Access Star Wars: The Courtship Of Princess Leia Published By Dave Wolverton Presented As Mobi

is a high rating, Now, can I honestly, objectively say that this book has no flaws No I can't and I'll get back to that in just a second.
However, what book does There is no such thing as a perfect book and I do want to give my five somewhere and honestly this book was so much fun.
I got so much enjoyment out of this that I actually miss reading it now that I'm done and it gives me that old Star Wars joy that the new stuff just doesn't bring these days.
Plus it has Han Solo telling a warlord to "Kiss my wookie! That alone makes the experience worthwhile.
This thing gives me that original trilogy feel again and let's be honest, as much as I love SW, it's never been without its little imperfections and plot holes here and there.
But we love it nonetheless and so it is for me and this book, It's a great rollicking adventure with awesome characters, fun plot and intriguing world building that expands upon the existing saga and lore and adds to it.


That being said, the book does have a couple of problems and if you're going to focus on those, you're not going to have a good time.

Han and Leia do act more like they did at the beginning of ESB than at the end of ROTJ, after which the events of this book are supposed to take place.
Wolverton takes their personalities and exaggerates them somewhat in order to get the plot going and keep the story within limits length wise.
One could argue that this sometimes causes them to feel a little out of character, but all in all I found it to be rather minor and it didn't really bother me much.


Dialogue is not Wolverton's strong suit and if you were to base Han amp Leia's relationship on this book alone, you might be wondering how they fit together.
Place it in the larger context of the original trilogy however, allowing for what I said earlier, it really is fine and it worked for me.


One thing that I can't really defend is that this book does have some sexual objectification, As much as I love Teneniel Djo, Wolverton had a serious case of "men writing women cliché" when he wrote her, She has a completely unnecessary nude scene and when a suitor was "falling in love with her", he seemed entirely too focussed on her breasts and shapely bare legs, especially considering the emotional state she was in.
Luckily he does offer some counterbalance by objectifying the dashing Prince Isolder somewhat, but it happened with Teneniel and other women a lot more unfortunately.
The good news is that on the whole there aren't too many instances of this happening, Despite its title, the book is an adventure story rather than a romance so it doesn't impact the story too heavily, but it made me cringe when it did happen.


Overall it's a great, fun SW story that doesn't take itself too seriously as it shouldn't, I greatly enjoyed it and if you don't decide to focus too hard on the imperfections, I see no reason why you couldn't as well.
To be honest I barely remember the plot of this book, but it had Dark Side witches riding on Rancors, amp what else do you want There's not much else I want from the Star Wars EU than that.
MK. This book hurts my brain, I don't buy Wolverton's characterization of Han and Leia for a second, Also, there are witches A planet of Amazonian female witches Seriously The EU novels are basically published fan fiction and, honestly, I've read better on the internets.
Seeking rich, powerful allies to bring into the Rebel Alliance and a new home planet for the refugees of her native Alderaan, Princess Leia considers a proposal that could tip the balance of power against the evil Empire.
The Hapes Consortium ofworlds is ruled by the Queen Mother, who wants Leia to marry her son, the dashing and wealthy Prince Isolder.
Han Solo has always dreamed of marrying Leia himself, and now he makes a desperate last gamble to win her back, Soon he, Isolder, Luke Skywalker and Artoo will be at the center of an adventure leading to an awesome treasure, a group of Forcetrained "witches," and a showdown with an invincible foe.


Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years! You couldn't set out to craft a book better designed to extinguish my Star Wars obsession than this particular offering.
Blech.

First, Wolverton has no clear concept of who Leia is and what makes her tick, He tries to pretend that Leia could not love Han after the ending of Jedi, and even seriously consider marrying someone else.
Hogwash.

Second, he spends more time in the heads of Han, Luke, and the wouldbe wooer even CPO! than he does in Leia's head, although given his already stated inadequate understanding of her character, it's just as well.


I finished it because I wanted to ensure that I would never be tempted to read it again, It sucked, and there is no other way to say it, What a hot space mess of a book,

The writing was straightup weird, and everyonewith the possible exception of Luke, were hilariously out of character, I do see why Dathomir gets used in a lot of other Star Wars material, the worldbuilding was the only good thing about this book.


Basically this book was on crack but I'm Star Wars trash so I had a good time reading it, Dave Wolverton has the distinction of having written one of the cheesiest and worst Star Wars Expanded Universe novels that I have read so far.
I'm probably being generous giving this a twostar rating,

"The Courtship of Princess Leia"

is, as the title suggests, the story of how Han Solo eventually woos Leia's hand in marriage.
Published in, "TCOPL" takes place two years after the events of the film "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi", Rumor has it that Wolverton intended it to be a trilogy, Based on the structure of the novel, that rumor makes sense, It seems rushed, and there are many disjointed elements within the story that may have been fixed if Wolverton had been given time to develop them in three separate novels.


The New Republic is gaining ground, building alliances with many new worlds that were oppressed by the Empire, Pockets of Imperial forces still survive throughout the known galaxies, so skirmishes still persist, Leia Organa, the President of the New Republic, is swamped with work, She doesn't have time for a relationship,

Han Solo, a general and a noted war hero now, is busy himself, He and Chewbacca are still leading squadrons into occasional battle, His only downtime are the occasional times he can get back to Coruscant to see Leia,

Unfortunately for Han, Prince Isolder of the Hapes consortium a group of planetary systems controlled by a somewhat benevolent Queen has made a proposition with Leia.
He has asked for her hand in marriage, and in return, the New Republic will control the Hapes consortium, Leia, a born politician, sees the benefit of the proposition, and she is actually considering marrying Isolder,

Seeing red, Han does something drastic: he "kidnaps" Leia and flies her off to Dathomir, a planet that Han won in a card game.
He hopes that he can convince Leia that he is the man for her, Hot on their trail, of course, is Isolder, with the help of Luke Skywalker,

Dathomir, it turns out, is home to powerful Forcesensitive witches, A war has been waging there for a long time, apparently, between good witches and evil ones, called Nightsisters, The planet is also guarded by Imperial troops, supposedly left there years ago by Emperor Palpatine, who was even afraid of the Force witches.
The Nightsisters, however, basically control the Imperial troops, On the upside, the good witches are allied with rancor beasts, Yes, the same creature that tried to eat Luke in "ROTJ",

I'm not making any of this stuff up, by the way,

This book is pretty bad, mainly because Wolverton can't decide whether he's writing a fantasy adventure or a romance novel, because there are elements of both genres in the book, and neither one are approached very well.


As criticproof as the Star Wars novels are, this one is pretty bad,

Remembered the ending, but enjoyed reading it again, Although it was not the most well written of the Star Wars books I have read, it was what sucked me into reading them in the first place.
I am a sucker for romance, and you just can't beat it between Han and Leia,

In this book, they have drifted apart though the business of their duties, but Han is forced to go to extreme measures when Leia is about to be married of to the Prince of the Happes Consortium.
After a winning her a planet in a sabac game, he kidnapps her and takes her to it, which is when the real story begins, as they encounter "Force witches" and other problems.
I'll start out with some The Courtship of Princess Leia trivia, courtesy of the sitelinkStar Wars wiki: Dave Wolverton was originally contracted to write a trilogy, which was canceled.
Because of the numerous plot threads running through this novel, it's been suggested that CoPL is the conglomeration of that trilogy, The paperback cover was also changedfrom the original one, featuring wedding dress Leia, Blade Runner Han, and Fabioesque Isolder, to a more actionorientated cover with rancors and the trio in Endor garb.
The reason Sales for the hardback book were lower than expected, possibly because the first cover made it look like a romance novel.
The Courtship of Princess Leia made it to number seven on the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks: from the week of April,through the week of May,.
It was ultimately on the NYT list forweeksa far cry from sitelinkHeir to the Empire's runaway successweeks on the NYT list.


Now, the term "romance novel" has come to acquire many negative connotations, probably because readers new to the genre are more familiar with sitelinkinfamously horrible examples than anything else.
But essentially, any novel that focuses on "the relationship and romantic love between two people" could be categorized as a romance novel, The "happily ever after" is usually required, but sometimes optional,

I'll break it down:
Does CoPL focus on the relationship between Leia amp Han
Yes,
Is there a HEA
Yes, I guess,
Is it a romance novel, then
Yes, to some extent, There are many plot threads, but Leia and Han are often the main focus,
Is it a good romance novel
HELL NO,


SUMMARY
Han Solo comes back from apparently destroying Warlord Zsinj's Super Star Destroyer to find that the Hapes Consortium has sent a buttload of ships and gifts to the New Republic.
They're willing to ally with the New Republic, on a few conditions: Princess Leia has to accept all their stuff, and oh yeah, marry Crown Prince Isolder as well.


In a totally outofcharacter move, Han wins the planet Dathomir in a sabacc game, He fails to impress Leia with his newfound wealth and prosperity, so he kidnaps her and runs off to his planet, Chewbacca comes along.

Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker is acting like an allpowerful Jedi, and joins forces with Isolder to track down the kidnapper, kidnapped, and kidnapper's BFF.
He may have been trying to track down some Jedi history before this, but I wasn't buying much attention, Using his amazing Force powers, he finds a faster hyperspace path to Dathomir, pretends to be dead, floats down to a graceful landing, floats RDamp Isolder amp his ship down too, and discovers the remains of the Chu'unthor, a floating casino Jedi academy.


Of course, bad stuff happens, Han, Leia, and Chewie are captured by Imperials, then rescued by the Witches of Dathomir good guys and have a slumber party, Luke and Isolder are captured by Teneniel Djo, and become her ohsowilling manslaves, The Nightsisters bad guys try to capture the Millenium Falcon, and generally act crazy and Dark Sidey, Luke almost dies, but miraculously heals himself within a few hours! He also pilots the Falcon all by himself, saves Han, takes out the Nightsisters, disables the orbital nightcloak more on that later, and acts like KJAera Luke on Force crack.


Meanwhile, CPO wants to be BFFs with Han, so he spends the whole novel sucking up, claiming Han is the descendant of the King of Corellia, and being a general nuisance.
Isolder's mother tried to kill Luke and Leia earlier in the novel, but she's dealt with,

In the end, Han destroys Zsinj's Super Star Destroyer again, and marries Leia, Isolder marries Teneniel, because he seems to be into that kind of thing,


TEN THINGS HORRIBLY WRONG WITH THIS NOVEL
, Sexual Objectification
For a Bantam era novel, CoPL is surprisingly sleazy, It's PG level stuff, but still surprising to find in's era Star Wars, Isolder is super hot he's called Space Fabio for a reason his mother, Ta'a Chume, is gorgeous and vicious all the Hapans are beautiful Teneniel is barely legal, but super hot as well.
So much time is spent describing the sexual attractiveness of various characters that these new cultures Dathomir and Hapes feel alien and unStar Warlike.


Not to mention that this might be the first SW book to contain the word "breast, " As in, "with totally no clothes covering it up, " Teneniel takes Luke and Isolder as her slaves, and has high hopes for Luke, because any of their children would have Force superpowers.
The Dathomiri culture, on a whole, is all about the sexual dominance of women, But instead of being empowering for women, it's female dominance viewed through the male gaze: a weird erotic fantasy, with women seen through the eyes of the heterosexual male.


. Barbaric Matriarchal Societies
Both Hapes and Dathomir are matriarchal societies, At first, that seems a reason for celebration, As a female reader, I have no problem with a world ruled by womenin fact, it's nice to see a novel with more female characters than just Leia.


But Hapes and Dathomir are not just ruled by women: their cultures are violently barbaric, Ta'a Chume maintains power by killing off her rivals, even her own children, The Dathomiri clans enslave others, and are stuck in the Stone Age thanks to the lack of modern technology, The combination of gender inequalities and savage violence suggests that female dominated societies are not only fodder for kinky male fantasies, but inherently wrong as well.


. The Curious Anomaly of the Independent Hapes Cluster
If the Hapes Cluster is so large and powerful, and could be such an asset to the New Republic, why did Palpatine ignore them Why didn't he swallow them up in his Empire And judging by their actions before and during the Battle of Dathomir, they probably wouldn't have won.
For the descendants of space pirates, they're not that great at warfare,

. Palpatine Was Scared of Gethzerion
To which I have to respond, SERIOUSLY The most powerful Sith of the age knew about a bunch of Force "witches," and just let them be I don't think Palpatine would have left a planet full of Force sensitives alone.
He wiped out almost the entire Jedi Orderhe would have had no problem disposing of some women who had primitive weapons, and only a basic understanding of the Force.


Along the same lines, I very much doubt that the Dathomiri could have prevented Yoda and other Jedi from retrieving the wreckage of the Chu'unthor.
Yoda was badass has Wolverton never watched The Empire Strikes Back

, The Orbital Nightcloak, and How Zsinj Fails as a Villain
The Orbital Nightcloak is composed of a network of satellites that prevent sunlight from reaching the planet they orbit.
Awesome way to freeze out a planet, right Well, . . except for the small fact that, like old school Christmas lights, knocking out a few satellites would deactivate the entire network,

That idiocy defines Zsinj's character in CoPL, Everyone says he's a genius, but all the examples Wolverton gives the reader of Zsinj's evil plans are downright moronic, Using an interdependent control system on his secret weapon Making deals with evil Nightsisters and expecting them to honor them Not getting the hell out of Dodge once the Hapan fleet showed up Major fail!

Fortunately, Aaron Allston retcons Zsinj into a mastermind who merely pretends to be stupid in the Wraith Squadron trilogy, but Zsinj's first appearance in the SW canon is utterly disappointing.


. The Gun of Command
Wolverton tries to shoehorn various new technologies into the book, but none are as groaninducing as the Hapan Gun of Command.
According to the sitelinkSW wiki, "the guns worked by releasing an electromagnetic wave field which disabled the victim's thought processes, Once affected, the victim would follow any simple command given, even blatantly suicidal ones, "

You have to be very careful with technology in SW novels there's an uneasy balance between the complexities of their ships and weapons, and the frontierlike quality of the original trilogy.
The Gun of Command bypasses that completely, and pushes the story into scifi farce, A gun that takes away the victim's free will The Empire would have loved that!

, Han's General Characterization, and His Approach to Wooing
I can accept Han getting jealous and pissy about another suitor showing up for Leia's hand.
But getting drunk and trying to win fame and fortune in a game of chance, so that he'd be worthy of her Kidnapping her and stuffing her in the Millenium Falcon's hidden cargo sections This is not the man who coolly answered "I know" to Leia's proclamation of love in ESB.


In CoPL, Han is overbearing, insecure, and unbelievably densea particularly heinous passage involves Han pulling a drunk whuffa worm out of a puddle, and believing this to be an impressive feat.
His characterization is so far leftfield that I'm actually surprised Leia marries him in the end,

. Leia's Ambivalence and Fickleness
Of course, that's not perplexing when you look at all the uncharacteristic things that Leia does.
Wolverton takes a strong, stable relationship between two equal partners, smashes it into the ground, and attempts to show them "falling back in love".
. . problem is, there's not much visible proof of their undying love to placate the reader,

I don't have too much of an issue with Leia considering the Hapan proposal: politically, it might be a good move to ally themselves with the Hapan Cluster.
But she doesn't even discuss this with Han, and their relationship is just wrong, She's nasty and snappish with him, her interests constantly switching from one man to the other and back again, If the men in this novelexemplified by Hanare idiots, the women are shrews, and Leia the queen of them all,

. Han's Lack of Response to the Continued Existence of the Iron Fist
When the novel opens, Han is returning to Coruscant after destroying Zsinj's flagship, the SSD Iron Fist.
However, when he encounters it again in the Dathomir system, there's not a hint of shock or outrage or anything, Han spent MONTHS hunting this man down, believed he had taken out his flagship, and when he encounters him again, he just shrugs it off and blows him up again.
"Ho hum, another Imperial Warlord to destroy, just in a day's work," he seems to say, WHAT THE HELL, Wolverton, I can't even dlkfgjlgkfghddkhfl,

. LUKE FREAKING SKYWALKER
Chronologically, CoPL comes before Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, where Luke behaves much as he did in the original trilogyby which I mean that his Force powers are nothing too extravagant.
He participates in lightsaber duels, glimpses the future, faces a Dark Jedi, and hones his instincts, You'd expect Luke to act much the same in this novel,

Nope. Instead, he seems to have sprung fully formed from the pages of the Jedi Academy trilogy Luke performs daring feats years before he faced the reborn Emperor and proclaimed himself a Master.
It doesn't fit into the Expanded Universe timeline,

Additionally, Luke acts like the most obnoxious kind of Jedi: the constantly proselytizing teacher, He even instructs Isolder as nonForce sensitive as they come in the ways of the Light Side, When captured by Teneniel, Luke calmly goes along with it and tries to explain that gosh, she really shouldn't rape him, it's not nice.
He makes no moves to escape, and I don't buy it, To reference Zahn again: in sitelinkHeir to the Empire, Luke didn't escape from Mara in the forests of Myrkr because the ysalamiri blocked the Force, and they both were in the same bad situation.
Here, Luke can access the Force perfectly fine, so he has no reason to stick with Teneniel, She wants you to be her sexy slave, Luke, Get out while you still can!

And the climax of the story, where Luke faces down Gethzerion, ruptures all the blood vessels in his face, and yet still manages to heal himself and save the day.
I can't even discuss it, I'll get too angry and degenerate into senseless typing again,

ETA: Plus it's always really, really, reeeeally annoyed me that Wolverton thought it would be okay for Luke to almost miss their wedding.
Like he wouldn't be there BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED TO BEGIN WITH,

Ugh, why I did not mention that in my review Horrible! Wolverton, he's Leia's twin brotherher only family still alive.
He should be there at least three hours before the ceremony, probably being an usher and finding Mon Mothma a seat and everything.
It is unacceptable for Luke to walk in at the last minute, like "Hey guys, sorry I'm late, you can continue, "


CONCLUSION AND CLOSING THOUGHTS
The Courtship of Princess Leia introduced characters and cultures that played a large role in later SW books, especially the New Jedi Order series, the Dark Nest trilogy, and the Legacy of the Force series.
Isolder and Teneniel Djo had a daughter Tenel Ka, who eventually produced Han and Leia's only grandchild Allana, Dathomiri witches joined Luke's Jedi Order, while Nightsisters became the Sith Ladies of Tomorrow, The Hapans are always willing to pop up and provide some naval help in times of trouble, and Ta'a Chume still tries to assassinate family members.


CoPL fills a crucial gap in the postReturn of the Jedi timeline, Unfortunately, it's just not very good,

NOT RECOMMENDED.

My YouTube review: sitelink be/WVGSotVY

SOURCES amp ADDITIONAL READING
Wiki articles referenced:
sitelinkRomance novel
sitelinkSexual objectification
sitelinkThe Courtship of Princess Leia

sitelinkA brief definition of the old school romantic hero

Other CoPL reviews:
sitelinkTV Tropes entry for CoPL
sitelinkthis review on GoodReads

Good romance recommendations:
sitelinkSmart Bitches, Trashy Books
sitelinkDear Author.