The Force Unleashed II Review

ALL TIMELINES


		THE FORCE UNLEASHED II A novel by Sean Williams (2010, Ballantine Books) 17 years before Star Wars: A New Hope A reborn Starkiller escapes Darth Vader to go in search of the one he loved in his former life, and to eliminate the leverage that keeps him slaved to Vader.

		Read July 18th to 25th, 2015 in hardcover
		A weak story, it furthers the birth of the Rebellion slightly, while showing how an obsessed Starkiller hasn’t thought through what he is going to do once he finds his love. Spoiler review: In my review of The Force Unleashed (the first one), I hoped the second book would focus more on Captain Juno Eclipse. This book does just that, as the other characters, even Starkiller –who appears on the cover, take on much smaller roles. Unfortunately, we didn’t get all that much in terms of interesting story. Either the solutions were too easy, or they were just not very interesting. And all of it conflicted with the Expanded Universe (which has recently been all shunted aside, anyway). Starkiller himself has been reborn as a clone on Kamino, but Juno doesn’t know that. She is, however, of the same mindset as the former Jedi General Kota, who wants a lot more action by the nascent Rebellion, so she watches over him on his missions, even though she manages to put her mission in peril while doing so. At a meeting of the Rebel alliance leaders, she loses her command, but there are the well-documented differences in opinion between Mon Mothma and Bel Iblis. Leia secretly takes Juno aside and gives her a new mission –to go to Mon Calamari (given a strange name for some unknown reason in this book), and drive the Empire from that planet, so that the Rebellion can take possession of their shipyards. It seems strange that the Empire would let the Mon Calamari keep their shipyards at all, and that they wouldn’t try to reclaim them once their garrison is defeated –especially Tarkin. Needless to say, she meets up with Ackbar, but she also gets another mission with Bail Organa, as he helps guide her through the Mon Calamari system and gains resistance members from both the Mon Calamari and Quarren species. Their plan to sabotage the Empire’s base under that planet’s ocean goes pretty well, as they sneak on board and impersonate Imperial troops. Proxy, Starkiller’s old robot, can assume anybody’s form, and he does so here in order to get them through various security checkpoints. When Tarkin arrives (why was he there to begin with?), the resistance’s charges knock out the power and Proxy impersonates him to send the Imperial troops in the wrong direction. There was very little of interest here, except that Juno gets a better sense of her worth. The results were as expected, though I do wonder how Leia could remain part of the Senate when her father is actually seen here by Tarkin. Wouldn’t they simply take her hostage until he gave himself up? It’s amazing to think that Mon Calamari remains an independent system after this, all the way to Return of the Jedi, when the Empire must know they are building warships. It takes Juno a while to get back to the fleet, because it has moved since she left on her covert mission. There is a strange scene where she encounters an informant who is part droid, and who wants to get involved romantically with her. I wondered if this might play into a love triangle of sorts once Juno realizes that Starkiller is alive again. Starkiller, for his part, escapes from Darth Vader and meets up with Kota on another of his missions. He is trying to figure out who he is, especially when he finds out that clones of Jedi are always insane (apparently –such as Joruus K’boath and Luuke Skywalker, from Heir to the Empire and The Last Command, for example), and he doesn’t seem to be insane, though he does have the fierce obsession with finding Juno. Starkiller has a vision about everyone on Juno’s frigate being killed, which starts to come true when Boba Fett shows up, having been hired by Vader to find Starkiller. Fett’s team easily boards the frigate (despite shields?), and even Starkiller can’t outwit him. I do find it odd that Vader would stiff Fett about his payment though. It seems unlike Vader, and I doubt Fett would work for him again if that actually happened. It was an unnecessary complication. The worst part of this book came when Fett is carrying Juno through empty space between the frigate and Slave I, in which Starkiller decides to follow. Both Juno and Starkiller are completely unprotected, and the way Fett’s helmet fits, I really doubt he could survive the vacuum of space, either. They don’t even rasp for breath, nor does their skin show any sign of freezing or the bends, especially with the sudden way they are launched through space. Needless to say, Starkiller doesn’t catch Fett, because the story continues. He is distracted by a huge monster that multiplies before his eyes and tries to get to the hyperdrive core. Starkiller does defeat it en route to Kamino, where the fleet has decided to take action (even Mon Mothma). Incredibly, the frigate is crewed only by Kota’s small band of mercenaries! While the fleet battles in space, Starkiller rams the frigate into the Kamino shield which causes it to collapse enough that he can shoot through to the power generator, which is incredibly almost exactly where he needs to go in order to rescue Juno. The last sequence seems straight out of a video game; never having played this video game, I can’t say if it represents what happens there. Starkiller has to fight his way to the cloning chambers, through a batch of insane clones of himself, and to Vader himself, where he tries to save Juno. Vader had laid a trap by tying Juno there, luring Starkiller to the rooftop. Starkiller actually catches a ride on the X-Wing of Wedge Antilles; while fun, it seems a little early for Wedge to already be part of the Rebellion. Starkiller does manage to rescue Juno, even though Vader almost kills her. She manages to distract Vader in time for Starkiller to survive his fight with the Sith Lord, too. Vader escapes as the entire platform is ready to be destroyed.