Luke Skywalker's Race Against Time: A Cruise Along Book

Luke Skywalker's Race Against Time

Author: John Whitman

Illustrator: Kilian Plunkett
Medium: Picture book
Publication Date: March 1998
Timeline Placement: 0 ABY

 

The Empire has discovered the Rebellion's secret base, and it's up to Luke Skywalker and his squad of X-wings to destroy the incoming Imperial Star Destroyer before it reaches them! Yavin Base should already have been evacuated by now so presumably this is one of the several interim bases the Rebels set up before settling in on Hoth. Also worth noting that, for how overpopulated the post-Yavin period of the EU is, there aren't many stories focusing on Luke as a fighter pilot. You'd think that would be like his main role in the Rebellion after how he took out the Death Star, but most of the time he's just going on reconnaissance or rescue missions with Han and Leia or flaffing about with his father's lightsaber. In fact, since Red Squadron wasn't reformed into Rogue Squadron until after the Battle of Yavin, it's possible this story represents their first mission together as a starfighter unit.

The X-wings evade a flock of mynocks, who attempt to drain their power. One mynock latches on to Luke's X-wing and manages to chew through a wire before he's able to shake it loose. "Hey, no passengers!" Luke quips.

At last they come upon the Star Destroyer. The Rebel pilots spar with Imperial TIE fighters, but the TIEs just can't keep up with the Rebels' maneuvers. Making it through the defensive fighter screen, the X-wings begin their assault on the Star Destroyer. Luke himself fires the killing shot and the Star Destroyer explodes "as bright as sun." That shot must have been one in a million! Their mission accomplished, the X-wings return to base, hopefully to evacuate it before the Empire sends a good dozen more Star Destroyers to replace the one they lost.

What's interesting about the illustrations in this book is that no human characters ever appear. It's all space vistas and ship-to-ship combat. Luke Skywalker's Race Against Time and its sister book, Han Solo's Rescue Mission, were both packaged with Micro Machines toys, so I guess it's no surprise they emphasize the vehicles over the characters. That's all right, though, because the space combat looks cool as hell. And the text was written by Galaxy of Fear author John Whitman, who seemed to have his fingers in all kinds of obscure EU miscellanea in the '90s. 

 

More engaging starfighter combat than many EU adult novels. Thumbs up!