Leia as we’ve never seen her, but as we always knew she was: kicking butts and taking names!
Razor’s Edge
Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion
by Martha Wells
read by January LeVoy
LucasBooks / Randomhouse Audio
September 2013
After the events of Episode IV A New Hope, Princess Leia is still reeling from the destruction of her home planet while working with the Rebellion to build a base on Hoth. To do that, she will need to procure supplies so travels to a region of space overrun with pirates to meet with a consortium who may be willing to sell. On the way, she comes across pirates attacking another ship; not just any pirates, but pirates flying an Alderaanian ship! Unable to allow the blasphemy she gets involved quickly setting off a series of events that get her, Han and her crew in serious trouble with a local pirate stronghold and ultimately the Empire.
I loved this book! It is exactly what we knew about Leia but never really got to see. She is in charge, decisive, and makes gutsy decisions to do the right thing no matter the cost. We also get to see the budding attraction between Han and Leia without all the other main characters of Star Wars getting in the way.
(Pre-Jedi Luke and Chewy do show up but don’t play a large role in the story.)
This is one of many new books that fill in the gaps between the movies of the original trilogy (along with Kenobi and Scoundrels in 2013) and I love every minute of them. I like the universe, but I fell in love with these characters as a kid and revisiting them now is a joy I didn’t realize I was missing until I read these books.
A note about the audiobook: Star Wars books are always a treat. They feature sound effects, background noises and music, and usually readers that can mimic the characters well. With original characters like Leia and Han this is especially important to fans. Unfortunately, January LeVoy – who is an amazing reader, like on Star Wars Into The Void, also from 2013 – wasn’t up to the task to read many of the characters. Han is gruff but doesn’t remind us of the real Han. Leia is feminine but isn’t Leia either. It didn’t detract too much, but it didn’t add to the book either.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.