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The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: TV #9
The Mata Hari Affair
At seventeen, Indiana Jones thirsted for adventure--but what he found in World War I Paris was beyond his wildest dreams...
215 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 23, 1992
About the author
James Luceno
118 books1,069 followersJames Luceno is a New York Times bestselling author, best known for his novels and reference books connected with the Star Wars franchise and the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and novelisations of the Robotech animated television series. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife and youngest child.
He has co-written many books with Brian Daley as Jack McKinney.
He has co-written many books with Brian Daley as Jack McKinney.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 31, 2023
Someone really must explain how the hands-down best Indiana Jones tie-in novel ever published (and I've read them all) isn't about his globetrotting crusades in pursuit of some mythical and/or supernatural relic, his against-all-odds battles with Nazi stormtroopers or KGB operatives, or his strange encounters with witches or zombies, but is instead about... losing his virginity?!
James Luceno's literary expansion of a pair of teleplays from the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series ("Verdun, September 1916" by Jonathan Hensleigh and "Paris, October 1916" by Carrie Fisher, both based on a story by George Lucas) is what every novelization should aspire to be yet so few seldom are: a work that feels like the source material rather than a derivative addendum. Luceno puts the reader right in the muddy trenches of Verdun and shadowy streets of World War I–era Paris with rich historical detail; he isn't merely transcribing the teleplays, but rather embellishing them -- giving them context through meticulous period research, and endowing them with life through viscerally descriptive passages. He restructures the two-part narrative somewhat to play to the strengths of literature versus cinema; I might argue this is an even stronger version of the story arc than the feature-length episode it's based upon (which was retitled The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Demons of Deception for home-video release.)
The Mata Hari Affair in no way reads like a standard-issue media tie-in, and certainly not a YA novel: It presents a very frank depiction of both the horrors of war and the emotional maelstrom of a young man's first sexual experiences/relationship. Mata Hari's portrayal in particular, augmented with truly fascinating biographical information and nuanced with psychological complexity in a way better suited to prose than film, skillfully fulfills the "edutainment" agenda George Lucas himself established when he created this prequel series.
Luceno's book is such an absorbing piece of historical fiction in its own right, you will involuntarily expunge any pulp associations you have with Indy -- the bullwhip and subterranean snakepits and melty-face Nazis -- and simply be completely taken with this story of a seventeen-year-old American soldier in 1916 out of his depth in love and war. To invoke a key passage from Steve Daly's Entertainment Weekly review of the series' DVD set: "No temples here. Plenty of doom."
James Luceno's literary expansion of a pair of teleplays from the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series ("Verdun, September 1916" by Jonathan Hensleigh and "Paris, October 1916" by Carrie Fisher, both based on a story by George Lucas) is what every novelization should aspire to be yet so few seldom are: a work that feels like the source material rather than a derivative addendum. Luceno puts the reader right in the muddy trenches of Verdun and shadowy streets of World War I–era Paris with rich historical detail; he isn't merely transcribing the teleplays, but rather embellishing them -- giving them context through meticulous period research, and endowing them with life through viscerally descriptive passages. He restructures the two-part narrative somewhat to play to the strengths of literature versus cinema; I might argue this is an even stronger version of the story arc than the feature-length episode it's based upon (which was retitled The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Demons of Deception for home-video release.)
The Mata Hari Affair in no way reads like a standard-issue media tie-in, and certainly not a YA novel: It presents a very frank depiction of both the horrors of war and the emotional maelstrom of a young man's first sexual experiences/relationship. Mata Hari's portrayal in particular, augmented with truly fascinating biographical information and nuanced with psychological complexity in a way better suited to prose than film, skillfully fulfills the "edutainment" agenda George Lucas himself established when he created this prequel series.
Luceno's book is such an absorbing piece of historical fiction in its own right, you will involuntarily expunge any pulp associations you have with Indy -- the bullwhip and subterranean snakepits and melty-face Nazis -- and simply be completely taken with this story of a seventeen-year-old American soldier in 1916 out of his depth in love and war. To invoke a key passage from Steve Daly's Entertainment Weekly review of the series' DVD set: "No temples here. Plenty of doom."
July 20, 2023
OK, just how well do you want to know Indiana Jones?
I just have to say that a romantic relationship between a 40 year old and a 17 year old is creepy.
And 17 year olds in combat--kind of sad.
Indy reads as someone older than 17 but it's mentioned on the cover and several times in the book he's 17.
Other than that I learned a lot about World War One and Mata Hari, found the writing transported me to Verdun and Paris, but thought the book didn't really get going until around page 160 (it's just over 200 pages).
This kind of feels like two stories, the first hundred pages deal with Indy fighting in Verdun, the second 100 pages are Indy in Paris in a relationship with Mata Hari. There's connections between the two but they feel separate.
Reading this I remembered how the young Indiana Jones stories don't have fantasy elements, they're more like action packed history lessons.
Luceno does a good job of writing history lessons into the story, he did a lot of research. There's a lot packed into these 200 pages.
I just have to say that a romantic relationship between a 40 year old and a 17 year old is creepy.
And 17 year olds in combat--kind of sad.
Indy reads as someone older than 17 but it's mentioned on the cover and several times in the book he's 17.
Other than that I learned a lot about World War One and Mata Hari, found the writing transported me to Verdun and Paris, but thought the book didn't really get going until around page 160 (it's just over 200 pages).
This kind of feels like two stories, the first hundred pages deal with Indy fighting in Verdun, the second 100 pages are Indy in Paris in a relationship with Mata Hari. There's connections between the two but they feel separate.
Reading this I remembered how the young Indiana Jones stories don't have fantasy elements, they're more like action packed history lessons.
Luceno does a good job of writing history lessons into the story, he did a lot of research. There's a lot packed into these 200 pages.
August 27, 2016
Having been introduced to "Young Indiana Jones" by the TV series, I was a bit unprepared for the gritty gloominess of the opening part of this tale. The opening chapters are a great description of the insanity of WWI trench warfare and were necessary to set the scene and the world mood but there was very little of the young "whipper snapper" I was looking to spend some quality reading time with.
Once the book got out of the trenches and into Indy's furlough in Paris the real enjoyable parts of the story took hold and this was all that I'd hoped it would be.
I'm now looking forward to finding the next installment.
Once the book got out of the trenches and into Indy's furlough in Paris the real enjoyable parts of the story took hold and this was all that I'd hoped it would be.
I'm now looking forward to finding the next installment.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews