181st Imperial Discussion Group: Jedi Trial!

Hello people! This month we will be discussing Jedi Trial by Dan Cragg and David Sherman. Here's a link to the official TF.n staff reviews.

As usual, I'll throw out a few questions and join in on the way.

- So, I'll lead with overall tone. This novel is far more military scifi than most Star Wars novels - even going further than he more militaristic X-Wing series. Lots of information about troop numbers, tactics, detail on battles. What were your thoughts on this? Nice break? Fleet junkie (Army junkie?) heaven? Overwhelming? Boring?

- Anakin Skywalker! Arguably the protagonist of the entire saga - this is actually one of the first novels the 181st has ever discussed that features an adult, non-Vader version of him as a protagonist. How is he handled here? More like the Anakin of AotC or RoTS? How does he stack up with your take on the Anakin of the movies? What about the decision to give him an adventure away from Obi Wan?

- Neeja Halcyon. I'm giving the guy his own discussion point because his presence is more than simply that of another character on whom we can give opinions (although please do!) He's also interesting in relation to Skywalker - another married Jedi, another Jedi not in good standing with the rest of the Order, and a Master that Skywalker seems to have an easier friendship with than the parent-child bickering that occasionally dominated his friendship with Obi Wan. In addition, he's an interesting reintroduction from the EU. Did you notice any continuity issues in bringing him back at this point? The fact that the shortening of time between the movies trilogies from the original suppositions of the earlier EU writers means that perhaps Halcyon was better placed to be Corran's father than grandfather, but were there any other nice nods or flubs?

- Finally, general opinion on the book. This is, again, one of those novels that has a reputation as being sub-par. Do you think that's deserved or undeserved?

Take it away!

Thanks to everyone who suggested future novels to discuss. Unfortunately, there was a lot of diversity in the suggestions so there wasn't a clear winner. So I've decided that next month we'll be discussing Tales of the Bounty Hunters in August, and I'll split the short stories up across the weeks to keep the thread running for longer than it usually does. The skeleton plan is to do Yoda: Dark Rendezvous in September since that's been floating around since the very early days of the 181st but never seems to quite make it to the top of the pile. However, I'm open to changing that if there's general mass opinion to the contrary!

 

Military details: There are a lot of esoteric military details here, with some pretty frequent nods to the real world (the redoubts in the Freedom Son's fort being named after the redoubts and Dien Bien Phu; Slayke's message to the fleet being similar to the Nelson Signal). However, it was ultimately pretty boring. The combat never felt particularly Star Wars-y, and I could rarely clearly picture in my mind's eye the course of the battles.

Neeja: A major disappointment. It really felt that a generic Jedi character got called Neeja Halcyon and the last minute. No mention is made that the Corellian Jedi do things differently from the main Order, and Neeja doesn't have any of Corran's cunning, arrogance, or predilection for vomiting. I would have LOVED for this book to have been written by Stackpole, just to see his take on Neeja.

Odie: Worst character name ever. Also, was annoying. Her relationship with Erk (also terribly named) was manifestly unrealistic in a way that the relationships in the military sci-fi X-Wing books never quite were.

Anakin: It was nice to see this guy as a major threat on the battlefield, and the portrayal of him carrying attacks through with determination, charisma, and his own unprecedented abilities jives well with other sources. However, this is yet another example of Anakin having to flirt with the Dark Side in order to win, something that almost ever other pre-TCW source has him do. As such, his actions don't seem quite as "heroic" as they could have, and we just get more "foreshadowing" that Anakin is about to go terribly wrong.

 

I wouldn't call the militaristic scifi tone of the novel a break from the general theme because the Clone Wars was just that - a war. You have political and spy intrigue, surgical room drama, skunk works, etc. But what the general populace sees is the war - the fighting, the soliders, the ships, etc. And this war presents how it is on the frontline, just as the movie The Longest Day presented how it was for the soldiers who were on the front line as they invaded Normandy. We were able to see things from a solider's, a pilot's, a commander's, and a prisoner's perspective.

As for Anakin, we get a sense of his transition from how he was in AotC to how he is in ROTS - a transition we're seeing in the Clone Wars Cartoon. In the early comics, we saw him working well with the clone troopers and forming bonds with them. In this book, he learned how to be a commander the clone troopers could respect. Anakin's style seemed more along Thrawn's style than say, Admiral Ozzel's style. At the same time, towards the end, we're seeing glimpses of the dormant anger and rage within him. And his sense of justice towards those who have wronged him, his own, or the Republic. We saw him do the same against the Tusken Raiders, against that bully in Rogue Planet, against Poggle the Lesser in the Clone Wars Cartoon, and against the Separatist leaders in ROTS. As for having him go to Praesitly while Obi-Wan went to Ord Cestus with Kit Fisto, as I believe Jedi Trial and The Cestus Deception took place concurrently, it was probably a good idea. First, it allowed Anakin to come into his own on his own terms. Second, assuming the Council reads "evaluation reports" before Knighting a Padawan, Nejaa's report would have been objective and impartial.

Nejaa Halcyon came across as the personification of how Jedi were back in Nomi Sunrider's days and in the NJO - Jedi who learned to balance duty with their family lives. I think the reason why Anakin got along so well with him was because he could relate to him. Both loved their wives and wanted to be with them. Both were somewhat ostracized by the Jedi Order, but for different reasons. Nejaa was in the hotseat because he let that pirate go because he believed it was more important for the pirate to fight against the Trade Federation and the Separatists than it was for him to capture him and bring him to trial. Anakin's always under scrutiny because of how he came into the Jedi Order, his lack of control over his emotions, his willingness to disregard the rules, etc. I also think they got along better because there was a clean slate between them when they first met. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, knew about Anakin's origins and was a by-the-book Jedi who objected to Qui-Gon's belief in Anakin. As for the continuity issue, I agree that's an irritation for me and a big gripe over some of the books that have been written after the Prequel Trilogy began. You'd think the authors would consult with LFL and GL over continuity issues.

I think the reason for the reputation is that we've been spoled by the action we've seen in the X-Wing novels. We're so hooked on them because a good number of us have played the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games, so we can imaging how they're moving in our minds while we're reading. But some of us should have seen The Longest Day, and later we've seen the Second Invasion of Geonosis arc on the Clone Wars Cartoons. And this book is in the same theme as those two. Maybe now that we've seen Season 2 of the Clone Wars Cartoons, this novel's reputation might go up.

I also think that this book had its problems that could have been smoothed over with some more work. Here are two of them:

1. The sudden marriage at the end between Erk H'Arman and Odie Subu. I can understand the two becoming interested in each other and deciding to pursue a relationship. But marriage? How long have they known each other? If this was in the real world, I don't see this marriage lasting very long.

2. Odie Subu. Odie? I hear the na

 

A lot of this book is just unspeakably awful. The opening pages literally read like they were a fifth-grade student's project for creative writing class. I'm barely exaggerating when I say that this is what was on the page:

"Anakin practiced lightsabers all day. He was very tired. Then Nejaa Halcyon came. He asked if they could spar together. Anakin agreed. They sparred all day. It was tiring but they had fun. They agreed to do it again the next day. The next day, they sparred again and they were both very good."

Not the best way to draw the reader in for a 300+ page journey.

It's already been said, but it needs to be said as much as possible. Erk and Odie? Who the hell names two (Human) characters, that the reader is supposed to root for and be drawn into the developing romance of, Erk and Odie? A fifth-grade student for their creative writing class, maybe.

 

I have never read this book. Yet I'm aware it contains the line:

"They died when droids blasted them."

And for that, I'm grateful.

 

The final scene of the book may be the worst of all. Darth Sidious feels Anakin's angry outburst from across the galaxy and rubs his hands with glee, thinking to himself "Yes, Anakin will do quite well for my plans, indeed!"

I mean, even in 2004, it was pretty obvious that there was at least a chance that Palpatine had had Anakin in mind for years and years. I read the book before ROTS came out and thought that Sherman and Cragg just looked silly.

 

I didn't think this book was as bad as everyone else apparently does, but it's been awhile. I don't see that big an issue with the whole Nejaa Halcyon timing thing: since he is a Jedi Master by now, if he married young then I would assume Hal would be well into his teens at least, leaving him within the young parent range for Corran within a couple of years of that.

 

So, I have to say, this book bored me nearly to tears. Most of the novels I've been reading for the first time, or rereading, even the ones I haven't really connected with, have at least been an interesting experience and a chance to learn more about the EU. But I seriously had trouble getting through this one.

Partly the fault there lies with me. I'm not a fan of militaristic fiction at the best of times. Even series that I've enjoyed, like the X-Wing novels, tend to lose and confuse me when the dogfighting breaks out and there's talks of different types of missiles, etc. I mean, I like action well enough, but generally I need it to be described in more abstract terms to appreciate it. This isn't a judgement against the style itself, just an acknowledgement that I, personally, do better with the Shatterpoint/Heart of Darkness style of portraying the frontline of a war rather than this style.

That said, I also think that parts of this novel stray close to objectively overdoing it on that front. I do understand the desire to show the Clone Wars from this perspective. And a more realistic depiction of soldiers and the military works well in other novels - I haven't read it, but I've heard good things about Traviss' use of this style in Hard Contact from people whose opinions I trust. I also feel this way about parts of the X-Wing series. But...I think this goes overboard. There's just so much nitty gritty information that I don't know how to process and which frankly, doesn't feel necessary to either explaining the story or hammering home to me the juggernaut that is an standing army.

In addition, I think we spend far too much time on it in the first part of the book - it takes a long time to really get back to Anakin and Neeja. This wouldn't be so bad if I really felt a connection with the characters on Praesitlyn, but I never really did. Perhaps because she was named Odie, but also because I was too...bored by all the random military details.

As to Anakin and Nejaa. I found both of them to be passable, and somewhat interesting. I think it's a little unfair to say that Nejaa was nothing but a clone of any other Jedi with an EU name. But I also think that the novel serially misses the mark with what should have been a fantastic chance to explore both characters, but especially Anakin's.

I like the Anakin of the Clone Wars cartoon so much more than the Anakin of the movies and novels, because while cartoon!Anakin does have his moments of weakness and darkness - when Padme is in danger, or when his sense of justice and rightness is so offended he feels he has to demand retribution - but these are not his defining characteristics. The TV series genuinely seems to be invested in creating a character who shares some of Vader's characteristics (confidence, single-mindedness, focus, military genius and anger), without becoming preoccupied with foreshadowing his ultimate failure in every single episode.

Going into this novel without knowing much about it, I really did have high hopes that we would see a really heroic version of Anakin, but instead, again, it's a story about what's wrong with him, not what's right.

There was an extraordinarily potent mix of factors here that could have allowed us a real chance to see an Anakin that reconciled the AotC version with the hero we know he was considered to be. Away from Obi Wan, who I believe he loves dearly, but who is also essentially his father and who brings out the insecure (and thus whiny) child in him, but paired with another Jedi who is actually in a genuine position to understand the dilemma of his secret marriage, and his being constantly suspect by the rest of the Jedi for having a different approach.

But I feel the promise of the set up was never really fulfilled and that's a real shame.

As a final note, my issue with the continuity (though I don't really have one, more a case of it being a bandaid on something that's not the EU's fault) isn't with the ability of Nejaa to have a son old enough to father

 

I didn't mind the book, but I actually like the really detailed military story of it (it read kind of like a Tom Clancy, but Star Wars). It's interesting to see the other aspects of war, like the paramilitary groups, the logistics issues, dealing with non-Jedi, non-clone experts, etc. The MedStar books had a similar appeal, because they focussed on things normally considered trivial, but their presence adds realism.

I did like how Anakin was learning all about how to make war with the help of an expert. He had no diea how to actually run a campaign and all of its logistics, and the learning here was key.

The third thing I really liked was finally retconning Nejaa Halcyon. Even if people here didn't like how he was written, it's cool to know that other Jedi had secret wives too. Though I would have preferred if Corellians just had special dispensation when it comes to family, like the Cereans do - maybe on the grounds of preservation of culture? After all, Corellia was afforded a lot of special allowances by the Republic, New Republic, even the Empire frankly.

One minor quip: why the heck was Asajj Ventress on the cover? She was in the book for all of three minutes, and not even in person, just as a hologram communiqué to the Muun in command! And I don't remember when they decided to make Asajj Ventress black. Was the artist colorblind? And I don't accept any answer of "it wasn't Ventress". Because it has to be.

 

Regarding recent comments on the military nature of the novel, I'm glad that at least some people enjoyed it as a sort of Clancy-like take on the franchise, and I certainly agree that a large part of my distaste for it probably stems from not generally enjoying that kind of storytelling. But I also have to admit, I'm a little relieved to hear Sinre say that for all the good, Fleet Junkie information there was, it also read a little dry to him; I wouldn't like to have become completely incapable of recognising fantastic writing.

I think my problem is that I really didn't feel it did do all that much to set up ROTS other than some rather dry moving around of chess pieces on the galactica battlefield that again, I partially don't care so much about because I'm not a military fan and that's not the aspect of a war story I'm interested in, but also because the film itself wastes almost no time on such things - it's space fantasy and it handles that in the abstract. Which isn't to say that there's no place for a more militaristic take on things in the EU; on the contrary, the EU's ability to encompass vast differences in style is one of my favourite things about it, and there are other novels that break from the movies in style that I love deeply (Traitor for example). A difference in style can still be just as "Star Wars" in the hands of a skilled writer. But it also means that to me it didn't really feel that much like specific ROTS set up.

The one place it did was, as Taral notes, the way Anakin is becoming a more capable general, learning how to command and deploy troops rather than simply running in and being a Jedi. Though again, I felt the whole OMG DARK SIDE stuff at the end undercut this somewhat as it then felt like the point wasn't so much reconciling the personality traits between Skywalker and Vader, with one light and one dark, but proving that the former was already, to some degree, the same as the latter. Something I would be more forgiving of if it weren't constantly happening. It would be nice to see an Anakin-focused arc outside the cartoon where he doesn't almost or actually go dark.

The cover was a bit odd, yes, but as Sinre notes, not the weirdest one we've gotten. And OH GOD THE PURPLE TEETH. Honestly I didn't really go into that stuff so much because I just found the overall writing to be so dry and dull I felt sort of...powerless to really articulate why exactly but the obsession with the teeth is a good place to start. I think I started getting really concerned about how I was going to get through this thing when Tonith and Ventress started trading jibes about dental work and baldness. It was...surreal. It's a freaking universe of aliens. I felt like it was a line that belonged in the Tatooine Home for Aging (Bitchy) Aliens.

 

The problems were many (and I'm mystified why they essentially had a Stackpole novel not be written by Stackpole - why didn't they also let some random authors write Outbound Flight instead of Zahn?), but I think what made me the most angry about it was that there was nothing at stake.
The blurb said this -
"Commanding a Separatist invasion force more than one million strong, the cunning financier-turned-warrior lays siege to the planet Praesitlyn, home of the strategic intergalactic communications center that is key to the Republic's survival in the Clone Wars. Left unchallenged, this decisive strike could indeed pave the way for the toppling of more Republic worlds?and ultimate victory for the Separatists. Retaliation must be swift and certain."
Wait, Strategic? Key? Decisive? Nothing in the novel itself indicated that the comm center was any of these things. Maybe it's a case of overblown jacket blurbs, but actual battle appeared minor and unimportant in the scheme of things. It's like Del Rey gave them a list of Star Warsy things to appear in the novel and said "We'll be back in a few months to pick up the finished product. No, you don't need any other material. The list of names and plot points to be included is all you need."

 

I, for one, am probably of the low percentage who actually loved the novel. I loved the whole deal with how to run a campaign, military data, insertion and assaults movements planned out.

Anakin in this book was better (to me, at least) than what Lucas and some of the other authors tried to make him. He was adult in his actions, a commander for his troops to respect, taking advice from his elders (never seen an author have him do that with Obi-Wan ). Seriously, in the other books he comes off like a whiny pansy much like how most of Del Rey has presented Anakin for the past decade or so. At least Bantam kept with the whole, Vader = bad news, not Vader = whiny pansy.

Neeja Halcyon was a great appearance in this book. My problem with Del Rey and the rest of the Clone Wars multimedia project was not enough mention or cameos of the characters laid down by Bantam (i.e. Callista, Altis Djinn, Geith, Rannik Solusar [what ever happened to him? He was around during the Clone Wars, and if Kam was born or even being apprenticed then why not use them?]).

Loved the action, I could see it playing around in my mind, see the troop movements, see the battle taking place. For me, it was the highlight of The Clone Wars Multimedia project.

 

There are two points of this novel which I feel deserve some defense.

First, as mentioned before, this novel portrays Anakin as the respectable, legendary military leader that he is remembered as even 20 years later by Garven Dreis, as well as providing shades of the tactician that Anakin will one day become after he dons the obsidian-black armor. One of the many reasons Vader inspired such fear in the galactic citizenry was his ability as a general/admiral. When Vader himself was sent to your system, your little insurrection was at an end almost before he even got there, merely through the power of his reputation. This book helps to show that this was not an overnight occurrence; Vader did not "level up" and suddenly unlock a new skill tree upon becoming a Sith Lord. No, those military abilities were already there.

The second point I would like to defend is Nejaa and Anakin's friendship. Throughout the EU, and the movies themselves, Anakin is portrayed as a rather isolated figure. His only constant friend is Obi-wan. Anakin's power, his potential, the destiny set upon him by the order, and his own late admission to the Jedi set him apart from his peers, both in terms of Jedi prowess and socially. Anakin has bonding issues. Part of why his relationship with Padme became so obsessive may be partially due to the fact that he had very few others he could confide in and trust. Nejaa provides an outlet for this pent-up frustration, and Anakin's desire to reveal his marriage to Padme. I did find it somewhat odd at first that Anakin trusted a man he had known for mere months more than the master who had trained him for 13 years, but it hindsight it does make some sense. Anakin is desperate to reach out, to form friendships, to trust. He cannot confide in his own closest friend about his love for Padme. On some level, Anakin cannot trust Obi-wan. What makes Nejaa special is that he perpetrated a similar breach of Jedi protocol. There is almost certainly a better way to write the development of Anakin and Nejaa's friendship, but what we have to work with is still workable nonetheless. All in all, I found Anakin's friendship with Nejaa Halcyon to be a refreshing change from the constant "Anakin is so isolated and lonely and etc." that found its way often into the EU. Also, it is somewhat comforting to know that Anakin didn't kill Halcyon; Stackpole provided an out for that years ago.

I... can't defend the prose whatsoever. Or Erk and Odie. As much as I want to play devil's advocate for them, just to have fun with you all, I can't do it. For starters, Erk sounds like a sound bubble from the comics, like when Sol Sixxa stabs someone with a sword in Starfighter Crossbones. And Odie reminds me of "odious". And people knock ROTS for clunky romantic dialogue...

Sorry if this comes off as rambling a little, I am typing this from the Scout Camp I work at, and the book is kinda 3 hours away, so I'm just going off the top of my head

 

Urgh. This book was a total fail to me; both as a military sci-fi novel and as a book specifically about Anakin. We got the hard military sci-fi in the first Republic Commando book, and we got the beautiful insights into Anakin in the ROTS novel; this book wasn't very good at either. Even the epic battle scenes are dull; I mean, come on, a hundred thousand clones charging into a well-fortified line of a million battle droids has to carry some emotional weight, given the total impossibility of that situation. It did neither.

About the only scene that really gave me a "whoa!" was when Anakin finally got angry and stormed the command center himself.

And I mean, seriously, Anakin has no prior experience commanding a battle? Horse puckey. He might be a Padawan up to this point, but he's still participated in dozens, and possibly hundreds of battles over the last two and a half years.

 

Okay, I don't remember too much about this book to feel comfortable trashing it in as much detail as I had years ago, but I definitely remember this part. 2 major issues with the ending:

1) Palps basically calls up the Sep Commander at the end and tells him he's going to stop sending reinforcements to their side for no good reason other than Palps wants them to loose as part of his major plan, and...

2) Anakin's then able to charge into the command center (which was, indeed, awesome, because unlike that lazy whiney bum Nejaa Halcyon, who I might add is a disgrace to the Horn lineage, he actually did something useful), but once he gets in there, Qui-Gon shows up. Qui-Gon. Why on earth would he show up out of the netherworld and save some random Sep commander? If he could do that, where was in ROTS? Where was he when Anakin snapped all those other times before ROTS and slaughtered folks?

In some regards, I felt I was reading really bad fan fiction.

You said it man.

 

Stuff like this always impresses me and makes me feel like I'm missing out on great big swathes of the EU, and also makes me nervous of my own assumptions regarding the story. To me I definitely felt as though it really was quite arbitrary that this battle was of such great strategic importance - it was important because the book said so. But I can't claim to have really kept up on the galactic state of the battleground. Still, it does sound like this is to some degree extrapolation on your part rather than explicitly confirmed in the text?

As to the rest, I do see the points raised by Katarn and 1991 - as I said in my original write-up, I definitely think that there was so much potential in the idea of Anakin's story arc and friendship with Neeja, but I felt it really lacked in execution. I don't feel as negatively about Nejaa as Barriss_Coffee, but I absolutely agree with her piece of criticism about Palpatine's motivations and Qui Gon's appearance.

I think if Anakin had been more uniformly written as a white-hatted hero to this point, it would have had a great deal more impact. Finally, we see our Jedi Hero, now a formidable military commander, behaving just like Vader by getting angry and storming in and handling the situation himself. A man with the motives of a hero and the manner of a Sith. Fantastic.

But we've seen him struggle with darkness, etc., and behave questionably so many times it loses power here. It adds to the question - how could anyone not have noticed his issues? And, more specifically, why does Qui Gon only show up here and now? In isolation it works better, but in the context of the rest of the EU it ends up playing a bit like the time we see Yoda almost collapse from the pain Young Skywalker is in during the Tusken Slaughter and then apparently completely fail to follow up on it.

And Palpatine's Long Game is something I usually enjoy about the PT era, managing both sides of the war. But there was something a little convenient and perfunctory about his decision not to send more troops. It felt more motivated by the needs of the novel plot than anything internally consistent.

 

The comm center itself is supposed to be the key, though - in X-Wing, the loss of Brentaal throws the Imperial leadership into a panic. The Rogue Squadron series - comics and books - always focused on the squadron mainly anyways. I read through the entire book waiting to see why this particular comm center was so vital, especially since it was practically undefended for being such. Even stranger, it completely was at odds with the HNN articles that set up the premise of the story to begin with. Senator Paige-Tarkin acts as if the region hasn't even be affected by the Clone Wars yet. There's nothing about why the Slussi - which were Confederate before and after the novel - are staunch Republic supporters here to the point where they are building capital ships for them. There's just a series of inexplicable choices that are made that are very difficult to stomach, and this is one story that I wouldn't mind the CWAS canon maelstrom heavily modifying.

 

If someone would give me a page number, I'd be eternally grateful.

 

Page 55, hardcover. Start of Chapter 6.

The fight for the Intergalactic Communications Center was fierce but short-lived, and the outcome was never in doubt. The valiant Commander Llanmore and the mixed human and Sluissi soldiers in his battalion knew that the rest of their army, even if it was still fighting and hadn't already been destroyed, wasn't able to come to their aid. They knew that now their mission was to delay the capture of the center long enough for Reija Momen and her technicians to destroy the communications equipment. They were only partially successful.

"Stop!" Reija ordered her technicians as the first battle droids burst into the control room. "Don't resist them. I don't want any of you killed." But she couldn't save them all. Three technicians didn't hear her command and continued destroying equipment. They died when droids blasted them.

Majestic. Worthy of the Davidses.

 

Okay I'm gonna have to find that in the paperback. Just....wow. They really took the cake with that.

 

I'm seriously considering printing it out and putting it above my workspace as some kind of motivational poster: however bad it is, it's not this bad.

 

You know, I actually put all my interesting new books aside to read first Children of the Jedi, then Darksaber, and because I was really late in the game I directly jumped into Planet of Twilight, and I just might have joined that discussion if I wouldn't have been so burned out at the time. And what did I do instead? I soldiered ahead into Jedi Trial, and sometime during the book, I started wondering, "wait, did I enlist for a "boring books only book club"?

Of course I remembered that I found Jedi Trial really boring, and filled with topics that didn't interest me. But boy did I forget how hard a time I had with it.

First things first, let's say something positive: This would actually make a decent TCW episode, and I'm not quite sure if they haven't already dealt with 99% of what's in the book. Nothing in this book prevents it from being placed during the first three weeks of the war, there's absolutely nothing in it that would correspond to any character growth on behalf of Anakin since AOTC, especially in regards to ZOMG War! The purpose of the story is to show the wonders of infantry war to the reader, and therefore to Anakin, who - continuity- and OOU-production-wise - has already seen things like Jabiim. But hey, I'm concentrating on the negative again. You know, exchange Anakin for Ahsoka and you've got all the "this is how real soldiers fight real wars" lessons you'll need for all the 14 year olds out there. And if anyone made a fuzz about the "new timeline placement" of this book, I seriously have to start laughing.

Odie. Goes without saying.

Mess officer Boulanger. He made me think of an army that's kept on Croissant rations back then, and he's still making me think of it now.

And really, all that "oh, the simple soldiers! oh, the good hands-on officers!" routine is boring me to no end. You know, it all reminds me of how the "support our troops" mentality is mostly associated with the USA nowadays, to the point of being a cliché in some instances. But here it figures, with two US army veterans writing the stuff... they're essentially telling everybody how cool they and their buddies are/were. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some character or another is named after third platoon staff seargent AD second air cavalry unit whatshisrank that they wanted to honor by putting them into an un-starwarsy star wars novel.

It's so much about showing how things work in the real world that it actually ends up entering a totally different fantasy world in which people are totally absorbed by the minutae of this whole enterprise that's also known as blowing each other to bits. Shatterpoint shows how war breaks you down mentally if you happen to be in a place that would break you down mentally even if there was no war on, and Medstar demonstrates how heroes and adventurers do stuff in the perimeters of a medical camp. But Jedi Trial is abducting SW characters into something else - into a platoon manifest, a magical landscape of numbers and statistics and bland looks at the reality of people killing each other. It's a space shuttle launch with a mathematician, a different *kind* of mathematician, and a statistician. It's as dull as people say that TPM's political background is. It's full of campfire stories about desert warfare told by beardy veterans to young people who apprently knew jack about war before-and-up-to-three-years-after they enlisted. It's also a propaganda piece, with an uglier-than-though amoral villain and the ultimate chastly-kiss-thy-saviour-while-getting-shot woman whose defining characteristic is that of remembering every galatic inhabitant of their mother. Did I mention that she gets shot by the ugly villain's troops? Can you imagine your mother being held hostage and finally getting shot by the troops of a guy with icky purple teeth? Outrage! I sure hope they win against them seperatists.

The whole concept of having Anakin earn his Knighthood while totally away from Obi-Wan (in another universe where