REVIEW: The Meri by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

For the Cantina’s Book Club’s inaugural reading, we picked The Meri by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. It seemed like a natural fit – a club of mostly female fans reading an original story by one of the newest female authors in the Star Wars stable. 

Over the years of discussing Star Wars novels, it’s become apparent that a franchise writer’s body of original work can be a pretty good indicator for how well the individual will play in George Lucas’ GFFA sandbox. So it was interesting to see what Bohnhoff would create with only her mind as the limiting factor, no continuity or franchise concerns to restrict her storytelling.

In my review, I give this book a 6 out of 10, or in other words a satisfactory mark. As a writer, Bohnhoff is blessed with a way with words, but her storytelling fell a little flat. Which is perhaps why she ended up teamed with Michael Reaves, first as an uncredited partner on Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of the Force and then as co-author for the upcoming books Shadow Games (September 2011) and Coruscant Nights IV: Jedi Dawn (November 2012).

Bohnhoff spoke of her writing partnership in a recent interview with Knights Archive. I almost get the impression that Bohnhoff and Reaves are working in a James Patterson type writing partnership, where a lesser-known author (Bohnhoff in this case) in essence writes under an author who has more name-recognition in the industry.  If Reaves can help mold her storytelling craft, Bohnhoff’s style may bode for a nice read in the upcoming Shadow Games.

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Fangirl

Tricia Barr took her understanding of brand management and marketing, mixed it with a love of genre storytelling, and added a dash of social media flare to create FANgirl Blog, where she discusses Star Wars, fandom, and the intersection of women within Star Wars fandom. She is co-author of Ultimate Star Wars and Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia from DK Publishing, a featured writer for Star Wars Insider magazine with numerous articles on the Hero's Journey. Her FANgirl opinions can be heard on the podcasts Hyperspace Theories and Fangirls Going Rogue.

Tricia Barr's novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library's successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena's Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.

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