Let’s talk about the original Star Wars trilogy
and its format. Star Wars is one
of the easiest examples of the three act structures: the first film is complete
rising action while having its own three act structure within itself, Return
of the Jedi is the big extended climax lifting the characters from the darkest
point into success, and The Empire Strikes Back is the big second act
with the major twist reveals and ending with the characters at their lowest
point. When Timothy Zahn was
commissioned for his Star Wars trilogy, Heir to the Empire felt structurally
similar to Star Wars, which isn’t a bad thing. While there was an ending clearly with a sequel
in mind there was also the sense that there could have at one point been an
off-ramp while the immediate sequel, Dark Force Rising, follows the
structure of The Empire Strikes Back almost to the letter including the
final twist leading to a particularly harrowing final moment for the characters
to reflect on where the New Republic could possibly be going. Heir to the Empire as a novel was
quite concerned with the nitty gritty of the politics of the New Republic while
Luke Skywalker’s journey was a general uncertainty over reestablishing the Jedi
Order. Dark Force Rising sees
Zahn put his focus inward on the characters as the general Republic is now
aware of the greater extent Grand Admiral Thrawn poses to the galaxy and Luke
has become more of an independent figure in proceedings.
Luke’s story arc in particular is one of two halves: for
much of the first half he is paired with Lando Calrissian in basically a
smuggler’s plot trying to find evidence as to who in the New Republic is a
traitor. This particular pairing of
characters really shows Zahn’s mastery of who these characters are because the
original trilogy rarely had Luke and Lando interact, and the brief interactions
they did share were in group sequences in both The Empire Strikes Back
and Return of the Jedi. Zahn
writes Luke with this respect for Lando’s attitude towards life and the
universe that is separate from his relationship with Han Solo, who in essence
is from the same character archetype as Lando.
It takes talent since a lesser writer would just attempt to graft the Han/Lando
relationship onto Lando and Luke, something that Zahn does replicate when Lando
and Han share scenes and a subplot after Luke goes on his larger plot for the
bulk of the novel. The rest of Luke’s
plot is in large part reuniting with Mara Jade who has been struggling with her
preconceived notions of the Empire and being generally used by others. What becomes especially interesting is that Dark
Force Rising as a title is double meaning, it is in one aspect a reference
to Thrawn’s forces rising, but there is also a legendary fleet of 200
Dreadnaught class cruisers called the Dark Force. The fleet itself is one of those McGuffins
that leads to the last lines of the novel being incredibly foreboding for what
is to come, ending after a climax but a climax that also ends without total
resolution.
The other major plotline of the novel involves an
extension of Leia’s plotline from Heir to the Empire. Zahn is clearly interested in exploring Leia’s
political nature, continuing the idea that she could represent a Lady Vader and
successor to her father. Luke is the one
always afraid of falling to the Dark Side of the Force, and with good reason he
is sent to an insane Jedi in this novel, but Leia’s plotline has her actively
working for a group that the Empire had both repressed and kept under a form of
codependency in the Noghri. The Noghri
were a part of Heir to the Empire, but here Zahn explores their culture particularly
well as Leia uses much of the charm and cunning to convince them of the righteousness
of the New Republic. While it’s a
plotline that takes over, it does have a slight problem in recapping the events
of Heir to the Empire, but outside of that it also ends up being one of
the most compelling plotlines of the trilogy thus far. It’s also interesting that Dark Force
Rising actually doesn’t have Thrawn appear as often as he did in Heir to
the Empire, something that isn’t a problem, Zahn’s novel is compelling
without his presence since when off-page there is also a sense of menace when
he does appear.
Overall, Dark Force Rising is definitely the
middle leg of a trilogy for better and for worse, the ending being mostly satisfactory
but also ending on a wham line. Zahn has
developed his prose and sense of the world (Chewbacca’s dialogue isn’t just
written out in bracketed English for example), and the character pairings are a
particular delight. This, however, in
places feels like a book that could improve or be made worse by the quality of
the conclusion to the trilogy which for me ends up slightly holding it back
from being stronger than the first.
8/10.
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