I thought this book was not terrible. I was pretty worried after reading children of the Jedi, which is one of the worst books I’ve read period. I thought this one was an improvement as it was actually comprehensible. The humor worked a lot better in this one I thought. Also, I do give Hambly credit for exploring leias character and why she doesn’t want to be a force user in a meaningful way that goes beyond “she doesn’t want to” or “she’s too busy”. The story itself, however, wasn’t really one

Of all the Star Wars novels I've read, this is the worst. I've read a few Goodreads reviews which assert that it is better than Children of the Jedi, if only marginally. I'm inclined to disagree. I didn't like Children of the Jedi either, but I believe that it had an imaginative quality which is strongly lacking in this book. The old characters don't really do anything of note (Luke has the worst scenes), and the newly introduced ones are immediately forgettable. There's one exception to this la...

Wow...literally awful. I defended Children of the Jedi, but this cannot be defended. It makes me even more mad, because it had good ideas, but ruined them all anyway. This book has one objectively good aspect - it makes the prequels look all right!

Terrible book and if I remember right, really conflicts with the prequels. She should have never been allowed to write in the Star Wars world. Her characters were not even close to relatable to how they behaved in the movies or other "expanded" universe books.Skip this one.

I was dismayed, but not that shocked, to see the overwhelming number of negative reviews of Barbara Hambly’s novel “Children of the Jedi” on Goodreads. A quick perusal of fan reviews gives one the clear notion that Hambly is NOT well-liked by Star Wars Expanded Universe (SWEU) fans. Indeed, she seems to be much-hated.At first, I wasn’t sure that I understood why. I am, perhaps, alone in thinking that Hambly is more than a competent writer. In fact, I think she seems capable of very beautiful wri...

I found the first quarter of this novel to be a confusing mess. The story takes place mainly on a planet with natives, old-timers and new-timers. And Therans? Which is which? Who controls who? It was a mess that I eventually just ignored and instead just focused on the main characters Luke, Leia, Han and the droids - each of whom were divided into their own little quests (or problems) separate from each other.It was a unique plot in the SWU, featuring tiny bugs called 'drochs' that absorbed harm...

After having read all SW in chronological order up until this point, I can say without a doubt, that this is hands down the worst SW I've read (even more than Children of the Jedi). I'm absolutely despise Barbara Hambly as an author and the way she writes. Thank the heavens this is the second and last book she wrote in the SW saga. I would have fired her and never let this garbage of a book hit the shelves. Am I being hard on Mrs Hambly, perhaps. But she has no business writing for SW, I feel sh...

The plot was actually fairly interesting, but unfortunately I could not enjoy it because Hambly has continued her nearly unreadable writing style from Children of the Jedi. Every part of the book has way too much description in between the actual plot advancement. It feels like work just to read through it. Also, once again the narrative felt unorganized, and it was difficult to follow the many (mostly inconsequential) plotlines floating around. As I said, the plot itself was surprisingly enjoya...

Definitely not Star Wars as I've come to expect it. Fans of the Expanded Universe can do much better.

"Planet of Twilight" begins with Leia on a covert diplomatic mission to meet with representatives from Nam Chorios, a backwater planet that was once used as a penal colony. But the interplanetary rendezvous ends in disaster, with Leia kidnapped by the dangerous Seti Ashgad, a one-time Imperial outcast. Most of the crew of her small fleet are dead and the ships are scattered; Threepio and Artoo are caught on one of the ships with no way to readily get back to Coruscant and warn the New Republic a...

"Cruel in places" - Better lines never described such a bookSeti Ashgad of Nom Chorios has set up a meeting with Chief of State Leia Organa to try to convince her to throw Republic support to open trade on his planet. Trade that the native Therans have opposed with weapons. But things go amiss with Leia is kidnapped. Meanwhile, a message from Callista warning of dire events on Nom Chorios sends Luke Skywalker in pursuit his lost love.NOTE: I read this book years ago and listened to the audio ve

I'm not a fan of Barbara Hambly's Star Wars book. This one read better than Children of the Jedi, but not by much. It is another novel involving Callista. Hopefully I won't have to read about her much after this...I am definitely not a fan of that storyline.There is another Leia kidnapping, the 2nd in the last 3 books. It's a tad ridiculous at how easily the head of the New Republic can be kidnapped. She's a Jedi, has a Jedi Master for a brother, is guarded by the Noghri and a huge Wookie, not t...

I see there are quite a few negative reviews/ratings of this book, and I get it. It's not the typical Star Wars novel, in that it's focused more on character than action, and the writing here is more descriptive and atmospheric than one would usually find in the EU. I'd even go so far to say that Hambly is too good a writer for the EU; where most of the stories have a sense of fun and excitement, Hambly's are darker, more introspective, and stand out as the anomaly.(Speaking of darker, there's s...

Basically the same formula, but this time it worked. The success of Star Wars novels aren't based on believability or innovation, but whether--amid the familiar space opera setting and characters--the author engages the reader in that willing suspension of disbelief upon which the success of all fiction hinges. In Planet of Twilight, Hambly did it.

This story was the worst, it was hard to tell what was going on in the beginning not because the story was complicated but because the writing was terrible. And then when it became a little more clear what was going on I couldn't care less about the events. Just a terrible book.

For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.This week’s focus: the last book in the informal Callista trilogy, Planet of Twilight by Barbara Hambly.SOME HISTORY:By 1997, Barbara Hambly had written the first two vampiric mysteries in her James Asher series: Those Who Hunt the Night in 1988, and Traveling with the Dead in 1995. Perha...

This book is just as bad as children of the jedi and she's by far the worse Author I've read out of all the Star Wars novels. It'svery hard to follow her book that I didn't even finish reading this one.

The main issue with Planet of Twilight is the same as with Hambly's previous Star Wars book, and also Greg Bear's Rogue Planet - it simply does not feel like Star Wars.For better or worse, Star Wars knows what it is - escapist action / adventure. It may be in a science fiction setting, but Star Wars most certainly isn't high fantasy or hard sci-fi like Lord of the Rings or Dune. Yet that is the tone Hambly attempts to frame her story in here.The writing style is quite demanding of the reader, an...

I feel bad for piling on to Barbara Hambly, because I feel like so many of the reviews on this website are critical of her, but I have to be honest: Planet of Twilight was a bit of a slog to get through. Much like her previous book, Children of the Jedi (an extremely flawed book, but one that I actually preferred to this one, unlike the majority opinion), there are a lot of good ideas in this novel, but they are undermined by pointless side plots and an unorganized narrative that made it very di...

This was an overall interesting and well-paced book. Hambly is consistently creating openings for new predictions that make the reader want to continue reading. The story begins with two starships losing communication with each other, but only one of the pilots knows why. There is what seems to be a disease that has spread across one of the ships, but it is also infecting species that should be immune to human illnesses. Throughout the entire novel, there is a maintained sense of mysteriousness