Traviss begins/continues her love affair with the Mandoes... ( )

The recent publication of Invasion, a comic series taking place during The New Jedi Order, has me revisiting the series, which originally ran from 1999 to 2003-- amazingly it finished over ten years ago now! There are a number of peripheral additions to the series (short stories, comics, and the like) that I didn't read at the time, so I'm giving those a shot this time around, starting with A Practical Man, a prequel novella that sets the stage for what Boba Fett and the Mandalorians were up to during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

Unfortunately, it doesn't do much more than that. A Practical Man is largely a dot-connecting exercise, with little insight into the Mandalorians in general or Boba Fett in particular. Which is a shame, because Boba Fett going from the ultimate loner to the leader of an entire civilization ought to be fertile ground for Traviss's usually excellent character work, but that just doesn't happen here. There are glimpses of it, and I like the contrast between the different warrior ethos of the Mandalorians and the Yuuzhan Vong, but this story is too fundamentally simple to be interesting.

The New Jedi Order: Next in sequence »

I'm no stranger to the Star Wars extended universe. In middle school and high school, these were the only books I read with any type of eagerness or regularity. Having read a lot of it, I have come to terms with the idea that most licensed star wars novels are little more than decent to good fan-fiction. You can usually assume there will be a jedi who makes only lightside decisions and usually one who will do the opposite (always two, there are). However, this simple little novella broke out of the preconceptions I have, and became something more. It wasn't fan-fiction, but more a good novel (or novella) that happened to take place in the star wars universe. The characters acted and thought like real people. Not to mention it's probably the best treatment Boba Fett has received in any venue (that I've seen thus far anyway). It's fortunate that it takes place right at the beginning of the new jedi order storyline because I know have a vested interest thereof and look forward to diving in. I also look forward to reading more from Karen Traviss, be it Star Wars fiction or other. ( )