Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor cover image (art by David Seeley) is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

In the Star Wars® Expanded Universe, there are apparently six eras: Sith Era, Prequel (Star Wars: Episodes I-III), Classic (Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI), New Republic, New Jedi Order, and Legacy Era.  The recent novel, Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, is a New Republic era novel by author Matthew Stover, who has penned other Star Wars novels including the Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith novelization.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor opens six months after the events depicted in the film, Return of the Jedi.  The victorious Rebel Alliance is still struggling with the remnants of the Empire.  These surviving Imperial forces are determined to crush the rebellion, and now there is a new enemy.  Calling himself Lord Shadowspawn, he commands black-armored stormtroopers and launches raids and acts of piracy and terrorism against the New Republic, and their path of pillaging and wholesale slaughter leaves a wake of destruction.

General Luke Skywalker and the NRDF (New Republic Defense Forces) trace Lord Shadowspawn to a strategically advantageous base on the planet Mindor and launch a raid that actually plays directly in Shadowspawn’s hands.  Using ancient Sith knowledge and secret Imperial technology, Shadowspawn decimates the NRDF forces, and Luke Skywalker is seemingly lost during raid, possibly killed.  Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, See-Threepio, Artoo-Detoo, and the Rogue Squadron rush to the rescue, but are they in time to stop Shadowspawn’s power play for galaxy-wide dominion?

THE LOWDOWN:  It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve read a Star Wars novel (the last being Vector Prime), but I was ready for Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.  For one thing, this book features many of my favorite characters from classic Star Wars.  In Mindor, author Matthew Stover seems to have written a book with two minds.  One of them is a space opera with non-stop action; the other is hard science fiction that is jargon-heavy and has enough dogfights to feel like a sci-fi flight simulator.  The former is a page-turner – an exciting read for a Star Wars fanboy like me.  The latter is sometimes dry, sometimes mildly interesting.  Luckily, both sides come together to create a potboiler of a novel by the middle of story.

The characterizations, in general, are good, and I especially like where Stover has Luke Skywalker at in terms of the post Return of the Jedi character.  Luke in this book is the confident last Jedi, the hero we saw in ROTJ, but he is conflicted about his place in the New Republic, especially about the lives of the men that are placed in his hands when he becomes a general.  As many reasons as there are why this book is fun to read, it’s Stover’s take on Luke Skywalker that makes Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor a quality Star Wars novel.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  People who read every Star Wars novel or come close will, of course, want Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, but fans of the original trilogy will definitely want to give this a read, precisely because the story takes place so close to the “Classic Era.”

B+