Rating: 
Summary: 6 1/2 hour Abridged CD is a Tremendous journey
Review: This is a review of the abridged Audio CD for Shatterpoint. Before listening to this CD I had read with interest some of the other reviews. They tended to describe the type of story that I usually don't like. I don't tend to like the labyrinth journey type of stories where the characters wander about lost both as to their location but also as to the view of themselves and their world. This type of story can often be boring, and or confusing to follow but the reader stays with it for the pay off. Often the payoff is some ridiculous contrivance. SP a great journey. This is not what you get with SP the audio CD. And this is not an ordinary Audio CD. Random house tends to abridge a 350 page book down to 2CD's for a 2 ½ to 3 hours of listening pleasure. This abridgement takes a slightly longer 416 page book and makes a 6 ½ hour CD! There is nothing boring about this version of the book. The ending is no odd contrivance either. The ending is a hugh action packed, on the edge of your seat battle. I was expecting to not like this story very much and it blew me away with its awesome sweep instead. I don't ever recall reading a M. R. Stover book before, but what a great job he did. Yes, Windu is wandering about and in this case the labyrinth is the jungle on his home world. But the story keeps evolving and changing so that your interest is kept. The characters change also which contributes to keeping your interest as well. For those who liked the action of the X-Wing books, you get plenty of action and battles here. The book is a little gory, but it has minimal detail in the audio CD, which makes it less gory and grotesque than some of the early NJO books. What do we know of Windu BEFORE reading Shatterpoint. He is the senior Jedi council member and has frequently made bad decisions when deploying Jedi on missions. He repeatedly underestimates the seriousness of the crises at hand. He is a strong pacifist at heart.
One example of bad decisions: Windu learns that a member of the Trade Federation has vital information for the Jedi and is waiting in a "safe house". Windu looks around the room full of Jedi, who are there to welcome a new graduate from Padawan to Jedi Knight, to decide who should take the important task of escorting the informant safely to the Jedi Temple. He selects the newly named Jedi (Darsha Assant) to take on the mission all by herself. Then, it's a 2 hour job and no one has heard from her, and her master have been missing for 48 hours! So Windu sends a young Obi-Wan (even though Qui-Gon is there at the temple and could have gone) all by himself to find the two missing Jedi and their informant. Shatterpoint ends the speculation as to the nature of the character of Mace Windu. Is it he that could have prevented the total destruction of the Jedi order and of the galactic Republic? In the beginning of the book he explains what a Shatterpoint is, and why it was his failure to act that led to massive destruction. Following the Battle of Geonosis Windu has sent Jedi throughout the galaxy to build resistance to the Separatists who are bringing down governments. Here, his Padawan Depa Billaba has disappeared, but they receive a communication that seems to suggest that she has gone crazy. Windu goes alone to Haruun Kalto to bring Depa back, against Yoda's request that he bring help. We see Windu make more bad decisions based on emotion, rather than listening to the force, but we also see Windu the warrior. We even see a glimpse of the wisdom that must have helped him become, in effect, the manager of Jedi operations for the Jedi Council. I have not yet read the 416 page book yet, but based on the 6 ½ hour Audio CD, this is one of the best books in the entire SW expanded universe. The quality so far of the books in this "prequel" era has been excellent, superior really to the NJO. Lucas licensing is to be applauded for the way they are evolving the story by using the novels and the comics from dark horse to go with the movies. One can't help but notice the new, high quality art and inking going on at Dark horse as of about 2 years ago. I only have 2 complaints, Jan Duursema doesn't do MORE of the pencil work and the truly POOR quality of the binding of the TPB (complied) comics since they moved the manufacturing from Canada to China. I highly recommend this audio CD and hope that they will start making longer abridgements like this one in the future and even unabridged. MTFBWY.
Rating:
Summary: should all be like this
Review: This is probably the greatest Clone Wars book yet. Some of the others read just don't match up to this and its in a league of its own. In between classes I was reading this book in the halls it was so good. It really shows the horrors of war and the struggle the Jedi are going through. Mace Windu is great. I also recommend the Medstar Duology
Rating:
Summary: Reevaluate everything
Review: This novel blew me away. I was reluctant to read it at first, since I usually rely on my pre-existing emotional attachment to the classic or NJO-era characters to buoy my interest in Star Wars books. I'm not a big fan of the prequels, and I had always thought of Mace Windu as basically a cameo role for Samuel L. Jackson in the movies. After only the first chapter of Shatterpoint, I found myself revising a lot of my opinions and preconceptions--about the book, the main character, the Jedi, the Force, and the Star Wars universe as a whole. Stover's stream-of-consciousness writing style grabbed my attention right away and pulled me emotionally into the plot. I often forgot that I was even reading--the narrative was so frank and immediate that I felt like I was there, in the story. The style alone could have kept me turning pages chapter after chapter. The plot and the details through which it plays out, however, are at least as engrossing and fresh. This is an unflinching tale of war that has more in common with the hellishness of Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) or The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien) than with other Star Wars books. Through its gruesome reality and constant sense of nervous anticipation, the novel examines the behavior of people under extreme stress and pressure. In the process, it forces a reevaluation of the psychology and purpose of the Jedi. The implications of this reevaluation beautifully weave together the events of the prequels, classic trilogy, and New Jedi Order. In the end, this is the most satisfying Star Wars book I have yet read. I would recommend it to fans of any eraof Star Wars, and equally to those who read the books for the action, the characters, or to better understand the Force and/or the morality of being a Jedi. Personally, I'll be looking for more Matthew Stover books.
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Summary: Stover makes Star Wars his Own
Review: Want to save the franchise? Give it over to Matthew Woodring Stover, who takes a character heretofore only distinguished by the fact that Sam Jackson portrays him, and brings him to gritty, determined life, as a Jedi forced to confront all his assumptions as he enters his own Heart of Darkness. Mace Windu, Jedi Master, returns to the planet of his birth to unconver the connection between his old apprentice and some massacres during a bloody (is there any other kind?) civil war. He finds that nothing, including himself, is as it seems. Well enough plot... Stover creates a haunting, wholly believable view of what it means to be a Jedi in a world gradually devolving towards empire. His characters are vivid, filled with humanity and humor, and a maturity that makes this so much more than just a 'Star Wars' book. Stover does a brilliant job of showing us both the steel that makes Windu one of the most powerful Jedi Masters, as well as the humanity which in the end, will be the temporary downfall of the Jedi and the Old Republic. And it's hellishly entertaining. An unbelievable ride.
Rating:
Summary: War is hell.... but this book is heaven!!!
Review: You know, i have been reading star wars books for many years now and have read to many to count and all of them are called star wars, but the wars in the book have never felt like any of the wars we have to come to know and hate. Shatterpoint is the vietnam of star wars books. It actually shows that war isnt all so clean and thrilling; it is a terrifying, horrible, uncivilized action that kills unmercilessly. The story is about Mace Windu and his return to his home planet of Haruun Kal to search for his former padawan, Depa Billaba, because of a disturbing message he receives from her that shows what can only be her turning to the dark side. I liked this book alot and Stovers writing was very detailed and easy to read. The first part of the book is pretty much Mace's trek through the jungle and his learning of the ways of the planet and its residents. It was exciting and fun at first, but towards the end it started to drag, but dont worry, cuz at that exact point, the story changes and it gets interesting again. The final battle takes a whole third of the book and is very exciting. This book raises and answers many questions about jedi beliefs, their war, and war in general. This is a very dark, and detailed(gory) book so i wouldnt recommend this to some of the younger kids, but it is a great read about the horrors of war, but with the star wars twist.
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