A Good Argument for Outsourcing...

In one of of my favorite movies, Clerks, a discussion takes place regarding the ethical implications of the Rebels destroying the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi- the issue being whether the construction workers were innocent bystanders who were offed by terrorists, or if- by agreeing to work on the project all they, were complicit with the aims of the Death Star II and thus deserving of whatever fate befell them.

I always had a problem with the idea that the Empire let their fingers do the walking in the Galactic Yellow Pages and got their work done by having various contractors submit bids. (An episode of "Family Guy" (Blue Harvest 1) illustrates it hilariously) Think about it- not too much freedom going around. Many stormtroopers were conscripted and if Darth Vader comes to your place of business and mentions he needs some work done, do you really have someone call him to back to set up an estimate? Furthermore, on a station of this size with this many staff, there have to be food, laundry, medical and other services available. Logistics planning would have had to have been a major concern.

However, to answer these musings one has had over the years, we finally now have the novel DEATH STAR, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry (not the lead singer of Journey).

Caveat- I have read many but by no means all of the Star Wars novels. I'm not real interested in secondary characters and their adventures- such as Bobba Fett, the Old Republic, and so on. The books involving the characters in the movies are basically where I want to go. At least at this point. The authors writing after the "Pre-Trilogy" seem to have it easier- they do not have to guess about backstory or emotion when we know how how things went down, and that enables the books to now have more emotional richness. For example, there is a scene in one such book- I think it is "Ghosts of Tattoine" - where Princess Leia acquires a holodisk or something of Anakin Skywalker's famous Pod Race and she had various mixed emotions about that.

Anyway, DEATH STAR is similar to many other SW books in that there are many characters with exotics names and backgrounds, and you kind of can get by with making a mental post-it rather than a full mental note of who they are. What is especially cl about this book, though, is that we essentially know what happens at the end but we don't know the particulars. Not all of the characters survive and some make some startling decisions. There are some neat subplots with Grand Moff Tarkin and Admiral Daala. Darth Vader makes some appearances. It is well paced and the ending makes your pulse race to see how the clock winds down. Also, some of the bothersome logistical questions are answers satisfyingly. Big thumbs up!