David's Review of Children of the Jedi

1/5 Rancors - I tried to like this book. I really did, but I did not succeed. I did not think that Ms Hambly did a good job. The plot is convoluted. Her descriptions are too lengthy and flowery. There are too many characters I had never even heard of, and I got extremely tired of reading about how banged-up Luke was. I can’t wait for a book in the series that might have the audacity to show Luke as a truly powerful Jedi Master brimming with confidence.

Many of our old friends have main roles in this tale – Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2, Threepio. As always, they can still be fun to read about. Leia, Han, and Chewie are searching for the long-lost children of the Jedi on the frozen world of Belsavis. Luke has discovered a previously unknown enemy dreadnought Eye of Palpatine and he must find a means of destroying the ship before it can complete a mission programmed into its artificial intelligence. The two missions take place separately until the end of the book when they come together.

Luke receives unexpected help in his mission when he discovers the spirit of Callista still living on the Eye of Palpatine purely as a form of consciousness. Callista managed years earlier to stop the dreadnought’s original mission, and now she helps Luke in his effort to stop the ship’s current mission. This is all well and good except that, in a plot twist that simply never holds together, Luke and Callista’s spirit fall in love. So now we get to read about Luke not only limping and just barely being able to function but also mooning for Callista during every spare moment. It is just not believable.

I kept waiting for the author to simply get on with it. She spends entirely too much time filling space.

Andrew's Review of No Prisoners

4/5 Rancors - Del Rey is publishing a series of five tie-in novels to accompany the highly successful Clone Wars cartoon series, which kicked off in the fall of 2008. Authorial duties are rotating between two Karens: Karen Traviss, notable Star Wars author with a penchant for clones and Mandalorians, kicked things off with an excellent novelization of the feature film. Karen Miller, a newcomer to the Expanded Universe, followed up with Wild Space, a harrowing but overlong tale of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa journeying through the galaxy in search of a Sith planet. Now Traviss delivers the third novel, No Prisoners, coupling an intriguing exploration of differing Jedi philosophies with a juicy dose of clone and battle droid action.

One striking feature of the three novels published to date in this particular mini-series is the juxtaposition of their serious and introspective tone with the light-hearted adventure of the TV show. I appreciate that the authors are working to deepen the EU by not simply offering shallow tales of Jedi heroics. At times I find it a bit challenging to marry the TV show to these stories in my mind, but overall this is a great strategy and sometimes makes me see the TV episodes in a new light. For example, clone officer Captain Rex is given a meaty and provocative role in No Prisoners. He wrestles with some fundamental issues concerning the role of the clone army, what their purpose is in life, and whether there is any hope for them to be something more. These themes will be familiar to readers of the superb Republic Commando series, also by Karen Traviss, but playing them against the adventurous fun of the cartoon made them more poignant than ever, at least for this reader.

Beyond the intellectual examination of Rex and his clone squad, there are many intense action sequences scattered throughout. One particularly vivid scene involves the clones rescuing one of the main characters who is being held hostage. The pace at which they take over the situation and Rex's brutally firm leadership make for compelling reading. Traviss deftly paints the clones as a military force to be reckoned with and the saga is all the richer for it.

Readers of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy will be interested to know Captain Gilad (new first name!) Pellaeon is a featured character in No Prisoners. In fact, his forbidden relationship with intelligence agent Hallena Davis and what he's willing to do to save her from danger is the prime driver of the plot. Their relationship echoes the forbidden marriage of Anakin and Padme. Pellaeon is portrayed as a smart and capable officer. Arguably, he is portrayed as TOO smart and capable: I found myself picturing the old, experienced, post-Thrawn-and-Daala Pellaeon more than a young officer making his way through the ranks. There are an awful lot of years between the Clone Wars and the Thrawn Trilogy in which he doesn't seem to have grown much, but still, it's a treat reading his interactions with Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex.

Another place where the book veers tonally away from the show is in its treatment of Ahsoka. Many characters here are surprised or even shocked that a half-dressed fourteen-year-old has been given a leadership role. Pellaeon even forces her to change into military-issue clothes in an awkward little scene. Ahsoka also undergoes some mental turmoil when she is introduced to a rogue sect of Jedi who permit relationships and do not fear attachment. These Jedi, led by Master Djinn Altis and featuring Callista Masana from the Bantam novels, go against many of the precepts she was raised to unthinkingly accept.

These challenges to Ahsoka's beliefs (and later in the story, to Anakin's as well) underscored a theme I see woven through the Traviss stories. She seems to favor book characters over movie ones, and her anti-Jedi Order viewpoints are a strongly recurring motif. While there are times I feel she is excessively weakening characters like Ahsoka to demonstrate the Order is rotting from within, I do appreciate that she is willing to introduce and flesh out alternative views of the prequel era. She is correct that many people would likely have more negative views of the Jedi than we as movie viewers tend to, and certainly there is fertile ground to be plowed with the bred-to-fight and enslaved clone army. So while I don't always agree with the viewpoints she espouses, I value them highly.

No Prisoners presents a balanced mix of philosophical musings about the nature of clones, Jedi, and warfare with gripping action sequences and a fast-paced storyline. Karen Traviss has made quite a mark on the Expanded Universe and shows no signs of letting up, and I am pleased Del Rey is open to publishing stories such as hers that don't necessarily toe the line of the other media including the cartoon. No Prisoners is highly recommended.

Andrew's Review of Darksaber

2/5 Rancors - Kevin J. Anderson's Darksaber is the second novel in the unofficially named Callista Trilogy. Introduced in Barbara Hambly's Children of the Jedi, Callista is a Jedi Knight from the Clone Wars era and is also Luke Skywalker's love interest. She provides a common thread through these three otherwise-loosely connected novels (the third is Hambly's Planet of Twilight). Anderson returns to many of the themes and approaches found in his earlier Jedi Academy Trilogy, including a surplus of action, fast-moving, basic prose, and a marked predilection for superweapons.

This time around we get two new weapons of mass destruction for the Expanded Universe. The first is the titular Darksaber, a massive lightsaber-shaped weapon being constructed under the auspices of Durga the Hutt. Like many petty tyrants before him, Durga dreams of galactic conquest and believes the Darksaber is his golden ticket (despite the abysmal track record the Empire's Death Stars bore). Additionally, a massive black Super Star Destroyer named the Knight Hammer shows up. The extent to which Anderson ran with the superweapon theme based only on the Death Stars is rather amusing once you list all the ones he has introduced. The concept is fine but loses its luster when used too often.

Admiral Daala makes a return appearance from the Jedi Academy Trilogy. Much like her portrayal there, we are told she is very threatening but she doesn't appear to have any actual tactical sense. In a nice touch, Grand Admiral Thrawn's second-in-command Pellaeon also appears here working with Daala, but sadly he is not really given much of significance to do. It seems his inclusion was intended to bolster Daala's credibility: he used to work for Thrawn, now he works for her, so Daala is as good a leader as Thrawn!

There is an interesting tie to The Empire Strikes Back with a lengthy sequence set on Hoth. I found the wampa attack to be one of the most exciting, primal sequences of the story. My only quibble here is the tie to one specific wampa takes things a bit too far. Tatooine also makes an appearance, and while I'll acknowledge it's easily possible to overuse these movie locations, I do enjoy seeing them in print occasionally and I'm glad Anderson dropped them in.

As I did in Children of the Jedi, I continued to find Luke and Callista's relationship tedious and unconvincing. Their romance has no strong foundation and so there's not much for Anderson to work with. Too many novels feature an uncertain and weak Luke mooning about over one thing or another, and this is no exception. The EU as a whole would have been well-served by a nuanced portrayal of a questioning yet confident Luke Skywalker, the one who was perfectly set up by Return of the Jedi.

The shift in authors makes this book a very different entry from the first in the Callista Trilogy. Darksaber is a breezy read and the action clips right along, so despite some significant reservations about the story choices and direction taken I still found it a step up from its predecessor. If you enjoyed the Jedi Academy Trilogy, odds are you'll like this one as well.