Patrick
While I enjoyed the characterizations of the clones as usual from Karen Traviss, this story really only serves the purpose of hammering home the viewpoint that the Jedi have strict moral codes that Anakin struggles with understanding. There is an intoduction of an ENTIRE group of force users (and the book numbers them somewhere around a thousand) that have broken away from the Jedi order so that they can pursue marriages and attachments that the order does not allow for. This raises so many questions though of where are they during Order 66? How come seemingly no Jedi outside of the council (except for Qui Gonn apparently) that know about their existence? Why does Asohka upon meeting one (who the new character introduces herself to Asohka and immediately talks like "Hello, I'm so and so, and I'm married, nice to meet you") of these force users immediately take the assumption, you're not part of the order and must be steeped in the dark side at a moments notice. I just didn't really like it, and it makes it much more obvious than some of other Traviss's novels that she really dislikes the Jedi. I guess it was cool to see a younger Palleon, but then that raises even more questions about why he doesn't make any connections during Heir to the Empire about Luke, when he literally fought alongside Anakin. The story is short though, so I don't think it was a waste of time, but overall I felt like this is the weakest work from Traviss. Kind of hard to recommend though.
While I enjoyed the characterizations of the clones as usual from Karen Traviss, this story really only serves the purpose of hammering home the viewpoint that the Jedi have strict moral codes that Anakin struggles with understanding. There is an intoduction of an ENTIRE group of force users (and the book numbers them somewhere around a thousand) that have broken away from the Jedi order so that they can pursue marriages and attachments that the order does not allow for. This raises so many questions though of where are they during Order 66? How come seemingly no Jedi outside of the council (except for Qui Gonn apparently) that know about their existence? Why does Asohka upon meeting one (who the new character introduces herself to Asohka and immediately talks like "Hello, I'm so and so, and I'm married, nice to meet you") of these force users immediately take the assumption, you're not part of the order and must be steeped in the dark side at a moments notice. I just didn't really like it, and it makes it much more obvious than some of other Traviss's novels that she really dislikes the Jedi. I guess it was cool to see a younger Palleon, but then that raises even more questions about why he doesn't make any connections during Heir to the Empire about Luke, when he literally fought alongside Anakin. The story is short though, so I don't think it was a waste of time, but overall I felt like this is the weakest work from Traviss. Kind of hard to recommend though.