Dave Wolverton has one novel entry into the Star Wars universe, and it is The Courtship of Princess Leia. I have to say that, for a book with so many over-arching plot points, this is one of my least favorite Star Wars books. While some of the plot points are genuinely interesting, like Leia possibly marrying Prince Isolder of the Hapes Cluster as a means of political-alliance expediency or Luke finding the Chu’unthor, a Jedi training vessel that crashed on a planet 400 years earlier; other plot points are ravenously ludicrous. Han Solo is somehow able to get into a sabacc game (it’s like our poker) where the stakes are so high that Han eventually wins a planet. I will repeat that, Han Solo wins a planet.
The planet is Dathomir, which just so happens to be where Warlord Zsinj is currently hiding out. See, I told you some of the plot points are just a little too unbelievable. Prince Isolder arrives with the full might of the Hapan Consortium, hoping to marry Princess Leia.
Han, who is madly in love with Leia, snaps and kidnaps the Princess, running off to his newly won planet. Luke Skywalker follows them, and in the course of tracking them down locates the crashed Jedi training ship, where he finds a plethora of Jedi artifacts and data, all of which precursors him re-establishing the Jedi Order and a Jedi training facility.
Also, Luke dies in this story. That’s right, Luke Skywalker dies. Oh, don’t worry, the Force brings him back to life, because we can’t kill George Lucas’s cash cow, can we? Luke, in the process of reviving, actually sees the Force.
Eventually Han wins Leia over, Isolder marries a Jedi living on Dathomir, and Warlord Zsinj dies a fiery death.
Like I said, this story is one of my least favorites. I truly think that if Zahn or Matthew Stover had written it, the plot would’ve fit together far better than it did. I hope I am conveying the fact that I mean no disrespect to Dave Wolverton. I’m sure he’s a great writer, but Star Wars just doesn’t feel like his genre, if you know what I mean.
Re-readability: 6.8
Final Grade: D
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