Book Review: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire SPOILERS!

On May 1996, Steve Perry and Ballantine Spectra books published the novelization to the Nintendo 64 game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. It removes the entirety of the Hoth sequence in favor of starting with an introduction to the main villain, Prince Xizor. The events of the game and novel take place between Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Synopsis: It is a time of crisis. Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, is being taken to the vile ganster Jabba the Hutt. As Princess Leia mounts a rescue mission and Darth Vader scours the Galaxy for Luke Skywalker, another sinister figure emerges. Cunning and ruthless, leader of a powerful crime syndicate, he will pit himself against Vader for the favor of their mutual master . . . the dreaded Emperor. His name is Xizor, Underlord of a galaxywide criminal organization called Black Sun. He seeks to displace Darth Vader as Emperor Palpatine's right hand. To do so, he will hatch a brilliantly evil plan to discredit Vader in the Emperor's eyes. But in the meantime he will join the Dark Lord in an unholy alliance whose common target is the young Rebel hero, Luke Skywalker. While Vader and Xizor bait their trap for Luke, Han Solo is being held captive, flash-frozen in a carbonite slab. Mourning the loss of the man she loves, Princess Leia mounts a rescue mission to free Han. She enlists the aid of Luke, who is sharpening his skill in the Force at Ben Kenobi's home on the edge of Tatooine's Western Dune Sea. Skywalker organizes a crack fighting force, including Wedge Antilles and his famous X-wing squadron; Lando Calrissian; and the mercenary Dash Rendar. Yet the fierce battle that ensues to rescue Han will not go according to plan. For the Empire's spies are everywhere. What's worse, though he is cold and reptilian, Xizor has a certain predatory charisma that not even Leia can totally resist. Against the judgment of Chewbacca, who has promised Han to keep her from harm, Leia walks willingly into Xizor's lair in a dangerous play of passion and willpower to get the information she needs to defeat him. At the same time, Luke stands in the crosshairs of a conspiracy of assassins and bounty hunters recruited by Xizor's lieutenant, the beautiful but lethal Human replicant Guri. As the struggle between Xizor and Vader intensifies, Luke finds himself the potential prize of the two most evil entities in the galaxy — one who wants him alive, and one who wants him dead. In a final, explosive showdown, the Rebels must infiltrate Xizor's impregnable stronghold and fight the combined forces of Black Sun and the Empire in deep space. With death and betrayal looming on every side, Luke, Leia, Lando, and Chewie must use every weapon and resource at their disposal, including the Rebel fleet and some intriguing new allies, if they are to prove victorious. In Shadows of the Empire, Steve Perry adds an exciting new chapter to the Star Wars saga and introduces important new characters and situations no Star Wars fan will want to miss.

The novel opens with Xizor witnessing Palpatine talking to Vader about Luke Skywalker during the events of The Empire Strikes Back and how Vader will turn his son to the dark side. On Tatooine, Leia has a nightmare about the day Han was frozen in carbonite, while Luke is off trying to keep up his Jedi training. Later, Lando arrives and informs Leia that an old friend named Dash Rendar says he's tracked Boba Fett to Gall, the moon of Zhar. The gang leaves and lands on Kile, the other moon, where Dash and Rogue Squadron's waiting for them. Together, Luke leads Rogue Squadron in a battle to keep the Imperials distracted while Dash, in his ship Outrider, takes Lando, Leia, and Chewbacca--on Millennium Falcon--to the surface of Gall. During the battle, an X-Wing pilot is killed and Dash bails when they approach the base. During the rendezvous back to the rebel base, Luke's attacked by Wes Janson's X-Wing--it's revealed that Wes' droid's been programmed to kill Luke. Luke disables Wes' ship and they land on the base, but Luke demands answers about why Dash left; Dash states that he was paid to lead them there, not stay and fight. In the hangar, Wedge and Luke are ambushed by a mechanic who killed the droid; they find out that he was working for someone, but unbeknownst to anyone, the hit came from Xizor. Prince Xizor's looking for a way to strike back at Vader for killing his family on Falleen many years ago.

The group splits up: Leia, Lando, Chewbacca, and C-3PO heading for Rodia to ask Black Sun for help while Luke goes back to Tatooine in case Fett shows up. Leia pays Dash to keep an eye on Luke. Luke's ambushed by bounty hunters and, after a chase through Beggar's Canyon, Dash arrives and saves Luke. They find a package waiting for Leia--it tells them about the Bothan's having recovered technical plans for a secret project the Emperor is overseeing. The two, plus R2-D2, head to Kothlis to find out. They arrive and join with the Bothans to prepare a fight, but it goes wrong and Dash's missile seemingly destroys the Bothan squadron. Devastated, Dash begins to lose faith in his abilities, despite the fact that they recovered the intel. Meanwhile, on Rodia, Guri arrives per Xizor's instructions and brings Leia and Chewbacca to Imperial City to meet with the Dark Prince. Once there, Xizor attempts to seduce Leia, but fails when Chewbacca interrupts. Chewbacca flees Xizor's palace while the Dark Prince holds her captive. Alone, Luke's captured by Barabel bounty hunters; they tell Vader, but before Vader can arrive, Lando and Chewbacca break him out. They head to Imperial City to rescue Leia. Vader's not pleased and angrily returns to Imperial City. While there, he senses Luke, but also Leia, though he doesn't realize it at the time. Luke, Lando, and Chewbacca run into Dash who agrees to help them.

They suborn a Black Sun member who leads them through the sewers into Xizor's Palace. He attempts to kill them, but Dash kills him. Once inside, they rescue Leia. Xizor, annoyed by the fight taking place, heads them off, but Lando drops a thermal detonator down a chute to the bottom of the palace. Xizor flees to his skyhook in orbit while the others race to the top. Luke fights and defeats Guri--she flees--and board the Falcon, piloted by C-3PO and R2-D2. They manage to escape, but Xizor sends his fleet to fight them; even with the arrival of Rogue Squadron, they can't hold off much longer. Earlier in the novel, Vader warned Xizor multiple times to stay away from Skywalker and his friends, and having found out what's going on and why Xizor bears a grudge against him, arrives. Vader demands that Xizor stand down, but the Dark Prince refuses. Vader orders the crew of the Executor to open fire on the skyhook. Xizor's killed, and the rebels manage to escape, but not before Dash, now on his ship, is seemingly killed. In the end, back on Tatooine, Luke finishes his recording to Jabba Desilijic Tiure and installs his lightsaber into R2-D2's dome. He and Leia get word from the Bothans that Dash is considered a hero and to let him know that he didn't kill the Bothans, it was the Imperials who fired a shot at the same moment Dash's missile impacted. The novel closes, setting up for Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

All in all, a well crafted and paced novel. Steve Perry gracefully cuts away the dried action of the game and replaces it with a sense of epicness that the game sorely lacks. The cut level of the Battle of Hoth is referred to, but not shown since it has no bearing on the novel or the game itself. Xizor is also given some missing cunning and evilness that the game doesn't have. It utilized the Original Trilogy heroes and villains well. A must read for all Star Wars fans.

Up next: Assassin's Creed: Renaissance by Oliver Bowden, the first novelization of any Assassin's Creed game. Yes, this means I'm going to do them in the order they were published.

Book Review: Mass Effect: Retribution SPOILERS

In 2010, Drew Karpyshyn penned a third Mass Effect novel. This time, Pual's been kidnapped and only Kahlee and Anderson can save him. Synopsis: Humanity has reached the stars, joining the vast galactic community of alien species. But beyond the fringes of explored space lurk the Reapers, a race of sentient starships bent on “harvesting” the galaxy’s organic species for their own dark purpose. The Illusive Man, leader of the pro-human black ops group Cerberus, is one of the few who know the truth about the Reapers. To ensure humanity’s survival, he launches a desperate plan to uncover the enemy’s strengths—and weaknesses—by studying someone implanted with modified Reaper technology. He knows the perfect subject for his horrific experiments: former Cerberus operative Paul Grayson, who wrested his daughter from the cabal’s control with the help of Ascension project director Kahlee Sanders. But when Kahlee learns that Grayson is missing, she turns to the only person she can trust: Alliance war hero Captain David Anderson. Together they set out to find the secret Cerberus facility where Grayson is being held. But they aren’t the only ones after him. And time is running out. As the experiments continue, the sinister Reaper technology twists Grayson’s mind. The insidious whispers grow ever stronger in his head, threatening to take over his very identity and unleash the Reapers on an unsuspecting galaxy.

The novel opens with the Illusive Man thinking about what Shepard did on the Collector Base (the ending to Mass Effect 2). He receives a transmission from Kai Leng, Cerberus' top "wet-work" agent, who says he's located Paul Grayson on the lawless Omega space station in the Terminus Systems. The Illusive Man's pleased by the news and tells Leng to capture Grayson alive, for he needs human subjects for his investigation into Reaper technology recovered from the Collector Base. Grayson, currently working for Aria T'Loak, finishes an assignment with fellow batarian gang member Sanak, and an asari named Liselle, whom Grayson's sleeping with, to transport red sand from a Talon warehouse on Omega. They stash the red sand at Grayson's apartment, since they don't want to bring it into the Afterlife Club. Grayson stays behind and opens up a comm channel with Kahlee Sanders, currently at the Jon Grissom Academy; he asks her how everything is going with his daughter. Kai Leng watches him leave Afterlife, stalks him to his apartment, and then attempts to capture him. Liselle's there, and Kai Leng kills her, then kidnaps Grayson and steals the red sand. During the confrontation, Grayson managed to send his dirt on Cerberus to Kahlee via the extranet; Kai Leng is unable to stop the transmission. They leave little evidence that Cerberus was there.

Kahlee receives the transmission and, unsure as to what she should do, asks David Anderson for help. They decide they can't go to the Alliance for help due to undercover Cerberus agents being among the Alliance's ranks. The only viable option is to ask the turians for help, since Anderson's gotten to know the turian Ambassador Orinia through his recent political negotiations. Grayson awakes, and finds the Illusive Man near; the Illusive Man explains that he's about to pump Grayson full of Reaper technology. He also lets Grayson know that he (Grayson) won't be a human any longer. Overtime, Grayson becomes indoctrinated via the Reaper tech, but the Illusive Man wants faster progress and injects red sand into Grayson. Grayson goes haywire and freaks out. The Illusive Man orders that Grayson be put down in three days, but a squad of turians--tasked with destroying all of Cerberus' bases--arrive and wreck havoc. The Illusive Man and Kai Leng escape, unable to kill Grayson; the Illusive Man's not happy about letting Grayson live. Grayson, under control of the Reapers, gets the turians to set him free. The Reapers kill them, and order Grayson to sleep to heal his wounds. They change his flight course to allow for the healing. When the turians and their shuttle don't report back, Kahlee and Anderson grow worried for themselves and for Grayson.

They head to the station and find out about his indoctrination, but are captured by Aria's forces, but they bring Kahlee to Aria instead. The Reapers want her information and change course yet again, this time with Grayson's help. He runs into assassins and escapes to Grissom Academy; Kahlee and David chase him down with the help of Kai Leng. Once on Grissom Academy, Grayson hacks their terminals and sends the Reapers all the information about the space station. Kai Leng, Kahlee, and Anderson dock and they split up--Kai Leng finds Nick and they search for Grayson. Grayson manages to fight them, severely wounding Nick in the process, before Anderson and Kai Leng shoot him. Kai Leng refuses to be taken prisoner and also refuses to help save Nick. A fight breaks out and Anderson blows Kai Leng's kneecaps apart, then help Kahlee save Nick. Kai Leng, angered and wounded, still manages to escape and flees back to the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man grudgingly accepts the resolution to the catastrophe. Eventually, everyone in Grissom Academy recovers, including Nick and Anderson. Anderson intends to study Grayson's remains and asks Kahlee to join his research team; the two finally kiss. The Illusive Man finds a way to profit from this without abandoning his own research efforts. He pays Aria for databanks she recovered from his overrun station, allowing her to keep a copy of the data.

All in all, a rushed book that details too heavily into the lore of the Mass Effect universe. It adds many pages of exposition on how Grayson was altered for the Reaper tech, but, like always, Karpyshyn merely tells this and doesn't bother showing any of it. Again, Karpyshyn takes what would be a great idea and kills it.

Up next, a return to the Star Wars Expanded Universe since I forgot about the novelization to the 1997 game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.

Book Review: Mass Effect: Ascension SPOILERS!

In 2008, Drew karpyshyn returned to the Mass Effect universe and wrote a second, cringe-worthy novel called Ascension. This time, Kahlee Sanders goes with a madman and his child as they flee to the Terminus systems, then act in a one day time-frame to get the girl away, because Karpyshyn rushes everything to the most illogical time just to get "up" the stakes. Synopsis: When they vanished fifty thousand years ago, the Protheans left their advanced technology scattered throughout the galaxy. The chance discovery of a Prothean cache on Mars allows humanity to join those already reaping the rewards of the ancients’ high-tech wizardry. But for one rogue militia, the goal is not participation but domination. Scientist Kahlee Sanders has left the Systems Alliance for the Ascension Project, a program that helps gifted “biotic” children harness their extraordinary powers. The program’s most promising student is twelve-year-old Gillian Grayson, who is borderline autistic. What Kahlee doesn’t know is that Gillian is an unwitting pawn of the outlawed black ops group Cerberus, which is sabotaging the program by conducting illegal experiments on the students. When the Cerberus plot is exposed, Gillian’s father takes her away from the Ascension Project and flees into the lawless Terminus Systems. Determined to protect Gillian, Kahlee goes with them… unaware that the elder Grayson is, in fact, a Cerberus operative. To rescue the young girl Kahlee must travel to the farthest ends of the galaxy, battling fierce enemies and impossible odds. But how will she be able to save a daughter from her own father?


The novel opens with the Illusive Man watching the recordings of Saren's attempted coup and how Commander Shepard (note: Karpyshyn refuses to say whether Shepard is male or female) stopped the rogue turian Spectre, musing on how idiotic it was for the Council to deny Sovereign as a Reaper, insisting that it was a geth ship. He believes that the time is right to push forward with Cerberus' asset in the Ascension Project. Paul Grayson dreams the same dream he's been having for the last few years, that of helping Charles Saracino get the top slot for the xenophobic Terra Firma party; Paul's an addict of the drug red sand. Pel tells Paul that the Illusive Man wants to have more meds pumped into Gillian; Paul's against it, but, for now, puts up with it because the Illusive Man keeps giving him red sand. Kahlee runs some tests on Nick, a biotic teenager; she leaves and runs into Hendel Mitra who's on his way to inform Gillian that Paul intends to visits and will deny the request, but Kahlee tells him to approve the request and she'll tell Gillian. Gillian's less than thrilled, and states that she has homework to do. Pel meets with Golo, a quarian agent who sold some of his people to the Collectors, points Pel toward another quarian who can hand over the flotilla's transmission codes. Paul arrives, and he and Jiro--an Ascension Project scientist working for Cerberus--gives Gillian meds; Jiro gives Paul updated reports on all the students at Grissom Academy, including Gillian.

Pel takes out a squad of quarians and takes Hiro'Jaa vas Idenna--the pilot of the scout ship Cyniad of the Migrant Fleet ship Idenna--captive. Gillian starts acting different, starts integrating with the other students; Nick tries to antagonize Gillian, but she flings him back with her biotic powers, then proceeds to tear up the cafeteria. Hendel takes her down with a stun shot. Jiro abducts Gillian, and Hendel and Kahlee chase after them. Jiro administers a dose of the drug to Gillian, and she has a seizure. Hendel arrives and Jiro stuns him, then flees. Hendel manages to hold on and tries to save Gillian. Kahlee takes Jiro down and demands answers. Kahlee comms Paul to let him know, and Paul tells the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man tells Paul to pull Gillian out of the Ascension Project and to bring her to Cerberus. Pel and Golo talk about the Collectors and how Golo can get in contact with them. Paul takes Gillian away, but Hendel and Kahlee want to help him protect Gillian from Cerberus; Paul agrees. They head to Omega; Pel separates the biotics from the non-biotics. Pel reveals to Kahlee and Paul that he's planning on handing them over to the Collectors. Lemm'Shal nar Tesleya--a quarian on his Pilgrimage--breaks into Pel's base and helps Kahlee get Hendel and Gillian out. Lemm takes them to the Migrant Fleet. They dock on the Idenna. Paul reports to the Illusive Man personally and face-to-face what happened; the Illusive Man sends Paul back to Golo to get a team ready to storm the Migrant Fleet and retake Gillian.

Eventually, the quarian guards bring Kahlee, Hendel, and Gillian to Captain Ysin'Mal vas Idenna--Leem's already there--and Ysin'Mal tells them that the Admiralty (note: Karpyshyn refuses to use any of their established names) is coming to visit and invites the gang to meet them. Between them, they recap Revelation and Mass Effect, focusing on how Saren and Sovereign were able to control the geth. Grayson and Golo prepare to leave Omega on Cyniad to help the Cerberus agents attack. They arrive, dock, and let Cerberus through. A fight breaks out. A team of Cerberus agents finds Gillian and she kills them; she runs into Paul and he tries to get her to leave, but she refuses. Kahlee attempts to rescue Gillian, but Golo captures her. Grayson kills Golo and surrenders. Together, Paul and Hendel manage to shut down a bomb on Cyniad that Cerberus had prepared to wipe out the Idenna. After the battle Lemm'Shal vas Idenna, Kahlee, and Paul leave; Hendel and Gillian stay behind. During the trip to the Alliance colony on Cuevro Paul knocks Leem and Kahlee out, then lands on the volus world of Daleon and escapes. In the end, Paul calls the Illusive Man, tells him he quits, tells him to leave Kahlee alone or he'll go public to the Alliance with everything he knows about Cerberus; the Illusive Man threatens to find and kill him.

All in all, a prose-heavy book that has information from the games pasted in just to add pages and really doesn't serve a purpose. A sham, Drew Karpyshyn takes what could be a fantastic idea and kills it.

Next time: Mass Effect: Retribution by Drew Karpyshyn.