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A review by jaredkwheeler
Breakout Squad by Ryder Windham
2.0
Star Wars Legends Project #127
Background: Breakout Squad was written by [a:Ryder Windham|17735|Ryder Windham|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1317014865p2/17735.jpg] and published in September of 2009. Windham has been heavily involved with Star Wars publication for decades, writing and editing dozens upon dozens of books and comics, including the other books in this series.
Breakout Squad takes place during the Clone Wars, 21-22 years before the Battle of Yavin. It begins shortly after the "Malevolence" arc from Season 1 of the "Clone Wars" TV series. The main characters are mostly brand-new, with minor appearances by Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, and the Duros bounty Cad Bane. Most of the story takes place on the planet Kynachi in Wild Space.
Summary: The Republic has not heard from isolationist member planet Kynachi in many years, but now they have reason to believe that the planet's industry may be supplying the Separatists. Chancellor Palpatine dispatches Kynachi Jedi Ring-Sol Ambase to investigate, and Ambase's Chiss Padawan, Nuru Kungurama, stows away on the mission, struck by a premonition of doom for his master if he remains behind. Sabotaged from the inside, the mission is a disaster from the beginning, and it seems Nuru will have a chance to save his master after all . . . as long as he can save himself!
Review: I'm used to, and willing to accept, a certain juvenility in Star Wars book aimed at a younger audience, but this seemed to be dialed a few steps below what I expected. And simplified vocabulary is one thing, but there's no reasonable excuse for even a story "for kids" to be this dumbed down. Particularly at the beginning, it feels like it stops to explain itself every few paragraphs, and the dialogue is mostly pretty clunky. Windham also gets a little too cute in a couple of spots, slipping in eye-rolling snippets of dialogue from the Original Trilogy films . . . enough already.
The story opens with some nameless clone troopers wandering through the rubble of General Grievous' destroyed ship "Malevolence" on the barren moon where it crashed. They are joined by a clone captain, who for some reason starts explaining things like who they are to them, and then gives them nicknames that will become their names for the rest of the series. He calls one "Sharp" because he spots something so he must have sharp eyesight, and one "Breaker" because he's good with technology (like, um, circuit breakers), and the third one he names "Chatterbox" because he never says a word. Haha! Get it? Later on, another trooper named "Knuckles" shows up, but we never hear what inane bit of nothing got him that moniker.
I'm not sure how I feel about making the main Jedi character a Chiss, either. Chiss are ultra-rare to the point of being effectively unheard of in Republic space . . . though, to be fair, the book does emphasize this as well. I'll admit he's a decent character so far, although I was initially skeptical. Really, nothing in this book stands out as just offensively dumb, but nothing stands out as terribly compelling or great, either, and the stripped-down writing and over-exposition hobble the experience significantly. I don't want to count out the rest of the series out of hand, but my hopes aren't high.
D
Background: Breakout Squad was written by [a:Ryder Windham|17735|Ryder Windham|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1317014865p2/17735.jpg] and published in September of 2009. Windham has been heavily involved with Star Wars publication for decades, writing and editing dozens upon dozens of books and comics, including the other books in this series.
Breakout Squad takes place during the Clone Wars, 21-22 years before the Battle of Yavin. It begins shortly after the "Malevolence" arc from Season 1 of the "Clone Wars" TV series. The main characters are mostly brand-new, with minor appearances by Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, and the Duros bounty Cad Bane. Most of the story takes place on the planet Kynachi in Wild Space.
Summary: The Republic has not heard from isolationist member planet Kynachi in many years, but now they have reason to believe that the planet's industry may be supplying the Separatists. Chancellor Palpatine dispatches Kynachi Jedi Ring-Sol Ambase to investigate, and Ambase's Chiss Padawan, Nuru Kungurama, stows away on the mission, struck by a premonition of doom for his master if he remains behind. Sabotaged from the inside, the mission is a disaster from the beginning, and it seems Nuru will have a chance to save his master after all . . . as long as he can save himself!
Review: I'm used to, and willing to accept, a certain juvenility in Star Wars book aimed at a younger audience, but this seemed to be dialed a few steps below what I expected. And simplified vocabulary is one thing, but there's no reasonable excuse for even a story "for kids" to be this dumbed down. Particularly at the beginning, it feels like it stops to explain itself every few paragraphs, and the dialogue is mostly pretty clunky. Windham also gets a little too cute in a couple of spots, slipping in eye-rolling snippets of dialogue from the Original Trilogy films . . . enough already.
The story opens with some nameless clone troopers wandering through the rubble of General Grievous' destroyed ship "Malevolence" on the barren moon where it crashed. They are joined by a clone captain, who for some reason starts explaining things like who they are to them, and then gives them nicknames that will become their names for the rest of the series. He calls one "Sharp" because he spots something so he must have sharp eyesight, and one "Breaker" because he's good with technology (like, um, circuit breakers), and the third one he names "Chatterbox" because he never says a word. Haha! Get it? Later on, another trooper named "Knuckles" shows up, but we never hear what inane bit of nothing got him that moniker.
I'm not sure how I feel about making the main Jedi character a Chiss, either. Chiss are ultra-rare to the point of being effectively unheard of in Republic space . . . though, to be fair, the book does emphasize this as well. I'll admit he's a decent character so far, although I was initially skeptical. Really, nothing in this book stands out as just offensively dumb, but nothing stands out as terribly compelling or great, either, and the stripped-down writing and over-exposition hobble the experience significantly. I don't want to count out the rest of the series out of hand, but my hopes aren't high.
D