The Courtship of Princess Leia

The Courtship of Princess Leia is a 1995 bestselling Star Wars book by Dave Wolverton, published by Bantam Spectra. It continued the streak of New York Times Bestsellers, which started with Heir to the Empire. The Courtship of Princess Leia deals with the downfall of Warlord Zsinj and the circumstances leading to the marriage of Han Solo and Leia Organa. Narration for the audio version was performed by Anthony Heald.

Editions

 * ISBN 0553089285; Bantam Spectra, May 1994, 327-page hardcover
 * ISBN 0553471937; Bantam Audio, May 1994, Abridged cassette
 * ISBN 0553745301; Bantam Audio, May 1994, Cassette
 * ISBN 0553569376; Bantam Spectra, May 1995, 374-page paperback
 * ISBN 0606081992; Demco Media, May 1995, Turtleback
 * ISBN 0739316605; Random House Audio, October 2004, Cassette

Background
Though the Battle of Endor resulted in the destruction of the Emperor and Darth Vader, along with the best of the Imperial Starfleet, the remnants of the Empire are still a danger. One of the recently-formed New Republic's direst foes is the splinter faction of the former Empire, led by Warlord Zsinj. Zsinj is a cunning strategist whose skills have earned him the allegiance of almost a full third of the entire galaxy. Both the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic have dedicated considerable forces to ending his reign. But Zsinj has possession of one of the few Super Star Destroyers left, and whenever nearly cornered, slipped away to a secret stronghold where the SSD Iron Fist is repaired.

Summary
At the opening of the novel, Han Solo, who from aboard the Mon Remonda had been prosecuting the search for this hidden fastness, wearily returned to the recently captured Coruscant expecting an end to the long separation between him and his beloved, Princess Leia, head of the New Republic. To his great surprise, when his vessel dropped out of hyperspace and into the Coruscant system, what appeared were a number of fearsome Imperial Star Destroyers, Hapan Battle Dragons, and Hapes Nova Class battle cruiser. Eventually, Han learned that the Hapes cluster had sent a delegation of some manner to the New Republic. He landed and entered the Imperial Palace, where, with the help of C-3PO, who translated and commented on the formal diplomatic reception, he watched the Hapes delegation present to Leia a number of stunning gifts; a dozen of Star Destroyers Han had seen, a Hapan gun of command, a small plant resembling a bonsai which promotes longevity and intelligence... and the hand of the Hapes cluster's ruler Ta'a Chume's son, Prince Isolder, in holy matrimony.

The effect was devastating; Leia nearly accepted, driving Han into a frenzy of fear and jealousy. Han eventually wandered into a dive of a cantina in the lower reaches of Coruscant, where he participates in a high-stakes sabacc game; one of his opponents ran out of liquid financial instruments, and instead proffers real estate—a deed to an entire habitable planet, Dathomir. Thinking he had found a gift which would prove his worthiness to Leia and compare favorably with the gifts of Isolder (providing a place to resettle the expatriates of Alderaan to boot), he immediately rushes to her side to present his winnings. When Leia examined his gift and pointed out that he had been conned (since Dathomir was in the section of the galaxy controlled by Zsinj), Han was devastated. When Isolder compounded insult with injury by denigrating the Falcon and offering him a Nova battle cruiser if he abandoned his quest to win Leia's heart, Han broke. He abducts her using the Gun of Command, and flees with her and Chewbacca aboard his recently refitted Millennium Falcon to Dathomir. Prince Isolder pursued him with his Hapan fleet; he arrived at Dathomir shortly after Solo despite Solo's head start (Isolder was aided by the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker who had returned from his mission to Toola where he found only a despoiled Jedi archive; Luke aided Isolder by using his Force powers to navigate a shorter (but still safe) path through hyperspace, shaving time off accepted conventional routes). There they both discovered that Zsinj had truly laid claim to Dathomir- in orbit around it was the Iron Fist, a number of other capital ships, and the complete orbital shipyard Han had hunted for so long.

The Millennium Falcon had been forced to land on Dathomir itself, where it was captured by the Imperial garrison Zsinj had marooned on the surface years ago. Isolder set out in his Miy'til fighter accompanied by Luke's X-wing while the Hapan fleet fought a covering action before it retreated into hyperspace to inform the New Republic, Imperial Remnant, and the Hapes Consortium of the whereabouts of Zsinj here-to-fore secret redoubt.

On the surface, Isolder and Luke discovered the remnants of the star-borne Jedi training academy, the Chu'unthor; Luke had seen recordings noting how Yoda and a number of other Jedi knights had failed to retrieve the library of the Chu'unthor, due to interference by the Witches of Dathomir—the best they had been able to do was seal the vessel thoroughly, so thoroughly that only centuries later the first intruder would need a lightsaber to break in. As they perused the vessel however, Isolder and Luke were captured by a Dathomiri witch, who enslaved them and took them back to her village.

Zsinj, who had learned about Han Solo's presence on the planet, had dictated a combination of ultimatum and deal with the head of the Nightsisters, Gethzerion: they would give him Solo to torture and execute as he liked, and he would give them an Imperial shuttle to pilot where they like. If they did not, he would keep his "nightcloak" (an interconnected network of geostationary satellites, which reflected all solar emissions back into space) intact, which would slowly freeze Dathomir til no life could survive.

Eventually, they infiltrated the Imperial garrison and stole the Falcon, piloting it out into the ongoing Battle of Dathomir. Solo purposely allowed the Iron Fist to acquire the Falcon with a tractor beam; once he was within the deflector shields, he broke free of the beam lock, piloting his vessel over the superstructure of the gigantic vessel. Once he came upon the main bridge, he launched two concussion missiles, destroying the bridge, killing Zsinj, and knocking out the ventral shields. With Iron Fist so exposed, the Hapan Battle Dragons moved into position with their ion cannons, disabling Iron Fist. With this defeat, Zsinj's empire soon crumbled.



Shortly thereafter, Solo and Leia married, having realized during their intrepid journey together that they loved each other. Isolder did not go unrewarded for his good deeds as he had fallen in love with his captor, Teneniel Djo.

Trivia

 * The Courtship of Princess Leia continued the streak of New York Times Bestsellers, which started with Heir to the Empire.
 * Dave Wolverton had signed on to do a Star Wars novel trilogy, but it has been speculated that the deal fell through and the proposed trilogy was compressed into this novel.
 * This novel had two main covers. The reason for the second cover is that sales were not as high as expected. It was thought this may have been due to the a misconception that it was a romance novel, rather than action. On this basis, a more action oriented cover was made.
 * The descriptions of the old Jedi Order from the early chapters contain several pieces of information that fit almost perfectly with the later depictions of the Order from the prequel trilogy, namely:
 * The Jedi are led by a high master based on Coruscant, which would mesh with the later concepts of the Grand Master and Jedi Temple. Other than Redemption, most other pre-The Phantom Menace depictions of the Old Jedi Order made them largely decentralized and based on such outlying worlds as Dantooine and Ossus.
 * The Jedi headquarters on Coruscant contains the high master's throne room and an archive with a Jedi Master assigned to oversee it, which would mesh with the Jedi Council Chamber, Jedi Archives, and Jedi Librarian.
 * In the "final hours" of the Old Republic, the Jedi headquarters on Coruscant was attacked by "invading Imperials" with only a few Jedi managing to escape, which would equate with Order 66 and Operation: Knightfall, as well as almost perfect timing concerning the Declaration of the New Order.

New characters

 * Jukas Alim
 * Allya
 * Azbeth
 * Baritha
 * Barukka
 * Dalla
 * Damaya
 * Augwynne Djo
 * Teneniel Djo
 * Elliar
 * Ferra
 * Gethzerion
 * Grania
 * Harravan
 * Threkin Horm
 * Isolder Chume'da
 * Melvar
 * Ni'Korish
 * Ocheron
 * Omogg
 * Onoma
 * Ooya
 * Reezen
 * Rell
 * Rula
 * Secciah
 * Shabell
 * Shen
 * Berethron e Solo
 * Korol Solo
 * Dalla Solo
 * Jonash Suul
 * Ta'a Chume
 * Tamath
 * Kirana Ti
 * Tosh
 * Varr
 * Zsinj

New creatures

 * arallute
 * aric
 * bipedal green reptile
 * burra fish
 * cairoka bird
 * cora
 * Dathomiri cane
 * Dathomiri rancor
 * Dathomiri rush
 * drebbin
 * four-legged herd reptile
 * gold-striped red deer
 * green salamander lizard
 * green tentacle monster
 * husky horned shelled saurian
 * hwotha berry vine
 * iridescent lichen
 * leaf-mold
 * long-necked reptavian
 * Kwi
 * olo vine
 * oro tree
 * piglike rodent
 * purple grass
 * purple moss
 * rainbow gem
 * red vine
 * roonat
 * shark
 * snow demon
 * snowbark tree
 * spotted lizard
 * terrefel
 * thula rat
 * tick
 * uwa tree
 * waxbrush
 * whuffa

New droid models

 * RH7 CardShark droid
 * droid gunner
 * Eliminator 434 assassin droid
 * fly eye
 * HD-234-C harvester droid
 * R2(S5) astromech

New organizations

 * Alderaanian Council
 * Corellian Empire
 * Paecian Empire
 * Taibolt

New planets

 * Arabanth
 * Cedre
 * Charubah
 * Chokan
 * Dathomir
 * Drackmar
 * Dreena
 * Feree
 * Gallinore
 * Hapes
 * Koratas
 * Lorell
 * Mindar [sic]
 * Olanji
 * Orelon
 * Reboam
 * Selab
 * Selacron
 * Selaggis VI
 * Terephon
 * Thrakia
 * Ut
 * Viridia
 * Zi'Dek

New sentient species

 * Aldereenian
 * bioluminescent blue amphibian
 * Drackmarian
 * extinct race of Reboam
 * Fere
 * Hapan
 * rat people
 * starburst plant
 * Tchuukthai
 * Thrakian

New vehicles and vessels

 * Battle Dragon
 * Chu'unthor
 * Dathomiri raft
 * Hapes Nova-class battle cruiser
 * Hapan diplomatic shuttle
 * lift-wing carrier
 * MC80B Star Cruiser
 * Miy'til starfighter
 * orbital nightcloak
 * repulsor chair
 * Star Home
 * Song of War
 * Y4 transport

Cover gallery
This is a gallery of the different cover variations of The Courtship of Princess Leia.