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| View Larger Image | Medstar I: Battle Surgeons (Star Wars: Clone Wars Novel)
by Michael Reaves, Steve Perry
| | List Price: | $7.99 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 90406 | | Studio: | Del Rey | | | Binding: | Mass Market Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 309 | | Publication Date: | June 29, 2004 | | Publisher: | Del Rey |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Fiction - Science Fiction - Space Opera; Fiction - Science Fiction - Adventure; Fiction - Movie or Television Tie-In |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 25 reviews)
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star wars + MASH = good book! 
Great characters, nice mystery, and alittle bit of comedy make this a great and easy to read book.
I-5 is awesome!
November 04, 2008 | |
Loved It! 
I was so happy when I found that it was Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee who was the Jedi in this novel. She was in Approaching Storm, and she left me wanting more of her after that one. Also, I-Five, from the novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is in this, and I think he is such a character! I love when authors bring in characters you wish to hear more of, and that is what this book does. I highly recommend this book, and its sequel!
June 13, 2008 | |
Clone Wars MASH Unit
Battle Surgeons is our introduction to a Clone Wars MASH unit on the Planet Drongar, a pestilential quagmire of a world. The Republic medical team of surgeons, nurses, and droids is headed by Dr. Jos Vondar. Their primary function is to keep as many wounded clone troopers alive as possible. Their medical skills are impressive but the team is working under extremely difficult conditions and is having to treat a steady flow of injured troopers brought in by medlift.
Further complicating the situation is the presence of a Separatist spy and a Black Sun operative. Black Sun is particularly interested in a miracle plant called bota that is a cross between a mold and a fungus and has amazing medical uses. Bota grows only on Drongar and is immensely valuable.
As the book unfolds we come to understand the pressures of constantly trying to save lives while operating under huge pressure. We also are introduced again to Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee. We first met her in The Approaching Storm. We also meet once again the droid I-5, one of my favorite characters from Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. Throw these characters in with the Sullustan reporter Den Dhur and Dr. Vondar's fellow surgeon and friend Zan Yant, and you get a volatile mix. The tale moves along at a good pace and gets the reader to think about the ethics of using clone troopers as cannon fodder. Also, Padawan Offee continues to struggle with the use of the Force and the appropriate ways for a Jedi to function. An entertaining tale that will be followed by Medstar II: Jedi Healer.
November 14, 2006 | |
Medical adventures in the Clone Wars 
Much of the Star Wars Expanded Universe is heavily focused on the main characters as presented in the films. However, there are some definite exceptions to this rule, and what I find particularly interesting is how little of the Clone Wars literature follows that trend. This is the fifth book in chronological order telling the story of the war, and so far one has focused on Obi-Wan, one on Mace Windu, and three have not featured main film characters in any meaningful way. Anakin has had essentially a handful of paragraphs, while Padme has been non-existent.
Medstar I: Battle Surgeons is the tale of a medical unit desperately fighting to keep clone troopers alive on a hostile world. The story could be summarized as M.A.S.H. blended with Star Wars. Like in Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Michael Reaves (with Steve Perry this time) shows a strong capability for writing likable characters and snappy dialogue. The book flows well and is a quick read. I was excited to see the return of I-Five, the protocol-droid-with-an-attitude from Shadow Hunter. His acerbic attitude fits perfectly with the survival-through-sarcasm approach of the Rimsoo (a medical unit) the book follows.
I-Five also is a tool for exploring the nature of droids and their standing in the order of the universe. Jos Vondar, the lead surgeon in this particular camp, has narrowed his worldview to exclude many possibilities. This keeps him able to make it through the daily horror of his wartime surgery post. However, this attitude prevents him from dating outside his culture, from keeping an open mind to the possibilities inherent in a developed artificial intelligence, and from gaining a deeper understanding of the hundreds of clone troopers passing by his operating table. I-Five's self-exploration, important to him after the climactic events of Shadow Hunter, pushes Jos to begin his own journey within.
Also, the encounters Jos has with a clone trooper, CT-914, stir within him a dawning awareness that these soldiers are not just simple mindless vat-grown automatons; they are fully functioning human beings, only limited by the environment they were raised in and the accelerated aging forced into their genes. This running theme in the EU has totally changed how I view the troops of the Star Wars universe, adding considerably more interest to their progression from servants of the Republic and the Jedi to enforcers of the Empire. In the two Republic Commando books, The Cestus Deception, and Battle Surgeons, this theme has gotten some serious play.
I was struck by the Jedi Master/Padawan pair of Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee the very first time I saw them together in Attack of the Clones publicity photos, and it's cool to get Barriss as a main character for a second time (The Approaching Storm being the first). Keeping a Jedi in the character mix helps to firmly root this book in the Star Wars universe. The rest of the cast is a snappy group as well: Den Dhur the Sullustan reporter adds a non-combatant viewpoint to the war and the shadowy intrigues of several other characters look to be setting up a big payoff in Medstar II: Jedi Healer.
I wasn't hooked yet by the spy segment of this story: Column/Lens is written so vaguely as to be more frustrating than teasing. Generally my favorite stories focus very closely on following what the main characters know, and when knowledge is introduced that we as readers know but the heroes don't, I like to have some explanation. Otherwise I generally prefer to see these elements only come to light when the main characters discover them.
Overall, Medstar I: Battle Surgeons is an engaging and breezy tale, with strong characterization and solid if not completely gripping plotlines. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the duology.
September 18, 2006 | |
M*A*S*H in space...sort of
I originally bought this book based on how the back cover made it sound like it was MASH, Star Wars style. I love both MASH and Star Wars, so I thought putting them together would be awesome. It's not bad, but not that great either.
This book is on the verge of making way too many MASH-like references, down to the main wise-cracking surgeon, to an alien phrase that's obviously from "meatball surgery". But before you get too critical, the whole idea has an interested message: even in a technologically advanced and sophisticated future, war is still violent and pointless.
So all in all, give this book a chance. As soon as I finished this one, I went out to buy the next one. The middle drags a bit, but the end is pretty good. Overall an entertaining book.
July 26, 2006 | |
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