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Review by Ewan, Star Wars Books, 2009:
"Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor was a disappointing read when compared to Stover's two previous original stories (Traitor and Shatterpoint), as it lacks the passion, power and edge that is Stover's storytelling signature. Instead what we have here is a somewhat stale, purposeless and rather bland story. The thought-provoking dichotomy that is so apparent in Traitor and Shatterpoint just isn't here.
"However, Stover has created some great fantastical elements that were so prevalent in earlier Star Wars comic and book stories, those of the late Seventies to mid-Eighties from Marvel and Del Rey. However, since the story's antagonist is a character created during the height of the Seventies comic story popularity, originally created by no less than Russ Manning, it is difficult to credit Stover with all of the fantasy elements. But his creation of the meltmassif and its native inhabitants invoke memories of the many fantastical creatures created by the late Brian Daley and the space phenomenon envisaged by L. Neil Smith.
"However Stover's overuse of characters, especially the major ones from the films, is incongruous considering that this story is titled Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, it felt more like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, R2-D2, C-3PO and the Shadows of Mindor. While Stover has previously shown how stories featuring two or three principal characters can be developed, this story lacked that sense of character journey as it suffers from just too many big name characters. It does little to develop Han and Leia's relationship beyond the "I love you", "I know" of Empire. While Stover's previous two original stories had on occasions produced a good punch to gut as the reader followed the Jedi Knights' Jacen Solo and Mace Windu's journeys through their understandings and discoveries of the Force, there is no such journey for Luke in this story. For Luke there is no indecision, no questioning of his abilities within the Force and of his rather fixed understanding of it. His knowledge, limited to the teachings and interpretations of Obi-Wan and Yoda, is apparently enough to overcome his adversary's use of "The Dark".
"Instead Stover concentrates on trying to introduce the characters he created in one of his previous novels into this time period of the Star Wars galaxy, and it is in this character regurgitation that this story falls down. These characters originally appeared in Stover's second Star Wars story, Shatterpoint, where they fulfilled important roles in the story, but in Shadows of Mindor they are out of place in a Star Wars galaxy that has moved on by more than two-and-a-half decades since their appearance in Shatterpoint. Nick Rostu's role is to supply non-stop exposition, continually reminding us how good the Jedi are and that you shouldn't argue with a Jedi, rather than to help make the story move forward; while Kar Vastor, as the henchman, makes it look like Stover could not imagine a new character. Even Vastor's surprise appearance was not much of a surprise, especially if you are familiar with Shatterpoint.
"Ultimately Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor is a throw-away story that fills a gap in the Star Wars timeline, but offers no new insights into the development of the galaxy's greatest hero, the same hero of this book's title. Instead we are left with a story that attempts to re-introduce Stover's own character creations into a time period where they previously didn't exist."
Rating: 2 / 5

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