Finished this earlier today.

I personally would say the atmosphere in this book feels different from ANH; but that's OK. Think if you combined Star Wars with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Mimban is an eerie world, an archaeologist's fantasy. Halla's personality was fun to read. We're given what are essentially two Chewbaccas in the form of another, similar species. . . cool. Grammel was an effective villain we can learn to hate; his end is both satisfying and disturbing. Thank you, Vader.

There are several times in the book where Luke and Leia needed to throw themselves into a passionate kiss. You can feel the writer pulling back, robbing them of consummate romance.

It was a good book. The flaws are in the writing style, which is at times clunky. Forgivable, though. It adds a certain "obscure drug store novel" feel.

Sadly, we'll never learn what happens next to the characters in this continuity. Because afterward in the SWU, the retcons abound.