JasperKazai > Recent Status Updates

The amount of people across the galaxy who are gossiping about Endor before the battle even occurs is really dumb. The movie quite clearly established that it was a secret 'many Bothans died for,' and Shadows of the Empire even showed that happening. So why does every average joe in every cantina know that action at Endor is about to go down?? It makes no sense!

'Bossk knew the whereabouts of all the bounty hunters still alive.' Oh, fuck off. That would not be even remotely possible under the best of circumstances, and you just spent the last few pages hammering home how destitute Bossk currently is. He had to take public transport to get to Tatooine. How the hell would he know where EVERY bounty hunter is?? You're just writing nonsense now.

This author sure likes names with apostrophes in them. Most of his original characters in this trilogy have at least one. It's not unheard of for Star Wars, but it's also not nearly as common as he writes. It's more of a fantasy thing than a Star Wars thing.
Zuckuss muses that the BH Guild probably would've dissolved on its own eventually. That's a good way to make your own plot pointless. So dumb

My expectations for this series have long been stomped out. One shred of hopeful thinking I have is that, because book 2 was such nothing fluff, maybe it means all the actual story was saved for this one. I don't have really any faith about that, but it's possible.
Oh, hey, Zuckuss and 4-LOM are together. I guess we're just going to forget that Jeter erroneously claimed Bossk and Zuckuss were teamed during TESB.

Poopoo. Books 2 and 3 of the Solo trilogy were shit, but they were at least trying to actually tell a story for most of their runtime. This book, on the other hand, is the most egregiously padded book I've ever read that wasn't some amateur-published cash grab attempt. This had no business being a trilogy. It's obvious that this entry was nothing but filler to reach that quota.

Her name is Kateel, but she was unable to prononce that as a small child, and would say Neelah instead? What? That doesn't make ANY fucking sense. Not even close to sounding the same. And Kuat of Kuat doesn't even know her?! I thought the entire fucking point of all this bullshit was that it was going to all link together. You're telling me he's interested in Fett for a completely unrelated reason? Fucking hell

This is the longest chapter in the book, and it's all about Kuat of Kuat attending a council meeting filled with characters we've never met before, concerning drama we didn't know was going on. What the hell is any of this? This is how you're bringing this book to a close? Feels like a joke.

'They've been sending out emissaries ever since Palpatine overthrew the old Republic.' Oh, so for the past 20 years, then? Lol. Jeter's interpretation of the timeline, with the Empire being a new development, continues to be utterly baffling to me. I've never seen anyone undershoot it THIS hard. It manages to make even less sense than Lucas' poorly thought-out timeline, which is quite an accomplishment.

So this second part of Xizor's grand scheme is that the mere existence of a lucrative bounty will cause the remaining splinter factions of the Bounty Hunters Guild to infight and break up for good. And it actually worked? That makes absolutely no fucking sense. If that were true, then how the hell would the Guild have existed ever? It would ALWAYS be happening. Jeter didn't even try to come up with a believable plot.

Not only is it dumb that Fett's first resort is often faking his own death, it's dumb that everyone keeps assuming he's going to die easily. The guy they're pursuing shoots a few shots into a dust cloud that Bossk thinks Fett is in, and his first thought is 'well, I guess he's dead now.' Why?? You don't even see him, and he's wearing fucking armor. Why do you assume he would die so easily?!

This is one of the most pointlessly padded books I have ever read. Each chapter has the tiniest nugget of actual relevant story content, and the rest of the space is filled to the brim with whomever the PoV character is thinking in circles about every minute detail for no fucking reason, and very often retreading/restating shit that has already been covered. It's egregious. Absolutely did not need to be a trilogy.

Normally I roll my eyes whenever I see someone complaining about an author using the word female. But the criticism is completely warranted in this case. I don't think Jeter has written the word woman, or some other type of similar descriptor, a single time. He uses female over and over and over whenever Neelah is involved with a scene. It's really fucking weird.

Just like in the first book, there's a chapter where Xizor, the Emperor, and Vader talk at each other in circles while none of them are truly in character. At least this one was shorter. It's so bad. Jeter did not understand any of these characters at all.
Oh my god, because of the framing device, Neelah actually calls out that Dengar shouldn't know about that convo because he wasn't there. Whyyyy did you do this lol

I think this is the third time in 2 books that Fett has faked his death to trick someone. Why is he always doing that? Why is that his FIRST reaction to something? It's really stupid. Also, the explanation made no sense. He did a 180 turn to blast the metal with his engines, then entered hyperspace, then somehow emerged behind the other ship?? That doesn't work. You can't go reverse in hyperspace...

In Jeter's mind, no one puts on a seatbelt while driving. Boba Fett crashes into something and is thrown from his seat so hard it almost paralyzes him. When Fett fires upon the ship he's pursuing, they're thrown from their seat. People strap in when flying ships, dumbass.
Also, a Z-95 is the same general shape as an X-wing. There isn't room to get thrown from your seat or stand up. Jeter just doesn't know Star Wars

Third of the way through this book, and it's been a whole lot of fuckin' nothing. Characters talking or thinking in circles nonstop. The thinking usually happens in the middle of the convos, nonsensically. Characters repeat themselves ad nauseam to pad the length. Now it's a Xizor chapter, so it'll be worse. At least Xizor acknowledges he's a rapist. 'Overpowering female diplomats or envoys' yeah bro that's rape.

I didn't know the framing device for the flashbacks was that it was Dengar recounting it to Neelah. Maybe that's new.
I have an increasingly strong feeling that this trilogy is going to wind up on the same trajectory as Crispin's Solo trilogy. Where I thought the first book wasn't good but passable, then think books 2 and 3 are utter shit. It's like the more I read of it, the less tolerant am I of their shortcomings.

This was beginning to be evident in the first book, but it's very clear now - Jeter did not care one bit about the already established characterization of Dengar from Wolverton's short story. That Dengar was a literal emotionless killer. This Dengar is a pushover who Neelah thinks isn't cut out to be a bounty hunter. Not to mention that Jeter sent Manaroo away like 5 seconds into book 1, never to return.

Jeter's penchant for overexplaining things to death has never been more apparent. Because now he's recapping the first book for WAY longer than he needs to. It's clear that this trilogy did not need to actually be 3 books. So much filler that could've been shaved off.

LMAO, it finally happened. Boba Fett was typo'd as Boba Feet. That got a good laugh out of me.

Movin' on. Not very excited for this, but also not quite dreading it. The first book was titled Mandalorian Armor, yet had nothing to do with Mandalorian armor other than the fact that Boba Fett was present in the story. I wonder if this one being titled Slave Ship is going to basically be the same thing, and not really have anything to do with the story at all.

Boba Fett had a recording of the aftermath of Luke's aunt and uncle being killed, and apparently Xizor might be involved, and Bossk saw all of this. Just... why? Why are we doing this? Is this trilogy seriously going to somehow link Xizor to fucking Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's death? I cannot imagine anything good coming from this. It's going to be stupid.
Anyways this was meh. Very middling. Could've been worse.

Dengar goes to Mos Eisley to find a contact, learns contact is dead, a stranger walks up and says he's taken up the job and Dengar immediately trusts him. You could at least write it believably...
Jeter claims that Bossk and Zuckuss were teamed up on the TESB job to capture Han, which is straight-up wrong. Zuckuss was with 4-LOM by that point. Tales of BHs came out two years before this, so there isn't that excuse

Fett having a specific building laced with explosives years in advance is a huge stretch, but it is at least believable. Fett also having prepared a blastproof case with a power core intended for a specific individual also years in advance makes absolutely no goddamn sense. Half of this book was all about how he was a lone wolf. Why the hell would he have a plan that explicitly relies on the presence of another?

The Shell Hutts - an offshoot clan of Hutts that encase themselves in armorlike apparatuses - is a fun idea. I like it. The problem is, 'Shell Hutts' is a really dumb name for them. It sounds like how they'd be referred to derogatorily, rather than being their actual name.

So once again Jeter seems to believe that the sarlacc pit was very close to Jabba's palace, which is wrong. Either that or he just decided to write it that way for simplicity, and truth be damned. Also there's this weird notion that has been mentioned a few times where he makes it sound like the Empire is a new and recent formation?? It doesn't make a lick of sense.

Claiming that Twi'leks often fulfill majordomo roles, and then naming the Bounty Hunter's Guild majordomo Ob Fortuna, is some of the laziest shit I have seen in any Expanded Universe novel. Wow. Just wow.
In true EU fashion, this author is way overusing the term barve. I know it was introduced in the Jabba's Palace Fett short story, but you don't need to keep harping on it. It makes it look so forced.

I get what's going on here. This was 2 years after Shadows of the Empire, 1 year after Special Editions OT hit theaters. This is cashing in on the popularity of Fett and Xizor. I think there's merit to giving background to HOW Xizor gained the Emperor's favor. But this is doing it horribly. Long-ass boring chapter of talking in circles. Vader, the Emperor, and even Xizor felt terribly out of character. Bad writing.

This isn't terrible, but it's rather uninteresting thus far. Very slow start. I'm beginning to think that perhaps this is a trilogy that had to stretch its content out to fill 3 books, rather than fitting them organically...
It's strange that this is taking place both around the same time as RotJ, but also flashing back to shortly after EpIV. Weird to jump around that much.

Neelah escaped from Jabba's palace, yet she had a sailbarge cloth wrapped around her, and she witnessed Boba Fett's body after he escaped the sarlacc. That doesn't make any sense. Did Jeter not know that the sarlacc is nowhere near the palace? It's why they had to take the sailbarges. It would've taken Neelah days, if not weeks, to reach it by foot. In the open desert, while being injured.