David's Review of The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance

4/5 Rancors - Fatal Alliance is based on the hugely popular Knights of the Old Republic video game that takes place about 3,500 years before A New Hope. The key event in the tale is an auction put together by Tassaa Bareesh, a monarch in the Hutt crime cartel. The only items in the auction are from a mysterious ship that was destroyed by Jet Nebula, an extremely capable and wily smuggler existing through his own efforts and cleverness. Pieces of the cargo on the destroyed ship survive and are thought to be extremely valuable to certain groups even though their exact purpose remains a mystery. As a result, the auction draws a great deal of attention. Representatives come from both the Republic and the Sith Empire, along with a Jedi Padawan, a disgraced trooper from the Republic's elite Blackstar Squad, and a mysterious Mandalorian with a private agenda. This makes for a very interesting and combustible mix of characters.

Of course, some of the groups interested in the items have no intention of bidding in an auction. They simply mean to acquire the items by any means necessary. Mr. Williams develops the action nicely and the story builds consistently without even telling us what the valuable items are until well into the story. The different groups compete vigorously with each other until they reach a point where a significant common enemy appears. The relationships from that point on are extremely interesting.

I found many of the characters in Fatal Alliance to be unique, and their efforts to cooperate do not go well many times. The author also introduces us to a new type of droid that is almost impossible to destroy. The history of the development of the droids is a key part of the conclusion to the story, and the strength and intelligence of the droids are amazing. Even the Sith and the Jedi are in trouble.

Mr. Williams has told a wonderful story. My only reservations were that the ending seemed to be a little contrived and involves a little too much explanation. The tale moves along rapidly for most of the book, but then bogs down a little. Even so, I found Fatal Alliance to be great fun to read, and I recommend it highly to the Star Wars readers.