Elizabeth Gardner Gardner itibaren Lismore VIC 3324, Australia itibaren Lismore VIC 3324, Australia

The Last Command - This book follows the pattern of the first two in the series (See my review for Heir to the Empire). It pulls the reader into an "above-average" plot that is just plain torture to read. The writing itself makes you hope beyond hope that English wasn't Zahn's first language. That said, here are a few points of major irritation for me: 1) A large cast of props rather than actual characters. (It's almost as if Mara Jade is carrying a cardboard cutout of Luke through the forest on Wayland.) 2) Mara Jade's inner conflict throughout the first two books wasn't convincing and if you're waiting for some grand epiphanic resolution to it in the third book, you're going to be sorely dissapointed. Along with that, whenever the Emperor's visage swims before Mara in her all-to-frequent visions to give her the last command "YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER!", I can't help but see Will Ferrel ordering Derek Zoolander to "KILL THE PRIME-MINISTER OF MALAYSIA!". 3) If the constant movie lines and references to the classic trilogy haven't really convinced you that this series is meant to be part of the Star Wars universe, and you're worried that you just won't ever be able to accept Zahn's work as part of the Star Wars "cannon" because it "just doesn't feel the same" - never fear, the final battle scene atop Mount Tantiss is a direct re-hash of the Death Star control room from Return of the Jedi.(What a stroke of genius!) The Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too, must be proud to have Timothy Zahn as part of their alumni.