 | | |
| Shatterpoint (Star Wars: Clone Wars) | 
 enlarge | Author: Matthew Stover
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $0.01
You Save: $7.98 (100%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  (92 reviews)
Sales Rank: 88802
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0345455746
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345455741
ASIN: 0345455746
Publication Date: April 27, 2004
Release Date: April 27, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
?The Jedi are keepers of the peace. We are not soldiers.?
?MACE WINDU
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Mace Windu is a living legend: Jedi Master, senior member of the Jedi Council, skilled diplomat, devastating fighter. Some say he is the deadliest man alive. But he is a man of peace?and for the first time in a thousand years, the galaxy is at war.
Now, following the momentous events climaxing in the Battle of Geonosis, Master Mace Windu must undertake a perilous homecoming to his native world?to defuse a potentially catastrophic crisis for the Republic . . . and to confront a terrifying mystery with dire personal consequences.
The jungle planet of Haruun Kal, the homeworld Mace barely remembers, has become a battleground in the increasing hostilities between the Republic and the renegade Separatist movement. The Jedi Council has sent Depa Billaba?Mace?s former Padawan and fellow Council member?to Haruun Kal to train the local tribesmen as a guerilla resistance force, to fight against the Separatists who control the planet and its strategic star system with their droid armies. But now the Separatists have pulled back, and Depa has not returned. The only clue to her disappearance is a cryptic recording left at the scene of a brutal massacre: a recording that hints of madness and murder, and the darkness in the jungle . . . a recording in Depa?s own voice.
Mace Windu trained her. Only he can find her. Only he can learn what has changed her. Only he can stop her.
Jedi were never intended to be soldiers. But now they have no choice. Mace must journey alone into the most treacherous jungle in the galaxy?and into his own heritage. He will leave behind the Republic he serves, the civilization he believes in, everything but his passion for peace and his devotion to his former Padawan. And he will learn the terrible price that must be paid, when keepers of the peace are forced to make war. . . .
From the Hardcover edition.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 87 more reviews...
 Powerful, but Not What I Expected November 5, 2008
I haven't been keeping up with the Star Wars novels lately, but I had been curious about this one. It wasn't what I expected. A page-turner to be sure, with lots of fighting and action and light-sabery goodness, but there's something much deeper going on here.
Shatterpoint is set after Attack of the Clones. Mace Windu receives a troubling message from his former Padawan Depa Billaba. Now Mace must travel to the jungle world of Haruun Kal to find Depa and either save her or destroy her.
The thing that both impresses and disturbs me about the book is how it addresses one of the flaws of the Star Wars universe. In the movies, we see a galaxy at war. Over a million worlds. And yet the war is clean. Sterile. Ships pop out of existence in flashy explosions. Anonymous stormtroopers fall with bloodless blaster wounds. Even lightsabers leave cauterized, clean wounds. An entire world blows up, and Obi Wan Kenobi gets a headache. The horrors are there, but you never see them.
Stover shows us a world devastated by war. Depa Billaba was sent to help drive the separatists from Haruun Kal, and she's done so, but at what cost? The planet's people are divided, slaughtering one another in the jungles even after the galactic conflict has moved on.
Stover hammers the theme home. War is not a heroic band fighting their way past faceless enemies to blow up the Death Star and save the galaxy. It's watching your friends die of parasites and diseases, because you have no way of getting the basic medical treatment that could have saved them. It's a child stabbing a wounded soldier again and again, because that child has never known anything but war and hate. It's mutilating your enemies' bodies because you no longer see them as human. For Mace Windu, it's struggling to find the right path, the Jedi path, when all of your choices lead to darkness and death.
It's a powerful book. A little heavy-handed at times, perhaps. But I have a lot of respect for Stover for going beyond the flash-bang special effects and the relatively clean imagery of the movies and reminding readers that it ain't so.
If Darth Bane was a Jedi.... September 12, 2008
I had fallen in love with the Star Wars books after reading "Path of Destruction" and got hooked by "Rule of Two"; since then however my love has severely dwindled. The Legacy of the Force lines are entertaining but one can only take so much of the complex web of Skywalker/Solo kin running around. "Shatterpoint" brought me right back in with it's in depth and well thought out fight scenes. Mace's dark side pull gives an aggressive feel to the combat and leads into some of the best fight scenes that rival Bane's.
If all of the violence and detail wasn't good enough for us meatheads, the psycological warfare and twists and turns the book takes you through will have you analysing everything you do even after you put the book down.
Definitly in the top of the Clone Wars novels. August 6, 2008
I had read almost every other Clone Wars era novel before this and for every one I was majorly disappointed. The stories in almost all of them didn't interest me. But then I read this book and I was relieved there was one good Clones Wars book. The author gives insight on one of my favorite charecters, Mace Windu. You find out about his past and how he got to the way he is. I also liked the way Depa was involved in the book. The action was fast and interesting unlike most Star Wars novels. Definitly a good read.
One of the best Star Wars novels I've read. May 5, 2008
A reviewer mentioned that this book is darker & grittier than typical star wars novels, I'd agree with that. It was a nice change, with all of the borderline young adult star wars novels out there it's nice to find something serious & gritty. A+ on that point.
Another reviewer mentioned they were disappointed that there wasn't much clone wars in this novel. This is good to point out. With a few small changes Stover could have had this novel take place before the clone wars. Even before episode I. So if you're looking for clone troopers, trade federations, Dookus, etc. this is not the right book for you.
My only complaint is that I felt the ending was a bit long. Too much flying starfighters, laser swords, shooting guns, & shouting. I've got nothing against any of that stuff, but I definitely had a case of action fatigue by the end. I should mention it was ONLY at the very end did this happened. Throughout the book there was a good balance of action & non-action.
I think Stover did an excellent, excellent job. I'll be seeking out another of his novels in the future. I hope he's got more star wars in the future because this is one of the best I've read.
"A New Hope" for SW literature March 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For once, STAR WARS fans need not digest the bland formula writing that has characterized the entire Expanded Universe for years now. (I mean no disrespect to the likes of Timothy Zahn.) Matthew Stover leads the figurative next generation of fantasy authors, authors who are not afraid to dive deep into the frightening corners of the human psyche, while retaining the "swashbuckling" STAR WARS precedent. You will rethink the Force, and actually understand the role of the Jedi, while reveling in arguably the best fight scenes yet to be depicted on paper.
Shatterpoint is a novel to die for, taking its reader on an intense and textured journey through the personified "jungle" of war's personal savagery. Mace Windu narrates his emotional mission to the jungle planet of his people, where he must face not only his own demons, but the power of a movement of terror. This conflict has evil on both sides, tragedy ranging from children killed to souls shattered, and true empathy. Stover has made Windu his own.
Read with your whole spirit, and a notebook. We should always write when we read, whether the piece is tedious garbage or a revelatory and personal epic. Shatterpoint is the latter.
NOTES: Please vote.
Stover's other great Star Wars piece is called Traitor.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |