The main story in Street of Shadows is a murder mystery set in the Star Wars dark times, when the few surviving Jedi are in hiding. The main story is well worth a read, though I didn’t care for the side quest and the continuity hiccups were a distraction. It continues the set noir style set up in Jedi Twilight, and is the middle book of the Michael Reaves trilogy.
Warning! Some spoilers for Coruscant Nights 1, Jedi Twilight!
The main quest of Street of Shadows is fun, with a woman seeking out our heroes – now including Rhinann the Elomin, who barely survived bailing out of Vader’s exploding shuttle and is now stuck in exile. She wants their specialty of escaping offworld with her Caamasi artist friend. Unfortunately, he gets murdered and now the Sector police are involved.
A new character, Pol Haus, the head investigator is introduced. He’s a bit of an enigma for the team. Naturally, the last thing our Jedi need is to be entangled in an investigation. But Street of Shadows does just that, and even though I read it before, I didn’t recall ‘who dun it’. The answer was a total surprise. There is plenty of suspense and while you know which of the old characters you can trust, and how far, the new ones are unknown factors.
Dejah Duare is also an intriguing new character, sure to stir up trouble for our heroes. She’s a Zeltron, and just as pheromone full as Prince Xixor was in the previous story.
I think the thing I like best in the Coruscant Nights trilogy and Street of Shadows in particular is that it’s own, unique crime noir thing. Watching each member of the team bring their unique talents to solve the mystery in a small area (well, not that Coruscant’s Imperial city – formerly Republic City, is small) is a change from galaxy spanning adventure.
Street of Shadows Side Stories
The Captain Typho side quest strikes me as totally unnecessary and a distraction. I find it contradicts the movie, creating a plot hole where none existed. Perhaps if it didn’t I’d have enjoyed it more. You can read the details below in the Continuity section.
An old familiar bounty hunter returns in this on the hunt for Jax. She’s well known for successfully hunting Jedi so this is a real danger. As a force user herself, it’s interesting seeing her ‘read’ of Vader and the Emperor’s motives (personally I think her read is correct.) Her tangling with our heroes leads to some exciting moments.
Confusion Moments
Flame Night
I was a bit confused by this, I naturally had assumed in Jedi Twilight this was the night Anakin turned on the Jedi and Order 66 went down. But Street of Shadows suggests this was actually a secondary event, led by the Inquisitors. It was a massacre of force sensitives meant to draw any Jedi left out of hiding rather than the initial event, or at least this is what I infer from how it’s worded. At the very least, why would Jax wonder what happened to Anakin if he were there the original night? Also, there was so far as anyone knows, no official group known as the ‘Inquisitorious’ before the Jedi were outlawed that very night.
The Problem of Anakin
Maybe I’m reading it wrong, or maybe it’s just poorly worded.
Regarding Anakin there is apparently a mistake when Jax is considering acquiring a new lightsaber, and that when Order 66 went down there was a garrison and Anakin initiated his “one man pogram” that Palpatine had also ordered their weapons destroyed. However, the trilogy itself hinges to some degree on Jax not knowing who Vader is or that Anakin is alive at all. Normally, this would be a certain point of view thing but because it’s Jax’s musings it’s clearly a mistake. If he knew Anakin betrayed them he’d have no reason to have thought him dead to start with, and he would have at least some guess who Vader might be.
Additional Notes
You’ll need to bring a good dictionary with you to Street of Shadows because Michael Reaves uses a lot of big uncommon words, and I don’t mean the in universe kind. My own old paperback is no slouch of a dictionary but it didn’t have all of them.
There is a little nod to Doctor Who in the story if your fans of the franchise.
Street of Shadows Continuity
Second book of the Coruscant Night Trilogy which started with Jedi Twilight and ends with Patterns of Force. It’s set 18-19 years before A New Hope.
The Bads: What is it about stuff that came out 2008 and later with these hiccups? This is the kind of stuff the continuity editor should’ve caught.
Movie Contradiction:
The Street of Shadows prelude flat contradicts Revenge of the Sith by stating Padme was fatally choked. I know fans joke about this but head canon isn’t the same as movie canon. This is to set up a side arc of her security officer, Captain Typho, seeking her killer.
Medically, she is completely healthy. For reasons we can’t explain, we are losing her.
Medical Droid, Revenge of the Sith
It may be the autopsy was faked, but it feels more like the author is trying to substitute a more palatable alternative to ‘lost the will to live’. This is a big ‘not allowed’. You don’t alter the George Lucas movies, they are the foundation for all the works. There are in fact, already good reasons in universe and out why a woman might, from a medical droids point of view, might apparently die due to losing the will to live.
Dates
Dates are also confused in Street of Shadows, a mistake not caught in editing. This is set according to the timeline right after Dark Lord, Rise of Darth Vader. The prelude of the book (which as mentioned above has issues itself) specifically dates it at 19 BBY. This is therefore within a year or two of the end of the Clone Wars. Also it correctly references that Lorn Pavan’s death in Darth Maul Shadowhunter occurred right before the blockade of Naboo, 20 years before.
There are references to the Clone Wars being 20 years ago however. This is referencing both the bounty hunter’s prison stay (being years when she was incarcerated during the Clone Wars) and research by Rhinann that points to events of Medstar 2: Jedi Healer (Drongar) being that far back. This is obviously a mistake. The question is why it was made repeatedly.
