The Mandalorian Armor : Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars, Book I

Rating:
Summary: A STAR WARS NOVEL AT ITS BEST!!!
Review: Those of you who think that the STAR WARS novels have destroyed the brilliance of the movies you are dead right but when it comes to this trilogy "THE BOUNTY HUNTER WARS" you fall in love with the books and the movies once again. K. W. Jeter is the most talented author ever, every word he writes is interesting, Jeter is God. This book, book one, "THE MANDALORIAN ARMOR" is about STAR WARS' favourite bounty hunter Boba Fett and is set during "RETURN OF THE JEDI" WHAT! you say "I thought he was dead!" Boba Fett can cheat death on a Monday morning if he wanted to so he blows up the salacc and hurts himself in the process. After regaining his superhuman strength he finds himself in a deadly game, Survival of the Fittest against household bounty hunter names like Bossk and The Bounty Hunters Guild. Ofcoarse this game has been set up by the cunning Prince Xizor. The conclusion of the book is gripping yet you laugh to yourself and say somebodys gonna be mighty angry in book two.

Rating:
Summary: highly disappointing
Review: "The Mandalorian Armor" is the first volume in K.W. Jeter's "Bounty Hunter Wars" trilogy set in the Star Wars Universe. Typically, with a Star Wars novel, the protagonist of the story is a hero, a good guy. In this novel there are no good guys. The story follows Boba Fett, the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. This book has a somewhat different style in that there are two plot lines occurring at different times. The first storyline begins just after "Return of the Jedi" where Boba Fett had fallen into the mouth of the Sarlacc on Tatooine. The Sarlacc is the creature Jabba the Hutt had threatened would slowly digest Luke Skywalker for a thousand years of torment (as if he wouldn't die of starvation or something long before then). In this storyline, Boba Fett has crawled and fought his way out of the Sarlacc and is laying mostly dead (which is different from all the way dead) on the sand. He is rescued by another bounty hunter, Dengar, and we start to get pieces of Fett's story and how he came to be where he is and why.

The other story is set after "A New Hope". Fett has accepted a mission to join the Bounty Hunter's Guild and be the poison which tears it apart. He doesn't know that this mission is from Prince Xizor (Shadows of the Empire) and with the tacit approval of the Emperor. This isn't something that Fett is supposed to come out of alive.

These two things should be enough to carry a novel, but Jeter fills "The Madalorian Armor" with plenty of intrigue and strange characters. There are odd alien creatures like Kud'ar Mub'at, which has set up the intrigue, and Kuat of Kuat trying to keep his planet safe but rich.

While there is quite a bit going on in "The Mandalorian Armor", I can't recommend it. Jeter is trying to do too much here and the novel never really seems to come together. I understand that it is the first part of a trilogy, but it is all set up and very little execution. In addition there wasn't really any character to care much about, except perhaps Dengar and the mystery woman who was a former slave of Jabba's. It's a nice try that fills in some more gaps in the Star Wars timeline, but this is not essential reading.

-Joe Sherry

Rating:
Summary: Some good, some bad.
Review: I've read quite a number of SW books. But this is the only book that has compelled me to write a review. Not because it is extremely good or extemely bad, but because I feel the need to warn readers what they're getting into. First of all, The Mandalorian Armor ends on a cliffhanger ending. Well, not even a cliffhanger ending. It's more like the novel JUST ends. I wish I knew this fact previous to picking up the book. It's a non-traditional novel in the sense that there is no real climactic rise in the plot-line. In this manner, I have to disagree with Jeter's writing style. One is fully capable of writing the first novel of a trilogy while including the basics of a good storytelling adventure. For instance, take the Han Solo trilogy. While the 3 novels as a whole are continuous, each novel can stand alone. Each novel serves the reader with a crescendo of suspense, a climax, and then some form of a resolution. Jeter's take on Book 1 of the Bounty Wars, however, does not. Another negative aspect of the novel is the dialogue. One particular chapter stands out with a conversation between Vader, Palpaltine, and Xizor. Xizor's dialogue just rambles and rambles on. Whereas if the dialogue were given in a much more succinct manner, would have been many times more effective. Instead, each character in this novel is given 20 or so ways to say the same thing.

Despite these harsh criticisms, this book was not a complete disappointment. It's one of the only novels that gives the spotlight to Boba Fett. We get some insight to his weaponry. As well, we get to see the innards of the infamous Slave I. Also, Bossk's ruthlessness fascinated me. For what little action there was, it was enjoyable. I picked up this novel because I needed my quick Star Wars fix. Opt for another novel if you can. Pick up this one as a last resort.


Rating:
Summary: Finally a Star Wars trilogy worthy of Star Wars
Review: I have no clue as to why this book seems to have so many negative reviews. I absolutely loved it! I was reluctant to read it because previously to picking it up I had just finished "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" and the author that wrote the story of Boba Fett in that collection had made him such a morally retarded pansy that I didn't want to read a whole trilogy about such an overpretentious loser. Thankfully, K. W. Jeter has what Daniel Keys Moran lacks: literate aptitude and imaginative creativity. Not all contentless action, "The Mandalorian Armor" goes into descriptive depth with every character, giving them all a depth that is far from one-dimensional or wooden. The characters are for the most part diverse and fanscinating: Boba Fett is an emotionless, cold, and efficient killing machine with a Spartan taste for asceticism, but without the cloying moralism that had so disgusted me, Jeter returns Fett to the realm of respectability and "coolness." Bossk is even better than I had previously encountered: bloodthirsty, always bordering on exploding into a murderous rage. Jeter goes more into depth about Trandoshan society, giving such morbid details such as how the strongest always eats their brothers after hatching. Zuckuss is rather different from how he was portrayed in "The Bounty Hunter Tales." He is given a more comical personality and is far weaker than his associates at the Bounty Hunter Guild. There is also no mention of his partner 4-LOM or his intuitive skills. Dengar is also one of my favorite characters, even if he is a bit slow witted. Xisor is given a prescence of ominous malevolence and sociopathic intelligence, something I thought Steve Perry tried, but failed to do in "Shadow of the Empire." Probably the only character I didn't really care for was Neelah. She is too weak and whiny, more superfluous than anything else.
The entire book gives the impression of events being perceived through a bounty hunters eyes. Basically, everyone is scum, nobody has any loyalty to anyone but themselves, and a sense of paranoia permeates throughout every page. Its very dark and anti-heroic and that is probably one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much.
The only problem I had with "The Mandalorian Armor" is a few trivial inconsistencies with other books written about Xisor, Zuckuss, Bossk, and Boba Fett. The glaring contradictions between Jeter's Fett and Moran's much inferior one is too obvious to mention here, however, there is mention of Zuckuss being partnered with Bossk during the period when Darth Vader put a bounty on Han Solo's head, which contradicts the stories in "Tales of the Bounty Hunters." According to that collection, Zuckuss was with the droid 4-LOM and Bossk was teamed up with a girl and a wookie. Also, "The Mandalorian Armor" takes place during "Return of the Jedi" yet toward the end of the book Xisor is talked about almost as if he was still alive, yet according to Perry's "Shadow of the Empire" Xisor was blown into his component atoms and scattered to the winds. I don't know if I'm mistaken, but I hope I am. It looks as if Xisor has a part in the sequel and I'm hoping its only in the flashbacks to the past.
In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
Finally a book that is worthy of being Star Wars!

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Star Wars book in my collection of over 60
Review: I have been a reasonably avid Star Wars reader - even going on die-hard - with over sixty books in my collection. I read through every single multi-book series to date that was not a prequel novel. With the exception of one series - the Bounty Hunter Wars series. And that is because of this book - frankly, it just stinks. It's poorly written with every connotation of that phrase imaginable. I was bored to tears, slightly confused, but most importantly - I just didn't care. That's usually the best mark of bad writing - I simply did not care what the hell happened because I had no interest in the plot, the characters, or the material. I usually have great patience for Star Wars books - I waded my way through the Corellian Trilogy, the Black Fleet Crisis, and even most of the Young Jedi Knights books when I wasn't really all that young. The only time I ever quit was after reading this book. I don't really like going into plot descriptions in reviews, because it's a review not a book report. Thus, the last word on this book is - DON'T read it unless you're masochistic or entirely devoted to reading EVERY Star Wars book ever written or think that you are a long lost Boba Fett clone.

Rating:
Summary: Stay far, far away
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable if slightly predictable Star Wars book
Review: The Mandalorian Armor : Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars, Book I
by K.W. Jeter is the first in the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy. It is a well-written look at the Star Wars universe through the eyes of characters who are pivotal to the series yet usually ignored (with the exception of someone named Fett) At the heart of this story, which takes place directly after the Sail Barge battle in Return of the Jedi and flashes back several years during the course of the story, is the contact between bounty hunters Dengar, Boba Fett and a dancer names Neela. The flashback sequences are fascinating and bring back Prince Xizor, a top notch character. Overall this book is well-written and interesting if almost totally prediactable. I figured out what would happen in the first 20 pages. Yet, the book manages to keep the readers interest and has fun doing it. Along the way familiar and new Star Wars characters pop up, creating a feeling of comfortable newness. Anyway while certainly not a top-notch Star Wars book, The Mandalorian Armor is an above average book. I wish amazon had 3 and a half star ratings because that is what I would have given this book, because is doesn't deserve a four but a three is really marking it as average.

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Summary: The dark side of the epic science-fantasy series.
Review: This alternate Star Wars back story gives us a look at just what an ice blooded baddie Boba Fett really is. Those expecting the noble heroics of the usual SW stories had better look elsewhere, this noir stuff of the blackest hearted kind. Chock full of back stabbing and double dealing (and the resulting bloodletting), The Mandalorian Armor satisfies, but you might find yourself wanting a breath of fresh air afterwards. Recommended.