Star Wars: The Clone Wars

by Karen Traviss

book data

112 ratings, 3.56 average rating, 22 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		22%
4		31%
3		32%
2		8%
1		5%

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published

July 26th 2008 by Del Rey

binding

Hardcover, 272 pages

url

http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/starwa...

characters

Palpatine, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Count Dooku, Bail Organa

isbn

034550898X (isbn13: 9780345508980)

description

The Clone Wars have exploded across the galaxy as Republic forces and Separatists struggle to gain the upper hand. But while the Jedi generals work ti...more

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04/11/09

Jacen rated it:

bookshelves: star-wars-novels

Read in July, 2008

The Clone Wars novelization turned out to be one of the best Clone Wars era books I've read. Traviss' anti-Jedi sentiments fit perfectly in this slight yet engaging tale. I have not seen the movie (which I can't imagine can compete with this book if it tried).

Traviss finally depicts Anakin's inner voice as no writer, save Stover, has done before. She gives a sympathetic voice to Assaj Ventress. She even lets us in on Palpatine's joke. The scene from Palp's POV pulling the wool over Y...more

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01/03/09

Emmy rated it:

Read in January, 2009

I never saw "The Clone Wars" animated movie in theaters, nor have I seen the more recently released DVD, but if you can check either of these off your list then you may have had the same experience I had reading the novelization.

Aside from the odd feeling I had of knowing I was reading a novelization, The Clone Wars was pretty enjoyable. The dialogue was a little off, so I'm not sure if that's because Traviss had to use lines from the script (my guess), but she did a great...more

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04/03/09

Eden Celeste rated it:

bookshelves: science-fiction--soft

Read in April, 2009

"I'm Anakin - whinewhinewhineangst"
"Well I'm a cute female 14 year old child sized Padawan, here because the kids want a kid to relate to"
"waah - I'm a baby jabba the hut and I've been kidnapped. Aren't I a cute slug? ahhhh"
"Well I'm Jabba the Hut - and did you know I've got a baby that I love deeply because Hutt's have feelings too!"
"Cackle - I'm all the various two dimensional cackling villains"

And on it went...more

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1 comment

11/30/08

Steve rated it:

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: Star Wars Fans

One of the better Star Wars books that have been released lately. Karen Traviss does a good job of showing the dark subtle nature of evil. How evil will manipulate to achieve an ends. This book also has good characterization of Captain Rex - a clone trooper, which was a nice addition. What was missing in this story is what makes the Jedi good. They fight against evil, but they don't seem to be fighting for anything. I think the Star Wars franchise would benefit from some discussion of the ...more

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02/01/09

Rich rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I have said it many times, I am not a fan of Karen Traviss. This is a great read for her because she really develops the story more so than in the movie. She also seems to favor the Mandalorians and the Clone Troopers so at times I felt like she was connecting directly to her other Star Wars novels that seem to always feature a certain set of characters. I'm just not into the whole Clone Trooper thing, but, I will say that I didn't like this movie as much as I did this book. I felt that the ...more

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08/19/08

Daniel rated it:

Sad to say but this was a waste of my time.

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06/20/09

Mika Cantrell rated it:

bookshelves: audio-books, read-with-kids

Read in July, 2009

We listened to this book as an audio book and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to it. What I liked: we really enjoyed the B story (the clone troopers) much more than the A story (Jabba's son and the Jedi).

Children and I would stop the CD frequently to discuss how the clone troopers acted with courage or honor. Gave us lots of connection points to talking about the US actions in the Middle East/Asia.

Special to the audio book: it does have mus...more

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10/23/08

Brian rated it:

Read in October, 2008

recommended to Brian by: theforce.net
recommends it for: Star Wars fans, especially those who may have lost faith in the series.

This is the first Star Wars book that I've read in a decade! I used to read Star Wars books all the time. I stopped reading them because I realized that they were all the same. It was also around the time that the prequels were killing my enthusiasm for Star Wars. Each new prequel eroded my devotion a little more, with Episode III threatening to kill it outright. Recently, my love for the series has re-blossomed. This is largely thanks to the video game The Force Unleashed. The game got m...more

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10/16/08

Andrew rated it:

Earlier this year, the Star Wars Lit community was abuzz with the news of a couple of things - that there was an untitled Karen Traviss novel coming, and that there was a Clone Wars movie coming out. A couple of months ago, fans learned that they were both connected, as Karen turned out to have been writing the novelization.
The release of The Clone Wars brings about the first book released in the time frame since Traviss’s last Republic Commando novel, True Colors, which was released las...more Earlier this year, the Star Wars Lit community was abuzz with the news of a couple of things - that there was an untitled Karen Traviss novel coming, and that there was a Clone Wars movie coming out. A couple of months ago, fans learned that they were both connected, as Karen turned out to have been writing the novelization.
The release of The Clone Wars brings about the first book released in the time frame since Traviss’s last Republic Commando novel, True Colors, which was released last year, and once again shows that Traviss is one of the better writers for the Clone Wars.

This novelization isn’t the best work that Karen has released. The book is a very short one, and plotwise, has a bit to be desired. In a nutshell, the Seperatists have kidnapped the son of Jabba the Hutt, hoping to anger the Hutts enough to ensure that the Republic can’t utilize their space lanes.

The book is rife with action, which is Karen’s strong point, especially when it comes to Clones. the main characters are introduced with a battle, where Karen puts her expertise gained from the Republic Commando books. What I really enjoyed was seeing an author put a level of military realism to this - the Clones talk and act like soldiers.

Karen leaves a lot of nods to the 501st, helping to further explain the role of Vader’s fist, the battalion seen in Revenge of the Sith, named for the 501st Legion. One of the more interesting characters in the book is Captain Rex, whom a number of Legion members are building in anticipation of the film’s release. Karen pushed these guys to a particular prominence in the book, which is a great nod to the group, of which, she’s an honorary member. There weren’t any mentions of Republic Commandos, which surprised me a little.

The plot of the book leaves more to be desired beyond the military sections. There are some interesting political ideas here, but the idea that the Republic would send two of their most highly regarded Jedi after a Huttling is somewhat ridiculous. While this is addressed somewhat at points, I found it hard to believe.

More so, I found the notion that the Hutts, or more particularly, Jabba, would completely base foreign policy on a kidnapped child a ridiculous notion. Granted, this is a novelization based off of an animated movie, so expecting something on the level of Karen’s other books or other Clone Wars novels such as Shatterpoint is somewhat expected.

Unfortunately, the book is short, clocking in at around 250 pages, taking me a total of five or so hours to read. Fortunately, Del Rey seems to have realized this, and as a result, I only paid $12 for the book (yay for a 40% discount at Borders).

Overall, this is a decent enough read, despite the fact that it is short and not as good as her other books. However, with four more books to go in the series, there’s plenty of room for more improvement and Clone action.

(Originally printed: http://jeditrilobite.wordpress.com)(less)

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08/08/08

Roberta rated it:

bookshelves: sciencefiction, starwars

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Roberta by: spooky@broussard-sa.net

Better than the movie, but the author is still constrained by the movie plot, so while it is an interesting read, it isn't the best read of the Clone Wars era books.

Traviss does her best to write about character motivations chiefly Anakin's and does a good job of foreshadowing his descent into the dark side as he becomes Darth Vader.

Still, she is limited by the movie plot, and while I really enjoyed her characterization of Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex, and Obi-wan, the story is on...more

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07/02/09

Mark Cooper rated it:

bookshelves: mark--2009

Read in June, 2009

[Book:] Fun read! Nathan and I liked it. This was Nathan's first grown up book that he read. Grandma Linda bought it for him and he had a hard time putting it down!

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04/10/09

Nerd Herd rated it:

Ugh, you make a book on the horrible travesty GCI Star Wars movie? Shoulda saved the trees, because only DIEHARD fans would shell out money for a bad book.

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01/03/09

Baddad rated it:

Read in January, 2009

I read this book after seeing the movie. Ahsoka has brought fresh air to the series and this book shows the seeds of Anakins doubt. Great villians too. A geektastic 4 stars.

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02/05/09

Sean ur mother rated it:

This book was realy cool, i enjoyed the action and adventure asspects of the story.

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01/11/09

Christine rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Only marginally better than the movie (which was awful).

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08/28/08

Mickey DeCicco rated it:

Read in January, 2008

About half-way through now and it's very good. Karen Traviss is the mind behind the Republic Commando series (reading Hard Contact right now as well), and is based on the new FULL-LENGTH ANIMATED FEATURE (DON'T CALL IT A CARTOON!) The movie was awesome. The book is well worth a read; it will fill you in on a lot of backstory as the Revenge of the Sith novel did.

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08/10/08

Phil rated it:

Read in August, 2008

Karen Traviss rewrites The Clone Wars movie and transforms it into a compelling and complex story. I highly recommend to anyone who saw the movie to take the bad taste away. She seems to have been given a lot of freedom to concentrate on character and give us what the filmmakers were unable to.

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08/02/08

Fizzgig76 rated it:

Read in August, 2008

Jabba the Hutt's child is kidnapped by the Separatists in a means to frame the Jedi and Anakin and the Jedi are asked to get him back. The adaptation of the animated movie was as expected an easy read with no real shocks or twists. Very average.

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10/12/08

Leo rated it:

bookshelves: clone-wars, star-wars

Read in October, 2008

I liked it a little better than the movie because they didn't spend as much time on Padme's little side plot. It let you get into the thoughts and feelings of Anakin and Rex, offering a little more inside perspective.

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11/02/08

coty rated it:

like all my other star wars movies and animated movies this one really tells waht happens in the clone wars and was one of the best clone wars books i have read so far.

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