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THE FIGHT TO SURVIVE

A novel by Terry Bisson (2002, Scholastic Books)
Young Boba Fett, book 1
22 years before Star Wars: A New Hope

Young Boba Fett watches his father get killed by the Jedi, and goes all alone to search for Count Dooku.

 

 

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Read on March 16th, 2007  
    I'm torn about this novel. I liked the story a lot, but the first half of the book was written as if its target audience was a group of five year olds.

The first chapter was by far the most condescending, as if the author didn't know how to talk with a ten-year-old. However, as the story went on, this happened less and less.

It was really interesting to see Attack of the Clones told from a different point of view; I always like alternate tellings of stories I know well. Boba Fett was raised in a tough environment, but his father obviously loved him, and he was able to remain a regular ten-year-old in a lot of ways. Mostly, I am glad the author allowed him to remain a kid, especially in that he still needed somebody to rely on. He has some street smarts, but is still naive.

From the movie, we get to see the aftermath of Zam Wesell's death, and how it affected Boba and Jango. Even though he professed not to have any friends, Jango and Zam were quite close. We already know a lot more about the end of the movie, because we saw most of it from a broad perspective. Boba really liked the arena fight, and was quite annoyed that Obi-Wan Kenobi kept popping up, not dead, insulting his father's honor! I wonder if Boba has thought of this, but if he hadn't caused Obi-Wan's capture, there would have never been a Jedi rescue, and his father would probably still be alive. It is interesting to see a ten-year old's reasoning, as well; he is not judgmental unless he makes a conscious decision to be. He thinks Padmé is very beautiful, and doesn't want to see her hurt. He hates Obi-Wan, but doesn't care one way or the other about Anakin. Still, he loves the action of the fight.

It is the aftermath of the movie that I enjoyed a lot more. The second half of the book deals with how Boba reacted to his life alone. He has the ship, along with a flight bag, a book his father left him (with his code of conduct and a little advice), and his father's helmet. He is not pleased at all to see his father's clones fighting on the side of the Jedi. Jango, from the book, tells his son to find Count Dooku (Tyranus), his fortune, and power. This will probably take the entire series of six books to complete!

This is my favorite part of the book, as Boba behaves like a kid who has trusted the Kaminoans and his father all his life, but doesn't realize how untrustworthy the galaxy is. He goes from a bad situation to a worse one, and then worse again, all because he trusts people. This is his first lesson about self-sufficiency.

He first goes back to Kamino, where Siri almost catches him. He knew from what his father told Obi-Wan that Tyranus had been to the moons of Bogden, so he goes there, where his ship is stolen, and he retrieves it only to get conned into a money scam, and is then pickpocketed by the scammers. When asking about the Count, some bounty hunters recognize him and send him to Coruscant, where he is actually being sent to the Jedi, because of a bounty on his head! There, Aurra Sing picks him up and delivers him to Count Dooku on the garbage world of Raxus Prime.

I liked the Moons of Bogden. They were a very interesting SF place to visit. While it appears that the gravity would not be enough for anybody to walk at all, let along hold an atmosphere, that didn't bother me. A series of criss-crossing moons, whose gravitational fields added and cancelled each other, where the atmospheres sometimes merged, and certain species could glide from one to the other. Was this inspired by the worlds Onderon and Dxun in Knights of the Old Republic?

It was great to see how Boba thought he had everything under control, as luck seemed to be in his favor, only to find out differently. He crashed Slave I: great to have a starship repairman turn up at the same site. To bad he actually tears ships apart to sell the parts. The first two bounty hunters he finds actually know where to find Count Dooku, and tell him for free, even paying for his meal! Too bad they were sending him into a trap. Easy money from the balloons full of money, except that they were greedy and took one too many balloons, getting caught in the process.

This is a really good start to the series. I hope the next five books can keep up with it.

 
   

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