Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE CLONE WARS (Spoilers)

Just finished on the bus into work this morning (even though I bought it the week it came out last summer) and overall I liked it. I have not seen the movie or TV show so I can't compare it as a novelization. Also, I haven't read or revisited all the original Clone Wars material since they were originally published and my memory is a little fuzzy of the details. I know that Anakin certainly never had an apprentice so I imagine this book has caused a lot of heartburn in that regard. So, basically this was read in a vacuum (sp?) in regards to continuity or adaption.
I think it is clear from the films that the Republic is sick, corrupt and old. The Jedi are lost morally; as Yoda says the miasma of the Dark Side clouds everything. Regardless of what you think of Traviss' writing, her characterizations of Yoda, Kenobi, et al do ring true to me because how else could they so epically fail in regards to Sidious? Why would the Jedi agree to something as morally reprehensible as using a Clone Army? You could go on and on in what they did wrong and how they got played and I think there is definitely a lesson to be learned there in regards to vigilance.
The actual story was ok, I got tired of the Huttlet pretty quick. The battle scenes were awesome, I just thought it ended way to quickly. I re-read the fight between Anakin and Dooku and they went from fighting to Anakin flying off to rescue his Padawan in a wierd, truncated way.

I would give this a 7/10.

 

Average score: 169.25/22 = 7.69

 

I'm sure i remember hearing that this would never be released in a paperback form, but just thought I'd let people from the UK know that I saw a p/b in WHSmith's today