Splinter of the Mind ' s Eye Splinter of the Mind ' s Eye was written by Alan Dean Foster and originally published in 1978 by Del Rey , a division of Ballantine Books . It is set between and , approximately 2 ABY in - universe . Publisher ' s summary . " Stranded on a jungle planet , Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia found themselves desperately racing Imperial Stormtroopers to claim a gem that had mysterious powers over the Force . " " Luke Skywalker expected trouble when he volunteered to follow Princess Leia on her mission to Circarpous to enlist their Rebel underground in the battle against the Empire . But the farm boy from Tatooine hadn ' t counted on an unscheduled landing in the swamplands of Mimban … hadn ' t counted on any of the things they would find on that strange planet . " " Hidden on this planet was the Kaiburr crystal , a mysterious gem that would give the one who possessed it such powers over the Force that he would be all but invincible . In the wrong hands , the crystal could be deadly . So Luke had to find this treasure and find it fast . " " Accompanied by Artoo - Detoo and See - Threepio — his two faithful droids — Luke and the Princess set out for the Temple of Pomojema … and a confrontation deep beneath the surface of an alien world with the most fearsome villain in the galaxy ! " Synopsis . Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are traveling to Circarpous IV for a Rebel underground meeting in an attempt to take the Circarpousians into the Rebel Alliance . Leia ' s ship experiences problems ; she is forced to land on Circarpous V ( Mimban ) a foggy , swampy planet . Luke follows . A strange colorful energy storm caused by energy mining forces their ships down in a crash landing . Luke exits his X - wing and , with R2 - D2 , begins searching for Leia ' s Y - wing . He finds it ; Leia is there as well as C - 3PO . They all begin walking in search of a beacon that could possibly be a station that would allow them to get off the planet . Instead , they find a mining town ; Leia sees that the Empire has a secret energy mine here . They enter unnoticed , steal some mining clothes , change into them , and enter a bar . An Imperial suspects , so he investigates , and to cover up Luke and Leia ' s true identities , Luke claims that Leia is his servant girl . The Imperials no longer suspect . An old woman named Halla comes over and quietly talks to Luke and Leia ; she identifies Luke as one who is strong with the Force . Then the old woman takes out a splinter of a glowing crystal that she identifies as the Kaiburr crystal , which to Luke seems to magnify and focus the Force to a Force - sensitive . She has but a shard of the crystal ; she is in search of the whole thing . She strikes a deal with Luke and Leia that if they help Halla find the Kaiburr crystal , Halla will help Luke and Leia get off the planet . They all exit together . Upon emerging , Leia admonishes Luke for slapping her in the restaurant and calling her his servant girl ; Luke falls off the walkway and into the mud . He pulls Leia down with him . They begin playfully fighting as some miners emerge from the building . They claim that fighting in public is against Imperial law here , so they all get into a brawl . Imperial stormtroopers take everyone , except for Halla , C - 3PO , and R2 - D2 , who all hid in the shadows , to the local jail . They are all questioned by Captain - Supervisor Grammel . The miners who confronted Luke and Leia are taken away while Grammel continues questioning with Luke and Leia . Grammel discovers and confiscates the crystal shard after having already confiscated Luke ' s weapons , most prominently his lightsaber . Luke and Leia are placed in the maximum security cell with two drunken , but friendly to Luke , Yuzzem named Hin and Kee , while Captain - Supervisor Grammel reports the incident and the crystal shard to the region ' s governor , Governor Essada . Halla shows up in the jail cell ' s window . She , having claimed to be a master of the Force , uses the Force to lift up the food tray through the jail bars and over to the open / close mechanism so that the jail cell opens . The two large , hairy , and muscular Yuzzem go on a rampage killing Imperials while Luke and Leia make their way to the exit . The two Yuzzem catch up with Luke and Leia as they all exit the jail together ; the Yuzzem give Luke and Leia their weapons . The four make their way to a pre - specified meeting point . They find Halla there , who steals a vehicle . They all begin making their way to the place where Halla believes the Kaiburr crystal to be , the Temple of Pomojema . As they are driving through the swamplands with little pursuit due to Luke ' s quick thinking , they encounter a large , pale white worm with huge jaws . It begins chasing them ; eventually they all must exit the vehicle . Luke and Leia split up with Halla , C - 3PO , R2 - D2 , Hin , and Kee ; Halla ' s group loses the wandrella creature , while Luke and Leia are still being chased . Luke and Leia find a deep well into which they climb down vines and hide on a ledge . The wandrella finds them but falls down the well in an attempt to get to them . Its massive body takes the climbing vines that acted as ladders with it . Luke and Leia wait for some time until Halla ' s group finds them . There is no way back up , so Luke and Leia are told by Halla that there should be a passageway back up to the surface in the back of the ledge on which they are sitting . Halla ' s group leaves to make their way to the ground - level end of the passageway while Luke and Leia journey through it . Luke and Leia encounter a lake , onto which they must float using a lily pad – like boat ; they encounter another creature in the black waters of the underground lake , but Luke makes it go away with his father ' s lightsaber . They get to an abandoned underground city where they are stalked and attacked by some Coway guards / patrols . All but one Coway are dispatched ; the one goes off and tells his Coway tribe about the visitors . Luke and Leia follow the single Coway to the tribe . There , Luke and Leia see that Halla ' s group made it to the other side of the passageway and had already made their way into it to meet up with Luke and Leia , but here they have been tied up by the Coway . To save his friends , Luke must fight the Coway ' s champion fighter ; Luke wins . The Coway then become friends and feast with Luke , Leia , Halla , Hin , and Kee . But Luke , in the Force , senses Darth Vader . Coway patrols race over to the tribe and confirm Luke ' s feeling : Imperials , led by Darth Vader and Captain - Supervisor Grammel , are attacking the underground cave . The Coway tribe and the protagonists prepare for the attack . The Imperials arrive , but they are surprised by the Coway tribe ' s powerful response and the Imperials face a debacle . Darth Vader and Captain - Supervisor Grammel retreat with very few surviving stormtroopers . Darth Vader and Grammel leave in search of the Temple of Pomojema while Luke and company steal an Imperial transport left behind . They travel to the temple as well . Upon arriving at the temple , Luke , Leia , Halla , Hin , and Kee exit to find the Kaiburr crystal and the fact that they have beaten Grammel and Vader to the temple . They encounter yet another creature with large jaws ; they try to fight it off with ineffectual blasters . Luke tells Hin and Kee to go get some rifles . Luke finally decides that cutting down one of the pillars holding up the temple will crush the creature ; it does . They all then make their way back to the Kaiburr crystal located in the back of the temple . The two Yuzzem , Hin and Kee , never return . Luke wonders why , but then is crushed by rubble that fell from the cracking , ancient ceiling . Darth Vader then enters the Temple of Pomojema after having turned off the droids and killed Captain - Supervisor Grammel , Kee , and supposedly Hin . Leia takes up Luke ' s lightsaber and begins fighting Darth Vader , with little success ; she is badly injured . Hin , badly injured , shows up and lifts the big rock off Luke ' s leg . Luke then fights Darth Vader , engaging Vader on a level which even surprises the Dark Lord . Here Vader conjures a ball of Force energy ( possibly his own interpretation of Force lightning ) , which Luke manages to deflect . They continue to battle and Luke , his actions guided by the spirit of Obi - Wan and his power augmented by the Kaiburr crystal , strikes Vader ' s sword arm , severing it . Undaunted , Vader picks up his lightsaber with his remaining arm , and again pursues the exhausted Luke . Vader , also exhausted , is about to win , staggering as he approaches to make the killing blow , and he falls into a pit ; Luke senses that this does not kill Vader . As the story ends , a healed Leia and Luke drive off with their droids and with Halla into the mists of Mimban , ready to take on further off - world adventures . Behind the scenes . " Splinter of the Mind ' s Eye " was the first ever Expanded Universe novel to be written and published . Its author , Alan Dean Foster , had ghostwritten " " , the novelization of , and this early involvement in the " Star Wars " universe gave Foster the opportunity to write " Splinter " . According to an interview with Foster in , the novel had been written to be filmed as a low - budget sequel as a fallback plan in case " Star Wars " hadn ' t been a huge success . This accounts for the book taking place almost entirely on a fog - shrouded planet . Additionally , Harrison Ford was not signed for the sequel as of the writing of the book , which is why Han Solo does not appear in it . Though Foster was granted a great amount of leniency in developing the story , one requirement was that a lot of props from could be reused when filming the new story . According to Foster , Lucas ' only request upon inspecting the manuscript was the removal of a dogfight in space undertaken by Luke and Leia before they crash - land on Mimban . Presumably , this sequence would have cost too much money to film . The Kaiburr crystal was originally developed in the second draft of Lucas ' s " The Star Wars " script , where it appears as the Kyber crystal . ( The script for " Star Wars : A New Hope " was a revised version of the fourth draft . ) There are minor inconsistencies between this novel and the one existing film . In the novel , the blade of Darth Vader ' s lightsaber is described as blue , like Luke ' s , although this may be due to the bland coloration of the lightsabers in the original theatrical release of " Star Wars " . R2 - D2 is referred to in the novel as a " detoo " unit , despite the film clearly establishing " Artoo unit " as the standard nomenclature ( in lines by Luke , Leia , Threepio , Owen Lars , and the Rebel Crew Chief ) . In the novel , Vader says that he had a difficult time discovering that Luke shot up his TIE fighter ; in the film , the " Millennium Falcon " , piloted by Han Solo , had shot Vader ' s wingman , who spun into Vader ' s TIE . At the time this book was written , story elements revealed in later films had not yet been established . For example , the sibling relationship between Luke and Leia had yet to be decided . But the characters themselves would have been unaware of their relationship at this point in their lives , which explains the presence of some between them . ( The credibility of Leia ' s claim on Endor that she had " always known " Luke was her brother is undermined by the decidedly unbrotherly kiss she bestows him on Hoth . ) Although Lucas claimed to have had the " Star Wars " saga mapped out even at this early stage , the fact that he allowed this plot element to remain in Foster ' s novel has been cited as evidence that he hadn ' t yet decided on the characters ' backstory . However , Lucas has stated that this tension was intentional , to show that the two had feelings for one another , but that they did not know exactly what type of feelings . Additionally , when Luke duels Vader in the novel , the former ' s technique is markedly more accomplished than in , even to the point of severing Vader ' s mechanical arm , and Leia too is able to defend herself against the Dark Lord . But these can both be explained by elements from the novel and the later films . During the Mimban duel , Luke tells Vader , " I am Obi - Wan , " which could indicate that Luke ' s prowess against the far more powerful and experienced Vader was a result of Obi - Wan ' s Force spirit flowing through Luke during the duel . This is also supported by Obi - Wan ' s claim in " The Empire Strikes Back " that he " can no longer interfere , " which implies that he once " had " helped Luke in battle . Leia ' s ability to hold off Vader without any Jedi training can be explained by the revelation in that she was Force - sensitive and a potential Jedi . In this novel , released in 1978 , C - 3PO mentions that Darth Vader knows " all the proper code words and commands " to shut him down . This eventually received an explanation , as it was revealed in ( released in 1999 ) that Vader himself , as a young Anakin Skywalker , built Threepio . However , ( released in 2005 ) brings this explanation into question when Bail Organa orders C - 3PO ' s mind wiped . Whether Lucas had developed any of these story elements at this early stage is not likely . " Splinter of the Mind ' s Eye " was adapted into a Dark Horse comic book limited series and graphic novel by Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse , published in 1996 . The book has the Star Wars Corporation listed as a copyright holder . Cover gallery . This is a gallery of the different cover variations of " Splinter of the Mind ' s Eye " .