JasperKazai’s Reviews > Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye > Status Update

That's the end. Pretty short book. It is somewhat fascinating how the whole Vader encounter is basically fan fiction. The fact that it was written prior to TESB's revelations affects it greatly. I'm not sure I've ever read a thing in the EU that has aged quite as poorly as that. Still, it's an interesting snapshot into the past.
All in all, the book was meh. I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be.

This is the worst-written Darth Vader I've ever read. It sounds nothing like him. I know he only had one movie to go on, but it doesn't even match that very well!
Funny to imagine Vader coming across C3PO and R2-D2 alone. Obviously this was WAY before that connection was ever made, but still.

This guy is rather flippant with time passage. The trek after the crash landing took several days. After the fiasco in town, they traveled by speeder for 7 days before they wrecked. Then they traveled underground for 3 days. It all seems pretty unnecessary!
I'm glad that constantly referring to Leia as 'the Princess' didn't catch on in the EU at large. It's annoying. Her name is Leia, you weirdo.

Luke being the one to know some obscure language makes absolutely no goddamn sense, for a variety of reasons. Should've been Leia.
The fact that Luke using a lightsaber isn't something ANYONE commented or took notice of is really dumb. Even in just the original movie, they made a point of lightsabers being rare. We only see 3 of them. It SHOULD have attracted attention way more than it has thus far.

First day of beach vacation. Will I read more than 1 book this year?
Now that I've gotten a bit into this - yeah, it's pretty bad. But I've read worse. I can forgive the Luke/Leia sexual tension due to when it was written, but I do not excuse how fucking immature they are. It's dumb.

Several DAYS later? What?! Did he just casually skip ahead one week in the span of one sentence?!

Haven't made much headway yet because my beach trip starts tomorrow, where I might be reading a lot more. So I'm pacing myself.
Luke's crash landing on Mimban is very similar to his crash landing on Dagobah. This was written before TESB. I wonder if Lucas copied the idea from here. Certainly possible.
Mimban has 2 names and I always wonder why authors do that. You are creating it! Just give it 1 name! Why confusion?!

Wow, Luke being obsessed about Leia is immediately apparent. I had heard about how this book is laughable in retrospect because of it, but I didn't know it was going to be THAT blatant and THAT early. I guess Foster really thought Luke should be the one with Leia, not Han.

The first piece of SW content ever produced that wasn't directly related to a movie. I've never read this, but I do remember seeing it on shelves. I avoided it due to knowing it was old, lol.
I love how the cover boasts an intro from Lucas, and it's like 2 paragraphs long. His disdain for anything SW that he didn't write is so evident. He didn't mind making money from it, but he never regarded it as 'real.'