grand scheme of things. Had this novel not been so steeped in misogyny (a constant failing of these two authors), I'd have viewed it on par with Disney's later Rogue One.
This book's greatest crime, unquestionably, is the ham-fisted insertion of Admiral Daala. It could have been acceptable... had the authors not gone too far and then annoyingly relied on amnesia to fix things. Happily, other references to Legends novels weren't too obtrusive.
These various failings aside, I really enjoyed Death Star and easily became engrossed in it whenever I had the time to peruse its pages.
February 15, 2008
Finally finished it. It is a pretty quick read. It is also pretty well written. The book is basically the story of the construction of the Death Star. It is divided in two parts: the construction and then the shakedown cruise, which leads to the events in the first Star Wars film most people have seen by now. I usually dislike books where I know the ending beforehand, but this book was actually interesting and engaging. The first part where the station is constructed and the characters are introduced is actually pretty good. Different people from diverse backgrounds come together in constructing the Death Star. In the second part, we see some cameos from characters we knew in the film, but we get a different point of view, and that makes the book a good read as well.
The book features the character of Doctor Divini, which regular readers of Star Wars novels may recognize from the Medstar Duology (by the way, I read those two book, and they are on my list). Another character is a librarian, which for a librarian as me, was kind of cool too. Overall, this was a good and pleasant read.
The book features the character of Doctor Divini, which regular readers of Star Wars novels may recognize from the Medstar Duology (by the way, I read those two book, and they are on my list). Another character is a librarian, which for a librarian as me, was kind of cool too. Overall, this was a good and pleasant read.
March 16, 2025
Great Characters make this a Fascinating Read
As a lover of Star Wars books, I try to read both the new Canon as well as the EU books. Having read a few new Canon books that were less than impressive, I decided to read this one on a whim. I am so glad I did. I absolutely loved this book and found it hard to put down. This book covers the construction of the Death Star and the aftermath. It is filled with wonderful characters from different backgrounds who are drawn together for one reason or another. I love how this book humanizes the Imperial officers and gives great insight to their lives and how they feel when this ultimate weapon is tested. The second half beautifully wraps their stories around the original A New Hope using the same dialog. It is exciting, poignant and heartbreaking. The action in the second half comes fast and furious and I did not want this book to end. It is now one of my all time favorites and I will have to read their other Star Wars collaborations, since they complement each other beautifully. An excellent read!
As a lover of Star Wars books, I try to read both the new Canon as well as the EU books. Having read a few new Canon books that were less than impressive, I decided to read this one on a whim. I am so glad I did. I absolutely loved this book and found it hard to put down. This book covers the construction of the Death Star and the aftermath. It is filled with wonderful characters from different backgrounds who are drawn together for one reason or another. I love how this book humanizes the Imperial officers and gives great insight to their lives and how they feel when this ultimate weapon is tested. The second half beautifully wraps their stories around the original A New Hope using the same dialog. It is exciting, poignant and heartbreaking. The action in the second half comes fast and furious and I did not want this book to end. It is now one of my all time favorites and I will have to read their other Star Wars collaborations, since they complement each other beautifully. An excellent read!
November 17, 2007
This book was fresh and enjoyable, with interesting characters and a nail-biter ending. At the beginning, it was rather hard to follow. The book was written in short sections, generally no more than three pages long and usually less, following the story of one character. This jumping from character to character was rather daunting, but I stuck to it, and it was worth it. Of course, the good thing about an ensemble-cast setup is that you get to watch each particular story develop until they all crash head on. I haven't read many books in that style, but I have to say I enjoy it.
Of course, this was a Star Wars book, and I know that's not really a compliment in the world of fiction. Just a theory, but I think that when authors restrain themselves to a certain universe, as opposed to a genre, the creative juices flow more easily. And, geez, other genres don't feature Darth Vader as one of the star characters, and call me a 90s-holdover Sci-Fi nerd, but Darth Vader rocks! ;)
Of course, this was a Star Wars book, and I know that's not really a compliment in the world of fiction. Just a theory, but I think that when authors restrain themselves to a certain universe, as opposed to a genre, the creative juices flow more easily. And, geez, other genres don't feature Darth Vader as one of the star characters, and call me a 90s-holdover Sci-Fi nerd, but Darth Vader rocks! ;)
October 14, 2011
Star Wars books have increasingly become more sci-fi than sci-fantasy, going into more detail about the technical aspects of the universe than focusing on the larger-than-life stories based on myths that they should have. Now we have a story about how a "technological terror" was constructed, which goes on an on about how big the Death Star is, how it was made, what parts weren't working, what needed to be changed, blah blah blah. There are some new characters that are introduced and whom we follow to see if they make it off the station in time (since we know exactly how this turns out), but I wasn't all that interested in them by the time it was important. There are some interesting views of some classic scenes from the first Star Wars film, a lot of the time from someone else's viewpoint, that are sort of fun, but the last third-to-quarter of the book is almost a re-hash of the first film and since we've seen that movie, there's no mystery or suspense as to what's going to happen.
June 2, 2009
Did NOT live up to the hype that surrounded it. I was expecting...I don't know...to find out why the death star took 17 YEARS to build, maybe? Tales of sabotage and rebel-hunting, etc. No such luck, this one basically cuts straight to a few days (months? memory's hazy) before it goes live, covering the lives of a number of different inhabitants of the station. I would say the only coolness factor about this book was that it occasionally crops up in Episode IV in ways you hadn't thought of -- I remember watching it right after I read this and noticing things in the background from the book that I hadn't seen before. Otherwise, it was not particularly well-written.
March 23, 2010
One expects that any Star Wars novel is going to be complete crap, and this one doesn't disappoint.
Yet, this is a book that I have wanted to exist since I was a kid. The scene in Star Wars where the Stormtroopers are standing around chatting gave us a glimpse into their everyday lives -- and I wanted more. This book delivers, as we delve into the lives of regular folk who work on the Death Star. These people have ancillary contact with the main characters as the events of the Star Wars movie unfolds.
Yet, this is a book that I have wanted to exist since I was a kid. The scene in Star Wars where the Stormtroopers are standing around chatting gave us a glimpse into their everyday lives -- and I wanted more. This book delivers, as we delve into the lives of regular folk who work on the Death Star. These people have ancillary contact with the main characters as the events of the Star Wars movie unfolds.
April 12, 2009
Here it is the nutshell: No real clear and tight plot until the last third. Far too much character set up for a one shot novel. I'd have understood this much character stuff if it were part of a series.
It all came together in the last third. It's a fun, exiting and emotional ending actually but not worth the hard earned time getting there. There are so many better EU novels than this one. *waves hand* This isn't the book you're looking for. Move along.;)
It all came together in the last third. It's a fun, exiting and emotional ending actually but not worth the hard earned time getting there. There are so many better EU novels than this one. *waves hand* This isn't the book you're looking for. Move along.;)
April 18, 2025
Star Wars: Legends: Death Star by Steve Perry, Michael Reaves
challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense
Medium-paced
Plot or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes
4.0 Stars
I really had a LOT of fun with this novel. Some people are not going to like the way that I say this, but it's just the facts.
This novel reminds me of Lost Stars by Claudia Gray...mixed with From a Certain Point of View which is an anthology with a LOT of different writers.
So, in saying the above...it shows that I know more of the Star Wars lore...from what is now known as Disney Canon...and that I'm not a true beliver in the Extended Universe (or what is currently called Legends).
Well, that's true to a certain extent. I had read a number of Star Wars novels...before Disney bought LucasFilm, but obviously...not as many as I have currently read.
I can now say that I've read more Extended Universe novels than I have Disney Canon...and that has been...BECAUSE of a concerted effort to read all the EU/Legends books that I own (which is most of them). So, I've been on a march to read all that I own.
SO...I read Star Wars: Lost Stars when it came out...and absolutely loved it. Then later, they came out with the From A Certain Point of View...for Episode IV and loved it, too.
Now that I've read Star Wars: Legends: Death Star...I see a LOT of similarities (in a good way).
The idea of a planet killer is terrifying. You could sense it in the movies, but from all the novels I've read from this era of Star Wars, it is the main tension of the time.
It wasn't till after I read the above novels (Disney Canon) that I got to thinking about who could be living on the Death Star...and what type of people they could be (good vs. evil).
There were JUST normal people on the space station...who practically had NOTHING to do with the leaders, but just living their lives...and doing their job (which happened to be on THIS space station).
The evil that this space station did on the planets and such, and then later...how it was destroyed. Yeah, a LOT of people lost their lives by the Death Star, but also ON the Death Star
A simple flaw or planned mistake? Hmmm. I know how the Disney Canon reads it, but not too sure how the Extended Universe/Legends says.
Hmmm.
Next up in my adventure through all the Extended Universe/Legends novels is Shadow Games by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaatheryn Bohnhoff.
challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense
Medium-paced
Plot or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes
4.0 Stars
I really had a LOT of fun with this novel. Some people are not going to like the way that I say this, but it's just the facts.
This novel reminds me of Lost Stars by Claudia Gray...mixed with From a Certain Point of View which is an anthology with a LOT of different writers.
So, in saying the above...it shows that I know more of the Star Wars lore...from what is now known as Disney Canon...and that I'm not a true beliver in the Extended Universe (or what is currently called Legends).
Well, that's true to a certain extent. I had read a number of Star Wars novels...before Disney bought LucasFilm, but obviously...not as many as I have currently read.
I can now say that I've read more Extended Universe novels than I have Disney Canon...and that has been...BECAUSE of a concerted effort to read all the EU/Legends books that I own (which is most of them). So, I've been on a march to read all that I own.
SO...I read Star Wars: Lost Stars when it came out...and absolutely loved it. Then later, they came out with the From A Certain Point of View...for Episode IV and loved it, too.
Now that I've read Star Wars: Legends: Death Star...I see a LOT of similarities (in a good way).
The idea of a planet killer is terrifying. You could sense it in the movies, but from all the novels I've read from this era of Star Wars, it is the main tension of the time.
It wasn't till after I read the above novels (Disney Canon) that I got to thinking about who could be living on the Death Star...and what type of people they could be (good vs. evil).
There were JUST normal people on the space station...who practically had NOTHING to do with the leaders, but just living their lives...and doing their job (which happened to be on THIS space station).
The evil that this space station did on the planets and such, and then later...how it was destroyed. Yeah, a LOT of people lost their lives by the Death Star, but also ON the Death Star
A simple flaw or planned mistake? Hmmm. I know how the Disney Canon reads it, but not too sure how the Extended Universe/Legends says.
Hmmm.
Next up in my adventure through all the Extended Universe/Legends novels is Shadow Games by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaatheryn Bohnhoff.
April 6, 2021
This book has an insanely long introduction that unfortunately isn't very interesting to read.
You'll read about the backstories of the people you see during the death star scenes in episode 4 and I will give the author that: those scenes are actually very interesting. There's an explanation given of how the death star could be destroyed and it's very compelling to read about the general opinions of the people living on the death star while the events are taking place.
You'll also learn a few things about how the death star is functioning, but that's honestly just a few paragraphs.
Part 1 contains the backstories of these people before they're brought onto the death star. This makes up about 60% of the book and is not worth reading. Nothing happens, it's just like a slice-of-life kind of story with things happening to people.
Part 2 contains the actual plot and starts just before princess Leia is imprisoned on the death star. This is the fun part as it contains both story and a bit of extra information what's happening on the death star while episode 4 is covering another area.
The cast for this story is unfortunately not very interesting. I really liked the librarian, but he doesn't come in until half the book is done. Their characters aren't really well fleshed out and I had problems telling them apart to be honest. Usually the explanations in the front of the book help, but most characters just have 'imperial officer' written beside them. At least write TIE fighter pilot next to it, that would've helped a lot.
There are a few cool scenes between Vader and Tarkin that are new. Tarkin for some reason gets a love interest and it feels completely out of character.
Scenes are often very repetitive. On more than one occasion a character will enter the scene and we'll read about his experiences. And then in the next chapter another character enters that scene and has the exact same experience. So much stuff could've been cut from this (especially the entire part 1) and as a novella this would've worked perfectly.
So, if you're interested in reading some additional info on what happens on the death star during episode 4 and want to be the person during a movie screening to tell the unfortunate human next to you what that background character is thinking right now this is for you, but skip the first 250 pages (part 1). Part 2 is essentially a self-contained story and provides you with enough information to get to know the characters.
You'll read about the backstories of the people you see during the death star scenes in episode 4 and I will give the author that: those scenes are actually very interesting. There's an explanation given of how the death star could be destroyed and it's very compelling to read about the general opinions of the people living on the death star while the events are taking place.
You'll also learn a few things about how the death star is functioning, but that's honestly just a few paragraphs.
Part 1 contains the backstories of these people before they're brought onto the death star. This makes up about 60% of the book and is not worth reading. Nothing happens, it's just like a slice-of-life kind of story with things happening to people.
Part 2 contains the actual plot and starts just before princess Leia is imprisoned on the death star. This is the fun part as it contains both story and a bit of extra information what's happening on the death star while episode 4 is covering another area.
The cast for this story is unfortunately not very interesting. I really liked the librarian, but he doesn't come in until half the book is done. Their characters aren't really well fleshed out and I had problems telling them apart to be honest. Usually the explanations in the front of the book help, but most characters just have 'imperial officer' written beside them. At least write TIE fighter pilot next to it, that would've helped a lot.
There are a few cool scenes between Vader and Tarkin that are new. Tarkin for some reason gets a love interest and it feels completely out of character.
Scenes are often very repetitive. On more than one occasion a character will enter the scene and we'll read about his experiences. And then in the next chapter another character enters that scene and has the exact same experience. So much stuff could've been cut from this (especially the entire part 1) and as a novella this would've worked perfectly.
So, if you're interested in reading some additional info on what happens on the death star during episode 4 and want to be the person during a movie screening to tell the unfortunate human next to you what that background character is thinking right now this is for you, but skip the first 250 pages (part 1). Part 2 is essentially a self-contained story and provides you with enough information to get to know the characters.
July 9, 2025
Super impressed with this one. This may be one of the most underrated Star Wars books I’ve ever read!
The big standout here for me is twofold: the characters and the connections to the movies. The character work here is the biggest driving force of the book—while there is a plot, it’s not a big focus, and really doesn’t become significant until the last third or so of the book. Death Star focuses a lot on individuals who in some way become a part of the titular battle station, either as a pilot, a gunner, a doctor, etc. As such, it does have a pretty large cast of characters, but they all feel fairly well developed and have a good sense of character to them. I also liked the fact that this book does focus so heavily on the minor people—there are several chapters of the book focused on the likes of Vader and Tarkin, but much of the book is from the perspective of these smaller individuals who are just a tiny part of the larger Imperial machine. I love it when stories do things like this, and it’s executed so well in this book. I also mentioned connections to the movies, which is also really well done. The last part of the book crosses over heavily with A New Hope, leading all the way to the Battle of Yavin, and seeing the perspective of the “little people,” once again, was super interesting given that connection. It really adds a lot of extra context and intrigue to the movie in the same way that something like Andor and Rogue One did in the visual media. I also loved the way this book handles the Death Star itself. While it’s easy to tell the kind of power and terror the Death Star carries in the films and other media, something about the way it’s portrayed in this book really helps to get that across even more, I think especially because you see a lot of peoples’ reactions to it.
As for negatives, all I’ve got is that it did take some time for the book to grab me, but not too long. Early on it was a lot of setup and character introductions, but once everything was established I was all in.
Overall, this was an excellent read. Definitely one of my new favorite Star Wars books and a high recommendation for those interested in the Imperial period or A New Hope.
Rating: 9.5/10
The big standout here for me is twofold: the characters and the connections to the movies. The character work here is the biggest driving force of the book—while there is a plot, it’s not a big focus, and really doesn’t become significant until the last third or so of the book. Death Star focuses a lot on individuals who in some way become a part of the titular battle station, either as a pilot, a gunner, a doctor, etc. As such, it does have a pretty large cast of characters, but they all feel fairly well developed and have a good sense of character to them. I also liked the fact that this book does focus so heavily on the minor people—there are several chapters of the book focused on the likes of Vader and Tarkin, but much of the book is from the perspective of these smaller individuals who are just a tiny part of the larger Imperial machine. I love it when stories do things like this, and it’s executed so well in this book. I also mentioned connections to the movies, which is also really well done. The last part of the book crosses over heavily with A New Hope, leading all the way to the Battle of Yavin, and seeing the perspective of the “little people,” once again, was super interesting given that connection. It really adds a lot of extra context and intrigue to the movie in the same way that something like Andor and Rogue One did in the visual media. I also loved the way this book handles the Death Star itself. While it’s easy to tell the kind of power and terror the Death Star carries in the films and other media, something about the way it’s portrayed in this book really helps to get that across even more, I think especially because you see a lot of peoples’ reactions to it.
As for negatives, all I’ve got is that it did take some time for the book to grab me, but not too long. Early on it was a lot of setup and character introductions, but once everything was established I was all in.
Overall, this was an excellent read. Definitely one of my new favorite Star Wars books and a high recommendation for those interested in the Imperial period or A New Hope.
Rating: 9.5/10
June 15, 2017
I'll give you two guesses at this book's subject, and that's only if you even need the second one. On the one hand, the book has a dull title that evokes nothing other than its subject; on the other hand, at least it's not as riduculous as The Starcave of ThonBoka. Even the one-word titles -- Kenobi, Tarkin, and Thrawn -- suggest more than this book's title does.
The book is better than its title suggests. Reaves and Perry create a wide, diverse cast of characters, all of whom are involved with the construction of the Death Star. We begin a good way into its construction, and since the book was written after the end of Revenge of the Sith, the story follows from what was established in the prequels, while also tapping into the events from Star Wars. The authors do a good job of placing the story firmly in between, bridging the gap between the two stories.
Because the story butts up against Star Wars, we have a few characters who are already familiar to us -- Darth Vader and Wilhuff Tarkin being the biggest. It's impossible to escape having them be a part of the story, and the authors do a good job of characterizing them appropriately (Tarkin comes across as even more ruthless), but there seemed to be a strong vein of fan service, too.
I was all set to give the book four stars, because the book succeeds in telling a decent story while giving us additional background into the Expanded Universe, but then the authors had to go and make the ending melodramatic and pat at the same time. There were also moments in the story where you could have put money on who wasn't going to make it out alive. I've started to notice that when an author creates a character who has so much to lose, there's a good chance they're goners.
Death Star is a good read. If the authors had handled the ending differently, I would recommend it as one of the stronger EU novels, but as it is, it merely rises to the top of the mediocre books.
The book is better than its title suggests. Reaves and Perry create a wide, diverse cast of characters, all of whom are involved with the construction of the Death Star. We begin a good way into its construction, and since the book was written after the end of Revenge of the Sith, the story follows from what was established in the prequels, while also tapping into the events from Star Wars. The authors do a good job of placing the story firmly in between, bridging the gap between the two stories.
Because the story butts up against Star Wars, we have a few characters who are already familiar to us -- Darth Vader and Wilhuff Tarkin being the biggest. It's impossible to escape having them be a part of the story, and the authors do a good job of characterizing them appropriately (Tarkin comes across as even more ruthless), but there seemed to be a strong vein of fan service, too.
I was all set to give the book four stars, because the book succeeds in telling a decent story while giving us additional background into the Expanded Universe, but then the authors had to go and make the ending melodramatic and pat at the same time. There were also moments in the story where you could have put money on who wasn't going to make it out alive. I've started to notice that when an author creates a character who has so much to lose, there's a good chance they're goners.
Death Star is a good read. If the authors had handled the ending differently, I would recommend it as one of the stronger EU novels, but as it is, it merely rises to the top of the mediocre books.
August 26, 2018
I enjoyed it, but I'm a big Star Wars nerd. If you're not into Star Wars, it won't be that interesting for you. It expands on the universe and characters already in the Legends, as well as incorporating newer information from the prequels (although I could have done without the midi-chlorian bits).
It was fun to see the construction and ultimate destruction of the ultimate weapon from the eyes of the "bad guys" and from the "little guys," and we get both perspectives nicely. There's a little political pondering, meaning-of-life musing, and some good old action sequences. Good fun.
"The new rulers would start out full of promise and hope and good intentions, and gradually settle into mediocrity. A benevolent but inept king was as bad as a despot."
3.5/5
It was fun to see the construction and ultimate destruction of the ultimate weapon from the eyes of the "bad guys" and from the "little guys," and we get both perspectives nicely. There's a little political pondering, meaning-of-life musing, and some good old action sequences. Good fun.
"The new rulers would start out full of promise and hope and good intentions, and gradually settle into mediocrity. A benevolent but inept king was as bad as a despot."
3.5/5
July 2, 2024
This book is part of the Legends series, now that DIsney has taken over the timeline. While I really liked Rogue One, I think this take on the fall of the first Death Star was very well written.
It was interesting to follow the development of characters who all played important parts in the construction of the Death Star.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I only wish that the new timeline would write as well as the Legends.
It was interesting to follow the development of characters who all played important parts in the construction of the Death Star.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I only wish that the new timeline would write as well as the Legends.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 17, 2025
Last 100 pages is 3.5/5 - when it lines up to the events of A New Hope.
Up to that point: 2.5/5 - there are a few too many characters, and it would’ve been nice to follow some “true believers” (other than Tarkin) as a contrast to the “I’ve seen the light” characters.
Up to that point: 2.5/5 - there are a few too many characters, and it would’ve been nice to follow some “true believers” (other than Tarkin) as a contrast to the “I’ve seen the light” characters.
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