'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' by Alan Dean Foster: Book review

Cover of the Dark Horse Comics adaptation.

Genesis of a Star Wars tale

A long time ago in an office in Northern California, George Lucas made a contingency plan for a low-budget sequel to “Star Wars” in case his space-fantasy film didn’t do well at the box office. The young writer-director wanted to make a trilogy centered around Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, and Darth Vader, but 20^th Century Fox’s skepticism about the first installment and his own low expectations for the success of “Star Wars” led Lucas to conceive a cheap follow-up with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Dave Prowse, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker. (Harrison Ford had not yet signed on for a sequel, so Han Solo was not included in the proposed low-budget project.)

Lucas wrote a quick-and-dirty story treatment for a film which would take place mostly on a fog-shrouded bog planet and didn’t feature dazzling special effects. He also resurrected some discarded story concepts from the second draft of “Star Wars” (a.k.a. “Episode IV: A New Hope”), including a Force-enhancing jewel called the Kyber Crystal.

Luckily, “Star Wars” was a success and became one of the highest grossing films in Hollywood history, and Lucas went on to make “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” with his share of the box office profits.

But before Lucas began working on the story for “Empire,” he handed the story treatment for the low-budget “Star Wars” sequel to Alan Dean Foster, the writer who had ghost-written the novelization of “Star Wars” in 1976. Foster was already known in the science fiction literary community as the author of the “Star Trek Logs” series of novels and had proven that he could work well with “Star Wars” material.

The result was 1978’s “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker,” the first of many novels set in the “Star Wars” Expanded Universe.

The quest for the Kaiburr Crystal

“Stranded on a jungle planet, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia found themselves racing Imperial Stormtroopers to claim a gem that had mysterious powers over the Force.” – Publisher’s blurb, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.

It is a short time after the Battle of Yavin. The Death Star has been destroyed, and even though the Empire still rules much of the galaxy with an iron fist, more systems are joining the Rebel Alliance to challenge Emperor Palpatine’s tyrannical regime.

Having lost his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi to Darth Vader’s lightsaber aboard the now-defunct battle station, Luke Skywalker is now an X-wing pilot. After the Battle of Yavin, the Rebel high command offered the former moisture farmer various rewards, including positions of high authority, but Luke turned them down in order to fly his Starfighter in service with the Alliance.

So when Princess Leia sets out to the Circarpous system on a secret diplomatic mission to sway the local resistance groups there to join the Rebellion, Luke volunteers to fly escort.  But Leia’s Y-wing fighter malfunctions above a planet called Mimban and must crash-land on the swamplands there. Duty-bound to protect the Princess, Luke follows Leia – only to make a forced landing that wrecks his X-wing beyond repair.

At first, the young Rebels believe that Mimban is home to an out-of-the-way mining colony, but to their horror they discover it is controlled by the Empire. Worse still – not only are the miners hired by Imperial authorities, but a garrison of Imperial Stormtroopers is based on Mimban.

Luke and Leia have to find a way off-planet and get to the meeting with the Circarpous resistance. 

Accompanied by their faithful droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, they enlist the help of a local named Halla.

An elderly woman with a dry sense of humor, Halla is popular with the locals who inhabit the mining town. She reveals to Luke and Leia that she’s a Force sensitive. More specifically, she claims to be a master in using that mystical energy created by all living things.  And though Leia is skeptical, Luke – who still wants to become a Jedi – believes Halla’s claim.

Halla agrees to help Luke and Leia escape from Mimban, but first they must help her find the legendary Kaiburr Crystal, a gem rumored to have powers over the Force.  Halla has spent years searching for the crystal, and now she thinks she knows where it is. All she needs is help from another Force user – Luke Skywalker.

But the Empire’s sinister agents discover that Luke and Leia are on Mimban, and before long, the two find themselves pursued not only by Captain-Supervisor Grammel, but by the Emperor’s most-feared servant: Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.

Pick…or pass?

When Foster wrote this novel in the wake of “Star Wars: A New Hope’s” unprecedented success at the box office, George Lucas had not revealed the connection between Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia was, or, for that matter, that Darth Vader was their estranged father. He had not even begun work on the story for “The Empire Strikes Back.”  Thus, when Del Rey, the science fiction division of Ballantine Books, published “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” in 1978, many fans thought that its story was the plot for the next “Star Wars” movie.

Luckily, this was not the case. Though Lucasfilm hired Foster to write the novel and even had control over its content (at one point, Lucas asked the author to delete a space dogfight sequence just in case the low-budget movie version had to be filmed), “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” became a separate project apart from “The Empire Strikes Back.” And considering that the novel is set mostly on one planet and doesn’t include Han Solo and Chewbacca, perhaps this was a blessing in disguise.

That’s not to say that “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” is not a good “Star Wars” story. Foster, after all, wrote the best-selling novelization of Lucas’s script for “Star Wars: A New Hope” and knew the main characters well. As a result, readers can hear the voices of Mark Hamill (Luke), Carrie Fisher (Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), and James Earl Jones (Darth Vader) while they read this non-canonical story set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”

And even though there are no spectacular space battles in “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye,” Foster includes many of the elements present in the “Star Wars” films, including cliffhanger situations, exotic aliens and dangerous creatures, life-or-death encounters with Imperial Stormtroopers, and even a fierce lightsaber duel.

Because Lucas did not share his ultimate game plan for the Classic Trilogy with Foster, “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” contains some off-notes. There is some sexual tension between Luke and Leia, especially in the early chapters. Though this tension is present in “A New Hope” and even “The Empire Strikes Back,” it is jarring (and perhaps a bit discomfiting) to readers who know what happens in both the Prequel and Classic “Star Wars” trilogies.

Nevertheless, “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” is still worth reading. Despite its limited scope and claustrophobic setting, Foster’s book is fast paced and entertaining. It even still fits well with most of the established canon from the films, including the Prequels. In fact, its success allowed Foster to return to the “Star Wars” literary universe with “The Approaching Storm” and the novelization of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”