Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover


Mace Windu swaggers (yes, apparently Jedi sometimes do that) into the jungle of his home planet of Haruun Kal in search of his former Padawan, Master Depa Balliba, who has gone missing while assisting Republic loyalist guerrilla forces against the Separatist supported government.

The first 3/4 of the book is a trek from edge of a corrupt civilization into wilds of the heart of darkness, as Mace discovers that the Separatist/Republic conflict has become merely a extension of a forgotten and ongoing civil war that has turned both sides brutal, vicious, and ruthless, and to merely pick a side is to risk falling into the Darkness. Like most of the Clone Wars stories I've read it feels like a metaphor for World War 2, Vietnam, and even the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The last quarter of the book is mostly a copious amount of Jedi battlefield antics, and so, though still grim and entertaining, feels decidedly convenient. At least no one was doing anything truly dumb like using The Force to pull starships out of the atmosphere.

It is as expertly written as The Revenge of the Sith, peppered with first person journal entries from Master Windu that grant insight into Mace and Jedi lore, and bring an intimacy and immediacy to the narrative, although a few of these go on considerably enough to grind the plot to a halt. This was usually my queue to go to sleep.

Aside from these few passages, the plot is brisk, and veers into unexpected directions at least every 10th page, with surprisingly memorable scenes; for example, Mace's early showdown with two corrupt police where he counts off on his fingers the three reasons why they are wrong, and ends his warning with what is apparently the intergalactic symbol for "fuck off."

I understand that this story is now non-cannon because of some of the events of the animated series and comic books. Who cares! It's awesome, and I'll direct cannon to that intergalactic symbol I mentioned earlier.