Shatterpoint by: Matthew Stover

Summary:   Mace Windu is a living legend: Jedi Master, senior member of the Jedi Council, skilled diplomat, devestating fighter. Some say he is the deadliest man alive. But he is a mn of peace--and for the first time in a thousand years, the galaxy is at war.   Now, following the momentous events climaxing in the Battle of Genosis, Master Mace Windu must undertake a perilous homecoming to his native world to defuse a potentially catastrophic crisis for the Republic ... and to confront a terrifying mystery with dire personal consequences.   The jungle planet of Haruun Kal, the homeworld Mace barely remembers, has become a battleground in the increasing hostilities between the Republic and the renegade Separatist movement. The Jedi Council has sent Depa Billaba--Mace's former Padawan and fellow Council member--to Haruun Kal to train the local tribesmen as a guerilla resistance force, to fight against the Separatists who control the planet and its strategic star system with their droid armies. But now the Separatists have pulled back, and Depa has not returned. The only clue to her disappearance is a cryptic recording left at the scene of a brutal massacre: a recording that hints of madness and murder, and of the darkness in the jungle...a recording in Depa's own voice.   Mace Windu trained her. Only he can find her. Only he can learn what has changed her. Only he can stop her.   Jedi were never intended to be soldiers. But now they have no choice. Mace must journey alone into the most treacherous jungle in the galaxy--and into his own heritage. He will leave behind the Republic he serves, the civilization he believes in, everything but his passion for peace and his devotion to his former Padawan. And he will learn the terrible price that must be paid, when keepers of the peace are forced to make war.... Review:   A novel about Mace Windu. Not as cool as a novel about Yoda, or Stover's other novel about Jacen Solo, but a good one nonetheless. I enjoyed this book, seeing Mace question himself, wondering "what-if" after Geonosis. What if he had killed Dooku then and there, and let Jango kill him as he did so... would this war have never started? Who knows? And the questioning doesn't end there. As he sees Depa again he begins to wonder if perhaps she is right in her methods... No one is infallible and this proves it. I love how Stover is able to get into a characters head so well and let us know what's going on in there. SPOILERS: Poor Depa, her mind shattered and she will be out for the rest of the Clone Wars. Assumed that she died in Vader's assault on the temple. So sad. Back to the Rise of the Empire Era. Back to Star Wars Eras.