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jedibuttercup*holding nose* This is the first week it's really been cold enough to turn on the heating system since I moved into this apartment, and the stench of burning dust is playing havoc with my sinuses. I'd open the windows to vent, but that would cancel out the purpose of turning the heating system on to begin with.
*rubbing temples* It wouldn't be so bad, except that every time my sinuses get upset, I get a persistent throbbing headache, and anything from weather changes, to high pollen counts, to (you guessed it) dust will do that to me. And I was already working on my first cold of the autumn season. Nagging little cough-sniffle congesting colds strike me several times each "wet season", and considering that the "wet season" encompasses about 75% of the year here in the Willamette Valley ...
Anyway. On to today's book review: The Mandalorian Armor.
What do you know? The rumors of Boba Fett's survival were true. Cool beans. His armor kept him from dying long enough that he was able to trigger something, blow up the Sarlacc's gut, and get belched out of it in reaction. Another bounty hunter picking over the battle debris for salable items found him and nursed him back to health.
It was a moderately interesting tale. The author was very careful to sidestep the issue of Boba Fett's distant past, which is a good thing, as Lucas completely rewrote his previous ideas on that issue when he made "Attack of the Clones". Gah, that title still makes me twitch; it makes me think of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", which is probably not the association Lucas was going for.
There were several mentions, however, of how much care Boba Fett takes to remain logical and unemotional, and how little he values the past: "... he had no use for memory. All remembering was in vain" (322). That does fit surprisingly well with Lucas' alterations. Yeah, if I started out life as an extremely non-unique individual, one clone of my father among millions, then was given extra care in a home setting, then watched the Jedi cut that father down in front of me, I might be inclined to do my best to forget everything that ever happened before putting on that famous armor.
The lack of main characters was the main detriment to this novel. I couldn't have cared less about the mysterious past of the noblewoman turned dancing girl, and while the internecine conflicts among the bounty hunters may be entertaining from Boba Fett's point of view, they're really not all that significant in the grand scheme of things.
Some of the cameos, however, made an impression on me. The name Kuat of Kuat sounded familiar, so I imagine I'll read more of him later; interesting to see what kind of character would be in charge of an enormous concern like KDY. He reminded me of Xizor, actually, minus the Falleen's sensuality. And Kud'ar Mub'at was unexpectedly intriguing. Moderately unique, as sci-fi characters go. The Shell Hutts on the other hand were just a wee bit giggle-worthy, and D'harhan's modifications seemed grotesque, not impressive.
It was also interesting to see the internal workings of the bounty hunter's world; well thought out, much like Han's life as a smuggler was in the young Han Solo trilogy.
The whole ponderous dance of one-upmanship between Vader and Xizor made a re-appearance, unfortunately. While the book is nominally set in the present of "Return of the Jedi", much of the action is set in the past, just after "A New Hope", ostensibly through Boba Fett's dreams as he heals. I did like Xizor a bit better this time, as I suspected, but I had no patience for his machinations.
The whole motivating factor behind the trilogy title -- the Bounty Hunter Wars -- seems to have been born from Xizor's conviction that the Empire's forces are all idiots. Theoretically, the intelligent ones have either had their wills crushed by the Emperor's power, or they have rebelled and joined the Alliance. And the Alliance lives in the shadows, where the dumbed-down forces of the Empire reportedly trip over their feet and onto the knives of villains at the drop of a hat. Therefore, he says, let the Bounty Hunter's Guild be broken, which will create a whole batch of bloodthirsty independent mercenaries for us to use as agents in those shadows!
Now, I can see the Emperor buying this argument, as most of the cunning that allowed him to make the transition from Senator and secret Sith into ruler of the galaxy seems to have been subsumed by the time of "A New Hope" into overconfidence and greed for more power. Vader, though? He was self-centered and obsessed with his own ideas of justice, but not blind, and he did interact with the armed forces. I cannot envision any military structure, in any place, at any time, that doesn't have the equivalent of black ops units, spies, paid informants, etc. Such people are not sheep. Is the author trying to persuade us that all of them were either disbanded or turned numb-brained over the twenty years of Palpatine's rule? Or did he just not consider that? It really strains at the edges of that envelope called "suspension of disbelief", IMHO.
The cliff-hanger ending wasn't even all that arresting, either. *yawn* Oh, well. These books can't all be gems. I am certainly not looking forward to reading the Children of the Jedi sequence again, for example. *laughing*
Up next: Book 2 of The Bounty Hunter Wars, Slave Ship.
Not today, though. I missed church this morning due to being miserably sick, but Mom would rather have me present, medicated, and curled up on the couch than detached from the family on any given holiday. Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!
*rubbing temples* It wouldn't be so bad, except that every time my sinuses get upset, I get a persistent throbbing headache, and anything from weather changes, to high pollen counts, to (you guessed it) dust will do that to me. And I was already working on my first cold of the autumn season. Nagging little cough-sniffle congesting colds strike me several times each "wet season", and considering that the "wet season" encompasses about 75% of the year here in the Willamette Valley ...
Anyway. On to today's book review: The Mandalorian Armor.
What do you know? The rumors of Boba Fett's survival were true. Cool beans. His armor kept him from dying long enough that he was able to trigger something, blow up the Sarlacc's gut, and get belched out of it in reaction. Another bounty hunter picking over the battle debris for salable items found him and nursed him back to health.
It was a moderately interesting tale. The author was very careful to sidestep the issue of Boba Fett's distant past, which is a good thing, as Lucas completely rewrote his previous ideas on that issue when he made "Attack of the Clones". Gah, that title still makes me twitch; it makes me think of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", which is probably not the association Lucas was going for.
There were several mentions, however, of how much care Boba Fett takes to remain logical and unemotional, and how little he values the past: "... he had no use for memory. All remembering was in vain" (322). That does fit surprisingly well with Lucas' alterations. Yeah, if I started out life as an extremely non-unique individual, one clone of my father among millions, then was given extra care in a home setting, then watched the Jedi cut that father down in front of me, I might be inclined to do my best to forget everything that ever happened before putting on that famous armor.
The lack of main characters was the main detriment to this novel. I couldn't have cared less about the mysterious past of the noblewoman turned dancing girl, and while the internecine conflicts among the bounty hunters may be entertaining from Boba Fett's point of view, they're really not all that significant in the grand scheme of things.
Some of the cameos, however, made an impression on me. The name Kuat of Kuat sounded familiar, so I imagine I'll read more of him later; interesting to see what kind of character would be in charge of an enormous concern like KDY. He reminded me of Xizor, actually, minus the Falleen's sensuality. And Kud'ar Mub'at was unexpectedly intriguing. Moderately unique, as sci-fi characters go. The Shell Hutts on the other hand were just a wee bit giggle-worthy, and D'harhan's modifications seemed grotesque, not impressive.
It was also interesting to see the internal workings of the bounty hunter's world; well thought out, much like Han's life as a smuggler was in the young Han Solo trilogy.
The whole ponderous dance of one-upmanship between Vader and Xizor made a re-appearance, unfortunately. While the book is nominally set in the present of "Return of the Jedi", much of the action is set in the past, just after "A New Hope", ostensibly through Boba Fett's dreams as he heals. I did like Xizor a bit better this time, as I suspected, but I had no patience for his machinations.
The whole motivating factor behind the trilogy title -- the Bounty Hunter Wars -- seems to have been born from Xizor's conviction that the Empire's forces are all idiots. Theoretically, the intelligent ones have either had their wills crushed by the Emperor's power, or they have rebelled and joined the Alliance. And the Alliance lives in the shadows, where the dumbed-down forces of the Empire reportedly trip over their feet and onto the knives of villains at the drop of a hat. Therefore, he says, let the Bounty Hunter's Guild be broken, which will create a whole batch of bloodthirsty independent mercenaries for us to use as agents in those shadows!
Now, I can see the Emperor buying this argument, as most of the cunning that allowed him to make the transition from Senator and secret Sith into ruler of the galaxy seems to have been subsumed by the time of "A New Hope" into overconfidence and greed for more power. Vader, though? He was self-centered and obsessed with his own ideas of justice, but not blind, and he did interact with the armed forces. I cannot envision any military structure, in any place, at any time, that doesn't have the equivalent of black ops units, spies, paid informants, etc. Such people are not sheep. Is the author trying to persuade us that all of them were either disbanded or turned numb-brained over the twenty years of Palpatine's rule? Or did he just not consider that? It really strains at the edges of that envelope called "suspension of disbelief", IMHO.
The cliff-hanger ending wasn't even all that arresting, either. *yawn* Oh, well. These books can't all be gems. I am certainly not looking forward to reading the Children of the Jedi sequence again, for example. *laughing*
Up next: Book 2 of The Bounty Hunter Wars, Slave Ship.
Not today, though. I missed church this morning due to being miserably sick, but Mom would rather have me present, medicated, and curled up on the couch than detached from the family on any given holiday. Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!
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Rumors of Boba Fett's demise have been greatly exaggerated...
Yeah. Frankly, it feels like they just pulled him "out of retirement" to sell more books. I actually did read this one, I remember now. I wasn't especially thrilled with it, and believe I skipped the rest of The Bounty Hunter Wars. I don't even remember for sure -- as you noted, it's a little hard to connect with these characters!
Gah, that title still makes me twitch; it makes me think of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", which is probably not the association Lucas was going for.
Believe it or not, I heard that's exactly what he was going for. He wanted to evoke his own childhood memories of excitement and "pay homage" to the sci-fi flicks that inspired him. See the Aug 2001 announcement (http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/news/2001/08/news20010806.html) to get the "official" news on the title selection.
I might be inclined to do my best to forget everything that ever happened before putting on that famous armor.
Very true! You have to wonder what those kinds of things do to a guy.
Oh, well. These books can't all be gems.
Yeah, I hear you. I love the X-Wing series, hope you enjoy that. The stories sort of fall off after Anderson talks about the development of the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, then they finally get some real steam back when the Yuuzhan Vong invade the galaxy in Vector Prime. For a while there, I started to wonder if they should keep going! Well, the Centerpoint Trilogy is pretty good, I will admit. And yes, the twins (Jacen and Jaina) get cooler as they get older.
Up next: Book 2 of The Bounty Hunter Wars, Slave Ship.
Must go to library, must keep up... ;)