Ryder Windham is an American sci-fi author who has written over sixty Star Wars books, including novels, comics, reference books, and so on. He has also written junior novelizations for Indiana Jones movies. Since 1993, he has been working on Star Wars projects either by himself or with other authors. His reference book Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide had been on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks in 2005. Although he has written lots of books, accepted interviews, and appeared at several fan-conventions, little is known about his personal life.
Book 4. The Star Destroyer Liquidator has arrived in the Yavin system and threatens to destroy the Rebel base on Yavin 4. Recently returned from foiling the Imperial plot on Delrakkin, the heroes of the Rebellion have to find a way of preventing the Star Destroyer from reaching Yavin 4.
I quite like the set-up of this book, with the ticking clock of the Imperial Star Destroyer already being in the Yavin system and hunting for the Rebel base. It adds a looming sense of threat to the plot that reminds us that, even with the victory over the Death Star, the Rebellion is still very vulnerable.
Unfortunately, once again, the gamebook format of this book and the 2nd-person narrative of much of it works against the book as a whole. To be fair, I knew that going into the book at this point, so probably only have myself to blame for not enjoying it, but I still felt myself wishing that this had simply been a properly written prose narrative for younger readers.
This book made no sense to me really. It’s hard to follow and for someone who has read this as a first introduction to Star Wars I was really disappointed.
This one was a tad too ridiculous at times and Windham's stilted prose is wearing on me (I feel like I'm being spoken down to, though that might be because I'm much older than the target audience).
From the back of the book - The Imperial Star Destroyer Liquidator is quickly approaching the Rebel base on Yavin Four. It is part of an Imperial plan to control hyperspace - and crush the Rebellion. To prevent the Empire from carrying out this evil deed, the Rebels must locate the Imperial forces without being discovered. Your mission: to stop the Liquidator ... and get out of Yavin Four alive! May the Force be with you. This is a fun kids roleplay book that helps children work on their math and reading skills at the same time while being so entertained with Star Wars that they don't realize they are learning :p Won't really work unless you have the game cards as well, but if you have the cards it is a fun little book. Not much here for the adult reader, but a great little book for kids.
Not the most interesting of plot lines, though written well enough. It is a good setup for the next book (the next one in chronological order) however.