Review of
Checkmate
by Lelila
Author: Suzanne
Petroske
Rating: R to NC-17 (sexual situations)
.
Let me preface this by saying that a review of a movie, book, or, in this
case, a piece of fanfic, is supposed to have a certain form. It's supposed
to give a general overview of the plot without giving away any major plot
points, and critique the substance. I've got this problem, though.
Many of my opinions about this particular piece of fanfic, both good and
bad, have to do with plot points. So, I'm going to give a great big
SPOILER WARNING right here and say that if you don't want to know what happens
in this story before reading it, go read it, and then read my review.
Checkmate is a pre-ESB story and finds Han and Leia alone in the Falcon
, stranded on a barren planet after crash-landing there while on their way
home from some kind of mission. It’s the old standard Leia-goes-on-a-mission-and-Han-takes-her-and-fun-ensues-on-the-
Falcon setup. But, as I’ve often said, I’ll swallow
anything as long as it’s executed well. And, for the most part,
this story is executed very well. To go on with our summary, while
awaiting rescue, it soon comes to light that Leia is ill with a disease that,
under normal conditions, is easily treated with hormonal replacement.
Unfortunately, if left untreated it wastes the victim away until death finally
results. However, these aren’t normal conditions. But the
good news is, there’s a loophole. The body can produce these
hormones itself if the sufferer becomes pregnant. When Han finds out
that she has this condition, he immediately offers to help her, not lasciviously,
but out of genuine concern for her health. She, of course, refuses,
initially thinking that he’s really only doing it to get into her pants.
She then protests that they’re in the middle of a war, and it wouldn’t
be fair to bring a child into that. Besides, how would it look?
Most of the rest of the story is spent inside the heads of the characters;
Han is slowly coming to realize that he cares more than a little about her,
and he can’t stand to watch her waste away like this. Leia wrestles
with the idea of dying this senseless, honorless death, or, actually taking
Han up on his offer and how it would look once they got back to Hoth.
Han tries reasoning with Leia, even tries seducing her, but nothing works.
(The seduction scene, btw, is very juicy.) Eventually, he makes up
his mind that he’s going to help her whether she likes it or not, aka
forcing himself on her. There’s several very good paragraphs
where Han’s talking to himself about this: how he doesn’t want
to do it, but can’t bear watching her waste away any more. Luckily,
it turns out he doesn’t have to, as just as he’s about to, Leia
wakes up and tells him she wants his help. The scene is so well written
that it’s only after reading it that one pauses and goes, "Wait a minute...if
he’s having this many doubts, would he have been able to perform at
all?" The joys of fiction.
The scene that then ensues is a very nicely done, romantic sex scene that’s
passionate without being smutty (not that smut is necessarily a bad thing).
It is a little clumsy in parts, especially the dialog, (the whole thing about
Leia being a virgin, while I give the author points for being realistic,
could have been handled better), but for the most part, those bits are easily
passed over.
When I first read this story, it ended here. The point of it really,
was about Han and Leia dealing with their feelings, not getting Leia cured.
However, as I understand it, there were a lot of requests (I think one of
them may have even come from me) about what happened next. So the story
continues with the two of them spending the next six weeks making love and
falling in love. It turns out that Leia doesn’t get pregnant
due to the fact that she’s lost too much weight. They’re
rescued, and Leia’s treated, and the story ends with the two of them
more or less agreeing that it’s best that they not continue their affair.
Now, here’s one of my biggest beefs with this story: the ending.
While it’s well written and very emotional (it had me near tears even
in my re-reading of it for this review), it’s too damn neat, and left
me feeling rather unsatisfied. It sets the couple up for ESB.
It’s a bad habit that a lot of fanfic writers have (I’m guilty
of it myself): they try and make their stuff fit into the canon timeline.
It would have been much more interesting to have Leia get pregnant, or at
the very least, have them continue their affair and deal with the mess that
either of the above options would have created on Hoth. Barring that,
it almost would have been better to leave the original ending where it was.
As for the nuts and bolts of the story, it really is in need of another edit.
There are some punctuation errors and there are several rather clumsy spots
where Petroske gets stuck in the rut of using the same word too many times
too close together.
The characterization isn’t bad, but could be better. Petroske’s
Han is too sensitive; not rogueish enough, and Leia is too nice; while she’s
certainly strong-willed, she’s not hard-headed enough.
But, even with all of the above failings, this is generally a well-written,
emotional piece of fic that’s not so angsty as to be emotionally devastating.
Petroske’s prose style is easy to read and draws you in with little
trouble. This one is definitely worth the download.
