Shatterpoint: Star Wars Legends

The Jedi philosophy provided in this book is more than you could ask for. It's the only fictional book I ever taken the time to highlight as many exerts from. The action and intensity stays consistantly captivating like no book I've read in 36 years of living. Never had to read the same sentance twice, it kept me totally engaged. It is also worthy of pointing out, in terms of geographics and economics, this planet "Haruun Kal" was clearly based on Africa; and that the writer has legitimate understanding of Special Forces and unconventional warfare. I speak from experience as a Soldier in the military. I loved this book so much I leather bound it myself. I will most likely read it many, many times!

As novels go a bit sluggish writting with too many extraneous details. Yet as far the themes being presented, a truly outstanding work. Thank you Mr. Stover, nicely done. So that being said, consider the Vietnam conflict. Could the US have won that war??Yes, but in the final months of the struggle much of the Vietnamese army was young boys and even women. Victory via genocide...Mace finds himself in a similar situation in this novel. Massive caulities on every other page, huge explosions and terrorized civilians fleeing in every direction. Wars as they reallyAre. But can Mace remain a Jedi with his conscience intact in this maelstrom of ruin and horror.

THE FURTHER YOU get into this scintillating, compelling, fascinating, totally unique and absolutely enthralling member of the beloved Expanded Universe, the better it gets. There’s no doubt, however, that it starts off with a bang. We learn many things in SHATTERPOINT about the wonder that is Jedi Master Mace Windu, not the least of which what a ’shatter point’ actually is. But we also learn the number of combat techniques (there are six) that are available to a Jedi and their Padawan. We also learn of a mystical, mythical and magical seventh which is extremely difficult to learn, damn near impossible to master and incredibly dangerous to use. This final technique, it turns out, was developed by Master Windu. Which should be of no surprise to anyone. Mace Windu is the personifcation of everything good, and cool, about the force, and of being a Jedi.SHATTERPOINT is also about a search. Windu’s Padawan (Depa Billaba) has gone missing on his home jungle planet of Haruun Kal, and Mace has put his heroic hand up to rescue her. The things is, the planet is so strong in the force (literally as well as metaphorically) that even placing one’s foot on the planet’s surface is enough to push even a mild force user over to the Dark Side. So just imagine the powers of determination and concentration a powerful Jedi will have to use to save his own soul from this fate.The concern is, of course, that Depa herself has faced this same test, and failed. The few items of evidence presented to the Jedi Council on Coruscant certainly point in this direction. And of course there is a war going on, too, both on the planet’s surface and right across the galaxy. So not only does Mace have to fight the separatists to stay alive, he has to fight these same forces of evil in order to save his Padawan from herself. And from the very aspect of her existence which brought her to the planet in the first place.So this book is really about war. But it is so much more than that. It talks about self doubt, torture, cowardice, and even how to break a human being. It talks about unbelievable courage, and bravery, friendship, love, revenge, and everything else both your standard human and Jedi deal out to the universe every spare moment of their lives.SHATTERPPOINT is an extraordinary book. It is certainly the most realistic, exciting, fist-pumping and confronting expanded universe novel i have ever read. I won’t say it is a realistic novel about war, since (thank God) I have not found myself in that theatre of human existence. But every Star Wars fan in the galaxy should read this book. Every science fiction fan should read this book. Every war aficionado should read this book, and I would hope, close the cover at it’s end a changed person. I know I am.Full marks for a truly extraordinary and amazing reading experience.Star Wars just got serious.Bye for now.

Samuel L Jackson's career as Mace Windu was way too short. This book was so good, it should be a movie. And it should be canon, but legend or not, it's part of the beautiful story we call Star Wars. If any of you all read this, I recommend this book and please read before the next episode of the fan made film Vader, created by Star Wars Theory (YouTube). This book really goes into depth in the mind of one of the best Jedi Masters.

Spoiler free:I never read Shatterpoint when it originally came out, but decided to give it a look when the events of the Kanan comic book seemed to imply that the story in Shatterpoint happened. Thus, while this story is technically part of the "Legends" series and not canon, aspects of it help us understand things that are in the current canon. I'm really, really happy I picked this up as I'd rank it at the top of all Star Wars books, right alongside Darth Plagueis.Shatterpoint explores the darker side of the Force. How dark can a Jedi go and still be a Jedi? What acts are acceptable for Jedi during a time of war? This book explores the ethical decisions the Jedi had to make during The Clone Wars in a Vietnam War type of setting. You don't have to be a Star Wars fan to appreciate the dark story and great storytelling. I couldn't put it down.

is that the author fails to see what he uncovers here - the true point of balance of the force itself, neither good nor bad, and in doing so he maintains a rather conventional take on Jedi ethics, which remains a mere refection of a galaxy not so far, far away - if only he had the will to tolerate the very epicentre where the sith and jedi part ways at a philosophical level, both a reaction against the oblivion of the jungle - the jedi vow of selflessness is as untenable as the sith elevation of personal status, they balance each other out - Vader did bring balance to the Force, and the prophesies were fulfilled.

I hadn’t read this book for yea4 and tears so it was amazing ti be able to pick this up and feel like it was ,t first read. The unabridged audiobook is a phenomenal companion to listen to as well.In this book, Mace has a mission back on his home planet- a place he hadn’t visited in decades. With creatures out of nightmares, jungle battles and dark force powers this really is a fantastic, action packed novel perfect for prequel trilogy fans.

If you’re a Star Wars fan that likes Mace Windu and likes a bit of real issues mixed in with your sci-fi then “Shatterpoint” is the book for you.It is by far the most adult piece of Star Wars media I have ever consumed. The creators of “Republic Commando” touted it as a dark gritty game, and while I love it, what that really meant was that everything looked dirtier and the aliens got juice on you when you stabbed them.“Shatterpoint” is essentially “Heart of Darkness” with Jedi, and brings a whole lot of apartheid analogues which make it one of the most explicit depictions of racism ever seen in Star Wars. This is not just “these people don’t get along” like the Naboo and Gungans either, there is blood spilled, it is incredibly violent in places, often from the most unexpected areas and the whole book is relentless in wearing down its protagonists and the reader.It’s also the greatest insight into the mind of Mace Windu. While he’s arguably one of the most popular prequel characters, in the movies he is essentially just Mace Windu: Awesome Jedi. Even in the comics and The Clone Wars we don’t get a great deal of information about the kind of man he is. “Shatterpoint” is essentially a Mace Windu character study and gives some interesting looks into not only Mace, but also the nature of the force and the dark side, and what it means to be a peacekeeper in a time of war.Aside from that there are some very creatively written action scenes that are pretty inventive in places, and written in a way that it’s always clear what’s happening. Some people write action scenes and it’s a mess of people jumping and kicking and you have little real notion of what it would actually look like.Overall, I can’t really recommend this enough to Clone Wars era or Mace Windu fans, and even for Star Wars fans in general, I think it’s still worth a look, as there is really not much else quite like it.

Although no longer 'canon', I purchased this novel because I loved Matthew Stover's prose in ROTS and anything exploring Mace Windu's character was sure to be enthralling. This story is not about the galaxy -- it is about earthy, dirty Darkness in a jungle. It takes place only a short while after Geonosis and Stover really gets his fingers into Windu's anguish over killing Jango Fett and general retrospection over that entire episode which I found really fascinating. The first chapters provide some excellent exposition in this respect. The characterization of Depa Billaba -- well, all the characterization really, since this is now EU -- is take it or leave it, especially given the direction Disney has gone with her as Kanan's master.The overall plot is rather like plodding through tangled undergrowth, which is probably half the point. It's not a thrilling read, by any means, not nearly as good as ROTS, but *definitely* worth reading if you can't get enough Mace Windu. Skip to the end for clones.

Text is too small so I had to squint when reading. Put down after I got to page two.