Book notes: Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover

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Shatterpoint: Star Wars Legends by Matthew Stover

Synopsis:

“The jungle planet of Haruun Kal, homeworld of the legendary Jedi Master Mace Windu, 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 guerrilla resistance force. 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 the darkness in the jungle…a recording in Depa’s own voice.

Mace Windu trained Depa. Only he can find her. Only he can learn what has changed her. Only he can stop her. 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….” -Audible

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Opening thoughts:

Another book that I found through Audible, but I’m definitely on a Star Wars binge now. I’m excited about this one because Mace Windu is arguably one of my favorite characters, and the plot of this book seems pretty interesting.

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Key notes:

Introduction: Dangerously Sane

• Mace Windu has an instinct to see and find shadow points

Part One: Men in the Jungle

Chapter 1: The Downward Spiral

• You learned the lesson of attachment from Yoda, in that things we hold too tightly can be destroyed and hurt us
• Depa was his former apprentice, one of his closest friends, and somewhat like a daughter he never had
  • He was proud of her achievements at such a young age

Chapter 2: Capital Crimes

• The Jedi are not trained to think, they are trained to trust the force and to know
• Mace encountered mercenaries but was rescued by someone who gave him Depa’s lightsaber

Chapter 3: Jungle to Jungle

• Yoda wisdom: when all choices seem wrong, choose restraint
• The team revealed they were sent by Depa and saved him from the Republic intelligence officers who were going to betray him 

Chapter 4: The Summertime War

Chapter 5: Blood Fever

• Mace single-handedly fought off three attacking ships in the jungle after their party was discovered
• The style of Vaapad is so dangerous because the user is susceptible to blood fever, and a desire to enjoy the thrill of battle and victory
• One of the mercenaries Lesh was infected with a fatal disease of the jungle and Mace had to kill him
• Besh and Chalk were also infected but still had time

Chapter 6: Civilians

• Nick finally brought up that the video recording of the massacre was staged by them to get Mace there
  • The bodies and deaths were real, but the video they sent was on purpose
• His experience in the jungle is making him learn, which changes him, and he’s scared of what he’ll become
• Nick says how Depa is kind, but Mace wonders if she’s using the force for her own purposes because Jedis are susceptible to falling down the path to the dark side
  • Nick doesn’t know what her motivations are, but she is in obvious physical pain and psychological pain
• Mace found a few children soldiers in trouble and went to rescue them
• Even the kindest illusion will often cut deeper than any truth
  • The kids think he’s a bounty hunter coming to turn in the other two, and that Mace isn’t actually a rival native known for torturing their kind
• The kids argued about whether or not Jango Fett was, in fact, the greatest, and if he was either dead or alive
  • Mace confirmed he was dead but could not refute that he was killed by being stabbed in the back by a Jedi, and how Mace knew firsthand what happened
• Yoda’s advice: if you have made no mistakes and are still losing, you should play a different game

Chapter 7: Games in the Dark

• The parents/tribe of the kids came to get them
• Mace tried his best to convince them that he meant them no harm and suggested they leave for their own safety

Chapter 8: Lor Pelek

• During the battle, Mace realized that he was truly looking for someone to fight as a scapegoat for all of the sadness and destruction, the jungle and the situation it brought
• He finally met up with Depa and she looked vastly different

Part Two: Victory Conditions

Chapter 9: Instinct

• He realized that the real reason he came was to save Depa
• Kar Vastor / Lor Pelek has strange power and presence
• Mace realizes that Vastor isn’t evil like the Sith. He’s simply dark as is the rear of the jungle, and is ferocious
  • But he doesn’t live for power, merely to survive
• He told Lor Pelek that he was going to leave their company and to tell Depa that if she wanted to see him, she could come get him herself 

Chapter 10: A Jedi’s Word

• Mace inducted Nick into the Grand Republic army as his personal staff, in hopes of becoming an officer in the army, which could help his dream and career in the future 
• He managed to outsmart Kar and have a gunship rescue the prisoner Balawai

Chapter 11: Hostage

• Depa explained that Kar was in charge and wouldn’t let them leave
  • Mace realized that she still cared for him, which was his victory
• He essentially took himself hostage as Depa’s shatter point was her desire to save him
  • She agreed to come with him
• Mace did all he could to anger Kar until they began their fight

Chapter 12: Jungle Rules

• Mace explained his strategy was to fight hard though he knew he would lose because Kar’s shatter point was if someone submitted, he would let them live
  • He also allowed Kar to take his lightsaber and wear it because it was a means for Mace to track Kar in the jungle
• Jedi training starts at a young age because it drills into a person unnatural, new instincts
• A Jedi fights for justice and civilization, which creates peace

Chapter 13: Jedi of the Future

• Kar and his men feel like a dark reflection of the Jedi, with so many similarities that branched off into another path
• Depa wondered if the Jedi were wrong
  • Kar has honed his force ability to such a high level through natural instinct and emotion, and it rivals master Yoda and Anakin
  • But the Jedi conversely are trained to suppress their emotions
• She said the Jedi will lose the war because war is a horror, and it must be, and how it is won
  • You can’t treat war like law enforcement to protect the innocent because there are no innocents
    • This situation has shown her the truth
• She believes that to win the war, they can no longer be Jedi
  • The Jedi want to protect and save people, which doesn’t end the war. Winning the war will cost their own morals
• In guerrilla warfare, the target is not the enemies or placements but the enemy’s will to fight
  • Wars are won by terrorizing enemies until they give up and go home
  • She brought Mace to this planet to show him what winning Jedi / soldiers look like: Kar

Chapter 14: Final Entry

• Mace explains he needs to take Depa away because all of the Korun’s hatred is killing her
• The force makes Jedi more of what they are, and all the anger they’re surrounding her with is suffocating her

Chapter 15: The Trap

• Kar explains that what is killing her is what Mace must think of her. And that she thinks of him all the time
• Mace realized that since he arrived on the planet, they wanted him to get into contact with the rebels and fix their Jedi problem
  • And now they tracked him at it was a trap

Part Three: Shatter Point

Chapter 16: Shock Waves

• They became under attack while in the caves
  • Unfortunately, their rescue battalion in orbit was also under attack

Chapter 17: Seeker

• Mace told Depa that we’re never done with lessons, at least while they live
• He explained that the Korun fight the jungle and the Balawai continuously because they are descended from Jedi
  • Jedi fight the way things are every day. That’s what the Jedi are
• Mace claimed he could never forgive her
  • As a member of the Jedi council he cannot, as her master he won’t. But as her friend, he could forgive everything, and he already has

Chapter 18: Unconventional Warfare

• They managed to survive on the ground and Mace took over an enemy gunship for them to use to fly off

Chapter 19: Ship to Ship

• Mace told Depa that she was right, and they couldn’t just leave the Korun here to face genocide
• But he had a plan to win the war in the next 12 hours by taking the entire system

Chapter 20: Dejarik

• They captured the spaceport in a Trojan horse-type operation almost flawlessly within 7 minutes
• Mace had another plan despite the colonel’s suggestion to surrender in the bunker

Chapter 21: Inferno

• Mace told the clone trooper in charge that he takes orders only from Mace, and to be wary of Depa, Kar, and his men. And to use lethal force if necessary if they need to defend themselves
• Vastor betrayed them and tried to blow up Mace and Nick’s ship

Chapter 22: Surrender

• Mace surrendered but then negotiated the surrender of the colonel instead 

Chapter 23: The Hard Way

• They stormed the bunker and Mace had to fight Depa
• At the end of the battle, he was the last one standing, with Nick, Kar, and Depa all down

Afterward: The Jedi’s War

• The Jedi’s true enemy isn’t the Sith, but power mistaken for justice
  • Their enemy is the desperation that justifies atrocity, the jungle, the darkness itself
  • The strangling cloud of fear and despair and anguish that the war brings with it

Equipment: A Short Story

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Closing thoughts:

I really loved this book. I think Mace Windu is such a badass character, and you can’t help but want to root for him and praise him for his skill and character. I also loved that on top of being one of the most powerful Jedi and Force users, he’s also a master tactician and masterful leader, which really showed in the third act of the book.

Highly recommend this book, and I’d be more inclined to read more Star Wars stories that involve Mace Windu.

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One Takeaway / Putting into practice:

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, for a sci-fi/fantasy/fiction book, this had a solid amount of wisdom and takeaways. I say unsurprisingly because they are explicit words of wisdom from Yoda himself. My favorite from him in this story was:

• When all choices seem wrong, choose restraint

I really like this because it’s not always the most obvious path forward for people. However, I can see how more often than not, this would be the wise decision to make when in a tough situation.

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Nutshell:

Mace Windu travels to his native homeworld to track down his former apprentice, Depa, in hopes of bringing her back from the guerilla war she found herself entangled in.

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Similar books:

• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Artemis by Andy Weir
• Lock In by John Scalzi
• Armada by Ernest Cline
• Star Wars: Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston

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Rating:

4/5

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