Reader’s Recommendation: Shadows of the Empire, by Steve Perry

Vader sighed. He would have to try harder. He could not afford any weaknesses, given his enemies – and more especially, given his friends.

It’s just a lot of fun reading this book. Fun I think is something with a lot of appeal, that you can see but struggle to identify the elements of. I know it’s present in gaming, less and less in every medium over the past few years, like comedy, fun is something that’s enjoyable but part of an instinctive or innate talent.

For a few decades, Star Wars had a good run of fun. Mixing archetypes of the gunslinger, samurai, imperium, wasteland and royalty; there were numerous stories that loved to be the connective tissue between gaps in the Original Trilogy.

This book makes me think of an older and more classic era, where it was so much clearer why people liked the heroic rebels. Especially Leia. The idea of a rebellion being an intelligent political movement, raising arms, remaining optimistic, and courting support through virtues and tenacity is far more appealing than a manifesto and riot that we’ve come to expect of modern media, where the uprising is entertaining or dreadful in its fiery destruction, and not the work of various classes and archetypes to usher in a restoration of a truly better time.

The heroes do not win due to moral fortitude, they barely survive with a practical mix of being a long standing coalition, military and political support, with wizards, political operators, pilots and rogues keeping them supplied. Even if the ships threadbare and the meals inedible, each new day and opportunity for humour carries the warmth of camaraderie.  Perhaps more than in anything else, I enjoy the likeability of the Rebel Alliance in this novel as plucky heroes.

And the popular appeal also comes from the villains. I confess to finding the Xisor and Vader chapters to be my favourite part of the book. The brooding, incomplete Vader of say The Rise of Darth Vader or the Disney Marvel comic series is not present here. Vader is Vader, back in the time when rather than blending together, the Republic era was myth. The straightforward, although interesting nature of these characters with their lives in the present, facing rather direct issues means that you can just enjoy this novel with no background preamble. I think there’s artfulness to that, it’s a mistake so many series and a lot of literature -which I’ve also reviewed here- has.

Each POV protagonist gives a completely different feeling, their language and thought process genuinely at odds with the other. Mix this with the vast disparity in wealth, the various settings, and the Shadows of the Empire multimedia project, with its game and other tie ins pay off for the literary audience reading this book.

The mechanical and the natural is very much at play here, the nerveless Vader surrounded by machinery and even Xisor appreciating of all treasures something analogous to a bonsai tree. Life, and the value placed upon it is one of many deliberate contrasts, the depiction of contradiction being author’s primary paintbrush with the images throughout. The décor along with inner monologues show the self-presentation of what each individual presents themselves to be, yet hides little from the reader as they come into conflict, each fulfilled with a personal yearning and every member of the cast from Lando to Guri are intelligent, vibrant, and contribute to the story.

The rich descriptions and sensual nature of the novel are its strong suit, and also part of the theme of deprivation and appreciation, or satiation and satisfaction. Prince Xisor and Darth Vader contrast Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker as much as they do each other. While I enjoy the beauty of what Xisor appreciates, and the awe of Vader’s skills, the critical difference is the struggle to achieve.

In a more classic tale of heroism and villainy, the lack of appreciation marks evil as self-defeating. Xisor is an engaging villain protagonist by being an original and fresh character, but his downfall due to arrogance and overconfidence is as much an eloquent message that crime doesn’t pay, as Vader’s famous nature as little more than remains encased in machinery, broken and consumed by his poor choices and the dark side. Right at the beginning, we see how Emperor Palpatine even needs to make the air around him filtered to the point of sterility, for fear of poison. One faction has all the wealth, technology and cruelty the galaxy can provide and reward, but they must survive Byzantine power politics to do so. The Rebel Alliance seeking to topple this system need to go about seeking new allies, surviving an ambush, tapping into the Force and building a new lightsabre from schematics and intuition.

Overconfidence, appreciation, and relationships are other themes delved into quite well without really being given a spotlight and treatise on. Actions define the plot, the story is constantly active, and the actions later make us contemplate how these concepts and personalities concern these things.

The divisions between the two rich villains and two impoverished and desperate heroes is further divided in fascinating ways, as Vader is more spartan, bereft of true joy, and yet richer in his power and skill that comes through constant striving even to breathe, perhaps something symbolic of the coming redemption he will face. There is no victory in tyranny, political scheming, and a lot of whom Anakin Skywalker was is suggested here long before The Phantom Menace would come out.

This is an outlier in not being the familiar layout of a James Laceno or Drew Karpyshyn SW novel. It’s a one of a kind, where the edges of the map were still very blurred. This was written in the manner of an early Horus Heresy novel, or perhaps an Asimov story concerning the Foundation. The idea is to postulate the state of mind of exotic and struggling beings pursuing their quests for survival, and regardless of the setting being used it would still entertain. I find that a mark of quality; many Star Wars novels would not be worth reading -especially today- were it not for the brand recognition. This book wants to introduce a lot of varied settings, fair sized cast, and political intrigue that inspires the reader but can also be contained to a singular story which concludes satisfactorily.

Shadows of The Empire was also part of a multimedia project with the same name. A novel and a game directly alongside each other (alongside different action figures if memory serves), and there is something to be said for an audience being given multiple options. Star Wars in the EU days offered flight sims, DOOM styled games, novels and of course cinema to enjoy, spread wide enough for mass appeal and kept in line with deliberate attention to an enduring aesthetic.

If you want an enjoyable read, plain and simple language, an action thriller with shades of political intrigue that is primary there for you so sit back and enjoy for the evening, this might be for you.

[If you want a discussion that goes into another detailed viewpoint, I would recommend the rumination analysis by the Lorerunner channel. I find that he has a degree of original and refreshing analytical takes. I don’t really come from the same perspective and couldn’t say I agree with all of his conclusions, but the theories about Star Wars, and particularly the Force are fascinating. I would recommend if you have the time for longer, calm reviews of gaming and film media.]

Reference:

Perry, S. Shadows of the Empire. Bantam Spectra, 1996.