Princess Leia and young Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker travel to Circarpous IV to enlist the Circarpousian people into the Alliance. When they crash land, they learn about a powerful relic – one Darth Vader is also interested in! Join the Legendary Adventure as we read Splinter of the Mind’s Eye!
“The universe is full of dead people who lived by assumption.”- Halla
The Alliance to Restore the Republic has been on a sort of upswing lately. After the dissolution of the Imperial Senate, a young pilot named Luke Skywalker destroyed the Empire’s greatest weapon, the Death Star. Since then, many planets and systems have started to ally themselves with the Alliance, turning against the Empire. Imperial efforts to dislodge traitors, led by Darth Vader and Emperor’s Hand Mara Jade, have been mostly unsuccessful in holding back the tide that turns toward the Rebellion. With this momentum, Princess Leia Organa leads more and more efforts to bring new allies into the Alliance. Her latest missions brings her to Circarpous IV, a planet already filled with an underground rebel effort against the Empire.
Unfortunately, on the way to Circarpous IV, Luke’s X-wing and Leia’s Y-wing fighters were brought down by a mysterious energy storm. Instead of landing on Circarpous IV, they crash land on Circarpous V, also known as Mimbam. When they reunite after the crash, the pair (and their droids, C-3PO and R2-D2) find a mining colony, digging into a mysterious tunnel that is brimming with energy. Disguising themselves as miners, Luke and Leia encounter a woman named Halla, who identifies Luke as uniquely strong in the Force. Halla shows them a fragment of a crystal called the Kaiburr crystal, which immediately strengthens Luke’s connection with the Force. She notes that the whole crystal is somewhere on the planet, and asks the pair to help her find them.
Luke has, as of late, been neglecting some of his Jedi training. While he fights with a lightsaber, it is not necessarily his weapon of choice: he is quicker to draw his blaster than he is to reach for his lightsaber. He is quicker to trust in his piloting abilities than his access to the Force. The Kaiburr crystal would be the perfect way to circumvent Jedi training and supercharge his connection with the Force, he thinks. Unfortunately, more sinister forces know about the crystal as well and Darth Vader leads the hunt to find it for himself. This is not the first time that he would try to supercharge his own connection to the Force, after trying to use bota, a hotly contested plant during the Clone Wars, to boost his connection and make him far more powerful than he could ever be on his own.
As they leave the bar, Luke and Leia get into a playful tussle in the mud, which brings Imperial wrath upon them. The Imperials, most notably Captain-Supervisor Grammel and Governor Essada, question the pair, and confiscate their weapons, and the fragment of the Kaiburr crystal. They are jailed with two Yuzzem prisoners, who aid in their escape after Halla uses the Force to manipulate the jail cell.
Having been broken out of the Imperial holding facility, Luke, Leia, Halla, and the droids travel by speeder to the Temple of Pomojema, where Halla believes that the entire Kaiburr crystal is being held. Along the way, they are separated and attacked by a few large beasts, but they eventually find a settlement, where they sense Darth Vader’s presence, as Imperial forces chase the pair down. At the temple, their showdown awaits…
Luke and Leia are attacked again by a beast in the temple, which injures Luke and incapacitates Leia. Unfortunately, the timing could not be any worse: Darth Vader has arrived. Vader has killed his Imperial escort on Mimbam, along with one of the Yuzzum, and he has one goal in mind: the Kaiburr crystal. Leia uses Luke’s lightsaber to combat the Dark Lord, holding her own for a little while. She is soon bested, and Luke takes up the saber, and powered by the spirit of Ben Kenobi, duels Vader as well. Luke’s abilities are boosted by the help of Ben Kenobi, now more powerful after his death on the Death Star, and the nearby Kaiburr crystal. Luke is able to cut off Vader’s arm, leaving the Dark Lord vulnerable, so much so that Luke is able to knock him down a pit.
Unfortunately, the power of the Kaiburr crystal drains the further it is taken from the temple. Luke and Leia are healed by the crystal, but find that they are unable to use its power for anything else after they and Halla take it from the temple. Decades later, a shard of the crystal will become significant again, as Darth Vader saves it for a future apprentice…
Legendary Travel Tips:
-This novel is followed by Razor’s Edge, the lead-up to the Alliance’s disastrous Battle of Hoth.
-This novel is the first novel in the Expanded Universe. It was designed to be a sequel to the first film had it not done very well. This explains the lack of Han Solo, the single planet setting, and all of the fog. (Not to mention the hot and heavy tension between Luke and Leia!)
-While reading the novel, I was curious when it was developed, as it already features a few inconsistencies with the films. The novel describes Vader’s lightsaber as blue, while also saying it was Luke who shot Vader during the trench run. Maybe it was written while the movie was written, leaving it with a few mistakes?
-Mimbam would, ironically, make its debut in Solo: A Star Wars Story. This novel is also referenced very cleverly in The Rise of Kylo Ren #4.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!
Galactic Civil War Era: A New Hope | Scoundrels | Allegiance | Choices of One | Ruins of Dantooine | Honor Among Thieves