Utah residents reading the Star Wars novel "The Courtship of Princess Leia" might recognize the vast, desert planet into which Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker crash-land as a galaxy that's not too far away at all.
Descriptions of the fictional planet resemble Utah Valley as taken from the mind of Provo resident and science fiction author Dave Wolverton."While I was writing the novel, I realized that when I described the landscape where the witches live, it was an awful lot like Utah Valley," Wolverton said. "They crash-land in the mountains and have to come into a valley that's an awful lot like Utah Valley."
Wolverton, who graduated from Brigham Young University in 1980, was writing his second science fiction novel when his publisher, Bantam Books, contacted him to write one of the 12 novels filmmaker George Lucas authorized to succeed the famous trilogy.
Although he watched "Star Wars" 38 times as a teenager and had aspirations to do special effects for science fiction movies for a living, the decision to write the novel was difficult.
"I had to think about it a little bit," Wolverton recounts. "I was already killing myself by working a full-time job and trying to finish up another novel. But I went ahead and said, `Yeah, I'd like to do it.' "
The book is seventh on The New York Times best-seller list, second on the Waldenbooks best-seller list and sixth on the Publisher's Weekly list. The book was released about six weeks ago.
The process to become a Star Wars author is similar to the background check Supreme Court nominees undergo. Approval had to come from Bantam Books; Dark Horse Comics, which produces the Star Wars comic books; Lucasfilm executives; and George Lucas himself.
After obtaining clearance, Wolverton sent Lucas a storyline proposal, which Lucas endorsed. Writing the book was the easy part.
"I had a tremendous amount of fun writing this book," Wolverton said. "I just sat down and said, let's have fun with it, not worry what the critics might say about it and write it like a book I would have liked to read when I was 19 years old."
The story takes place one year following "The Return of the Jedi." Han Solo is in competition with a handsome prince for the hand of Princess Leia.
Solo, who finds himself losing the battle, kidnaps Leia and brings her to a mysterious planet where evil Jedi knights once were held prisoner.
After Luke and other recognizable characters are summoned to the planet for a rescue, an evil sector general from the old Empire manages to unite some of the forces of the weakened Imperial fleets to find them all.
"You know, just typical Star Wars stuff," Wolverton said.
But the "typical" in this novel reflects a lot on Wolverton's love of wilderness, Utah and romanticism.
"George Lucas provided a list of Jedi powers of Luke Skywalker," he said. "By making him able to talk to animals, I was able to make him more of a priest of nature to tie in with my love of nature."
Wolverton also takes pride in his success of turning a traditional action story into an action story with a romantic twist.
"I'm a romantic at heart," he said. "I've always loved the old romance television shows, and it was only natural for me to do a take-off on something like that."
Rejected from the original storyline was a love affair involving Luke Skywalker.
"In my mind, Luke is a sort of a priest character. For me, being a Mormon, I want to see a priest character married," he said. "But George Lucas, being a Catholic, wants to keep him single."