It’s a shorter post this time as the Clone Wars books begin to wrap up.  Once again, we have a pretty stark contrast between two books which is a shame.

Jedi Trial
Wow.  This book has some of the worst pacing ever.  The book is basically one giant battle on a planet and Anakin and Nejaa don’t even get there until 100 pages in.  To top it off, about half the book is centered around two soldiers from the planet that I never end up caring about.  If this is supposed to be the Anakin book to balance out the Obi-Wan book… it kinda fails because of that ratio.  Oh.  And the villain is just one big tropefest and not in an entertaining David Eddings sort of way.

This might be the first book that I’ve reread for this project that is worse than I remember it being and I honestly have always wanted to like this book.  I remember being incredibly excited when I heard that it would also be featuring Nejaa Halcyon and he really is the saving aspect of the book.  I do actually like the friendship between him and Anakin and it’s nice that they are this little fraternity of Jedi Who Shouldn’t Be Married But Are.  (Mark Nejaa down as another friend that Anakin desperately needed and should’ve chatted with BEFORE making horrible life decisions.)  Unfortunately, Nejaa never really gets much character development outside of the mission and his friendship with Anakin.  It would be nice if we could get an e-short story about him one day.  (HEY DEL REY.  MAYBE GIVE STACKPOLE A CALL.)

Bottom line is that it’s not terrible but it’s not good either.  To take that a bit further, I think that the moral of my Clone Wars book reviews has been that most of these books are good… except for the ones focusing on our main heroes from the films which is rather unfortunate.

Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
This book never fails to be a pleasant surprise every time I read it.  Back in the day, I used to be obsessed with Padme’s handmaidens and ended up purchasing this book mostly because they made the briefest of cameos but ended up loving it for some much more.  It’s a character study backed up with a great supporting cast with a touch of philosophy and a good plotline to tie it all together.

Obviously, this is a Yoda book and we really get to know who he is as a person.  It helps reconcile the very in control Jedi Master we see in the Prequel Trilogy with the hermit on Dagobah in Empire Strikes Back.  (If the mental image of Yoda being grouchy because he’s stuck using a hollow R2 unit as a disguise doesn’t amuse you then I don’t know what will.)   Sean Stewart shows us Yoda’s relationships with Jedi across the board as a teacher and a mentor.  This is the book where you really get that Yoda is over 800 years old and yet still cares about each and every one of his students.  There’s one passage in particular that kills me every time:

Whie cried for what seemed like a long time. Scout ate. Fidelis served. Master Yoda told stories of Maks Leem and Jai Maruk: tales of their most exciting adventures, of course, but also comical anecdotes from the days when they were only children in the Temple. They drank together, many toasts.

Scout cried. Whie ate. Fidelis served.

Yoda told stories, and ate, and cried, and laughed: and the Padawans saw that life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

Yoda never stops caring about his students even though you’d think he would’ve learned to feel a bit more detached after 800 years of watching his students live and die.  He even still cares enough about a fallen student to risk his life on a chance that he could bring Dooku back to the light.

That brings me to my next point because the book is also a character study for Count Dooku.  This book is probably the most that anyone has really delved into his mind and motivations.  This book is also what made me think that maybe Dooku wasn’t really as much of a Sith as he thinks he is.  I think he was in it more for the political aspect than any desire to be evil or anything.  I really do think that there’s a good chance he could’ve been redeemed if he hadn’t, you know, lost his head.

To top it all off, you have the other point of view for this story: Scout and Whie.  As a reader, I ended up finding myself fairly invested in the fate of both of these padawans.  They’re two sides of the same coin and clearly serve as foils for one another while remaining interesting characters in their own rights.  I’ll admit that I’m a bit more partial to Scout though.  After all, we have already determined that I’m a sucker for underdogs.  She’s a kid who isn’t very strong in the Force but manages to stay a Jedi because of her smarts and pure force of will.    I also like that Stewart showed us what life was like for the young Jedi who remained at the Temple during the war because they were too young to be sent off to battle and those who have lost their Masters to the war.  If only they weren’t all about to be doomed anyways. 🙁

This is another book that’s hard for me to really describe why I love it so much because again, this is definitely an experience and absolutely worth the read.

The Clone Wars are drawing to an end which means that unofficial Revenge of the Sith trilogy is up next.  Spoiler alert: I’ll probably have another emotional meltdown on Twitter thanks to one Matthew Stover.  As always, if you’d like to follow my progress in real time or just observe me break emotionally, you can follow me on Twitter @chaosbria or the hashtag #WaruExpress.