Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge (Star Wars, Empire and Rebellion) (Star Wars: Legends)

by Martha Wells

[inlibrisveritas]

It’s been a very long time since I’ve sat down with a Star Wars book, and since the redefining of the Extended Universe I find myself nostalgic for the epic tales that technically don’t exist anymore. Hence my resurgence in buying all the Star Wars books I can find that I don’t already own. Razor’s Edge was the perfect place for me to start in my renewed desire to read the series.

This focuses on Princess Leia as she finds herself in the possession of pirates. Being so soon after A New Hope she’s still very upset about the loss of Alderaan, and when she sees a Alderaanian ship resorting to piracy she can’t prevent herself from trying to step in and fix it. I feel like this includes some of the best aspects of the SW universe. There were plenty of fights, cunning diplomatic maneuvering, and a sense of adventure. I’m one of those people who don’t really like the Big Three in the SW universe…Luke, Leia, and Han are sort of ‘meh’ to me. I love their attitudes and even the stuff they do, but I enjoy the side characters more generally…so I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying the three of them so much in this one. Each character feels authentic to their original disposition and it adds to the awesome depth of their personalities. Even Luke, who was barely in this has some great moments of character definition.

I loved the high amounts of tension as Leia navigates a rather sticky situation involving both the Empire and the pirates. I definitely didn’t have to go very long without action and appreciated that this wasn’t one of those Star Wars novels that was super heavy on the pretense and light on the actual execution. Overall I think this is a super approachable expanded universe story that is great for fans who don’t necessarily want a lot of politics and awesome for fans who haven’t read a SW novels before.