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The Crystal
"The Crystal" was a Star Wars short story in the New Republic era. It was written by Elaine Cunningham and published in Star Wars Gamer 5 in 2001 and later in Hyperspace.
Jaina Solo, her brothers and friends graduate from the Jedi Praxeum. Han Solo gives his daughter a heavily modified Z-95 Headhunter as a present and she decides to fly it to Mon Calamari where they are having a vacation.
Jaina Solo, her brothers and friends graduate from the Jedi Praxeum. Han Solo gives his daughter a heavily modified Z-95 Headhunter as a present and she decides to fly it to Mon Calamari where they are having a vacation.
- GenresStar Wars
ebook
First published July 1, 2001
18 people want to read
About the author
Elaine Cunningham
153 books532 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Elaine Cunningham is an American fantasy author.
Elaine Cunningham is an American fantasy author.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 15, 2021
3.5 stars
For 2021, I decided to reread Del Rey’s first attempt at a multi-author book series in the Star Wars universe: The New Jedi Order, which was published between 1999 and 2003. This shakes out to 19 novels, three eBook novellas, five short stories, some comics, and a tangentially-related prequel era novel.
This week’s focus: another short story by Elaine Cunningham, this one featuring Jaina Solo before Vector Prime: “The Crystal.”
SOME HISTORY:
When Jaina and Jacen Solo first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s The Last Command, they were newborns—blank slates personality-wise. But by the time of Vonda N. McIntyre’s The Crystal Star, Jaina emerged as the rebellious, mechanically-minded twin while Jacen was sensitive and attuned to animals. This characterization continued through to Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta’s Young Jedi Knights books, and Jaina’s technical abilities was one of her character aspects that Elaine Cunningham was most interested in developing. Jaina is a lot closer to her father than her mother; she has no interest in the political or diplomatic sphere, and is most at home tinkering with things and flying ships. “Han giving Jaina her first ship” was a common trope in Star Wars fanfiction, so it’s fun to see its actual canon depiction. “The Crystal” was published in issue 5 of Star Wars Gamer in August 2001.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE STORY:
I never read this story before, but I was interested in checking it out when I learned that it contains the first appearance of Mara’s illness.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
After Jaina Solo, her brothers, and her friends graduate from the Jedi Academy, Han Solo gives his daughter a Z-95 Headhunter as a present. Jaina decides to fly it alone to the family’s vacation on Mon Calamari, but her ship’s maiden voyage is not an easy one.
TIMELINE DISCLAIMER:
The Essential Reader's Companion places this story after Crisis at Crystal Reef in 24 ABY, so less than a year before Vector Prime and the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Crisis at Crystal Reef ends and “The Crystal” begins with Jaina’s graduation from the Jedi Praxeum, but that doesn’t mean that she’s a fully-fledged Jedi Knight—rather, that she wants to continue her Jedi training by apprenticing herself to her aunt. The only weird bit with this timeline placement (and this isn’t The Essential Reader’s Companion’s fault) is that Jaina vacationed on Mon Calamari in the previous book, and now her family is vacationing there again. Maybe they really like visiting Admiral Ackbar.
THE GOOD:
I liked how “The Crystal” gave us a glimpse into sixteen-year-old Jaina’s passions and interests, but most importantly how it set up her relationship with Mara Jade as master and apprentice. In Vector Prime, we learn that Luke is teaching Jacen and Anakin while Mara is teaching Jaina, but they don’t get many opportunities to teach their niece and nephews. As the invasion progresses, Jaina joins Rogue Squadron and Mara’s illness gets worse, so Jaina ends up spending more time with Kyp Durron and other Jedi than with her aunt. But I think “The Crystal” shows us why Jaina wanted to be mentored by her aunt in the first place: Jaina respects Mara and looks up to her, but Mara’s interests also align with Jaina’s. They both love flying!
I also like that Han didn’t give Jaina a top-of-the-line new ship—which would be much more of a Lando move than Han anyway—because Han loves old stuff that he’s tinkered with personally. I think it was very fitting that he gave Jaina an old yet workable Z-95 Headhunter, because it plays into how Jaina is able to succeed in Rogue Squadron and Twin Suns Squadron. She may not have had an X-Wing before joining Rogue Squadron in Dark Tide I: Onslaught, but a Headhunter is the next best thing. (I mean, look at it!)
But this story also contains the first canon appearance of Mara’s illness, something which I felt like I was missing from Vector Prime. She’s visibly ill, but she doesn’t want to talk about it or let it affect her life. Mara’s still going to mentor her niece and pass on the things she’s learned, and she’s not going to let any physical ailment get in her way. Mara’s illness was also a chance for us to see the considerate side of Jaina. There were times in the NJO where Jaina came across as overly rash or rude, so I appreciated that she was willing to nix the idea of apprenticeship because of Mara’s health—and that it was Mara herself who brought it back up.
Finally, I loved that Jaina got to fly, troubleshoot a situation, save the pilot, and put her Force skills to work. As everyone leaves the Yavin system, Jaina is hailed by an X-wing who accuses her of theft. She realizes that the pilot is a cyborg—he’s not in his right mind—she wants to disable his craft, but she doesn’t want to kill him—and in a similar way to Jacen in The Unifying Force, Jaina realizes that to truly pilot her ship, she can’t be separate from it. Through the Force, Jaina and her ship can work in unity.
THE MEH:
Unfortunately, those revelations about Jaina’s role/use in the Force feel a bit repetitive, as Jaina also realizes she can immerse herself fully in the Force during Lando’s asteroid belt game in Vector Prime. I would hesitate to recommend that people read this story before Salvatore’s novel, because while it does introduce Mara’s illness and Mara and Jaina’s relationship, it also contains Jaina coming to some very similar revelations.
My biggest issue with “The Crystal” was that I expected the cyborg to be someone identifiable from Han Solo’s past, but when I looked it up on Wookieepedia he’s just listed as "Unidentified cyborg pilot". We’re meant to imply that there’s some connection to Han, but the information’s just not there. That’s probably realistic, because not everyone running around the galaxy has some personal connection to the Solos or the Skywalkers, but it happens so frequently in Star Wars that I expected that to be the case.
MY VERDICT:
“The Crystal” is a fun look at young Jaina, her first ship, and one of her first attempts to reconcile her role as a Jedi with her interest in piloting and mechanics. It has some nice setup for Vector Prime, and I enjoyed getting to spend time with Jaina when she was still young and eager, and not fatalistic like she became in the later New Jedi Order books.
Next up: an ebook novella by Karen Traviss, set before and after Vector Prime: Boba Fett: A Practical Man.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/wV5P5N-qeP0
Scanned PDF of “The Crystal”: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E_k4...
For 2021, I decided to reread Del Rey’s first attempt at a multi-author book series in the Star Wars universe: The New Jedi Order, which was published between 1999 and 2003. This shakes out to 19 novels, three eBook novellas, five short stories, some comics, and a tangentially-related prequel era novel.
This week’s focus: another short story by Elaine Cunningham, this one featuring Jaina Solo before Vector Prime: “The Crystal.”
SOME HISTORY:
When Jaina and Jacen Solo first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s The Last Command, they were newborns—blank slates personality-wise. But by the time of Vonda N. McIntyre’s The Crystal Star, Jaina emerged as the rebellious, mechanically-minded twin while Jacen was sensitive and attuned to animals. This characterization continued through to Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta’s Young Jedi Knights books, and Jaina’s technical abilities was one of her character aspects that Elaine Cunningham was most interested in developing. Jaina is a lot closer to her father than her mother; she has no interest in the political or diplomatic sphere, and is most at home tinkering with things and flying ships. “Han giving Jaina her first ship” was a common trope in Star Wars fanfiction, so it’s fun to see its actual canon depiction. “The Crystal” was published in issue 5 of Star Wars Gamer in August 2001.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE STORY:
I never read this story before, but I was interested in checking it out when I learned that it contains the first appearance of Mara’s illness.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
After Jaina Solo, her brothers, and her friends graduate from the Jedi Academy, Han Solo gives his daughter a Z-95 Headhunter as a present. Jaina decides to fly it alone to the family’s vacation on Mon Calamari, but her ship’s maiden voyage is not an easy one.
TIMELINE DISCLAIMER:
The Essential Reader's Companion places this story after Crisis at Crystal Reef in 24 ABY, so less than a year before Vector Prime and the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Crisis at Crystal Reef ends and “The Crystal” begins with Jaina’s graduation from the Jedi Praxeum, but that doesn’t mean that she’s a fully-fledged Jedi Knight—rather, that she wants to continue her Jedi training by apprenticing herself to her aunt. The only weird bit with this timeline placement (and this isn’t The Essential Reader’s Companion’s fault) is that Jaina vacationed on Mon Calamari in the previous book, and now her family is vacationing there again. Maybe they really like visiting Admiral Ackbar.
THE GOOD:
I liked how “The Crystal” gave us a glimpse into sixteen-year-old Jaina’s passions and interests, but most importantly how it set up her relationship with Mara Jade as master and apprentice. In Vector Prime, we learn that Luke is teaching Jacen and Anakin while Mara is teaching Jaina, but they don’t get many opportunities to teach their niece and nephews. As the invasion progresses, Jaina joins Rogue Squadron and Mara’s illness gets worse, so Jaina ends up spending more time with Kyp Durron and other Jedi than with her aunt. But I think “The Crystal” shows us why Jaina wanted to be mentored by her aunt in the first place: Jaina respects Mara and looks up to her, but Mara’s interests also align with Jaina’s. They both love flying!
I also like that Han didn’t give Jaina a top-of-the-line new ship—which would be much more of a Lando move than Han anyway—because Han loves old stuff that he’s tinkered with personally. I think it was very fitting that he gave Jaina an old yet workable Z-95 Headhunter, because it plays into how Jaina is able to succeed in Rogue Squadron and Twin Suns Squadron. She may not have had an X-Wing before joining Rogue Squadron in Dark Tide I: Onslaught, but a Headhunter is the next best thing. (I mean, look at it!)
But this story also contains the first canon appearance of Mara’s illness, something which I felt like I was missing from Vector Prime. She’s visibly ill, but she doesn’t want to talk about it or let it affect her life. Mara’s still going to mentor her niece and pass on the things she’s learned, and she’s not going to let any physical ailment get in her way. Mara’s illness was also a chance for us to see the considerate side of Jaina. There were times in the NJO where Jaina came across as overly rash or rude, so I appreciated that she was willing to nix the idea of apprenticeship because of Mara’s health—and that it was Mara herself who brought it back up.
Finally, I loved that Jaina got to fly, troubleshoot a situation, save the pilot, and put her Force skills to work. As everyone leaves the Yavin system, Jaina is hailed by an X-wing who accuses her of theft. She realizes that the pilot is a cyborg—he’s not in his right mind—she wants to disable his craft, but she doesn’t want to kill him—and in a similar way to Jacen in The Unifying Force, Jaina realizes that to truly pilot her ship, she can’t be separate from it. Through the Force, Jaina and her ship can work in unity.
THE MEH:
Unfortunately, those revelations about Jaina’s role/use in the Force feel a bit repetitive, as Jaina also realizes she can immerse herself fully in the Force during Lando’s asteroid belt game in Vector Prime. I would hesitate to recommend that people read this story before Salvatore’s novel, because while it does introduce Mara’s illness and Mara and Jaina’s relationship, it also contains Jaina coming to some very similar revelations.
My biggest issue with “The Crystal” was that I expected the cyborg to be someone identifiable from Han Solo’s past, but when I looked it up on Wookieepedia he’s just listed as "Unidentified cyborg pilot". We’re meant to imply that there’s some connection to Han, but the information’s just not there. That’s probably realistic, because not everyone running around the galaxy has some personal connection to the Solos or the Skywalkers, but it happens so frequently in Star Wars that I expected that to be the case.
MY VERDICT:
“The Crystal” is a fun look at young Jaina, her first ship, and one of her first attempts to reconcile her role as a Jedi with her interest in piloting and mechanics. It has some nice setup for Vector Prime, and I enjoyed getting to spend time with Jaina when she was still young and eager, and not fatalistic like she became in the later New Jedi Order books.
Next up: an ebook novella by Karen Traviss, set before and after Vector Prime: Boba Fett: A Practical Man.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/wV5P5N-qeP0
Scanned PDF of “The Crystal”: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E_k4...
July 21, 2019
Just imagine me over here completely hearts eyes over how much I adored this story. I don't think any author writes Jaina Solo quite as well as Elaine Cunningham does. She just gets Jaina in a way that a lot of authors don't bother to try to do. I've seen fanfic of Han giving Jaina her first ship, but see actual fic written by Cunningham that tells that story? Sheer perfection. And Mara's understanding of Jaina? *chef's kiss* So good! I really wish we could have gotten to see more of the two of them in a master/apprentice relationship in the EU because I'm sure it would have been superb. I'm seriously just flying so high over this story right now!
December 11, 2022
Realization set in, knowledge as bleak and cold as space itself: Sometimes, the Force wasn't enough.
A fun little diversion. At eight pages, there's not a whole lot to it, but I it does fulfil the common fanfiction trope of Han gifting Jaina her first own ship. Perhaps the most interesting part, though, is seeing a Jacen Solo that is not yet as introspective as his NJO self but not quite the YJK quipster either. Oh, and there's also something about a crazy cyborg that wants to destroy Jaina's ship because he thinks it is a prototype model built half a century before the events of this short story...? This just gets weirder the more I think about it...
A fun little diversion. At eight pages, there's not a whole lot to it, but I it does fulfil the common fanfiction trope of Han gifting Jaina her first own ship. Perhaps the most interesting part, though, is seeing a Jacen Solo that is not yet as introspective as his NJO self but not quite the YJK quipster either. Oh, and there's also something about a crazy cyborg that wants to destroy Jaina's ship because he thinks it is a prototype model built half a century before the events of this short story...? This just gets weirder the more I think about it...
November 19, 2017
This tiny story, set the day of Jaina Solo's graduation from Luke's Jedi Academy, adds the barest of flavor to the timeline. Having read Janina's legendary piloting in The New Jedi Order series there wasn't much novelty in her flying here. Plus the antagonist was presumably an Expanded Universe side character from Han Solo's past, maybe from the RPG sourcebooks. (After all, I found this story in Star Wars Gamer magazine.) Still, this was a fun little read. Bonus points for including Tionne and Mara Jade!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews