Star Wars EU review: Slave Ship
Nov. 2nd, 2004 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupToday's review: Slave Ship, second in The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy.
The first thing I noticed about this book was actually the cover picture, specifically the image of Bossk at the left. I saw that and instantly flashed back to Jim Kirk, scavenging the surface of a planet for bamboo, sulfur, potassium nitrate, charcoal, and diamonds. Are the Trandoshan (Star Wars) related to the Gorn (Star Trek, episode "Arena"), I wonder? Perhaps one or the other at some point fell through a rip in spacetime to the other dimension? *grin*
Boba Fett started out the book once again being his bad-ass self. He played major mind-games with Bossk, turning the other bounty hunter's attempt to blow up Slave I into a trap, wherein he scared Bossk out of his own Hound's Tooth, appropriated that ship for his own use, and left the intact Slave I drifting above the atmosphere for the Rebels to find and report as confirmation of his "death". Fun stuff. Now, if he'd only kept that up through the entire book! Instead, in the Now-timeline, he sets course away from Tatooine ... and his passengers start talking, and ... *yawn*
I had to wonder, too, at some of his characterization here. I'd always thought he was the honorable sort, especially after seeing him in the young Han Solo trilogy, insofar as he'd stick to any deal he'd made -- and yet in this series he seems ready to take advantage of anyone, no matter what he'd said to them previously. The Boba Fett depicted here doesn't seem like the type that would ignore Han Solo and Bria Tharen, both of whom had bounties on their heads, just because he was in pursuit of a Priority bounty (no side-jobs until finished) he'd accepted a contract for. This Boba Fett would likely instead have captured and stowed them for later disposal. That kind of character discontinuity annoys me.
Guess I'd better get used to it. With so many authors writing this series, even with editors checking to make sure the major facts all line up, it would be difficult to keep everything consistent. And I seem to remember pitching fits about various Leia or Luke episodes in later books. *sigh* What a joy to look forward to.
Anyway. I liked the introduction of "hunt saboteurs", people who'd ferry beings with bounties on their heads from Point A to Point B safely out from under the noses of the actual bounty hunters. And I had a brief Mike Myers moment when the author used the phrase "gargantuan crania" to describe miners on one of the backworlds (202). *sputter* "I'm not kidding, that's like an orange on a toothpick!" *cough* Not a flick I'd usually quote in association with Star Wars, that's for sure. *grin*
Kuat of Kuat grew on me some more in Slave Ship. Still the cold-blooded cunning businessman, but some of his opinions were quite well-stated. Example: "The problem with Palpatine's vision of the future, an Empire where his word and his will were the only ones that mattered, was that it was just not a commercially viable environment" (33). Also, "When you think you're finer and truer and more virtuous than your opponents, it's all to easy to fall into a blinding self-righteousness" (36). Except for the incident with the Kuhlvelt leader out-smarting him, I found nothing about him to dislike.
His obsession with Boba Fett's state of existence was also finally explained. I had wondered what on earth could possibly drive him to go to such lengths as bombing the bounty hunter's supposed final resting place in the previous book. More tedious intrigue - *yawn* - but at least there was a reason for it.
A factual issue cropped up, though, that niggled at me. Kuat of Kuat reminisces about the time when Boba Fett first ordered Slave I from him, and all of the innovation and expense that went into its building. But in "Attack of the Clones", it was already Jango Fett's personal vessel. Just how much of Boba Fett's past did Lucas rewrite on the fly, again? *shaking head* They usually at least try to keep these books consistent with continuity, but the editors aren't telepathic, after all. Now, thanks to Lucas, a whole new collection of errors has been created.
Specific plot issues aside, the author's writing style is really beginning to grate on me. The continual use of the word "barve" really got on my nerves in the previous book, as well as the author's insistence on using the phrase "Standard Time Unit" or "Standard Time Part" whenever understandable measurements like "hour", "day", or "year" could have been inserted. Even in dialogue! It sounds ridiculous. And now I find myself tripping over endless reminisces about "poor Oola" from the excessively uninteresting amnesiac Neelah.
Speaking of endless reminisces, pages sometimes go by between one character answering a question and the other answering, separated by paragraphs of overly detailed thought processes. *sigh* And how many times can Boba Fett recognize impending certain death at the last second, only to - mwahaha! - trick his way out of it and confound those who thought they'd observed his demise? I doubt I'll ever pick up this trilogy again after I finish it.
Though if I do write fic set entirely in this universe someday, I might not be able to resist using Kud'ar Mub'at, or its successor if the sub-node Balancesheet survives the trilogy, in some way. I do like that character. Don't ask me why; the assembler would gross me out in person, I'm sure, since its primary body is like an overgrown spider and its nest and helpers are spun from extruded biological materials. Nevertheless, I found it interesting.
Next up: Book 3 of The Bounty Hunter Wars, Hard Merchandise.
The first thing I noticed about this book was actually the cover picture, specifically the image of Bossk at the left. I saw that and instantly flashed back to Jim Kirk, scavenging the surface of a planet for bamboo, sulfur, potassium nitrate, charcoal, and diamonds. Are the Trandoshan (Star Wars) related to the Gorn (Star Trek, episode "Arena"), I wonder? Perhaps one or the other at some point fell through a rip in spacetime to the other dimension? *grin*
Boba Fett started out the book once again being his bad-ass self. He played major mind-games with Bossk, turning the other bounty hunter's attempt to blow up Slave I into a trap, wherein he scared Bossk out of his own Hound's Tooth, appropriated that ship for his own use, and left the intact Slave I drifting above the atmosphere for the Rebels to find and report as confirmation of his "death". Fun stuff. Now, if he'd only kept that up through the entire book! Instead, in the Now-timeline, he sets course away from Tatooine ... and his passengers start talking, and ... *yawn*
I had to wonder, too, at some of his characterization here. I'd always thought he was the honorable sort, especially after seeing him in the young Han Solo trilogy, insofar as he'd stick to any deal he'd made -- and yet in this series he seems ready to take advantage of anyone, no matter what he'd said to them previously. The Boba Fett depicted here doesn't seem like the type that would ignore Han Solo and Bria Tharen, both of whom had bounties on their heads, just because he was in pursuit of a Priority bounty (no side-jobs until finished) he'd accepted a contract for. This Boba Fett would likely instead have captured and stowed them for later disposal. That kind of character discontinuity annoys me.
Guess I'd better get used to it. With so many authors writing this series, even with editors checking to make sure the major facts all line up, it would be difficult to keep everything consistent. And I seem to remember pitching fits about various Leia or Luke episodes in later books. *sigh* What a joy to look forward to.
Anyway. I liked the introduction of "hunt saboteurs", people who'd ferry beings with bounties on their heads from Point A to Point B safely out from under the noses of the actual bounty hunters. And I had a brief Mike Myers moment when the author used the phrase "gargantuan crania" to describe miners on one of the backworlds (202). *sputter* "I'm not kidding, that's like an orange on a toothpick!" *cough* Not a flick I'd usually quote in association with Star Wars, that's for sure. *grin*
Kuat of Kuat grew on me some more in Slave Ship. Still the cold-blooded cunning businessman, but some of his opinions were quite well-stated. Example: "The problem with Palpatine's vision of the future, an Empire where his word and his will were the only ones that mattered, was that it was just not a commercially viable environment" (33). Also, "When you think you're finer and truer and more virtuous than your opponents, it's all to easy to fall into a blinding self-righteousness" (36). Except for the incident with the Kuhlvelt leader out-smarting him, I found nothing about him to dislike.
His obsession with Boba Fett's state of existence was also finally explained. I had wondered what on earth could possibly drive him to go to such lengths as bombing the bounty hunter's supposed final resting place in the previous book. More tedious intrigue - *yawn* - but at least there was a reason for it.
A factual issue cropped up, though, that niggled at me. Kuat of Kuat reminisces about the time when Boba Fett first ordered Slave I from him, and all of the innovation and expense that went into its building. But in "Attack of the Clones", it was already Jango Fett's personal vessel. Just how much of Boba Fett's past did Lucas rewrite on the fly, again? *shaking head* They usually at least try to keep these books consistent with continuity, but the editors aren't telepathic, after all. Now, thanks to Lucas, a whole new collection of errors has been created.
Specific plot issues aside, the author's writing style is really beginning to grate on me. The continual use of the word "barve" really got on my nerves in the previous book, as well as the author's insistence on using the phrase "Standard Time Unit" or "Standard Time Part" whenever understandable measurements like "hour", "day", or "year" could have been inserted. Even in dialogue! It sounds ridiculous. And now I find myself tripping over endless reminisces about "poor Oola" from the excessively uninteresting amnesiac Neelah.
Speaking of endless reminisces, pages sometimes go by between one character answering a question and the other answering, separated by paragraphs of overly detailed thought processes. *sigh* And how many times can Boba Fett recognize impending certain death at the last second, only to - mwahaha! - trick his way out of it and confound those who thought they'd observed his demise? I doubt I'll ever pick up this trilogy again after I finish it.
Though if I do write fic set entirely in this universe someday, I might not be able to resist using Kud'ar Mub'at, or its successor if the sub-node Balancesheet survives the trilogy, in some way. I do like that character. Don't ask me why; the assembler would gross me out in person, I'm sure, since its primary body is like an overgrown spider and its nest and helpers are spun from extruded biological materials. Nevertheless, I found it interesting.
Next up: Book 3 of The Bounty Hunter Wars, Hard Merchandise.
