Title: Rogue Planet
Author: Greg Bear
Pages: 328
Type: Adventure
Time: 29 BBY

Novel quality
To be honest, I did not have very high expectations of this novel. As with TPM this story has the problem of having to deal with a young Anakin Skywalker and that somehow just doesn't seem to work out very well. After reading the novel I have to conclude that my "bad feeling" was mostly correct. The novel takes us to the planet Zonama Sekot, where organic warships are created. It's a strange planet which seems to have a connection to the Force. Obi-Wan and Anakin are on the planet to find the lost Jedi Vergere. To get close they have to appear as customers and have to go through the creation process of the organic ship. Aside from this we follow the story of Tarkin and Raith Sienar as they try to get their hands on an organic ship as well. Sienar doesn't know that Tarkin secretly plans to take control of the system. Problem is, these stories aren't very interesting. The adventure Anakin and Obi-Wan face is rather boring because there isn't much happening at all. They are just on the planet trying to figure things out and trying to out-smart each other. The inhabitants of the planet are rather flat as well and we don't really get a good picture of them. The "speaking ghost"- character which tells us about Anakin's future and in the end helps our heroes out is not very well done and because of that its predictions feel silly and obvious to someone familiar with Star Wars. To use a Blood Carver as a name for a race is extremely unfortunate, it makes the novel feel even more like a kids story than it already does since it's mostly about Anakin. The rooster fight between Tarkin and Sienar is also rather poorly done, there is just too much treachery going on there to make it even remotely believable. Are there no good parts to the novel than? Yes, a few. First of there are a some interesting details revealed. We hear about the Yuuzhan Vong for the "first" time for instance and the shifting power in the republic is starting to get more and more obvious. Second. Although the process of creating the ship is too long, it is quite well written and it really gives some substance to the line: "Be one with your ship." Third, the end of the novel redeems the story partially. Things start to speed up at the and as such become a lot more interesting. We also get to see a more interesting side of Anakin. Mr. Bear creates a great picture of Anakin's uncontrollable rage and sets the stage for the slaughtering of the Tusken Raiders in AOTC. So, has my opinion changed after reading the novel? Yes it has. Because apart from its problems, the story is more interesting than I expected it to be. There are some nice new details in there and the first mention of the Yuuzhan Vong is actually quite nice. If you are on a budget ore if you do not necessarily need to read all Star Wars novels you can skip this one. You can pick up the new details from later novels or movies or you can just ignore them, they don't really change anything anyway. If you want to read all the Star Wars novels, don't worry. The novel has its qualities and it is Star Wars, so you probably find something to like in there.
Rating: 70/100

Personal tilt
Well, I personally find the young Anakin Skywalker character very annoying. I know he is supposed to be special, but somehow I just don't like his character. And why oh why would you want to use a species named Blood Carver?? Puulease, can you get any cornier than that? Another problem is that the story centers on just Zonama Sekot. This doesn't have to be a problem (Approaching Storm), but it definitely is here. The story just feels boring. That Obi-Wan sometimes looks at Anakin kind of like a father looks at his son is nice; this does put things into perspective a bit. Too bad the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan feels a bit too competitive for my taste. The same goes for the story of Sienar and Tarkin, the way they treat each other is just a bit too much and that takes away from their characters. What I did like was the way the story hints of the Yuuzhan Vong and the introduction of living spaceships. Especially the spaceships are quite interesting and give a good feeling for the kind of attachment pilots claim to have to their flying machines. It took me almost two weeks to read this novel and that is usually a sign of trouble. That goes for this novel as well, it just wasn't able to interest me enough. It's not a bad novel, but there are several things that ruin it for me. The including of several new details and the relatively good ending of the story doesn't change that enough for me to give this novel a high rating.
Rating: 65/100


Overall rating: 68.0/100

- - - -

For an summary of all reviews and a ranking see my Book review summary