The Courtship of Princess Leia

The Courtship of Princess Leia is a 1995 bestselling Star Wars book by Dave Wolverton. 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 possesion 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 has been prosecuting the search for this hidden fastness, wearily returns to the recently captured Coruscant expecting an end to the long seperation between him and his beloved, Princess Leia, head of the New Republic. To his great surprise, when his vessel drops out of hyperspace and into the Coruscant system, what appears are a number of fearsome Imperial Star Destroyers, Hapan Battle Dragons, and Hapes Nova Class battle cruiser. Eventually, Han learns that the Hapes cluster had sent a delegation of some manner to the New Republic. He lands and enters the Imperial Palace, where, with the help of C-3PO, who translates and comments on the formal diplomatic reception, he watches the Hapes delegation present to Leia a number of stunning gifts; the pair 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 particpates in a high-stakes sabacc game; one of his opponents runs out of liquid financial instruments, and instead proffers real estate—a deed to an entire habitable planet, Dathomir. Thinking he has found a gift which would prove his worthiness to Leia and compare favorably with the gifts of Isolder (and provide a place to resettle the expatriates of Alderaan). 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 abducted her using the Gun of Command, and fled 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 headstart (Isolder was aided by the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker who had returned from his misson 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 wherabouts 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 till 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.

Reception
The Courtship of Princess Leia continued the streak of New York Times Bestsellers, which started with Heir to the Empire.

Trivia

 * 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.

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