Buy this Star Wars Book in paper or elec­tronic copy* Andrew: Orig­i­nally pub­lished at: http://www.rancorslovetoread.com/2009/08/andrew.html 1/5 Rancors – Vonda McIntyre has garnered many accolades over the course of her writing career, including the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards. As such, I can only assume that Ms. McIntyre may have deliberately chosen to write The Crystal Star using simple language and short paragraphs, perhaps targeting a perceived audience of younger children. This book talks down to its reader, most painfully in the very long chapters dealing with the adventures of the Solo children. Names are continuously restated in place of pronouns, as if the reader might not have the attention span to remember which characters are present in a scene. Granted, the storyline does ultimately center around child characters to a large extent, but it feels underserved by being presented as if seen through the eyes of a child. The events of The Crystal Star revolve around an intriguing area of space in which a white dwarf star is orbiting a black hole and slowly being drawn in by the immense spatial forces at work. Parked near this black hole is Crseih Station, an unpleasant radiation-baked locale used by both the Empire and smuggling groups throughout the decades. Luke Skywalker…

Norman Mailer (31 January, 1923 – 10 November, 2007), one of the greatest American writers hailed from a middle class Jewish family to become one of the most provocative writers of the 1950s. Mailer wrote more than 50 books during his life and won the Pulitzer Prize Twice. Books by Norman Mailer Norman Mailer was born in Long Branch, NJ – however he grew up in Brooklyn, New York. As a 9 year old boy, Mailer wrote a 250 page science fiction story called Invasion from Mars. At age 16 Norman Mailer was admitted to Harvard. At Harvard Mailer majored in Aeronautical Engineering. However he won a writing contest sponsored by Story magazine and already has made up his mind to become a professional writer. When Mailer graduated college, the world was in the turmoil of World War II. Mailer joined the Army and served as a sergeant in the Pacific. After the war, Mailer did his graduate studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. During his time at the Sorbonne he wrote The Naked and the Dead which took him 15 months to write. Published in 1948 The Naked and the Dead became Norman Mailer’s success and…