Title: The Mandalorian Armor (BHW)
Author: K.W. Jeter
Pages: 387
Time: 4 ABY

Introduction
It might not make me very popular around fans to say this, but I never quite understood why Boba Fett is such a popular character. When I saw him in the movies I wasn't too impressed by him. He didn't really do much and he died rather simply. When I read other novels he starred in however I started to like him a bit better. It was here that he showed some character and those novels also showed that he was feared throughout the galaxy. And guess what I found out now? He appears to have survived his "being eaten by the Sarlacc"-thing and he is back in business starring in a three novel story written by K.W. Jeter. Will he live up to the legend?

Novel quality
This novel tells us two stories. The first plays in the time between ANH and ESB. It tells us about a plot conjured up by Price Xizor to annihilate the bounty hunters guild. Since Xizor is (as we know from "Shadows of the Empire") in close contact with the Emperor and Dart Vader, he manages to involve them in his plot. The great thing to see is that Xizor is under the impression that he is actually playing the Emperor and Vader. He tries to play the ultimate puppet master and his excessively powerful apprentice. As you will find out soon enough, his play is not working. Vader just wants to kill him, while Sidious just plays the player. I found the discussions between Sidious, Vader and Xizor to be very interesting.

The ultimate puppet to be used in the destruction of the bounty hunters guild is of course the most powerful bounty hunter alive, Boba Fett. Fett is to infiltrate the guild and destroy it from the inside out. This order cannot be given directly of course as it would make the scheme just a little too obvious. To this end a new character enters the scene: Kud'ar Mub'at. This is a spidery creature that lives on an organic space station and creates his own tiny copies to do his work. This creature is used to hire Boba Fett to do the job. Kud'ar Mub'at is an interesting character. He is totally different from everything we've known so far and when it comes to intel, he is just as big a player as Xizor. It is really funny to read how everybody is trying to play everybody else. Anyway, Fett finally agrees to help destroy the bounty hunters guild. To so this he joins it and tries to destroy it from the inside. His quest takes him from the bounty hunters HQ right into Hutt territory, where he has to 'rescue' a bounty. He teams up with a group of other Bounty hunter to complete this quest. In this group we also find Bossk, Fett's rival. At least, that is how Bossk sees it. It is quite funny to read how Bossk gets worked-up when he is once again beaten by Fett. Needless to say, by the end of the novel, the bounty hunters guild is on his way down and Fett emerges victorious.

The second story is the present time. We read that Fett has miraculously escaped the Sarlacc and is rescued by the bounty hunter Dengar and a female human dancer named Neelah. Dengar is an old and relatively pathetic bounty hunter and Neelah is a dancer who was imprisoned by Jabba and had to dance for him. Together they try to escape Tatooine and head back into the galaxy. But someone powerful is trying to stop them. We learn that it is Kuat of Kuat, the leader of Kuat Drive Yards. How he is involved isn't really clear by the end of the novel. But he obviously has some role in the whole thing. What role exactly will be revealed in the second and third part of the trilogy.

The novel is pretty well written. The story is set up nicely and the plotting and planning going on is amusing. However, the story does feel a bit forced. There is no need for this story. It doesn't really do anything else than build up the character of Boba Fett and even that is not done in a special or great way. The new characters introduced aren't very interesting (except maybe Kud'ar Mub'at) and their personalities are not very well developed. Overall, this isn't a bad novel, but you wouldn't be missing much if you decided not to read it.
Rating: 72/100

Personal tilt
Boba Fett died in the Sarlacc!!!! Sorry, it's just the way I feel. He wasn't very special in the movies and he deserved to be killed off. However, I can live with him being revived if it makes his fans happy. This novel however doesn't do much in the way of increasing his stature for me. His character is placed a bit too high in the food chain for me and his line of thought and reasoning are just a bit too cold and calculative. Fett's strength is being rammed down our throats in this novel. In addition, why would we care about Bossk and his apparent rivalry with Fett? Bossk is in no way a threat to Fett and is not a very interesting character at all. This actually goes for the entire bounty hunter guild story. It is very thin. It's not all bad news however; I do like the involvement of Sidious, Vader and Xizor. Their interaction and their plotting and scheming is really interesting. Kud'ar Mub'at is a nice addition to the Star Wars universe as well. His character is something new and totally different from the regular species. In the end I didn't really dislike this novel, but I am not too enthusiastic about it. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone except die hard Boba Fett fans.
Rating: 60/100

Overall rating: 67.2/100

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