A familiar feeling came over me as my older son started to discover Star Wars - just like when I was a kid, my son was immediately drawn to the character of Boba Fett. As often happens when we walk through the library, we came across the this book in the Boba Fett series – and with the added draw of General Grevious (one of my son’s favorite characters in The Clone Wars) I knew we were going to be giving it a try. This was really my first exposure to any of these YA Star Wars books, so I had no idea what to expect really. To continue our Clone Wars theme this week for the release of Stealth, I’ll give my thoughts on this tie-in to that era after the break.

Right at the beginning of this novel Boba returns from his last mission (I assume in the last book in this series – A New Threat being book #5) to Jabba’s palace on Tatooine. He’s rather young still – only maybe a year or two older than he was in Attack of the Clones – but apparently he’s already made quite a name for himself as a successful bounty hunter. The reader is shown Boba’s interactions with various characters that I’m sure were introduced in earlier novels, but they don’t mean much to me (or my son) and they’re left behind after the first couple of chapters so it didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Boba does don his father’s Mandalorian armor (it seems for the first time) as he goes on his mission for Jabba. The mission: kill Wat Tambor. But Wat is located on a planet currently engaged in a large scale battle between the Republic and the Separatists – so how will Boba find his way past the battle and into the heavily guarded CIS command center. And what surprises (hint, hint, look at the cover) await him if he does make it inside?

Unfortunately, A New Threat was about what I expected from a YA title, and that’s not saying much. A lot of the vocabulary was way above the level of my 5-year-old (heck, some of it was difficult for me) and the action didn’t really kick in until more than half way through the book – or at least the interesting action when Boba actually starts to try and move through the field of battle and infiltrate the CIS HQ. Prior to that we’ve got his interactions with the people in Jabba’s palace, his landing on the planet, his interactions with the natives and fighting against aggressive plant-life – but it all just feels like treading water, making us wait to get to the good stuff. Grevious makes little more than a short appearance, his battle with Boba is brief, and the book ends on a cliffhanger.

All that aside, my son seemed to enjoy it. He often wonders when we’ll pick up the next book so he can see what happens to Boba Fett next. Boba is definitely shown as being more human here – relatable and caring of the people whom the war is tromping all over without regard. He also seems to have a friend in the Jedi (again, I’m assuming it’s something from a prior book in this series) whom he works with, though the Jedi is a padawan and shown to be almost more trouble than he’s worth. Boba also notes that he’s glad the clones all wear helmets, so he doesn’t have to see his father’s face everywhere he looks. These were all the best parts of the book, and I’m hopeful that there will be more positives to come in book 6, since it seems I’ve no choice now but to continue.