On The Bookshelf: Clone Wars: No Prisoners

[lazypadawan]

What a title..."No Prisoners!" Rawr!!

The third novel based on the CW animated series brings Karen Traviss back for more clone-lovin' fun. This time, Anakin kicks it with Padmé while Rex and Ahsoka team up with a young Pellaeon and Callista, the Jedi who ends up Luke's one true love until they decided to fix him up with Mara Jade. Callista shows up with her band of heretical Jedi, led by an old hippie Master. Their mission is to rescue a captured Republic agent, who is not-so-secretly Pellaeon's girlfriend.

Traviss as always can concoct a good story and this was entertaining throughout. Her heart is with the clonetroopers and she writes Rex very well. Her heart is also with the outsiders and rogues like the hippie Master, Pellaeon, and Anakin. It's clear she loves writing about them.

There's also a really funny part at the beginning of the book when Ahsoka and Rex arrive on Pellaeon's ship. He's horrified at Ahsoka's lack of attire and orders her to put some clothes on. No tube tops on his ship!

The only thing that weighs No Prisoners down is Traviss's pontification about the evils of the Republic and the awfulness of the Jedi Order. Yoda is stuck on a spit like a rotisserie chicken; not literally of course but they're always talking smack about him and his closed-minded rules. While I agree the Jedi let themselves get sucked into Palpie's phony war and didn't give much thought to the morality of cloned soldiers (at least not on film), while I agree the Jedi mishandled Anakin to put it mildly, at times I was thinking, "Okay, okay, I get it, sheesh." There are good arguments for why the Jedi do have their rules, but there's no fair and balanced view in Traviss's books. Ahsoka could have been a good conduit for the Jedi's side so to speak but all she can do is stare at the heretics and spit back what she's been taught. Come to think of it, there was opportunity for Ahsoka and Anakin to talk about what she's seen but Traviss ignores it completely.

Anakin does talk to the hippie Master though and it's an interesting conversation. Kind of sad too because the hippie Master tells him they would be more than happy to take in Anakin should the Jedi Council kick him out. So, why didn't Anakin think of that in ROTS then? Good question.

Comments

[darth-pipes.livejournal.com]

I just started reading it. Callista's in it too? I guess they had to retcon her backstory too.

Traviss has completely driven that "the Jedi were bad" point into the ground. Enough already!

Anakin joining a bunch of hippee Jedi...now that could have been an interesting story.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

It's actually not too much retconning. There's foreshadowing of what's to come in Callista's future as literally being a ghost in the machine.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

I seem to dimly recall in Children of the Jedi that when Luke introduces himself to Callista, she's quiet for a long time - like maybe she recognized the Skywalker name, or perhaps even knew Anakin. I guess this novel "explains" part of that.

There are good arguments for why the Jedi do have their rules, but there's no fair and balanced view in Traviss's books.

Indeed. It's one thing when you're writing from the POV of, say, Dooku or Anakin or Ventress, who have good reason to be pissed at the Order, and I do think it reasonable and even correct to show the stagnation/closed-mindedness of the Order in this time period. After all, there's a reason Palpatine was able to topple them. But there's also a reason the Jedi have continued to do things the way they have (however misguided I do think they are), and it's not really fair - or worthwhile storytelling - to oversimplify it as "they're just arrogant meanies." KT simply avoided the other side altogether in the CW novelization, where I don't remember a single page from the POV of someone like Obi-Wan or Yoda or even Ahsoka; it's all from people who are annoyed/disdainful towards the Order/Republic.

He's horrified at Ahsoka's lack of attire and orders her to put some clothes on. No tube tops on his ship!

I find myself thinking of that ST:TNG episode where the new captain forced Troi to ditch the catsuits/dresses and wear a proper uniform. Maybe this is why Snips appears to be fully clothed in season 2? ;)

So, why didn't Anakin think of that in ROTS then? Good question.

If I had to theorize, I'd say it's that by the time of RotS, certainly moreso as the film goes on, Anakin seems to feel that all Jedi deep down are just part of the same corrupt mold, whether they're Masters or even younglings. That, and he just isn't thinking level-headedly for the bulk of the movie anyway ;), with everything that's on his plate. But then I haven't read this book, so that's just off the top of my head.

Sounds like I ought to pick up this book before I go on my trip; I need some plane-ride material. :)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Or maybe Anakin just lost the guy's phone number and e-mail address ;).

[quidawn.livejournal.com]

Hrmmmmmm, well, I must admit as this has seriously piqued my interest and now I'm very muchly back-and-forthing as to whether I should pick up not only this novel, but....I take it there were two others prior to it, right, including the first one, "Wild Space", which admittedly I had been eyeing for quite some time - and, heck, I realized just this morning that the last SW book I bought was....well, both the CW movie novelizations, natchies, but then that was last year in the midst of that glorious CW frenzy where I was snatching up all the goodies right, left, centre and sideways, so yeah....methinks 'tis high time indeed to pick up some more decent and actually well-worthwhile SW reading material, and o' course since I have absolutely *no* interest or care whatsoever for anything in the post-NJO era or anything of the sort - eeeek, no, run away! :) - and everything else SW-wise on my bookshelf is PT-based as it is, well....seems only fair to be shoehorning CW in there too....

....although, eeep, methinks for that matter I will end up needing some more bookshelf space, because ack, as it is I've jammed so many SW books in there from novelizations to the behind-the-scenes stuff, and then a whole slew of Insiders on top of it, well, it probably is a wonder that I can actually prise anything loose to read it at all. ;) Meep! But, well, yeah, in any case then I must admit as I've been eyeing this latest CW series for a while now, and everything I'd heard about "Wild Space" and then the very quick gander I'd taken at it a while ago, yeah....seemed like it was perfectly decent, and hey, just so long as Anakin's in there in at least some form or fashion, that's all's I'm caring about anyway....no, really. ;) (gee, am I that transparent? *laughs*) Although if I'm remembering right, yeah, admittedly "Wild Space" did have a bit of a focus on Obi-Wan's adventures, but hey, surely I can overlook that if only for the sake of His Anakinliness, natch. ;)

....and okay, yes, this probably does come as no great surprise - hrmmmm, we don't think I'm getting at least a wee bit predictable here, do we? ;) - that I probably wouldn't at all mind a bit of Jedi Council-bashing in there, and heck - truth be told I've come to find that somewhat cathartic actually, like with the CW novelization by Karen Traviss - seemed like she was very muchly sympathetic to Anakin's point of view about the Jedi, the Order as a whole and the Council in particular, and o' course since I don't at all mind raking 'em over the proverbial coals meself, well....I reckon as I probably did approve of that one, true enough. ;) *tee hee* Mmmmmmm, yes, talk about a nice bit of a cathartic release-of-sorts, I've always felt....

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're back!

[quidawn.livejournal.com]

*tee hee* Ohhhh, now, I don't know as I necessarily went anywheres, but....yeah, okay, I know what you mean, point most definitely taken, quite fair. ;) To a large extent I suspect it's the ol' work day-to-day work regimen which tends to leave me spent and not always feelin' e-zactly able to focus on much of anything else, or at least to rightly tend to it as I otherwise would be, but then when you throw other stresses into the proverbial mix, there - like right now, recovering from a bit o' the dentist poking around in my mouth, root canals, *ugh* and double ugh and triple ack besides, and honest to goodness if ever there was a time I figured Darth Real Life simply had to be at work, well, this probably would have to be it. And just 'twixt you and me, methinks I've had quite enough of *those* shenanigans....harumph! :)