Reviews Books The JC Lit Forum Reviews RETROSPECTIVE Special: The Bounty Hunter Wars II: Slave Ship

It has come to our attention that, sadly, there have not been reviews for all of the books. A few got missed along the way. So this is your chance to review books that never got reviewed along the way so that we can update our rankings in our all-time count and have these threads for reference in the Index, etc.

This round it's Slave Ship, book 2 of the Bounty Hunter Wars, which started our first look in the novels at what was going on in Boba Fett's head. Well before Karen Traviss, K. W. Jeter took a crack at the man behind the armor. So how did he do in continuing the man's story?

Please review the book and provide a rating from 1 to 10.

Previous review threads in the retrospective series:
The Approaching Storm, by Alan Dean Foster
Han Solo Trilogy I: The Paradise Snare, by Ann C. Crispin
Han Solo Trilogy II: The Hutt Gambit, by Ann C. Crispin
Han Solo Trilogy III: Rebel Dawn, by Ann C. Crispin
Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy I: The Mandalorian Armor, by K. W. Jeter

Some previous review threads in the main review series:
Republic Commando: Hard Contact, by Karen Traviss
Shatterpoint, by Matthew Stover
The Cestus Deception, by Steven Barnes
Medstar I: Battle Surgeons, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry
Medstar II: Jedi Healer, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry
Jedi Trial, by David Sherman and Dan Cragg
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, by Sean Stewart
Labyrinth of Evil, by James Luceno
Revenge of the Sith, by Matthew Stover
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno
Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine, by Veronica Whitney-Robinson
Tatooine Ghost, by Troy Denning
Survivor's Quest, by Timothy Zahn
Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream, by Aaron Allston
Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand, by Aaron Allston
Traitor, by Matthew Stover
Destiny's Way, by Walter Jon Williams
Force Heretic I: Remnant, by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Force Heretic II: Refugee, by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Force Heretic III: Reunion, by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
The Final Prophecy, by Greg Keyes
[link=http://boards.theforce.net/Literatur

 

Why are there no replies?

 

Well, I'll start this off.
I'd give this book a 7/10
I had read this book when I was around 10, so I couldn't really get into it that much, but after rereading it, it does have a quite interesting plot. I would have liked some POV from Boba Fett himself, but it was cool to see how both Dengar and Neelah reacted around him. Neelah was a rather strange character, but Dengar really showed some cool insight into the inner workings of the bounty hunter's code.

The book is thick with descriptions and dialog, and if you aren't paying close attention, you will quickly become swamped. It takes forever for anything to happen in this novel, but if you have the patience, you will be rewarded with some thrilling sequences.

At the beginning of the book, there is one very amusing scene where Fett tricks Bossk off of the Hound's Tooth using a recording.

My favourite part however, was the sequence where Fett teamed up with Bossk to go after the black ops stormtrooper. When the cantina erupted into a giant machine, it was just one of those wow moments.

All in all, a satisfying read, but not one for the casual SW fan. you really need to be dedicated to finishing the book if you want to see the plot the whole way trhough without losing your mind in bordom.

I left out the Kuat sequence of this novel in my review, as he doesn't really do anything until the end of the book.

7/10

 

I would give it about a 7.5 of 10. I was reading everything I could about Fett as research for a character in an RPG, so the Bounty Hunter Wars series was a godsend.

Granted, I'm approaching this as an older first-time reader (28) and I loved the detail and dialogue- especially between Dengar and Neelah. I agree that Neelah was a little odd, and I never really did understand why that character was thrown into the mix, per se, but it all ended up well. The characterizations of Bossk, Craddossk, Dengar, and Xizor were well done, as was Vader. And I have to say that Palpatine came off as more menacing in those books than he ever did on screen, IMHO.

I particularly enjoyed reading about Fett's appearance and reactions post-Sarlaac..and the droid commentary was great. Also, all the interactions with the Assembler- I want a Balancesheet!

I personally think that all three of these books could have, with some judicious editing, been published as a single novel. The continuity is excellent. However, the pacing does seem a little misaligned with the amount of detail given. I never was sure how many days/weeks/Standard Time Units it took for anything to get accomplished.

By far, however, my favorite scenes are when they are hunting the black-ops Stormtrooper and the chaos that ensues. Fett truly does have liquid nitrogen in his veins, it would seem.


7.5/10

 

With judicious editing, this series could have been one novel, says the user above me. That's absolutely true.

Slave Ship wasn't as good as The Mandalorian Armor, I don't think; Fett's travails with the rogue stormtrooper were about all that was of real interest and even the climax of that with the tavern erupting was kind of obtuse and hard to understand.

nd the frame story just sort of devolved into Fett, Dengar and Manaroo setting around on the ship and chatting; I seem to recall Neelah waking Dengar up from his nap by kicking him in the head so he could tell her more stories, which seemed a little off, if you ask me. Maybe bounty hunters need tough love, I don't know.

I never cared for for the whole assembler/balancesheet/sentient spider/what the hell am I reading here character of Kudar Mubat. Love the Xizor/Vader tension, however.

On the whole . . .

3 out of 10.