Return of the Jedi
by
James Kahn

Del Rey, June 1983, 181 pp.
ISBN: 0-345-30767-4

Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: Movie Tie-In
Reviewed: 4/26/1999

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Read Part of the Book

”You will bring Captain Solo and the Wookie too me.”

Jabba smiled grimly. “Your mind powers will not work on me, boy. I am not affected by your human thought pattern.” Then, as an afterthought: “I was killing your kind when being a Jedi meant something.”

Luke altered his stance somewhat, internally and externally. “Nevertheless, I am taking Captain Solo and his friends. You can either profit from this…or be destroyed. It’s your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my powers.” He spoke in his own language, which Jabba well understood.

Jabba laughed the laugh of a lion cautioned by a mouse.

Threepio, who had been observing this interplay intently, leaned forward to whisper to Luke: “Master, you’re standing—“ A guard abruptly restrained the concerned droid, though, and pulled him back to his place.

Jabba cut short his laugh with a scowl. “There will be no bargain, young Jedi. I shall enjoy watching you die.”

Luke raised his hand. A pistol jumped out of the holster of a nearby guard and landed snuggly in the Jedi’s palm. Luke pointed the weapon at Jabba.

Jabba spat. “Boseka!”

The floor suddenly dropped away, sending Luke and his guard crashing into the pit below. The trap door immediately closed again. All the beasts of the court rushed to the floor-grating and looked down.

”Luke!” yelled Leia.

Review

At least three months have passed since Han Solo was frozen in the carbonite and returned to Jabba the Hutt. The Star Wars story returns to Tatooine, the planet where young Luke Skywalker grew up. Han Solo’s frozen body has adorned a special place in the throne room of Jabba the Hutt for some time. Artoo-Detoo, See-Threepio, Leia, Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian attempt to rescue Han. Things don’t go quite as planned and Luke and Chewbacca almost become a long-lasting meal of a Sarlacc. After the rescue, they rejoin the Alliance for an attack on the new Death Star that is being constructed outside the moon of Endor. A plan is devised where Han Solo will lead the attack on the moon of Endor and Lando Calrissian will lead the attack on the Death Star. But Han must make sure that the shield generator protecting the Death Star is down before Lando can begin his attack. The Emperor pays a visit to the Death Star to make sure that the completion date of the Death Star will be met. Darth Vader assures him that it will be completed on time. Luke feels his father’s presence on the Death Star and goes to meet him. Darth Vader assures the Emperor that his son should not be killed and that he can turn Luke towards the Dark Side of the Force and thereby gain a very powerful ally. Luke has his own thoughts about this and thus the final battle between father and son begins.

This is a book based upon the third Star Wars movie, Episode 6. It follows Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. This is the conclusion to the original Star Wars trilogy.

Even though I have seen the movie at least five times, I still enjoyed the book. As with any book that is a movie tie-in, this one gives you a lot of insight to what the characters are thinking, not just the lines of dialog you get in the movie. But this book has something that the other two Star Wars books did not. Every time a different language is spoken, the author actually added that dialog into the text, even though it cannot be understood. This also pertains to Artoo’s robot-talk. I found this to be kind of hokey. Other people may like it, but I could have done without it. A nice thing about the book is that it doesn’t paint the Ewoks in the same light as the movie did. In the movie they were cute little teddy berry-like creatures. In the book they are more ruthless and a lot of them kill and get killed fighting the Stormtroopers. But, I found that I still became wrapped up in the story-telling and really did enjoy the book.

I rated this book a 7½ out of 10.