The Official Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

<center>Star Wars
Clone Wars Gambit
Stealth
By Karen Miller
February 23, 2010
Paperback

<a href="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/4/41/CW_Gambit_Stealth_front_cover.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v332/Rogue_Follower/TFN/gambit_stealth.jpg"></a>

</center>

Planet by planet, darkness creeps across the galaxy. Among warriors and generals, among ordinary beings living in far-flung worlds, the fear will not go away: We are losing this war. . . .

Anakin Skywalker feels it, too. The Separatist Alliance, with ruthlessness and treachery, is beating the Republic to every strategic target. But after a costly clash with General Grievous for the planet Kothlis, Anakin has a mission that will focus his anxious mind. Alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi, he is posing as a long-lost native of Lanteeb, an impoverished world on the Outer Rim. This seemingly unimportant planet has drawn the interest of the Seps?and Anakin and Obi-Wan soon discover the disturbing reason: A scientist enslaved by General Lok Durd is drawing on Lanteeb?s one natural resource for a devastating bioweapon. Now Anakin and Obi-Wan have entered the eye of a storm. Their presence has been exposed, Lok Durd?s plans unveiled, and a fight has begun for survival behind enemy lines?and a chance of winning a war that must be fought at any cost.

 

This sounds like a good novel. I enjoyed Karen Miller's Wild Space novel; it has a more mature theme to it, which is something we rarely get in the television series. Reading the synopsis for it, and other spoilers around the forum, I'd say this novel is geared toward the older audience.

 

I wonder if this will be linked to the attack on Kothlis in the CW comic digests.

 

Reposting what Freelancer257 reported in another thread:

 

SURPRISE!

Awww, that's so cute. The two couples together like that.

 

Bail is the king of lovefests. Which is why he has a heart on his belt.



Random comment: Lok Durd? Seriously?

 

I don't know guys. Frankly, I could save the $20 and if this is Wild Space all over again, so be it. So I'm oddly open to spoilers here.

 

I wouldn't like numerous scenes of Padme, Obi-Wan and Bail either. I'm sure it won't be a rehash of Wild Space.

 

It's not. While I actually did NOT like the Anakin/Padme we get here (felt a bit grating if I recall my initial thoughts when I read it), the Obi-Wan / Anakin stuff is very, very good.

While Wild Space was more of a "heart of darkness" type story with Obi-Wan dealing with being stranded on a Dark Side nexus of immense power, this is more of a straight-up Jedi-out-of-water scenario -- with requisite "this isn't what Jedi are good at, but Anakin and Obi-Wan are our only hope" type of things.

This isn't a bad thing, BTW, so don't consider me saying that to mean it.

However -- and this is a GUESS nothing more -- I have a feeling this is going to be Ahsoka's story by the end, despite her being more a part of the B-plot in Stealth. We're introduced to a new(?) female character, friendly with Obi-Wan, who seems to have a good effect on Ahsoka... I'm not sure this will "solve" the "where's Ahsoka by ROTS?" problem we have now by the end of this series, but we may get some hints at least...

EDIT: Additional note; I really, really like Karen Miller's style of writing. She gets a lot of the interpersonal stuff into the books, which is sorely lacking in a lot of other books, and does so in a good way. As of this post, I don't know what the plans are for Ms. Miller once the CW series ends and I'd very much like to see her get another shot at a different kind of novel in the GFFA.

 

I'm all interested in spoilers for this book, but it's almost sad that the first post already confirms stuff like "Obi-Wan is injured right in the beginning" and "the plot moves at a slow pace". And the dinner scene... this is... I think strange might be the right word, but I don't know...

This sounded so funny that it almost sold the book for me.

I'm in shock... I just realized that the thought of Bail Organa makes me think of Miguel Prado, which results in me visualising the scene above as one of all those Dexter couple dinner scenes...

 

But people do have to eat right?

This is the second recent book to take critcism for having a kitchen in it. I suspect if Obi-Wan and Anakin had some lightsaber practice while cooking up some eggs that would fix the whole problem right there.

 

While I had to be talked into it by you all, I did enjoy Wild Space so another book by Miller is going to get my attention - I didn't know this was so soon.

Sounds like it could be good.

Also, for those in the UK, this'll likely be available in HC too.

 

There is, in fact, a quite a good lightsaber spar between Anakin and Obi-Wan, IIRC. Ahsoka watches and only wishes she were that good...

... and no, no eggs.

 

Wasn't that in Wild Space?

 

It honestly may have been. I, for the life of me, can't remember which of the books I've read recently since things are so crazy here. I just recall reading Stealth a few months ago and having the reactions above and want more Karen Miller, dammit! <3

 

Yes, that was in Wild Space. Pages 45-47

 

Judging by the character models used in TCW, I don't think they were eating much of anything. So kitchen scenes are going against the grain of what we see as canon.

 

"Every single kitchen is now an enemy of the Republic."

 

Next you'll be demanding bathrooms on the Millenium Falcon...

 

I don't think people are saying, "Eating? Whatever is the world coming to? Give me more explosions!" They're saying, "Bail and Padme making dinner for Obi-Wan and Anakin? Oh my god, this is such fanfic."

I don't think I heard anyone complain when the Skywalker/Solo family had dinner in Betrayal. Because it was a family dinner, and they're a family (people might have complained about the dinner conversation, but the situation and the fact that it was depicted didn't rile anybody). No one has anything against eating. People have problems with scenes of eating that are bad scenes. Like, say, Omen making use of food solely to say, "Lol bachelors are slobs lol and lol teenage boys eat a lot lol." Not because it was food, but because it was stupid cliches.

If Miller had written, say, a scene of Anakin and Padme having a romantic dinner, so long as the dialogue was good, who would be complaining? Not me. But a scene of a pair of senators playing kitchen buddies making dinner for her secret husband and his borderline-homoerotic hurt/comfort companion from the last novel, with both the guys themselves being the more adorable awesome h/c wuv couple ever . . . it's a little cutesy, and in an author who's already writing what's basically official fanfic, it draws skepticism.

The same way "Obi-Wan gets hurt right away" draws skepticism. No food in that one (unless it just hasn't been mentioned yet that he's injured by explosion-hurled produce while shopping at the farmers' market), yet it also draws an eyeroll, because it's suspiciously fanficcy.

The same way criticizing Tahiri's interrogation of Ben doesn't mean I'm against interrogation scenes; it means I'm against molestation in any kind of scene. Focus in on the actual complaint.

 

I enjoyed Wild Space quite a lot, so I'm looking forward to this one. I love Miller's focus on characters rather than drawn out battle scenes, and her depiction of the Obi-Wan and Anakin dynamic in Wild SPace was especially good, imho.

I'm excited that Anakin and Obi-Wan are the focus of this book.

 

As I recall, there IS a valid reason there is a dinner scene -- and much to Havac's delight it begins with Bail wanting a roman-- uh, dinner meeting with Obi-Wan, which morphs into Bail bringing Padme in for soundboarding and Obi-Wan bringing Anakin in for tactical thinking.

It's set up in such a way that it makes sense, though I can see where the concept of a Bail/Padme/Anakin/Obi-Wan dinner with the senators making dinner could raise eyebrows. It barely covers a chapter or two and isn't really germane except to get the main plot rolling and conspiring against Palpatine so he doesn't find out.

Did I say that out loud?

 

Okay, so, as a rule I try very hard not to insert myself into fan spaces because, well, they're fan spaces. And even when fans are being critical -- and God knows I've been critical as a fan -- they can do a writer a lot of good. Some of the criticism of Wild Space was valid and I did my best to take it on board so that Stealth and Siege were better books because of it. And if anyone reading this is one of those critical fans I'll say thank you, loud and clear. No writer progresses without listening to sincere feedback, especially when said feedback is uncomplimentary.

However -- (you knew there had to be a however, right?)

There is one thing I feel very strongly about, and it's been raised here in this early feedback on Stealth and in fact I feel so strongly that I'm going to do something I don't do, as a rule, and that's comment on commentary.

For the most part when it comes to commenting on comments on what I write, I pretty much leave well enough alone. For the most part I think readers bring stuff to what I write -- to what anyone writes -- that has nothing to do with me. It's part and parcel of the reading dynamic. I know I bring my own experiences into the dynamic when I pick up a book or watch a dvd drama, and that those experiences will affect my interpretation of a text. And generally speaking, I do believe there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to read a text, because every reading experience is subjective.

But having said that, I'm going to state one thing categorically: never in my life have I, or will I, impose a homoerotic subtext onto any Star Wars character or, for that matter, any tie-in character not of my own creation.

If a character or characters in canon are gay, fine. I will happily explore what the story creator has established. But in Star Wars it has been made abundantly clear that as far as the official canon is concerned, the guys aren't gay. Therefore I am not writing them as gay. To write them as gay when the canon explicitly states otherwise would be, I think, incredibly disrespectful to George Lucas. And I respect the hell out of George Lucas and what he's created.

I don't know if I can make it any plainer than that.

And if this statement prompts you to scream that I'm homophobic? Please don't. I'm not a fan of slash fiction because, for me, it subverts the intention of the story's creator. For me there is no higher authority than the person or persons who created the original story. I don't get to substitute my version of the characters for his or hers. If I'm writing tie-in fiction, I am honour-bound to conform to their creation, to the very best of my ability. By some readers' lights I will undoubtedly fail at that. I accept that I cannot please everyone. It comes with the territory. But I think this is different and that's why -- for once -- I'm not biting my tongue.

If a reader chooses to interpret the work as homoerotic well, so be it. But please don't proceed on the assumption that I have written any Star Wars book with that subtext in mind because I can assure you, I haven't. In fact, I find the 'slashing' of canonically straight male characters to be sad because I think what it's saying is that men cannot love each other as friends and brothers without there being a sexual component. I think that's tragic.

Thanks for listening.

 

And I in no way think you did that in Wild Space, which was a novel I very much enjoyed. I'm completely looking forward to this book as well. Please don't take the opinion of one vocal reader who didn't enjoy your first novel as the opinion of all.

Now there have been canonical gay characters appear in the Star Wars EU, so I thought I'd mention that its not unheard of at this point. Of course as you point out Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa are established characters with established characteristics, histories and traits. All of which I think you captured really well in Wild Space.

 

Thank you, I'm really glad you enjoyed Wild Space -- but even if you hadn't, I am seriously okay with that. I have no problem with readers not liking what I write. How could I, when there are books and tv shows and films that I don't enjoy????

Likewise, I am all for gay characters. I think there should be more in all kinds of fiction. I applaud the fact they've been included in SW. But that's not the same as slashing straight characters, which is something that's never sat well with me. So, rightly or wrongly, I get a little antsy when readers push that agenda onto my work -- especially if it means that someone else who doesn't enjoy slash won't pick up something I've written. Some times I'll let things ride and sometimes I think it's important to set the record straight and this is one of those times.

As for Stealth and Siege, well, my fingers are crossed that you enjoy them and don't feel I've wasted your money! *g*