THE REVIEW
I have to say this book was not what I expected.                                            

When I heard months ago that a definitive version of the construction of the massive weapon, I was excited. There have been so many versions of the birth of the battle station, that it hard to define what is real and what is fabricated. I was eager to read a canon version that might tell what happened to the plans after Count Dooku took possession of them. I wanted to read about the inner workings, how it was constructed, about the people behind the plans. To an extent, I did get that, but about 19 years later.

This book has a lot of characters...almost too many to remember and only a handful who actually made the screen. A few I had heard of through other books, such as Dr. Uli Divini from the MedStar novels, but overall so many major characters was confusing as to who was hooking up with whom, and how certain characters knew each other from former lives. I find it interesting, on a battle station the size of the Death Star, how two former acquaintances just happen to be on the same block and frequent the same cantina - especially when one of them is pretty much free to come and go around the station as he pleases.

One of the bright points of this novel, though, is the actual depiction of the "romance" between Admiral Daala and Grand Moff Tarkin. This is one of the subplots that abound in this book and unfortunately go absolutely nowhere. In this book, Daala is supposed to have sustained a major brain injury during a visit. This brain injury is ever depicted in any of her other appearances in the Expanded Universe and makes me wonder if this may change canon once again (if the EU novels can be considered canon) or if it might pop up in newer novels. Another plot that goes nowhere is the alleged work of Rebel saboteurs. Nothing ever comes of this idea and makes the reader wonder why it was ever included in the first place.

Overall, the book is entertaining, but not something I would consider as "definitive". If you like the Tales from... books also written by Reaves and Perry, you will like this. In fact this book would have been better as a series of short vignettes rather than a novel.