Star Wars Essay, Research Paper

I read ?Star Wars: Dark Force Rising.? It?s by Timothy Zahn and published by Bantam Books in June 1992.

This book is the sequel to ?Heir to the Empire.? Only one month separates these two books in time. After the battle at Sluis Van, a shipyard, the Rebellion’s ships are moderately damaged. Most of their ships are either destroyed or are in need of major repairs. Han and Lando are stuck with Luke at Sluis Van spaceport, their ships are near the bottom of the repair lists and no one is likely to loan them a ship. They are trying to figure a way to get their ships repaired faster when Luke and Lando run into some old smuggler enemies of Lando?s. The gang is there trying to steal a ship when Lando catches them in the act. Luckily, Luke is there to defend Lando from the merciless smugglers. Luke then forces the ?Slicer? (we would call them a hacker) to move their ships up on the repair list. After their ships are repaired, the trio returns to the base on Coruscant (the New Republic?s headquarters). It?s here that the reader finds that Leia has traveled to the land of the gray skinned aliens that tried to kill her in the previous book. They are called Nohgri. She is trying to persuade them to see the evils of the Empire who has enslaved them. The only reason she?s is not immediately killed is that she is Darth Vader?s daughter. She uncovers a conspiracy put on them by the Empire and she will not re-enter the story until the end. Meanwhile, Lando and Han are scouring the galaxy for clues as to the whereabouts of a fleet of over two hundred Cradser Class Warships called the Katana fleet. Normally these ships would need about 15,000 men a piece to be functional, but do to technology called ?slave circuiting,? each can operate with fifteen hundred men. These ships would basically win the war for the New Republic. During this time Luke has been studying with the Dark Jedi clone of Jorus C?boath. Luke is strong enough to resist C?boath?s temptations to join the Dark Side. Then, he joins back up with the Republic.

At this time the Empire has found the location of the Katana Fleet along with the New Republic. It becomes an all-out race to the fleet, which the Empire wins. The result is another battle in which each side seems to pull out with equal losses, but this time the Empire has gained a whole fleet of ships.

Again, this whole plot seemed to be based on timely coincidences and lack therefore of. While reading this book I realized that not all the creatures spoke English, but the author interprets the story that way so the reader will understand it. The ?slave circuit? technology fits in with the technology advancements that we are making now days. Other devices and objects seemed more like they were taken from a Buck Rodgers episode than just advancing the current technology. Again, the measurements would be different because many of the measurements (i.e. meters, days) are based on the Earth. This book was also very farfetched, but imaginative. The interesting and suspenseful plot kept me very interested and entertained with the book while I was reading it