5/5 Rancors

The original Star Wars films presented an exciting, swashbuckling world of adventure where good and evil were clear, wounds were clean, and deaths were quick. The prequels began to muddy these pristine waters, where evil was everywhere (to quote the opening scroll of Revenge of the Sith) and the saga grew progressively darker. At their core, the Clone Wars represent a horrifying manipulation of billions of lives to serve the lust for power of one man. This is grim stuff, and with Shatterpoint, Matthew Stover delves into the shadows and offers us a stark and gripping portrait of one Jedi Master struggling to come to grips with his world disintegrating around him.

Shatterpoint is the Star Wars re-telling of Joseph Conrad's classic story Heart of Darkness, famously recast into Francis Ford Coppala's brilliant film Apocalypse Now. This book grabbed me from the opening line, immediately shedding new light on the events of the Battle of Geonosis from Attack of the Clones. Mace's agony over his decisions on the arena balcony is logical and easy to empathize with. The Jedi have not faced sweeping open warfare for centuries. They can hardly be expected to smoothly adjust to leading armies after acting largely as localized peacekeepers for so long. Mace's ability to see shatterpoints (essentially showing him the key fault lines of any given situation or person and all the consequences stemming from that various actions available to him) is a well-conceived addition to the various Force powers we've seen Jedi and Sith use.

Stover's technique of alternating between a standard telling of events and looking at things through the device of Mace's journal entries keeps the story fluid. He's not afraid to play with chronology when it makes a particular sequence more interesting and this pays off multiple times, such as the Balawai outpost in the jungle where Mace finds the children. His writing is intelligent, lively, and engaging - it's great to have him writing Star Wars books where this level of quality isn't always present.

Kar Vastor and Nick Rostu are the two standout new characters from this novel. Nick can be a bit irritating but is an intriguing and lively foil to Mace's stolid wisdom and practicality. His optimism carries him through the horror of the Summertime War, enabling him to survive and even thrive in the worst of situations. Kar also thrives out in the jungle, but in his case sheer rage and primal power propel him. Kar is a superb antagonist for Mace, showing Mace everything he could have become if the Jedi order had not taken him away for training as an infant. It's nice with Kar to see an author break so cleanly from the usual Light Side/Dark Side conflict presented in Star Wars and to show a wholly different and very organic approach to using the Force.

Haruun Kal is a compelling setting and I would love to see a future novel set post-Return of the Jedi revisit it. It would be fascinating to explore the impact the Empire would have had on this society. Considering the Korunnai's extreme natural aptitude for the Force, Palpatine might have dealt with them quite harshly to prevent a possible source of opposition to his reign.

Stover invests the Mace Windu-Depa Billaba relationship with a deep amount of sensitivity and pain, making a far stronger emotional connection to the transformation Depa has endured than I ever felt with Kurtz in Heart of Darkness or Apocalypse Now. The Star Wars movies don't have time to get into motivations and characterizations of minor characters (or even Mace to a certain extent) and that's where a thoughtful book like this brings so much to the table.

My only hesitation in giving this one the five rancor rating was deciding whether it is excessively dark for the Star Wars universe. If this was a film, it would be guaranteed an "R" rating with its graphic violence and bloodshed. Beyond that, the psychological themes of the novel are quite chilling. However, the book is so well done that I concluded the darkness was appropriate and indeed, vitally necessary to the story. Kudos to Matthew Stover for a job very well done.