Customer Reviews

The Mandalorian Armor (Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars, Book 1)

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

This could be one of the worst books in the SW Universe. The plotline tries to be complicated and interesting, but it continues falling in a very deep pit, and the author does not know how to bring it back. While the author tries to give you some insight on the characters what he really does are boring and endless introspectives, that even make you hate some characters since they are so dull and boring. The plot pace gets stuck from time to time and I found myself rereading some paragraphs as Jeter made them extremely complicated and so boring that my attention wandered away. Just one more thing, I am not saying that the author has to read EVERY Star Wars book, but he should have had the consideration of keeping some characters as they were developed in previous masterpieces, not putting them as dumbfools just to uplift his own, newly-introduced, puny feeble bantha-fodder characters. There are a lot of SW books out there, and I bet 90% of them are better than this yarn, so better spend your money in something else.

I bought this book because I read every Star Wars book that I can get my hands on. I actually thought that this would give me further insight into the minds of the mysterious bounty hunters that we all wondered about in The Empire Strikes Back. In this, I was not disappointed. I got to learn more about Dengar and Bossk and how the Bounty Hunter's Guild was disbanded. However, if you were looking for insight into the character of Boba Fett, look somewhere else. The only info about Boba Fett that you'll come away from this book with is: 1. Boba Fett is ruthless, 2. He has no friends, 3. He's as tough as nails. These things true Boba Fett fans already know. I thought maybe we would learn a little about his past, but all we learn is that Boba Fett likes to erase all ties (human or alien) to his past. As for Jeter's portrayal of the bounty hunter, Zuckuss, I found it to be lacking. Zuckuss is supposed to be a findsman - a warrior. In this book, he's nothing but a sniveling coward, mostly hiding behind Bossk. Once in a while, he may show some intelligence, but those moments are few and far between. If you like Prince Xizor, you may be pleased with HIS portrayal - as power hungry and obnoxious as ever. He's the only character that has ever made me want to root for Darth Vader. The most intriguing storyline is that of Neelah, an escapee from Jabba's Palace who's searching for clues about her past. This is why I rated this book with 3 stars instead of 2. I'm actually looking forward to finding out what her tie with Boba Fett is. As for Dengar, another disappointment. After reading Tales of the Bounty Hunters, I had the feeling that Dengar was tougher than he's portrayed in this novel. And there seem to be a couple of discrepencies with other expanded universe novels. If you're a diehard Star Wars fan like me, you struggle through this series. Otherwise I suggest you skip it - You aren't missing much.

Bobba Fett is a lone wolf; cold, intimidating, and of unparalleled skill. Bossk is angry, bloodthirsty and lives for killing and the hunt. Dengar loves his fiance and wants one last big score so he can live happily ever after. Neelah wants to know who she is and is determined and impatient to get answers. Prince Xizor is devious and cunning in his quest for power and revenge... While these characters may sound like a great foundation for a great story the author feels the need to keep reiterating the descriptions I gave over and over again in a truly annoying writing style in which he drops us in the head of a dozen or more characters, even those where indepth knowledge of their thought processes isn't really necessary for the telling of the story. 2 lines of dialogue will be interrupted by a page of exposition. Action will be suspended so the characters can tell us about what we just read. It makes just about every page seem to drag on and never get anywhere. Good authors know when to show and not just tell and in this book the author doesn't seem to grasp that.

I read Star Wars books to be entertained but this book (and the others in the series) bored me so much with their fragmented style that I had to force myself to finish them. Even the good action sequences are too few and far between to salvage a lackluster story. The story might have been salvaged if Boba Fett lived up to the character that so intrigued us on the big screen but he doesn't. The action he is involved in is adequate but his little comments and comebacks are more befitting of a dim-witted high school jock wanna be tough guy full of bravado and an over-inflated ego (and just to clarify I was one of those guys so I know how we sound) then one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy.

If you are a die-hard Star Wars fan and have read Tales of the Bounty Hunters you will be horribly disappointed in Dengar's character. In that book he is 'Payback' a complex, dangerous, surgically enhanced killing machine, but in this book he is almost pathetic and barely competant and it is obvious the author didn't read, wasn't privy to, or just decided to ignore that other story. Continuity is ever a problem in Star Wars books and that is no more evident than here. Also, with the release of Attack of the Clones, the part of the book concerning the design of Slave I just doesn't mesh, which to be fair can't be blamed on the author.

I liked this book fairly because it was creative and did an alright job of representing the Star Wars universe. It contained many Star Wars characters such as Boba Fett, Bossk, Zuckuss, Cradossk, and Kuat of Kuat. It also helped me develop my vocabulary skills and sharpen my reading skills. I also liked the author and look forward in reading other books that he has written, including the Star Wars books. I also look forward in reading the rest of the Bounty Hunters Wars trilogy (this was book 1 of 3). The book was about Boba Fett escaping the Sarlacc Pit in which he was swallowed om Return of the Jedi. Dengar then finds Boba Fett in the Dune Sea and revived Fett from death. Along the way Dengar teams up with Fett and a slave named Neelah. Word gets out the Boba Fett is dead and could be in serious danger. At the same time, this book takes a look at Boba Fett's past. Alien Bounty Hunters Bossk and Zuckuss are trying to collect a bounty, only to find Boba Fett taking the bounty first. Again they battle in their space ships in outer space with Boba Fett taking another win. Later on Boba Fett is forced to join the Bounty Hunters Guild and team up with Bossk and Zuckuss as well as a new bounty hunter. The ending goes directly into the next book in the Bounty Hunters Wars, Slave Ship, which I am currently reading.

This book starts out well, but descends into the world of wall-paper characters, poor characterisations, and boring dialogue. Ditto for the two sequels.

To be really honest to you all, I thumbed through this book at the local Waldenbooks, thinking this could be interesting. But guess what? In five minutes I came to the conclusion that the author has absolutely no clue as to what his subject matter is about. I think his concept of "Now and Thens" was used to throw the reader off so he could make his characters and character pairings seem logical in the Star Wars timeline, guess what? It didn't do anything but make an already screwed up story into a total farce. Hey! Jeter, 4-LOM and Zuckuss...not Bossk and Zuckuss, do some research...you only had to read one book...thats all you had to do...one book. You took all the stories that were written (and were all very good I might add) in "Tales of the Bounty Hunters", and destroyed all the authors complex characters and fascinating storylines and made most of the bounty hunters into steriotypical thugs and lame brains you might see in a bad Saturday morning cartoon, all except for Boba Fett, that guy was a wild and crazy "barve". That dudes a "barve" man, dont mess with that smelly "barve", you "barve"....what the hell is a "barve"? Do you even know? I know...i'll invent a word for "bad author", and it will be "jeterian". Here's a sentence using my newfound word! Don't read those books, I hear they're written by a "jeterian". By the gods!....this book must've been written by a "jeterian", i've never seen such crap in my whole life! That "jeterian" wrote a really screwed story about a "barve" when he should have been writing about Boba Fett! I pray to God that George Lucas hasn't seen or never does see your work...if he did he'd be extremely p***ed, and if he already has, you're probably the real reason he won't make any more movies after the next 3 prequels, and not his age. If i could....I'd give this book a "black hole".

This book was so inconsistant, dull, and out of character, I could barely read it!! I have read every other book in this universe and this is the first one I had to put down! First off, all of the characters are completely wrong! Boba Fett is way to friendly, and when I read Xizor openly bickering with Vader I wanted to smack the author. Also, I am an avid fan of Dengar, and when the author had him sneaking around in the desert and worrying all the time I became furious!! Dengar is no wuss! Boba Fett once said "Only Dengar is not a fool", high praise from the master of hunters. He was a crack imperial assassin before his bounty hunting days, and could probably take any man, including Fett in a strait fire fight. And let's not forget the fact that Dengar is physicaly unable feel the bodily effects of emotion, when reading this book I get the image of him ringing his hands in fear. Dengar would shut up, blow Mos Eisley off the map, than pick the best ship to fly outta there. Not hide in the Dune Sea and scamper off to safty at the first sign of trouble! I think I may break my streak and just forget about the sequel!

I am a huge Boba Fett fan. When I heard about the bounty hunter trilogy, I was excited and a little worried.

I feel justified in worrying. Jeters seemed to have ignored all but a few base facts from the Tales of the Bounty Hunters and other stories and comics concerning them.

Boba Fett is chatty. Chatty! Even though he frequently insist that Boba doesn't speak much.

And how many times can you use the word "grim" in one book? They're *bounty hunters* no one would think of them as perky.

Mr. Jeters seems also to have confused the words Guild and Corporation. If the guild took the larger share of the bounties, no one would join. geesh.

Zuckuss was a wimp. Bossk had a brick for a brain ("Idiot" as Jeters seems overly fond of using). Boba Fett was a profiteering robot. IG-88 was slightly too emotional. Neelah was just kind of there. Dengar was almost in character, but a tad "grim". The two most interesting characters in the! story were the medical droids.

Heh, I almost forgot about Vader, Palpy, and Xizor. They were chatty as well. And I have a hard time believing that Vader was so ignorant of Xizor's activities.

It was a little too techy in odd places like. "Easy as a peice of sugared confectionary." (paraphrased) For pity's sake, just say cake. Once or twice things like that might have been cute, but it was all through the book. And he kept on refering to Naala as the "female"...is this PC for the Star Wars?

One more rant....What was up with the time swapping? Now ....Then....isn't it all Then?

And I cringed when I saw "During the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" Why couldn't it say "A few weeks prior to the Battle of Endor" or "following Han Solo's escape from Jabba's palace" etc. It's hard to get into a book when you are reminded that Star Wars is a movie.

Considering how this story ignored the previously establish! ed stories, I would put it on par with the Glove of Darth V! ader in regards to cannon.

This book is an insult and disgrace to the Star Wars name. It is quite apparent by the abuse (and misuse) of Star Wars terms and situations that the author, who was most likely sent a wealth of information on the characters he was writing about, did not real a full story pertaining to any of the characters. This is obvious by his misapplication of phrases: he often has a character refer to another as a "barve" as we would say "guy", this would prove that he only read the title of the short story "A Barve Like That". He misinterpreted the title to mean that they were refering to the character involved. He also read bits and pieces of the "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" stories, such as the last paragraph of Dengar's story, a few lines of Bossk's, and none of Zuckuss' or IG-88's. His timeline is a complete catastrophe, placing IG-88 in the story when he had not even been created yet. He also throws around a few ideas from "! ! ;Dark Empire", but stays nowhere within either version of cannon. He wields the characters dangerously, perverting their personalities into a degrading character whom no one can respect or fear: Boba Fett is nothing like the character portrayed in "Last One Standing" or "A Barve Like That", Zuckuss is a whining brat (similar in most cases to Luke Skywalker) and is paired with Bossk (?!?), 4-LOM is nowhere to be found, and IG-88 is nothing like the cold machine he would be. All in all, Bossk might be the only character portrayed with any acuracy. The actual writing was weak and disconected, although the format of entwining past with present was a satisfactory device. Even the grammar was of inferior quality. I cannot fully describe the faults of this book without surpassing the 1,000 word limit of this review. Although I will purchase the forthcoming books in this series, it will only be because I am a die-hard Boba Fett fan. However, I would no! ! t recommend this book to anyone who does not wish for such ! a character to be reduced to the sniviling fool he appears to be in the "Mandalorian Armor" novel.

With over 30 Star Wars books published in such a short period of time, it was bound to happen: a book so tedious, so uninspired as to disappoint even the most ardent fan - a group to which I do not belong. Having received numerous review copies of the "SW" novels over the years, though, I have come to enjoy most of them; they are "comfort food." Novels that do not require much thinking, and are simply "a good read," which is all the author (and the copyright holder, Lucasfilms), owes the reader, and nothing more.

But "SW: The Mandalorian Armor," falls far short of being a good read. In fact, only the MOST ardent SW fan will be able to endure finishing the book, which, of course, as is obligatory with all SW novels, ends on a cliff-hanger. First-time SW author K. W. Jeter ignores the basic tenet of ALL SW novels; Jeter fails utterly to engage the reader with the characters. Those portrayed are not even evil enough to inspire dislike; the emotions evoked are more tepid than that. And the protagonist of the piece - Bobba Fett, the "most feared Bounty Hunter in the Universe," fails utterly to engage the reader in *any* sense; he is not adequately depicted, nor his character drawn, to invoke any feelings whatsoever. If Jeter's intent was to make Fett "mysterious," he fails miserably; at the novel's end, Fett is nothing more to the reader than an unexplained automaton, with fewer emotions or motivations than the ever-present droids (whom, by the way, are treated uncharacteristically cavalierly in this book, unusual for the SW series). While the infamous Bobba Fett that is met in other SW novels is to be feared, *this* Bobba Fett may well be feared for his expertise; but nothing else emerges. Nothing.

The other characters that enter the work - Hutts, Xizor, Palpatine, etc., as well as two humans who become involved with Fett, again, fail utterly to engage the reader. At the end, during the ubiquitous cliff-hanger, the only thing ! warranted is a shrug; the characters are neither evil enough to cause the reader to desire their destruction, nor is any reason ever provided why the reader should hope for their salavage. Due to the SW time frame in which this is written, the reader *already* knows that Bobba Fett survives; the only reason to read the next book would be to see how, if one were interested enough.....an interest that this author simply does not create in any way.

My advice to even the most avid SW fan would be: don't waste your money, and hope that Lucasfilms realizes that *this* author cannot and does not fit in with the rest of the SW Universe of authors, and replaces him with someone else to write the rest of the trilogy/quadrilogy, or whatever it is to be. Flat, uninteresting, uninspired....those are the kindest words I can find for this particular SW novel.