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| A New Threat |
| BOOK STORY |
| Elizabeth Hand |
| Scholastic Books |
Story published as:
Paperback Youth Novel (2004) |
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Rating:
If you have read this book, please
rate it:
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Reviews:
1 review [Average review
score: 1 / 5] |
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Synopsis:
THE XAGOBAH CITADEL
When you work for Jabba the Hutt, you do whatever he
wants you to do, no matter what the risk. As Jabba's
newest bounty hunter, Boba Fett has a lot to prove...
and little time to prove it. So when Jabba sends him
into the thick of the Clone Wars, there's no backing
down from the fight.
General Grievous is at the heart of the plot to
overthrow the Republic. He is fierce, strong and
virtually unstoppable. When his path crosses Boba's,
sparks fly and many lives are threatened.
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Chronology:
This story occurs 2 and a half years after the Battle of
Geonosis, approximately 19 and a half years before the
Battle of Yavin. |
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Related Stories (in
chronological order):
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"The
Boba Fett series reaches its penultimate
volume. Unfortunately, it is not a particularly welcome addition to
the series.
"Whilst the previous book in the Boba Fett series, Hunted,
was an improvement over the other books in the series, A New
Threat sees a dramatic dip in Hand's writing. The opening of the
book is excessively twee, with Boba's relationship with Ygabba and
her father being vaguely reminiscent of Enid Blyton had she written
science-fiction. The characterisation of Boba Fett is, I feel,
totally off the mark. Boba should, by this point, be maturing into
the stoic and ruthless bounty hunter we all know. Instead, he is
shown as being even more childish than he was when he was 2 1/2
years younger. He consistently talks to himself about anything and
everything. There are also some really irritating errors in the text
itself, such as Slave I having a cloaking device. I wasn't too
fussed when it was originally referred to as a sensor jammer, but
later on Hand clearly describes the effects associated with a
cloaking device and regularly calls it such. She also uses
"light-year" in an expression as a unit of time, as
opposed to distance - such misnomers are, I feel, unacceptable in
such a respected science-fiction franchise, even in a children's
novel. And the ludicrous cherry on the ridiculous cake comes in the
form of the names of the setting and its inhabitants: Xagobah and
Xamsters. It positively screams Dagobian Hamsters combined with a
lack of imagination.
"For me, the only saving grace of this book is that
occasionally Hand employs some interesting descriptive language and
in particular some nice examples of vocabulary, such as flaccid,
obsequious, phosphorescent and phalanx. To see such language used in
children's books is gratifying.
"On the whole, this book is a disappointing boyish fantasy that
should have shown a steelier and more capable Boba Fett." |