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Science Fiction » alt.fan.starwars » REVIEW: Star Wars Empire Vol 3: The Imperial Perspective, Dark Horse
| REVIEW: Star Wars Empire Vol 3: The Imperial Perspective, Dark Horse [message #279559] |
So, 18 Juni 2006 09:27 |
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Great art work wasted on unimaginative writing
It's tough being asked to make fantasy Nazi's into regular Joes, or
even heroic Joes, so even if I can't work up too much sympathy for the
troops that protect the universe by enslaving it, I can image what a
nightmare it might have been for some of these writers to get their
assignments from Dark Horse. Their charge - convince you that the bad
guys, the guys who keep the Emperor's machine running day-to-day, are,
well, just like you and me, people with a job to do.
Perhaps the writer who has it easiest is Paul Alden, who has only to
have Vader battle a pack of wild hyenas. You will recall that when the
first Death Star exploded, Vader was spinning off into space. With a
damaged ship and not too many options for pulling into the nearest
service station, he manages to crash on a planet mostly empty of
sentient life. There's plenty of fauna about, though, and the Dark Lord
has to fight his way through them to an Imperial listening post. Thanks
to artist Raul Trevino's fine work, Alden's willingness to step out of
the way, and the almost complete absence of politics, "The Savage
Heart" is sharp and quick-paced, ending with a touch of wry humor.
In comparison, the rest of the work in this volume is verbose,
implausible, or, as in "Target: Vader," simply unremarkable. The story
starts five months after Yavin with the Dark Lord checking in om one of
his Bothan contacts for information on Alliance bases and locations.
Lying in wait is a cabal Falleen assassins; what becomes of them is
hardly a surprise. Hacking and slashing is provided by one of Star Wars
better artists, Brian Ching, whose talents are fairly squandered on a
story by Ron Marz that adds little to the lore of the EU and in which
we learn even less about Vader (except that he cannot be placated with
offers of Naboo slave girls).
Writer Jeremy Barlow takes a stab in "What Sin Loyalty?" at how the
average Imperial deals with the daily drudgery of coercion, murder,
enslavement, and theft. With only a few pages to deal with these
questions, Barlow has to settle for stating things quite simply, that
the universe would be an anarchic free-for-all without the Emperor's
firm and ruthless control. The message is blunted somewhat by having it
delivered by a Stormtrooper, a clone who comes essentially
ideologically hardwired. But the deathbed scene of a (non-clone)
Imperial gives Barlow a chance to show us a repentant officer, one who
until his last moments was unable to express any doubt over the
horrible things he did in the name of the Empire. Regrettably, Barlow's
work is fairly ruined at story's end when the first person narrative
provided by the Stormtrooper continues right up until the moment of his
immolation on the Death Star, leaving us to wonder - how did his
account survive?
Last (and perhaps least) is the three-part "To the Last Man," the
incredulous tale of Lt Janek Sunber. A hick from the galactic sticks,
Sunber is the guy Luke Skywalker might have been if he had made it to
the academy, the Jefferson Smith of Imperial officers, a low-ranking
lieutenant from the James Stewart school of na=EFve optimism whose
Forest Gump-like mantra is "All Duty is Sacrifice." Sunber's not the
kind of guy to worry about imperialism, slavery, or genocide. He's got
a job to do and there's great value in hard work. On assignment to the
Jungle planet Maridun, Sunber chips in to help the troops do field
work, much to the horror and disgust of his socially superior fellow
officers. When the Imperial forces are attacked, Sunber knows best how
to position the troops. When the fighting gets tough, Sunber is the man
with the plan. When the general lies dying, Sunber's the man the
general summons and to whom he hands off command. And in the end,
[SPOILER] Sunber's the man who treats with the aliens to end the war in
a jaw-droppingly hackneyed climax in which the aliens reveal that the
fighting has been arranged to test the worthiness of the Imperial
interlopers. [END SPOILER] The only redeeming thing about "To the Last
Man" is the art, provided here by Davide Fabbri and Christian Dalla
Vecchia, who do a fantastic job bringing to life a new alien species
and in conveying the movement of troops in battle. It's too bad these
two got stuck working on this story, which besides being unrealistic to
the point of absurdity is also - particularly in its final chapter -
overwritten, with too many florid passages telling us what things are
like instead of showing us, slowing down battle scenes that should move
at a quicker pace.
Skip this book. For completists only.
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