Karen Miller's first Star Wars novel has generally been accepted by Star Wars fans as weak, insisting that too much time was spent on character development and little to nothing on the action scenes that take place. She borrows heavily from the droid duology of the first season, and it shows, like with the shows creators, how little imagination and respect for previous continuity she has. Synopsis: The Clone Wars have exploded across the galaxy as Republic forces
and Separatists struggle to gain the upper hand. But while the Jedi generals work tirelessly to defeat Count Dooku and his rebels, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is hatching his own dark plans. The Separatists have launched a sneak attack on Coruscant. Obi-Wan Kenobi, wounded in battle, insists that Anakin Skywalker and his
rookie Padawan Ahsoka leave on a risky mission against General
Grievous. But when Senator Bail Organa reveals explosive intelligence
that could turn the tide of war in the Republic's favor, the Jedi Master
agrees to accompany him to an obscure planet in the Outer Rim to verify
the facts. What Obi-Wan and Bail don't realize is that they're walking
into a deadly trap concocted by Palpatine... and escape may not be an
option. Inspired by the full-length animated feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars
and brand new TV series, this thrilling adventure is filled with
provocative, never-before-revealed insights into the characters of
Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padmé, Yoda, Count Dooku and many other Star Wars favorites.
The novel immediately sets out to rewrite Star Wars canon. Anakin is knighted directly after the (first) Battle of Geonosis instead of in the wildly popular Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial (six months before Revenge of the Sith). Later, after the events of the movie, Anakin and Obi-Wan show Ahsoka how to duel. After several talking pages, Obi-Wan receives information from Dexter about Grievous's plans to invade Bothawui, the homeworld of the Bothans. After some botched character building with Anakin, he learns from Obi-Wan, wounded in a crash, about the attack on Bothawui. Anakin tells Yoda and the Jedi Council. A botched attempt to turn Palpatine into a good guy by the author fails and that's 12 pages wasted. The Jedi Council assigns Anakin and Ahsoka to oversee the Battle of Bothawui. Palpatine, as Darth Sidious, contacts Dooku, as Darth Tyrannus, to leak information to get Bail and Obi-Wan lured into a trap. Bail asks Padme if she's heard of the Sith and she lies. She asks Obi-Wan to come to her place to talk to Bail. They meet and agree, and so does the Jedi Council, to go looking for this Sith threat on a planet called Zigoola. Bail and Obi-Wan leave Coruscant and traverse a stunted path to Zigoola, which takes them past Bothawui during Greivous' attack and some bit of the aftermath. Then, after several chapters of stunted character development, they finally arrive at Zigoola and attempt to guide themselves to the Sith temple only to crash on the planet. The Siths lingering power is affecting Obi-Wan, making him nearly kill Organa on a couple of occasions. With no ship and a minimal chance of survival inside, and after days of travel through Zigoola's terrain, enter the Sith temple and find a Sith Holocron. The holocron has been raging at Obi-Wan to kill. Instincts kick in and Bail destroys the Sith artifacts inside the Sith temple. On Obi-Wan's orders, Bail wounds the Jedi Master and Obi-Wan uses a crystal to summon Yoda for help. Yoda asks Padme to go because he can't risk another Jedi being influenced by Zigoola's Sith remnants. Padme and a group of clone troopers arrive and retrieve them. Obi-Wan and Bail recover on Coruscant while Palpatine, seething inside at all the destroyed artifacts and Obi-Wan and Bail's survival and the setbacks this costs him, continues on with managing the war.
All in all, a slightly-worse than mediocre novel. Too much time was spent on character development at the sake of the plot. IN a way, cramming in parts of the droid episodes wasted enough time to eventually get Obi-Wan and Bail to Zigoola, which seems to have been the author's intent. Karen Miller wasted enough time when she could've just jumped them straight to Zigoola and done what only two other authors have done: explore the Sith. So much potential on Zigoola and none of it used. How... disappointing.
The novel immediately sets out to rewrite Star Wars canon. Anakin is knighted directly after the (first) Battle of Geonosis instead of in the wildly popular Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial (six months before Revenge of the Sith). Later, after the events of the movie, Anakin and Obi-Wan show Ahsoka how to duel. After several talking pages, Obi-Wan receives information from Dexter about Grievous's plans to invade Bothawui, the homeworld of the Bothans. After some botched character building with Anakin, he learns from Obi-Wan, wounded in a crash, about the attack on Bothawui. Anakin tells Yoda and the Jedi Council. A botched attempt to turn Palpatine into a good guy by the author fails and that's 12 pages wasted. The Jedi Council assigns Anakin and Ahsoka to oversee the Battle of Bothawui. Palpatine, as Darth Sidious, contacts Dooku, as Darth Tyrannus, to leak information to get Bail and Obi-Wan lured into a trap. Bail asks Padme if she's heard of the Sith and she lies. She asks Obi-Wan to come to her place to talk to Bail. They meet and agree, and so does the Jedi Council, to go looking for this Sith threat on a planet called Zigoola. Bail and Obi-Wan leave Coruscant and traverse a stunted path to Zigoola, which takes them past Bothawui during Greivous' attack and some bit of the aftermath. Then, after several chapters of stunted character development, they finally arrive at Zigoola and attempt to guide themselves to the Sith temple only to crash on the planet. The Siths lingering power is affecting Obi-Wan, making him nearly kill Organa on a couple of occasions. With no ship and a minimal chance of survival inside, and after days of travel through Zigoola's terrain, enter the Sith temple and find a Sith Holocron. The holocron has been raging at Obi-Wan to kill. Instincts kick in and Bail destroys the Sith artifacts inside the Sith temple. On Obi-Wan's orders, Bail wounds the Jedi Master and Obi-Wan uses a crystal to summon Yoda for help. Yoda asks Padme to go because he can't risk another Jedi being influenced by Zigoola's Sith remnants. Padme and a group of clone troopers arrive and retrieve them. Obi-Wan and Bail recover on Coruscant while Palpatine, seething inside at all the destroyed artifacts and Obi-Wan and Bail's survival and the setbacks this costs him, continues on with managing the war.
All in all, a slightly-worse than mediocre novel. Too much time was spent on character development at the sake of the plot. IN a way, cramming in parts of the droid episodes wasted enough time to eventually get Obi-Wan and Bail to Zigoola, which seems to have been the author's intent. Karen Miller wasted enough time when she could've just jumped them straight to Zigoola and done what only two other authors have done: explore the Sith. So much potential on Zigoola and none of it used. How... disappointing.
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