Bernardin, Marc
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
2 out of 5
(1 book)
Star Wars: Mace Windu - The Twilight Run
(Art by Georges Jeanty, Dexter Vines and Chriscross)
Set before Mace became a member of the Jedi Council, this book sees him sent on a mission to recover a powerful new type of hyperdrive fuel. However, the smuggler who has the fuel has opened her offer to various parties, leading to a confrontation with agents of Jabba the Hutt and a cult opposed to technology itself.
I know it will sacrilege to some Star Wars fans, but I've never particularly liked Mace Windu as a character. He's always been a bit too self-righteous and lacking in introspection, making him the poster boy for everything wrong with the Jedi Order when it fell and, as a result, doesn't make a very good sole-protagonist. That holds true here, although I'll admit it is interesting to see him when he was just a questing Knight, rather than a leader on the Council.
The plot here is a pretty bland paint-by-numbers Star Wars story; with a MacGuffin to be recovered, a mercenary smuggler who comes round to being selfless, some monstrous creatures and a villain who spouts inane unoriginal anti-Jedi rhetoric. It ends with the suggestion of the story being continued (literally with a cliched 'The End...?') but I honestly don't see anything here worth picking up and running with.
There are a couple of good moments that raised the book above a 1 out of 5, the best of which is seeing the dynamic between Mace and Yoda this far back in their relationship, but they're few and far between. Nice to see some in-canon references to Haruun Kal from the EU ('Legends') Mace story 'Shatterpoint' by Matthew Stover, though.
2 out of 5