Slave Ship (Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars, Book 2) (audiobook) by K. W. Jeter


This is a prime example of the worst that can happen to a perfectly good sci-fi series.

Published in 1998 by Random House Audio
Read by Anthony Heald
Duration: 2 hours, 58 minutes
Abridged

The action in Slave Ship takes place during Episode VI (Return of the Jedi) but includes plenty of flashbacks to right after Episode IV (A New Hope).

To be fair to K.W. Jeter, it's not like he has a completely free hand to do what he would with these characters - there's an existing Star Wars timeline to deal with. However, that is not the entire problem with this book. It is repetitive and tedious - the audiobook presentation only enhances the repetitive nature of the text. I must have heard the phrases "Kuat of Kuat" and "Kuat Driveyards" a hundred times in a 10 minute period. Pronouns, anyone? So much conversation and so much of it repeating the same phrases over and over again.

This book also hold the record for most uses of the word "murderous". "Murderous rage". "Murderous glare". "Murderous intent". I actually considered keeping a tally.

Anthony Heald, the reader
The book was well-read by veteran actor and reader Anthony Heald. He did a very good job with all of the voices, including using many different accents and speech patterns. I like Heald's work so I was glad to see him get the opportunity to read this book because a paying gig is a paying gig, but I also felt bad that he actually had to read this book out loud.

As in other Star Wars audiobooks there is a liberal sprinkling of the original Episode IV soundtrack and it incorporates original Star Wars special effects. However, from time to time the music drowned out the reader's voice and some of the special effects were irritatingly repetitive (spaceship background noise, etc.).

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter, Book 2: Slave Ship

Reviewed on August 29, 2007.

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