Scourge: Star Wars

Interesting star wars book. I recommend it.

If you have gotten tired of the wash rinse and repeat cycle of some of the Star Wars novels, this novel will wake you up. This is Jeff Grubbs first Star Wars novel and you would swear he's been doing it forever. This novel is inspired by an adventure that Grubb wrote for the Star Wars RPG, it worked as an adventure, and It works even better as a book. Grubb takes us to places in the Star Wars universe that we have often heard of, but never gotten to visit; Hutt space is a complex place! The action is well paced and well executed. This book will help you fall back in love with the Star Wars universe, if you have started to feel like the thrill has gone. This book works even if you are not a Star Wars fan. There are a few twists and turns that while not a complete surprise, play out well. Bottom line, if you like Star Wars you'll love this book, if you like Sci-fi give it a try.

To my knowledge, this is Grubb's only novel in the Star Wars EU and his writing style and terminology is a bit of an adjustment compared to other established Star Wars authors but I enjoyed his approach for the most part. Scourge is more of a crime/mystery tale than a galaxy-spanning adventure that we have come to expect from the EU. Additionally, it is a very singular tale. Often a Star Wars novel will follow multiple characters and jump from scene-to-scene showing you the story from multiple angles. This book maintains only two main points of view but primarily sticks with the main characters. These characters are complete strangers to the Star Wars reader. The protagonist - Jedi archivist Mander Zuma - has never made an appearance or even been referenced by other works in the EU prior to this release. This unfamiliarity was what discouraged me from reading this book initially. I had the same misgivings about other works like the Crosscurrent/Riptide series. But after enjoying those novels, I pushed ahead with Scourge.
This is a tale about little-known Jedi, Mander Zuma, who's career in The Order has never really taken him into the field. He is an archivist (a.k.a. "librarian") who found himself in the role of teacher to an apprentice out of necessity. His student, upon reaching knighthood, is killed on one of his first solo missions. This leaves Zuma emotionally distraught - wondering if his shortcomings as a teacher contributed to his former student's death. He is dispatched by The Order to investigate the death and complete the fallen knight's mission - a trade negotiation with a Hutt lord. In true Star Wars fashion, however, the death of a Jedi is never an isolated incident, and dealings with the Hutts are never what they appear on the surface. Zuma is quickly embroiled in a conspiracy involving not only the murder of a Jedi knight, but also the trafficking of a potent new hard spice that has recently hit the market. Joining forces with his former student's sister (an independent spacer also searching for answers about her brother's death) and her Bothan partner, Zuma's investigation takes the reader along on a journey to a number of worlds between the Corporate Sector and Hutt Space. Arrayed against him are Hutt crime syndicates, Rodian clans bent on vengeance, and the always by-the-book Corporate Sector Authority. It is truly a fish-out-of-water story about a Jedi struggling to overcome his own perceived insufficiencies while trying to solve a mystery he was never prepared to encounter.
The pacing of this novel is a bit jarring - never staying in one locale or plot development for long. My biggest complaint about the author's style is in what is left unsaid. Solutions to conflicts are often glossed over with critical details overlooked. For instance, a chase sequence will sound hopeless at one moment with little chance for survival and then suddenly they meet someone helpful and the next paragraph now finds them miles away in safety. How did they get there? How did they escape all the people chasing them? The reader is left to make their own assumptions. Character development and back-story is often overlooked as well. The reader is expected to take a character at face value and make judgements about his or her motivations and personality based solely on the actions portrayed in the story. There is very little dialog between characters to fill in the gaps. As for Mander himself, he was uninspiring in his uncertainty at the start, but suddenly manifested that famous Jedi wisdom mid-way through the book. There was no watershed moment, no plot twist that clarified his inner turmoils or personal doubts - he just was suddenly a more confident leader (another gap). In addition to this inconsistency, one notices a sudden change in Zuma's skills as a knight in the field. In the beginning he describes himself as being a less-than-capable warrior, feeling unattached to his saber and not comfortable with its use. His efforts in early fight sequences are barely sufficient to keep him alive where other more established Jedi would have handily dispatched his/her foes and walked away without a scratch. This led to an early inquisitiveness on my part - wondering how in the world this Jedi would manage to survive in a hostile galaxy to solve this mystery. I looked forward to seeing some unconventional Jedi tactics. After reading almost exclusively about the exploits of famous Jedi - particularly Skywalkers, Solos, Horns and the like - I was hoping to see what a Jedi without those skills could accomplish. However, like other details overlooked by the author, halfway through the novel Mander suddenly exhibits all those traits of a tried-and-true Jedi master - wielding his blade with mastery and becoming an unstoppable force on the battlefield. How did we get from point A to point B?
If you can overlook those points, the story is good enough to keep a readier interested and the plot certainly does move - never languishing. The climax was more or less predictable but not to the point that it became an uninteresting read. Overall, I give it three stars. It's a good weekend read that takes you to the comfortable surroundings of our galaxy far far away, even if the faces are unfamiliar ones.