History Literature / DeathStar

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The dramatis personae includes thirteen characters, all of whom receive significant plots and screentime.

* ShootTheBuilder: Palpatine and his minions do this on a ''planetary'' scale in Literature/DeathStar. Grand Moff Tarkin uses convict laborers from the prison planet [[MeaningfulName Despayre]] for the final stage of the Death Star's construction. Then he blows up the entire planet to test the space station's super laser. The only survivors are a few engineers deemed valuable enough to spare for additional work and a man who stows away on a supply vessel returning to the Death Star.

''Death Star''[[note]][[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_Star_%28novel%29 Wookieepedia]][[/note]] is a novel in the Franchise/StarWarsLegends continuity, written by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. Perry also wrote ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire''. Reaves wrote a few episodes of the old ''WesternAnimation/{{Droids}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' television shows, as well as ''Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter'' and the ''Literature/CoruscantNights'' trilogy. Prior to ''Death Star'', the two authors worked together to write the ''[=MedStar=]'' books, ''Battle Surgeons'' and ''Jedi Healer''. They re-use characters and details from their previous works with some regularity.

'''Ratua:''' [[NeverLiveItDown You're never going to let me forget it, are you?]]\\

* BigBad: Cleanly averted, as there ''is'' no overall villain. The closest thing is the Rebellion, a recurring antagonist which attacks the Death Star twice (the first time in a failed ZergRush of hundreds of X-wings, and the second being [[Film/ANewHope the Battle of Yavin IV]]).
** By the third act, as a result of their HeelRealization, the protagonists conclude that Tarkin and the Empire fit that role.

* DrinkOrder: Only to be expected when one character is a bartender.

* PenalColony: Despayre is where the Empire dumps criminals with a life sentence, deemed to dangerous to incarcerate closer to civilization. It also happens to be where they put many of their political prisoners, far away from any prying eyes.

* PunnyName: So many. Nova Stihl, Villian Dance, [[LeetLingo Teh Roxxor]] ...

* IHaveManyNames: [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Celot_Ratua_Dil Celot Ratua Dill]], the smuggler, also gets called "[[LeetLingo Teh Roxxor]]", "[[GreenEyes Green-Eyes]]", and "Radish Boy".

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Thirteen characters in the Ddramatis personae (ten male, three female). [[spoiler:Three males and three females]] survive. Admittedly, some characters are DoomedByCanon--or saved by it in the case of Darth Vader and Admiral Daala--but even among the 'new' characters the male death rate is [[spoiler: 60%]].

-> ''"The Death Star was a monster, no question about that. It was conceived by monsters and controlled by them. [[PunchClockVillain But not everyone on board was a monster.]]"''
--> -- Teela Kaarz

''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_Star_%28novel%29 Death Star]]'' is a novel in the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' universe, written by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. Perry also wrote ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire''. Reaves wrote a few episodes of the old ''WesternAnimation/{{Droids}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' television shows, as well as ''Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter'' and the ''Literature/CoruscantNights'' trilogy. Prior to ''Death Star'', the two authors worked together to write the ''[=MedStar=]'' books, ''Battle Surgeons'' and ''Jedi Healer''. They re-use characters and details from one anothers' previously-written works with some regularity.

The novel follows the lives of a selection of characters who end up working on the Death Star late in its completion, and after that. They include Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, Admiral Motti, a surgeon, a Force-Sensitive stormtrooper, a bartender, a librarian, a bouncer, a TIE pilot, a wrongly accused convict, a political prisoner who was an architect, and the Death Star's lead gunner.

Interestingly, there is no overall villain of the book. The Rebellion is certainly out there, weighing on people's minds, but aside from the minor role that Leia Organa plays, none of them are named or given much notoriety, much less become a viewpoint character. Some characters oppose each other -- Motti does not like Vader, for instance -- but until the end most of them are at least somewhat civil with each other. They're all more or less on the same side, after all.

!!The novel includes examples of:

* TwentyFourHourArmor: In the first chapter, it's mentioned that one of the first things TIE pilots learn to do when on-call is to sleep in full battle gear (except the helmet) to save time if the scramble alarm is sounded. However, their gear isn't so much armor as life-support and protection against vacuum, since unlike X-wings, TIE-fighters don't have onboard life-support systems.
* AcePilot: The TIE pilot, Vil Dance, becomes one. But after flying against Darth Vader in practice, Dance remarks that if he's ever up against the Sith Lord for real, he'll just self-destruct his TIE fighter and save Vader the time.
* AscendedExtra: Tenn Graneet and Nova Stihl.
* AsteroidMiners: The system where the Death Star was built was strip-mined for resources, the asteroids included. By the time it was completed, the only bodies of note that they might test the superlaser on were a pair of gas giants and... [[PenalColony Despayre]].
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Vader of course, but it turns out that Motti lifts weights in several times normal gravity.

--> There was an old proverb his grandfather had taught him when he'd been a boy: ''Take care what you wish for, Tenn- you might get it.''\\

** In his duties as a librarian, Atour Riten acquires a complete set of the Death Star's schematics and decides to store them in the mainframe of an Imperial base on Danuta - [[VideoGame/DarkForces where they are stolen by a certain Rebel agent.]]

** Chief gunner Tenn Graneet, depressed and disillusioned by his role in the destruction of Alderaan and Despayre, delays firing on Yavin, giving Luke time to complete his attack run and destroy the station.
* BeingEvilSucks: Tenn Graneet is the one who pulled the trigger sending Despayre and Alderaan to their deaths. While Despayre unnerves him, he can at least partially rationalize it what with it being full of convicts declared too dangerous to be held locally. When he terminates Alderaan, however, he sinks into a deep, deep depression feeling that death would be too good for him.
* BigBad: Cleanly averted as there ''is'' no overall villain. The closest thing the Rebellion is to this is a recurring antagonist.
* BilingualDialogue: Between Teela and a Wookie.
* BizarreAlienBiology: The smuggler is Zelosian, and although he ''looks'' like a green-eyed human, he photosynthesizes.

* CallForward: "We all know what this battle station can do. If they can build one, they can build more - maybe [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi even bigger]] than this one."
* CatapultNightmare: Nova. See Dreaming Of Things To Come below.
* CatchPhrase: Lieutenant Vil Dance often thinks or says a variation of "Never happen!", as in "it will never", when he thinks of failing in his duty.
* CerebusRetcon: The Death Star gunner stating "Stand by... Stand by..." goes from a pacing issue to a man deliberately stalling for time [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone after having a mental breakdown.]]
* ChekhovsGun: In addition to the obligatory "What the hell is that thermal exhaust port doing there, and isn't it a blatant WeaksauceWeakness?" comment, there's Uli's research into midichlorians as they relate to Nova's Blink. He even forgot all about it.
** The exhaust port was actually going to be edited out of the plans, but the construction droids built it before that could happen. The rest is, as they say, history.
* ContinuityNod:

** A number are made as well to various video games, though their canonicity (even within Legends) is debatable. In addition to the prison break in ''Battlefront'' becoming a rumor spreading amongst various characters (see Shout Out below), a number of the events of the novel were lifted straight from ''VideoGame/XWing'', most notably the destruction of [[spoiler:Despayre]] and the planting of a bomb on one of the Star Destroyers guarding the construction site.
** A more oblique reference is made to ''VideoGame/DarkForces'' in that one of the novel's characters is responsible for the Death Star plans being on Danuta, where the plans are stolen by Kyle Katarn in the game.
* CulturedWarrior: Nova Stihl.
* CurbStompBattle: The Rebels send five hundred X-Wings after the Death Star before it's fully operational. This does not end well, with Graneet blowing away the carrier with the superlaser and the flight controllers then swarming them with TIE fighters. Which explains how the Rebels knew it was designed to repel a large-scale assault.
* DelayingAction[=/=]YouShallNotPass: Nova avoided the death he'd foreseen in one dream by not chasing too closely after Han Solo. But at the end of the novel he accepts another death he'd foreseen by fighting off other stormtroopers alongside a bouncer to let the other defectors get to the shuttle.

* [[DefectorFromDecadence Defector From Evil]]: Why some of the surviving characters decide to join the Rebellion. They know nothing about it, but it's got to be better than the government that decides to annihilate inhabited planets as a [[TestedOnHumans test]].
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: When he transfers onto the Death Star, Nova's Force-Sensitivity starts giving him horrible, horrible dreams that all end up coming true, to one extent or another.

* DrowningMySorrows: The two Alderaanians.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: Alderaan, obviously, but before that, [[spoiler: Despayre]].

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: A novel revolving around the Death Star I.
* FanDisservice: Motti, "stripped to", well, anything, but the use of the word "strap" makes it sound like the GFFA version of a jockstrap.

* FantasticFightingStyle: [[SignatureStyle A common trope of Steve Perry's writing.]] The book imports Teräs Käsi, a style designed to fight Jedi, from ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire'' as a style Nova Stihl is trained in, and teaches to political prisoners on Despayre so they can protect themselves from people who are there for... other reasons.

* GoldenMeanFallacy: Most of the cast is aware the Empire's done some bad things, but believe it can't be as bad as the Rebellion makes it out to be.
* HeelRealization: Every Imperial viewpoint character except Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Admiral Motti gets this at the destruction of Alderaan. The ones who weren't in the Imperial military, who just worked for it, tended to get it earlier.
* HeroicSacrifice
** [[spoiler: Atour Riten]] was forced to remain on the Death Star instead of escaping with the other defectors in order to override the bay doors and allow their shuttle to get clear.
** [[spoiler: Nova Stihl and Rodo]] stayed to fight off a squad of guards to give their fellow defectors time to get to the shuttle and escape. Both were killed in the fight.
** [[spoiler: Tenn Graneet]] delayed firing the superlaser at the Rebel base on Yavin 4 to give the Rebels more time to destroy the Death Star, despite knowing that he'd die too if they succeeded.

* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The prison world "Despayre".

* ImHavingSoulPains: Nova.
* ImprobablePilotingSkills: Darth Vader. The TIE pilot saw him fly once and promised himself that he'd commit suicide if Vader ever came after him; late in the novel the pilot and his new defecting friends flee in a shuttle, are pursued, and the pilot manages to not get shot down ''just'' long enough that Vader's attention turned to the Rebels.
* InterspeciesRomance: Memah Roothes (the bartender) and Celot Ratua Dil (the convict); also Villian Dance (the pilot) and Teela Kaarz (the architect). Interestingly, while Memah is a Twi'lek, Ratua is a [[HumanAliens very humanlike]] [[PlantAliens plant alien]], and Teela is from a near-human species (''Franchise/StarWars'' lingo for a HumanSubspecies resulting from divergent evolution of human colonies).

* LeetLingo: The name the convict takes for himself is "Teh Roxxor".
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Thirteen characters in the Dramatis Personae (ten male, three female). [[spoiler: three males and three females]] survive. Admittedly some characters are DoomedByCanon - or saved by it in the case of Darth Vader and Admiral Daala, but even amongst the 'new' characters the male death rate is [[spoiler: 60%]].
* MindProbe: Vader does this casually to the architect, who senses him, freaks out, and closes down. That she was able to shut him out mildly impresses him.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Tenn Graneet has a major one of these. Some time after shooting down a shuttle of escaping convicts, and then after killing Rebels in X-Wings, the TIE pilot, Dance, has a quieter one.

* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Nova's Force-Sensitivity.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Apart from previously established ones, more or less every Imperial character in the book is a lukewarm careerist, doubter or outright Rebel sympathizer. Even the one who ''seems'' to be the [[BlackShirt token true believer]] has a change of heart.
* NeutralNoLonger: Most of the cast to some extent, but especially the historian. Atour's long life was spent politically neutral, until the horror of Alderaan jarred him into opposition. He immediately went to work researching blueprints looking for weak points - which others in the cast found out about and decided to take to the Rebellion.

--> "How was I to know your kind can't eat sweetweed?"\\
"You could have looked it up. You plan to date outside your species, it's on you to know what's poison and what's not."\\
"[[NeverLiveItDown You're never going to let me forget it, are you?]]"\\
"Not a chance, Green-Eyes."
* PenalColony: Despayre, again.
* POVSequel: The second part of the novel is one to ''Film/ANewHope''.

* RageWithinTheMachine: The gunner, the pilot, and the stormtrooper were all content to serve the Empire, but over the course of the book doubt builds, until the traumatized gunner [[spoiler: works slowly praying for a miracle]] and the others [[spoiler: sacrifice themselves or defect]].
* RedBaron: Col. Vindoo "The Shooter" Barvel.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Tenn Graneet delays firing the superlaser at Yavin IV long enough for Luke to fire a proton torpedo. [[spoiler: He's also smart about it. He knows that if he refused, he would be executed, and they would find another person to do the job, and the replacement may just pull the trigger without hesitation. So when he kept standing by, he was hoping that whatever plan the Rebels had to destroy the Death Star would succeed.]]
* ResignationsNotAccepted: Doctor Uli Divini has been in Imperial service since before Palpatine's New Order, due to the Imperial Military Stop Loss Order, or IMSLO.
--> (IMSLO is) A retroactive order mandating that, no matter when you'd been conscripted, once you were in, you were in for as long as they wanted you - or until you got killed. Either way, it was kiss your planned life goodbye. Imperial Military Stop Loss Order. An alternative translation, scrawled no doubt on a 'fresher wall somewhere by a [[BathroomStallGraffiti clever graffitist]], had caught on over the last few years: "I'm [[UnusualEuphemism Milking Scragged]]; Life's Over."

* {{Retirony}}: Old-school Admiral Helaw, a man with standards who'd [[TakingTheBullet take a beam to the chest]] rather than allow it to get you InTheBack, planned to retire as soon as this project was finished. A certain amount of time was spent building him up as cautious, reliable, and Admiral Motti's confidant. And then he died in an act of sabotage.
* RockBeatsLaser: Admiral Helaw (one of Motti's old friends) talks about this hardcore master marksman who would often throw himself into the fray with his troops. Helaw's friend is about to gun down a charging pirate when his gun jams and he gets unceremoniously shanked by a sharpened piece of junk. Helaw relates this story as a warning against hubris.
* SergeantRock: Despite not being in the Army, Master Chief Petty Officer Tenn Graneet certainly fits the bill.
* ShaggyDogStory: Horrified [[NeutralNoLonger out of complacency]], much of the cast decides they can't support the Empire anymore, even passively. Several characters who had had little to do with one another band together and plot to take a copy of the blueprints off the Death Star and to the Rebel Alliance, who may be able to do something with a small weakness found in them; an oddly-placed thermal exhaust port. Several characters sacrifice their lives to [[YouShallNotPass buy time]] for the others or otherwise give them a chance, and they flee Darth Vader himself. [[ForegoneConclusion Of course]], the Rebels had the plans already, and their assault is what draws Vader away. It's not all for nothing, at least - they survive, and some join the Rebellion. Though, as they're never heard from after this and the Rebels have a very rough time over the next several years, how long they last is in question.
* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: A sort of odd example. Uli often thinks back to the young Jedi he knew twenty years ago during the Clone Wars, who died in Order 66 (The character is heavily implied to have been Barris Offee). He's not sure if he loved her, but her death left him badly shaken, and he tries not to think of her too often. When Princess Leia is taken on board the Death Star and tortured, he's summoned to tend to her and is struck by the various ways in which she's like that Jedi. Later his friends refer to Leia as Uli's girlfriend, and he tiredly says the trope name.

** Additionally [[{{Franchise/Terminator}} Dybersyne Engineering Systems]] is said to be one of the companies contracted to assemble the Death Star's superlaser.
** There's also a clever reference to the singleplayer of ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront 2'' snuck in. There are rumors of an escape attempt by the prisoners being held on board the station. Memah Roothes overhears a conversation about it. The first guy says that he heard nine prisoners broke out, led by a Jedi. The other guy (who happens to be Tenn Graneet) says that Jedi are kind of scarce, so that's not too likely. Then he says that ''he'' heard that it was fifty prisoners, all of whom were captured rebels, and that they were led by ''five'' Jedi, and then they took over the superlaser and started blowing up Star Destroyer after Star Destroyer. Tenn knows that part is impossible, being the guy whose job it is to ''fire'' the superlaser and thus knowing firsthand that it isn't working yet, but he says [[RuleOfCool "Why let facts get in the way of a good story?"]] They go on to joke that eventually the story will [[GossipEvolution become so embellished]] that people will be saying there was a whole Rebel ''army'' on board trying to blow up the station, and that it took the 501st to stop them. (In the video game, there were ''tons'' of prisoners, all rebels and all with guns, led by one Jedi, who still had his lightsaber. The 501st ''did'' happen to be on board the station at the time and was tasked with stopping them. They didn't try to blow up the station or blast Star Destroyers, but they did try to destroy the superlaser and escape with a copy of the Death Star plans.)
** At one point, Tenn Graneet is walking down a corridor and sees none other than Darth Vader up ahead, walking in the other direction. The corridor is narrow enough that one or the other is going to have to move out of the way, and Tenn wonders if he should step aside or just walk toward Vader until ''he'' moves out of the way, as that's a common game in the Imperial Navy to see who backs down first. (You don't pull it on superior officers for obvious reasons, but since Vader technically isn't part of the navy, Tenn doesn't see him as a superior.) Graneet decides at the last second that ''he'' had better move to let Vader pass, and thus avoids becoming a victim of TooDumbToLive. Where's the shout out here? Well, as Vader walks by Tenn his cape brushes against Tenn's arm and ''almost'' gets caught on Tenn's chrono. (Wristwatch.) Tenn belatedly realizes that if he hadn't stepped aside he would probably be dead now and, moreover, he almost became the man who [[Music/JimCroce tugged on Darth Vader's cape.]]

* SympatheticPOV: Tenn Graneet. He'd always aspired to fire the biggest gun in the galaxy, and actually getting that wish meant [[BeingEvilSucks guilt and misery beyond his ugliest dreams.]]
* TakingYouWithMe: Dance calls it the WBD - We Both Die.

* TestedOnHumans: The Death Star was test-fired on Despayre. Neither the convicts nor the guards were evacuated beforehand.

* TwoLinesNoWaiting
* VillainousBreakdown: Tarkin never believed that the Death Star had a weakness. In the end, right before the Death Star explodes, he's thinking "Unthinkable. Unthinka--" *BOOM*
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Tenn Graneet.

* ContinuityNod: Quite a few to ''Film/ANewHope''. Perhaps the best is the explanation for why the gunner kept saying "Stand by. Stand by..." when they had Yavin IV in their sights for as long as they did.

''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_Star_%28novel%29 Death Star]]'' is a novel in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, written by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. Perry also wrote ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire''. Reaves wrote a few episodes of the old ''WesternAnimation/{{Droids}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}'' television shows, as well as ''Literature/DarthMaulShadowHunter'' and the ''Literature/CoruscantNights'' trilogy. Prior to ''Death Star'', the two authors worked together to write the ''Literature/MedstarDuology''. They re-use characters and details from one anothers' previously-written works with some regularity.

* POVSequel

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: A sort of odd example. Uli often thinks back to the young Jedi he knew twenty years ago during the Clone Wars, who died in Order 66. He's not sure if he loved her, but her death left him badly shaken, and he tries not to think of her too often. When Princess Leia is taken on board the Death Star and tortured, he's summoned to tend to her and is struck by the various ways in which she's like that Jedi. Later his friends refer to Leia as Uli's girlfriend, and he tiredly says the trope name.

* AcePilot: The TIE pilot, Vil Dance, becomes one.