Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen MillerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
If I never read or hear the phrase, "Die Jedi, die Jedi, die Jedi, die!" again it will be too soon.
This book frustrated me for numerous reasons and I'm pretty sure I can't talk about them without giving spoilers, so you've been warned.
First, although this is a Clone Wars novel, the majority of the book, or at least the last half, is focused on only two characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. I don't have a problem with this, in and of itself, but the cover shows a lot of clone troopers and we're really interested in this time period because of the Clone War itself. Instead, we get a slowly developing relation between Bail and Obi-Wan that at times seems to following the standard pattern for a romance story where adversaries eventually become lovers. First there is antagonism and a reluctance to work with each other, then there is grudging respect and slowly dawning understanding and seeing the others' perspective, and finally a deep friendship born through extreme adversity.
To make matters worse the extreme adversity comes from a Sith holocron, which somehow seems to have become a commonplace feature in the novels, despite prior novels establishing their rarity. Obi-Wan is physically attacked and mentally continues to hear the phrase, "Die Jedi, die Jedi, die Jedi, die!" which was repeated WAY too many times in the story. When he does finally find the artifact, as you know he must, his weakened state and inability to do much has become so great that it is surprising that he was able to complete the task. The agony of this build-up was almost as unbearable as Fordo and Sam's LONG and SLOW trek through Mordor itself.
Establishing Bail's intimate connection with the Jedi here is about the only good thing that came out of the book and his character was very enjoyable. I suppose I can say that other than Obi-Wan's fatigue all of the characters seemed true to themselves in the movies and other media- that is to say their portrayal seemed accurate. Furthermore, as the Clone Wars novels continue and conclude, this story was regularly references, especially in regards to Obi-Wan and Bail and this only helped to further explain and deepen their relationship.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment