Splinter of the Mind's Eye
Encyclopedia
Splinter of the Mind's Eye is a 1978 science fiction
novel written by Alan Dean Foster
. It is a sequel to both Star Wars
and its novelization
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
. The novel was originally published in 1978 by Del Rey
, a division of Ballantine Books
, it was the first original full-length Star Wars novel to be published after the release of the 1977 Star Wars film, retroactively making it one of the earliest Expanded Universe
works.
The principal characters are Luke Skywalker
, Princess Leia, C-3PO
, R2-D2
, and Darth Vader
. The characters of
Han Solo
and Chewbacca
do not appear, and Solo is only referred to by Luke Skywalker as "a pirate and a smuggler" he once knew at the end of the book. The book was originally written to be filmed as a low-budget sequel to Star Wars if the original film was not a success.
. Leia's ship experiences problems; she and Luke are forced to land on Mimban, a foggy, swampy planet. A strange, colorful energy storm caused by energy mining forces their ships down in a crash landing. Luke, after finding Leia, begins walking in search of a beacon that could possibly be a station that would allow them to get off the planet.
Instead, they find a mining town; Leia sees that the Empire
has a secret energy mine here. They enter unnoticed, steal some mining clothes, and enter a bar. An Imperial investigates, and to cover up Luke and Leia's true identities, Luke claims that Leia is his servant girl. An old woman named Halla comes over and quietly talks to Luke and Leia; she identifies Luke as one who is strong with the Force
. The old woman takes out a splinter of a glowing crystal that she identifies as the Kaiburr crystal, which to Luke seems to magnify and focus the Force to a Force-sensitive. She has but a shard of the crystal; she is in search of the whole thing. She strikes a deal with Luke and Leia that if they help Halla find the Kaiburr crystal, Halla will help Luke and Leia get off the planet. They all exit together.
Upon emerging, Leia admonishes Luke for slapping her in the restaurant and calling her his servant girl; Luke falls off the walkway and into the mud. He pulls Leia down with him. They begin playfully fighting as some miners emerge from the building. They claim that fighting in public is against Imperial law here, so they all get into a brawl.
Imperial stormtrooper
s bring everyone, except for Halla, C-3PO, and R2-D2, who all hid in the shadows, to the local jail. They are all questioned by Captain-Supervisor Grammel. The miners who confronted Luke and Leia are taken away while Grammel continues questioning Luke and Leia. Grammel discovers and confiscates the crystal shard, along with Luke's weapons and lightsaber
. Luke and Leia are placed in the maximum security cell with two drunken, but friendly to Luke, Yuzzem named Hin and Kee, while Grammel reports the incident and the crystal shard to the region's governor, Governor Bin Essada.
Halla shows up at the jail cell's window. She uses the Force to lift up the food tray through the jail bars and over to the open/close mechanism so that the jail cell opens. The two Yuzzem go on a rampage killing Imperials while Luke and Leia make their way to the exit. The two Yuzzem catch up with Luke and Leia as they all exit the jail together; the Yuzzem give Luke and Leia their weapons.
The four make their way to a pre-specified meeting point. They find Halla, who steals a vehicle. They all make their way to the place where Halla believes the Kaiburr crystal to be, the Temple of Pomojema. As they are driving through the swamplands, they encounter a large, pale white worm with huge jaws. It begins chasing them; eventually they all must exit the vehicle. Luke and Leia split up with Halla, C-3PO, R2-D2, Hin, and Kee; Halla's group loses the wandrella creature, while Luke and Leia are still being chased.
Luke and Leia find a deep well into which they climb down vines and hide on a ledge. The wandrella finds them but falls down the well in an attempt to get to them. Its massive body takes the climbing vines that acted as ladders with it. Luke and Leia wait for some time until Halla's group finds them. There is no way back up, so Luke and Leia are told by Halla that there should be a passageway back up to the surface in the back of the ledge on which they are sitting. Halla's group leaves to make their way to the ground-level end of the passageway while Luke and Leia journey through it.
Luke and Leia encounter a lake, onto which they must float using a lily pad-like boat. They are attacked by a creature in the black waters of the lake, but Luke drives it away with his father's lightsaber. They reach an abandoned underground city where they are attacked by Coway guards/patrols. All but one Coway are dispatched; the one goes off and tells his Coway tribe about the visitors. Luke and Leia follow the single Coway to the tribe.
There, Luke and Leia see that Halla's group has been tied up by the Coway. To save his friends, Luke fights the Coway's champion fighter; Luke wins. The Coway then become friends. But Luke, in the Force, senses Darth Vader. Coway patrols race over to the tribe and confirm Luke's feeling: Imperials, led by Darth Vader and Captain-Supervisor Grammel, are attacking the underground cave.
The Coway tribe and the protagonists prepare for the attack. The Imperials arrive, but they are surprised by the Coway tribe's powerful response and the Imperials face a debacle. Vader and Grammel retreat with very few surviving stormtroopers. Vader and Grammel leave in search of the Temple of Pomojema while Luke and company steal an Imperial transport left behind. They travel to the temple as well.
Upon arriving at the temple, Luke, Leia, Halla, Hin, and Kee exit to find the Kaiburr crystal and the fact that they have beaten Grammel and Vader to the temple. They encounter yet another creature with large jaws; they try to fight it off with ineffectual blasters. Luke tells Hin and Kee to go get some rifles. Luke manages to cut down one of the pillars holding up the temple, crushing the creature. They all then make their way back to the Kaiburr crystal located in the back of the temple.
The two Yuzzem, Hin and Kee, never return. Luke wonders why, but then is crushed by rubble from the ceiling. Darth Vader then enters the Temple of Pomojema after having turned off the droids and killed Captain-Supervisor Grammel, Kee, and supposedly Hin. Leia takes up Luke's lightsaber and begins fighting Darth Vader, with little success; she is badly injured. Hin, badly injured, shows up and lifts the big rock off of Luke's leg. Luke then fights Vader until the Sith Lord is supposedly about to win, but instead falls into a pit; Luke senses that this did not kill Vader. As the story ends, a healed Leia and Luke drive off with their droids and with Halla into the mists of Mimban, ready to take on further offworld adventure.
Foster's contract also required a second novel, to be used as a basis for a low-budget sequel to Star Wars in case it was not successful. Though Foster was granted a great deal of leeway in developing the story, a key requirement was that many of the props from the previous production could be reused when shooting the new film. Foster's decision to place his story on a misty jungle planet was also intended to reduce set and background costs for a film adaptation. According to Foster, Lucas's only request upon inspecting the manuscript was the removal of a space dogfight
undertaken by Luke and Leia before crash-landing on Mimban, which would have been effects-heavy and expensive to film.
The titular "Mind's Eye" of the story is a MacGuffin
called the Kaiburr crystal. This was based on the "Kiber" crystal, a Force-amplifying talisman that was included in early drafts of the Star Wars story, but later eliminated by Lucas in favor of making the Force a more ethereal power.
By the time the novel was published, Star Wars had broken records in box office receipts, and the film adaptation of Splinter of the Mind's Eye was abandoned in favor of Lucas' vision of a big budget sequel.
The book was later adapted as a graphic novel by Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse
and published by Dark Horse Comics
in 1996. It incorporated characters from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
that did not appear in the original novel.
The Los Angeles Times
listed Splinter of the Mind's Eye as one of the most influential works of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
and the Millennium Falcon
who fired the shots that disrupted the course of Vader's fighter.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel written by Alan Dean Foster
Alan Dean Foster
Alan Dean Foster is an American author of fantasy and science fiction. He currently resides in Prescott, Arizona, with his wife, and is also known for his novelizations of film scripts...
. It is a sequel to both Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
and its novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker is the title of a science fiction novel credited to George Lucas, but actually ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and first published on November 12, 1976 by Ballantine Books....
. The novel was originally published in 1978 by Del Rey
Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...
, a division of Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, it was the first original full-length Star Wars novel to be published after the release of the 1977 Star Wars film, retroactively making it one of the earliest Expanded Universe
Star Wars Expanded Universe
The Star Wars Expanded Universe encompasses all of the officially licensed, fictional background of the Star Wars universe, outside of the six feature films produced by George Lucas. The expanded universe includes books, comic books, video games, spin-off films like Star Wars: The Clone Wars,...
works.
The principal characters are Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
, Princess Leia, C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
, R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
, and Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
. The characters of
Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and Chewbacca
Chewbacca
Chewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
do not appear, and Solo is only referred to by Luke Skywalker as "a pirate and a smuggler" he once knew at the end of the book. The book was originally written to be filmed as a low-budget sequel to Star Wars if the original film was not a success.
Plot
Luke and Leia are traveling to Circarpous IV for an underground meeting in an attempt to take the Circarpousians into the Rebel AllianceRebel Alliance
The Alliance to Restore the Republic is an interstellar faction of the fictional universe of Star Wars....
. Leia's ship experiences problems; she and Luke are forced to land on Mimban, a foggy, swampy planet. A strange, colorful energy storm caused by energy mining forces their ships down in a crash landing. Luke, after finding Leia, begins walking in search of a beacon that could possibly be a station that would allow them to get off the planet.
Instead, they find a mining town; Leia sees that the Empire
Galactic Empire (Star Wars)
The Galactic Empire is one of the main factions in the fictional universe of Star Wars. It is a galaxy-spanning regime established by the series' lead villain, Palpatine, to replace the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Galactic Empire is introduced in Star Wars...
has a secret energy mine here. They enter unnoticed, steal some mining clothes, and enter a bar. An Imperial investigates, and to cover up Luke and Leia's true identities, Luke claims that Leia is his servant girl. An old woman named Halla comes over and quietly talks to Luke and Leia; she identifies Luke as one who is strong with the Force
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
. The old woman takes out a splinter of a glowing crystal that she identifies as the Kaiburr crystal, which to Luke seems to magnify and focus the Force to a Force-sensitive. She has but a shard of the crystal; she is in search of the whole thing. She strikes a deal with Luke and Leia that if they help Halla find the Kaiburr crystal, Halla will help Luke and Leia get off the planet. They all exit together.
Upon emerging, Leia admonishes Luke for slapping her in the restaurant and calling her his servant girl; Luke falls off the walkway and into the mud. He pulls Leia down with him. They begin playfully fighting as some miners emerge from the building. They claim that fighting in public is against Imperial law here, so they all get into a brawl.
Imperial stormtrooper
Imperial stormtrooper
The Imperial Stormtroopers are fictional soldiers from George Lucas' Star Wars universe. Stormtroopers are the soldiers of the imperial army under the leadership of the evil Sith Lord and Emperor Palpatine and his commanders, most notably Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin.They are shown in...
s bring everyone, except for Halla, C-3PO, and R2-D2, who all hid in the shadows, to the local jail. They are all questioned by Captain-Supervisor Grammel. The miners who confronted Luke and Leia are taken away while Grammel continues questioning Luke and Leia. Grammel discovers and confiscates the crystal shard, along with Luke's weapons and lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
. Luke and Leia are placed in the maximum security cell with two drunken, but friendly to Luke, Yuzzem named Hin and Kee, while Grammel reports the incident and the crystal shard to the region's governor, Governor Bin Essada.
Halla shows up at the jail cell's window. She uses the Force to lift up the food tray through the jail bars and over to the open/close mechanism so that the jail cell opens. The two Yuzzem go on a rampage killing Imperials while Luke and Leia make their way to the exit. The two Yuzzem catch up with Luke and Leia as they all exit the jail together; the Yuzzem give Luke and Leia their weapons.
The four make their way to a pre-specified meeting point. They find Halla, who steals a vehicle. They all make their way to the place where Halla believes the Kaiburr crystal to be, the Temple of Pomojema. As they are driving through the swamplands, they encounter a large, pale white worm with huge jaws. It begins chasing them; eventually they all must exit the vehicle. Luke and Leia split up with Halla, C-3PO, R2-D2, Hin, and Kee; Halla's group loses the wandrella creature, while Luke and Leia are still being chased.
Luke and Leia find a deep well into which they climb down vines and hide on a ledge. The wandrella finds them but falls down the well in an attempt to get to them. Its massive body takes the climbing vines that acted as ladders with it. Luke and Leia wait for some time until Halla's group finds them. There is no way back up, so Luke and Leia are told by Halla that there should be a passageway back up to the surface in the back of the ledge on which they are sitting. Halla's group leaves to make their way to the ground-level end of the passageway while Luke and Leia journey through it.
Luke and Leia encounter a lake, onto which they must float using a lily pad-like boat. They are attacked by a creature in the black waters of the lake, but Luke drives it away with his father's lightsaber. They reach an abandoned underground city where they are attacked by Coway guards/patrols. All but one Coway are dispatched; the one goes off and tells his Coway tribe about the visitors. Luke and Leia follow the single Coway to the tribe.
There, Luke and Leia see that Halla's group has been tied up by the Coway. To save his friends, Luke fights the Coway's champion fighter; Luke wins. The Coway then become friends. But Luke, in the Force, senses Darth Vader. Coway patrols race over to the tribe and confirm Luke's feeling: Imperials, led by Darth Vader and Captain-Supervisor Grammel, are attacking the underground cave.
The Coway tribe and the protagonists prepare for the attack. The Imperials arrive, but they are surprised by the Coway tribe's powerful response and the Imperials face a debacle. Vader and Grammel retreat with very few surviving stormtroopers. Vader and Grammel leave in search of the Temple of Pomojema while Luke and company steal an Imperial transport left behind. They travel to the temple as well.
Upon arriving at the temple, Luke, Leia, Halla, Hin, and Kee exit to find the Kaiburr crystal and the fact that they have beaten Grammel and Vader to the temple. They encounter yet another creature with large jaws; they try to fight it off with ineffectual blasters. Luke tells Hin and Kee to go get some rifles. Luke manages to cut down one of the pillars holding up the temple, crushing the creature. They all then make their way back to the Kaiburr crystal located in the back of the temple.
The two Yuzzem, Hin and Kee, never return. Luke wonders why, but then is crushed by rubble from the ceiling. Darth Vader then enters the Temple of Pomojema after having turned off the droids and killed Captain-Supervisor Grammel, Kee, and supposedly Hin. Leia takes up Luke's lightsaber and begins fighting Darth Vader, with little success; she is badly injured. Hin, badly injured, shows up and lifts the big rock off of Luke's leg. Luke then fights Vader until the Sith Lord is supposedly about to win, but instead falls into a pit; Luke senses that this did not kill Vader. As the story ends, a healed Leia and Luke drive off with their droids and with Halla into the mists of Mimban, ready to take on further offworld adventure.
History
In 1976, Alan Dean Foster was contracted to ghostwrite a novelization for Star Wars. Foster was given extensive access to the shooting and draft scripts, as well as early story treatments, for use as source material in fleshing out the novel. Elements of this are visible in the resulting novel, such as the prologue, which borrows the Journal of the Whills title from Lucas' original synopsis.Foster's contract also required a second novel, to be used as a basis for a low-budget sequel to Star Wars in case it was not successful. Though Foster was granted a great deal of leeway in developing the story, a key requirement was that many of the props from the previous production could be reused when shooting the new film. Foster's decision to place his story on a misty jungle planet was also intended to reduce set and background costs for a film adaptation. According to Foster, Lucas's only request upon inspecting the manuscript was the removal of a space dogfight
Dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft; in particular, combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane...
undertaken by Luke and Leia before crash-landing on Mimban, which would have been effects-heavy and expensive to film.
The titular "Mind's Eye" of the story is a MacGuffin
MacGuffin
A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...
called the Kaiburr crystal. This was based on the "Kiber" crystal, a Force-amplifying talisman that was included in early drafts of the Star Wars story, but later eliminated by Lucas in favor of making the Force a more ethereal power.
By the time the novel was published, Star Wars had broken records in box office receipts, and the film adaptation of Splinter of the Mind's Eye was abandoned in favor of Lucas' vision of a big budget sequel.
The book was later adapted as a graphic novel by Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse
Chris Sprouse
Chris Sprouse is an American comic book artist.-Biography:Chris Sprouse was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the age of 3 he moved with his family to New Delhi, India where he first discovered comics as he was unable to play outside due to the dangerous amount of snakes in the house yard...
and published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
in 1996. It incorporated characters from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan...
that did not appear in the original novel.
The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
listed Splinter of the Mind's Eye as one of the most influential works of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Inconsistencies
During the lightsaber fight between Luke and Darth Vader, Vader states that he knows Luke is the pilot that shot him out of the way during the Death Star trench run, when it was Han SoloHan Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and the Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
who fired the shots that disrupted the course of Vader's fighter.
ISBN Information
- Splinter of the Mind's Eye, First Ed, Paperback, 1978. Alan Dean Foster, ISBN 0-345-32023-9
- Splinter of the Mind's Eye, First Ed, Hardback, 1978. Alan Dean Foster, ISBN 0-345-27566-7
- Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Book Club Ed, Hardback, 1978. Alan Dean Foster, Book Club # 2597