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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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