Andrew's Review of The Clone Wars Gambit: Siege

4/5 Rancors - Siege is the concluding book in Karen Miller’s Clone Wars Gambit duology, picking up several hours after the climactic battle of Stealth. There is no discernible difference in tone or focus from the first book to the second: it’s simply a longer (by Star Wars standards) story split into two. The strengths of the top-notch character scenes, including the interactions between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, carry over from book one, as do the weaknesses of a slow pace and the rather bleak tone (again, by Star Wars standards). There are some excellent sequences written from Palpatine’s POV, and Ms. Miller lets us know what exactly the concealed Sith Lord is thinking and plotting. Good stuff.

Rather than summarize the plot, there is one scene I’ll comment on. Anakin and Obi-Wan get stuck out in a remote damotite mining village for most of the novel. They integrate themselves into the community by posing as natives of Lanteeb (the planet they’re on), but as time passes and the action ramps up, they are forced to drop their disguises and defend the people as Jedi are charged with. The village is protected by an energy shield, which depends on some ill-maintained equipment to keep it active. The scene that knocked my socks off is when the shield fails and Anakin starts to hold it in place single-handedly, using the Force like a supernova to save the innocents nearby. THIS is how a Jedi should feel: heroic, selfless, powerful, and doing anything necessary to help others. Perhaps it was just something in me that needed a scene like this at the time I read it, but it really struck me deeply, as did the tension of the entire action sequence that follows.

Ms. Miller truly does some excellent work with the familiar film characters and is also adept at introducing new ones of her own. At points I was sorely tempted to give this book five stars, but there were still some pacing and tonal points that held me back. I do hope she will continue to write in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and would look forward to any future contributions she should make.