I don't mind the long post, i asked for your opinion. While you have valid points, i have to say i don't entirely agree with you. For some reason i've never been much of a sci fi book reader, apart from Star Wars. Which i love. For me every book is brilliant, because it furthers what i find to be an amazing saga. Crystal Star was not amazing, but i found it perfectly competent. For me, onl;y the first Dune book was any good, i never really manged to enjoy the others. I think in some ways we're missing out, because there are so many good book out there, with so many talented writers over the years, we're beginning to fail to appreciate the other books. Bounty Hunter Wars is very hard work, possibly the most intellectual book i've read, it explores motivations very well. If you read all the books that Daala features in, she becomes a very imersive character. However, i'm a die hard SW fan, who owns every book and has read each of them at least twenty times. And these are only my opinions, if i were less corrupted by SW i'd probably agree with you.